Taking a look at our consumerist, collectivist and welfarist selves
November 11, 2007
By Wiseman Khuzwayo Johannesburg
Strong economic growth has seen poorer people becoming less collectivist and more consumerist, and conversely wealthier citizens have come to care more about societal issues than individual prosperity.
This is according to a survey of the changing South African socioeconomic landscape by researchers Mari Harris of Markinor and Carel van Aardt from the Bureau of Market Research at Unisa.
The survey identifies three basic attitudes among South African consumers: collectivists, welfarists and consumerists.
Collectivists are people whose behaviour conforms with the basic principles of ubuntu. Community and authority are very important to them, and they believe that wealth should be shared to ensure that all community members survive.
Welfarists are people with individualistic mindsets, who believe that wealth accumulation is important to improve the welfare of themselves and their households.
Consumerists have individualistic mindsets and believe that their own consumption needs are of paramount importance. They will spend large amounts of money to enhance their image by buying expensive branded clothing and cars.
One of the surprising findings of the survey is that people in low-income groups purchase goods from stores traditionally catering for higher income groups.
You may recall newspaper reports about the MasterCard no-fee credit cards that were issued to customers of Edgars Consolidated Stores (Edcon) chains by Standard Bank. Within six months of the launch in October 2005, Edcon said, 340 000 cards were issued to preapproved holders of Edgars and Jet store cards who had managed their accounts well for at least six months.
The survey found very rapid growth in the percentage of poorer women who bought outer clothing at stores targeting consumers in higher living standards measure (LSM) categories.
From 1997 to 2006, the proportion of low-income households that made such purchases increased by about 340 percent for Mr Price, 550 percent for Jet and 78 percent for Edgars.
A similar trend was seen with purchases of men's clothing by low-income households. There was a 470 percent increase for Mr Price, 585 percent for Jet and nearly 100 percent for Edgars.
There was also strong growth in purchases of hi-fis, music centres and computers by low-income groups, while the proportion of purchases by households in middle- and high-income groups declined.
The survey says: "A strong growth in the purchase of personal computers for home use was evident among both low- and middle-income households. It is especially surprising since the low-income group is living below the poverty datum line and struggles to afford basic foodstuffs for survival."
It says one of the main reasons why people in the low-income group purchase from stores traditionally catering for higher LSMs is that these stores often provide credit facilities to the poor.
"Over the period 1997 to 2006, the number of households with retail store cards grew from 76 000 to 349 000, constituting a 360 percent increase. During this period, the number of low-income households buying durable goods on credit only increased by 5 percent. The implication is that low-income households experience retail cards as an easier option to acquire goods than applying for credit each time a durable item is bought."
The survey used data from the All Media and Product Survey, the Markinor World Values Survey, and the biannual Markinor Sociopolitical Trends Report. The latter study, conducted since 1976, tracks opinions, attitudes and behaviour in the social and political fields.
According to the survey's racial profile, 45 percent of black people are collectivist and 45 percent are welfarist, while only about 10 percent are consumerist. In contrast, 27 percent of white people are collectivist, 45 percent are welfarist and 28 percent are consumerist.
Among coloured people 50 percent are collectivist, 32 percent are welfarist and 18 percent are consumerist, while in the Indian population 38 percent are collectivist, 46 percent are welfarist and only 16 percent are consumerist.
The research finds that 26 percent of adult South Africans are recipients of government grants.
Although the notion of class and class issues in South Africa are contentious, the survey asked people to indicate which class they considered themselves to belong to.
Not surprisingly, larger proportions of consumerists consider themselves to be among the upper- and upper-middle classes.
The study says: "A very exciting element to explore is that of self-assessed poverty status. People were asked to indicate whether they considered themselves to be poor or not poor. This seemingly very simple question sometimes yields very interesting results, with even people of high income considering themselves to be poor!
"A quarter of consumerists (the group with the highest household income) consider themselves poor.
"The self-assessed poverty status might have some relation with how much money an individual has to spend on himself or herself. Not surprisingly, consumerists have the most money available to themselves, although only one in every 10 has more that R1 000 in an average month to splurge."
The research sought to establish whether there had been a substantial increase in the number of people and households with access to radio and television, especially in the lower LSMs.
According to the All Media and Product Survey, between 1997 and 2006 the number of adults who listened to radio increased 20 percent, from 23.9 million in 1997 to 28.6 million in 2006, and will be about 32.7 million by 2014. The number of television viewers increased 30 percent, from 18.7 million in 1997 to 24.4 million in 2006, and will be about 29.4 million by 2014.
"This increase was experienced across all LSMs, thus reflecting better access of the poor to the mass media. The increase could to a large extent be explained by the fact that the number of households with electricity increased from 5.9 million in 1997 (62 percent of households) to 9.4 million in 2006 (86 percent of households)," the survey says.
"During the same period, the number of households with one or more television sets increased from 5.3 million to 8 million, a 51 percent increase in nine years."
The study found that between 1997 and 2006, the number of adults residing in non-rural areas increased by 5 million while the number of people in rural areas increased by 1.5 million.
It says: "While the growing number of people in non-rural areas could primarily be ascribed to in-migration, population growth in rural areas could be ascribed to historically high fertility rates."
About 50 percent of all households living below the minimum LSM consist of persons with collectivist mindsets, says the survey, while only about 10 percent of this group are consumerist.
In the high-income group, however, only about 15 percent are collectivist while over 45 percent are consumerist. In both the high and minimum living level groups, about 40 percent of people are welfarist.
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