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11.05.2016 Opinion

Ghana Media’s Reality Check On Taglines 

By Yaw Nketia
File PhotoFile Photo
11.05.2016 LISTEN

A radio’s tagline is an embodiment of all that a given station stands for, and therefore should resonate with its content, format and programming.

When it comes to media (Radio & TV) taglines in Ghana, some are leading while some others are misleading, all to the detriment of the stations in question but not the advertiser or the audience.

Searching the length and breadth of Ghana, no Radio or TV station has the same tagline, which presupposes that each one of them is different from the other.

Observing the thin line between the content, format and programing of some electronic media and their taglines make one wonder the amount of people these radio and television stations are really fooling.

Upon a closer look, the only difference among most of them is just the frequency numbers or channels and rather major similarities in content, format and programming but different taglines.

They think they are either fooling the innocent listener or the vulnerable advertiser but not anymore.

The difference is clear in the various taglines. Therefore in sticking to a typical station’s tagline, that particular station will attract its potential listener and appeal to its advertiser, thereby making a strategic business sense for the media owner.

The advertiser and the audience together form the financial backbone of each and every commercial media platform such as Radio, TV or any online media platform.

If so, why then should the advertiser or the audience be informed differently? When one buys a commodity, they do so by kind courtesy of what it says on it label or what they have been informed of the label.

It is time these media stations flip the script and put the focus back to their individual and respective taglines or re-define a different tagline to go with whatever they broadcast and stand for.

If for some personal or business reasons a station has changed tact with its content and programming, and for that matter format, they should do the listeners and advertisers the humble honour to change the tagline as well.

So if not some, most of Ghana’s electronic media should wake up, stand up and shake up their taglines in resonance to what it says on the tin.

Most media stations need to take a long and hard look at their various taglines and they will find all the content, format, style and programming answers all hidden within their taglines.

Are stations doing what their taglines says, because at the moment most listeners and advertisers are been taking for a ‘tag-ride’.

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