CENTRAL UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

TRANSFORMING AND SUSTAINING THE NATIONAL YOUTH

EMPLOYMENT PROGRAMME: A STRATEGIC MARKETING APPROACH

BY

SETH SELASI ATTIPOE-FITTZ

selasiaf@yahoo.com

selasiaf@gmail.com

Dissertation submitted to the Central Business

School,

Central University College, in partial fulfilment of

the

requirements for award of Master of Business

Administration Degree in Marketing

DECEMBER 2012

iii

DECLARATION

Candidate’s Declaration

I hereby declare that this dissertation is the

result of my own original work and that no part of

it has been presented for another degree in this

university or elsewhere.

Candidate’s Signature ……………………… Date ………………………

Name: Selasi Seth Attipoe- Fittz

Supervisor’s Declaration

I hereby declare that the preparation and

presentation of the dissertation were supervised in

accordance with the guidelines on supervision of

dissertation laid down by Central University

Collage.

Supervisors’ Signature …………………………Date ………………………...

Name: Mr. George Amoako

ii

ABSTRACT

The main objective was to determine how the

National Youth Employment Programme could be

transformed into a sustainable employment agency

using strategic marketing principles.

This study was a descriptive research conducted

at Osu Klotey, Asawase and Aboabo communities in the

Accra, Kumasi and Tamale metropolis. Necessary data

were collected with the use of structured

questionnaires. A sample size of 294 residents was

randomly selected from the targeted household of one

thousand (1000) in the communities. Statistical

Product for Service Solution (SPSS) was used to

analysed the data.

iii

The result gathered revealed that significant

number of persons were either aware of the Programme

or have benefited in varied ways from the Programme

in the communities where the study was conducted. It

was further revealed that the Programme was faced

with challenges threatening its sustainability. This

was attributed to absence of legal status and the

limited application of marketing concepts and

approaches in the management of the Programme. It

was recommended that the Programme should be covered

by a Legislative Instrument (LI), and transformed

into a market oriented institution using marketing

approaches in all its processes. Over all, it is

hoped that the findings of this research will add

relevant information to our knowledge to transform

the Programme into a sustainable and better funded

employment agency.

iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A dissertation of this sort necessarily owes

its success to a number of people for their

priceless contributions. I am therefore thankful to

my supervisor, Mr. George Amoako for his patience,

devotion and constructive criticism that have made

this work a wholesome academic endeavour.

My profound gratitude goes to Dr. Joseph Siaw

Agyepong, Mr. Habib Abubakar and Mr. Daniel Owusu-

Larbi for their encouragement and assistance and to

all the respondents who provided me with information

to aid my studies.

I am also grateful for the support and teamwork

I enjoyed from my course mates and lecturers in the

Master of Business Administration (MBA) class of

2011.

My final appreciation goes to my wife, Mrs.

Deborah Serwaa Attipoe-Fittz and children; Seyram

and Sedem for standing with me through my entire

course at Graduate School, Central University

College.

v

vi

DEDICATION

To my lovely wife; Deborah and children: Seyram

and Sedem

vii

viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

Page

DECLARATION ii

ABSTRACT iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv

DEDICATION v

LIST OF TABLES ix

LIST OF FIGURES x

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xi

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1

Background to the study 1

Statement of the problem 6

Objective of the study 7

Research questions 8

Significance of the study 8

Scope of the study 9

Limitations of the study 9

Organisation of the study 9

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 11

Introduction 11

ix

Overview of the Ghana National Youth Employment

Programme 11

Government interventions and initiatives 12

Nature of the programme 13

Scope of the programme 15

Dimensions of youth unemployment 15

Sustainable youth employment programme 19

Sustaining employment 20

Funding of youth employment interventions 27

Challenges facing youth employment programmes 28

Strategic marketing approach 29

Marketing in the public sector 42

Branding and brand communications 50

Importance of effective brand communications in the

NYEP 58

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY 60

Introduction 60

Population 61

Sample and sampling procedure 61

Instruments 63

Data collection procedure 64

x

Data analysis 65

CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 66

Introduction 66

Analysis and highlights of research results 66

Beneficiaries of the NYEP in Ghana 66

Benefits derived by the youth from NYEP 67

Sustainability of NYEP 68

Factors contributing to the unsustainability of NYEP

69

Making the NYEP sustainable 70

Knowledge of any strategic marketing principles used

in managing NYEP 73

Strategic marketing principles employed by NYEP 74

Suggested marketing concepts that should be deployed

76

Importance of applying strategic marketing

principles in NYEP management 77

Impact of strategic marketing principles to NYEP 78

Transformation of NYEP with strategic marketing

principles 78

Avenue for accessing resources for the programme 80

xi

Sources of funding the programme 81

Alternative sources of resourcing NYEP using

marketing concepts 82

Socio demographic characteristics 83

Age groups of the respondents 84

Employment status of the respondents 85

Educational background of the respondents 86

CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND

RECOMMENDATIONS 87

Introduction 87

Summary of findings 87

Conclusions 90

Recommendations 91

Suggestions for future studies 96

REFERENCES 97

APPENDIX 107

xii

LIST OF TABLES

Table

Pages

1 Beneficiaries of the NYEP in Ghana

67

2 Types of benefits derived by NYEP beneficiaries

68

3 Sustainability of NYEP

69

4 Reasons why respondents think NYEP is

unsustainable 70

5 Suggestions on how NYEP can be made sustainable

72

6 Awareness of marketing principles in NYEP

processes 73

7 Marketing principles deployed in NYEP

75

8 Marketing concepts suggested by respondents

77

xiii

9 Importance of marketing principles

78

10 Impact of strategic marketing principles to

NYEP 79

11 Transformation of NYEP with marketing

principles 80

12 Available avenue for accessing resources

81

13 Sources of funding the programme

81

14 Alternative sources of resourcing NYEP using

marketing

Concept 82

15 Gender of the respondents

84

16 Age of the respondents

84

17 Employment status of the respondents

85

18 Education level attained 86

xiv

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure

Page

1 Projecting the brand image (Public Service)

57

xv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CEPSM Centre of Excellence for Public

Sector Marketing, Canada

CECOP European Confederation of Workers

Cooperative

CIM Chartered Institute of Marketing

CRM Customer Relationship Management

DWP Decent Work Programme

FYDP Fast-Moving Consumer Goods

FMCGs Farm Youth Development Programme

GPRS Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy

GTZ Germany Development Coorporation

ICT Information Communication Technology

ILO International Labour Organisation

xvi

JICA Japanese International Cooperation

Agency

JHS Junior High School

MMYE Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment

NFPP National Forestation Planning

Programme

NGO Non Governmental Organisation

NMCSP National Mass Cocoa Spraying

Programme

NYEP National Youth Employment Programme

PSI Presidential Special Initiative

SIFC Student In Free Enterprises Programme

SME Small and Medium Scale Enterprise

SNV Netherlands Development Corporation

SHS Senior High School

STEP Skills Training and Enterprise

Programme

TUC Trade Union Congress

UN United Nations

UK United Kingdom

UNDP United Nations Development Programme

xvii

USAID United States of America Assistance

YEN-WA Youth Employment Network –West Africa

YEI Youth Employment Initiative

xviii

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the study

Youth unemployment has received considerable

global attention in recent decades. Globally, the

International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates

that less than half of the youth population

available for work had jobs in 2004. In 2008 about

44.7% of the youth population was working globally

compared to 49.7% in 1998? In terms of unemployment,

youth everywhere in compared to the adult

population. In 2008, the world wide youth

unemployment stood at 12.1% (ILO, 2009). This

compares to global unemployment rate of 5.8% and

adult unemployment rate of 4.3%. The ILO estimated

the world youth to adult unemployed ratio at 3:5 in

2003 (ILO, 2009).

1

The current global financial and economic

crisis has exacerbated the youth unemployment

situation. The job crisis that accompanied the

financial meltdown has meant for young people extra

difficulty in accessing good quality jobs as they

enter the labour market at a time when the general

employment situation is gloomy for everyone. The

youth unemployment rattle reached 13 percent at the

end of 2009. For the period 2007 to 2009, the

increase in global youth unemployment rate (1.1%)

exceeded the increase in adult unemployment rate

(0.7%) (Nyarko, 2011).

In Africa, according to the TUC Working Paper

(No. 2010/10) the number of unemployment youth

continues to grow. Between 1995 and 2005, the number

of unemployed young people in Sub-Saharan Africa

increased by more than a third to reach 17.4

million. In 2005, the highest youth unemployment

rate (25.7%) in the world was recorded in the Middle

East and North Africa. Sub Saharan Africa’s youth

2

unemployment rate was estimated at 18.1 percent, the

third highest in the world.

The youth employment situation in Ghana is no

different from the global and African trends. The

youth in Ghana are twice more likely to be

unemployed, compared to their adult counterparts.

For the population age 15-24years, the unemployment

rate (4.1%) is above the overall unemployment rate

(3.6%) and more than double the adult unemployment

rate (1.9%). But the situation of the youth

unemployment is frequently understated given that

the absence of institutionalized social protection

and the continued weakening of the extended family

system, too many of the youth find the cost of

unemployment prohibitive; they therefore tend to

seek employment in the informal economy instead of

remaining openly unemployed.

The peculiar difficulty of young people in

accessing decent jobs has spurred government around

the world to institute youth specific measures that

seek to offer them jobs directly and at the same

3

time enhanced their employability in the larger open

labour market. In Ghana, a number of youth

employment policies and specific project

interventions have been implemented over the past

three decades to integrate the youth into the formal

labour market. Notable Policies include; Vision

2020, Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) I &II,

the Educational Reform Programme of 1987 which

introduced the Junior High School and Senior High

School (JHS/SHS) System as well as the National

Youth Policy. The project specific interventions

include; The National Mass Cocoa Spraying Programme

(NMCSP), the ILO Decent Work Programme (DWP), the

National Forest Plantation Programme (NFPP),

Captains of Industry Programme, Student in Free

Enterprise Programme (SIFE), Venture Capital Trust

Fund and National Youth Fund, Skills Training and

Enterprise Programme (STEP) and the National Youth

Employment Programme (NYEP).

The National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP),

launched in October, 2006 to cater for the various

4

categories of unemployed youth between the ages of

18-35 years has empowered over Three hundred and

Sixteen thousand (316,000) beneficiaries since its

inception. A quarter of the numbers have also been

setup in self employment small scale business

ventures. It has also made some tremendous impact on

the socio economic development of the country;

revived over two thousand (2,000) rural and deprived

schools, improved the Health Delivery System in

communities, cleaned cities and communities

through the Waste and Sanitation module,

conscientisation and sensitisation of youth towards

work ethics, attitude and culture (NYEP, 2009).

The National Youth Employment Programme Review

Report (2009) indicated that the Programme is faced

with a number of operational, administrative and

financial challenges which hampers its smooth

implementation and threaten its sustainability. The

report recommended among others the strengthening

and the transformation of the National Youth

Employment Programme into a better funded, permanent

5

and sustainable employment agency to achieve its

goal of empowering the youth through job creation

and to enable them contribute meaningfully to the

social and economic development of the nation.

One discipline that can be used to transform

the National Youth Employment Programme is adoption

of the marketing concept. There has been a growing

recognition that marketing can be used to enrich

public sector management and better serve citizens

and stakeholders. Concepts such as social marketing

and services marketing have emerged in government.

Rather than equating the word “marketing” with the

sale of goods for profit, marketing concepts are now

being applied to help encourage programme adoption,

improve services and change attitudes and behaviours

in support of “public good” mandates (James, Mintz &

Doug, 2011).

Kotler and Lee (2007) explained that strategic

marketing planning is an essential management tool.

It depends on a citizen-centered approach and

employs a custom blend of the marketer’s methods,

6

which the private and nonprofit sectors have been

using for decades. It is a discipline that can be

deployed to transform any public organisation into a

sustainable institution. What does “marketing” bring

to mind? Advertising, selling or perhaps

manipulation? In fact, these are tactics of the last

resort, used when marketing principles and

techniques have not been properly employed to

develop, price, distribute and effectively

communicate the real value of an organisation’s

offerings. They indicate a lack of a customer-

oriented mindset. Marketing can be used to achieve

the vision of better informing and engaging citizens

by viewing communications within a broader strategic

marketing framework. It can help to reposition and

create superior image for the organsiation, drive

better results in programme uptake, programme impact

and behavioural change. It can also attract

investor’s capital or save money by helping

executives and programme or service managers make

7

informed investment and resource trade-off decisions

(James, Mintz & Doug, 2011).

Many public-sector managers know that marketing

is more than communications or sales, but they don’t

know the “magic” that makes it work. Once they

understand the four Ps—product, price, place, and

promotion they can use them to transform their

communication with the public and improve their

performance (Kotler & Lee, 2007). With the shift of

the public sector to more of a managerial, business-

like approach, the adoption of marketing practices

can serve as a key component in strengthening

accountability and transforming government business

into sustainable operation (James, Mintz, & Doug,

2011). This approach has required public sector

managers to learn and practice a range of new

marketing skills” (Adrian, 2005).

Osu Klotey, Asawase and Aboabo communities

located in Accra, Kumasi and Tamale Metropolis

respectively where the study is conducted houses the

offices of the National Youth Employment Programme.8

Significantly the study area is carefully spread

across the country; from the Southern Osu Klotey

community in Greater Accra Region, to Middle Ghana,

Asawase community in the Ashanti Region and Northern

Ghana Aboabo community in the Northern Region.

The reason why the study is spread across the

country is that the National Youth Employment

Programme is a national invention programme with

activities and beneficiaries spread across the

entire country. Programme Offices where

implementation decisions are carried out are located

in these selected communities.

Given the fact that the selected Assemblies in

the Greater Accra, Ashanti and Northern Region are

urban and others rural, gives a good representation

of the operational situation of the Programme in the

entire country. Of the total of 126,000

beneficiaries engaged between February 2009 and

February 2011 twenty six thousand, five hundred and

eighty two (26,582) reside in the Greater Accra

Region, Nineteen thousand, two hundred and four

9

(19,204) in the Ashanti Region and thirteen

thousand, six hundred and thirty (13,630) in the

Northern Region (NYEP, 2011).

Given the severity of youth unemployment globally

and the importance to which Governments attached to

it, there is the need to examine and analyze how

the National Youth Employment Parogramme could be

repackaged and branded by way of transforming it

into sustainable employment agency, using various

marketing concepts.

Statement of the problem

The National Youth Employment Programme

(NYEP) was launched in October 2006 to cater for the

various categories of unemployed youth between the

ages of 18 -35 years, with specific target of

empowering five hundred thousand (500,000)

beneficiaries per annum through jobs creation.

However a cumulative total number of 230,849 have

benefited from the intervention as at February 2011

(NYEP Strategic Plan, 2011), making it an average of

38,475 youth engaged per annual so far. There is

10

therefore a shortfall of 461,525 jobs or persons

that should have been engaged.

Although the Programme has made remarkable

achievement over the years, it is faced with a

number of challenges that threatens its

sustainability and ability to fulfill its mandate.

Among other challenges such as irregular flow of

funds, there is no visible and coherent strategic

marketing approach in the management of the

Programme.

It is against this background that this study

is being conducted to find out how the Programme

(NYEP) can be transformed into a sustainable,

efficient management and a better funded employment

agency using various marketing concepts. The

concepts are explained as the way of managing

business so that each critical business decision is

made with full knowledge of the impact it will have

on the customer (Fredrick, 1991). It is also a

management process that identifies, anticipates and

11

satisfies customer’s requirement profitably (CIM,

2009).

