Managing Brand Crisis: Ghana’s Political Scene, Nature of Political Brand Crisis

Crisis could emanate from different perspectives – at corporate level, churches, schools, NGOs, enterprises like CEO of KAMA Group of companies. Political brand crisis occurs when anarchy, loss of power to other political party, even after internal elections. Typically, ‘political brand infidelity’ (which will be discussed in my next article) results in switching of allegiance to other side creating political brand crisis. A case example is the breakaway of Former First Lady – Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to form her own party, Mr Obed Asamoah former party Chairman of the NDC also formed his own party the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) in 2006. Mr Paul Afoko’s indefinite suspension by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in 2015 based on accusation of been a hindrance to Nana Addo’s bid to secure the presidency created brand crisis within the NPP.
Recent events also log of big figures like Mr Alan Kyeremateng (Alan Cash) – former Minister of Trade and Industry, Nana Ohene Ntow – former General Secretary and others of NPP switched their political brand loyalty to form the Movement for Change. Back in December 2023, the General Secretary of the Convention Peoples Party – Nana Yaa Jantuah’s resignation led to the dissolution of the party’s leadership with sort of brought instability and brand crisis.
Just few weeks to the elections, Honourable Madam Akua Donkor, the flagbearer of Ghana Freedom Party (GFP) sadly passed away. This demise has engulfed the GFP with a huge brand crisis. Although the constitution of the Republic offers dispensation to parties in such crisis to renominate another candidate of which Roman Fada has been duly elected by the party to that effect. Nonetheless, the GFP comparatively suffers from the “liability of newness” – they lack legitimacy, trust, confidence and support base of the voting populace; and “liability of smallness” – a small political party with minimal resources, and small voter base. With these limitations it would have been a daunting task if the Electoral Commission (EC) did not disqualify his nomination due to errors recorded on his form to mitigate the brand crisis. I see it to be as if ‘chasing after the wind’ per the political terrain with two dominant forces, the NPP and NDC that I refer to as “Hedges of Impediment” having managed to stifle other political parties to oblivion.
Consequences of political brand crisis
Crisis has the potential to affect the brand value sometimes referred to as brand mantra, brand culture which is the ‘guiding angel’ that governs, directs, and represents what the brand stands for. Every political party outlines its values and when crisis hits it the fundamentals of the party is shaken, hence, supporters, voters and relevant stakeholders stand to question the true ideology of the party and whether its worth still align with it. Research has however showed that if the crisis is not related to the brand values of the political party, it might escape such negative consequences but still there remains a problem to resolve. For instance, when the NPP suspended Mr Afoko, although troublesome as it may be at the time, the party went ahead to win the 2016 elections. During the internal strife of the NDC, former President J. J. Rawlings the founding patriarch of the party was seen as creating upheaval in the party with some utterances – “babies with sharp teeth”. As published by ModernGhana.Com on Monday 4 June 2012, Mr Okudzeto Ablakwa the then Deputy Minister of Information highlighted: “I get the impression that everybody is tired of Rawlings and his unnecessary distractions and criticisms of the government”. Although the tension elevated to boiling point the party went ahead to win the 2012 elections.
Nonetheless, the 2016 elections were different with J.J. Rawlings hugely critical of and refused to campaign for John Mahama the sitting president saw the party lost the elections by over a million votes. One could argue the ‘Rawlings effect’ played a key role as the party had not addressed the brand crisis it faced at the time. Moreover, ‘Dumsor’, besides, corruption allegations which were major setbacks also contaminated the brand identity of the NDC.
However, the case of Fomena in 2020 parliamentary elections was not that different when the current Second Deputy Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament, Honourable Andrews Amoako Asiamah contested and won as independent candidate against his original party, the NPP, due to internal party impasse although NPP won the presidential in the constituency. Subsequently, NPP had to reconcile with Honourable Asiamah to have majority and for smooth business transactions in parliament.
Overcoming political brand crisis
It takes less efforts and resources to retain existing members/ supporters than attracting new ones, so it is imperative to advance the course to address or alleviate any political brand crisis. The following discusses some of the avenues to manage such crisis.
