What people think I do for a living

Elna Pretorius has worked in market research for 10 years and is co-founder of Columinate. Founded in 2008, Columinate is a leading digital marketing research agency that provides online and mobile market research services. In 2011 Elna won best paper at the annual SAMRA conference, in 2014, Finweek featured her as one of the “Women to Watch” and in 2015 Elna won the Gauteng Entrepreneur award from the Business Women’s Association of South Africa.  Academically Elna holds a Master’s degree in Research Psychology from the University of Pretoria. Aside from research, she is passionate about marketing, animals and the environment.

Symbiosis, evolution or extinction: how will market research agencies remain relevant in the future?

Heather Tluczek is a Qualitative Research Manager at Kantar TNS. Whilst only 2 years into her market research career, Heather boasts a diverse range of prior experience that shape her skill-sets and researcher’s lens. Heather’s academic history is rooted in the social sciences (Philosophy, Politics and Law); having most recently completed her MA (Policy and Development Studies) in 2012. Her thesis explored the performance of public vs private service delivery providers in KZN. She started her career as a researcher within the non-profit sector; before transitioning into the corporate world, where she occupied several business development and account managerial roles across sectors including: mining intelligence and technologies, telecommunications software, and marketing and exhibitions. Notwithstanding her agency experience across a wide range of clients and categories at TNS to date, her passion for finance and automotive research have confirmed these as her specialities and core clientele.
It was insatiable curiosity that naturally drove Bérengère Parouty into a career dedicated to market research, after a tertiary education in business and marketing. Her academic accomplishments include a Postgraduate and Master of Arts degrees in Marketing from French University Jean Moulin Lyon III and a Bachelor (Hons) of Arts in European Business studies, University of Humberside and Lincolnshire, UK. After her studies, Bérengère spent 8 years at various agencies in France and the UK, where she gained experience in marketing, strategy and market research across a wide range of categories and markets. During this time she developed a keen interest in customer centric business strategies. She moved to South Africa in 2010, where she has been living and working, initially at GlobalEDGE (now GfK), and since December 2012 with Kantar TNS South Africa. In the last few years, Bérengère has occupied various business development and client lead roles, and is focused on developing and nurturing strong relationships with Kantar TNS clients to help their businesses grow. She has a specific interest in elevating the value delivered to her clients, especially in the new age of big data.(Heather Tluczek & Bérengère Parouty)

FACT PHOBIA vs CREDIBLE DATA: The War Between Truth and Propaganda

Kate Niemöller is a researcher at IQ Business, currently specialising in secondary research and linguistic quality assurance. Though the saying states that a jack-of-all-trades is a master of none, Kate’s varied background and multitudinous interests have broadened and diversified her skillset, and she has a wide range of experiential knowledge and a comprehensive academic background. Prior to joining the company, Kate worked as a remedial therapist and high school English teacher, sharing her passion for communication, analysis and interpretation, as well as for literature and creative writing, with young minds. She worked and studied concurrently, obtaining a Post-Graduate Diploma in Business Administration from GIBS in 2016, and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Education in 2015. Prior to working as a teacher, she worked at the University of Stellenbosch in the capacity of an assistant lecturer and tutor, as well as a full time contributor and editor on the Stellenbosch Literary Project.

Tasneem Carrim joined The Presidency (under former President Mandela) as a communication researcher, responsible for establishing media monitoring systems and speech writing and continued serving Thabo Mbeki for the duration of his first term, as Deputy Director: Media Liaison. Tasneem managed the first Presidential Imbizo aimed at focused and direct communication between government and the people. Her project-management skills and experience in community activism helped facilitate engagement with the various communities. Tasneem was then appointed Taxpayer Education Manager at the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and later Communication and Marketing Manager. In 2004, her team won the Government Communicator of the Year Award for SARS’ filing season campaign of that year. Her knowledge in applying market and perception research guided the direction of several SARS communication strategies. Tasneem holds BA Sociology (Honours) from the University of the Witwatersrand, has completed the Management Advancement Programme at Wits Business School, the Senior Management Development Programme at GIBS, and a course in International Relations at the Clingendael Institute of The Hague. Tasneem joined GCIS as Chief Director: Policy & Research in October 2007 and is now Acting DG.
Ntombi Nala is a water quality specialist with experience in both scientific and social research (working with communities, especially on educational interventions). Her current interests are around making scientific research output accessible and empowering to the general public, and knowledge management. She is currently a Director: Research and Knowledge Management at the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS). Since joining GCIS in 2004 she has gained extensive knowledge, experience and insight into Government policy, national challenges, priorities and knowledge dissemination strategies with the ultimate goal to use knowledge to improve the lives of all South Africans. Ntombi holds a masters degree in environmental health and a doctorate degree in health studies.
Kopo Lehobye has a Bachelor of Psychology degree from the University of Pretoria. In 2002, she started working at Serithi Project, a NGO under University of Pretoria conducting research in the field of HIV & AIDS. Ms Lehobye co-authored an article published in The Social Work Practitioner-Researcher in 2003 and one in the Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology in 2006. Her passion for research motivated her to pursue studies towards a Masters degree in Research Psychology. She has worked at various research houses and NGOs, garnering a wealth of research experience; Khulisa (RECLISA Project), TNS (Research exec, later Account Manager), Cell-Life (Research Manager). Currently, Ms Lehobye is employed as Deputy Director: Research at Government Communications (GCIS) and is project manager of the Government Segmentation Model, a segmentation model going beyond the traditional marketing LSM groups and considers variables that are relevant to government communications.

