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ON THE WEB THE FOLLOWING NEWS IT EMS HAVE ALL APPEARED ON T HE AFRICAN MARKETING CONFEDERATION (AMC) WEBSITE. BY VISITING THE SITE, AMC MEMBERS CAN ENJOY DAILY NEWS UPDA TES COVERING TOPICS OF RELEVANCE TO AFRICAN MARKETERS. GO TO WWW.AFRICANMC.ORG Building of consumer society.”Among the to rely on one cultural paradigm for the customs that you reference”. insights that emerged: brands in a The macho guy (‘oke’ in SA The relationship between price changing SA vernacular) has reached his sell-by and income is not linear. Low prices date. In trying to appeal to a broad and do not just appeal to low-income diverse audience, many marketers have shoppers. Mass market grocery HOW MUCH HAS THE SOUTH created strategies that are riddled with chain Shoprite and upmarket sporting African branding and marketing clichés and stereotypes. The old image goods company Nike were chosen as scene changes since the arrival of of a macho guy braaing (barbecuing) favourite brands among both upper and democracy in 1994? ‘Enormously’ is with rugby and beer is irrelevant to lower income consumers. the answer from branding consultancy the majority of today’s consumers, “South Africa is witnessing the birth Yellowwood, which has published a according to the study. of the ‘hybrid consumer’ who will be white paper entitled ‘Building Brands in Instead, consumers want brands ruthless in pursuit of the lowest prices a Changing South Africa’. that bring them together and give for mundane or everyday things, and “We have become more urbanised them a sense of community. Fast-food save up for luxury or beautiful items,” and wealthy, and we have integrated brand Nando’s was singled out in the says the study. “This means brands that into the global mainstream,” says the research for being “culturally inclusive charge a premium will need to be very consultancy. “But undoubtedly the and unifying”. But, say the authors, sure of why they charge that premium biggest change in SA over the past 20 “consumers also expect brands to and the value that it brings. years, from a marketer’s point of view, understand them better than that. Build It also means that marketers will need is the rise of the black middle class community around genuine shared to plan for customers across the socio- and the radical re-composition interests and passions, and be sure not economic spectrum.” Ghana seeks quality telecoms for consumers GHANAIAN CONSUMERS HAVE Among other attributes, the NCA been quick and eager in their uptake consumer satisfaction survey measures of telecoms services. As a result, the the quality of reception, coverage, ease country’s National Communications of making calls, availability of service, and Authority (NCA) watchdog is keeping signal strength. It is based on feedback an eye out in an effort to ensure quality from 13 800 respondents. service and value for money. According to the results of the survey, According to TeleGeography, an MTN and Vodafone were unable to meet international telecommunications market any of the NCA’s stipulated service research and consulting firm, the NCA quality benchmarks, while Tigo, Airtel announced recently that mobile operator and Expresso met only one – the overall Glo Mobile was the only cellphone quality of service – with scores of 77,2%, company in the country to offer a good 81,6% and 83,5%, respectively. quality of service in 2012-2013. The “Glo Mobile, on the other hand, met statement is bold and comes courtesy the billing performance target (86,9%) of the regulator’s benchmark of 85% for and the inquiry services target (85,6%), billing performance and inquiry services, as well as surpassing the overall quality of 90% for supplementary services and 75% standard (83,8%) benchmark,” reported for overall quality of service. the TeleGeography website. 6 strategicmarketingafrica Third quarter 2014 06-07 On the Web v2.indd 6 2014/06/26 11:51 AM