Savings

little drops of water........................................................................

The spirit of saving is one important discipline that a parent can instil in themselves and their children. Having money and doing humanitarian activities is good, but without savings, it is a very irresponsible practice that could have grave consequences.

Imagine what will happen to the rich philanthropist who is all along engaged in humanitarian activities but saves nothing for the future, and all of a sudden collapsed and  failed to get back to his feet again or passed away?

Death is a journey we cannot run away from. As some people die at a very young age, others live to their old age, whiles others die at birth.

In any case our scriptures have stated that: it is appointed on to man to die once, and after death there will be judgement. In other verses, it stated that “Each soul shall taste death”. One thing we must therefore keep remembering is the fact that death does not sound warning when it is coming.

One doesn’t really need to be sick before death visits him or her. It is a matter of death visiting you when it is your time, not adding a minute more or less. It could happen through accidents, sicknesses or just when you retire to bed.

As to how ready you are to meet your maker is between you and Him. But how have you prepared your children to meet the challenges of the unknown future is a question that all parents must ask themselves often. As long as they live, it is a core duty of good parents to prepare their children for a better future.

Some of these kids are orphaned while they are just foetus in the womb of their mothers, whiles others get lucky to enjoy parental warmth and care for some years. But with death lurking around, waiting to pounce on us at any time, the legitimate question to ask here is if we have indeed planned for our children.

We cannot say that some of our mothers are financially sound to take up the sole responsibility of looking after their children. This is because most of our fathers keep some of our mothers as “housewives”, thus not allowing them to work so as to help with the upkeep of the family. Only few men see the importance of giving their wives capital to start small businesses of their own so as to become financially stable, or even to give their daughters education to help them have better future.

Even in the scenario I have just mentioned above, death could lay its cold hands on both parents, leaving their offspring as orphans. How they live the remaining of their life is left in the hands of their Creator.

Some orphans get lucky to be taken care of by their maternal or paternal family members, who take this responsibility in addition to their own responsibilities of caring for their nuclear family, in spite of the harsh economic situation of our world today. Although most of them can hardly keep up with the new additional responsibilities they have taken, they struggle to do their best under the circumstances. But in the cases where some parents have insured the lives of their children, it eases the burden on the one taking such a huge responsibility.

Great men have fallen, leaving their off-springs to suffer to make ends meet in their day to day lives. This is because they only lived for today, forgetting that life must also include the future. Some of the children they leave behind end up in different kinds of vices, not really what every parent might have foreseen for their children.

It isn’t all orphans who get lucky to be adopted by benevolent spirits. Some of these persons (fathers’ friends or relatives) come to the funeral grounds and make a lot of promises to the dead, but once they are lowered into the graves the kids are left to their fate. What they do with their lives is literally nobody’s business.

I have never attended any funeral in my life, but this time around, my own class mate and brother lost his dad and I promised I will be there. Indeed I was able to keep my promise because I got there very early and took my seat among the mourners. No sooner had the ceremony began. The pastor gave his sermons and reminded the people of death as an ending for each one of us. It was time for people to pay their last respect to the dead and everyone in the congregation went and came back crying. I was still seated and kept watching. The collection of offertory was done, and after that, the pastor called the man’s three children, and lined them up. He told the people gathered there that the man was gone, and had left the three innocent kids, who have no idea of what to expect in life. He spoke at length and was able to convince the people there to each donate money for the upkeep of the children, at least, until their mother completed widowhood period. But one thing the man did that made me so happy and proud was even before his death, he had built a house for his family. So I said to myself: These lucky kids have a place to sleep. What is left is their school fees and feeding fee.

These issues have made me very emotional, especially when it involves kids who become orphans by fate. When one loses a parent and has no one to fall unto, the path ahead becomes gloomy and murky, full of uncertainty. Most orphans have ended up in alleys of vices of prostitution, armed robbery, drugs and many others. If life hasn’t been so harsh on make them orphans, their parents would have given them a better life for them to be useful to their nation and people.