Objective of the study

The general objective of the study was to

determine how the National Youth Employment

Programme could be transformed into a sustainable

employment agency using strategic marketing

principles.

The specific objectives were to:

1. Investigate the marketing processes employed in

the management of the National Youth Employment

Programme,

1. Determine how strategic marketing principle can

transform the Programme,

2. Explore how marketing processes would help the

organisation to access more resources for its

operations,

3. Identify if the National Youth Employment

Programme is sustainable under the current

organisational arrangement.

12

Research questions

The following research questions were formulated to

guide the study:

1. What are marketing processes being used in the

management of the National Youth Employment

Programme?

2. How can strategic marketing principles

transform the National Youth Employment

Programme?

3. What are the available avenues for accessing

resources for sustainable implementation of the

National Youth Employment Programme?

4. Is the National Youth Employment Programme

sustainable under the current organisational

arrangement?

Significance of the study

The study provides a valuable contribution to

the inadequate knowledge on youth unemployment in

the country. Conclusions and recommendations from

the study would contribute to decision making and

modification of existing processes in the

13

implementation of the National Youth Employment

Programme. The study would provide expertise for

efficient and effective management of the National

Youth Employment Programme.

The findings from the study would also serve as

a guide to policy makers in their plans towards

sustainable youth employment programme in the

country. More importantly, the study would inform

and advise policy makers as to why youth employment

programme and projects must be fundamentally

designed with the youth (being beneficiaries or

customers) at the centre. The study would also

inform, guide and advise programme managers to adopt

the right implementation approaches towards youth

employment intervention. Furthermore, to transform

the National Youth Employment Programme, into an

efficient and sustainable agency in Ghana, the study

will help to accelerate the process of transforming

it using marketing concepts and approaches.

14

Scope of the study

The scope of study was narrowed down to three

communities located in the Accra, Kumasi and Temale

Metropolis, representing the southern, central and

northern zone of the country. Two focused groups

were targeted for the study; residents and Staff of

the National Youth Employment Programme within the

sampled communities. The scope was on the management

processes being used in the running of the

organisation and how the organisation could be

strengthen and transformed into an effective and

sustainable agency using marketing principles.

Limitations of the study

One major problem encountered during the data

collection was with the administration of the

questionnaire. Some of the respondents in the study

area were illiterates and semi-literate, therefore

the researcher had to explain the questions in “Ga,

Twi and Hausa” languages that the local residents

could understand best. Explaining the questions in

15

“Ga, Twi and Hausa” languages from English however

delayed the research process.

Organisation of the study

The study is organised into five chapters.

The First Chapter introduces the study, it deals

with the background, the statement of the problem,

rationale of the study, objective of the study, the

research questions and the significance of the

study. Chapter Two deals with the literature review

of the related works. Chapter Three examines the

methodological issues and explains the research

design used for the study. It further touches on the

study area, population, sample and sampling

procedure, instrumentation, data collection and

analysis procedures. Chapter Four also presents and

discusses the results of the study and deals with

the analysis of data collected. Chapter Five looks

at the summary, conclusions and recommendations.

16

17

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

Introduction

This chapter is concerned with the review of

concepts and theories related to the topic. The

literature review is in eight (8) main aspects. The

first stage goes into the overview of the National

Youth Employment Programme in Ghana, the second

stage looks at the dimensions of Youth

Unemployment, third deals with sustainability of

youth employment programmes, the fourth looks at the

agencies and roles in employment programmes, fifth

look at funding of youth employment interventions,

sixth deals with challenges , seventh examine the

marketing concepts and principles that can be used

to transform the National Youth Employment Programme

and the eighth looks at marketing in the public

sector, branding and brand communications and the

18

importance of effective brand communications in

NYEP.

Overview of the Ghana National Youth Employment

Programme

In Ghana, like other African countries,

reliable statistics on the exact nature and level of

unemployment are not readily available as the

figures vary from agency to agency and are subject

to various forms of interpretations. What is

generally accepted however is that a fairly high

proportion of the 26% of the population which

constitutes the youth in Ghana, falling within the

age bracket of 15 to 35 years; is largely made up of

both unemployed and under-employed young men and

women (MMYE, 2006).

The situation has resulted out of a number of

factors which include the introduction of the Junior

High School (JHS), Senior High School (SHS) system

without adequate planning for integration into the

trade/vocation and job placement; education and

training have not link to the needs of the important

19

sectors of the economy (Agriculture, Commerce and

industry, etc); the near collapse of Ghana’s

industrial base due to ineffective management of the

divestiture process which resulted in the closure of

many factories without a structural transformation

of the economy to generate alternative jobs for

people; the shrinking of the public sector

employment opportunities coupled with a relatively

slow growth of the private sector; and the lack of a

coherent national employment policy and

comprehensive strategy to deal with employment

problems. These factors have contributed in parts

to the ever growing youth unemployment problems

which need to be addressed.

Government interventions and initiatives

The Government, since 2001 according to the

MMYE (2006), has made a number of attempts at

addressing the problem of youth unemployment,

beginning with the registration of about 950,000

youth from different educational, trades and

professional background who were said to be in need

20

of employment. Other well-known initiatives that

followed included the Skills Training and Employment

Placement Programme (STEP), the National Youth Fund

(NYEF), the Presidential Special Initiatives (PSI)

as well as various micro-credit schemes to support

small-scale enterprises all of which have yielded

some relative success in the area of providing self-

employment opportunities for the youth. While the

Government’s efforts have largely been acknowledged

as being a step in the right direction, the problem

is still persisting and therefore there is the need

for a well-coordinated and integrated national

programme which will address the youth unemployment

problem in a concerted and much more focused manner.

As a result the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and

Employment (MMYE), under a Presidential directive,

has had to establish a National Employment Task

Force together with National Security Secretariat

and other sector ministries and agencies, to develop

a well-structured and coordinated youth employment

programme to facilitate job creation and placement

21

for the youth in various economic ventures as well

as social services (MMYE, 2006).

The purpose of the programme therefore is to

explore, recommend and provide additional employment

opportunities for the youth in all the districts

throughout the country and thereby create conditions

that will facilitate their economic empowerment. The

specific objectives of the programme are:

1. To identify projects with economic potential

that can generate employment for as many of

the youth as possible;

1. To check the drift of youth from the rural to

urban communities in search of jobs by

creating those opportunities in the rural

areas;

2. To create employment for the youth through

self-employment;

3. To inculcate into the youth, a sense of

patriotism, self-discipline and hard work so

as to promote good morals and help reduce

deviance (MMYE, 2006).

22

Nature of the programme

The National Youth Employment Programme is a

special national exercise embarked upon based on a

Presidential directive to ensure that a significant

proportion of the youth are actively engaged in some

productive employment. This is aimed at reducing

unemployment and satisfying other national needs

such as national food security. The nature of the

programme as outlined in the Youth Employment

Implementation Guideline (MMYE, 2006) includes the

following features:

1. A combination of self-employment opportunities,

wage-earning jobs and voluntary service

activities;

2. The provision of essential social services that

promote good governance through the maintenance

of law and order and environmental cleanliness

as well as enhancing access to good education

and health services;

3. The provision of commission/fee-earning

commercial activities that are not productive

23

in the agricultural or industrial sense, but

which also support activities in the production

chain such as the provision of marketing and

post-harvest services;

4. It is based on formation of cooperative groups

and set to enable members of the groups gain

synergy from the group’s activities and also

wean themselves into financially independent

individuals, gainfully employed and capable of

supporting other members of the community;

5. The target beneficiaries are principally the

youth, including JSS, SSS,

6. Technical/Vocational School graduates as well

as school dropouts and illiterate youth;

7. Its operations are centrally directed by a

designated national team while implementation

is local-based with flexibility for adaptation

to local conditions and circumstances;

8. It is designed to be eventually absorbed into a

broader national framework based on and

24

directed by National Employment Policy and

Strategic plan.

Scope of the programme

The programme covers a wide spectrum of

economic ventures and social service activities

available to all the youth in their respective

communities. Each district is expected to choose a

combination of such activities or modules based on

the relative comparative advantages possessed in

that locality. The programme as at 2006 has been

developed as a Ten-Module Youth Employment Programme

to form the first phase of the programme (MMYE,

2006). The modules are:

Module 1- Youth In Agric Business

Module 2- Youth In Trade and Vocations(Non-

Agriculture Services)

Module 3- Youth In ICT (Information

Communication & Technology)

Module 4- Community Protection System

Module 5- Waste and Sanitation Management Corps

Module 6- Rural Education Teachers Assistants

25

Module 7- Auxiliary Health Care Workers

Assistants

Module 8- Paid Internships and Industrial

Attachments

Module 9- Vacation Jobs

Module 10-Volunteer Services

Dimensions of youth unemployment

In recent years, the concept of youth

unemployment has assumed increasingly important

dimensions in development philosophy. This dimension

includes definitions of youth unemployment, causes

of youth employment and consequences of youth

employment.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO)

defines youth to include all persons between the

ages of 15 and 24 years. According to the National

Youth Policy 2010, youth is defined to include all

persons between the ages of 15 and 35 years (Nyarko,

2011).

Given the dependency age of the youth, the ILO

concludes that the issue of youth unemployment in

26

Ghana became alarming in 2007 and 2009 due to the

economic crisis. The youth unemployment rate reached

1.1 percent compared to 0.7 percent for adult. It

further reached 13% globally at the end of 2009.

This implies that the youth unemployment is serious

from that period to date in relation to adults.

There is therefore the need for the National Youth

Employment Programme to be strengthen and

transformed to arrest the situation.

The unemployment rate is defined as the ratio

of the total unemployed (for the country as a whole

or for some subgroup) to the equivalent labour force

(for the country as a whole or for the same

subgroup). Unemployed persons are those who are

without work and who are seeking work or who are

currently available for work (Peter, 2001).

According to World Youth Report (2003), many

less developed nations and the developing nations

have tried to wipe-out the intensity of unemployment

which seems quite prevalent and widespread among the

countries. The reasons and causes for this are: lack

27

of education, lack of skills, structural mismatch,

divergence between the demographics of urban and

rural areas, lack of experience, regional or

province wise discrimination in the provision of job

opportunities.

According to Development Review (2007), on the

causes of youth unemployment in Pakistan. It came

out that youth unemployment is high in urban areas

as compared to rural areas. This stemmed from the

fact that unemployment in urban areas as compared to

rural areas is due to the structural mismatch of

skills provided and demanded. Further the situation

would have been caused because of excessive trend of

urbanization; the rate at which the labour force is

moving towards urban areas must have contributed to

the high unemployment levels of urban areas. It is

therefore imperative for the NYEP to be achieving

its objective of checking the drift of youth from

the rural to urban communities in search of jobs by

creating opportunities in the rural areas and

28

creating employment for the youth through self-

employment (MMYE, 2006).

In highlighting on “National Initiatives on

Youth Employment in Ghana”, Nyarko (2011) stressed

that the youth enter the world of work too early

when they should be in school or learning a trade.

The Ghana Living Standard Survey V data for example

showed that out of estimated 4.7 million youth

between the ages of 7 and 14, 612,388 representing

13% are economically active. These youth are on the

road to losing the opportunity for formal schooling

and becoming the weakest segment of the future

labour market. Such high levels of economic activity

among the youth also explain why more than half

(53%) of the adult population (15 years plus) have

no formal education. The implication is that, the

rising number of unemployed youth with low level of

education is becoming majority on the labour market.

Furthermore, the youth are also hampered in

their quest to secure decent employment by the very

long years of labour experience often demanded by

29

employers. Commenting on the Gender dimension of

youth unemployment, Christiana (2003) pointed out

that there are wide variations in female and male

labour force participation in employment between and

within countries in Africa. For example, available

statistics show that labour force participation

rates are lower for women than for men in every

country (ILO, 1997). A survey conducted by the World

Bank found that over 95 percent of female workers in

Ghana and 90 percent in Zambia are employed in the

informal sector (Katepa-Kalala, 1999).

Chigunta (2002) was however of the view that

majority of African youth aged 15- 24 are literate,

although female youth are less educated than their

male counterparts and also possess few employable

skills. Pointing to the fact that ICT has become an

employment sector for African youth in recent years

thus; the number of computer shops; Internet service

providers and trainers, and phone shops are on the

increase in urban centers in Africa, Chigunta (2002)

explained that these jobs do not reach the

30

unskilled or the poorest youth and women who lack

computer education rendering them unemployed.

Projections of population growth into the 21st

century indicate that the proportion of young

persons aged 15-24 years, in relation to the overall

population, will continue to grow over the next

twenty years. This implies that unemployment of

female youth will continue to be higher than that of

male hence the need to strategically transformed the

National Youth Employment Programme to make to make

it sustainable employment agency to overcome this

challenge.

Stressing on the consequences of youth

unemployment, it was pointed out that, unemployment

among youth is encouraging the development of

“street youth” in Africa. The street youth in

African towns and cities are denied of legitimate

means of livelihood, grow up in a culture that

encourages criminal behaviour. They survive by

engaging in various activities such as petty

trading, casual work, borrowing stealing, pick-

31

pocketing, prostitution, touting and other illegal

activities. Some have become drunkards; others are

on drugs such as marijuana and mandrax (UN, 2002).

In the light of the mandates to inculcate into

the youth, a sense of patriotism, self-discipline

and hard work so as to promote good morals and

reduce deviance the National Youth Employment

Programme need to be strengthen to assist the youth

in this direction.

Sustainable youth employment programme

In discussing ways and means of sustaining the

youth employment programme, the researcher examined

the terms sustainable employment before looking at

ways of sustaining the youth employment programmes

and examples of existing youth employment projects.

Sustainable employment refers to a person or

family’s employment situation that provides a

permanent and stable job, wages adequate for food,

clothing, and shelter, full health benefits, and the

opportunity for job advancement (Charles, 2005). It

means having the capacity to analyze the regional

32

labor market, map out career pathways, and provide

career development services; Integration of basic

skills, occupational training and support services,

most likely offered by a group of partner

organisations; Close involvement with employers,

with an emphasis on well-paying jobs and

occupations, throughout the process, from program

design through job development and placement through

the post-employment stages. Employer involvement is

key to developing realistic pathways that

individuals can travel at different stages along a

continuum; Job placement services that focus on

placing participants in the best possible jobs that

offer opportunities for advancement along a chosen

career path; Emphasis on post-placement services,

with a focus on helping people acquire additional

skills and credentials and assistance in job

mobility, whether up the career ladder in the same

company or to a better job with a different

employer; Partnerships with postsecondary education

or training organisations to ensure continuity of

33

the career pathway and access to further education

or training for programme participants (Charles,

2005).

Strengthening and transforming of the Programme

should among others serve as a platform for the

development of the professional skills and career

plan of beneficiaries who enter mostly as either

fresh graduates from tertiary institutions with no

working experience or illiterates, school dropout,

or secondary school graduates with weak passes and

with no hope of earning decent living.

