ASSESSING THE EFFICACY OF THE USE OF BRAND AMBASSADORS IN THE PROMOTION OF BANKING SERVICES IN GHANA

ABSTRACT In today’s hypercompetitive environment, more and more firms, outside the heavy, traditional marketing, Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry, are investing heavily in developing and executing marketing programs to win in the marketplace. In the Ghanaian banking sector, diversity, development, and intense competition have seen many banks developing different strategies, such as employing brand ambassadors to reach their customers, deliver their services, and maintain longlasting relationships with them. However, not much has been done by way of understanding and exploring these strategies. This study, then, serves as a reference point for this gap by assessesing the efficacy of using brand ambassadors in the promotion of banking services in Ghana. The research questions this study addressed include: a) How do banks employ brand ambassadors within their marketing mix? b) Do brand ambassadors contribute significantly to the success or otherwise, of the promotion of banking services in Ghana? c) Are there any opportunities to improve the impact of brand ambassadors in the marketing of banking products/services? If there are, how can banks do this? To address these questions, three banks in Ghana were studied; GCB Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and Cal Bank. This was augmented with an online consumer study convering 356 respondents. The findings, which were analysed using the market-based brand assets theory and the CBBE model, revealed the importance of the use of brand ambassadors in the promotion of banking services in Ghana. The findings revealed that bank employees are inevitably brand ambassadors. The study also revealed that the use of brand ambassadors in the Ghanaian banking sector has a huge potential to grow and become an important marketing tool for banks to use.