Okay, those of you who really do know what it is can put their hands down. The rest of you with your hands still up can go and see the Headmaster for a thrashing - especially those who think you can use an LSM group to define your creative approach.
The concept of a Living Standards Measurement (LSM) is now, surprisingly, being used by a lot of people who really don't have a clue what it means. "Unfortunately, it has become so relied upon that it's very often being misused and has therefore become the victim of its own success," as Dr Paul Haupt once said when he was MD of the South African Audience Research Foundation.
When planning a media schedule, there's a strong need to group people together into recognisable clusters - defining the "target market", if you will. And, in 1989, The South African Audience Research Foundation (SAARF) launched the AMPS LSM.
The problem was then, and still is, that many thought markets could be defined by LSMs on the basis that this would be a psychographic definition. It wasn't and never has been. LSMs are demographic.
I've heard people often say "my product is aimed at LSM 8 to10" (or whatever). I even heard an estate agent describe a house as appealing to the "upper LSM groups". You simply cannot do that. LSM 10s have more stuff than others, but the LSM classification won't tell you how much they earn, how much they've saved or what their tastes are.
Haupt went on to say "SAARF regularly receives phone calls from people who say 'My target market is LSM 9 and 10 - please tell me who they are?' This is enough to make you cry!
"The SAARF Universal LSM® should not be used in isolation. Human beings are much too complex to be described using a single differentiator such as LSMs. Users of AMPS data know that when combining LSMs with other descriptors such as language, income, life stage and so on, powerful segmentation of the market can be achieved."
AMPS is the All Media and Product Study and used to be the envy of the international advertising community. Alas, I fear that its days are numbered. Having had the best research data available, it's now disintegrating into nothing. The very industry it serves is choking it to death.
Fortunately however, there are still very clever people around as well as products like Telmar, to which every media planner should have access. Smart marketers too should be using tools like these to determine their best prospects.
But the woes of SAARF are not my main concern here - although the changes could be deadly to the industry.
What we should all bear in mind when we think about LSMs is one of my neighbours (I'll call him Tom - because that's his name). He has a magnificent home, a Porsche in the driveway, a Harley parked in the garage alongside his ski boat. So he's clearly LSM 10+.
But if you expect Tom to buy your product then you're in for a shock. He can't afford to buy anything at all. He's so much in debt that he has no disposable income whatsoever. And you want him to buy your cruise or jewellery?
Forget it. Tom's going nowhere except, perhaps, to the bankruptcy court.
Meanwhile, your real target market is a plumber driving a bakkie. He has huge disposable income. But he's still not the right person to buy your Rolex watch, because that's another criterion altogether. If you don't know what it is, call me.
I can help you - honestly I can.
Read my blog (brewersdroop.co.za) or see what other amazing things we do at brewers.co.za
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