That is why I’m pleading with parents and urging them to take seriously the issue of saving money and insuring their children educationally. It is very important to learn to insure the lives of these kids we bring forth to the world right from the beginning. Perhaps this must begin as early as at the time you even decide to start a family by saving to ensure the life of your kids. Insuring the lives of our children with as small amount of just 20 Ghana Cedi a month will not take anything significant from our monthly earnings, although its effect would be very huge advantage in the unforeseeable future, as insurance for the children, unto which they can fall for their education and upbringing.

Some of our parents might think that they have enough properties that can take care of their children once the unfortunate happens. What we do not realise or failed to understand is when we die and we are no more around to make sure our families are treated well.

Let me try here to draw a scenario of what some families go through after their bread winners are dead.

Your wife and children are thrown out of the house you proudly owned after years of toiling and struggling to build it during your lifetime. More painfully, the little money they might be living on is also taken away from them. Some uneducated or less educated mothers who do not know their rights will not seek redress, neither at the police nor at the court of law. Those who know their rights may not have money for the court. Even if they do, they’ll have to use all or most of it to pay for the services of a lawyer only to be frustrated by the bureaucracy of receiving justice in our country.

In situations where they are able to retrieve what is rightfully theirs, the family members might have stolen or misappropriated a chunk of the property if not all almost all of it. This means there will be nothing substantial left to be able to cater for them for the kind of future they would have wished for themselves. They will have to struggle throughout life to develop themselves into successful individuals, and this rarely happens to only the lucky ones.

These are just some few instances that one should expect his family to face when he is dead in our society. There is nothing one can do, absolutely nothing, in these circumstances, to defend your children and wife. But with good savings of money in the names of these children in the form of insurance, coupled with the spirit of responsibility one instils in them, one can be assured of a good life for his/her children in the future.

Because of my Islamic religious background, I’d like to refer here to the principle of inheritance according to the teachings of my religion. The inheritance procedure reserves for the deceased’s living spouse, children and parents greater portion of his/her properties and wealth. Although some of the family members of this faith respect the law stated above, others do not. You would surprisingly hear some of the latter group sarcastically saying they are ready to take the worst from God on the judgement day.

Like the Muslim faith, Christianity also promotes a will so relatives and children can have what is rightfully theirs. But only few from the followers of these two great heavenly religions adhere strictly to have their will written before they die. For soon after death has laid its cold hands on the family head or breadwinner, you see a hitherto very happy nuclear family later shattered and dispersed into oblivion because of this negligence not having a written will, forcing the children of the deceased to become a shadow of their past.

Suffering from deep grief of losing a dear spouse, coupled with the harsh treatment being meted out to the widow and her children who have been “robbed” of any valuable thing that would have sustained them in their long road to survival, the widows eat their heart away in grief and sorrow, gradually dying from this heartache and leaving their children totally orphaned with grim future.

Therefore, it is my humble plea that parents upholds the culture of saving for their children and also instil this culture in their off-springs.

Below are two pathetic stories about how death can bring misery to a happy family. Once upon a time, a man lived a life of affluence. He was always there for his family and community. His belief was that education was very important and therefore takes the initiative of educating his children well, supporting those who are interested in higher education to go as high as they can, while assisting those who are less interested in education to learn a vocation.

He acquired vast properties, but as human as we are, death is not one of our shortest term goal. No one actually plans for death, so when the elephant falls, everyone at the scene gets a sharp knife to cut a share of the huge flesh.

Another story is about a young woman who lost her husband. Shocking, the relatives of the husband asked her to pack and go back to her father’s house because her mission is accomplished after the stipulated period of mourning her dead husband. 

I plead with all parents to embrace and adopt the culture of saving, not just for their own sake but for also the sake of their children. My mum always has this to say: “Death has no age. It comes for everyone irrespective of age, and when it is coming it doesn’t sound the alarm bell. The Holy Scriptures say: Like a thief, death comes to steal what we hold very dear to our hearts.

