The one-size-fits all mentality – By John Farquhar

(a chapter contributed in a book, Marketing The Same Difference, authored by Louis Seeco)

The British, when they decided to colonise the world, must carry the blame for screwing up the geography, as well as the social infrastructure, of many countries they thrust themselves upon. South Africa is one of those countries that is suffering from that hangover. Grouping different tribes and cultures into a United Kingdom model, an idea which still sticks in the craw of the Scots, Welsh, and Irish, takes away individual identity. South Africa is more suited to a federal form of government than a common union.You may ask, but what has this got to do with the South Africa of today, and advertising and marketing?

Well this thinking has manifested itself in the mentality of the country when it comes to advertising communication and marketing strategy. How? The standard method when using both business tools is to adopt a 'One-size-fits-all' approach to solving issues.

Marketing and advertising in terms of the American model is relatively young in South Africa, just over 50 years old. The initial drivers of the economy were the white immigrants who brought the cash with them and the disposable income to stimulate consumption. The indigenous population was looked upon as servants and not as citizens who had needs and wants of their own. Instead they were viewed as belonging to a secondary society with an economy of its own, to be exploited.

The advertising and marketing industry until the 1990s focused almost entirely on wooing the elitist white community with the emphasis on the English speaking sector of our society. It was only during the 1960s that the advertising industry realised that the white Afrikaner not only had wealth, but bargaining and political power as well. For the first time the Afrikaner found himself being wooed, through advertising in the media.

There is an old saying in communication which proposes a simple human truth, 'If you want me to listen to what you have to say, then speak to me in my language.' Unfortunately, the advertising industry, peopled as it is by English culture, had great difficulty in understanding the culture and psyche of the Afrikaner. The result of this disconnect was advertising in Afrikaans media based on creative ideas which were formulated from the perspective of English culture. These translations lacked sincerity, and their impact was weak. The few advertisements crafted by Afrikaners who understood their people stood out like a bright beacon. When the content of an advertisement becomes the topic of conversation amongst the public then it is resonating and doing the job of laying down the foundation of creating a dialogue with its target market, which is what all advertising should work to achieve if it wants to fulfil its economic task of stimulating sales. But the one-size-fits-all mentality caused the bulk of advertising spend to flow into English language media. If there was a need to address the Afrikaner, a translation was considered to be an adequate solution, but most of this was wasted effort.

During the years when the advertising and marketing industry realised they were ignoring the Afrikaner, the African consumer slipped almost entirely off their marketing radar screen. The little advertising directed at this consumer was based on concepts design for the white consumer. You often had the ridiculous situation of English billboards in the Transkei where the lingua franca is Xhosa.

Although South Africa became a democracy in 1994, the ad industry steadfastly refused to recognise blacks as consumers of value and worth addressing them directly.

However, South Africa has always been an entrepreneurial society and the media found the solution. An outdoor medium gave marketers an alternative option to the standard classical media advertising mix of TV, print, and radio. It offered them the mobile entertainment unit, which combined music, a sales pitch, audience participation, competitions, demonstrations, free sampling, all of which when combined became a memorable event. Black consumers love entertainment, particularly when it is free, with the result when these units arrived in an area they were well attended. What these shows did was generate positive word-of-mouth, the most effective form of communication amongst the black community.

From a practical point of view these mobile shows were the stimulus for bringing back one of the oldest rules in marketing- they generated the push and pull cycle. Operated on a regular fixed appearance schedule the locals knew when the show would arrive. Prior to the arrival of the unit, an advanced team would visit the retailers in the area and made sure stock was available. These entertainment shows pulled the stock off the shelves.

These mobile units pull huge expenditure out of the classical marketing budget, and in many categories they exceed classical media expenditure, because they are measurable.

But lets fast move forward. This country has had 12 years of democracy. The black population has move up the social and disposable income scale. Today, they exceed that of whites and according to the Bureau of Economic Research their total disposable spend will exceed that of the white community by the end of 2007.

Where does the advertising and marketing industry stand in this scenario. In terms of creative thinking it is still wedded to the one-size-fits all mentality. It still produces advertising based on the Eurocentric thought process. There has been some progress, however, and that is in television. Black soaps attract the largest audiences of all television programming. The only problem is that very few of the commercials flighted during these programmes connect emotionally with the audience.

On the radio, the situation is even worse. Commercials based on Eurocentric concepts are translated. The medium blacks relate to most is vernacular radio. The reason why is quite simple- if you speak to me in my language I will listen to you. Black radio today has become a companion to the black community.

The weakness with translated commercials is that a single thought spread over many languages loses its significance because the cultural nuances and inflections are homogenised- it is the one-size-fits-all syndrome again. The majority of people in advertising communication cannot speak a black language, and because many of them have no passion for what they do they don't care, either.

The communication problem just exacerbates when you move into the billboard medium. It is relatively easy to establish the lingua franca of the population in an area. It is also easy to design the billboard so that language changes can easily be implemented.

Billboards are usually sited where blacks shop. Yet very few speak the language of the consumer in the immediate footprint area. This is just poor communication strategy.

Where black advertising fails most is when print is used. Most of the advertisements are based on Eurocentric cultural thinking. They are just translations of the English approach. It should be possible to take the universal USP of a brand and deliver it in the language of the consumer without losing the basic brand proposition.

Moving forward the future of the advertising industry in this country depends on recognising the black consumer and producing advertising communication that opens up a two-way dialogue between them and the brand. Blacks must look at advertising and be able to say- 'Hey this ad is talking to me, it wants my custom'. This is not rocket science. It is what all advertising must attempt to do to pay back its media cost. Advertising communication must be viewed as an investment not and expense, and its return should be measurable.

The advertising industry in this country is not there yet. Back to the opening paragraph. This country is not a United Kingdom. It is a federation of four main markets with people who have their own unique culture, language and lifestyle and their own lifestyle honed over the centuries by the climate and environment in which they live. No one-fits-all communication and marketing plan will be able to maximise the potential of these people. Gauteng in the middle is the strongest economy in Africa. It is unique when compared to the other markets in this country. The main cultural groups - the Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho and Tswana view life differently. To gain their support talk to them in their own language and in terms of their own culture. The old excuse of it is too expensive do this has no value. If a market is worthwhile cultivating, do the job properly.

This is the lesson the advertising and marketing industry must learn if it wants to remain relevant as a business tool. Finally, the advertising industry has better get to terms with the Internet. This medium, going forward, will become the ideal tool to enter into a one-to-one dialogue with consumers in this country.

Most of the top brands today started life as regional brands. The giant South African Breweries was formed by merging regional brands- Chandler Beer, Old Durch Beer, Castle Beer, Lion Ale, Ohlssons Beer, Lion Beer. FMCG brands like All Gold, Mrs Balls, Koo, were all Western Cape brands, Trinco Tea is a KZN brand. For many FMCG brands it was the advent of the supermarket which moved them into national distribution. Initially these brands won the support of the consumer because their marketers serviced the needs of the local population.

To gain market share and sales marketers need to revisit this strategy. The over all value proposition of brands can be promoted via national media, but to maximise awareness it needs to be supported by local activity on a promotional and advertising level.

(copyright held by Louis Seeco and Marketing The Same Difference)