How Could Ghana Create A Competitive Advantages In The Global Market

Ghana must start paying a significant attention to the tracking their competitors as to fully understanding target customers.

Given that we are trying to naviagte in the new world of tourism. We need to ask our selves what does it take to build a sustainable business for example tourism.

It appears multi nationals have now spotted Ghana’s potential in the global market and are aggressively moving in to take positions.
China, India, Korea, Germany, U.S, Britian, Iran, Sweden etc have all seen that, Ghana is a viable place to good business these days. But then how prepared are we?
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This is a prime opportunity for Ghana and the need to be innovative and revitalise the market with whatever they have got to make that market grow, blossom, profitable and large to stay afloat. In doing so Ghana is more likely to attract powerful competitors from other industries and organisations.

How could we as a nation understand this term Marketing?

Understanding the Marketing concept is what every Ghanaian being the hawkers, traders, businesses need to know by heart.
I would recommend that our Government offer a free eight-week crash course for everyone just to know the basics.
Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) is currently operational in Ghana. We are very fortunate, but then have we embraced (CIM) into our school curriculum yet?

I would expect the Government to perhaps do a deal with this institute to offer this crash course free universally to anyone interested.
This would be Ghana starting point to ensure that every Tom, Dick and Harry have grasped this opportunity as a tool to widen their perspective of marketing.

Once we understand the marketing concept as a nation, we would then be more likely to gain the knowledge and skills of what exactly a competitive advantage means.
Ghana would then be able to design offer that would satisfy target-customer needs better than competitor’s offers.
We might then deliver more customers value by offering consumers lower prices than competitors for similar products and services. or by providing more benefits that satisfy higher prices.

As every business is aware listening to customers naturally leads to new business propositions. Over a period of time , the customers –led organisation increasingly becomes a total –solution provider.

For example having a global positioning of Ghana chocolate and ensuring that our Ghana brand of Chocolate is promoted at prime location ie The World Cup in Germany, Golf club etc. thus ensuring exposure of our product to the world.

How many customers groups should we try to satisfy

Currently, we have two variations of our chocolate i.e. orange and Lime.

Forgetting that Ghana is a naturally bvlessed country with tons of tropical fruits and others waiting to be exploited into our cocoa industry.
We have nutmeg, caramel, gin, local sugar spirit, pineapple, coconut, tiger nuts,ginger and other fruits.
Though it is good to start slow it appears we are stuck in the mud of only lime and orange variety of chocolate.
Surely, at some point , we know that we have reached some measurable goals and need to move on to win more customers. Cocoa industry need to diveristy their golden brand for each customer segment for example, let’s say a target group is, organically conscious or environmentally we need to have a market research of what certain these of people among our population would rather prefer to have inside a bar of chocolate, the shape, how much they are willing to pay such a product as well as and the packaging element. Why don’t we put a suggestion boxes at strategic spots for the tourist to infrom us what they actually would expect as a good service . Currently many Ghanaians are just guessing what they assume the tourist might want. Does Ghana as a nation have any qualitaitive and quantitive about our tourist at all? Perhaps the Ghana Tourist Board might have these information to pass on to hoteliers and new businesses such as bed and breakfast etc.

There is money to be made by everyone as there are so many segment of target groups awaiting for their own unique needs to be spotted and addressed asa package of service in tourism. Have a look at an orange you would find that an orange ( taking tourism as the orange ) have so many segments .
What the tourist want if captured correcly and proactively would give Ghana the competive advatage over other players in the market. Getting it right is the vital key crucial to our survival in tourism.

There are many areas to tackle in order to get things right. An example would be in our presentation of foods, we may need to diverisfy, be flexible, adapt to global food presentation to be competitive.

Ghana has so many artists, designers’ etc who is not making it at all. Insteadsome foreigners come to Ghana buy their piece of work and take it abroad and add the finishing element to the same product making more marketable than before with a huge profit for just a simple work done.

These are areas which is Ghana weakness and we need to use it to our own advantage to increase productivity.

Art and craft are fetching volume of money globally but come to Ghana it is cheaply and shoddily present giving the customer the upper hand of bargaining to buy product dead cheap from our poor artists.

Many artists in Ghana lack the sphere of creativity. There is a significantly wide gap to enable artist to appreciate a three dimension presentation of a product deceive the eye than just a two dimensional one.
Does Ghana have an Art gallery that youth could go to for inspirations? Such place is necessary to motivate our youth, enhance their sphere of creativity and their confidence. Art gallery may need to be in every major city and towns.

