Vincent Obiro Orute Obunga
4 July 2009
opinion
Arusha — An African consumer of the 1980s and 1990s believed in an African dream: Continuous rising real income, a home in the rural village, and money to spend. In the early 2000s this dream was shaken. The African consumer confronted shortages, then inflation, and then a recession. His real income deteriorated.
The African consumer exposed to income deterioration goes through a number of stages in adjusting to the new economic realities.
At first, he maintains his old spending habits or patterns, refusing to take his loss in real income seriously. As things get worse, he starts to cut down certain things from his budget and search for less expensive goods and services.
At a further point, he gets angry at certain forces that he thinks or feels are behind the 'economic downturn' ( meltdown) , big business, unions, government, if he could, he would vote the culprits out of power. Still later, he shows signs of despair because the situation continues to get worse and no one is able to do anything about it.
Finally, he begins to take stock of his new economic situation and adopts a new set of consumer values matched to his economic realities.
And please do not get me wrong on this. Not all African consumers go through these stages, but many of them make several adjustments of great import to sellers.
This change in consumer spending habits or patterns in Africa has given rise to three distinct consumer life- styles.
First, is the minority group, referred in marketing lexicon as 'intense consumers'? These are social elites who live on inherited wealth and have a well - known family background and still retain their old consumption values of the 1980s and 1990s and do their best to continue purchasing on the old scale and with attention to product style, convenience features, and status. They spend lavishly, drive large cars, live high, maintain more than one home, send their children to some of the finest schools on the land and do not worry about waste. Members of this minority group are a large market for expensive cars, jewelry, antiques, and vacations. While small as a group, they serve as a reference point for others to the extent that their consumption habits and patterns trickle down and are imitated by the other social classes.
The second group also a minority group is what is referred in marketing lexicon as 'sensible consumers'. They lead a day- to- day existence of unchanging activities. They live in small houses or apartments in dull areas of the city centre, buy small cars, more practical clothes, simpler appliances and exhibit conscientious work habits and adhere to culturally defined norms and standards - including going to church every Sunday or to the Mosque every Friday. Members of this minority group concentrate more on functional product values and economy. They believe in education and want their children to develop professional or administrative skills so that they do not slide into a lower stratum. The working class wife spends most of her time in the house cooking, cleaning, and caring for her children. She sees being the mother of her children as her main vocation, and she has little time for organizations and social activity. She tends to buy the same type of goods from week to week and occasionally buys some items impulsively. Men work at manual jobs and have a moderate level of education preferably diploma level. Although ' white collars' make up a large part of this group, so do ' gray collars' (mailmen, firemen) and 'aristocrat blue collars' ( plumbers, factory men).
The third group, and the majority group, is what is referred in marketing lexicon as 'austere consumers'. They are at the bottom of the social ladder and are considered by other classes as 'slum dwellers' or 'riffraff'. Some members of this majority group try to rise above the social ladder but often fall back and stop trying, while others manage to rise above the social ladder and sometimes even graduate into the second group- the 'sensible consumers' depending on how hardworking they are. Most members of this majority group have voluntarily turned against material values and started de-consuming. They wear simple clothes on all occasions, make some of their own furniture, use some of the cheapest appliances and the cheapest transport in town mostly 'Matatus' incase they are Kenyans or 'Dala Dalas' incase they are Tanzanians or sometimes they simply walk long distances or ride simple bicycles or motor bikes. They also grow some of their own food, and eat less preferably one meal a day.
Incase circumstances force them to buy some goods they may be lacking; they often do so impulsively and often do not evaluate quality but pay too much attention on quantity and buy on credit.
Members of this majority group are a large market for cheap food, (Makande) and the so-called second hand goods mostly clothes, electrical appliances and shoes. Members of this majority group are convinced that they will be healthier and happier and live longer this way instead of wasting their precious time trying to climb up the social ladder and end up sliding back to the bottom.
Vincent Obiro Orute Obunga is executive director, Volunteer Network Africa, a volunteer organization committed to social and economic change across the globe.
or orutev@yahoo.com
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Arusha Times. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
