LOCAL and international brand experts should put more effort into understanding township culture for their brands to be accepted.
This is the view of Thandi Kunene, MD of brand marketing company Dusty Gold, which focuses on aligning brands to fit the township market
Though there are no conclusive figures on the economies of townships, this figure is estimated at R307-billion nationally.
As more township residents climb the corporate ladder, more brands are trying to penetrate the township market to cash in.
Big townships such as Soweto, Gugulethu and Umlazi have grown significantly with malls, and are becoming more diverse in terms of both culture and income levels.
But limited knowledge has been gained about these growing economic hubs.
Kunene said there was a mismatch between the brand manager, the product and their market.
"What they tend to do is create (advertising) campaigns abroad and try to make them make sense in the township space; and there is a disconnect in their messages.
"Brand managers look at the township as a homogeneous group. They do not also realise that the township in itself has different groups of people who need to be spoken to differently," she said.
"Marketers also assume that if you are in a township you are poor. This is not true."
She said companies tended to bring smaller, cheaper products to the townships because of this misconception. She said township dwellers do not mind paying more. But they want to know why they should buy certain brands.
Katlego Mabusela, Kunene's business partner, said they had started to use stokvels in townships to demonstrate their value.
Mabusela said understanding the township consumer could not be achieved by just interviewing 20 people, but by engaging the communities and understanding their diversity, language and culture.
"The prizes you give away in a promotion can be crucial to how the brand is received in a community," he said.
Township markets
LOCAL and international brand experts should put more effort into understanding township culture for their brands to be accepted.
This is the view of Thandi Kunene, MD of brand marketing company Dusty Gold, which focuses on aligning brands to fit the township market
Though there are no conclusive figures on the economies of townships, this figure is estimated at R307-billion nationally.
As more township residents climb the corporate ladder, more brands are trying to penetrate the township market to cash in.
Big townships such as Soweto, Gugulethu and Umlazi have grown significantly with malls, and are becoming more diverse in terms of both culture and income levels.
But limited knowledge has been gained about these growing economic hubs.
Kunene said there was a mismatch between the brand manager, the product and their market.
"What they tend to do is create (advertising) campaigns abroad and try to make them make sense in the township space; and there is a disconnect in their messages.
"Brand managers look at the township as a homogeneous group. They do not also realise that the township in itself has different groups of people who need to be spoken to differently," she said.
"Marketers also assume that if you are in a township you are poor. This is not true."
She said companies tended to bring smaller, cheaper products to the townships because of this misconception. She said township dwellers do not mind paying more. But they want to know why they should buy certain brands.
Katlego Mabusela, Kunene's business partner, said they had started to use stokvels in townships to demonstrate their value.
Mabusela said understanding the township consumer could not be achieved by just interviewing 20 people, but by engaging the communities and understanding their diversity, language and culture.
"The prizes you give away in a promotion can be crucial to how the brand is received in a community," he said.
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