Where does the Government think Ghana would stand if our youth were not competitive enough to sell the right products to the tourists? No wonder many tourists flock to Ghana, buy our art and craft, pay peanuts and unpack the same product with their own presentational brand.
Who is the smart person here? The man who woke up at dawn craved the wood with no electronic equipment and get peanuts for his work. Where does our competitive advantage stand here? I think the answer would be practically null point.

This is why it is essential to have Art galleries across Ghana to widen the sphere of our youth and make their work competitive to the global market. Please do site your own examples to everyone.

Manufacturer would soon realised that people are willing to pay more if the product is well presented, with all the hygiene factors in mind.
There would be a variety of chocolates but each chocolate has its own target market.
Ghana should not assume that everyone like the plain golden tree chocolate. Our promotionally techniques is also poor given that Ghana is one of the main producing countries in the world.

We need to sell the benefits of what cocoa, its richness and adding the appropriate filling to attract the right customer willing to pay the right price for our product.

Ghana should not assume that a price would suit every pocket. Everyone have a different taste, as we are not homogenous.

The products need to be targets to a specific group of people following a market segmentation process. This would be explained at a (CIM) crash course to prepare our youth.

Competitive Analysis

The process of identifying key competitors assessing their objectives, strategies, strengths, weakness, reactions patterns is crucial in selecting which competitors to avoid or attack.

In order to effectively plan a competitive marketing strategies, our Government may need to ensure that, the youth of today freely assess the knowledge and skills, plus computer literacy to find out all other competitors in the global market.
Ghana must constantly compare its products, channels, and promotions with those close competitors. This would enable Ghana to launch an effective marketing campaign against its competitors and prepare stronger defences against competitors actions.

Competitive Strategies
The secret of being successful in the global market is having strategies that are strongly position Ghana against competitors and give us the strongest possible strategic advantage.

It appears have the Cola but America have snapped all the competitive advantage that our northern region would have had with Kola. Ghana must be patenting all its main products, the kente, certain cocoa products, etc. Ghana needs to be a market leader in something!

Identifying Ghana competitors

Which country is our competitor that we know are stronger than us by far? With this knowledge Ghana would need to determine this competitor objectives and also their strategies order to assess their strength, weakness to gather the competitive intelligence necessary to gain competitive advantage to decide whether to avoid or attack.

Market-leader startegy

What product is Ghana a market leader? As a leader in this field we expect to have the largest share and usaully leads the other firms in price changes, new product introducation,distribution coverage, and promotional spending.
Ghana need to be the leader for other competitors to emulate. I think the late President Kwame Nkrumah had this vision. Some of the best known to market leaders are Microsoft, Mcdonald etc.

Ghana need to expand our total market

This could be introducing our products to a new group which many Ghanaians all round the globe are doing. A typical example which happen recently in chicago was the kente dance.
This initiaitive would ensure that many grouops have usage of our kente.

Anything at all would do to increase usage if there none create one just like the kente dance in another form. Ghana needds to be smarter these days. There are so many player on the same field . We want to be noticed with we are around.

Why not we introduce the history of cocoa making into primary scvhools in Ghana and nationawide and internationally.
Teachers of presenters would be jetting off to different countries selling Ghana in schools and recruiting the youth arcorss the world to be thinking of Ghana cholcolate, its benefits to the body and other augumented benefits.

Dried cocoa beans husk are currently being used in garden and in cooking barbecues and the aroma is chocolatey. There are many other uses.

Expanding the markets

Introducing the drinking of cocoa as a afternoon snack drink in café’ would expand our market share.
Chocolate cakes, cooking dinner with an elements of cocoa power , skin products , etc. Heavy promotion at our Airports and high profile hotels.
Heavy sales promotion must be at all advantage points. For example at all our foreign embassies around the globe. Other spots bus stops, Cinema screens and prime time TV.programmes.

In the long term, our market share gains would be achieved by investments, in quality, innovation, or branding .

If Ghana is even smarter we would be able to win our own competitors rather than customers. Making deal with Cadbury’s and Nestle perhaps to would increase our share of the cocoa market.

Improving productivity

There are many strategies as market productivity means squeezing more profits out of the same volume of sales.

One is example changing the product mix giving it a new release of identity , or focusing on a less price sensitive – customers such as the Scandinivian countries. Or add value to the exsistng product for example a classic bar of cohocolate to be served on the business class only.

Team communication is not a natural gift Ghana may need to shapen our skills and learn to work together effiecintly whilst staying calm. The less we assume about our customers and co-workers the more likely they would tell us about themselves ant the better.

Using other strategies such as the guerrilla, confrontatioanl and others we keep us firmly focued and have a significant market share in after all a products that we grow naturally from our lands.

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