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. |
Government Segmentation Model: Beyond LSM
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.
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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. |