Sustaining employment

In an article captioned, “Sustainable

employment a key for the future of Europe”, CECOP

(2010) indicated that an initiative of European

Confederation of workers Cooperatives has

highlighted six ways to sustain youth employment

programme in Europe:

1. Sustainable employment and the generation:

Indeed, sustainable employment allows

distributing locally generated wealth. But, in

34

order to generate wealth in the first place,

sustainable employment requires the existence

of economically, socially and environmentally

sustainable enterprises, namely enterprises

which have a strategy of anticipation and

foresight in developing goods and services, and

privileging rates of profitability that do not

jeopardize their long term expansion.

Enterprises with such strategy are those that

are best fit to contribute to the aggregate

wealth of the territories in which they are

embedded. Consequently, promoting sustainable

employment is also one of the most fundamental

ways to prevent and combat poverty and

exclusion.

2. Sustainable employment and knowledge- based

economy: In order to be sustainable

economically, enterprises should invest in

knowledge. As a consequence, a knowledge-based

enterprise must invest very substantially in

human resource development so that it can

35

develop an innovative strategic vision and deal

with the unexpected. This is, by definition, a

long term investment, considering the time

needed to provide such high level of human

training. Thanks to this investment,

enterprises will be able to apply the acquired

knowledge to the internal organisation, the

processes and the products of the enterprise,

and train new persons that will, in turn,

master such knowledge.

3. Sustainable employment and the competiveness of

Europe: An entrepreneurial vision based on

added value, long-term wealth and sustainable

employment is necessary to face globalised

competition. Unemployment also entails a slump

in consumption. Thus, sustainable employment in

sustainable economic organisations should be

recognized as a fundamental component of a

brighter future for Europe.

4. Sustainable employment and job mobility:

Sustainable employment and mobility complement

36

each other: the possibility for one to change

jobs provides added value to the choice of

investing oneself in the economic organisation

in which one finds oneself.

5. Support measure for sustainable employment:

Sustainable employment cannot be managed

exclusively from the micro-level of the

enterprise. It also required meso-level

mechanisms and policies on the territories, in

order to ensure coordination, compensatory

measures in times of crisis and in case of

restructuring, and an overall anticipation

strategy.

6. Cooperatives and sustainable employment: The

cooperative model promotes sustainable

employment in sustainable enterprises, and,

then local development and social cohesion.

Cooperatives are owned and controlled by

owners-stakeholders who are actively present on

the territory, and are aimed to satisfy their

common economic, social, cultural and, or

37

environmental needs and aspirations. Among

them, worker and social cooperatives and other

types of employee-owned firms are owned and

controlled by the enterprise staff. The

resilience of these enterprises to the present

crisis, which has been surveyed, is a good

indicator of their capacity to sustain their

economic activities and their jobs. In the

short-term, their governance and economic model

enables them to take rapid joint decisions such

as the non redistribution of surpluses to

worker-members or cost reductions or even to

restructure when needed. This process is

reinforced by the support environment that the

enterprise network provides, with dedicated

advisory bodies, training systems, banks and

non-banking financial institutions, consortia

and groups, representative federations and

social organisations, which contribute to the

long term sustainability of the enterprises and

of their workplaces.

38

In Canada, as part of the Government of

Canada's Youth Employment Strategy to provide the

youth with employable skills, it has set up the

Skills Link programme. The programme is one of

three Government of Canada programmes that help

young Canadians facing barriers to employment obtain

career information, develop skills, gain work

experience, find good jobs and stay employed

(Service Canada, 2009).

Responding to the committee report on “Youth

Employment: A working Solution” a document that

seeks to enhance sustainable employment programme in

Australia. The Government acted quickly by

addressing important issues such as instituting

employment assistance programme, training and school

to work transition programmes among others. Central

to all these programme of the Government’s strategy

to address youth unemployment is the New

Apprenticeships initiative which is expanding

training opportunities for young people, including

those disadvantaged in their access to vocational

39

education and training. In addition, the Government

has also implemented major changes to the delivery

of employment services to unemployed Australians

through the introduction of Job Network introduced

in 1998. The Government has also expanded its funded

programme such as the Job Placement, Employment and

Training (JPET) Programme and Green Corps.

In the Philippines, Farm Youth Development

Program (FYDP) has been initiated by Government

aiming to counteract the youth unemployment and

skills shortages in the rural areas. The program

targets Filipino youth, 15-24 years of age, and

offers training on integrated farming,

entrepreneurial, and cooperative management skills,

as well as other activities including international

exchange programs and demonstration farms. A

livelihood support is provided through the

Department of Agriculture’s National Agriculture and

Fishery Council, and it is focused on

microenterprise and mini-enterprise projects with

credit assistance. Between 1989 and 1992, a total of

40

2,436 farm youth were trained and 156 micro-

enterprises in 78 provinces received financial

support.

Project Baobab in Kenya is a non-profit

organisation that teaches youth skills for economic

independence through six partner secondary schools

since 2000. It targets low-income youth, mainly

females, in rural areas, and provides free business

skills training (entrepreneurship training along

with a life-skills training programme) and small

grants for business start-ups for some of those who

are trained in secondary schools and vocational

centers. The project’s main components are: Life

Skills: courses are introduced in the third year of

secondary school, fostering self-confidence and

openness to express ideas before a group.

Entrepreneurial Skills: courses are introduced in

the fourth year of secondary school, offering

training in job readiness, business planning and

development skills. Students are led to create

individual business plans that focus on enterprises

41

like selling second-hand clothes, raising bees or

chickens, or tailoring. Start-up loans: students

submit business plans to a committee from the local

business community. The most promising enterprises

are recommended to receive start-up loans from

Project Baobab. Each year and in each partner

school, approximately 3 to 4 grants of US$100 each

are awarded to students with outstanding business

plans. A gross impact evaluation shows that between

2000 and 2004 about 50 percent of the grantees were

running businesses with good-to-marginal success.

Writing on “The Crisis in Tunisia: Africa’s

Youth Employment-Time-Bomb” by Olumide and Nelipher

(2011) suggested that Africa Government can achieve

sustainable youth employment by providing tax

incentives for foreign firms that establish

operations in Africa. These incentives should be

focused on investments made in targeted industries

such as manufacturing and ICTs. Incentives could be

designed to reward companies that hire local staff

across the spectrum of their operations especially

42

in the upper management category. Africa has the

opportunity to attract manufacturing companies as

wages rise in Asia. There will be a significant

first-mover advantage for those countries that

create a good business environment and provide the

right kind of skilled labor.

It is important therefore for countries to

align skills training with the kinds of jobs they

want to attract. African countries need to develop

comprehensive strategies to create jobs locally.

With more than 80 percent of the labor force engaged

in small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs), the

growth of SMEs should be an integral part of

Africa’s job creation strategy. This will require

that capital be made available for businesses of all

sizes. At present very small businesses have access

to capital through microfinance institutions and

large corporations have access through commercial

banks. There is a “missing middle” for firms seeking

to grow their businesses from small to medium to

large, and for individuals willing to start

43

businesses at middle levels. It is important to

address this capital gap. Governments need to make

it easier for banks to extend loans to the “missing

middle.” This means addressing the information

problems that banks face when trying to extend loans

to young entrepreneurs. National identification

systems should be prioritized as a starting point

for development of credit/consumer information

systems. By facilitating information gathering,

African governments can help to reduce the risk of

doing business with young entrepreneurs which will

in turn result in more favorable lending terms.  The

National youth Employment Programme is well placed

when transformed and equipped to keep inventory of

business and young entrepreneurs to facilitate any

financial assist they will be required as either a

startup capital or for business growth.

On his part Christiana (2003) identified the

contribution of some institutions to the promotion

of sustainable employment programmes in Nigeria and

other countries; based in Dakar in West Africa, the

44

Youth Employment Network (YEN) has partnered with

the United Nations, the International Labour

Organisation (ILO) and the World Bank, to bringing

together policy-makers, employers’, workers’

organisations, young people, civil society

organisations and other stakeholders to address the

youth employment challenge in order to make it

sustainable. The objectives of YEN-WA include

identifying ongoing activities in the sub-region in

order to create synergies, build linkages, and share

experiences between different actors. The office

also serves to facilitate capacity-building both at

the national and regional level and engage with the

private sector in finding ways to increase their

involvement in initiatives to create employment

opportunities for young people in West Africa (Thais

& Tendai, 2008).

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

is on ground in over 50 African Countries. It is

assisting to build capacity to manage the economy

and to fight poverty. One of the four programmes

45

supported by the UNDP is Job Creation and

Sustainable Livelihood. The thrust of the programme

is the creation of additional jobs by expanding

opportunities for enterprise development by both men

and women. The strategy includes the harnessing of

local resources, upgrading of technical skills,

improving access to inputs such as technology,

market information, financial and extension services

(UNDP, 2002).

Funding of youth employment interventions

In an analysis of youth employment inventory,

International Experience on Youth Unemployment

Interventions said the major source of finance for

youth employment programmes is the government. But

joint public-private venture with international

organizations and bilateral donors play an important

role in the delivery of youth programs. For example,

the analysis of the inventory shows that about 56

percent of programs are primarily government-

sponsored, and 33 percent are financed by a mix of

institutions, such as central and local governments,

46

international organisations (including the World

Bank, the ILO, and the UN family), and the private

sector (Olga, 2007).

However a survey carried out by Youth

Employment Initiatives (YEI) in West Africa

regarding sources of funding to youth programme

revealed that, the largest source of donor is from

philanthropic organizations and NGOs, followed by

Government support, UN organisations and own

sustainable activities (Thais & Tendai, 2008). The

National Youth Employment Programme in Ghana is

currently funded totally by the Government. To

achieve sustainability arrangements are however

being suggested to encourage Public Private

Partnership in the funding and management of the

Programme (NYEP, 2011).

Challenges facing youth employment programmes

A study conducted by the Youth Employment

Initiatives (YEI) of West Africa indicated funding

as one of primary challenges, followed by human and

material resources. Material resources included

47

elements such as office equipment facilities and

impediments related to the poor training and

capacity of staff, as well as the lack of

commitment by those working within the organisation

either as staff or volunteers. The low capacity

according to the study is due to education and poor

skills training of beneficiaries. These include a

high level of illiteracy, lack of skills, as well as

the problem of losing track of beneficiaries and not

being able to monitor their progress once they

complete training. Similarly, community culture and

beliefs held by some community members is a key

obstacle. This includes problems such as a lacking

sense of participation and cooperation of the youth

and biases against certain groups of youth on their

role in the community. Another key challenge raised

was related to the long-term development of projects

and the sustainability of organizations (Thais &

Tendai, 2008). These challenges mentioned by Thais

and Tendai (2008) are no different from the

challenges faced by the National Youth Employment

48

Programme as stated in the Programme Review document

of 2009.

Writing on youth unemployment: opportunities

and challenges to economic development in Kenya,

Chingunta (2002) argued that the rate at which young

people find jobs depends on how prepared the labour

market is to receive them, and how ready they are

for the labour market. It is not surprising to find,

therefore, that potential employers in Kenya as well

as elsewhere say that their institutions aren’t

graduating people with the skills they need to

enhance their success. This means that there is the

need to fundamentally address the skills gap, as

well as the skill mismatch (Christiana, 2003). In

the light of the above, the Programme (NYEP) serving

as a short gap measure has the potential to address

the skills gap among the youth through its

employment modules such as the Graduate Paid

Internship, Youth in Trades & Vocation and Youth in

ICT projects.

49

Strategic marketing approach

In discussing the concepts of strategic

marketing and ways of transforming the youth

employment programme into a sustainable agency, the

study examined the marketing concepts, strategy and

strategic marketing principles as means of

sustaining the youth employment programmes.

The marketing concept

Marketing is the management process responsible

for identifying, anticipating and satisfying

customers’ requirements profitably (CIM, 2009). The

marketing concept is explained by Frederick (1991)

as the way of managing a business so that each

critical business decision is made with full

knowledge of the impact it will have on the

customer. He added that Marketing consists of the

strategies and tactics used to identify, create and

maintain satisfaction relationships with customers

that result in value for both the customer and the

marketer. The marketing concept is also supported

by Kotler (1991) as a social and managerial process

50

by which individuals and groups obtain what they

need and want through creating and exchanging

products and value with others. In his publication

“Marketing Strategies for the Growing Business”

Frederick (1991) differentiated the marketing

approach from classic or sales approach of managing

a business;

In the classic approach, engineers and

designers or programme managers create a product

(employment module), which is then given to sales

people (module implementers) who are told to find

customers and sell the product to them or recruit

unemployed youth and engage them. In the marketing

approach, the first step is to determine what the

customer (unemployed youth) needs or wants. That

information is given to designers who develop the

product (employment module) and finally to engineers

(programme manager) who produce (implement) it.

Thus, the sales approach only ends with the

customer, while the marketing approach begins and

ends with the customer.

51

The second major difference between the sales

and marketing approaches is the focus of management.

The sales approach almost always focuses on volume

while the marketing approach focuses on sustainable

profiting.

The marketing approach is further enlightened

as a modern approach to marketing, based on the

marketing concept, which is, in essence, succeeding

by finding out the needs of target markets and

satisfying them (Kotler , 1991). This means that the

needs of the teeming unemployed youth will have to

be identified and categorized and employment module

developed to satisfy each category.

However using this concept requires

organisations to be market focus and have

orientation towards the consumer. This is why most

forward thinking firms now use the marketing concept

approach to reap success in their businesses.

“Consumer Knowledge” can be regarded as a raw

material. From this raw material "knowledge

products" can be produced according to the needs of

52

consumers (Dickson, 1995). It implies that in using

the strategic marketing approach, it requires the

staff and the entire Programme (NYEP) secretariat

structures to be market focus and customer oriented

to understand the needs of the unemployed youth and

their involvement in the design and implementation

of job modules. Achieving absolute satisfaction

among targeted youth should be the goal.

Dickson (1995) catalogued five (5) principal

marketing activities that are used to implement

marketing concepts. They are:

1. Analyzing Opportunities: Before embarking to

satisfy the consumer, the organisation should

analyze the chances of success. This requires

an information system that gathers together

information from previous ventures,

intelligence, and formal market research. Any

of a variety of models such as SWOT, PEST etc

may be used to evaluate the situation according

to the environment faced, the potential

53

markets, buyer behaviour, and the activities of

competitors (Haines & Jones, 1994).

2. Selecting Target Market: Mass marketing has now

been replaced by selective marketing. This is

done by assessing the likely demand and

segmenting the market. Segmentation is the

process of dividing up the population of

potential consumers on the basis of common

characteristics so that one group of consumers

with a common identity can be targeted with a

tailored approach. Different segments may be

more or less attractive in the first instance;

some may represent higher demands; some may be

more accessible; some may be easier to identify

(Kotler, 1991).

3. Devising Marketing Strategies: A marketing

strategy defines the broad approaches to the

selected market segments. Three aspects of the

strategy are of particular importance:

positioning the product, developing the

product, and managing the product life cycle.

54

Products are positioned so that they occupy a

distinctive and valued place in a new

description. Decisions must be made about

liaison with consumers in the Phase of product

development. Some are involved in making the

product and often they are keen to participate

in pilot testing. They may become product

champions, whose word of mouth recommendation

has immeasurable worth (Ketley & Woods, 1993).

4. Planning Marketing Programmes: Planning a

marketing programme is deciding on the "nuts

and bolts," or the implementation-. This

comprises the design of a marketing mix," or

the recipe for how the four main marketing

tools - product, price, place, and promotion

will be used. Apart from an action plan, this

also provides a framework for allocating

resources, responsibilities, and communication

(Effective Health Care Bulletin, 1993).

