Identify Market Demands and Offer Solutions - Small Businesses Urged

By Claude Nyarko Adams

Small businesses in the country have been urged to prioritise market research to be able to produce goods and services that meet the needs of the citizenry.

Mr Philip Okoro, Country Manager, Ipsos Ghana, a global market research and a consulting firm, who gave the advice, said identifying the demands of the market and offering the necessary solutions would make small businesses competitive despite the domination of larger multinational companies in the various sectors.

He said: "We live in an era where multinationals or larger companies have all the resources to drive sales of their products and services, but they cannot deliver all the goods and services the citizenry need."

"Small businesses must, therefore, focus on conducting extensive market research to know what the market needs is and then design products and services that can deliver the solutions the market need; this will make them competitive even in the face of the high brand strength of larger companies."

Mr Okoro was speaking on the topic, "Marketing Research and Insight: A Precursor for Prosecuting Ghana Beyond Aid Agenda," at this year's Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana (CIMG) Strategic Marketing Conference.

The event which was attended by government representatives, chief executives, policy makers, marketing officers and students, among others, was on the theme, "Marketing: A Catalyst for Driving Ghana Beyond Aid."

In building a "Ghana beyond aid", he called for an investment in the tourism sector, which would spark improvement in other sectors including transport, aviation and infrastructure development.

Mr Andrew Ackah, Chief Executive Officer of Dentsu AEGIS, who spoke on "Marketing Communications: A visibility drive for Ghana Beyond Aid", said Ghana could "sell the development agenda it is pursuing to attract investors, if she identifies and addresses challenges that impede development."

"Our development agenda will not be enticing, if investors come here and are met with several impediments. We must, first and foremost, work towards alleviating the inherent social and economic challenges in the country. If the environment becomes conducive, there would be investments that would ultimately bring about jobs and improve livelihoods of our people," he added.

Mr Ackah urged government to clamp down on the "dollarisation of the economy", which was responsible for upsurge in prices of goods and services offered in the country.

In order to galvanise the populace to work towards achieving the objectives of the Ghana Beyond Aid, he called on the government to establish the fundamentals of the agenda and keep them informed of their roles and participation.

Mr Ackah urged the government to expedite the passage of the Advertisers Bill into law to regulate the marketing space and enhance efforts to brand the country.

Read Full Story