PROUDLY SOUTH AFRICAN CAMPAIGN UPDATE

Membership

A major milestone is being approached, with the accreditation of the 1000th member expected to take place within the next month. A directory of members is currently being prepared for publication. This will provide a comprehensive listing of products and services to encourage decision-makers in the private and public sectors to "buy South African". At least 3000 copies of the guide will be distributed to buyers and procurement officers throughout the country.

Research

Markinor's second quantitative research study of the effectiveness of the Proudly South African campaign shows that brand awareness of the campaign has increased markedly. The latest study was conducted in January this year and the previous one in October last year.

The research begins to focus on buying patterns and these results will be used as a benchmark to monitor the change in buying behaviour in preference for Proudly South African goods and services. These are the latest key findings:

• The number of adult South Africans living in metropolitan areas who reported having seen the PSA logo before has risen a full ten percent -from 69% in October 2002 to 79% in January 2003.
• 42% claimed that they have bought Proudly South African products. Of the people who have bought products, a quarter said that they specifically tried to buy Proudly South African.

Procurement Advocacy

The campaign continues to lobby for "level playing field" treatment for member companies where tenders contain conditions which prejudice local content or local companies.

Success stories have included the decision by the IEC to award a tender for the production of election bags to a local company, and the retraction by the Ekhurhuleni Municipality of conditions in an IT tender which would have precluded local companies from tendering.
Ekhurhuleni has since joined the campaign as a member!

Members Workshops

A series of members workshops focusing on the topics of tendering skills, export skills and promotional leverage of Proudly South African, has started. These workshops will deliver added value to members and assist their use of the logo and their competitiveness.

The campaign continues to lobby for "level playing field" treatment for member companies where tenders contain conditions which prejudice local content or local companies.