In this article, we map the geo-flow of households, people and living standards in Mzansi - giving marketers a strategic view of the realities in which South Africans live, move and work.
This age regression across the SEM spectrum has significant implications for all marketers, particularly at the top end of the market, and challenges many of the conventions that might lead to an over-emphasis on youth-focused communication.
At the top end of the market in SEM_C5 (elite), over 90% of the market is found in urban or major metropolitan areas. The big three metros Johannesburg, Cape Town and eThekwini in turn account for a very high percentage of these high-end consumers.
As we shift the focus further down the cluster scale, the contribution of the big three metros diminishes dramatically.
This, coupled with the increase in South African languages as ‘home language’, highlights the over-reliance of advertisers on English and Afrikaans for communication and the need for marketers to develop a more agile approach to planning and measuring return on investment (ROI) on a regional basis.
A media campaign which is restricted to the big three metros will only address just over half the consumers in SEM_C4 (upper middle) and only one in three in the massive middle market (SEM_C3).
At least 83% of SEM_C5 (elite) lives in free-standing houses with the balance living in cluster homes or apartments. Homes in SEM_C1 are characterised by a high incidence of traditional huts (27%), shacks (25%) and some RDP houses (12%). In rural areas, specifically, 42% of all SEM_C1 adults live in a traditional hut, whereas in metropolitan areas 62% of the SEM_C1 segment and 32% of SEM_C4 live in a temporary structure or shack.
There are fewer indicators that better illustrate South Africa’s alarming disparate wealth distribution than dwelling structures. This is a critical variable in the SEM segmentation weightings.
Less than 1% of households have a flushing toilet in the home compared to 51% in SEM_C3. It is only from SEM_C4 that the incidence of flush toilets in the home increases to over 90%.
Mobility is a critical limitation for those living at the bottom end of the market and particularly for those in rural areas. According to the OMC Road Survey the average South African visits about four distinct destinations in any week. This remains consistent across the full SEM spectrum. Access to transport is however a major axis of polarisation.
Only 1% of SEM_C1 has a motor in the household compared to 98% for SEM_C5. This does not mean that people at the lower end of the SEM spectrum are totally homebound. When leaving the home 49% of SEM_C1 travel in a car each week and they also have the highest incidence of minibus-taxi usage of all the SEM segments.
Even in SEM_C1 85% of consumers have a mobile phone compared to only 61% with a TV set. The ubiquitous nature of the mobile phone and the high incidence of these devices in even the most remote and impoverished communities represents the single most important media opportunity for marketers and advertisers in South Africa.
About the Ebony+Ivory Marketing Segmentation South Africa Series
Drawing data and insights from the most recently published industry database PAMS_2019 (released April-2020) and the Nielsen Fusion Study 2020 (released November_2020), we interrogate the SEM model through the following four lenses in the rest of the Ebony+Ivory Marketing Segmentation South Africa series: People and Places; Purchasing Power; Products; and Platforms.