Let us learn to save

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Nudity is Sacred

Painting by Elaine Kantar Williams 

Dear Sanda,

Before I start running my mouth on this issue, I want to believe you are doing well. Each one of us comes from different homes, and obviously our lives will never be the same, judging from the different upbringing and the different environments we find ourselves.

The topic that has caught my attention is about Nudity. Nudity can be explained as a state of not wearing a dress. What is called nudity varies from cultures, each culture is different from the other, but as Africans or Ghanaians, we have great reverence for our nudeness, nudity is sacred and so therefore the notion of protecting it.

African women in general are a group that have so much respect for their nudity and do not expose it so often, except when they are with their husbands, when they are in labour, or are about taking their bath.

Having that at the back of my mind, I pray all those who read this piece will not find faults in my complaints but give the issue a very critical look and advice themselves as women and men alike. We might have sisters who might have being culprits, or it is our daughters doing it.

I was speaking to a colleague on campus who was completely against sharing nude pictures of any kind, he said, even if the individual is your husband and you have kids with him, it’s just not right to share nude picture, adding that what will happen if the phone gets stolen?

My friend traveled to the Middle East not long ago, and the first batch of complaints he had about his roommates was that the young man was receiving nude pictures and videos of his girlfriend from Ghana, yes you read it right. Some of our sisters send nude videos and pictures of themselves to their boyfriends because they have being promised marriage or something else; I have no idea, probably money.

The young man indeed complained, probably he got to see the pictures and videos too, but being the responsible man that he was, he did not encourage his friend to show the young lady’s picture amid their circle of friends.

Indeed as young women and men, our desires and prayers is to get married to good men or women who will take care of us, and together create a very strong bond and start producing our own children. That is almost every average girl’s dreams-- to be successful and finally end up with a responsible man.

I believe entirely, that any man who really loves you and wants to make you his wife will not demand sex from you because after everything, you will finally become his wife, so no need to rush into getting into your panties, vis-à-vis, any man who demands you to send him nude videos or pictures of you does not have the best interest of you at heart.

Far from that, what assurance do you have that he will see the video or pictures alone? Or even if he does watch them alone, what assurance will you have that his friends will not try to steal the phone just to have a look at your pictures.

More often than not, each of us date a man and we believe that our future and fortunes are with them and so therefore we will do everything to make that relationship work, as my friend will tell you, even on the day of the marriage ceremony, the marriage can be called off and you guys may never even reach that process of being called husband to be or wife to be, than to be called husband and wife.

What next, he might have already seen your nudeness and will go ahead to marry the supposed “good girl” or will even tell you that his mother has given him a wife and there is nothing he can do.

Will that video or picture you sent him still be in safe hands? What is the assurance that the next friend who sees it will not upload it to YouTube? Or put the pictures on photo bucket? Or even Instagram.

We are not perfect and might have made many mistakes, we would wish to correct, but that is why we humans and always ask God to forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.

My friend just didn't understand why a beautiful young woman with a great future may behave in that fashion, but I want to believe and understand that it was a sphere of a moment decision which will not repeat itself no matter the situation.

And to these young men who demand nude videos of our sisters, you should not forget that you have sisters, and somewhere in the near future will be fathering daughters; will you be okay to see your daughters or sister sharing their nude pictures with some random guy who has promised them the heavens and the earth?

A heaven and earth which he is most likely to draw the carpet from under their feet or keep his word without trusting her?

I plead with my sisters that a good man who loves you dearly will not need your nudity for anything because he knows in the long run, you will be his wife.

As I stated in my earlier comments, we are all humans and might have done lots of mistakes in the last few years. Does it mean we won’t get our maker’s forgiveness, of course we will when we return to him with repentance and submission, but not to repeat the same mistakes again.

I will end by remembering our brothers that you might think she is a cheap girl who you have at your disposal and can have at your beck and call. Just remember that certain things are mysterious, God is watching you, you may not have sisters today, but you will have daughters in the future.

