As consumers, we are not one; says Wendy

It’s a great question - it’s far from a Lotto jackpot, but it’s enough money to do something life changing with it you wanted to.

It was one of the questions the UCT Unilever Institute posed in an 18th-month survey of 8000 South Africans over five income groups in a bid to find out what we aspire to.

 Top Windfall Spends

The Institute listed the top 10 Windfall Spends, in descending order - and remember this is across five income groups: invest the money, save it in the bank, pay off debts, start a business, buy household goods, help someone else, treat themselves, put a deposit on a house, go on holiday and put a deposit on a car.

What was glaringly apparent during the Institute’s presentation of its Aspiration Report at an Umhlanga hotel this week is that we are about the furtherest from a homogenous nation as you could get. The variances in terms of income, culture, way of life and access - to credit, decision makers, education and a whole lot more - are massive.

Having been forced to live separate lives for generations, it’s no surprise we’re still so different in the way we live, think and behave as consumers.

Three quarters of South Africans survive on between R1000 and R3000 a month. And just 3% earn more R30 000 a month. Try and get your head around that!

That big group, the struggling pre-middle class, are growing disillusioned, frustrated and angry because their hopes of a better life have come to nothing, the presenters said. But many are resigned to fact that their lives are unlikely to improve much.

'Black tax' 

And of those who have managed to break through into the “black middle class", 38% say family responsibilities are holding them back. Apparently, an average of 20% of their income is spent on helping to support struggling extended family members - it’s what’s known as “black tax”.

John Simpson, professor of advanced marketing at the UCT Unilever Institute, said marketers are competing not only against other brands for the middle class spend, but against the black tax.

How should advertisers appeal to consumers?

I was especially intrigued by what the presenters had to say about companies pitching their marketing to consumers. Adverts have to aspirational, but not too aspirational. And not too divorced from reality.

A TV ad for entry level DSTV was played as a good example of this.

A company in the Eastern Cape apparently ran a competition with an overseas holiday as the prize, which bombed, but they were swamped with entries when they offered a Jo Jo rain tank as a prize. Right now I’d find the Jo Jo tank more appealing, too - overseas trips don’t come with spending money, and with the Rand the way it is, that prize would end up costing quite a bit!

When a local newspaper ran a competition for a tombstone, many scoffed on social media, but anyone who knows anything about the significance of tombstones for black families, and the cost of them, would totally get it.

But there are companies which manage to speak to all of us; to make us feel united as South Africans - Nando’s and Coke for example.

Among the tips the presenters had for companies was to empathise with their customers. That means considering whether they have an email address, a bank account or basic financial literacy.

I was amazed to see on a pack of bread, produced by a major food company: “We welcome comments from our customers", and then a share-call phone number. How very 1999!  Do they know what pre-paid airtime costs?

Where’s the SMS number or Twitter address? I checked, the brand’s Twitter account was last active March.

It’s this sort of thing which creates a sense of disconnection among consumers. A realisation that their reality isn’t being recognised.

According to Simpson, it’s a myth that most young South Africans lacked entrepreneurial drive, and were entitled, just wanting hand-outs.

“Our data suggests that they realise they have to help themselves and want to start a business as a way of improving their lot, and they’re prepared to borrow money to do it,” he said.

But the formal banking sector has failed these people; and failed to meet the needs of a changing landscape, he said.

While the white middle class generally has access to property assets as security for loans, this wasn’t the case in the first generation black middle class, and they don’t have their parents and grandparents as mentors. So they took high interest, unsecured loans and many ended up suffocated by debt.

So whatever the rest of us - consumers and businesses - can do to support and nurture them, we should do - formally or informally.

Pay it forward.

Finally, the Institute listed South African’s Eight Great Desires as financial security, freedom, respect, belonging, comfort, experiences, giving back - don’t you love that? - and health.

So I tweeted that, and someone tweeted: “True, but they’ve forgotten wi-fi”. I think that’s something all South Africans would agree on.