5. Organising, Implementing and Controlling: The

marketing effort must be properly organised so

55

that it can be implemented accurately. It would

probably be best to begin by instilling the

marketing concept throughout the organisation.

During the implementation stage, control is

required and the information for this may also

be used as a marketing information system.

Control is needed to measure results and

effectiveness and remind the organisation of

its aims.

6. Working within a Strategic Framework: As can be

seen, the use of the marketing concept is an

activity based on strategic Principles. Thus,

effective working also needs a strategic

framework. In the commercial world, a key

influence on the successful marketing function

would be a close fit with overall corporate

objectives and strategy. Indeed, in firms which

closely espouse the marketing concept,

marketing considerations are often central to

corporate strategy and may shape the corporate

mission. (Madhok et al., 1993).

56

Marketing is a process of planning and

executing the conception, placing promotional

and distribution of ideas, services to create

exchange that satisfy individual and

organisational goals, as indicated by Amoako

and Dartey-Baah (2012). Marketing management

knowledge and skills is the process of planning

and executing, satisfying individual and

organisational conception, providing

promotional and distribution of ideas, goods

and services to create exchange that satisfy

individual and organisational objectives (Peter

& Donnelly, 2003). Phillip Kotler and Gary

Armstrong (2010) Global Edition, also defined

marketing as a social and managerial process by

which individuals and groups obtain what they

need and want through creating and exchanging

value with others. This definition has also

been perceived as the most appropriate by some

authorities including the governing body of

57

marketing that is the Chartered Institute of

Marketing (CIM UK).

According to Clarke et al. (2005), financial

institutions see or consider marketing moves in a

strategic light. Marketing therefore, plays an

active role in the formation of corporate

strategies. This therefore recognizes marketing as

very important as marketing decisions are taken at

the corporate level. The marketing concept according

to Kotler and Keller 10th Edition, posited that “the

key of achieving organisational goals consists of

determining the needs and satisfaction more

effectively and efficiently more than competitors”.

Effective Strategic marketing is a very key area to

improve the overall profitability of rural banks, at

this stage it enables the banks to understand and

respond to the investment nature or behavior of

their customers using such strategies as

segmentation (Jagersma, 2003). A strategy is the

matching of the activities of the organisation to

the environment in which it operate and to its own

58

resource capabilities (Johnson, Scholes &

Whittington, 2010).

The essence of developing a marketing strategy

for a company is to ensure that the company’s

capabilities are matched to the competitive market

environment in which it operates, not just for today

but into the foreseeable future. For a commercial

organisation such as the Damgbe Rural bank, this

means ensuring that its resources and capabilities

match the needs and requirement of the market in

which it operate. For any strategy to be effective,

it needs to be well turned both to the needs and

requirements of customers (the market conditions in

which it is implemented), and to the resources and

capabilities of the firm seeking to implement it. No

matter how wonderfully crafted and articulated the

strategy, if it is not focused on meeting the needs

of customers it is doomed to be a failure.

The strategic marketing of a company, according

to Amoako (2010), started with the formulation of

the company’s corporate strategy. This entails the

59

consideration of its vision and mission and

objectives. The company looks at its environment

both internal and external looking at the strengths,

weaknesses, opportunities and threats to the company

relative to its competitors. Through this,

objectives and decisions are made for each major

department of the organisation including marketing.

Once the marketing objectives are made the process

or strategy for achieving these objectives must be

outlined. A marketing plan is then formulated to

help achieve this strategy showing a step by step

description of what should be done at every stage of

the strategy. There are many factors that should be

considered in the marketing plan especially the four

P’s which include the Product, Price, Place

(Distribution) and Promotion.

He added that, A marketing strategy is defined

as the logic by which the business unit hopes to

achieve its marketing objectives (principles of

marketing). It can also be defined as a written plan

(usually a part of the overall corporate plan) which

60

combines product development, distribution, and

pricing approach, identifies the firms marketing

goals, and explains how they will be achieved within

a stated timeframe. Perreault and McCarthy (2005)

also said that a marketing strategy specifies a

target market and a related marketing mix. They

described that, it is a big picture of what a firm

will do in some market and that it included an

interrelation of a target market and a marketing

mix. A target market can be described as a market

segment which is highly homogeneous and a company

may decide to focus on such customers to satisfy

their specific needs better competitively over other

companies. Once a company has identified its target

market it offers it the product at a certain price,

promoting the product to tell the potential,

customers about it and a process to reach the

customer place.

Marketing strategy determines the choice of

target market segment, positioning, marketing mix,

and allocation of resources. In a nutshell Marketing

61

strategies explain how the marketing function fits

in with the overall strategy for a business. A

marketing strategy statement is also defined as a

statement of the planned strategy for a new product

that outlines the intended target market, the

planned product positioning, and the sales, market

share and profit goals for the first few years

(principles of marketing).

There are many reasons why marketing strategies

are important for the implementation of company

goals. The most significant importance of marketing

strategies is the fact that, they overlap with

company strategies. That is to say that most of the

strategies set out by companies are based on

marketing variables such as market share, growth and

market development. Once the company strategy is

set, marketing strategies assess each business

unit’s potential, and set marketing objectives that

will enable the company achieve its overall

strategic objectives.

62

Marketing strategies are important in achieving

company goals because the market is dynamic there is

the need for companies to also be dynamic in the way

they formulate their marketing strategies, this can

determine the success or failure of the business.

Perreault and McCarthy (2005) agreed to this by

saying that managers can not just define their line

of business in terms of the products they currently

produce or sell. Rather they have to think about the

basic customer needs they serve, how those needs may

change in the future, and how they can improve the

value they offer to customers.

Amoako (2010) added that marketing strategies

enable the company to match market opportunities to

the company’s objectives and resources. Once a

manager identifies an opportunity in the market the

overall objectives of the organisation and its

resources will determine if the company can take

advantage of the opportunity. Marketing strategies

enable the company put down a step by step plan

towards utilising that market opportunities and the

63

unique the opportunity the more difficult it is for

competitors to copy the strategies thus granting the

company a competitive advantage. In a product market

where customer’s have similar needs and sellers are

offering various close substitute ways of satisfying

those needs, strategic marketing helps a company to

persuade the customer to purchase their product by

adapting a product mix that is unique and better

than their competitor.

Marketing strategies enable companies to

counteract the adverse effects of their economic

environment on their strategic objectives and goals.

Companies have to constantly battle against the

forces in their microenvironment which include the

political, economic, social and technological

environment. Aside these challenges firms also face

challenges in the industry including factors such as

suppliers, competitors, channels of distribution,

employees and the media. The formulation of

marketing strategies enables them to find solutions

64

to the challenges they face without digressing from

their main organisational objectives.

Marketing strategies enable the company to forecast

the demand of customers for a specific product and

divide the market to determine the best segment

which will offer the most attractive opportunity for

achieving the goals of the company.

Mintzberg (1998), in discussing strategy and

strategic marketing principles, defined strategy as

the way in which a firm identifies its strategic

direction and aligns its operational processes to

its strategy. Placet and Branch (2002), reiterated

that marketing strategy approach has to do with

understanding where an organisation will go in the

future and how it will get there. Inkpen and

Choudhury (1995) said most academicians and

corporate managers believe that strategy marketing

affects the overall welfare of the corporation.

Mintzberg et al. (1998) included several other ways

of defining strategy: Strategy is “position” selling

particular products in particular markets. Strategy

65

is “perspective” an organization’s fundamental way

of doing thing.” Strategy is “ploy” a specific

maneuver intended to outwit a competitor. Though a

few firms believe they are better off without a

strategy. However, there are challenges, despite the

fact that, strategy marketing is important.

This is seen with the ability of formalised

strategic planning processes to deal adequately with

the pace of change facing organizations in today’s

environment. This is because, the disruptive changes

created by revolutionary technologies including

communication and information processing

technologies, globalization, and new business

methods can turn an organization’s current

advantages into barriers for future success and have

led to new thinking about the focus and goal of

strategy (Christensen & Michael, 2000).

The International Journal of Business and

Management (2009) expounded that Strategic

Management concerns with the four main functional

areas, which are marketing, operations management,

66

finance and human resource management. Each

functional area requires strategic thinking, which

is thinking for the future. What a whole

organisation needs is to make strategic decisions

and put the strategy into action. Gerry and Keven

(2002) indicated that each functional area of an

organisation has its own strategic management.

Strategic management penetrates into different

functional areas and helps the whole organisation to

enhance its own competitive advantages. The

application of the unique strategic management leads

the organisation to the final success. Accordingly,

it is essential for an organisation to choose proper

strategies in each functional area in order to form

a corporate strategic plan (Claire, 2000).

As a corporate strategy, Michael (1998)

suggested that organisations should dominate

specified markets, or segments of specified markets,

and make it as hard as possible for others to enter

that market. Corporate strategy enhances the

competitive advantages of an organisation. In other

67

words, the organisation has to be so specialized in

its own products and services that others do not be

able to copy or imitate. The organisation will

develop very quickly as a result of carrying out

such marketing strategy. Strategic Management

includes understanding the strategic position of an

organisation, strategic choices for the future and

turning strategy into action (Gerry & Kevan, 2002).

In discussing the role that Organisational

Design plays in strategy implementation, it is

generally recognised that, a good fit between

strategy, organisational design, and external

opportunity creates a competitive advantage for an

organisation (Galbraith et al., 1993). An

appropriate organisational design is generally

viewed as enabling “an organisation to execute

better, learn faster, and change more easily”

(Mohrman et al., 1995). An organisation’s design

comprises multiple, interrelated elements,

frequently categorized as structure, people,

processes, rewards, and tasks or work systems that

68

together can create unique organisational

capabilities that provide competitive advantage

(Quinn et al., 1997). Although the classic

bureaucratic form may be the form of choice in a

stable environment with low complexity, research has

shown that rapid change and increased complexity

require greater lateral mechanisms and a more

organic form (Galbraith, 1994).

69

Highlighting on Strategy implementation and

Organisational Transformation, Van de Ven and Poole

(1995) defined the core concepts of transformation

processes as a negotiation process in which

stakeholders build cases for change by translating

their goals, roles and identities as well as those

of other agents. Doolin (2003) argued that

approaching organisational change through a problem-

solving dynamic helps members view change as a

routine event instead of a rare occurrence that is

imposed in their daily routines. It also stresses

members’ participation, communication skills and

creativity as both the problem and the solution,

resulting from a negotiation process where ideas are

put forward and are collectively transformed.

Approaching change in this way is more participative

since organisational members are given a chance to

contribute with their ideas to the change process.

However, participation implies an investment in

terms of time and human resources, as the process of

negotiation can be time-consuming and organisational

70

members have to be prepared or instructed for their

participation to be optimal.

In discussing factors that could enable the

workforce to implement Customer Relation Management

(CRM) strategies, by way of adopting strategic

marketing approach in the organisation, Goodhue et

al. (2002) noted that “in general, changing the

technology without transforming the organisation

often leads to less-than-optimal results. Companies

may need to develop a customer-centric culture, hire

personnel with the vision and skills needed to

implement and practice CRM and change business

processes, organisational structures and reward

systems”. If for instance, the sales people

(District Employment Coordinators), as a result of

inadequate training, unsatisfactory reward system,

or incomplete restructuring of sales (engagement)

processes, refuse or are incapable to use the CRM

system, customer (unemployed youth) knowledge

acquisition might suffer significantly. The company

might therefore fail in gaining an up-to-date

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customer database, which would contain all the

transactions, which salespeople would otherwise have

stored as a result of their personal interactions

with customers. Ultimately the customer database

might degrade and become practically useless.

Relationship building and management, or what

has been labelled as relationship marketing, is one

of the leading approaches to strategic marketing

approach (Gronroos, 1994). Practitioners as well as

academics suggested that customer relationship

management (CRM) provides an actual platform for the

operational manifestation of relationship marketing

(Plakoyiannaki & Tzokas, 2002; Goodhue et al.,

2002). Grönroos (1994) defined relationship

marketing as: “Marketing that establishes,

maintains, and enhances relationships with customers

and other partners, at a profit, so that the

objectives of the parties involved are met. This is

achieved by mutual exchange and fulfilment of

promises”.

Copulinsky and Wolf (1990) defined relationship

72

marketing from a different angle stressing the role

of IT as a “process where the main activities are to

create a database including existing and potential

customers, to approach these customers using

differentiated and customer-specific information

about them, and to evaluate the life-term value of

every single customer relationship and the costs of

creating and maintaining them”.

Marketing in the public sector

Writing on Marketing in the Public Sector: A Roadmap

for Improved Performance, Kotler and Lee (2007)

pointed out that, government operation are carried

out at great cost to citizens and they expect

performance from public agencies to be comparable

with the efficiency of the private sector. “The

public sector needs to improve its performance to

raise the public confidence and satisfaction and

thereby their support. Some public sector

administrators question the use of marketing,

claiming that government operations are inherently

different from business operations. These

73

differences, according to Kotler and Lee (2007),

“are often exaggerated and should not be used as an

excuse for inefficiency, ineffectiveness or waste.”

In the publication “Public Sector Marketing”

Proctor (2007) explained that, in the public sector

much of the marketing related activity is concerned

with the satisfaction of customers despite the fact

that frequently there is no direct or even indirect

form of competition. Having a monopoly in terms of

supply does not in itself kill off the need for

marketing. In the case of the public sector a poor

customer image does not enhance the organisation’s

image in the eyes of its other stakeholders. Indeed,

in the context of such organisations, marketing may

have a broader role to play by having to satisfy the

needs of different and sometimes conflicting

interests. We might consider replacing the term

‘customers’ with stakeholders in any definition of

the role and scope of marketing since these include

customers as well as the many other individuals,

groups and organisations that deal with or are even

74

employed by an organisation. A definition of

marketing that best suit the purpose here is:

‘Marketing is the management process responsible for

identifying, anticipating and satisfying stakeholder

requirements and in so doing serves to facilitate

the achievement of the organisation’s objectives.’

The various means that a public sector

organisation employs to bring about satisfaction are

used to communicate ideas, benefits and values about

products and services that it has to offer the

stakeholder. Communication then is central to the

effective conduct of marketing operations. Three

primary types of corporate communication exist within

an organisation management, marketing and

organizational (Van Riel & Balmer, 1997). In

addition it has been suggested that management

communication refers to messages conveyed by

management to both internal and external

stakeholders. Marketing communications are those

directly aimed at the consumer (e.g. advertising,

direct mail, personal selling and sponsorship).

75

Organisational communication covers all other

communications based within an organisation, such as

public relations (PR), public affairs, environmental

communications, investor relations and internal

communication. While not disputing these

definitions, it could be argued that values

communicated to stakeholders occur through a

combination of all three forms of communication.

Moreover, the view expressed here is that persuasive

communications of all forms involve marketing in one

form or another.

Contributing to “Marketing in Government”,

Madill (1998) reiterated Proctor’s (2007) assertion

that, the public sector organisations are concerned

with providing services rather than products.

Marketing of services requires different approach.

Marketing a service-based business differs from

marketing a product-based business. Cowell (1984)

argued that what is significant about services is

the relative dominance of intangible attributes in

the makeup of the ‘service product’. As a

76

consequence, services may require special

understanding and special marketing efforts. For

example, the personnel providing the service are

just as important as the service itself and the

interaction between service provider and service

receiver is of paramount importance. Service-based

organisations are essentially concerned with

managing relations because they manage the total

‘buyer–seller’ interaction process. This is done as

part of attracting, maintaining, and improving

customer relationships (Worthington & Reid, 2004).

