Labour is perceived as enterprising and competent, the Tories are ruthless but chic while the Liberal Democrats are merely informal, new research showed yesterday.
Academics at Manchester Business School surveyed 800 potential voters to assess the images of the main political parties.
But the problem for the Liberal Democrats is that they do not seem to have much of an image at all. They do not outscore the other parties significantly on any of the main dimensions, other than seeming to be slightly more informal.
Prof Gary Davies, Manchester Business School's Professor of Corporate Reputation, said image appeared to be an important driver of voting intention.
"Elections should be about policies, but few respondents had ever read a manifesto," he said. "We are in an age when political parties and politicians are marketed in much the same way as are consumer products."
Prof Davies, who applied the concepts of corporate reputation and branding to the survey, said the profiles of the leaders were similar to those of their parties.
The Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, is seen as more enterprising and confident while Mr William Hague is seen as less agreeable, more formal and slightly more ruthless.
Mr Charles Kennedy, meanwhile, is the most bland of the three, something reflected in the number of respondents who felt unable to assess him.
Prof Davies said: "Those who plan to vote Labour are more extrovert, those who plan to vote Liberal Democrat are more agreeable and open to experience.
"Those who plan to vote Conservative are less open to experience and those who are undecided are more neurotic and less agreeable, a feature they share with those who said they would not be voting at all."