Black middle class
Date posted: June 18, 2012
Despite setbacks caused by the recent recession, South Africa’s black middle class continues to expand rapidly and is more influential and powerful than ever before. In contrast, the white middle class has remained fairly stagnant over the same period, with its adult population growing from 2.8 million in 2004 to three million in 2012.
The growth and prosperity of this market is crucial to the health and future of the economy. The black middle class is helping create a vibrant and stable society by increasing South Africa’s skills base, deepening employment and widening the tax net.
As this market has matured, it has become much more complex than marketers and advertisers originally assumed it to be and marketers are not adjusting fast enough to meet the needs of this rapidly transforming market segment. This new order demands new strategic thinking from businesses and manufacturers – from how they create and sell products, to the way they distribute and market them.