Poor communication to blame
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) is yet to come to terms with the massive defeat it suffered at the hands of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the December 7, 2016 election.
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Several theories have been propounded as the cause of the poor showing of the ruling party and its flag bearer, President John Dramani Mahama, in the election.
But as a student of Marketing and Communications Studies, my assessment is that the loss of the NDC in the December 7 election can be largely attributed to message deficiency, non-exciting messages and uncoordinated campaign or marketing strategy.
Although the NDC had rich programmes and projects in its manifesto, it neither pushed any strong messages into a future government nor did it create a blitz around any messages. The focus was only on projects, their initiation and continuation.
The NPP, on the other hand, couched messages that went down well with many Ghanaians; the messages were also exciting.
A research conducted by the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana, Legon, confirmed that the electorate readily recalled NPP's messages of one district, one factory, one village, one dam, and $1 million for every district annually, but they could not recall any messages of the NDC.
It, therefore, came as no surprise that Nana Akufo-Addo secured 5,716,609 votes, representing 53.84 per cent, to snatch the Presidency from President Mahama, who secured 4,713,277 votes, representing 44.40 per cent. The NPP also secured 169 parliamentary seats as against 106 for the NDC.
NDC lacked campaign messages
Political parties are like products or services that politicians (marketers) offer for sale to the electorate (target customers). In marketing a product or service, it is the responsibility of the market to couch messages to communicate the benefits, uses and importance of the product or service.
It is the benefits that the target customers hope they will achieve that will motivate them to go for the product or service.
So what the NDC failed to do was to let Ghanaians know the 'direct' benefits that they would derive from the next NDC government; the people have seen the projects, but what is next?
The NPP set the stage by promising the 'one this, one that', and also segmented its messages.
The one 'district, one factory' programme targeted the youth and the business community; the 'one village, one dam' targeted the rural poor; the'$1 million for every district' targeted the community leaders; the 'Zongo Development Fund' targeted the Zongos scattered around the country, and the reduction of taxes targeted the business community.
But the NDC did not take a cue from that. Rather, the NDC communicators only raised doubts about the ability of the NPP to fulfil those promises. And in fact, if those promises were not feasible or achievable, what stopped the NDC from communicating what the party felt was feasible.
The electorate had no choice but to vote for the NPP that offered some direct benefits despite their reservations about the party's ability to achieve all its targets.
Exciting messages
Consumers of today are highly sophisticated; beyond satisfaction, consumers of the current digital age want excitement in any product or service that they go for.
It was no doubt that the NPP succeeded in creating excitement about its future government. First, it created the impression that its future government would be a government of possibilities; a lot of jobs would be created for the youth, teachers and nurses allowances would be restored, senior high schools (SHS) education would be free and taxes would be reduced.
However, the NDC did not present any exciting messages to the electorate aside from the emphasis on initiation and continuation of projects.
Uncoordinated campaign strategy
In marketing a product or service, the marketer has to launch a coordinated marketing or campaign strategy to avoid cognitive dissonance. (The theory of cognitive dissonance states that it occurs when someone holds two or more conflicting attitudes or beliefs about one product or service. Consumers may experience dissonance prior to making a purchase or after making a purchase.)
Both the NDC and the NPP are guilty of lack of coordination in their political campaign. They all stuck to the issues at the beginning but faltered at the dying embers of campaign; while NPP were promoting their messages, the NDC was discrediting them.
But getting to the end of the campaign, rough tactics set in. The press conference organised by the NPP to claim that President Mahama and his brother, Ibrahim, had sought to buy off the NPP Northern Regional Chairman, Mr Daniel Bugri Naabu, to turn against flag bearer, Nana Akufo-Addo, did not fly.
That was a deviation from its campaign that focused on messages, criticism of government work and accusation of corruption.
On the other side, the NDC, which stayed off attack on the personal integrity of Nana Akufo-Addo, began to attack his person. For instance, in the final meet-the-press series organised by the Ministry of Communications, the government team launched a scathing attack on the person of Nana Akufo-Addo instead of focusing on the progress made by the government in the areas of education, health, economy, power, water and pro-poor programmes.
NDC's fact-finding committee
The NDC has set up a committee to look into the reasons for the party's poor showing in the December 7, 2016 election. It is important for the committee to seek expert views on the communication and marketing strategy used by the party in the election.
It is also important for political parties to employ marketing and communications principles in developing and promoting their campaign messages. It was in that light that prior to the election, the President of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana (CIMG), Mr Kojo Mattah, asked political parties to employ the services of marketing practitioners to market their policies and ideologies.
"The old divisive principles of partisan politics must eventually give way to a new body politic with sound marketing practices in place of propaganda," he suggested at the 27th National Marketing Performance Awards in Accra last year.