Just before I go, did any of you read the news making rounds that a young man had placed nude pictures of his girlfriend on Facebook because she broke up with him? That is just by the way, do enjoy your day.

God bless our homeland Ghana and make our men and women more responsible towards each other.
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My Genuine Concerns

Dear Sanda,

I don’t know why am not surprised at what has become a habit of most pedestrians, and if the security agencies have come to notice it yet, if not I advise them to kindly  take their time to observe the disrespect most Ghanaian drivers have for the laws of our country . I dare not say we might end up becoming a lawless country with no respect for rules and regulations.

I might be the one raising the issue, but most of us might have experienced this somewhere, somehow or were the culprits in that situation. It could also be that we did witness it while it happened and overlooked it because it doesn’t concern us. Normally with expressions like, “it is not for me but for the government of Ghana”.

I  have an issue with how some drivers and conductors have made themselves masters of the road and thoughtlessly increase transportation fare when it suits them, and again the Ghanaian attitude of lets live it to God comes to play “it is nothing, live it to God”. 

Again to the issue of how conductors disrespect passengers with the other passengers looking on, unperturbed, the most annoying thing among all this is when they look on without defending you, instead of keeping quiet, they rather support the conductor to take any amount he wants from you and ask you to even alight when you decide you will not pay.

It has become a habit of us and its literally part of us, my friend told me a story of what happened to him when he sat in a bus heading from Madina to Ashaley Botwe, School Junction. My friend was heading to Botwe but there was a woman who sat in the car with her little children and her luggage which were too much on her, and he witnessed when the mate loaded the car and said he was going to School junction. With that in mind the woman sat in the car with her children and belongings.

After the woman sat in the bus and the bus took off, the conductor said he was no more going to School junction but Botwe. My friend said he was so angry that he didn’t know what to do, it has been a recurring habit of conductors to get people for their bus and later deny saying they were going to the destination they mentioned. He told the conductor that since he said he was going to School Junction, he had to drop him and the woman there.

Just then the passengers in the car started complaining that “he” the young man had no business in the issue so why should he make it his problem.

My friend was surprised at the attitude of the people, this is a woman who was in the bus with her luggage and kids and the conductor wants to drop her in the middle of nowhere because the people in the bus have decided to overlook the issue because it doesn’t concern them.

He insisted that he was going to School junction and therefore the conductor and his driver must drive him and the woman to the place. The driver seeing how insistent my friend looked didn’t have a choice than to drive them to School junction.

 After which he helped the woman get her luggage and kids off the bus, when he was sure she was safe, he took a different car back to Botwe.

IT’S CALLED A BUS STOP

Numerous bus stops have been provided on the streets in almost every part of the country, some are so wide and big enough with the indication BUS STOP.

My understanding of the word BUS STOP does not make it a place where cars are to park, because they could have written a CAR PARK but they didn’t. Neither is it a place for selling, but a place where a car will stop at an instant and allow passengers to alight and move to the next bus top.

Well that is my understanding, except the experts see it differently. The police headquarters is the hub  of the POLICE, it’s called the police headquarters(HQ) because it is where all affairs of the police is relayed, but trotro’s have since time immemorial showed gross disrespect to the building .

The HQ is the junction I always alight before I walk school, except in days when I feel richer, I use the Ghana Commercial Bank taxi park which picks student to the Ghana Institute of Journalism and it charges per head.

My problem with the trotro’s and some of the passengers they pick is that, once they get to the Police HQ traffic light, and the red light is on, the Conductor (mate) will get down and ask passengers alighting at HQ to drop in the middle of the road, not caring it is in the middle of the road and anything could happen, most especially that the HQ is facing them right in the face.

The situation is so bad that they do it even when police officers are in the car. Well I don’t see how you can blame them when some of the police officers who are supposed to be the custodians of the law alight in the traffic and cross when the bus stop is just a stone throw from the traffic light.

I just have always thought why that will happen, because if you intend displaying your total disregard for the law, you could do it anywhere but in front of the police headquarters is like standing in the lion’s den and expecting it to live you.

