With Pick n Pay in pole position, followed by Woolworths, Checkers, Spar and Shoprite in positions 2–5 respectively, South Africa’s retail brands are perceived as leading the field when it comes to having taken steps to protect their consumers and make a positive impact within the community during the country’s covid-19 lockdown.
This is according to The Covid-19 Consumer report, HaveYouHeard’s latest study into what South African consumers think about the novel coronavirus pandemic, its impact on their lives, how they feel about the future and how they believe brands should be behaving. Respondents were asked which brands they felt had responded positively during the covid-19. Those brands with four or more mentions are ranked below:
Ranking and brands
1. Pick n Pay
2. Woolworths
3. Checkers
4. Spar
5. Shoprite
6. Nando’s
6. Dettol
8. Vodacom
9. Dischem
10. Lifebuoy
10. Coca-Cola
12. Old Mutual
12. Tiger
14. Discovery
15. Clicks
15. e.tv/eNCA
17. Nike
17. South African Tourism
17. DStvMultiChoice
20. SAB
21. Telkom
22. Albany
22. Standard Bank
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While the retail brands dominated the top five positions, and Dischem and Clicks ranked #9 and #15 respectively, other industry sectors where more than one brand was mentioned include financial service companies and banks (Old Mutual ranked joint #12, Discovery #14 and Standard Bank joint #22), broadcasters (e.tv/eNCA joint #15 and DStv joint #17), brand owners (SAB #20 and Tiger Brands joint #12), telecommunications (Vodacom #8 and Telkom #21) and personal healthcare (Dettol joint #6 and Lifebuoy joint #10). Completing the list of brands spontaneously mentioned were Nando’s (joint #6), Coca-Cola (joint #10), Nike and South African Tourism (joint #17) and Albany (joint #22).
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Surprising feedback
“While we expected respondents to confirm the common-sense position that brands should be empathetic to consumer needs and hardships, some of the feedback was surprising,” says Ryan McFadyen, HaveYouHeard head of strategy. “For example, it is clear that brands play a big role in consumers’ lives and are more than just the intrinsic product benefits they provide. Consumers expected and wanted brands to continue advertising or being active in their lives. Some 37% spontaneously stated this, while only 8% felt the other way.
“Those who said brands should not be advertising said budgets should rather be invested to help consumers through cheaper product offerings or responsible actions supporting the country’s efforts to combat covid-19. Overall, the expectation was that brands should be active and should be useful. Consumers are expecting brands to adjust their communicating channels quickly to meet them in the environments where they are now. Going fully digital and providing ecommerce solutions [are] the two predominant expectations as consumers want more-relevant engagement and easier purchasing.”
Consumer feedback also suggests that they have been inundated with uplifting messages of understanding and support from brands. The first few made an impact; the followers became clutter. Brands need to move away from generalised clichés and into building communication and offers based on their unique brand USPs.
Highest-possible standards
Consumers are holding brands to the highest-possible standards, maybe more so than what’s financially possible but they do expect these brands to behave with a responsible ‘humanity-first’ approach. Many consumers spoke of brands first protecting their own staff and saving jobs within their companies, being transparent and clear in how they have been impacted and explaining measures they would be taking.
“Finally, looking towards the future, consumers are becoming more self-sufficient, more sustainably minded, forced into needing to be both frugal, creative and self-sufficient. This will cause two opposite shifts: consumers looking more for the ‘parts’ than the finished product as they enjoy the process as much as the end result or those who gain more appreciation and desire for the final product and will invest more in receiving this, without the pain of doing it themselves — bears thinking about,” said McFadyen.
Fieldwork for “The COVID-19 Consumer’ was conducted between 26 March and 28 April 2020. The 780 respondents included a wide range of household-income groups, from those earning less than R5000 a month (27%) to those earning more than R50 000 a month (12%). A full copy of the report is available from claudia at haveyouheard dot co za.
New survey
MarkLives and HaveYouHeard’s insights department are launching the second installment of our South African advertising communications services industry survey to track the impact of covid-19 upon you, your agency/company and the brands you manage. The findings will be released as a general overview; results will be anonymous and not linked to any individual or agency. Participants will receive a copy of the findings. Please participate by accessing the survey here.
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