Dr Tumelo Chaka challenges growth-stage businesses to stop marketing at consumers and start understanding them
South Africa’s most ambitious growth-stage businesses are not short of opportunity. What many are short of, however, is a deeper understanding of the people they are trying to reach.
That was the central message at the latest Kaya 959 Business Club session, held at Kaya 959 House in Parktown North, where a select group of business owners, marketers and executives gathered for a powerful conversation on culture, the black consumer, and the commercial advantage of marketing with genuine insight.
Led by Dr Tumelo Chaka, Marketing and Commercial Director at United Stations, the session challenged advertisers to think beyond campaigns, platforms and media schedules and to focus instead on the lived reality, needs, aspirations and cultural drivers of their customers.
For advertisers looking to grow, the message was clear: cultural intelligence is not a “nice to have”. It is a competitive advantage.
Dr Chaka opened with a striking example of a businessman operating a small retail store in a Free State town of 350,000 people, reportedly generating R2.8 billion in profit annually. By contrast, Pick n Pay, with thousands of stores serving a national population, recorded a R1.5 billion loss in the same period. The difference, Dr Chaka argued, was not simply scale, footprint or budget. It was a sharper understanding of the customer.
His top-selling products included seawater, salt, and a slaughtering and butchery service designed for urban South Africans who may no longer know how to perform traditional funeral rituals, but still want to honour them properly. These were not products created from assumption. They were responses to real human behaviour, real cultural need and real consumer insight.
“Marketing at the speed of culture means understanding the psyche of your customer,” Dr Chaka told the room. “Most businesses open and become a self-reflection of what the owner wants. The question is always: what does the customer want?”
For advertisers, this is where the opportunity becomes powerful.
Kaya 959 sits in daily conversation with an influential, aspirational and economically active audience. It is a trusted voice in the lives of Gauteng’s black middle class, a community that is shaping culture, business, lifestyle and consumption in South Africa’s most important economic province.
The Kaya 959 Business Club is designed to help brands move closer to that audience. It gives advertisers more than access to airtime. It gives them access to context, insight, conversation and commercial understanding.
Tumi Rabanye, Head of Marketing at Kaya 959, said after the session: “Kaya 959 sits at the centre of black aspiration in South Africa. What Dr Chaka unpacked today is exactly why that matters commercially. Culture is not context. It is the strategy.”
The Business Club continues to create a space where growth-minded advertisers can engage with the ideas, people and market intelligence shaping the next chapter of South Africa’s economy.
For businesses seeking meaningful growth, the invitation is simple: understand the audience better, speak to them with greater relevance, and use Kaya 959 as the platform to build trust, connection and commercial momentum.
Stay connected with Kaya 959 on social media for updates on the next Kaya 959 Business Club session, or contact Direct Sales Manager Basil Feldman: basil@unitedstations.co.za / +27 72 143 2732.
