Buy SA campaign blames slowdown

Proudly South African, the campaign aimed at promoting local companies, products and services, says it blames the current economic hardship for a decrease in consumer purchase behaviour.

According to the company's Buy Local report on consumer behaviour and awareness, purchase behaviour has decreased 1% since last year while consumer awareness has increased 6%.

The report showed that during October-November last year, purchase behaviour stood at 55% compared to 54% in the second half of this year, while consumer awareness rose from 79% to 85% in the same period.

A lack of visibility?

“This could be due to the economic situation in the country or lack of logo visibility on products,” said Dalene du Preez, executive manager, marketing and communication of Proudly South African, yesterday.

She said that since the inception of the campaign in 2001, there had been a steady increase in awareness of its objectives to encourage people to buy more locally produced goods.

“The Buy Local campaign is yielding better results. People need to understand that it is an ongoing educational campaign.

“Imported items from countries such as China are big problems. We have outreach programmes teaching our local people about the importance of buying local items”, she said.

Du Preez said although “foreign investment” was needed in the country, local investment was more important and should be a priority.

She said the Buy Local campaign made good business sense because it helped to keep money in the local economy and was like investing in the future of SA.

Customers support local quality

“We encourage our local manufacturers to be innovative, to design clothing items that are of better quality and affordable, so that they can be globally competitive,” Du Preez said.

Woolworths, one of SA's top clothing retailers, said customers had a long tradition of supporting local products. This interest was illustrated, for instance, by customers' continued support for the Woolworths SA Designers' Collection.

“The collection was designed by leading designers, thus supporting the local clothing design industry,” the retailer said.

Woolworths features the work of Stoned Cherrie, Maya Prass and Stephen Quatember, which all have a unique South African footprint.

In her message for the festive season, Manana Moroka CEO of the Proudly South African Campaign said as people shop, they should remember to first consider locally made products and services, as it was an internationally tried and tested recipe for growing local businesses, local communities and local economies.

Source: Business Day

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