MARKETING GHANA: BETWEEN OBAMA, FACEBOOK DEBATES, STRAY COWS AND TOILET WARS!! (Part IV)

The Facebook Discourse
I turned the emotional overdrive into emails, Facebook and Twitter posts. I put out a ‘status’ on Facebook on 12 July, screaming: “What are we marketing about Ghana, especially after Obama? Has the tide simply ebbed as usual and that's it? There should be no calm after the Obama storm. We gotta keep this ball bouncing. Will we simply go to sleep from exhaustion? Has the adrenalin disappeared? Is ANYONE listening?” This elicited well over 100 responses on Facebook on that day alone, in the most frank, instructive, honest and no-holds-barred discussion that I have ever had on Facebook. Some of the statements were also bold and brutal: the truth hurts, sometimes.

Here is the discussion:

Ken: We have been there before! What is changed since then? The mentality is still the same....!

Kojo: Oga, the slogan and adverts should have been out there even before the visit. GIPC where are you?

Bridget: It is up to us,… Some of us are pushing 40. Let's ask what we impact we would've had on our community by the time we turn 48? We're running out of time!

Yaw (we call him ‘Krazy’): Marketing? The best bit of branding is the experience. We've got to make the product work for the brand. Advertising and sloganeering are but a small, tiny bit of marketing. If we leave a broken poor quality product as is, forget the talk about branding. And yet if it must take Obama to come and tell us this before we see the need to, I fear we then have a bigger problem. If we see another headline saying there's a fight about a latrine somewhere, no we are simply back to the same old…

Robert: Hear Hear Krazy.... When it comes to issues related to branding and marketing of Ghana, we have simply joked about it… We simply don’t get it and it amazes me, given the legion of marketing and brand experts in Ghana.

Bob: … It is horrendously expensive to mount an advert campaign of the type you see for Malaysia and India. And when the public has a negative perception of a product that is largely correct, the amount of money you have to spend to overcome that is huge. And any progress you may have can be quickly undone by word of mouth. Fix the product, then promote it.

Robert: …we are not even at the point where we understand what the product should be like, what its current ailments are, before we even start a conscious programme of fixing it. In a corporate setting it fairly easy to find out what the ailments, conduct an organizational/product/brand audit and then you start the fixing. So what are Ghana’s current brand or product ailments and how do we start fixing it?? Forget promotion for now!

Krazy: “…we do know the country is dirtier than we would like it to be. I doubt that the destination brand has place for cows and goats roaming everywhere. And that we want a country with no proper public toilet system, poor electricity and water supply etc. So we do know many of the systemic failures. What will a visit to Korle Bu for example say about us today? Or our airport? To get a point of parity with those who are successful, we need to fix this. So let’s get on and then while we are sorting this out, we can agree what the differentiator of the Ghana brand will be.

Robert: Hear Hear! Krazy the point I seek to make is that since the resolution of cows and goats roaming everywhere, proper public toilet system, poor electricity and water supply, and simple customer service at our international airports, are the first steps in an international marketing programme, we might need to conscientise Ghanaians to same. As it is these common garbage and power problems are not being solved in any expedient manner because both policy makers, and I daresay a large majority of Ghanaians, are not at the point where they realise that these are the basic building blocks. Maybe, if we are made aware that the most sophisticated advertising agency cannot produce and AD great enough to market a dirty country, we might be up and doing.

Me: There are indeed problems with this country. So we do not market even the little we have at all? This is no chicken and egg situation. Surely not rocket science too. Market what you have and fix what is broken. Ghana does not have to be a complete work before we market. There is dirt in America too. I have seen worse places in Chester, Pennsylvania. So until that is fixed, America should not market what they have? Or is it that we think that we have NOTHING? I am not a marketing guru, but what I am saying is that we can make a start with what we have. Angola is marketing CAN 2010. Is that wrong? We did nada for CAN 2008. Or that also had to wait till we fixed all of our problems? I disagree.

Kwaku: SPOT ON!!!! Yaw (Krazy) when it comes to Korle-Bu you know who I am????? I’ve seen similar or even worse hospitals in Montreal, London and Houston!!!!!

Robert: There is a lil’ problem with the ‘market what you have and fix what is broken’ thesis. When you draw visitors to a destination brand and they encounter what you hope to fix, they recoil and tell several others that Ghana is not worth patronising. Never mind you might have spent millions of dollars on such a campaign. So … [as] alluded to earlier, any progress you have made can be quickly undone by word of mouth. So the ‘market what you have and a fix what is broken’ thesis can be trick and destination brand marketers would be very cautious in proceeding down that path. And don’t forget, we do not have the luxury of coming from a part of the world that particularly enjoys good global press; so a visitor to “HOSPITABLE GHANA” who experiences stray cows and goats and power outages, could do you more damage by word-of-mouth that you can never fix through any marketing efforts.