The Many Faces of Township Traditional Trade: A qualitative approach for understanding the form and nature of township outlets so as to develop a framework for classifying them

Jack Hlongwane‘s career in market research started in 2011. In the past 5 years he has gained experienced in the FMCG, financial, government, retail and gaming and gambling sectors. His experience is grounded in qualitative research but is now mostly focused in quantitative research. Jack is currently employed at TNS SA in the capacity of a senior research executive.

Millennials and the meaning of money; what this means for future-proofing business

Tessa Nowosenetz has a Masters in Research Psychology. She started her research career in academics, where she lectured and published and moved into market research in 2008. She has mainly worked in qualitative research, across methodologies, across all categories. She has taken most interest in the financial space, where much of her focus is today. She works as an Account Manager at KLA.
Mpho Mashego, who studied a Bachelor of Social Sciences (Psychology), started her journey in market research at KLA in 2012 after having cut her teeth in business as a Contract and Business Operations Manager at IBM. After two years as a Market Researcher at KLA, she worked as a Consumer and Insights Analyst at Momentum and an Account Manager at Hall & Partners. Mpho re-joined KLA in 2015 as Business Solutions Manager, where she is responsible for uncovering new tools and ways of conducting research for greater insights.

Hashtag engagement as a proxy for traditional advertising measurements

Caitlin Noonan is currently employed as a Senior Research Executive at Kantar TNS Global Brand Equity Centre and is closely involved in the research and development of social product offerings. Since first presenting at SAMRA in 2014 and winning the Bright Young Minds Award, her love for market research has remained strong with a growing interest in the exploration of social research. Caitlin graduated in 2012 with a Bachelor of Business Science in Marketing at the University of Cape Town. Previous internships included Ogilvy in Cape Town (2012) and Frontier Market Network (2013) where she was exposed to the advertising industry and digital marketing. Prior to joining Kantar TNS, Caitlin worked at Pondering Panda (2013 – 2015) where she was exposed to the vast benefits of digital research, working on well-known fast food and FMCG brands.

40 years of AMPS, Insights from a life well lived

Marlan Perumal is a Senior Consultant at Eighty20 Consulting. He graduated from the University of Cape Town in 2006 with a BSc (Eng) in Mechanical Engineering. After a brief stint in Sasolburg, performing plant maintenance and managing environmental and construction projects, he returned to UCT in 2009 as staff at the Sasol Advanced Fuels Laboratory, where he ran engine and fuel research projects, lectured and supervised students and obtained his MSc (Eng) in 2011. Realising that there was life beyond engineering, led to a change in focus and career, with Marlan joining Eighty20 in 2016. As the IT Team Lead, he worked intimately with the Product Development team on the latest version of XtracT, the Eight20 data analytics platform. He now uses this insight as a consultant to enable clients to best make use of their and other data.

Throwing Bones and Singing Praise Songs: Drawing inspiration from African Culture to develop locally relevant projective techniques

Jack Hlongwane‘s career in market research started in 2011. In the past 5 years he has gained experienced in the FMCG, financial, government, retail and gaming and gambling sectors. His experience is grounded in qualitative research but is now mostly focused in quantitative research. Jack is currently employed at TNS SA in the capacity of a senior research executive.
Thandi Chipeya graduated from University of Johannesburg in 2008 with a Marketing communications degree majoring in communications and marketing management. And has more than 8 years Qualitative research experience. Her career started out on the client side and has broadened her experience in more than 3 internationally recognised agencies. She’s built up experience in all facets of Qualitative research, both locally and throughout Africa specialising in ethnographic work. Her experience extends across industries such as healthcare, pharmaceuticals, FMCG, retail, automotive, banking, haircare and more. My unique ability to connect with consumers across all walks of life has enabled her to gain and tap into insights and finer nuances that could have easily been lost – She considers herself a consumer traveller.
Dudu Njapha‘s career in Market Research started in 2005 as a freelance transcriber, translator and moderator whilst studying towards a Mechanical Engineering diploma. In 2010, curiosity and her love for people led her to join a research agency on a fulltime basis. The first few years of my career were spent travelling through African markets conducting predominantly FMCG, telecommunications and finance work amongst Bottom of the Pyramid consumers. Over 8 Countries later, Dudu has developed an intimate knowledge of both client and consumer needs across the continent within various demographic profiles. Some highlights in this journey include endorsement as an accredited moderator by Unilever in 2016 and having an opportunity as guest lecturer at the University of Pretoria in 2012, teaching Masters students about ethnographic research. Dudu is currently completing her Postgraduate Diploma in Management in Marketing at the University of Cape Town.
Lara Burn holds a Masters Degree in Social Science (Critical Psychology) and has a diverse experience including: Social and Research Sciences Undergraduate and Honors lecturer. She has also lived and worked in Indonesia as Group Account Director for Millward Brown Indonesia. Her client and project resume stretches a diversity of FMCG, Media, Health, and Telecommunication clients. Lara currently holds the position of Client Services Director: Qualitative at TNS.

