Marketing promotions to pregnant women in South Africa
Date
2012-11-14
Authors
du Toit, Anastasia Irene
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Abstract
Consumers in South Africa are bombarded with an abundance of marketing messages on a daily basis. This information overload has resulted in consumers ignoring certain marketing communications and becoming confused as to which products to purchase. Similarly, marketing communications are not sufficiently tailored for the intended target markets.
In South Africa, most women’s purchasing power has been enhanced due to their higher educational levels and employment equity. Considering this, women have become an important marketing opportunity. Thus, the purpose of this research report is to determine which combination of promotional activities is most likely to influence the decision making processes of pregnant women. This research may then be used to develop an integrated marketing campaign targeted to reach medium to high income earning pregnant women.
A mixed methodology of quantitative and qualitative techniques was used to determine which promotional activities are most effective for this intended target market. The quantitative component involved analysing 292 online and intercept consumer surveys using descriptive statistics; exploratory factor analysis and k-means cluster analysis. The qualitative component consisted of eight in-depth consumer and five in-depth trade interviews which were content analysed.
The key findings of this research were that regardless of demographic factors, women in general, and pregnant women in particular, consistently rate the recommendations of healthcare professionals, recommendations of friends and family, samples, price / quantity promotions and loyalty programmes as the most likely interventions to influence their decision making processes. Text message and email adverts, eventing and publicity, as well as celebrity endorsements were rated by women as the least likely interventions to influence their decision making processes.
Notwithstanding this, mass media marketing continues to play a role in stimulating brand awareness, with the most successful campaigns consisting of a combination of above-the-line and below-the-line promotional activities.
Description
MBA thesis - WBS
Keywords
Marketing promotions, Marketing