Me: Sorry, Robert, I think that maybe you are being way theoretical on what tourists might want to see, and maybe I am being too simplistic. But power goes out in America too… So we might have our problems. But if we are marketing, say the Conference Centre as a conference tourism destination, common sense will demand that we fix the power issues there and in our hotels, or at least have stand-by power, as for the goats and cows on the streets, I think that you might see some of that in India, maybe not Delhi, yes. But if we are serious about attracting tourists, we very well should be serious about fixing the system. Maybe the two can move in tandem without one waiting for the other.

Kwaku: Brilliant using India as an example!!! The actors of award winning "Slum Dog Millionaire" were living in worse squalor than you can imagine in Ghana!!! The squalor was advertised and so.............???

Robert: I hear you.

Me: Obama did not bring us a plane load of cash, thank God. He left us with words that challenged us to think and move beyond where we are at right now!! That means doing something, heck, anything about our state. So on that, I think that we are all on the same page. Thus a clear strategy to move forward, even if predicated on what he said, which will involve fixing this system and selling what we have, is not really out of place. A person coming to Ghana to see slave forts cannot really expect the comfort of Los Angeles, just like the person who goes to Nepal to see or climb Everest. But like Nepal, we can begin to ensure that some decent level of facilities exists. So let's fix it. Let's fix the Elmina castle too. Let's ensure that both facilities have proper toilets, running water, electricity, better nearby hotels, etc., in the hope that the money we raise from tourists will be sufficient to maintain the facilities.

Bob: I don't think anyone is arguing that everything must be fixed before we can promote anything. But what we are selling (tourist destination or investment destination) need to actually work and the message needs to be consistent with the reality. Kojo Anan is right that tourists from developed countries will want an "authentic" experience rather than Accra Mall but there are minimum standards of comfort, health/sanitation, transportation, and service ethic which we do not yet meet. Some visitors (i.e., the "backpackers") want to rough it. Tourists with more money to spend really don't want it rough. Tourists want to see wild animals... they don't understand the variety or size of Africa. I am not referring to goats, cows, mosquitoes, or geckos. How do visitors get to Mole? And what experience awaits them there? I still remember a few years ago when I had visitors in town, and [the hotel] left us sitting in the outdoor lobby of one of their cottages, being eaten by mosquitoes, while one of their people ran back and forth (4 times, I recall) trying to get any card key to work in any room. That is what the visitors remember about Ghana. And before we pay any more homage to the Malaysia and India advertising campaign....does anyone have numbers to show if they have delivered results commensurate for their cost?

Me: Bob, I also have memories of at least one experience in a London hotel when the 'key' could not open the door, and it took a couple of visits to the lobby for the lady to re-programme the key. Finally, they changed my room. But it is not the only thing I remember about London. I am not sure that anyone can fully quantify the returns of an advertising campaign. For my kids, they have heard that India is INCREDIBLE and Malaysia is TRULY ASIA. But in India, cows still walk some of the roads. And in Malaysia, an opposition leader is in jail on contrived or trumped up charges of 'sodomy'. Whether marketing translates into sales is another matter; but marketing must lead to sales. But at least start thinking of, and exploit, the marketing opportunities, particularly one that falls freely on our laps like the Obama visit; and by all means fix your system.

Bob: Again, I don't think we have a fundamental disagreement. And I am not arguing that any other place is better or that mishaps don't occur everywhere. In the specific instance I mentioned, the two visitors did talk about that incident for several years afterwards; refused to stay at [the hotel] again; and seemed to be avoiding further visits to us to the extent that was possible. By the way, I am guessing you were not attacked by mosquitoes while resolving your key problem in London... ;-) Further… it is a fact of marketing life that negative experience and word of mouth trumps marketing message. And the dual downsides of marketing spend in advance of product readiness is that the marketing spend diverted resources from fixing the actual problem, and the amount of marketing spend needed later to overcome the negative perception spread by people who were drawn in during the first campaign and were disappointed. So we should target something we are capable of fixing well and quickly, and market that. Learn from the experience, and move on to bigger things.