Credibility – NPP had to reconcile with Hon Amoako Asiamah to continue to project its brand identity and have even allowed him to contest on the party’s ticket these coming elections. Hon Amoako has credibility in the constituency which the NPP believe leveraging on it would help secure victory in Fomena. Brand credibility is critical to survival and growth as numerous studies have found. Comparably, NPP might not put forward a candidate with higher degree of credibility to overturn Hon Amoako’s majority. NDC has since 2018 reconciled with Dr. Obed Asamoah, Goosie Tanoh among others to solidify its supporter base, experience, and resource capabilities to win the 2024 elections. GFP might have struggled with credibility issues with its new leader – Roman Fada. He is quite new in the political circles, the voting public do not know what he represented, capable of offering, hence, will be very difficult to switch from NPP or NDC to his camp, except divine intervention. Moreover, building credibility for a political brand requires significant amount of time, energy, and resources which Roman Fada has not had that luxury of time to exploit.
Trust – critical to survival and growth of political brands during crisis is trust that encapsulates the brand’s values and personality. J. J. Rawlings attested to this as he remarked that: “Our general negativity, impunity, disrespect, and corruption was taking us further and further downhill. We had lost so much goodwill…. If we all don’t do some careful introspection and openly show remorse for the betrayal of the people’s trust, we might not recover in time for the next election” when the NDC lost the 2016 elections overwhelmingly (source: Voanews.com 7 January 2017).
Voters expect their political parties to honour what they promise to offer for continuous support and allegiance. Despite NPP taking a strong stance to suspend Mr Afoko and other leading figures, the party went ahead to win the 2016 elections. The brand presented a strong credible case as better choice to manage the affairs of the country with promises covering 1D1F, 1D1Ambulance, 1D-$1m, Free SHS, Planting for Food, better solutions to end the then ‘dumsor’ and host of others. This moved the brand from a mere point of parity to point of difference as voters and other stakeholders found them to be trustworthy enough to settle on them. Drawing GFP into the discussion, Roman Fada would have struggled to build trust and confidence in the public to win their support. Thus, how he represented was not clear to the public and leadership competences as such might negatively affected his bid. Our (Dr Kusi, Prof Gabrielsson and Baumgarth) recent research established that experience is a catalyst to brand performance which is seen as integral to managing political brand crisis.
Resources: this comes in varying forms. Major resources required to address political brand crisis is finances (money – ‘kudi’). GFP might lacked strong financial resources to pursue its agenda. With the founder Madam Akua Donkor no more in the scene it is yet to be seen if the flow of financial resources will continue to push the party forward. Social media presence, TV, radio, newspaper adverts that will attract nationwide coverage demands financial resources which Roman Fada might have struggled in that perspective.
Human resources are another greatest asset political brands require for survival and growth especially during crisis management. The ‘Hedges of Impediment’ – the NPP and NDC have solid communication team: district, regional, and abroad beside brand ambassadors to defend, disseminate and uphold in higher esteem the brand identity. I see the Hedges of Impediment as dividing walls of resistance that has helped them to manage serious and multifaceted brand crisis since Ghana returned to democratic dispensation. For instance, Sammy Gyamfi, and Miracle Aboagye of NDC and NPP respectively have strong power of persuasion. Words dropping from their mouths can even persuade those on the Sahara Desert to exchange their last drop of water for sand, sun and scirocco wind. Sammy Gyamfi is defending His Excellency John Mahama on strengthening Free SHS if the NDC comes back to power although he said it was a scam – “419”, impossible to implement when Nana Addo proposed it during the 2016 election campaign. Similarly, Miracle Aboagye is strongly defending His Excellency Dr Bawumia’s record as better option to continue running the country although some say the contrary. In fact, they position themselves as Man of La Mancha – 1965 Broadway Musical will put it: “To reach the unreachable star, fight the unbeatable foe, to run where the brave dares not to go, right the unforgivable wrong”.

Source: Dr Samuel Kusi is Assistant Professor of Marketing @ University of Bradford – UK