[ 2016-11-15 ]

Ama Sika Daaku, political strategist

Parties must adopt political marketing strategies – Expert
There is a need for political parties in Ghana to
consider embracing marketing strategies purposely
for politics to reap the maximum benefits of
effectively reaching out to the electorate,
political marketing strategist Ama Sika Daaku has
admonished.

She explained that there are various frameworks
which could make a party either
marketing-oriented, sales-oriented, or
product-oriented.

The consultant, who was a guest on Class FM’s
Executive Breakfast Show on Monday, November 14,
also explained that a combination of these could
also be explored for the best results, but parties
in Ghana have failed to use the best options to
their advantage.

“There is a bit of these being done on the
ground but not being implemented in full due to
growth and how things become more
sophisticated,” she told host Prince Minkah.

On the aspect of winning votes for an election,
she indicated that when a party researches well,
it could meet the expectation of the electorate
strategically.

Citing an example using US president-elect Donald
Trump who swept votes to win the polls in
surprising fashion, she explained: “He
understood the systems and realised that this was
how when I sell my message I’ll be able to get
the people to vote for me. He targeted the
kingmakers; his focus was on the blocs, who were
people in industrial areas and rural America, etc.
They have a system where, whenever he said
something out of the ordinary, his ratings went up
and his team used that to their advantage.”

She explained that social media and other tools
can be employed in Ghana to get feedback through
ratings and get “people to advise” to help you
make the right decisions.

For her, decisions based on insight are very key
because even if a party has the support of the
majority, the reasons why some people will have
different opinions should be researched and the
policy message targeted towards them in order to
get the maximum follower base.

On his part, brand and political marketing
strategist Yaw Mensah Bonsu admonished parties
“to create a department of political
marketing”.

For him, there is the performance of any entity
that prioritises marketing issues is always
excellent.

He stated: “Marketing is the engine of business
and politics is business, so why do you take
chances?”

Source - Classfmonline

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