The National President of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana (CIMG), Dr Daniel Kasser Tee, has challenged political parties in the country to engage the services of marketing experts to deliver effective campaign messages.

Speaking at the Institute’s 30th Presidential Ball Dinner event held in Accra over the weekend, he said: “Parties need marketing experts, not loud-mouth communicators and fine English speakers”.

To this end, he disclosed that the CIMG is full of professionally-qualified marketers and marketing practitioners who can help political organizations to achieve results.

He observed that unlike some political commentators “marketing professionals do not and will not use insults and foul language in promoting your parties, as corporate entities, and your political ideologies and presidential candidates as the main products on offer”.

He said political parties in the country should swiftly abandon the present situation where non-marketing experts, mainly lawyers and other people who speak fine English are engaged to handle marketing and communication campaigns.

He said the way and manner in which political parties conduct their business in Ghana leaves much to be desired, adding that the environment remained “unnecessarily jaundiced, charged and polarised”.

The presidential dinner night, on the calendar of the CIMG, is the last event of the Institute in a year and also serves as a platform to network and build stronger ties among its members.

Dr. Kasser Tee urged political parties to exercise restraints in their communications, messages and all pronouncements especially as the country enters an election year.

Touching on the theme – 30 years of Celebrating Marketing Excellence: Challenges for the Next Decade – Dr. Kasser Tee said the challenges for marketing organizations in the next ten years and beyond include the need to effectively grasp the digital transformation that is sweeping across the globe and to use it to improve marketing performance.

He said there was a need for marketing professionals to know that customers were today better informed and empowered than it was, adding that, there was the need to tailor marketing content to customers, relying on customization and personalization.