PROUDLY SOUTH AFRICAN UPDATE

Nedlac and Proudly South African "buy local" Christmascampaign

At the Growth and Development Summit in June 2003, the Nedlac constituencies agreed to embark on an extensive Christmas 2003 campaign encouraging consumers to buy local.

Cosatu gave its full support to the campaign. It printed half a million leaflets to be distributed through its regions and mobilised its structures throughout the country to take part in pamphleting at taxi ranks; postering, loud hailing and lunchtime meetings at shopping centres, bus stops and taxi ranks.

Nedlac sent leaflets and posters to all Premiers, who promised to help spread the message. Through an extensive media relations programme, Nedlac Executive Director, Herbert Mkhize and Proudly South African CEO, Martin Feinstein garnered more than R1.2 million in media value through interviews on radio, television and in print. Bringing a new spirit of activism to Nedlac's role, Nedlac senior leaders took part in events at shopping centres in Pretoria and Cape Town, where they handed out leaflets and spoke to shoppers.

R2-million campaign to explain clothing labels to consumers

Proudly South African will launch a R2-million media campaign to educate consumers on the new "country of origin" labels that will begin appearing on most of the clothing sold in the country through major retailers next year. The campaign aims to make it "trendy and cool to support local fashion and clothing", says Proudly South African CEO Martin Feinstein.

The campaign will be run in consultation with Nedlac as part of the implementation of agreements reached at the 2003 Growth and Development Summit. The labels will enable consumers, for the first time, to know which garments are locally made.

"Once a consumer can tell where an item of clothing was made, he or she can make a more informed choice. Of course, people will still buy on price and the appeal of the garment, but now they can factor in the country of origin. Many people want to buy local fashion and now they can tell what's local and what's not, "said Feinstein.

Latest research results

The latest M-Bus research shows that 17% more people since the previous survey are aware of having seen the Proudly South African logo, across the entire country. The number of people who are noticing the campaign logo on products is increasing, presumably as more and more products bearing the logo go onto the shelves.

Enthusiasm for the campaign and its benefits is very high, even amongst people who have not necessarily been aware of the logo on the products that they have purchased. 93 percent of people surveyed indicated support for the campaign, up 8% from the previous quarter.

Major retailers join campaign

When several retailers signed a declaration last year that they would commit to sourcing at least 75% of their apparel products from South African manufacturers, Proudly South African extended an offer to bring them on board the campaign. Woolworths and Pepkor have taken discussions further and are to join the ranks of Proudly South African. Certain conditions will apply.