"We've established that the South African retail environment is very different to the United States for example," says John Bowles, joint MD of NAB, "where Sundays are the most popular days for shopping. Here, consumers carefully go through their community newspaper with their inserts midweek for pre-planning their Friday and Saturday shopping trips."
"The ROOTS survey shows as many as 60% of shoppers purchase food and groceries on a Saturday, 23% on a Friday and 14% on a Sunday. From Monday to Thursday, 26% of the sample shop for their food and groceries," continues Bowles.
"South African consumers are strapped for time," he adds. "Very few people can afford to wander around various retailers to compare prices and then return to the 'best offer'. Today, consumers rely on inserts in community papers to research their buying needs in the comfort of their own homes and then take the time out on a Saturday to shop."
The survey also asked purchasing decision makers if they pre-planned their shopping for food and groceries. Amazingly, almost 70% stated that they do prepare before doing their weekly or monthly food and grocery shopping. When does this take place? Sixty five percent mentioned a day or two before, and a further 31% said they prepared within the week. This would therefore suggest that pre-planning takes place mostly on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Bowles explains the implications for advertisers, "We always thought that consumers plan their purchasing activities for bigger ticket items like durables, holidays, motor vehicles and other more expensive considerations, but from our research it looks like it goes right down to day-to-day purchasing.
"We know consumers are in the shops weekly and perhaps more so at month end but if advertisers can be visible in this pre-planning period, they can only improve their potential of being the 'chosen ones'. Therefore the real task for advertisers is to be included in this pre-planning activity to ensure their products or brands are part of the consideration set. We believe that activity is happening in community newspapers where there is an abundance of choice."
"Community newspapers provide a 'media window shopping mall' environment where readers can access local, relevant news, entertainment and shopping information. Readers expect their weekly inserts and regular run of press adverts in order for them to prepare and make their shopping decisions. In particular, we are inundated with calls when an advertiser's inserts are not included in our newspapers for a certain period of time," concludes Bowles.
