Knowing where your market is located is foundational to future strategic development. The LSM (Living Standard Measure) is the industry standard when it comes to looking at consumer patterns in South Africa. Over the years the LSM developed by the South African Advertising Research Forum (SAARF) has changed in the household assets contained in it and the number of categories. AfricaScope through partnerships with key agencies has been able to source nationally representative survey data that it has modelled to provides LSMs at a local level. This has been done over many years starting in 2004. Now we bring you the latest data for 2009 at a local level.

AfricaScope has pioneered the use of nationally representative household surveys to gain an understanding of the distribution of LSMs at a local level. Presently, AfricaScope is engaging with organisations throughout Africa to develop LSM datasets for their countries.

A series of questions on household assets are asked in many national surveys in South Africa. The resulting data is weighted to provide a household’s LSM value. Each household falls into one of the 10 LSM classes. The variables that are used to calculate the LSM includes: