Knowing SA’s media habits - AMPS & RAMS 2002B

The current AMPS and RAMS surveys show the following general media trends, and also continue to demonstrate how the South African population is progressing.

The bare facts of SAARF AMPS and RAMS 2002…

Demographic and personal data

Education levels may be up, but the job market is not growing to accommodate these newly skilled people.

LSMs remain stable

The SAARF Universal LSM is comparable to the previous survey, with no significant changes being measured. There is however, an increase in average household income for every SU-LSM group.

Education still on the up

There has been a significant improvement in education levels over the past AMPS survey. The incidence of people with no schooling has declined significantly, and now is at 8.2%. More people have completed primary education, and are therefore functionally literate - up from 77.4% in 2001 to 79.5% in 2002. Literacy is up slightly from 92.3% in the previous period, to 92.5% currently. The percentage of people with matric and above has also increased, to 33.5%.

Employment and income still an issue

Although the percentage of educated South Africans is increasing, they are not moving into the job market. Full-time employment levels are down again (although not significantly), from 24.7% in AMPS 2002A, to 24.1% in AMPS 2002B. A total of 7.124-million South African adults claim to be employed on a full-time basis. Part-time employment levels are holding at the same levels as the previous period - 10.1%, or 2.982-million. Self-employment levels have remained stable, at 8.6% (2.553-million).

The number of people who classify themselves as 'unemployed', and who are by implication looking for work, has decreased (although not significantly) - from 34.2% in AMPS 2002A, to 33.8% in the current survey (9.991-million adults). In total, the number of people who are not working (including students and housewives), has increased slightly to 65.8% (19.477-million).

Average monthly household income - now at R3 956 - is up on the previous period. This is a 12.3% increase over average household income for AMPS 2001B. Taking into account a CPI of 10.1%, this means a real growth of 2%.

Access to services and possessions

There have been significant improvements in access to electricity, with 83.1% of households electrified, compared to 80.3% in the year previous. With this improved access comes a continued growth in a number of durables in the home. Currently, 70.7% of households own a TV, a significant increase over the previous period. The incidence of fridges and microwave ovens is also up (to 63.7% and 30.4% respectively).

The incidence of access to water has decreased compared to the previous period (from 75.8% to 74.7%), but this is due to a change in the AMPS question - where previously respondents were asked whether they had access to "water", they are now asked whether they have access to "tap water".

The incidence of fixed landline telephones in households continues to drop significantly - 27.3% of households now have access to a fixed phone line in their homes, compared to 29% in the previous survey. Cellphone access is still on the rise, with access at 24.1%, up significantly over the previous period. A total of 7.128-million people now have access to a cell phone. Penetration within LSM 5 is up significantly, to 20.5%. Private ownership (23.4%), and prepaid access (20.3%) both continue to rise.

Financial services

There has been little movement in the financial services arena. There were only two changes within the banking sector, and these were demographic shifts. These changes were a decrease amongst LSM 9 in investments; a decline in Northern Cape and Mpumalanga, and an increase in Bloemfontein in the use of ATM cards.

Under policies, plans and investments, there was one significant change - a decrease in medical insurance from 3.8% in the previous period, to 3.3% in the current period. This decline was seen especially in metro areas, Western Cape, females, 35+, and in LSM 9-10.

Investments and endowment policies saw a decline in their 50+ base, and in LSM 10. Short Term Insurance saw a decline in its Reef base.

Media Groups Measure (MGMs)

By Dr Clive Corder, Chairman of SAARF

Two new products have been added to the SAARF mix. The first - the MGM - is being released with this AMPS survey.

The Media Groups Measure was developed as a segmentation tool in addition to LSMs, life stages and demographics. A major reason behind this initiative was the realisation that when LSMs are used for media scheduling, sometimes without taking into account other variables, there is a risk that many existing and potential customers could be excluded. Whilst it may make good sense to focus on certain LSMs because of the appropriateness of their living standards, for many products a broader approach might be more effective. A further consideration was the expressed desire of government to be able to reach people across the whole country in the most cost effective manner, and thus the need to identify media that could optimally achieve this objective.

An examination of the reach of different media types shows that the less well-off are only reached by a few media, for reasons of geographical location that limits availability; education, especially literacy; and financial ability to acquire access. In contrast, urban dwellers tend to have higher levels of education, more disposable income and greater access to media, both at work and at home. On the downside, discretionary money and time for media is often spread over a wide range with the concomitant risk of less impact.

The MGMs are designed to give insights into the build up of media duplication not only in terms of media types, but also individual options within each medium.

How can MGMs be used?

