Britta Reid recently wrote an article published in The MediaOnline entitled, Establishment blues: ES must be unbiased foundation for media research, in which she says, “For global clients Target Group Index (TGI) is the primary source of attitudinal and brand information. It is run in almost 70 countries and provides a tool for global segmentation. In my agency days, we had several clients who required the use of the survey to reflect their global strategies. Utilising TGI would “synch” South Africa with the rest of the world. With a sound Establishment Survey (ES), integrating TGI into the mix would be eminently possible. What it would require is a rethinking of the current South African TGI business model. Grant Robertson, Strategic Innovations Director at Ask Afrika responds.
Thank you Britta for your suggestion, Ask Afrika is willing to co-create a new business model for TGI in South Africa for the marketing and media industry. We concur that TGI is the ideal product, brand, and product tool of South Africa, given its local history and success, not to mention its global harmonisation. Technically, we are open to using a sampling and weighting design that is developed and endorsed by the industry, so that TGI can be integrated into the other industry surveys.
We believe the industry will benefit from a product that is continually subjected to local and global innovation. If TGI is integrated into the ES there will be no lag or gap in the provision of branded data when the guard is changed.
In order for Ask Afrika to be properly positioned we would make a few adjustments: finalise our weighting scheme; increase our sample size (expanding into to rural areas so as to have a full national sample) and pilot TGI online. TGI can provide a ‘Touchpoints’ type of survey and its SELs (Socio-Economic Levels) are a good alternative to LSMs (Living Standards Measures) with more comprehensive segmentation. Ask Afrika welcomes further discussion on this topic.
