Bottom of the Pyramid in South Africa 2009

While consumer spending in traditional markets is under pressure there is a cushion under the bottom of the pyramid. As governments in industrialised countries scramble to put together stimulatory packages in order to encourage household spending it is worth noting we already have a very significant stimulatory package in place. The country’s social welfare system provides cash incomes to around 12.5 million beneficiaries (and counting), and free houses to around 200,000 households a year. In total according to the medium term budgetary forecast government will spend over R90 billion on these two items alone over the next year. Now more than ever companies that ignore the bottom of the pyramid do so at peril to their bottom lines.

Eighty20's revised and enriched analysis explores the nature and extent of the opportunity at the bottom of the South African pyramid measured both in terms of the number of individuals or households and in terms of annual spend. In this presentation Eighty20 explores new data sources including the Income and Expenditure Survey, the 2007 Community Survey and 2008 AMPS to explore the buying behaviour of the low-income market with a special look at how Government programmes impact on the spending power and spending priorities of the poor.

Case Studies: Goal Supermarket, Biogas, Fundisa, The Daily Sun, Psitek