Mthente is presently conducting research that will inform the development and implementation of a three year public awareness campaign in support of Eskom’s Energy Loss Programme. The primary goal is to collect baseline information for Yardstick and Draftfcb Social Marketing that will help inform the development and implementation of a social marketing campaign aiming to reduce electricity losses through behaviour alteration.

Mthente’s social marketing approach goes beyond simply telling people to “prevent energy losses and stop stealing electricity.”

Instead, it attempts to shift attitudes and mobilise people to action by focusing on three critical areas: 1) where people are in relation to a particular behavior or attitude (their stage of change); 2) what factors influence this position; 3) how far people can be moved in the desired direction. In a collaborative process with Yardstick, Draftfcb Social Marketing and Eskom, Mthente designed a research methodology that includes the following components.

Exploratory Focus Groups

Prior to the project’s quantitative surveys, Mthente conducted six focus groups with residential small power users (RSPUs) in order to:

• Build an understanding of the problems that lead to undesirable use of electricity;
• Explore and uncover underlying attitudes, perceptions and beliefs of individuals regarding electricity usage;
• Identify the issues that the strategy should address;
• Inform the development of questionnaires for the quantitative baseline research;
• Assist in developing guidelines for qualitative interviews with businesses and other organisations.

Sixty individuals attended the focus groups with eight in Claremont, ten in Paarl, fourteen in Delft, eight in the Witwatersrand, nine in Randfontein and eleven in Soweto. There was a diversity of participants with regard to race, age, gender and language.

Pilot Site Survey

Following the focus groups and the development of a quantitative survey questionnaire, the research team conducted a quantitative survey in six pilot sites: Moroke, Sebokeng, Orlando West, Sterkfontein, Tsakane and Kamhlushwa. The sites were chosen by the campaign team because of their strategic importance, their spread across various regions and the challenges each community experiences with regard to electricity supply and theft. There were a total of 870 responses.

The aim of the quantitative pilot study was to understand the unique drivers of consumer attitudes and usage in each of these pilot areas and to try to explain the very entrenched and deviant behaviour of electricity theft, as well as gather information to guide implementation of the social marketing strategy in those areas. Six months after the initial pilot study, Mthente will carry out a follow up survey in the same six pilot areas, in order to test the effectiveness of the social marketing campaign up to that point.

National Survey

Following the pilot site survey, Mthente developed a national baseline questionnaire to be conducted with a representative sample of 2,500 South African households, stratified according to Eskom’s six regions. The survey was conducted with both Eskom customers and non-Eskom customers, since energy theft is a deeply engrained deviant behaviour, found among both groups. The ELP Social Marketing Campaign will be rolled out on a national scale and will use the findings from the survey to pitch the campaign appropriately.

Six months after the national baseline survey is conducted, Mthente will carry out a follow up survey with, using the same sampling methodology as the baseline, in order to determine the effectiveness of the social marketing campaign nationally up to that point.

Qualitative Interviews

With Large Power Users (LPUs)

In order to inform Eskom’s social marketing campaign to address attitudes and behaviours of businesses, Mthente conducted 50 qualitative interviews with large power users (LPUs). These in-depth interviews explored the underlying attitudes, perceptions, needs and behaviour of business regarding electricity usage.

With Small Power Users (SPUs)

In addition to the interviews with large power users, Mthente also conducted 100 qualitative interviews with small businesses. These in-depth interviews also aimed to explore the underlying attitudes, perceptions, needs and behaviour of business regarding electricity usage.

With Industry Stakeholders

In order to gain support for the ELP social marketing campaign and understand the views of stakeholder groups, Mthente conducted interviews with a range of stakeholders, including: all tiers of government, trade unions, consumer bodies and lobbies, stokvels, community organisations, the energy industry, the media and related industries such as Telkom, Transnet and others.

Employee Survey

During the residential and business components of the research, it became apparent that there was also a need to design, develop and implement a sub-campaign within the ELP Social Marketing Campaign that will include Eskom employees working in various roles in the Distribution division. Yardstick thus commissioned Mthente to carry out focus groups and a quantitative survey with Eskom employees.

The main objectives of this component were to:

Determine the attitudes and perceptions of Eskom employees towards electricity theft;

Determine the current behaviour of Eskom Distribution employees in encouraging or directly engaging in electricity theft;

Establish a baseline of the current state of employee attitudes, perceptions and behaviours in order to later measure the success of the sub-campaign.

Mthente conducted eight focus groups with a total of 89 employees and collected 300 responses for its quantitative face-to-face survey.