It is really very appalling to see Ghanaians show unpatriotic attitude towards things that belong to the government, with words like it is not for my father or mother so I don’t really care what happens to it, it isn’t for your mother or father but your tax payers money paid for every bit of it so it is yours and you have every right to protect it like it was in your name.

ARE MOTOR CYCLES NOT PART OF TRAFFIC REGULATIONS

It’s just a question that have being in my mind for a very very long time, reason because, if cars stop because the traffic lights are on, the motor cycle drivers will not stop at all, instead you see them driving away, and at certain times hurting a pedestrian who is about crossing the road because the traffic lights are supposed to be on.

If you have used the Karprise road for a number of times, then you will agree with me better, once I left home to go plait my hair in town, my mum knew I was going to Newtown but then, a motor cycle rider came from nowhere and nearly hit me with his bike, even though the traffic lights was on, it was just by grace that I escaped unhurt. I got so angry and just couldn’t understand my bad luck.

I once witnessed a police raid on my way to Ghanaian times, and after I got back to interview the riders, one just told me “when they come for us, they will only waste our time like two or three hours and take like 30gh cedis from you and let you go”.

That was when I realized that some of the police officers are not helping the service, after taking single spine, you still take bribe and will not let some group of people respect the service which has its motor as service with integrity.

Well I think the police should be up and running these days, if you are caught doing what they call the Okada business, you should go to jail. From my point of view, we don’t need to end up like some African countries.

In ending my complaints, or let me just label it my genuine concerns, I believe its high time each Ghanaian learns to be patriotic, and take responsibility of reporting anyone  seen breaking any law at any point in time, you are a stake holder, I am a stake holder, everything we do counts.

Just before I go, what is happening in adding subjects like “patriotism” to our junior siblings in the primary school? Indeed we need patriotic citizens and the children have to be instilled with that from the primary school. Y3 Oman ba pa.

A new artist on the block

some of the paintings on display at the event

  

 He goes by the name of Musah Swallah popularly known as Moses, coming from a humble background, he rose from hardships to become an artist.  He specializes in oil paintings and, sand and wood sculpture.

Starting his high school education in the heart of Accra, he attended Adab Islamic Mission School in Nima-Accra. From there, he continued to La-Presec where he studied Visual Arts and completed in 2006.

He began sketching in Junior High School after which he continued to do visual arts in secondary school.

As his friends put it, “he helped us with our visual art drawings and pre- technical skills in class”.

Musah explained that most of his colleagues entered different fields to pursue their childhood dreams, as faith will have it, Musah also did not give up on his childhood dreams of becoming a great artist one day.

"I remember my collegues, Mumin Saeed who was a very good mathematician, the young man worked his way through life and is now an accountant doing his national service in one of the reputable firms in Accra. Dangaskiya Ventures Limited".

With Musah Swallah, he distinguished himself with the very things he knew he was good at, painting.

One of the paintings on display at the Goathe Institute is a narration of  three friends who travelled to Libya to seek greener pastures. The whole idea behind this painting is based on the story of the friends he grew up with in Nima. Musah describes their deaths as tragic, the first one  travelled via the Sahara desert to enter Libya in 2005 in search of greener pastures, he succeeded and after a few years of work, decided to continue to Europe to seek greener pastures.

Musah, however, added that his close friend was among the people who died in the boat accidents, ‘and he was only 17’, Musah Laments.

Another two took the same route in search of greener pastures in Libya, and a different faith befell them, they all died, from the reports I heard “they died from hunger and thirst on the Sahara Desert”, that was also in 2006., that was the same year I completed my senior high school, Musah adds.

The talented artist had also nursed dreams to embark on a Libyan trip, but the horrifying tales from friends did not help matters.

“I did a series of how Africans travelled by boat abroad, I was able to produce 22 artworks which were all sketches”, after I asked where he had kept the sketches, Musah said he has no idea where he kept his early creations.

When asked if he can re-produce the art work he did, he just smiled and said “hmmmmmmm, I can reproduce some, if you need it”.

