Over the years the Institute has delivered a host of ground breaking research outputs, which have left an indelible mark on the marketing landscape. The research is used widely throughout industry to drive strategic decision- making and forge a deep understanding of the dynamics driving an ever changing consumer landscape.
Marketing Community
Over the last twenty years the Institute has undoubtedly become a cornerstone of marketing in South Africa. Every year hundreds of marketers attend our public roadshow and access our research through membership of the Institute. Since its inception in 2001, over 20 000 marketers have attended Institute presentations.
Conferences
The Institute also disseminates its work through speaker invitations to conferences. These include: SACSC’s Research Conference, Seamless Africa, Trade Intelligence and ABSA Capital and Media24’s Media Summit to name a few.
Academic Articles
Every year the Institute develops and publishes articles in leading academic journals. This work plays an important role in furthering knowledge in the field of marketing and consumer science.
Examples of academic papers:
Africa’s heterogenous middle class: A 10-city study of consumer lifestyle indicators
(International Journal of Market Research)
No one segment: Using global and South African BoP characteristics to model country specific consumer profiles (European Business Review)
Worlds apart: An investigation of South Africa’s established and emerging middle class consumers (Business and Society)
Rethinking share-of-wallet at the bottom of the pyramid: using financial diaries to observe monthly category trade-offs (Journal of Consumer Marketing)
Decoding Western Festive Season Symbols and Rituals in Marketing Messages: A Bottom of the Pyramid Consumer Study in South Africa (Communicatio)
Studying social media sentiment using human validated analysis (MethodsX)
Time for an update: proposing a new age segmentation for South Africa (Management Dynamics)
Exploring retail orientated rotating savings and credit associations: festive season ‘stokvels’ in South Africa (The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research)
For more details on some of our publishing projects, contact James Lappeman.
Text books
The Institute’s South African Case Study text book is prescribed to students attending tertiary institutions across South Africa. The book is currently in its fourth edition and is available at textbook outlets and online bookstores.
A new book called ‘Marketing to South African Consumers’ will be available in late 2020. This is an open source (free) textbook and will be available for download here upon release.
Teaching tools
A important objective of the Institute is to grow marketing capability. Over the years we have ensured that our research is integrated into curricula. The Institute has also developed a number of teaching tools that are used widely across Southern Africa.
In the news
UCT calculates that the Institute generates millions of Rands of media exposure every year. Indeed, the Institute has been prominent on most of the major TV, Radio, print and digital media platforms. Our work has also been reported on by the international press, including: CNN, BBC, Washington Post, Globe and Mail, South China Post, Guardian, Telegraph, Der Spiegel among others.
Outreach
The Institute has also offered its services to assist less resourced institutions such as the Phillippi Solution Space. We also offer internships to a number of students every year.