c.i.a. and Synovate Film South African Archetypes

Qual specialist the Consumer Insight Agency (c.i.a.) has teamed up with Synovate in a groundbreaking study of sociographic and psychographic trends in South Africa.

Known as the NOW project, the study aims to help marketers to decide who best represents their brand, and both to broaden and to measure its appeal.

The c.i.a. team conducted in-depth qualitative research to find out what 'makes South Africans tick' across the racial, gender and age spectrum. Director Wendy Cochrane says that whereas traditional segmentation methods have sought to box people into categories based on income, age or gender, NOW has 'allowed real people to speak for themselves'.

The study has identified 12 archetypes that represent South African society, and then captured each of their lives on camera in a series of documentary-style films. Synovate has now been brought on board to carry out further quantitative analysis to help define what each archetype represents.

Jannie Hofmeyr, Synovate's International Director of Innovation says that what the two firms are planning to do has never been done anywhere in the world. 'Conventional methods group people together without taking into account their complexity as individuals,' comments Hoffmeyr. 'This kind of cluster analysis basically forces people into a framework and only afterwards is there an attempt to bring each segment to life - this is a back-to-front method of working.'

Synovate will randomly select groups of people who will be interviewed using laptops that play clips from the NOW films, then questioned to gauge if they identify with, like, dislike or admire each of the different archetypes.

'This research will prove that people can respond positively, recognise and admire certain archetypes without belonging to that category themselves,' concluded Hofmeyr, adding that the results will directly challenge the assumption that for advertising to work it must depict individuals within its target market.

The partners are on the web at www.the-cia.co.za and www.synovate.com.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

• Synovate South Africa
• All news
• MrWeb info