Marketers have realised that the consumer needs to be the central focus of the organisationâs activities. In the United States of America a marketing expert, Faith Popcorn, has done valuable research on consumer trends. Popcorn proposed that if marketers keep these consumer trends in mind when developing and marketing products or services, they will address the needs of consumers more effectively. A limited amount of research on consumer trends have been done in South Africa and according to the researcherâs knowledge, no research on Faith Popcornâs trends specifically. The aim of this study was firstly to determine whether ten consumer trends identified by Popcorn in 1991 occurred among the staff members of the North-West University (NWU), and secondly to work towards recommending points of departure for the application of this knowledge in integrated marketing communication (IMC). In the context of a selected group of people, Faith Popcornâs consumer trends were addressed by the following research question: Do the ten consumer trends identified by Faith Popcorn in the American marketplace also occur among the permanent staff members of the NWU? And if so, how can knowledge about these trends be used to formulate more effective IMC strategies? All permanent staff members of the NWU participated as respondents. A self-administered questionnaire was developed and used as a data-collection method. The questionnaire was developed to determine whether the consumer trends of Cocooning, Fantasy Adventure, Small Indulgences, Egonomics, Cashing Out, Down-Aging, Being Alive, The Vigilante Consumer, 99 Lives and Save our Society occurred among the respondents. The results were analysed by means of the following statistical methods: (i) factor analysis with varimax orthogonal axe rotation; (ii), Cronbachâs alpha coefficient, to obtain an index of the internal consistency of the factors and (iii) effect sizes, to determine practical significance between the factors and demographic variables. The factor analysis revealed that 8 of the 10 consumer trends grouped together and measured the appropriate variables. It was found that 2 of the 10 factors, namely Cocooning and 99 Lives, had low internal consistency and they were therefore excluded from the study. The study showed that in general respondents agreed with the consumer trends of Faith Popcorn, meaning that these consumer trends occurred among the study population. It was also found that for certain consumer trends, some biographical variables displayed specific effect sizes, which could be significant in practice. The research results indicated that the consumer trends which were under investigation in this study, occurred among the respondents, thus positively answering the research question, as mentioned previously in this abstract. Marketers can apply the knowledge produced by this research into directing their creative approaches to specific market segments in order to include message content about the consumer trends. Some recommendations were made for including message content about consumer trends in order to address consumersâ lifestyle needs more effectively in IMC. Recommendations were made for future research, such as, inter alia: (i) a descriptive study incorporating additional trends of Popcorn into an investigation; (ii) a comparative study within other industries in South Africa to determine whether any similarities in consumer trends can be determined; (iii) a qualitative research investigation explaining the occurrence/non-occurrence of Faith Popcornâs trends could also provide valuable information; (iv) an explorative study to identify alternative consumer trends among a similar sample frame; (v) an investigation into the applicability of these trends within an organisationâs IMC strategy, leading to more effective market segmentation and consequently better results; and (vi) a qualitative investigation into the relevance of consumer trend analysis in the formulation of corporate strategy.

