The South African Consumer Market

Investors interested in the private consumer market of South Africa have to take note of the size of the market but also of the diversity of its population as well as the methods of segmentation followed by the advertising media. South Africa houses 47 million people of different race groups and has 11 official languages. The country consists of nine provinces and vast differences occur among some of them in their population composition and economic activities. In the light of the above, this paper concentrates on the calculation of the size of the South African consumer market segmented by 23 main expenditure groups, province, Living Standards Measure (LSM)® group and race. The size of the market is estimated at US$146 billion. Segmentation by province is necessary because population density and personal disposal income of the inhabitants of the provinces differ considerably. Segmentation by Living Standards Measure (LSM)® group, enables marketers to do more informed media selection for promotion. Segmentation by race is necessary since a number of cultural differences prevail.