Out-of-touch white media planners are touring the townships to get in touch with black consumers, writes Jacquie Golding-Duffy
TAKE a taxi to Soweto if you want to get in touch with your black market base. This is the message from Taxinet, a leading media company responsible for advertisements flagged solely in the taxi industry.
As advertisers realise that the black market is no longer an emerging market, but one of the largest sectors waiting to snap up their products, so have they decided to learn as much as they can about the black consumer.
Taxinet, established in 1987, caters for this need in the industry where white media planners, marketeers and retailers are grappling with the realities of the black consumer market.
Realising the potential of Soweto tours, Taxinet recently joined up with Tribius Tshabalala, a taxi owner operating independently as a tour guide in Soweto, and for the last six years several clients such as tobacco company Rembrandt and supermarket chain Shoprite/ Checkers have sent representatives on tour in a bid to “experience Soweto”.
Mostly white marketeers and retailers have found the tour “informative” as they have never before ventured into Soweto on their own.
Tshabalala admits he was initially “surprised” at the “ignorance” displayed by local advertisers and businessmen who are “clueless” on Soweto township life.
“It’s strange but true that they have as much to learn as the overseas tourists,” he says.
But is taking a four-hour day trip to Soweto enough to enable white marketeers and advertisers to target South Africa’s main market black consumers?
Ogilvy & Mather, Rightford, Searle Tripp and Makin media director Yvonne Johnstone says “it’s a step in the right direction. It’s certainly a good start as no one, other than Taxinet, has attempted to do so. It is a worthwhile experience.”
Johnstone says the trips to Soweto “provide a real texture and feel” for the lifestyle of the black consumer, but whether this is enough to put media planners and advertisers fully in touch with their markets, she is not sure.
Herdbouys advertising and marketing executive chairman Peter Vundla agrees. Although Vundla says he is “glad” that white media planners are attempting to “understand the main market”, he adds that “hopefully they will gain some insight”.
Vundla says the ignorance sometimes apparent among white advertisers is as a result of apartheid and personal racial prejudices some may harbour. “Although endeavours are at least being made, I hope that advertising agencies will strive towards bringing in more black media planners. One trip to Soweto will certainly not make media planners experts and is a mere dipstick into the lifestyles of the main market consumer. It will also not redeem white media planners,” he says.
National media manager of Rembrandt Daantjie Esterhuysen says the Soweto tour is “excellent” and assists people to “get in touch with the black market” and ” get to know it better”.
“It was informative to see how the Taxinet operations work and it is a treat,” he says.
Esterhuysen went on a day and night trip with Taxinet’s Soweto tours. The night trip involves a “shebeen crawl” where local residents can be met in a relaxing, after-work environment. The night tours have police protection so people can feel “safe”, according to Taxinet officials.
“Although the atmosphere is very relaxed in Soweto, I do find that people feel safer knowing they have protection,” Tshabalala says. – Taxinet deputy managing director Ken Varejes says the tours are not limited to Soweto. Managing directors and media – planners are also able to study Taxinet’s other operations its 30 kiosks countrywide, its Star Music operation and its outdoor advertising conducted on the – exterior of taxis. Focusing on the taxi industry, Taxinet serves about 14-million people – representing more than 72% of black commuters “a captive market”, says Varejes.
The three-legged operation may soon extend into a fourth division with plans for a free sheet of information. The publication, aimed at consumers, will host advertisements from companies and keep clients informed of Taxinet’s activities and advertising options. The move into print will soon materialise, following the joint venture concluded last week with Primedia, owner of Radio 702.
Primedia chief executive William Kirsh refused to disclose the amount paid for the 60% stake in Taxinet, but says the deal “will bolster” the company’s alternative media and specialist marketing and promotions activities. It will also, he says, “add further balance to the group’s income from media activities”.
Varejes says the Primedia/Taxinet venture has “assisted the company with its capitalisation”, adding that Taxinet will now be able to better service its clients and also develop and expand certain areas of the group.
Varejes says Taxinet hopes to secure future shares in the Primedia group, but refused to divulge details on what percentage of shares Taxinet was vying for.
Taxinet’s three operations include:
* Star Music, distributing audio cassettes to more than 22 000 of the 85 000 taxis nationally. The cassettes are tailored to each region and 15 minutes of advertising is sold on each 90-minute cassette. The bulk of material on the tape is popular local and international hits presented by selected disc jockeys and is compiled specifically for each area.
Every two months the tapes are renewed with advertisers plugging different products and are once again distributed to taxi-drivers free-of-charge.
* Outdoor advertising Taxinet sells advertising space on the exterior of 3 500 taxis at a “branding” cost of R650 per month per taxi. This advertising is referred to as Trans Ad.
Taxi drivers are paid about R125 for playing the Star Music and having the taxi branded. The criteria for branding depends highly on the condition of the taxi. If the taxi is damaged, the taxi owner is given 10 days to repair the vehicle or have the advertisement stripped off the van, Varejes says.
* Taxinet’s Commuter Reach operations initiative, regarded as a guaranteed method of distribution to commuters via kiosks situated in the most densely populated taxi ranks nationwide. The kiosks operate under the Taxinet banner. The kiosk is decked out in whichever product is being advertised. Staffers wear promotional T-shirts, and leaflets are handed out free-of-charge. If a client uses all 30 kiosks, it will cost about R67 000.
A survey conducted by Integrated Marketing Research in all nine provinces found that 97% of all taxi commuters recalled the Coca-Cola branding, 87% the Zama Zama campaign and 76% the Aids campaign. These were branded on Taxinet minibuses.
With taxis carrying an average of 154 passengers daily a passenger travels about 12 times a week, about 67 minutes a day no wonder it is regarded by Varejes as an “obvious market to target”. According to the research, 74% of commuters are responsible for household purchases.