He draws his inspiration from stories of people around him, what they do and how they live, “and am always learning from people who came before me”, he disclosed.

 Some of his famous paintings to be put on display include By Road, On the Way Which Is Painted on Glass, Morocco to Spain, Libya to Italy, I Also Have Lost, No Hope, and many more.

The Nima-born artist was mentored by two art guru’s right after Senior high school. ‘I can never forget of Mozzay and Akirash’ he added.

He belongs to a society called the Nima Muhinmachi Club (NMA) which was formed in 2011, the aim of the group is to teach kids between the ages of 8-18 how to paint, and they have 25 artists in the group.

In his spare time, Musah teaches kids the art of painting, and photography. He has successfully left marks on the walls of Nima Cluster of Schools on the importance of education. The walls of Kanda and Jamestown will also continue to bare his pen name.

His first solo exhibition will be on the 22/11/2013 at the GOETHE Institute in Accra, Cantonments at exactly 7:30 pm, make it a point to be there to see how Musah’s  paintings will look like.

BE THEREEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Are patients not entitled to health care on saturdays?

Dear Sanda

 The day was a Saturday and I felt so sick that I decided to visit the Amasaman Municipal Hospital, with the hope of getting medical attention since I was feeling very sick.

Therefore I left home very early to be able to achieve that aim, of been taken care of by a medical professional, in that effect, I left home as early as 5.00 am , all in the hope of leaving there on time so I could get back to my other commitments for the day.

I got to the hospital as early as 5.25 am, and none of the health professionals were at post, and in fact not even the cleaner was around. In spite of what I was met with, I placed my card in the card box and waited for the health attendant on duty, he came at 6:00 am, by then I was in the queue with another young lady.

During the moment I was attended to, a pregnant woman of about 7 months old came to the hospital, she told the guy that she had problems with her belly, he advised her to take a sit, promising to attend to her in due time, that was when  I told him to kindly attend to her in my place, which  he did so without complaining.

In all this, the cleaner had not started his work yet, in fact, he began at 7.20 am , but surprisingly he had been there even before I arrived. After taking my card, I went to get my vitals checked and again, Nurses were not present. The nurses came after the cleaner had finished his work.

 I was hoping the pregnant woman will be attended to on time, but Sanda it wasn’t so. The lady was left there for hours, as at 9:53 am that I decided that I should really report to you, the poor pregnant woman was still there, unattended.

Doctors were there, in their rooms attending to other patients, in my little knowledge, it was just corruption been displayed at its best, unfortunately it was to patients who had no one to complain to, in my quest to seek knowledge, I asked a nurses why patients were not been attended to, the nurse told me Saturdays are only for emergencies.

Emergencies?!!!!!!, the pregnant woman in pain was an emergency case on its own , the poor lady was still in the hospital pews in pain, and the fact that I haven’t fainted yet didn’t mean my case was not an emergency or I was not in pain.

When I got there in the early hours, I witnessed when a doctor broke the news of death to a certain family, you should have been there to see what really happened, but that didn’t move them to take care of patients in the OPD.

I have never been a hospital faithful, I stayed at home with my pain in the hope of getting better and managing my pain, staying in the queues at the hospital only had the tendency of making you getting sicker. The pathetic aspect of meeting with some of this doctors was whiles you are in pain, you see them fidgeting with their phones.

They end up prescribing just any medicine for you, which will not lessen or take your pain away, because they are not concentrating on what you are telling them, they are just using all sort of social networks.

As at 10:01 in the morning, the supposed doctors on morning duty have not reported to duty yet, the hospital looked less busy with patients waiting, whiles nurses were heartily charting and clapping their hands. And the annoying aspect was I saw a doctor attending to patients but that was because they knew some people there or hands had already exchanged hands.

Our tax payer’s money is used to pay these people and they just go on strike and even when they report to duty, some of them don’t do what is expected of them. But they go on unnecessary strikes demanding unreasonable increment which some of them know they do not deserve any.

