The marketing world needs a consistent means of segmenting the population into discrete groups, because ways of segmenting consumers vary between markets. Target Group Index’s, (TGI’s) global footprint enables users worldwide to access a consistent way of directly comparing consumer segments.

TGI is a powerful market research tool that provides invaluable insights to media agency, marketer, and media owner users. Ask Afrika own the local license, and have a support team for users assisting with application of psychographic and demographic profiling, and using the software and various segmentation tools to the optimum. The data if used correctly, can answer almost any market research question that a brand owner might have. The TGI sample is representative of the South African population aged 15 and over, living in communities with more than 8000 inhabitants. Ask Afrika includes a township sample in TGI, that can be segmented separately, and per township.

Ross Sergeant, group director of Strategy at OMD South Africa, says, “Of all the research sources available to us in media today, TGI South Africa is the most qualitatively and quantitatively valuable source we have. Together with the Choices software the ways in which we can manipulate the data to pull truly insightful information is limitless. I would encourage all brand owners who don't yet have access to TGI, to seriously consider subscribing and, more so, work closely with the extremely helpful and knowledgeable team at TGI, to use the data to its furthest extent.”

The TGI team helped Joe Public get ‘battle ready’ for their Nedbank pitch. Jodi Calvert, channel strategist at Joe Public says, “TGI have a passionate and insightful team. They will pull out all the stops to find the most in-depth insights, even if it means doing something again and again. There was no stopping them in finding the correct data that would make a difference to my client’s business. The tool is without doubt if, used correctly, the most strategic tool available in the industry. It can reveal fascinating insights into a target market, and the manner in which they consume media. With the insights given we were able to respond to our clients with more in-depth and tailor-made strategies.”

TGI has a number of predefined segmentation tools such as Socio-Economic Levels (SELs), Life Values, Life Stages, Health Zones, and Media Neutral Quintiles. Users are also able to define their own segmentation categories based on their requirements. Ask Afrika will assist in setting up tailor-made segments as required. TGI’s segmentation tools provide insights for marketers and give an in-depth understanding of consumers and their target market, specifically through psychographic and demographic segmentation and profiling.

“Altech Autopage utilised the past year’s TGI subscription to facilitate close the five million rand worth of research. This enabled us to run a geospatial study to understand where the best store placement would be in terms of competition placement, Autopage’s base geographical layout, and where the gap was. This enabled us to build a robust strategy in terms of where to invest money, and of where to open new stores based on hunting, poaching or farming approach for that specific target market.’

“The subscription adds huge value to any marketing team wanting to understand who their customers are and what needs they have. TGI is well worth the money if you utilise the tool to its full potential.’

“We used the omnibus facility to provide us with a brand tracking mechanism, and guide the brand teams to focus on relevant marketing spend in certain areas. The most beneficial application of the subscription was in developing a lifestyle segmentation understanding of the Autopage customer base. This has been invaluable and is currently being applied in the customer lifecycle strategy, customer value management application, and marketing tonality applied to the different types of customers that Autopage speak to in campaigns and communications,” says Vivienne Geldenhuys, general manager of Consumer Segments, Altech Autopage.

TGI uses SELs a global socio-economic classification, similar to Lifestyle Standards Measures (LSMs). SELs are applied in a comparable fashion on TGI surveys all over the world and can be applied across the South African demographic. TGI’s SELs are based on the individual rather than on a household, and this derives clear segmentation with no assumed status from the head of household, and on a points-scoring system based on educational achievement, and selected consumer durables.

SELs have five segments with SEL 1 as the highest level and SEL 5 as the lowest (whereas LSM 10 is the highest and LSM 1 is the lowest). Socio-economic stratification is applied within countries and not across them, meaning that SEL 3 is the middle-class of a particular country, but SEL3 in one country may not have the same lifestyle as SEL 3 in another country. SEL 1 refers to higher-level socio-economic groups or super consumers who can be targeted by brand owners wherever they come from. SEL 5 in developing countries would have little disposable income. In South Africa the distribution of the population is SEL 1: 8.4%, SEL 2: 16.9%, SEL 3: 25.4%, SEL 4: 35.6%, and SEL 5: 13.8%.

“Pick n Pay has derived value from TGI in both our strategic and tactical projects. We used TGI Choices extensively in our brand review to understand customer perception and behaviour, focusing specifically on how it differs in the various SEL groupings. This has helped us form an in-depth consumer insight of Pick ‘n Pay and competitor customers. Tactically, we use TGI in most of our category evaluations, helping us understand how our customers think and feel about the products and brands we sell,” says Annie Swanepoel, Customer Insights manager at Pick n Pay.