Kotler and Lee (2007) added that, while many

services marketed in the public sector are amenable

to the same kinds of treatment as one would follow

with services in the private sector some services

have a different aim. Use of marketing techniques

and concepts within some aspects of public service

are concerned with promoting ideas and are

frequently referred to as social marketing. Kotler

and Zaltman (2001) suggested that, social marketing

is: ‘The design, implementation and control of

77

programs calculated to influence the acceptability

of social ideas and involving considerations of

product, planning, pricing, communication,

distribution and marketing research.’ Social

marketing aims to bring about specific behavioural

goals relevant to social good, for example the

prevention of anti-social behaviour such as

vandalism or alcohol abuse in the community.

However, it is only one of a number of possible

intervention strategies and its limitations or

suitability for particular purposes does have to be

well understood.

On the subject of Marketing challenges faced by

public sector managers the Centre of Excellence for

Public Sector Marketing and Phase 5-CEPSM (2006)

conducted a study to assess the health of marketing

in public sectors in Canada (James, 2011). The

survey also pointed out that Governments in general,

demonstrated neglect for incorporating a formal

marketing process and establishing measurable

marketing objectives and scored low on implementing

78

a proactive process that considers client needs when

identifying and developing new products, programs,

and services. Governments tend to be reactive,

rather than developing proactive systems to address

shifts in the marketplace. It was reported that

government organisations are much more familiar with

the promotion and communications aspects of the

strategic marketing framework, than with elements

such as segmentation and strategic market selection,

branding and positioning, product/service

management, channel management, and pricing. Within

government, there is wide recognition of the role

and value of the communications function and many

organisations have developed communications plans

outside of a marketing framework.

James (2011) added that, marketing in the

public sector does not occupy the same

institutionalised position as it does in business.

There is no clear marketing function or job category

in government and therefore few positions include

“marketing” in their titles. In the private sector,

79

marketing has a clear career path. Governments need

to look at both classification and standards for

hiring marketing people. Evidence also suggests that

they have difficulty attracting and retaining

qualified marketing staff. This is buttress by the

situation where most people performing marketing

functions in government do not have formal training

in marketing. This suggests a clear need for

marketing training in government, such as the

training tools and resources. As Madill (1998)

stated, “in order for marketing to be successful in

government, it is necessary to assign responsibility

for the marketing initiative to a senior manager

with influence in the organisations decision making

environment.” In its support, the survey

recommended that there is a strong need to educate

senior government managers about the value and

applicability of strategic marketing management

principles. This requires recognition of the value

of marketing, both in terms of the potential impact

on the effectiveness and efficiency of programs,

80

services and outreach campaigns, as well as the

benefit to citizens.

There is an opportunity to broaden this

function to include a strategic marketing mandate

thereby re-positioning it as an expanded role.

Marketing can be used to achieve the vision of

better informing and engaging citizens by viewing

communications within a broader strategic marketing

framework. It can help to drive results in program

uptake, program impact and behavioural change. It

can also save money by helping executives and

program/service managers make informed investment

and resource trade-off decisions (Mintz, 2011).

Cousins (1990) explained that, in the 1990s,

the public sector in various European countries

started to see its clientele as customers and

perceived the benefits of applying marketing tools

and strategic marketing planning in order to ‘sell’

policies to citizens. Public organisations employ

four types of marketing, which differ from each

other in the objectives underlying them.

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First, ‘marketisation’ means that, certain

aspects of public sector activities become akin to

commercial marketing in the private sector by

subjecting products and services to the competitive

forces of the commercial marketplace. The aim is to

bring down the price level and to bring the standard

of quality more into line with customer demands

(Chapman & Cowdell, 1998).

Second, all organisations use marketing for

promoting their self-interest. For instance, Burton

(1999) suggested that public organisations use

stakeholder marketing to secure their continued

existence by support from the market and society.

Third, in the case of local authorities,

marketing is used to promote the area under the

responsibility of the public organisation, such as

city marketing.

Finally, marketing may be instrumental in

promoting key political objectives, i.e. the

realisation of social effects. Marketing skills

developed in the private sector can be employed in

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the public sector to promote and deliver non-profit-

motivated services. A municipal council, for

example, can have a ‘product mix’ which comprises

product categories from a plant nursery to refuse

collection and a legal department, and can use the

same techniques as private sector marketers.

Research, graphic design, mail-shots and advertising

can all be done in-house and the use of retail

marketing skills can be employed in launching

various new services. Raising awareness of the

services, existing or planned, among potential users

of those services is a priority for most public

sector organisations.

The possession of a marketing strategy enables

public organisations to go about their business in a

customer orientated fashion, since setting

priorities is helpful in giving the public what they

want. It could encompass providing residents with a

full range of leisure, education, recreation,

economic and social services, and making them aware

that their local authority does that efficiently and

83

quickly. Yet another important priority for local

authorities is concerned with speaking on behalf of

the people they serve. People expect the local

authority to speak on their behalf and even protest

on their behalf, particularly when there may be a

threat such as plans to build a new motorway in the

area or some other new development which impinges on

their lives.

It has been suggested that the public and non-

profit sectors are badly in need of improved

marketing practices (Kotler & Zaltman, 2001).

However, given the many political and economic

complexities of the public sector, marketing within

this environment is more problematic than within the

private sector. An example of marketing at work is

where a local council conducted borough-wide market

research on library usage which led to a closer

understanding of the nature of its customers and

their experience. As a result, residents actually

receive the services they required. In another

instance, a council commissioned in-depth market

84

research to investigate the views of both its own

residents and those in over 400 local authorities

towards environmental issues. It found that 83% of

the area’s residents wanted the council to establish

a formal policy explaining its position and aims on

green issues. As a result of its findings, the

council brought in an environmental audit to be

conducted by its environment and leisure department,

and a range of other initiatives on recycling and

pollution.

In the past, public sector organisations have

concentrated more on the way in which services are

delivered rather than on putting emphasis on the end

user. Arguably this has developed because an

organisation has had an idea of what the customer

wanted, or considered that it knew what the customer

needed from a professional perspective (Bean &

Hussey, 1997).

On the constraints faced by public sector

organisation, Proctor (2007) commented that, the

public sector is constrained in terms of the

85

services it is obliged to provide and hence may be

unable to implement a customer-led approach even if

this is desired. Constraints may include:

Legislative restrictions, Political philosophies,

Lack of physical resources and Lack of financial

resources.

Another problem has been to do with something

which is fundamental to the marketing concept;

respecting the customer’s wishes at all times.

Marketers maintain ‘the customer is always right’,

but in the public sector this principle is sometimes

compromised. The customer can sometimes be wrong and

the public sector organisation always has to adopt

the best professional practice whether the customer

agrees or not. Many public sector organisations

provide services for the public good which are often

restrictive and controlling in nature. In such cases

the user is far from happy with the service. Unlike

the private sector, the public sector does not

depend on individual users for its survival: many

86

organisations are in place due to legislation,

government policies, and so on.

On the need for public sector staff to be

marketing oriented, Proctor (2007) emphasised that,

changes in government legislation in more recent

times have produced competitive practices in the

public sector that were previously only experienced

in the private sector. These have created internal

markets and a competitive culture whereby local

authorities are expected to respond to the needs of

their local communities. As a consequence they are

departing from their established role, as providers

of social services, towards meeting the needs of

local residents, or ‘customers’, under the banner of

a market-led orientation.

Marketing principles can be applied within the

public sector but there may be difficulty in

relating service delivery entirely to market

principles. In suggesting that ‘market’ principles

may be applied in the public sector, there is an

assumption that the market is an efficient and

87

appropriate allocating mechanism for distributing

public sector goods and services. Mellors (1993)

argued that the notion of a ‘public good’ and the

‘public interest’ remain problematic in adopting

market solutions to service provision. However,

whatever the context, marketing principles can apply

and staff needs to be marketing oriented.

Branding and brand communications

Branding is critical in public sector marketing

(Kotler & Lee, 2007). A brand is a promise made to

clients to deliver clearly stated benefits that are

valued and that set it apart from its competitors.

It is much more than a logo, a tagline or a slogan.

At a deeper level, it is a promise of who we are and

what you can expect from us. It needs to be genuine

(e.g., verifiable in fact). Any attempt to brand a

promise that the Public Service cannot consistently

deliver upon will be rejected. Effective branding

increases understanding about the vital and crucial

role of the Public Service in building and

supporting Canada and Canadians. Effective branding

88

helps attract the right type of future employees,

reduces risks of both parties and makes the

candidate’s decision easier. A branding strategy

supports human resource, recruitment and retention

strategies and business strategies (Canada Public

Service Agency, 2007)

Explaining the benefits of effective brand

communication for stakeholders, Branson (1996)

stressed on the fact that, in the marketing of fast-

moving consumer goods (FMCGs), consumers often

purchase products because of the brand names and not

because of who owns the brand name. Indeed they may

very well be unaware of who this is. However, it

seems likely that consumers who do not distinguish

between different brands are in fact influenced by

corporate brands and make their purchases taking

account of the producer of the goods or services.

Corporate brands reflect reputation and not the

actual products or services on offer. Establishing a

good brand reputation enables organisations to

market other services effectively (De Wit & Meyer,

89

1995). In doing so, positive attributes of the

corporate brand are transferred to the new service

and it is the brand associations that influence the

consumer’s perceptions.

Brands make it easier to position services in

people’s minds (Ambler & Styles, 1995) and by

increasing scale of operation they can also lead to

better utilisation of resources. They can also

create shareholder value (Kerin & Sethuraman, 1998)

and support growth (Broniarczyk & Alba, 1994) and

innovation (De Chernatony & Dall’Olmo, 1998). From

the customer’s perspective brands can make decision

making easier (Jacoby & Kyner, 1973), lessen search

costs (Jacoby et al., 1977), and even provide

emotional, hedonic and symbolic benefits

(Srinivasan, 1987).

A brand has to be differentiated from others in

the marketplace so that it achieves a distinctive or

even unique appeal to users. It also needs to be

developed in line with customer needs. The strength

of a brand is a combination of its esteem and

90

familiarity, and its likely success in projecting

its associated image reflects its differentiation

from other brands and its ability to satisfy

stakeholder perceptions. When considering using a

new service, lack of familiarity and a high level of

uncertainty regarding performance are of concern to

consumers. Established successful brand names help

to reduce customer concerns and by introducing

services under the same brand name – brand

extensions – organizations can reduce the

uncertainty for stakeholders (Roselius, 1971; Sheth

& Venkatesan, 1968). Customers are thought to use

their experiences with other products or services

associated with the brand in place of actual

experience with the new product.

Brand extension strategies are often used in

the services sector and this is partly accounted for

by the fact that the goodwill in the parent’s

corporate name overcomes the perceived risk in

purchasing an intangible benefit (Iacobucci, 1998).

The corporate identity of an organisation is ‘what

91

an organisation is’ and this sets it apart from

other organisations, making it uniquely recognizable

to its various stakeholders. Corporate identity is

looked upon as a strategic activity involving the

communication of an organization’s corporate vision

and strategy (see, for example, Markwick & Fill,

1997; Van Riel & Balmer, 1997). It is argued that an

organisation presents itself and is perceived

internally and externally through the three elements

of the corporate identity mix – symbolism,

communication and behaviour (Birkigt & Stadler,

1986).

Corporate image reflects both what the

organisation purposefully projects to its various

target groups or stakeholders and what is actually

in the minds of these target groups. Corporate

reputation is linked to image and refers to the

perception of an organisation that is built up over

time in contrast to corporate image which consists

of the most recent beliefs about an organisation.

92

Corporate communication enables an organisation

to project its identity to its various stakeholders.

It may use advertising, public relations, visual

identity and various behavioural codes to achieve

this end. Unintentional communications may also have

the same effect, for example, the throwaway comment

of the disgruntled employee or the unexpected

additional help given to a supplier (Balmer, 2001).

Understanding how value is created for

customers is clearly important (Berry, 2000). How

well a service is performed influences the value

that customers and other stakeholders put upon a

service. A strong service brand increases

stakeholders’ trust in the service and makes it

easier to understand what the brand symbolises. The

emphasis in service organisations should be on

producing distinctiveness in performing and

communicating their services and branding should be

used to define an organisation’s purpose and connect

the organisation emotionally with customers (Berry,

2000). A brand may thus be seen as something which

93

helps to build relationships with stakeholders.

Hence, one might draw the conclusion that the close

links between the rationale for relationship

marketing and the rationale for branding suggests

that branding and relationship marketing are

interdependent and could possibly be seen as two

stages of the same process (De Chernatony &

Dall’Olmo, 2000).

It is argued that, brand images are produced

through formal communication activities and also

that service personnel are important in building

reputable service brands. Van Riel and Balmer (1997)

argued that an organisation has to take into account

its historical roots, personality, corporate

strategy and the three parts of the corporate

identity mix (behaviour of organisational members,

communication and symbolism) in the search for a

favourable brand reputation. Fombrun (1996) and

Rindova (1997) also acknowledged the importance of

the organisation’s strategy and identity and how

they are communicated to the stakeholders as factors

94

that influence the images that the organisation

projects to its publics and hence, in the long-term,

the reputation of its brand.

Developing effective graphics and visual

representations of the brand are insufficient in

themselves for representing and managing a service

brand. The reality of the organisation, the

attitudes and behaviour of service personnel during

the service encounter has to be commensurate with

the brand values that the organisation is projecting

to its publics. Service organisations should use

internal marketing to communicate brand values

internally within the organisation. In this way they

can encourage employees to understand better the

corporate identity and improve commitment,

enthusiasm and consistent staff behaviour in

delivering the organisation’s core values (Proctor,

2007).

Since public sector organisations normally

provide services as opposed to products the typical

local authority must place high emphasis on the

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actual service and servicing people and processes.

Marketing success cannot as a rule be measured in

terms of increased revenues and profits but in

increased user awareness of service provision and

other measures of performance (Kotler & Lee, 2007).

Among these may be the aim to increase usage,

demonstrate value for money, educate users, raise

profile, demonstrate quality and gain a positive

image in the marketplace. Public sector finance is

limited and most public sector organisations cannot

afford to engage specialist marketing personnel. As

a consequence, marketing is often undertaken as part

of an employee’s duties. This puts responsibility

for building the corporate brand image firmly on the

shoulders of all people coming into contact with

customers and other stakeholders.

In the public sector, one of the key marketing

activities is to educate the public (and all

stakeholders in fact) with respect to: What is and

is not available for them; The factors that govern

how certain services have to be delivered; What is

96

best in the public interest; The difference between

needs and wants; The reasons for reduced or

inadequate service provision.

Using marketing methods, Proctor (2007)

pointed out that this information can be

communicated in a manner that helps develop a good

relationship with customers and other stakeholders

so that even if they are not totally satisfied with

the outcomes they at least appreciate many of the

reasons for them. Services have to be continually

updated to ensure that the corporate image of the

organisation is viewed as doing its best for all

stakeholders. Continuously reviewing, developing and

enhancing services and taking account of customers’

opinions, complaints, comments and suggestions is an

important means of achieving this end. Often it may

be achieved by changing how services are provided or

replacing them with alternative ones.

