Member Exclusive: Ghana's SMEs are disrupting traditional marketing

Small and medium enterprises form the backbone of Ghana’s economy, contributing 70% of GDP and employing 85% of the workforce. The Ghana Statistical Services estimate that there are 1.2 million SME’s in the formal and informal sector in the country.  In this competitive landscape where differentiation is critical yet resources are constrained, Ghanaian businesses are pioneering innovative marketing approaches tailored to local realities.  

Limited budgets and staffing challenges have led entrepreneurs to experiment with emerging strategies, sometimes testing ethical boundaries but ultimately refining these methods to align with Ghana’s unique socio-cultural context. This dynamic process of trial, error and adaptation is transforming global trends into distinctly Ghanaian marketing solutions. 

Brands are redefining marketing methods

Brands are rewriting traditional marketing playbooks, though this rapid evolution brings its own challenges including ethical dilemmas, measurement difficulties and the need for cultural sensitivity. Whether through innovative uses of mobile money as loyalty programs, the cash-for-social-media influencer phenomenon, hyper-localised experiential marketing through pop-up activations. Or incorporating Twi (local language) slang into influencer campaigns, these creative adaptations demonstrate a market that’s coming of age on its own terms. The critical question remains who is executing these approaches with adequate skill to identify which of these experimental approaches will become established best practices and which will prove unsustainable.