Due to an increase in spending power amongst Black middle class, this growing segment has become a lucrative investment opportunity for many retailers in South Africa and most emerging markets. The purpose of this study is to segment township consumers according to their demographics, life stage, attitudes towards township shopping centres and Living Standards Measure, to understand shopping patterns of township consumers. A survey among Soweto Black middle class township respondents was conducted, and maximum likelihood factor analysis was used to identify attitudes towards township mall factors. The study revealed five factors namely: entertainment, convenience, mall essence, staff and mall basics, which were all consistent with previous studies, with the exception of staff and mall basics, which was revealed in this study. A Kmeans cluster analysis was then used to segment township shoppers according to their attitudes.Four shopper segments were discovered, namely: disappointed crusaders, upcoming loyals, social seekers and local loyals, which, despite investigating shopper attitudes in place of shopper behaviour alone, were similar to well-establish shopper typologies. Each segment was profiled according to demographic variables, attitudes as well as shopping patterns. Results therefore suggest that retailers and developers need to consider the unique needs and differences among Black middle class consumers when developing retail strategies as they reveal unique characteristics from typical shopper typologies. Given similarities in some emerging countries such as India, the findings of this study could be generalized to other middle class consumers from emerging markets. Similar shopper segments may arise, which may be consistent with previous shopper typology studies and new segments unique to emerging market middle class consumer may be unveiled.

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -This article is the culmination of an exploratory study into the mature market (defined as over the age of 55) in South Africa. The article aims to focus on the mature market's media consumption, perception of portrayal in the media, adoption of technology, and outlook on life -all of which influence their spending patterns in their twilight years. Design/methodology/approach -The study gained an international perspective of the mature market through the literature on the subject. Empirical analysis of the South African market was thereafter conducted through a lifestyle survey of 117 respondents living in metropolitan areas. The data were imported into -and analysed using -Statistica for descriptive and clustering purposes. Findings -The mature market is, unsurprisingly, most in favour of traditional media channels. To this end, television, radio, magazines and newspapers still remain an effective means to communicate with this market. Use of mobile phones and the internet was observed -although in a limited sense. A negative attitude towards advertising was observed on the whole, with individuals within this cohort feeling neglected in favour of younger consumers. The variables Age, Income, living standard measure (LSM) groupings and Internet usage, when utilised in conjunction, appear to be an effective differentiator of the mature market in South Africa. Three lifestyle clusters were discovered by the study, namely: Old optimists, Young up-beats, and Younger opinionists. Originality/value -It has been established that the mature market is a lucrative one for retailers. However, the majority of studies have been focused on developed nations such as the UK and the USA. This study brings about an emerging market perspective.

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