Arguably, Proctor (2007) emphasized that,

establishing an organizational culture that supports

the brand is the key. Organisational culture is

97

permeated downwards from the top of the organisation

and is disseminated throughout so that all staff

understands the marketing objectives that need to be

achieved. If the organisation wishes to be seen as a

caring one, for instance, then staff have to adopt

a caring attitude in all aspects of their work. This

extends to direct verbal and written communication

with the public, but should also reflect how

colleagues relate to each other. Very importantly,

organisational culture can be reflected in the

management style that predominates in the

organisation and the manner in which services are

delivered both internally and externally. The

physical environment has a huge impact on image

formation in the minds of all stakeholders. An

agreeable, orderly and fresh environment creates an

impression of professionalism and a notion of

efficiency. Figure 1 show how the brand image is

projected as one that is concerned about providing

convenience of place and time in serving customers’

98

interests. In this case the end result is the one-

stop and citizen shops.

Proctor (2007) maintained that, one way of trying to

improve customer service is to make it more

convenient for customers to use the services

provided. In this context, convenience of place and

time are important. Rather than having the customer

come to the service provider to have queries and

matters attended to, the provider tries to go at

least part way towards bringing the service to the

customer at a convenient location and time. In the

UK, the one-stop shops provide face-to-face contact

between customers and those responsible for

delivering council and partner services. The

intention of one stop shops is to provide a high-

quality experience for customers. One-stops-shops

have grown in popularity over the past few years and

are now widely used in local government as a way of

bringing the service to the user.

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The BrandImage

Figure 1: Projecting the brand image (Public

Service)

Source: Proctor (2007)

Investment has been made in the business

environment and perhaps, more importantly, in the

training and development of the one-stop-shop staff.

Staffs are trained to provide a generic service to

customers, i.e. they can deal with any and all

customer enquiries but to differing degrees

100

People Processes

The one-stop shopand citizen

shops

Physical

Convenienceof placeand time

The serviceencounter

depending on first point of contact resolution for a

particular service, access to service legacy systems

and the level of experience/training the member of

staff has received. The vision of the one-stop-shop

is that of a service that is universally

acknowledged as consistently providing value added

support to managers in delivering services that

achieve the organisation’s overall vision and aim.

The notion of the one-stop shop is not confined

to the UK or to Europe for that matter. Under

different names they are to be found offering a wide

range of services to the public worldwide. For

example, ‘citizen shops’ were created in the

Brazilian state of Bahia and were introduced in

Portugal by the late 1990s to implement the

administrative modernisation undertaken by the

government (Patricio & Brito, 2006).

Importance of effective brand communications in the

NYEP

Corporate branding reflects reputation.

Establishing a good brand reputation will make NYEP

101

attractive to its stakeholders (Staff and Programme

Beneficiaries, Job Seekers, Funding Agencies,

Service Providers, Investors, Researchers, etc) as

an employer and a youth development agency of

choice. In doing so positive attributes such as;

instituted progressive working and organisation

culture; smartly looking staff; warmness and

preparedness in attending to stakeholders needs;

encouraging by creating avenues for people to

complain and promptness in readdressing complaints;

meeting or exceeding stakeholder’s expectations;

continual improvement of service delivery; and

educating the public on actions, programmes and

activities using advertising, public relations,

visual identity internet, publications, TV

documentaries, radio and various behavioural codes

to achieve this end, influence the stakeholder’s

perceptions positively.

Effective Brand Communications will make it

easier to position NYEP to drawn the attention and

support of Private Sector involvement, Non

102

Governmental Organizations and other Funding

Agencies in its activities enabling it to expand

its scope of operation to better serve the teeming

numbers of registered unemployed youth waiting to be

engaged or setup in business ventures (Ambler &

Styles, 1995). It will help position NYEP as an apex

agency, building linkages and coordinating all other

youth employment and skill development activities

and organisations within the sector so that it

achieves a distinctive or even unique appeal to

users (Roselius, 1971; Sheth & Venkatesan, 1968).

Finally it will give NYEP a corporate identity

and image and that shapes its strategic focus,

vision and sets it apart from other organisations,

making it uniquely recognizable and attractive to

its various stakeholders (Markwick & Fill, 1997; Van

Riel & Balmer, 1997).

103

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

Introduction

This chapter describes how data required for

the study has been collected. These include the

research design, study area, population, sample and

sampling procedure, instrumentation, data collection

and data analysis.

Research design

Osu Klotey, Asawase and Aboabo communities

located in Accra, Kumasi and Tamale Metropolis

respectively were used for the study. These

communities are relatively high-income areas

because, they have some social and economic

infrastructure like clean water and good

104

environmental condition, but plagued with youth

unemployment. The reason for choosing these

communities as a study area is that, the communities

have high youth employment records and also because

they are closer to the National Youth Employment

Programme’s District Secretariats, it makes it

easier to access information from the community.

The major economic activity at Asylum Down and

Asawase are trade and commerce, and in the case of

Aboabo trade and crop farming. Almost all people in

these communities depend largely on trading or

farming for their income. However a few,

particularly the young ladies are engaged in petty

trading such as hairdressing, catering and

seamstress while young men are engaged in auto

mechanic and carpentry after completing junior high

school. It is therefore significant to notice a

large number of hairdressers, seamstress and auto

mechanics at the study area by observation.

The research design used was descriptive.

Descriptive research design is a scientific method

105

which involves the use of surveys, observing and

describing the behavior of a subject without

influencing it in any way. It also determines and

report the way things are in the study area. The

justification for using the descriptive design is

its suitability and applicability to the study area

(Best, 1981). On his part, Martyn (2008) said, the

justification for using descriptive research design

is that, many scientific disciplines, especially

social science and psychology, use this method to

obtain a general overview of the subject under

study. This is because, some subjects cannot be

observed in any other way. Thus, this method was

chosen because it made it possible to observe

natural behaviours without affecting them during

studies. It also made it possible to obtain a

general overview of situations under study.

Population

According to Mugo (2000), a population is a

group of individuals, persons, objects, or items

from which samples are taken for measurement. Thus,

106

the total population of the communities selected for

the study, according to People Dialogue Ghana (2010)

was thirty two thousand, whilst the accessible

population with respect to the study is one thousand

of the persons or individuals.

Sample and sampling procedure

Webster (1985) indicated that a sample is a

finite part of a statistical population whose

properties are studied to gain information about the

whole. When dealing with people, it can be defined

as a set of respondents selected from a larger

population for the purpose of a survey. On the other

hand, sampling is the act, process or techniques of

selecting a suitable sample. The reason is to draw

conclusions about populations from the sample. It is

also used for inferential statistics to enable

researchers to determine characteristics by directly

observing on a portion of the population. The reason

for a sample and sampling is that it requires fewer

resources, less time, and is cheaper to observe a

part rather than the whole.

107

The sample size used for the study was 294 of

individuals within the research area. The study

combined elements of probability and non probability

sampling techniques. The probability sampling looked

at systematic and stratified sampling whilst non

probability looked at purposive sampling. The

processes in getting the unit of enquiry were as

follows:

A sample size of 294 was selected from the

target households of thousand (1000). The method

used in getting the units of enquiry involved the

stratification of the 1000 households to ensure that

male and female were fairly represented in the

study. Secondly, the 1000 households were divided by

294 sample size and the result was a fraction of

3.4. Mathematically, K=N/n, where K is the sampling

fraction, N is the households and n is the sample

size. That is 1000/294=3. In summary, the steps in

arriving at the units of enquiry were: the sample

frame of thousand households were constructed and

given names. Secondly, the sample fraction was

108

obtained after dividing the target population by the

sample size. The process continued by counting from

1 to 3 repeated until the entire households are

reached. Further, the names on the sample frame that

correspond to the number drawn are picked to

constitute the sample. The reason for using this

method is that, according to Moser and Kalton

(1971:83), it is used in large sample survey

including household survey. Also it is

representative and avoids bias, because the

selection of sample units is dependent on the

selection of the previous one. The study also made

use of the services of key informants such as NYEP

Secretariat staff and the Metropolitan Assembly

officials.

Instruments

The technique used was the survey type, and the

instruments were the questionnaires and the

interview scheduled. The questionnaire constructed

was in two parts, Section ‘A’ dealt with

sustainability of the National Youth Employment

109

Programme. Section ‘B’ was on personal data. It

examined the sex, age structure, occupation and

educational level of the respondents. The

questionnaire included open and close ended

questions. The open ended questions were used with

the reason that they enable the respondents to

provide varied information which facilitated the

qualitative analysis while the close ended questions

facilitated the quantitative analyses.

Questions asked respondents included; (i) If

they thought the National Youth Employment Programme

was sustainable enough to meet the needs of the

youth in the community, (ii) What could be done to

make the National Youth Employment Programme

sustainable, (iii) If they thought it was necessary

for strategic marketing principles to be adopted in

the management processes of the organisation, (iv)

could you suggest any marketing principles that

should be used in the managing of the

Organisation.

110

The choice of questionnaire was that, it is

less expensive and produce quick results cutting

down the time used for the study. It can also be

completed at the respondent’s convenience, and avoid

errors caused by the presence of the interviewer.

On the other hand, interview provides detail

information about the respondents and the unit of

enquiry. It does not require respondents to have the

ability to read or handle long questionnaires. It

provides opportunity to observe non-verbal behavior,

which if questionnaire were used, that opportunity

would have been lost. Finally, the interview

encourages ‘participation’ not just ‘response’.

Data collection procedure

The Data collection procedure dealt with the

type, source of data and how it was collected for

the study. The type of data was both secondary and

primary. Secondary data involved the review of

related literature mainly research works on youth

employment programme and ways of sustaining it and

the profile of Asylum Down, Asawase and Aboabo

111

Communities in the Accra, Kumasi and Tamale

Metropolis.

The primary data was the use of questionnaires

and face to face interview with the community. Of

the six (6) questionnaires that were given to the

Assembly, NYEP officials and non-governmental

organisations, two were given to the Sub

Metropolitan Assembly, three given to NYEP

Secretariat and one given to non-governmental

organizations based in the community. Also, the

interview, which was a face to face with the

community made use of two hundred and ninety four

(294) questionnaires directed to households in the

community. The duration of the questionnaires

administration lasted for two months. Of the two

hundred and ninety four questionnaires sent to the

field, all of them, together with those of the key

informants were returned. Data collection ended in

2011.

112

Data analysis

The analysis was done on the basis of the

primary data collected from the field. Since the

study employed a survey method of gathering data,

the analysis of the data gathered took the form of

compiling respondent contributions on each

item/question. Tabulation was then established

through the use of simple average and percentages

through the use of Statistical Product for Service

Solutions (SPSS). Results were then used as bases

for either negating or validating whether a

particular objective was being achieved.

113

CHAPTER FOUR

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Introduction

This chapter is concerned with the findings and

analysis of the research data collected. Tables and

charts were used to present findings. The data was

summarized and analyzed. The analysis of the data

was based on the objectives of the research. This

was followed by the additional findings that emerged

from the study.

114

Analysis and highlights of research results

After the collection of the data, SPSS was used

to analyze the data as they relate to the objectives

of this research. The options were coded, that is

numbers were assigned to each option to make

analysing easy.

Beneficiaries of the NYEP in Ghana

Semi Structured questionnaires schedule for

youth in the sub metro or district within the Accra,

Kumasi and Tamale Metropolises, 78.9% of the

respondents cited that they are beneficiaries of the

NYEP and 21.1% of the respondents cited they have

not benefited from the NYEP (Table 1).

From the analysis it is very clear that many of

the respondents (78.9%) have benefited from the

National Youth Employment Programme in Ghana. The

Programme is further evidence of the government’s

commitment to providing jobs for the youth of this

country. It also shows that the Programme is a key

Poverty Reduction Strategy instruments or inventions

115

put in place by the Government of Ghana to reduce

poverty by creating employment for the youth.

Table 1: Beneficiaries of the NYEP in Ghana

Response

Frequenc

y Percent

Cumulative

Percent

Yes 232 78.9 78.9

No 62 21.1 100.0

Total 294 100.0

Source: Field survey, 2012

Benefits derived by the youth from NYEP

With the type of benefits that beneficiaries

(respondents) have gained from NYEP, Table 2 shows

that approximately 20 percent of the respondents had

benefited by receiving monthly allowances, seven

percent of the respondents had gained through skills

development, one percent of the respondents had

enjoyed further education, 4 percent of the

respondents said that they have been exposed to

organizational working culture as a result of the

Programme. This is an indication that NYEP offers

116

varied benefits to the Youth of Ghana as analysed in

Table 2.

1 Received monthly allowance

2 Skills development

3 Further education package

4 learn organizational working culture

5 Politics

117

Table 2: Types of benefits derived by NYEP

beneficiaries

Response Frequency Percent

Cumulative

Percent

1 59 20.1 20.1

2 21 7.1 27.2

3 2 .7 27.9

4 11 3.7 31.6

1 and 4 16 5.4 37.1

1,3 and 4 18 6.1 43.2

1, 3 and 5 8 2.7 45.9

1, 2, 4

and 58 2.7 48.6

1 and 2 75 25.5 74.1

all the

above6 2.0 76.2

no

response70 23.8 100.0

Total 294 100.0

Source: Field survey, 2012

118

Sustainability of NYEP

The study sought to determine whether the

National Youth Employment Programme is sustainable

to meet the needs of the youth in the community.

There were mixed responses on the issue. Of the 294

responses, 72.1 % said that the Programme was not

sustainable while 27.2% were optimistic that it was

sustainable. There was no response from 0.7% of the

sampled population.

The survey implies that some effort should be

made to address the challenges that had made

majority of the respondents to believe that the

Programme is not sustainable as shown in Table 3.

Table 3: Sustainability of NYEP

ResponseFrequen

cyPercent

CumulativePercent

No 212 72.1 72.1

Yes 80 27.2 99.3

No Response 2 0.7 100.0

294 100.0Source: Field survey, 2012

119

Factors contributing to the unsustainability of NYEP

In a follow-up question on the factors

contributing to the “Unsustainability” of the

Programme as shown in Table 4, 14.6 % of the 294

respondents identified inadequate funding from

donors and government, 28.9% indicated inexperience

Programme managers, and limited usage of marketing

approaches in the implementation of the Programme.

About 16% pointed out political interference, and 1%

indicated that the Programme does not provide

employable skills. About 2.7% identified with all

the reasons whilst 36.4% were indifferent.

The research findings reveals that there are

factors threatening the sustainability of the

National Youth Employment Programme and also from

becoming a permanent employment agency. Notable

among these factors are inadequate funding,

inexperience managers and the absence of marketing

approaches in the management of the Programme.

