Sunlight soap voted as SA's most iconic brand

South Africans have voted Sunlight soap - that green bar with the instantly recognisable smell - as the country’s most iconic brand. 

The blend of surfactants, perfume, optical brighteners and enzymes, launched way back in 1891, is also possibly the country’s most diversely used product, if callers to Talk 702’s Late Night Talk with Aubrey Masanago on Tuesday night are anything to go by.

The soap’s packaging suggests that it be used for laundry, washing dishes and “personal” - “mild and gentle for all skin types” - but as a nation, we don’t stop there. Far from it.

Many callers said they washed not just their skin but their hair with it; one saying if you leave the soap in and stand in the sun it turns your hair orange.  And Elizabeth of Alberton said her family added sugar and water to the soap to make a paste to treat boils. But it was “Brian” who elaborated on what show host Masango had been hinting at - that for many South Africans the green bar has to do with where the sun don’t shine.

“My granny used a solution of that soap to clear my stomach - I used to run to the toilet like crazy!” he said.

But don't expect to see the word enema on the packaging any time soon.

The green bar can apparently also be used as moulding cream for dreadlocks.

The Icon Brands “poll” was conducted by Ask Afrika to establish which brands were used most loyally by South Africans, regardless of age, income, race or language.

Second in that list of 39 brands which earned sufficient votes from 15 000 consumers over the age of 15 to be deemed “iconic” was Coca Cola, followed by the green bar’s stablemate, Sunlight dishwashing liquid, with Kiwi shoe polish and Koo canned beans in fourth and fifth places.

Another 64 brands were awarded platinum status, as runners up to the Icon brands, having achieved high usage and loyalty scores in most, but not all, population groups.

The Icon Brands Survey is the largest of its kind in SA, covering 19 sectors, from airlines to footwear, frozen fish to vehicles.

Consumer loyalty is at its lowest level since the survey was launched in 2008, said Ask Afrika CEO Andrea Gevers-Rademeyer, partly because consumers demand quality and value for money as an essential. 

But perceptions and feelings have become as important to consumers as facts, she said, urging brand managers to focus on reinforcing their connection with consumers in order to keep them sweet.

“Personifying a brand through comprehensive storytelling can prompt the brain to release the pleasure chemical oxytocin in the same amount as when you are hugged by a loved one,” Gevers-Rademeyer said.

“That emotional reaction can consolidate a sense of loyalty and meaning for consumers, making them more likely to share their response by word of mouth or on social media that could go viral.”

The Sunlight effect, if you like.

* Catch Wendy on Aubrey Masango's Late Night Talk show on Talk Radio 702 and Cape Talk from 11.15pm to midnight every Tuesday.