The role of positioning strategy in political parties’ campaigns in Ghana, the case study of selected leading political parties in the Amansie West Constituency, Ashanti Region
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Date
2011-08
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KNUST
Abstract
Political parties apply positioning strategies in electioneering campaigns to sell themselves, their
ideologies, platforms and candidates. However, little is known in the academic literature about the
application of the positioning strategies and their influence on voters. The main objective of the
research was to assess the role of positioning strategies in the campaigns of political parties in the
Amansie West Constituency. The research design was descriptive, using both qualitative and
quantitative research method approaches. The research population was 60,000 registered voters
including the executives of the four prominent political parties namely NPP, CPP, NDC and PNC.
A sample size of 300 was taken because respondents had similar characteristics and therefore was
representative (Malhotra, 2007). Respondents were selected with cluster sampling and simple
random sampling techniques. Purposive technique was used to select constituency executives.
Both primary and secondary data were collected, assembled, analysed and interpreted. Conclusion
and recommendations were provided. The study showed that positioning strategies played
important role to the party and the voters. There is a significant relationship between party
positioning and presidential candidate positioning. All (100%) of the political parties applied them
to market their political positioning elements: the party, ideology, platform and candidate using
their specific attributes. The study revealed that all (100%) of the political parties positioned their
presidential candidates more than the other political elements. The study showed that the
positioning strategy helped most (45%) of the voters to consider the presidential candidate as the
most important political element more than the political party (30%) and political platform (25%).
Findings further showed that 76% of voters were influenced most by party’s previous performance,
future benefits and leadership ability to deliver than other attributes. It emerged that 84% of voters
were influenced most by the personality and ability related attributes of the presidential candidate
than the others
Description
A thesis submitted to the department of Marketing and Corporate Strategy, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration (Marketing and Corporate Strategy Option) ,School of Business, College of Art and Social Sciences