120

Table 4: Reasons why some respondents think that

NYEP unsustainable

ResponseFrequen

cy

Percenta

ge

Cumulativ

e Percent

Inadequate funding 43 14.6 14.6

Lack of youth

employable skills3 1.0

15.6

Political

Interference 48 16.3

32.0

Inexperience managers

and lack of marketing

approaches

85 28.9 60.9

All above 8 2.7 63.6

no response 107 36.4 100.0

Total 294 100.0

Source: Field survey, 2012

Making the NYEP sustainable

The NYEP seeks to provide a combination of

self-employment opportunities, wage earning jobs and

voluntary service activities and are in an effort to

121

prepare them to be absorbed into the mainstream

labour market. Table 5 revealed that respondents had

suggestions as to what the Government should do to

make the NYEP sustainable. From the results

gathered, 20.1% of the respondents said that the

Programme should be resourced adequately and

beneficiaries monthly allowances should be paid

promptly. About 15.6% explained that the Programme’s

“Beneficiary Exit Plan” should be implemented to

facilitate the absorption of beneficiaries into

mainstream jobs or self employment ventures after

their tenure on the Programme. This would reduce

their dependency on their families or anybody for

their survival. About 12.9% indicated that the

Government should legalize NYEP through a

Legislative Instrument and also the Programme’s

Management should incorporate strategic marketing

concepts and principles in its operational

activities. They explained that it served as the

bases for the smooth implementation of the Programme

and achieving customer satisfaction. About 11.9%

122

suggested that the mandatory two years tenure of

beneficiaries on the Programme be extended to give

them adequate time to build on their skills and

experience. Almost 11.2% however emphasized that to

guarantee sustainability, NYEP should be managed by

qualified and experienced managers and coordinators

at all levels of implementation. Almost 10.2% of

respondents stressed that politics and political

interferences should be avoided to give the

Programme a national identity, a sure way to

achieving sustainability. Emphasizing on the above

points, 8.8% of the respondents recommended that

NYEP should be structured as an employment and youth

development agency where the youth in the country

can always adequately depend on for quality training

and practical working experience. About 6.8% of the

respondents suggested that the youth should be

involved in the Programme’s planning processes and

also in implementation of the employment modules.

Only 2.4% of the total sample size had no suggestion

123

as to how the Programme could be sustained as a

permanent employment agency.

Table 5: Suggestions on how NYEP can be made

sustainable

ResponsesFrequen

cy

Percent

age

Cumulativ

e Percent

Stop all political

interference 30 10.2 10.2

Structure organisation

into an employment &

youth development

agency

26 8.8 19.0

Use well qualified

managers 33 11.2 30.3

Extend the duration

for the youth to build

on their skills &

experience

35 11.9 42.2

124

More resources should

be made available for

the payment of monthly

allowance

59 20.1 62.2

Adoption of marketing

concepts 38 12.9 75.2

Implementing exit plans

to transit

beneficiaries into

mainstream jobs

46 15.6 90.8

Involving the youth in

developing job Modules20 6.8 97.6

No response 7 2.4 100.0

Total 294 100.0

Source: Field survey, 2012

Knowledge of any strategic marketing principles used

in managing NYEP

The marketing concept is the management process

responsible for identifying, anticipating and

satisfying customers’ (in this case the youth)

requirements profitably (CIM, 1984). The marketing

125

concept is explained by Frederick (1991) as the

way of managing a business (organisation) so that

each critical business (organisation) decision is

made with full knowledge of the impact it will have

on the customer (unemployed youth). From the

question as to whether respondents have knowledge of

any marketing principles used in managing NYEP,

Table 5 shows that out of the 294 responses 67% had

no knowledge, 32% have however been exposed to some

marketing principles during their interaction with

the Programme. Almost 1% of the respondents were

indifferent. The responses show that some level of

strategic marketing principles is being implemented

by Programme managers even though it might not be

widespread.

126

Table 6: Awareness of marketing principles used in

NYEP processes

Response

Frequenc

y Percent

Cumulative

Percent

No 197 67.0 67.0

Yes 94 32.0 99.0

no response 3 1.0 100.0

Total 294 100.0

Source: Field survey, 2012

Strategic marketing principles employed by NYEP

The respondents who have either experienced or

observed some marketing principles practiced at

NYEP, when asked to identify four principles that

they have experienced or observed, of the 714

responses in Table 6, 16.7% indicated the

identification and anticipation of customer (youth)

needs. Only 16.3% identified the involvement of

customers in the planning and implementation of the

employment modules. Almost 17.4% said they have

observed NYEP taking pragmatic steps in implementing

activities leading to the achievement of customer

127

satisfaction. About 14.2% identified the deployment

of enough resources to satisfying the customer

(unemployed youth). About 13.1% said that Programme

undertake regular youth employment needs research

and development and opportunity analysis. About 13%

indicated that Staff undergoes periodic training to

understand the needs of the unemployed youth and how

they can be satisfied. About 4.9% stressed that

Programme staff operates within a strategic

framework and timelines while 2.8% and 1.7%

concluded that employment modules are selectively

customized for targeted category of youth and the

adherence to the schedules of planed and future

programmes and activities respectfully.

The observations made from the responses are in

line with CIM (1984) definition of what Marketing

concepts and principles constitutes. It indicates

that, the Programme has the capability or it is well

positioned to practice holistic strategic marketing

concepts to enable it transform the Programme into a

sustainable employment agency.

128

Table 7: Marketing principles deployed

in NYEP

Strategic Marketing

Principles

Frequen

cy

Percent

age

Cumulati

ve

Percenta

ge

Involving the youth

in the designing and

implementation of the

job modules

117 16.3 16.3

Integrate research

and development and

opportunity analysis

in job planning

94 13.1 29.4

Identification and

anticipation of

customer (youth)

needs

120 16.7 46.1

129

Customizing job

modules for targeted

segments of youth

20 2.8 48.9

Taking pragmatic

steps to achieve

customer satisfaction

125 17.4 66.3

Training of staff to

understand the needs

of the youth

93 13.0 79.2

Medium to long term

strategic planning

and adherence to the

schedules

12 1.7 80.9

Staff should operate

within a framework

and timelines.

35 4.9 85.8

Table 7 Continued

130

Deployment of enough

resources to

satisfying the

customer (unemployed

youth).

102 14.2 100.0

Total 718 100

Source: Field survey, 2012

Suggested marketing concepts that should be deployed

Respondents who made up the population of the

study were asked to suggest any other marketing

concepts which could be used in managing the

Programme. Of the 294 responses, 15.6% explained

that the Programme should be effectively marketed to

attract donor funding and stakeholder support.

Almost 19.4% expressed the need to carryout regular

research into the needs and expectations of the

youth to enable the Programme put up employment

modules that exceed the expectation and satisfaction

of the youth. About 15% also emphasized on the

earlier observation made that the Programme should

focus on its short and long term planning objectives

131

and adhere to time schedules. Nearly 5.8% reiterated

that adequate resources should be made available for

the implementation of Programme. The remaining

43.9% which constitute 129 of the population size

made no suggestions.

With majority of the population making

suggestion on the subject imply that the youth of

the country will appreciate the adoption of

marketing concepts in the management of the

Programme.

132

Table 8: Marketing concepts suggested by

respondents

Response Frequency

Percentage

Cumulative

PercentIt should be marketed

and positioned to

attract donors and

stakeholders

46 15.6 15.6

Regular research on

needs of unemployed

youth 57 19.4 35.0

Making available

adequate resources

for programme

implementation

17 5.8 40.8

Planning for short

and long term

objectives and adhere

to time schedules

45 15.3 56.1

No response 129 43.9 100.0

Total 294 100.0

133

Source: Field survey, 2012

Importance of applying strategic marketing

principles in NYEP management

From the survey it was realized that out of the

total of 294 responses received, 253 respondents

consisting of 86.1% think it is important for

strategic marketing principles to be used in

managing the National Youth Employment Programme and

39 respondents representing 13.3% did not think it

is necessary to put in place strategic marketing

principles in managing the NYEP. Two of the

respondent did not have any suggestion to this

question. This is shown in Table 8.

Table 9: Importance of marketing principle

ResponseFrequency Percent

CumulativePercent

Yes 253 86.1 86.1

No 39 13.3 99.3

No response 2 0.7 100.0

Total 294 100.0

Source: Field survey, 2012

134

Impact of strategic marketing principles to NYEP

In assessing the impact of strategic marketing

principles as explained in the literature review,

Mintzberg (1998) defined strategy as the way in

which a firm identifies its strategic direction and

aligns its operational processes to its strategy.

Table 10 shows that 23.8% of the respondents believe

that strategic marketing will impact on NYEP by

making the Programme sustainable, 21.8% stressed

that it will inject efficiency and effectiveness

into its operations while 18% believe that it will

create good working teams between management and the

staff. About 12.6% explained that it will help the

Programme address all employment challenges facing

the youth, 8.5% and 4.4% believe that it would

enable the Programme mobilise more financial

resource and build highly skilled workforce

respectively. Nearly 10.9% were however indifferent.

135

Transformation of NYEP with strategic marketing

principles

From the responses in Table 11, majority

(44.6%) of the responses pointed out that the

adoption of strategic marketing principles in the

management of NYEP would transform the Programme

into a sustainable and competitive organisation

within its sector (Industry). About 24.1% said that

it will transform NYEP into an institution that

places importance on training of its staff and

beneficiaries. Almost 19.4% believe that it will

strengthen its planning and monitoring functions

while 7.8% believe that the operational processes

of NYEP will anticipate the needs of the youth to

facilitate decision making. These responses were

articulated by Dickson (1995) as catalogued in his

five (5) principal marketing activities that are

used to implement the marketing concepts. About 4.1%

did not respond to the survey.

136

Table 10: Impact of strategic marketing principles

to NYEP

Response Frequency

Percentage

Cumulative

Percent

Help the Programme to be

sustainable

70 23.8 23.8

Address employment

challenges facing the

youth

37 12.6 36.4

Develop and maintain the

right workforce 13 4.4 40.8

Attract more resources

for the Programme25 8.5 49.3

Operational and managerial

Efficiency 64 21.8 71.1

Creating good working

teams between the

management and other staff

53 18.0 89.1

No response 32 10.9 100.0

Total 294 100.0

Source: Field survey, 2012

137

Table 11: Transformation of NYEP with strategic

marketing

principles

Response

Frequen

cy

Percenta

ge

Cumulativ

e Percent

Transform NYEP into a

sustainable and

competitive

organisation 131 44.6 44.6

Factor the needs of

the youth in its Job

Modules designing and

implementation23 7.8 52.4

Strengthening the

planning and

monitoring functions57 19.4 71.8

Focuses on training

and development of

its staff and

beneficiary

71 24.1 95.9

No response 12 4.1 100.0

Total 294 100.0

Source: Field survey, 2012

138

Avenue for accessing resources for the programme

Out of the 294 responses majority (88.8%) had

knowledge of the funding sources available to the

Programme. About 9.9% had no idea while 1.4% were

indifferent. The responses indicates that majority

of people have some level of in-depth knowledge of

the Programme with in their communities. This is

shown in Table 12.

Table 12: Available avenue for accessing resources

Source:Fieldsurvey,

2012

139

Response Frequenc

y

Perce

nt Cumulative Percent

Yes 261 88.8 88.8

No 29 9.9 98.6

No

response4 1.4 100.0

Total 294 100.0

Sources of funding the programme

When respondents were asked to mention the

various sources of funding to NYEP, of the 294

responses, 78.6% said that the Programme was

entirely funded by the Government of Ghana. About

9.2% grants and World Bank support while fund from

NGOs constituted one percent. 10.5% however did not

respond to the survey. The response confirms

observations that majority of people have in-depth

knowledge of the Programme (Table 13).

Table 13: Sources of funding the

programme

Response Frequenc

y Percent

Cumulat

ive

Percent

Government of

Ghana231 78.6 78.6

Grants and World

Bank Support27 9.2 87.8

NGO's 5 1.7 89.5

140

Table 13 Continued

No response 31 10.5 100.0

Total 294 100.0

Source: Field survey, 2012

Alternative sources of resourcing NYEP using

marketing concepts

From Table 14, it was revealed that the

respondents had suggestions as to the alternate ways

that the marketing concept can be used to access

resources for the implementation of the NYEP. From

the results gathered 46.6% of the respondents

mentioned the involvement of private organizations

in the planning, implementation and financing of

NYEP, 15.3% of the respondents said the NYEP should

team up with youth development and job creation

organisations, 11.2% of them suggested that Job

Modules should be packaged to generated funds

internally, while 10.2% of the respondent suggest

that the Programme should be positioned in a manner

that attract support from philanthropists. About

141

8.8% of the respondents suggest funds should be

accessed from the Better Ghana Management Services

Limited. About 7.8% of the respondents had no

suggestions.

142

Table 14: Alternative sources of resourcing NYEP

using marketing

concepts

143

ResponseFrequenc

yPercentage

Cumulative Percent

Private Sector

involvement in

planning,

implementation and

financing

137 46.6 46.6

Table 14 Continued

Internally generated

funds from packaged job

modules

33 11.2 57.8

Team up with youth

development and job

creation organizations45 15.3 73.1

Position NYEP to

attract support from

Philanthropist30 10.2 83.3

Better Ghana Management

Services Limited 26 8.8 92.2

No response 23 7.8 100.0

Total 294 100.0

Source: Field survey, 2012144

Socio demographic characteristics

The socio demographic characteristics encompass

the gender, age, employment status and educational

background of various respondents.

Gender (Sex)

This examines the male to female ratio of the

respondents. From the survey, 70.7% of the

respondents where males and only 27.9% of the total

population where females these figures are clearly

illustrated in the table below. Also 1.4% of the

respondent did not state their gender in the

questionnaire administered.

Table 15: Gender of the respondents

ResponseFrequenc

y PercentCumulativePercent

Male 208 70.7 70.7

Female 82 27.9 98.6

No response 4 1.4 100.0

Total 294 100.0

Source: Field survey, 2012

145

Age groups of the respondents

The study also identified the different age

groups of the respondents. Majority of the

respondents 43.2% where within the ages of 18-25,

34.7% of the respondents where within the ages 26-

30, 17.7% of the sample lies within the ages of 31-

35, 1.7% of the respondents were within the ages of

less than 18 years, and the age range of 36-40

recorded the lowest number of respondents of 1.4%

respectively. Also four of the respondents did not

respond to this particular question in the

questionnaire. Table 16 shows the findings in

detail.

146

Table 16: Age of the respondents

ResponseFrequenc

y PercentCumulativePercent

less than 18 5 1.7 1.7

18 – 25 127 43.2 44.9

26-30 102 34.7 79.6

31-35 52 17.7 97.3

36 – 40 4 1.4 98.6

Table 16

Continued

no response 4 1.4 100.0

Total 294 100.0

Source: Field survey, 2012

Employment status of the respondents

This examines the employment status of the

respondents. The study revealed that 203 respondents

representing 69% were employees, 29 respondents

which represent 9.9% of the sample size were

unemployed and 26 of the respondents representing

8.8% were students. At the same time, 23 respondents

representing 7.8% stated that they were self

147

employed but 13 (4.4%) of the respondents did not

respond to this question on the questionnaire.

Table 17: Employment status of the respondents

Source: Field survey, 2012Educational background of the respondents

The survey show that majority of the

respondents have some form of education. 164 of the

respondents representing 55.8%, of the total sample

size were tertiary certificate holders, 67

respondents had post secondary education

representing 22.8% and 53 respondents representing

18% had SHS/Vocational/Technical education. Those

148

Response Frequency PercentCumulative Percent

Employees job 203 69.0 69.0

Self employed 23 7.8 76.9

Unemployed 29 9.9 86.7

Students

26

8.8

95.6

No response 13 4.4 100.0

Total 294 100.0

who attended elementary school where 8 respondents

representing 2.7%., 0.7% of the total population

sampled did not respond to the question. This

implies that contributions made by the respondents

were from an informed opinion.

