Is your brand connecting with the mass market? The Majority Report (2012) found a clear lack of connection that most brands have with the poorer sector of the population so we’ve dug even deeper to find out what the real issues are.
The study’s research focused on consumer behaviour in households with an income of less than R6500 per month (a staggering 70% of the South African population and 80% of our children) and showed that generally marketers are not doing a good job of connecting with the mass market.
We have called phase two of the study Connecting with the Majority and it has two objectives. The first is to better understand the touch points that marketers can develop in order to connect with survivors, and the second is to formulate a view on how effectively those touch points are used right along the route to market. Field researchers in five locations around the country spent a five-month period getting to grips with issues such as, consumption patterns, sources of income, informal and formal traders and decision-making dynamics in households.
This market is increasingly important. It is growing and undergoing change at many levels, often at the expense of traditional marketers and their brands. Added to this much of the activity is unrecorded. Without a thorough understanding of all of this, it is extremely difficult for marketers to grow sales and thereby market share. Marketers who wish to succeed in this attractive market may have to rethink their strategies dramatically.