Untold Emotions: Future-proofing adverts by understanding non-verbal responses from consumers

Natalie Botha has worked in the market research industry for over 16 years. Nearly all of her experience has been acquired through advertising and brand health research across the African continent. She has 8 years’ experience working across Unilever’s brands. Before joining Kantar Millward Brown, she worked for Research Surveys (now Kantar TNS). Natalie has a BBA (Bachelor of Business Administration), is a long-standing SAMRA member and is currently the Director of Kantar Millward Brown’s Creative Development portfolio.
Saiesh Ajudhiya has been working at Kantar Millward Brown for over a year as a Research Executive on the company’s biggest account. During this time he has, and continues to, develop a repertoire of skills in terms of category and brand insights. Saiesh is extremely passionate about research, with formal training in both qualitative and quantitative research. He is currently working towards completing a Master of Arts Degree in Social and Psychological Research.

Less is more – can mobile unseat face-to-face surveys?

Mark Molenaar joined Research Surveys in 1994 and has held various executive positions over the past 23 years, with a wide range of experience across all business sectors. He was appointed Director – Client Service at TNS Research Surveys in 2003. Current responsibilities include managing TNS South Africa’s Development and Offer portfolio. This includes Business Development, TNS Practice Areas, TNS Growth Tools and Marketing Science. His main qualification is a Bachelor of Business Science degree with honours in Marketing from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Mark has championed stakeholder research at TNS for the past 12 years and won the Best Paper award and Best First Time Presenter award for his research paper on the NPS metric at the 2007 SAMRA Conference. Mark has been actively involved in pioneering new research approaches using mobile and submitted a research paper on using MXit for Mobile research which was presented at the 2011 SAMRA Conference.

Digitilization and the value of new (meta) data sources for market insights

Thomas Couronné works at GfK Verein since nov 2016, as project manager in the Future and University Programs team. In his previous roles, he has occupied several positions at the frontier between data sciences and social sciences, and has gained extensive experience in behavioral analytics and social computing from both academia and industry roles. He has a great interest in the ‘last mile’ of the data science pipeline, ie. what can be called ‘human data interactions’, or transforming the data into relevant information and insights, to design a better choice architecture and understandings of the complex systems interlacing the digital and physical worlds.

Customer Centric Artificial Intelligence (chatbots) – Using text and sentiment analysis & deep neural network learning to make chatbots reply in a more customer centric fashion

Prof Adré Schreuder has more than 30 years experience as Academic and Research practitioner. He specialises in customer experience measurement and management consulting. Adré is founder, shareholder and CEO of Consulta and Founder and Chair of the South African Customer Satisfaction Index (SAcsi)Recognised as subject matter specialist in the field of customer experience, customer satisfaction and customer centricity. His highest academic qualification is a Doctorate of Commerce (DCom) and he is a former SAMRA Chair.
Arné Schreuder completed his BSc Computer Science Hons with honors and is currently busy with his Masters in computer science, with specialisation in Artificial Intelligence. He has four years of Software Engineering experience in Consulta and for the last 6 months in a newly founded company, Compiax – he is founder and CEO of this startup software engineering company.
Jeannie van Wyk (né Schreuder) completed her BConsumer Science degree and has recently submitted her final dissertation for her Master of Consumer Science at UP. Jeannie is formerly trained as consumer scientist but developed a keen interest in the consumer research side of her subject matter. Jeannie joined Consulta in 2014 and is currently in a Projects Director position that executes various research and consulting projects as direct client liaison.

Earning a seat at the boardroom table: How to convert insights into a business critical core function

Charlene Van Zyl has an M.Com in Strategic Management from the University of Johannesburg. She has been in various Strategy, Insights and Client experience roles on client side over the last 12 years, including Nedbank, Telesure, Standard Bank, SAB and currently as Managing Executive: Loyalty and Insights at Vodacom.
Karlien Kriegler has a Masters degree in Consumer Science from the University of Stellenbosch. She has been in the Market research industry for the last 14 years.  She started her career at Research International and then joined Kantar TNS in 2011. She is currently Head of Brand: Tracking and Large programmes for Kantar TNS.