‘Made in Cape Town’ movement launched to bolster economic recovery

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Article found on BizCommunity

A number of key public, private and NPO stakeholders are joining forces to initiate a “Made in Cape Town” movement that will surface and celebrate products and services of a Cape Town origin.

The announcement of Covid-19 Alert Level One earlier this month saw local businesses breathe a little easier as doors opened wider to broader economic opportunities.

To support local businesses across the board, from one-person SMMEs to corporates, a number of key public, private and NPO stakeholders are joining forces to initiate a “Made in Cape Town” movement that will surface and celebrate products and services of a Cape Town origin.

The “Made in Cape Town” movement is managed by the Craft and Design Institute (CDI) in partnership with the City of Cape Town’s Enterprise and Investment Department. It aims to demonstrate the strength of what can be achieved when public and private entities come together to support the reopening of the economy.

A showcase of Cape Town

“The primary goal at this stage,” says Erica Elk, group CEO of the CDI, “is to unearth and showcase what Cape Town has created. And to encourage locals to support local.

“The ‘Made in Cape Town’ movement provides the CDI with an additional channel to connect local businesses with economic opportunities that will help them recover. It speaks to the objectives of several of our other projects, one being the Re:Solve Challenge which enables innovative entrepreneurs to take their first steps in prototyping new local products and services.”

Elk elaborates: “Through ‘Made in Cape Town’ we are calling on the public and local businesses to tell us what excites them about Cape Town: is it a locally made product? A food or beverage they associate with the Mother City, or an invention or company that was born here? A unique service, event or adventure? The list of possibilities is endless!”

The initiative is going public ahead of the festive season to drive interest throughout the season and beyond, with “Made in Cape Town” calling for public input via a variety of social media platforms, namely Facebook and Instagram.

“The ‘Made in Cape Town’ message amplifies the City of Cape Town’s own economic initiatives to boost the economy out of the lockdown and galvanise both local businesses and supporters within all Cape Town communities,” says Alderman James Vos, the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Opportunities and Asset Management.

“In just the past month, the City has launched a number of programmes to drive our economy. We recently announced a 200-step Inclusive Economic Growth Strategy (IEGS) to make opportunities more accessible for all who live in Cape Town and, in particular, create jobs,” says Alderman Vos. Other recent City of Cape Town initiatives have included detailed destination readiness plans which highlight how the city is preparing to safely welcome visitors over the festive season. This ties into Cape Town Tourism’s (CTT) new international “Find Your Freedom” campaign, which converts potential travellers in key source markets to actual visitors to the Mother City, and CTT’s “Captivating Cape Town” campaign showing the accessibility and affordability of Cape Town.

Supporting local businesses

According to Alderman Vos, the key objective behind these numerous initiatives is to assist the development of community tourism to support local businesses. He therefore believes that the “Made in Cape Town” movement will support these initiatives, enabling local businesses to create jobs and help to grow the economy.

“In partnership with the CDI, we are shining the spotlight on the many quality goods and services that originate in the Mother City and encouraging both locals and visitors alike to come forward to say what they love about Cape Town. This is an opportunity to endorse Cape Town as a destination and to show our love for local by buying local.”

The first private sector entity to pledge its support for the “Made in Cape Town” movement is the V&A Waterfront who, with the CDI, is currently implementing a Retail Readiness Living Lab (RRLL) programme. Supporting small creative businesses in the Watershed, RRLL provides training and mentorship to foster retail expertise and readiness as the economy reopens. Currently, craft producers located at designer/artist Heath Nash’s “Our Workshop” at the Gugu S’Thebe Centre in Langa are participating and benefitting from the opportunities being offered in the RRLL programme.

“All these speak to celebrating local products and services,” concludes Elk. “As the CDI, we are excited by the ‘Made in Cape Town’ movement because it will help, support and promote South African products and services – which is what we need to drive our recovery.”

Top 10 fashion brands in SA from January – July 2021

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Article by Caroline Castanier & Rakhee Naik on BizCommunity

The retail industry has no doubt experienced critical losses due to the global Covid-19 pandemic. However, as we return to the new normal, retailers are looking at innovative ways of capturing market share from competitors, grabbing the attention of a customer who is consistently confronted with brand messaging and sales techniques. Having a positive recommendation of a brand supports brand consideration; and while fashion trends are continually changing, it is important to reflect on strong performing brands in order to envisage future trends. For this reason, we look into fashion brands that performed the strongest in terms of recommendation from January-July 2021.

For the first half of 2021, we have Woolworths leading on recommendation, followed by Takealot and Mr Price. This supports brand consideration, with Woolworths and Mr Price strongly leading the market, translating to a cross-over of these two brands from mid-July 2021 with regards to purchase intent. On the other hand, while Edgars places 10th on recommendation, the brand ranks 6th on consideration noting the brands legacy strength in the market.

Those recommending Woolworths constitute a slightly older age group, with 4 f in 5 f customers supporting brands that have a moral message. This is encouraged by Woolworths’ business journey promoting sustainability of the environment, its people, and communities.

When delving deeper to further understand those recommending Takealot, we note that 9 in 10 customers are looking to purchase good quality products, with 42% noticing advertisements on the internet. In encouraging customers to utilise Takealot, it is also vital that customers are given the opportunity to subscribe to a loyalty programme that demonstrates value in their purchase.

Lastly, Mr Price accommodates for a younger age group of customers, with 27% aged up to 24 years old. Value is a key aspect for Mr Price customers, with almost 4 in 10 customers stating that they do not spend a lot on clothing, speaking to the fast fashion industry gaining traction in the South African market in recent years. This is reiterated by the brand earning 2nd place on value on the BrandIndex measurement tool. 7 in 10 customers recommending Mr Price also often talk about brand advertising they have seen, driving a need for billboard advertising that supports top of mind awareness for the brand.

Overall, while each brand speaks to different customer bases, it is vital that brands keep abreast of the shifting customer needs, over and above changing fashion trends, in order to remain relevant and drive brand recommendation and consideration.

* All data mentioned in the above infographics is significantly higher compared to the South African National Population

Methodology:

BrandIndex:  the real-time & continuous monitoring tool for brands and all the speeches dedicated to them. In South Africa, more than 100 brands are assessed on a daily basis via our panel of approximately 28,700 respondents.

Recommendation: Which of the following retailers would you RECOMMEND to a friend or colleague?

And which of the following retailers would you tell a friend or colleague to avoid?

Population:  South African adults with access to the internet

Period:  from 1 January 2021 to 31 July 2021

N ~ 4 141

Profiles:  segmentation and media planning YouGov tool. Data is collected daily, and YouGov Profiles makes it simple to find and understand the audience that matters most to you. It gives you the power to build and customize a portrait of your consumers’ entire world with unrivaled granularity. More than 9,000 variables are available in South Africa.

Dataset:  2021-08-08

Population:  South African adults with access to the internet who recommend Woolworths within the fashion sector

N ~ 1 596

Population:  South African adults with access to the internet who recommend Takealot.com within the fashion sector

N ~ 1 151

Population:  South African adults with access to the internet who recommend Mr. Price within the fashion sector

N ~ 1 160