PROUDLY SOUTH AFRICAN CAMPAIGN UPDATE

1000th member

Just over 18 months after it was founded, Proudly South African recently announced the 1000th member to join the campaign, making it the largest campaign of its kind in the world by number of companies subscribed. Blackstone Tek, a 100% South African company producing state-of-the art carbon fibre wheels for the high-performance motorcycle industry, was awarded the 1000th member insigniaby the Minister of Trade and Industry, Alec Erwin, in Cape Town on 27 June.

GDS Agreement on Proudly South African

The Growth and Development Summit agreement signed on 7 June included a commitment by business, government, labour and community to put more time and resources behind the campaign. The summit agreement also confirmed the importance of procuring goods and services from local producers. The agreement states that "local procurement, wherever possible, provides an important means of saving or creating jobs, promoting small enterprises and cooperatives and securing the growth of the SA economy". The agreement also commits all parties to supporting a major campaign aimed at raising consumer awareness of local products overthe December shopping period.

New Consumer Advertising Campaign

Proudly South African has just launched "Transformation" - the first of a two-phase consumer campaign to educate consumers about the impact that they can have in changing South Africa's economic future. The campaign kicked off on 23 June with a new 60-second television commercial, an extensive radio campaign in all 11 official languages across 18 stations, and print advertisements across daily and Sunday newspapers, and magazines.

"Transformation" will call on South African consumers to make a point of seeking out Proudly South African products and services. It will show how, through doing so, ordinary consumers can help transform lives and communities, through helping to retain and create jobs.

The second phase of the campaign will focus on the retail environment, where shoppers will be visibly reminded of the difference that their purchase can make.

Proudly South African must do more to reach lower income groups: New Research

The latest research conducted for Proudly South African by member company Markinor, in its June 2003 Omnibus, has revealed that awareness of the campaign is significantly lower in lower income groups. However, when introduced to the campaign's objectives, lower income earners surveyed indicated that they would support the campaign in future.

As in shown in the graphs on page seven, awareness of the campaign is remarkably high at the higher income levels (represented by the higher LSM categories). Nearly 90% of the highest income earners (LSM 10) surveyed had seen the logo before. However, at the other end of the scale, only 26% of the lowest earners, (LSM1), had seen the logo before.

The agreement states that "local procurement, wherever possible, provides an important means of saving or creating jobs, promoting small enterprisesand co-operatives and securing the growth of the SA economy".

Proudly South African's next challenge is therefore to deepen penetration of the campaign's message to low-income earners. In that the research shows, as seen in graph 2, that lower income earners would support the campaign if they knew what it meant, it is vital that the message reaches all SouthAfricans.

...awareness of the campaign is remarkably high at the higher income levels (represented by the higher LSM categories). Nearly 90% of the highest incomeearners (LSM 10) surveyed had seen the logo before.

...in that lower income earners would support the campaign if they knew what it meant, it is vital that the message reaches all SouthAfricans