It is suggested that the starting point in using the MGMs is to determine the target market, whether this is in terms of product or brand usage. AMPS provides the opportunity to identify product users and, for subscribers to Branded AMPS, users of own and competitive brands.
The next step is to establish the incidence and number of members of this target group in each of the MGMs. An evaluation can then be made of the effectiveness of different media and combinations of media in reaching these MGMs.

In the lower MGMs, there are certain media that have comparatively strong reach, whereas other media only come into their own in the higher groups. The MGMs thus provide an indication of the best options to consider in order to reach people in the target market with low, medium and high exposure to different types of media.

Examination of the duplication of reach for media types within MGMs allows for Media Imperatives, or an evaluation of the additional reach achieved by adding further media types, and Media Synergy, which can greatly enhance the effectiveness of advertising in more than one medium.

Technical description

Each respondent in the AMPS 2002A database was categorised according to the media types that they used. The media taken into account were cinema, Internet, print, outdoor, radio and television. The first principal component was obtained for each of magazines, newspapers, community newspapers, outdoor, commercial radio, and television. These six variables, together with cinema, community radio and Internet, were used in a second principal component analysis. This final principal component was then used to create eight media groups, which have been called SAARF's Media Groups Measure (MGMs). The greater the duplication of exposure to different media types, the higher the MGM. Prof. Jacky Galpin, School of Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of the Witwatersrand, did the statistical analysis for the MGMs.

SAARF's first Behaviour Typology data

A new SAARF research product, the Behaviour Typology, will sort the population into groups, using data gathered about people's leisure time behaviour.

SAARF is developing a new segmentation tool for AMPS, which will provide users with valuable insight into how South Africans prefer to spend their leisure time. This SAARF Behaviour Typology went to field with SAARF AMPS 2002B. Statistical analysis on this first six month's data is being done, with a view to developing a behaviour typology. If successful, this will also be released with the six-month datafile.

Getting more insight

The SAARF Behaviour section consists of more than 70 lifestyle, leisure, sport, entertainment and activity questions, and forms part of the self-completion questionnaire which collects AMPS' FMCG product and branded data.

The first question in the section covers a range of sports and activities, in which respondents indicate their interest. They also indicate whether they have actually participated in these activities, or attended any live performances of them, in the past 12 months. These activities include adventure sports, mainstream sports like athletics and cricket, fishing, martial arts, walking and hiking, and water sports.

The SAARF Behaviour section will also provide AMPS users with insight into the frequency of people's participation in some 53 activities, among them attending a burial society meeting, going to the beach, and baking for pleasure. Other activities listed include playing games on a cell phone, going on diet, having or attending dinner parties at home or with friends, engaging in DIY projects, gambling at a casino, and attending a stokvel/syndicate/society, as well as sunbathing, attending traditional gatherings, and bringing work home to complete.

Respondents are also asked to choose which music genres, from a list including classical, kwaito, R&B and house music, they are personally interested in.

Finally, the SAARF Behaviour section will provide data on the frequency of South Africans' attendance of ballet, classical music, opera performances, pop concerts, theatre, and other dance performances.

SAARF's Branded Data is here

SAARF's Branded Data Survey will allow subscribers to do 'bottom up' market segmentation based on brand usage.

SAARF's Branded Data Survey provides a new currency for determining brand usage and purchase, and the media consumption of brand users. It will also be possible to determine brand loyalty from categories where a large group of respondents claimed to use only one brand. The SAARF Branded Data Survey provides single-source data on 544 brands from 83 product categories covering various grouped sectors such as Food, Medicinal Products and Personal Care Products.

The data from this survey will allow subscribers to do 'bottom up' market segmentation based on brand usage, rather than 'top down' marketing planning, for which broad segmentation descriptions by LSM, life stage, and demographics are used to describe the market.

Data will cover frequency of product purchase or use, which brands are used and which most often.

Since the Branded Data Survey uses the same sample as AMPS, subscribers can cross-reference branded data with AMPS- and RAMS-sourced media usage and demographics, as well as LSMs, life-stages, activities (lifestyle) and SAARF's new Media Groups Measure (MGM). This will enable tight, efficient and effective advertising and marketing.

A number of major companies have already signed up for this survey, including Distell, Gillette Group SA, KFC Advertising (Southern Africa), MasterCard International, McCain Foods, Nestlé, Old Mutual, Sanlam, Tiger Brands, and Siemens Mobile Phones. (SAARF's Branded Data Survey is underwritten entirely by subscribers, and will not be funded from the MIT levy which funds other SAARF research.)

Following the successful pilot study, carried out in 2002, subscribers can look forward to a wealth of branded information available in early April 2003.

Source: South African Advertising Research Foundation, www.saarf.co.za.