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The government and the business community have been urged to embrace marketing as a strategy to foster swift economic recovery.
This would also enhance the resilience of the economy and its businesses and pave the way for a brighter, more prosperous future.
The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), Professor Abednego Amartey, who gave the advice said marketing, when mixed with other strategies could play a pivotal role in revitalising economies and helping businesses emerge stronger from challenging times.
Alongside those strategies, he said, the ecosystem must foster innovation, promote customer-centricity, create new opportunities, adapt to changing consumer behaviour, leverage digital technologies, among others, to ensure an effective economic recovery.
Prof. Amartey was speaking at the 34th Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana (CIMG) annual national marketing performance awards in Accra last Saturday.
He mentioned the Visit Japan and Invest in Greece campaigns, Dubai Expo, Explore Jamaica Campaign, among other successful marketing initiatives, as examples that had helped those economies.
“To emerge from our economic challenges stronger than before, let us embrace marketing as a powerful instrument of change.
“By doing so, we can foster economic recovery, enhance the resilience of our economy and our businesses, and pave the way for a brighter and more prosperous future Ghana,” Prof. Amartey said.
The awards ceremony was held to, among other things, create awareness of the relevance of marketing for the success of businesses, promote higher professional marketing standards and excellence among practitioners, and to also recognise organisations for showing resilience in the year under review.
It was also to celebrate marketers and serve as a testament to their resilience, adaptability and unwavering dedication to the profession.
It was on the theme: “Marketing: A Tool for Economic Recovery”.
Thirty-five organisations received the CIMG traditional awards, while 22 of them received the Ghana Customer Satisfaction Index awards, with three regions winning the Ghana Regional Brand Index awards.
The Director of Marketing and Corporate Relations at Absa Bank Ghana, Nana Essilfuah Tamakloe, was crowned the Marketing Professional of the Year.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Vodafone Ghana, Patricia Obo-Nai, and the General Manager of GBfoods Ghana, Mr David Kofi Afflu, were named the Marketing Woman and the Marketing Man of the Year.
The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, commended the awardees for their sterling performance in the year under review.
He charged the professionals to use their marketing skills in the social sector by helping to market some of the government’s flagship projects such as the free Senior High School programme, particularly when propaganda and fake narratives have taken centre stage.
“Begin to take a look at marketing in Ghana to show Ghanaians that we are doing a good job and it is based on facts.
“I have no doubt on my mind that marketing has to play a central role in the transformation of the economy of Ghana
“Get people to believe that change is possible and that’s what marketing should be about,” he said.
For his part, the President of CIMG, Dr Daniel Kasser Tee, underscored the need for marketing to be made the bridge between adversity and prosperity, especially in public sector organisations.
The CIMG, he said, had begun discussions with the Public Services Commission for the possibility of introducing marketing into all public sector organisations at the top level to promote the interests of customers.