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Stakeholders are not passive, but have a huge impact on the functioning of organisations. The fierce competition amongst companies to win stakeholdersâ interest and loyalty poses a challenge to organisations to seek the means of strengthening long-term relationships with their stakeholders. The Lesotho National Manpower Development Secretariat (NMDS) is a government department that, like any other organisation, has to take note of the challenges of the stakeholder century. The relationship between the NMDS and its stakeholders has been unfavourable. Regardless the cause, the situation affirms the impression that the NMDS is failing to feature in the stakeholder century. The aim of this study is to provide guidelines to improve the relationship between the NMDS and its stakeholders. The aim will be achieved through a discussion of the environment in which stakeholder relationships are pursued. A reflection on the stakeholder concept and an exploration of the marketing communication activities that the NMDS embark on to establish relationships with its stakeholders will be highlighted. The stated goal will be achieved through the combination of qualitative and quantitative research approaches. The grounded theory will be used to address the qualitative section, whilst in the quantitative section a survey research strategy will be employed. Firstly, the analysis revealed that the NMDSâ mission and brand are not well-known among stakeholders. It was further extrapolated that communication between top management and the employees of the NMDS was poor. It is also apparent that the organisationâs ability to communicate with its stakeholders using various techniques has been very poor. Furthermore it became clear that there is absolutely no message consistency within the organisation. The causes thereof were poor internal communication, employees lacking knowledge of their work, absence of policies and differences in perception. Stakeholders further lamented the discrimination prevalent within the NMDS, particularly during the scholarship renewal period. It was revealed that nepotism, favoritism, corruption and administrative irregularities are the major causes. The NMDS employeesâ motivation is under suspicion. Suggestions such as increased remuneration, training and counseling were put forward as possible correctional measures of the status quo. The NMDSâ stakeholders suggested that information dissemination at the NMDS could be improved through using different media, use of word of mouth, and empowering the public relations office. It is imperative to mention that the challenges which faced the stakeholder of the NMDS were information inaccessibility, employeesâ inefficiency and a total lack of stakeholder consciousness. The results of the study revealed that the NMDSâ interaction with its stakeholders can be enhanced through involving stakeholders on issues affecting them, using various marketing communication techniques, and training staff on stakeholder care. Finally, the use of ICT has been rated by stakeholders as being very low at the NMDS. Utilising ICT may be of great assistance in improving the relations between the organisation and its stakeholders. In the next chapter the conclusions drawn from the research findings of this study, together with the recommendations, will be presented. It is anticipated that this study will provide a theoretical framework for the NMDS to improve its marketing communication activities to improve its relationship with its stakeholders. Improved relationships will lead to improved service standards, which in turn will make stakeholders true assets of the NMDS.

Human beings are susceptible to the rhetorical power of narrative communication. Narrative communication is an organisational element that helps people to make sense of the world they live in. Rhetoric is the application of reason to imagination to bring the human will into movement. In the world of religious communication, especially communication within the Christian philosophy, narrative communication is used as a rhetorical strategy regularly. The Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) is the oldest and biggest Pentecostal church in South Africa. The primary aim of the study was to analyse the use of narrative communication as rhetorical strategy within the preaching of the traditional Afrikaans-speaking Apostolic Faith Mission congregations in Bloemfontein. The research question is how narrative communication manifests as a rhetorical strategy in the preaching of the traditional Afrikaans-speaking Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) congregations in Bloemfontein. Secondary aims of the study were to measure the frequency of narrative communication as rhetorical strategy in the preaching of the Apostolic Faith Mission in Bloemfontein; to determine which narrative story elements and style elements are used; and to determine whether there is a difference in the application of narrative communication during the morning services and the evening services. Twelve sermons, three morning sermons and three evening sermons of two pastors of different congregations, were analysed by overt observation and content analysis. Video recordings were made of all the sermons in order for the researcher to go through all of the sermons again to verify the results. Content analysis was the primary research strategy during this study. During the church services, the researcher fulfilled the observer-as-participant role. There are different elements to qualify and identify a text as ânarrativeâ. These elements are called âstory elementsâ, seeing that they usually form part of a story. Storyline, narrative location and experience narrative are examples of story elements. If the communicator wants to capture the imagination of the audience and if he wants to get them emotionally involved in the message, he must pay attention to the style of the communication action. The communication action can be seen as narrative if these style elements are applied, even if there is not a complete story present. These narrative style elements include certain language elements and non-verbal elements. The unit of analysis for this study was the narrative story elements and style elements that were found in die twelve sermons. These elements were identified in the literature study. The categories of analysis were the story elements and the style elements. For the sake of this study, it was said that narrative communication was applied as a rhetorical strategy in a sermon when 50% of the identified narrative story elements or 50% of the identified narrative style elements were found within that sermon. This sub-minimum was met in every analysed sermon and thus it can be said that narrative communication was applied as rhetorical strategy during every sermon. Introduction, causal relations, protagonist and narrative location are the narrative story elements that were used most frequently. The use of humour, the use of metaphors and the self revelation of the storyteller are the style elements that were used most frequently. Narrative style elements were used more frequently than narrative story elements. The only difference between the use of narrative communication in the morning services and in the evening services was that narrative style elements were used more frequently during the morning services than during the evening services. The pastorsâ knowledge about the use of narrative communication during preaching was limited. However, the literature study showed that narrative communication can be applied as a rhetorical strategy during preaching with great success. Thus, the construction of a narrative model for preaching in the AFM, and in other denominations, could be useful.