SANRAL Publications Research

The South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL) releases various publications intended to communicate its vision, foster understanding, and encourage positive behavioural change among its target audiences. To achieve the communication objectives outlined in SANRAL’s strategy, these publications must effectively reach the intended audiences and be perceived as engaging and valuable by them. In 2020, SANRAL initiated research to establish an empirical baseline for its reputation and to measure awareness, reach, and resonance for several of its publications. However, low awareness levels among the target audiences limited the study’s ability to fully assess how these publications are perceived.

To address this gap, SANRAL commissioned Mthente Research and Consulting Services to build on the previous research and develop a more comprehensive understanding of the target audiences. This new study sought to identify who the target audiences are, what their communication needs entail, and how well SANRAL’s current publications align with these needs. The Mthente team completed 1867 in-person surveys conducted at various locations across South Africa, including petrol stations, home affairs offices, traffic departments, and bus stops.