To find out what Capetonians want, The Media sought out the recent ROOTS research. As diverse as the Western Cape is in terms of race, religion and wealth, the province’s media and lifestyle habits and aspirations are very similar.
When TNS conducted the ROOTS research recently – specifically looking at their media and technological interests and buying habits – their sample from the different areas in the Mother City and environs bears this out.
The Media picked five of the Western Cape areas they covered, some of them predominantly upper and the rest lower LSMs groups. They are: Mitchells Plein, Gugulethu, Constantia, Sea Point/Camps Bay and Rondebosch (southern suburbs).
For the most part, their favourite print publications were local media, with 73% of Mitchell’s Plein favouring People’s Post Mitchells Plein and only 14% Daily Voice, 9% YOU magazine and 5% the Weekend Argus (Saturday). In Rondebosch, the favourite was their local Southern Suburbs Tatler at 61%, the Cape Argus at 21%, Sunday Times at 10% and YOU at 7%. In Sea Point/Camps Bay, 55% of the sample preferred the Atlantic Sun, 22% Cape Times, 12% Weekend Argus (Saturday) and 10% YOU. While 67% of Constantia favoured a local community newspaper, their mainstream daily – at 12% – was Cape Times and their weekend favourite read was the Sunday Times, also at 12%.
Other than in Gugulethu, where 10% of the audience prefer Move! magazine, the most popular magazine was YOU with a readership of 8% to 10%. In Gugulethu, 52% of the sample preferred to read Vukani, the Xhosa/English local newspaper, 10% read Move! Magazine, and Daily Sun and Sunday Sun were the next best reads at 9%.
In terms of technology, Rondebosch (southern suburbs) and Constantia have the highest number of people connected to the internet, at 58% and 59% consecutively. This is not surprising, considering there are many university students in the southern suburbs, with 71% in the LSM 8 to 10 bracket, and 51% of the Constantia sample are between 16 and 49 years old, and 82% are in the LSM 8-10 bracket.
In both areas, 58% are on the internet at least once a week or more often. In Constantia 40% have desktops, 39% have laptops and only 5% have tablets. In Rondebosch 35% access the internet via desktops, 31% on laptops and 3% via tablet. In both Rondebosch and Constantia, 94% have cellphones.
In Sea Point/Camps Bay, 46% of the sample connect to the internet and of those, 46% do it once or more a week. While 45% have laptops, 31% have desktops and only 1% have tablets. In this area, 83% are in LSM 8-10 but 49% are over 50. In Sea Point, only 81% have cellphones.
In Gugulethu, where 28% of the sample were in LSM 8-10, only 17% connect to the internet and on 15% of those do so once or more a week. Only 5% have a laptop and 5% a desktop, but 90% have some form of cellphone.
In Mitchells Plein, where 37% are in LSM 8-10 and the sample between 16 and 49 is 61%, only 25% connect to the internet. Of that number, only 24% do so once a week or more often than that. Only 17% have a desktop and 6% have a laptop, but 82% have cellphones. So, in Mitchells Plein and Gugulethu, the chances of the sample accessing the online media via smartphones are good.
In the past year, the Sea Point/Camps Bay sample has hardly been out looking for appliances of any sort. Only 2% looked or bought audio visual equipment and 3% for small electrical appliances. None of them looked for large appliances, furniture or computers. In Rondebosch/southern suburbs, 8% looked for audio visual appliances, 11% for large appliances, 15% for small appliances and 3% for computers.
In Constantia, as many as 10% looked for computers, 23% for small appliances, 19% for audio visual and 14% for large appliances.
In the lower income areas of Gugulethu and Mitchells Plein, there was more shopping for appliances. Of the Gugulethu sample, 18% sought out audio visual appliances, 21% large and 29% small appliances, while 4% looked for computers.
Of the Mitchells Plein group, 13% went audio visual appliance shopping, 26% looked for small appliances and 9% for big appliances. Only 1% shopped for computers. n
NAB Caxton’s ROOTS survey is the most comprehensive urban retail and readership study available in South Africa.
