The majority of South African consumers are the youth.
The youth segment is important for South African business. It is defined as age groups 15 to 34 in the TCSA analysis, with a further breakdown of this into 3 categories.
One of the new additions for the 2018 TCSA was the inclusion of a youth category, focusing specifically on the top 10 companies among this segment.
Detailed findings are available from Plus 94 Research for youth ratings of all 204 top companies.
In the overall sample, there was only one technology-oriented company in the top ten, that being Samsung.
The picture changed quite markedly for the youth.
In addition to Samsung, other information technology and telecommunications companies were incorporated into the Top 10. These were notably Multichoice, MTN and Telkom.
The most telling observation is that youth tended to be more preoccupied with companies that differed to the combined national population including on the clothing side a preference for Edgars over Pep.
The following observations underpin the essence of the difference of approach in how the youth viewed reputation:
While Coca-Cola won overall, MultiChoice won among the youth, with Coca-Cola and Pick ‘n Pay remaining in the youth top 3.
This is not surprising as the youth have a higher demand for the consumption of entertainment.
The age differences in ratings are exemplified by the fact that in the combined population ratings MultiChoice did not make the top 10, and yet won the youth category.
Dis-Chem dropped from 3rd place in the combined sample to 7th place among the youth.
Makro fell completely off the youth top 10 companies, as did Capitec, Pep and Shoprite.
These businesses were replaced by the youth preferred businesses which were Edgars, MTN, Telkom and MultiChoice.
When comparing the 15 to 24-year-olds to the total youth sample, they dropped off Edgars and replaced it with Standard Bank, and replaced Beiersdorf with Vodacom.
The 25-30-year-old youth included in their top 10 some businesses that were not part of the overall youth top 10. These were Kurt Geiger, Old Mutual, Pep, Volkswagen and Shoprite.
The 31 to 34-year-olds were similar to the overall youth sample but excluded from their top 10 companies KFC and Telkom, replacing the two with Adcock Ingram and Spar South Africa.
– Supplied
