Newspapers News South Africa

Echo Shopper launches in Durban at month end

The Echo Shopper, an Ads24 monthly newspaper, will be available in Durban and surrounds from end of October 2015. The free newspaper will launch with 16 pages and a print run of 100,000. It will have a 20km reach around Durban CBD from Isipingo to Phoenix with door-to-door, taxi rank, business-to-business, bulk drops and robot, high visibility distribution.

It is a shoppers' guide covering food and wholesale retailers, fashion and beauty outlets, home improvement and shopping centres and entertainment destinations in the Greater Durban area.

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It targets the middle market, LSM 4-7 and the newspaper comes out at month end and around holidays, which are peak shopping periods.

Mass market shopping strategies

The mass market in South Africa are very planned and calculated when it comes to shopping. Defined by the UCT Unilever Institute as people who earn less than R6000 per month, 75% of survivors do one bulk shop a month to minimise repeat travel and stockpile food to be secure. They plan and scour for specials and do not easily take risks on the quality of products.

Survivors will shop around for their preferred brand and they are engaged in every purchase made. They look for bargains on the brand they want. Restricted movement increases the dependence on the informal sector and Spaza top-ups. They save for Christmas and Easter and spending spikes over these periods, there are often specials and this is when they buy luxuries. Ask Afrika's Kasi Star Brands research reveals that the most important elements in the township shoppers decision are affordability, accessibility, and a brand that 'gets' how they live.

Durban consumer landscape

In the north the Echo Shopper reaches out to the 580,000 people who live in the former townships of Inanda, Ntuzuma and KwaMashu (INK) just north of Durban - 18% of the city's population lives here in 115,136 households. INK is one of the largest concentrations of low-income households in South Africa. Distribution also includes door-to-door in suburbs around Phoenix Industrial, one of South Africa's largest manufacturing complexes.

To the South of Durban, the paper is distributed to homes in Umlazi, the third largest township in the country. With a population of over 400,000, there is tremendous growth in this area. Other areas covered include Chatsworth, the Durban South basin, the Bluff as well as Isipingo.

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