COMPETITOR BRAND ACTIVITY
There were a few new campaigns over the period with most brands focusing on promoting their brand’s core values and value propositions. African Bank’s brand campaign aims to promote diversity, inclusivity and financial inclusion. Assupol celebrated its 110th birthday with a campaign emphasising the company’s legacy of serving society. Hollard launched a broker-focused campaign promoting its personalised ‘local is lekker’ insurance solutions and brokers. Additionally, TymeBank appointed a new creative partner to help it position itself as a more aspirational brand, to fulfil its ambition to be among the top three banks in the country. While Nedbank’s campaign is an emotional thought experiment aimed to create awareness about the lack of retirement savings in SA.
Over the period, some brands have been making notable strategic moves, to better service its clients, uplift communities and expand to new regions. Sanlam has expressed its intent to raise its ownership of BrightRock from 62% to 100%. BrightRock has been recognised as the top provider of sum assured in the intermediate IFA individual life market and holds the highest market share for funeral products sold in the IFA space, with a 21.9% share of the total sum insured. Additionally, Sanlam and SanParks has launch a program for local SMMEs near national parks which aims to create sustainable businesses contributing to job creation and economic development in the surrounding communities. OUTsurance, while being optimistic about the Ireland expansion is now considering a restructuring of OUTvest, which may include possible disposal.
Notably, the period under review included Mandela Day. However, brands were not using the opportunity to promote their community initiatives. Coronation was the only brand to actively promote its initiatives for the day with a sponsored article.
COMPETITOR PRODUCT ACTIVITY
Over the period, some brands launched new digital banking and payment solutions to not only increase access to financial products for more financial inclusion but also to provide more affordable and convenient ways to move and use money. Discovery integrated PayShap into its payment rails to allow its clients to instantly pay anyone from as little as R1. VodaPay launched two new banking services that allow customers to deposit cash into their Vodapay wallets at national retailers and send money to anyone.
Given the constrained financial conditions with consumers demanding more credit to keep up with increased cost of living, consumers are seeking more affordable products and value for money. FNB eBucks introduced new features that provides its entry market clients with more opportunities to earn eBucks, to create more value for its clients. Despite the efforts made by FNB, Capitec is still the best and most preferred financial rewards program providing its clients the most value for money. Furthermore, the Old Mutual Money Account has the highest fees for cash withdrawal and deposit fees making it less competitive in this segment compared to other cheapest entry-level bank accounts in South Africa.
Despite the tough economic conditions, Nedbank found that the Youth are making considerable strides to save, especially in short-term saving while long-term savings are neglected. Additionally, the study found that the Youth prioritise rewards points, personalized advice, digital channels, fee discounts and goal-oriented apps that can influence their saving behaviours.
COMPETITOR INDUSTRY ACTIVITY
Over the period, the government has launched initiatives to tackle unemployment and the energy crisis. National Treasury launched a new program that will provide metros with R6.3 billion to support job generation and economic growth. The Western Cape Government launched the Growth for Jobs initiative that aims to create an economy that grows at 4-6% annually and will create 600 000 jobs by 2035. Additionally, the government has also launched the Energy One Stop Shop and Energy Resilience Fund to streamline the regulatory process for private energy generation, to support its other initiatives aimed at ending the energy crisis.
Trade Unions were also active during the period with wage negotiations and creating awareness of the socio-economic conditions faced by workers. Numsa representing the Gautrain workers has avoided any strike action and negotiated an 8% wage increase along with other allowances for the Gautrain workers. Workers at Hulamin, also represented by Numsa has embarked on an indefinite strike. On the 06 July 2023, Cosatu members embarked on a national strike in protest of the adverse socio-economic faced by workers, with a message for the government to take action. Additionally, NUM has taken an unprecedented stance of suspending its Secretary General, William Mabapa, with pay due to an internal investigation into alleged mismanagement of funds.
