Energise our biggest brand; support Proudly South African

Proudly South African is the country’s only official buy-local advocacy campaign. In addition to being a brand, it’s also a membership-based organisation whose logo is carried by many other brands, making its reputation inextricably linked to theirs. 

All the brands associated with, and affiliated to, Proudly SA collectively have a role to play in giving the buy-local movement and the logo that represents it, prominence on their products. Exposing consumers to Proudly SA on fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), clothing and apparel, white goods, furniture, manufactured items, services such as airlines and hotel groups, serves to energise the brand and show SA’s ability to produce excellence. 

Buying local goes beyond the Proudly SA logo. The labelling legislation in SA requires all products to show their country of origin. Being a logo-bearing member can reinvigorate local manufacturing. Collectively, we need to make an effort to always buy items made here at home.

Given our current economic situation, it is now more important than ever to focus our buying power on locally grown, produced and manufactured goods and services.

When imports were log-jammed at international ports of exit and here at domestic ports of entry, South Africans wanted for almost nothing on the shelves of our stores. It was local manufacturers that ensured that from field to fork, our nutritional needs were met and that as winter approached, we were equipped for the cold weather with warm clothing and blankets.

Right now, we must examine our own personal and corporate purchasing habits and our reliance on, or preference for, imported goods. By buying imported items we are exporting jobs and assisting overseas economies get back on their feet. While we are still a player in the global economy, it is incumbent on us as South Africans to put our own economy back to work and to ensure that jobs are retained or re-created as we become economically active once again.

By supporting local manufacturers to keep people in work we are also creating a cycle of economically active citizens who have purchasing power and, in doing so, stimulate the economy.

There are some grim facts and figures that we must confront as an economically damaged country and world, but buying local is a way of demonstrating the pride we have in our own skills, of supporting job retention and creation, and of building the Proudly SA brand and all those brands that feed into it.

Proudly SA recently participated in a Future of Media digital discussion. Click here to learn more about the opportunities the South African environment offers for advertisers and brands.

This article was paid for by Proudly South African.