The drop in usgae/purchase is not specific to any one province, and is not just in the lower LSMs, but tends to be skewed towards the LSM 1-4 population. Only two purchasing increases were seen.
On a technical note, AMPS 2002B saw the extension of 68 product categories, as questions on brand usage were added for subscribers. The number of units, as well as the categorisation into "Heavy", "Medium", "Light" by "best-thirds" for all product categories, continues to be provided on the datafile. Brand information is, however, confidential to subscribers. This includes brand information for FMCG products, motor vehicles, financial institutions, retail stores (shoes, clothing , furniture, appliances, food and groceries), and shopping centres.
The addition of brand logos to some FMCG product categories on the self-completion questionnaire, could have improved respondents' understanding of these categories, and resulted in apparent changes in usage/purchase. Such changes would not be comparable to the previous survey's results. This report therefore only mentions changes in non-branded categories.
Thirty-eight (38) FMCG product categories (unbranded) had no significant changes. The following showed significant increases in usage/purchase level:
The following FMCG product categories (non-branded), showed significant declines in usage/purchase level:
Source: South African Advertising Research Foundation, www.saarf.co.za.
