Part 2:

The South African Consumer's World

This textbook is about marketing to South African consumers and understanding that the South African consumer reality is unlike any other in the world. By better understanding the South African consumer, marketers are able to shape strategy and tactics that match reality. It also enables them to tailor an international strategy to suit the South African market. This part not only looks at the consumer landscape, but also three crucial influences on communicating and delivering value, namely the retail and media landscapes. While both retail and media are general marketing concepts, South Africa is unique and any South African marketer should understand these landscapes. In addition, the macro-environment may be out of both the marketer and consumers' control, but it has a large impact on both.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 5: The South African Consumer Landscape

This chapter provides insight into South Africa's demographic heterogeneity, as well as the hybrid economy in which consumers and marketers exist. The inequality in South Africa is contextualised by providing a continuum of five consumer segments from the Poor to the Top end.

Chapter 6: The South African Retail Landscape

Most consumer marketers need to understand retail, since most transactions happen in this sector (services and business-to-business sectors' excluded). Retail in South Africa epitomises the divide between the formal and informal economy and must be understood in order to market consumer goods. This chapter is a partner to Chapter 15, which goes into more detail about distribution (place) tactics.

Chapter 7: The South African Media Landscape

Consumer marketers communicate their offerings through various forms of media. The changing shape of media consumption in South Africa has been driven by technology and changes in socioeconomics. In addition, a country with so much cultural and linguistic diversity has media nuances that consumer marketers must understand and be able to measure.

Chapter 8: The South African Macro-Environment

In part 1 of this textbook, the micro-environment was discussed (Chapter 4), including environmental factors that are influenceable by the consumer marketer (for example, suppliers). The South African macro-environment comprises the broader forces that impact marketing, but are generally not influenced by the marketer. These forces include the economic environment, the financial environment, the political environment, the legal environment, the socio-cultural environment, the geographic and resource environment and the technological environment.

An understanding of the South African consumer's world is key to creating a strategy that meets the needs of the marketer's target market.