Table 18: Educational level attained

Response

Frequen

cy

Percen

t

Cumulative

Percent

Elementary (Primary,

JHS, Middle) 8 2.7 2.7

SHS/Vocational/

Technical53 18.0 20.7

Post Secondary 67 22.8 43.5

Tertiary (University,

Polytechnic) 164 55.8 99.3

No response 2 .7 100.0

Total 294 100.0

Source: Field survey, 2012

149

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Introduction

This chapter provides the summary, conclusions

and recommendations in relation to the objectives

and research questions of the study. The chapter has

been organised into four sections. Section one deals

with the introduction, two with the summary, three

deals with conclusions and four deals with the

recommendations.

Summary of findings

The study sought to determine whether the

National Youth Employment Programme can be

transformed into a sustainable, permanent, efficient

and better funded employment agency, using a

strategic marketing approach. NYEP was launched in

October 2006 with specific target of creating five

150

hundred thousand (500,000) jobs per annum. The

available statistics presented shows that there is a

shortfall of 461,525 jobs or persons that should

have been engaged since 2006. The Programme is also

faced with a number of challenges that threaten its

sustainability and ability to fulfill its objective.

Among other challenges such as irregular flow of

funds, there is no visible and coherent strategic

marketing approach in the management of the

Programme. it was to help address these challenges

that the study was initiated.

Descriptive research design was used to collect

data to answer the research questions formulated. A

sample size of 294 was chosen from one thousand

(1,000) targeted households. Sarathakos table was

used to determine the sample size. The study also

made use of key information provided by the staff of

the District Assemblies and the National Youth

Employment Programme.

Major findings

151

Regarding research question one that sought to

find out the marketing processes being used in the

management of the National Youth Employment

Programme, revealed that some activities that can be

identified as marketing principles by the CIM (1984)

definition, were observed by respondents. Out of the

714 responses of respondents who have either

experienced or observed some marketing principles

being practiced at NYEP identified, the involvement

of the customer (unemployed youth) in the

designing, planning and implementation of job

modules. Others had also observed NYEP taking

pragmatic steps leading to the achievement of

customer satisfaction. These steps included regular

youth employment needs research and development,

opportunity analysis, periodic training of staff to

understand the needs of the youth, selectively

customizing job modules for targeted category of

the youth and finally adherence to strategic

plans, timelines and future programmes.

152

With research question two, it sought to

determine out how strategic marketing principles can

transform the National Youth Employment Programme.

It was revealed that the integration of strategic

marketing concepts in managing NYEP would transform

the Programme positively. Majority (44.6%) of the

responses pointed out it would transform the

Programme into a sustainable and competitive

organisation within its sector (Industry). About

24.1% said that it will transform NYEP into an

institution that places importance on training of

its staff and beneficiaries. Almost 19.4% believe

that it will strengthen its planning and monitoring

functions while 7.8% believe that the operational

processes of NYEP will anticipate the needs of the

youth to facilitate decision making.

It implies that NYEP can be transformed into

an organisation that emphasis on quality services,

staff and beneficiaries skills development, customer

satisfaction, research and development, revenue

generation, profitable and efficient operations.

153

Research question three sought to explore how

marketing processes would help NYEP access more

resources for a sustainable implementation of its

activities. It was revealed that the respondents had

suggestions as to the alternate ways that the

marketing concept can be used to access resources

for the implementation of the NYEP. Almost 46.6% of

the respondents mentioned the involvement of private

organizations in the planning, implementation and

financing of NYEP, 15.3% of the respondents said the

NYEP should team up with youth development and job

creation organizations, 11.2% of them suggested that

job modules should be packaged to generated funds

internally, while 10.2% of the respondents suggest

that the Programme should be positioned in a manner

that attract support from philanthropist.

Regarding research question four that sought to

identify if the National Youth Employment Programme

is sustainable under the current organizational

arrangement, it was revealed that majority, 72.1% of

the respondents believes that NYEP is not

154

sustainable without adopting a marketing strategy

approach. To make the Programme sustainable, it was

revealed that the marketing concept should be

applied in the management of the Programme. In

addition, it was also revealed that the Programme

should be well structured devoid of political

interference, covered by an Art of Parliament and

managed by qualified and experienced staff.

Conclusions

The study has assessed the National Youth

Employment Programme. It is evident from the

findings so far obtained that some levels of

strategic marketing principles even though not

significant, were identified with the Programme’s

implementation processes. For example, a number of

respondents indicated the involvement of the youth

in job modules designing, planning and

implementation processes. This implies that the

Programme staff have some level of orientation and

appreciation of marketing concept. It is also an

indication that they would be receptive to a

155

holistic implementation of strategic marketing

principles in the Programme.

Secondly, majority of the respondents indicated

that the adoption of the Strategic Marketing Concept

will have a positive impact on the Programme,

transforming it into a sustainable and competitive

organisation that satisfies its internal and

external customers or stakeholders. It implies that

efforts should be made to adopt the marketing

concept in the management of the Programme.

Furthermore, it was revealed that the key

source of financing the Programme is the Government

of Ghana. It was also revealed that the major factor

affecting the sustainability of the Programme was

inadequate funds. Alternatively, responses from the

survey suggested that the managers of the Programme

should tailor job modules to attract the private

sector and nongovernmental organisation’s support

for its activities. This implies that, the needs

of all stakeholders, including private sector

organisations will have to be identified and

156

incorporated into job modules design. Strategic

marketing approach to management is a tool that can

help NYEP satisfy stakeholders to encourage them to

support the Programme with financial and technical

assistances.

Finally, majority of respondents (86.1%)

emphasized that it was necessary for the adoption of

“strategic marketing approach to management” in NYEP

processes as it will transform it into an efficient

and a sustainable institution. This implies that

there is a gap between the current situation within

the organisationand what it could be when the

marketing concept is deliberately and fully

integrated into the processes of NYEP.

Recommendations

From the research findings, it appears that the

National Youth Employment Programme can be

transformed and sustained into a permanent efficient

employment agency. The researcher therefore makes

the following recommendations:

157

1. In view of the benefits that the entire country

derives from the National Youth Employment

Programme as a means of productive and gainful

employment for the youth and the reduction of

poverty, the Programme should be covered by an

Act of Parliament by way of the passage of a

Legislative Instrument. It will give it a legal

status and the independence to plan and

implement decision that will sustain its

operation.

2. From the research, there is the need for the

National Youth Employment Programme to

integrate strategic marketing principles in all

its functional processes. It should create and

add a marketing department to its

organisational structure. The department should

be headed by a senior management member with

the required marketing background to coordinate

all the processes. This guarantees:

158

i. The hiring of required skills,

empowering and consistent development

of well motivated workforce

ii. The staff and the entire organisational

structure works to understand and

satisfy the needs of customers; in this

case the unemployed youth and

stakeholders

iii. The involvement of the target market

(the unemployed youth, funding agencies,

service providers) in the designing and

implementing of job modules. This will

ensure that job modules are tailored to

satisfy each category

3. Creating a functional Research and Development

(R&D) unit that analyses opportunities on the

labour market such as, jobs that investors wish

to put in their capital, activities that

corporate bodies want to finance, skills

requirements of employers, and a comprehensive

159

statistics of youth unemployment in the country

etc.

4. The National Youth Employment Programme should

develop an effective brand communication plan

to position itself as a competitive institution

within the sector. This should involve:

i. Developing effective graphics and visual

representations of its activities,

ii. Using advertising, public relations, visual

identity, internet, publications, TV

documentaries, radio and various behavioural

codes of its staff to build good corporate

reputation and image that, influence the

stakeholder’s perceptions positively

iii. Communicating the positive impact of its job

modules; educating the public and all

stakeholders with respect to:

What is and is not available for them;

The criteria that govern how certain

services have to be delivered;

160

The reasons for delay in payment of

beneficiaries’ allowances and inadequate

service provision.

5. It should also involve:

i. Consistent training of its staff to put up

the right marketing oriented attitudes and

behaviour during the service encounters.

This should with the brand values that NYEP

wants to project to stakeholders and the

public,

ii. establishing an organizational culture that

supports the brand. Thus a culture that

permeates downwards from the top of the

organisation and is disseminated throughout

so that all staff understands the marketing

objectives that need to be achieved. If the

organisation wishes to be seen as a caring

one, for instance, then staffs have to adopt

a caring attitude in all aspects of their

work,

161

iii. continually improving of services to ensure

that the corporate image of the organisation

is viewed as doing its best for all

stakeholders. Continuously reviewing,

developing and enhancing services and taking

account of customers’ opinions, complaints,

comments and suggestions is an important

means of achieving this end,

iv. encourage stakeholders to understand and

appreciate that NYEP excels at doing its job

well as it is position as the employer of

choice, attract new talent and make employees

proud to be part of NYEP,

v. enhanced corporate reputation and improved

brand image,

vi. improved relations with stakeholders and

partners,

vii. improved public perception of the Public

Services,

viii. increased employee morale and productivity

and enhanced relations with communities.

162

5. NYEP should use internal marketing to

communicate brand values internally within the

organisation. In this way it can encourage

employees to understand better the corporate

identity and improve commitment, enthusiasm and

consistent staff behaviour in delivering the

organisation’s core values. Effective branding

and positioning will enable NYEP to compete for

attention, attract and retain private sector

firms and donor organisations involvement in

its activities.

6. The National Youth Employment Programme should

be devoid of politics and political

interference. Youth unemployment is a National

and Global issue. The adverse effect to any

nation when it is not managed properly is

catastrophic. A typical example is the “Arab

Spring” which has resulted in civil wars and

the overthrow of the Presidents of Tunisia,

Egypt, Libya and Yemen in 2011. It becomes

more dangerous to any Nation when Employment

163

Programmes are managed by Political Party

sympathizers, party executives or what has

become known as “Party Foot Soldiers”. De-

politicization should ensure the independence,

efficient management, adequate funded and

sustainable organization.

7. To enhance efficient monitoring and prompt

payment of beneficiaries’ allowances, NYEP

should invest in appropriate database ICT

Infrastructure to monitor and track the needs,

performances, payment of beneficiaries’

allowances, and any complains for prompt

redress. Efficient management of the database

could direct decisions on the career

development of beneficiaries, eliminate ghost

names from payroll and fraudulent practices.

8. From the survey, it is obvious that the

Programme needs to review its existing

financing frame work and begin to consider

other funding alternatives such “Internal

Generated Funds”. This can be done by

164

redesigning job modules that can attract

privates and better funded International NGOs

such as UNDP, USAID, SNV, JICA and GTZ who are

already implementing youth empowerment and

alternative livelihood programmes in the

country

9. Achieving absolute satisfaction among targeted

youth and funding agencies should be the goal

of every member of the organisation from the

cleaner to the Chief Executive Officer

Suggestions for future studies

Future studies should be undertaken in other

communities in the other regions that were not

covered in the research. Areas to be covered

include:

1. The socio-economic impact and assessment of the

National Youth Employment Programme to National

Development.

2. The role of Integrated Brand Communication in

Positioning NYEP as an apex agency, building

linkages and coordinating all other youth

165

employment and skill development activities and

organizations in Ghana.

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APPENDIX

CENTRAL UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

Interview Schedule for youth in the Sub Metro or

Districts in the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Tema

Metropolitan Assembly, Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly

and Tamale Metropolitan Assembly

Dear Respondents, Selasi Seth Attipoe-Fittz is a

final year MBA Marketing Student of the Central

University College, Ghana. He is carrying out this

study in partial fulfillment of the requirement for

the award of a Master’s Business Administration

degree in Marketing. The purpose is to determine how

the National Youth Employment Programme could be

transformed into a sustainable employment agency

using strategic marketing concepts.

I shall be grateful if you would complete the

interview schedule to the best of your ability. Your

confidentiality is fully assured as the results are

only for academic purpose.

Thank you in advance for your co-operation and

understanding.

Please Note:

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“The marketing concept is the management process

responsible for identifying, anticipating and

satisfying customers’ (in this case the youth)

requirements profitably (CIM, 1984). The marketing

concept is explained by Frederick, (1991) as the

way of managing a business (organization) so that

each critical business (organization) decision is

made with full knowledge of the impact it will have

on the customer (unemployed youth).”

Section ‘A’ Transforming the National Youth

Employment Programme into Sustainable Agency

Sustainability of the National Youth Employment Programme

1. Are you a beneficiary of the National Youth

Employment Programme in Ghana?

(a) Yes (b) No.

2. If Yes to 1 above, in which way do you benefit

from the Programme?

(a) Received monthly Allowance (b) Skills

development,

(c) Further education package (d) share

experience with others

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(e) Learn organizational working culture

(f) Others, please specify

…………………………………………………………………………………

3. Do you think the Programme is sustainable enough

to meet the needs and wants of the youth in the

community?

(a) Yes (b) No.

4. If No to Q3 what do you think is the main

reasons?

(a) Inadequate funding from donors and government

(b) Lack of youth employable skills

(c) Inexperience programme managers

(d) Lack of strategic marketing concepts and

principles

(e) Others please specify………………

5. What do you think should be done to make the

Programme Sustainable?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………..

Strategic Marketing used in running and managing the

Programme

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6. Do you know of any strategic marketing principles

used in the running and managing of the Programme?

(a) Yes (b) No

7. If Yes to 6 above, identify four (4) Strategic

Marketing Principles

Strategic Marketing Principles

Please Thick

HereCustomer (Youth ) involvement in the processes of development and implementation of the employment modules Customer (Youth) and environmental research and development and Opportunity Analysis Identification and anticipation of customer ( unemployed youth) needs Designing and customizing employment modules for selectively targeted category of youth Implementations of Pragmatic steps or programmes to achieve customer satisfaction Periodic training of Staff to understand the needs of the customer ( unemployed youth) and how they can be satisfied Planning programmes and activitiesto be carried out in future and adherence to the schedules Management staff operating within astrategic framework and timelines Deployment of enough resources to satisfying the customer (unemployedyouth)

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8. Suggest any strategic marketing principles that

should be used in the running and managing the

Programme?

………………………………………………………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………

9. Do you think is necessary and important for

strategic marketing principles to be used in running

and managing the NYEP in Ghana?

(a) Yes (b) No

10. If Yes to 9 above,

Why……………………………………………………………………….

11. How in your view could strategic marketing

transform NYEP to become in Ghana

………………………….……………………………………………………….

………………………….……………………………………………………….

………………………….……………………………………………………….

………………………….……………………………………………………….

Available avenues for accessing resources for the implementation

of NYEP

12. Do you know of any available avenue for

accessing resources for the implementation of NYEP?

(a) Yes (b) No

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13. If Yes to Q12 above, mention

them…………………………………………………………………….………………………………….

……………………………………………………….

………………………….……………………………………………………….

………………………….……………………………………………………….

14. If No to Q12 above, suggest any avenue that

can use for accessing resources for the

implementation of NYEP

………………………….……………………………………………………….

………………………….……………………………………………………….

………………………….……………………………………………………….

………………………….……………………………………………………….

15. What in your view are the alternative ways of

accessing resources for the implementation of NYEP

apart from Government and donor support?

………………………….……………………………………………………….

………………………….……………………………………………………….

………………………….……………………………………………………….

………………………….……………………………………………………….

………………………….……………………………………………………….

Section ‘B’ Personal Data

16. Gender (a) Male (b) Female

17. Age…………………………………………………………

18. Employment Status 187

(a) Employees job (b) Self employed

(c) Unemployed (d) Others,………

19. Educational Level Attained, Tick(a) Elementary( Primary, JHS,

Middle)(b)SHS/Vocational/Technical(c)Post Secondary(d) Tertiary( University,

Polytechnic)

(e) Others, please

specify…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

……

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