Ato: Truly, if Prez Mills and co let this once-in-a lifetime PR opportunity go to waste without capitalising on the marketing potential, I'll......words fail me! I would've wished that there would've been a committee set up months ago with the sole aim of parlaying this into a huge marketing push for tourism and investment, showcasing the best of Ghana buttressed by solid infrastructural upgrades...

Krazy: … It almost amuses me that when we see some dirt in some part of another country we use that as some sort of reason why we are not alone. How many of you, let us bring this closer home, will advice a cell phone company that has major problems with its basic services (making calls) to leave that and splatter our cities with bill boards and TV ads? What would be your reaction? India has the Bangalore miracle, a middle class that by itself in numbers is more than 15 times the population of Ghana – you think the marketing jobs to be done are the same? Some parts of America may be dirty but many parts are clean. But in Ghana's case, some parts are clean and many are dirty. Korle Bu is our number one hospital – are you comparing to the number one hospital in Canada? Guys, just like in business, unless we face the reality, we do superficial stuff. And then when the marketing budget is blown, we see we go nowhere.

Ignatius: Guys, I'm just reading through your postings and enjoying the back and forth about branding Ghana, ad campaigns and all that good stuff. But here is the bottom line for me – we need a huge attitude change, as a country, and get our priorities right! We have a ministry of tourism (with ministers and deputies, special assistants etc.). and we have a Ghana Tourist Board. So what exactly do these folks do? Just take a trip to the Salaga Slave Market and the Well – just pathetic. In fact the well is an eye sore--there is really nothing preserved there, only a sign board... and a well hidden in the bush somewhere. But this is supposed to be of huge historical significance! I recall an American colleague of mine on the trip remarking that it wouldn't really require much to preserve the place...and I agree. I really don't think our leaders understand what tourism entails (after their numerous trips overseas to conferences etc). We really need to get our priorities right! Guess what, most of the good promotional stuff on Ghana I've seen on US TV have been produced by foreigners, and not Ghanaians – the Discovery channel/Travel Channel has done some good stuff (like their show titled "Ghana Presidential Tour") – they've basically given Ghana priceless exposure on US TV for free, and what have we done to take advantage of these?

Later that day, whilst watching CNN’s State of the Nation, I took pictures of Anderson Cooper, Wolf Blitzer, Obama, Fritz Baffour (the wannabe tour guide) and the real Cape Coast Castle tour guide as they appeared on TV, and posted them on Facebook, and the following ensued:

Me: I am watching one of my most favourite programmes on CNN, and Anderson Cooper is interviewing Obama from Cape Coast. This is Cape Coast's finer moments. But is anyone going to take this forward from here?

Krazy: Go to Salaga Market, the baobab tree of Babatu still stands with metal fetters...priceless. I have been to the slave wells in Northern Ghana...breath-taking. Look at the crocodile pond in Paga. But they are all in the state of nature. What is it that makes Niagara Falls great and not Kintampo Falls? It is the augmented product. The EXPERIENCE built around service. We will go nowhere, I repeat NOWHERE, if we try to circumvent the basics of marketing in the hope that somehow we will find a great way to market without the fundamentals. Marketers of products frequently ask – how does this product fare against the competition in a blind test? There is a reason – branding is hard work, man.

Me: I have not said that we can simply market without getting the product fixed. I fail to see why we cannot market the castle in Cape Coast as it is whilst working at getting others in a better state. Granted. So let's discuss Cape Coast. WHAT, in your view, must Ghana do, to make it more attractive for marketing? That is what I mean by taking it forward from here. What we are saying are not mutually exclusive. It is not as if there is NOTHING right now. So sell what we have and improve on or create what we don’t have or have not developed.”

Krazy: Let us say one main source of interest is the Diaspora. How you get a visa; flight connections to Accra and then transport to Cape Coast; accessibility of clean functioning but reasonably priced hotels... add that to the possibility of well-resourced libraries and librarians nearby; if possible with audio-visual augmentation. Can we have close by DVDs and records of websites that record the thoughts of world authorities on slavery? Interviews and recordings of some of the debates, a hall of pictures of some of the relatives of governors and slaves, etc. etc? If a person came to the castle and wanted to go to Salaga market, dirt, goads, nothing other than the tree… no nearby good hotel, nothing! I don’t want to go on. In Kintampo I nearly wept at the state of affairs when I saw what nature had given us and what little we had done with it. Contrast that with say Wimbledon, where out of nothing there is now a global brand!

I had no response to this. By the way, Krazy has written a brilliant piece on how that once-little suburb of London has evolved and re-branded itself into what it is today.