South Africa Marketing Plan

Cultural Analysis

Introduction

This first part is a cultural analysis of South Africa and aims at allowing us to better understand the cultural market where we plan distributing our new product. Happy Beginnings Baby Food is a 100% South African made baby food brand that is consisted of a variety of locally enjoyed flavors. Our brand is divided into three stages of the child that would consume the product. The first stage would be for newborns, the second stage would be for infants, and the third stage of our food would be toddlers.

Currently, our competitors would include Nestle South Africa (holding 40% of the market share), Tiger Brands (25%), and Nestle’s Nan & Lactogen brand (26%). Of the top brands of baby food South African parents buy for their child, none of them are actually national brands of South Africa. The way we plan to differentiate our brand is by having our baby food divided into the three stages, as mentioned, consisting of different types of food flavors that are necessary for the child in a certain stage to receive a healthy and nutritional balance of food. Of the three competing brands, none of the baby food brands in South Africa are divided into these stages. We also differentiate by being a part of the “Proudly South African” campaign that encourages products to be grown, manufactured, and purchased at the home market.

South Africa’s History

Modern humans have lived in what is today South Africa for over 100 000 years and their ancestors for some 3.3 million years. One site, which is particularly rich in fossil remains, the area around the Sterkfontein caves near Johannesburg, is justifiably called the Cradle of Humankind. More recent evidence of early humans is the many vivid rock paintings, which were created by small groups of Stone Age hunter-gatherers, the ancestors of the Khoekhoen and San. Some 2 000 years ago, the Khoekhoen (the Hottentots of early European terminology) were pastoralists who had settled mostly along...