 

It is this same crop of doctors we have in private hospitals and they give up their 180% best for patients , these I believe  is because they have no respect for the government hospitals . They do whatever they want in these state owned clinics, nobody has taken to court for negligence before.

But am patiently and positively praying for that day that one Ghanaian will take them to the court for negligence and its related charges.  That day is coming, and I pray it will be very soon.

 

In the meantime, while patients were waiting, nurses had created a gossip group and laughing heartily, very irritating. I didn’t have a choice than to live the hospital without any medical doctor staring at me, although I was in real pain and that was when I understood why the politicians took their cases abroad, because they know the medical system they have provided for our country is of inferior quality, which they wouldn’t want to put themselves through incompetent hands, Understandable.

 But the poor Ghanaian will always end up having a defect which is highly preventable because of a foolish mistake by a supposed medical official.

 It’s hard we have to live in a country where its founder had dreams which was achievable and\or are still achievable, but don’t seem to find its way to the spot light. Nkrumah is dead, and Ghana died with Nkrumah the vision he had for Ghana has not being achieved. My only prayer is that supervisors in these government hospitals will be up and running so doctors who do not work will be brought to book.

You should have seen my excitement when I heard on radio that nurses allowance might be taken away from them, in fact I was so happy that I asked God to make it a reality, for a simple reason, once the money stops coming, we will have committed officials to serve us, not those who are there for the small chop chop.

 I will end my letter here, hoping that I will write another letter that will serve as a road map for our country, on how to help better our government hospitals.

 

 

 

Integrated marketing communications

           WEDNESDAY, 18 September

  (DCSA2014062) BILKIS NUHU KOKROKO  DIP 2B                 

During the 1980s, many companies began taking a broader perspective of marketing communication and seeing the need for a more strategic integration of their promotional tools.

The decade was characterized by the rapid development of areas such as sales promotion, direct marketing, and public relations, which began challenging advertising’s role as the dominant form of marketing communication. 

These firms began moving toward the process of integrated marketing communications (IMC), which involves coordinating the various promotional elements and other marketing activities that communicate with a firm’s customers.

Integrated marketing communications  was hence designed as a concept of marketing communications planning that recognizes the added value of a comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of communication disciplines,  for example, general advertising, direct response, sales promotion, and public relations—and combines these disciplines to provide clarity, consistency, and maximum communications impact.

There are other levels of integration such as Horizontal, Vertical, Internal, External and Data integration. Here is how they help to strengthen Integrated Communications. 

Horizontal Integration occurs across the marketing mix and across business functions - for example, production, finance, distribution and communications should work together and be conscious that their decisions and actions send messages to customers.

While different departments such as sales, direct mail and advertising can help each other through Data Integration. This requires a marketing information system which collects and shares relevant data across different departments. 

Vertical Integration means marketing and communications objectives must support the higher level corporate objectives and corporate missions. 

Meanwhile Internal Integration requires internal marketing - keeping all staff informed and motivated about any new developments from new advertisements, to new corporate identities, new service standards, new strategic partners and so on. 

External Integration, on the other hand, requires external partners such as advertising and PR agencies to work closely together to deliver a single seamless solution - a cohesive message - an integrated message. 

The promotions mix consists of:  Advertising Sales, Promotions (including consumer and trade promotions) Personal selling activities, Public Relations, Publicity.

A company’s marketing communication will depend on the choice of variables in the Promotion mix because for marketing communication to be very effective, all this should work together in your marketing mix. 

Often, decisions on one element will influence the choices available in others. Selecting an effective mix for your market will take time and effort, but these will pay off as you satisfy customers and create a profitable business.

The worksheets that follow will help you construct your marketing plans. Once you have a good marketing mix the right product at the right price, offered in the right place and promoted in the right way you will need to continue to stay on top of market changes and adopt your marketing mix as necessary. 

Marketing is a part of your venture that will never end.

References

www.multimediamarketing.com

Advertising guide by the Indiana University of Journalism and authored by

Beth wood.