A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Strategic Marketing, October 2016 / The South African eco-friendly products industry is still growing. With the growth potential existing in this industry, it is evident that marketing practitioners and producers alike need to understand the consumer dynamics involved in order to ensure that the sales of ecofriendly products increase. The growth potential that the researcher refers to is also confirmed by other researchers in their recent work (Sonnenberg, Jacobs, and Momberg, 2014). Eco-friendly products range from eco-friendly shopping bags, green clothing, solar powered electronics, and recyclable goods to name a few. As consumers change to be more environmentally conscious, their choices in products will be influenced by various factors including their decision-making styles. The “eco-friendly” or “going green” terms are commonly used globally for those products that consumers choose to buy because of their minimum negative impact on the environment. The decision-making styles that are most influential when South African consumers buy these products must be known by the relevant marketing practitioners within the South African context in order to ensure that they their strategies gain traction and also influence buying behaviour. Relevant branding and positioning strategies must be implemented by the relevant organisations in order to differentiate their eco-friendly products from others that are available to consumers as the market becomes more competitive with local and international brands being sold online and in retail shops. Investment into ensuring that these products are well-known will decrease the level of impulsive and careless buying of these products as the brands are currently not highly differentiated to the South African consumers. This study sourced primary quantitative data from consumers that buy and use eco-friendly products; a survey questionnaire was used in order to understand the influence of decision-making styles on the careless and impulsive buying of eco-friendly products. The findings of this study will enable the researcher to put forward the results that will demonstrate which decision-making styles mostly influence impulsive and careless buying 2 of eco-friendly products. Practitioners will be able to identify which dynamics to focus on when formulating their marketing strategies in order to effectively differentiate their respective products to consumers / GR2018

All of us are consumers. We consume products such as bread and milk and services such as education, banking and transportation. A fundamental understanding of consumer behaviour forms the backbone of all marketing activities and is an imperative prerequisite for the success of businesses. Consumers' wants and needs in today's competitive world are continuously changing. Therefore companies are forced to understand how consumers make purchasing decisions before an effective marketing strategy could be designed. (Skinner, 1994:218) According to Lamb et al (2000:66) in order to design an appropriate marketing mix for their defined market, marketing managers must be able to understand consumers' behaviour thoroughly. This is essential because it will determine how successful the marketing strategy would be. Mowen (1995:5) define consumer behaviour as "the study of the buying units and the exchange processes involved in acquiring, consuming, and disposing of goods, services, experiences and ideas." In a nutshell, to stress the importance of understanding consumer behaviour, Assael summarises it by saying that "marketers have come to realise that their effectiveness in meeting consumer needs directly influences their profitability and the better they understand the factors underlying consumer behaviour, the better able they are to develop effective marketing strategies to meet consumer needs" (Assael,1998:5) This study examined toothpaste purchasing amongst Pietermaritzburg (PMB) consumers. The specific objectives were to evaluate which marketing stimuli affect the purchase of toothpaste in PMB, to evaluate the attributes consumers look for in toothpaste purchasing, to identify the various demographic variables that influence the purchase and finally to identify which brand of toothpaste has preference amongst PMB consumers. Theoretical reviews of the factors influencing consumer behaviour, which are categorised into marketing stimuli as well as environmental and individual factors are first discussed. These are followed by a brief description of the toothpaste industry and the various product attributes. The methodology used for the data collection as well as the interpretation procedures are also outlined. The key findings were Colgate Herbal was top on the list with 16.3% of respondents selecting it while Aquafresh All-in-One came in second with 15.3% of respondents having chosen it. Consumers attach different levels of importance to the different attributes of the toothpaste and the study found fresher breath to be the most important product attribute consumers look for when purchasing their toothpaste. The significance test done between brand preference and demographic variables indicated differences between racial groups. Based on the findings recommendations are then made for appropriate segmenting and positioning of the product that will be of use for manufacturers and retailers in the toothpaste industry. / Thesis (M.B.A.)- University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2005.

Of the various channels to market, one that has probably received the greatest attention and produced the highest expectations of impact and adoption is the Internet (Wright and Clark, 2- 005: 1). According to Feher and Towell (1997), and Paul (1996), as cited by Vijayasarathy and Jones (1998: 322), the Internet promises a number of benefits to both businesses and consumers. From a business perspective, the Internet can be a powerful medium to establish a unique relationship with consumers (Pattinson and Brown, 1996: 31). For the consumer, the Internet can be a valuable communication medium to facilitate controlled, non-linear search for up-to-date information, simulated product and service testing, and provide assistance with comparison- shopping and decision-making (Hoffman et ai, 1996: 26). The Internet has grown at an incredible rate. By March 2006, there were approximately 1023 million Internet users worldwide (internetworldstats, 2006: 1). However, the Internet has not grown in South Africa at the pace that it has grown in first world countries such as America, Japan and the United Kingdom (internetworldstats, 2006: 1). According to Computer Industry Almanac Inc (2005: 1), South Africa had 4 780 000 million Internet users in 2005. This is approximately 0.5% of the worlds Internet users. Global studies have been conducted on why Internet users purchase online, but not much information is available on why South African Internet users purchase online. Moreover, this limited information is mainly available only commercially. South African Internet research companies such as Webcheck, World Wide Worx and eMarketer generally charge between R6000 and R14 000 (2005 Rand prices) for South African online shopping studies, which generally deal more with Internet usage, buying behaviour in terms of products and services purchased, online shopping trends and to a limited extent factors that influence South African Internet users purchasing online. Due to South Africa's diversity and unique situation in terms of its economy (what is (commonly referred to as it's digital divide), the factors that influence South African Internet users purchasing online may not be the same as the factors influencing Internet users from other countries purchasing online. In order to investigate the factors that influence South African Internet users purchasing online, the following research objectives were identified: • Primary Research Objective. To identify factors that influence South African Internet users purchasing a product or service online. • Secondary Research Objective Number 1. To determine the significance of the identified factors that influence South African Internet users purchasing a product or service online. • Secondary Research Objective Number 2. To determine the relative importance of the identified factors that influence South African Internet users purchasing a product or service online. A questionnaire (provided in Annexure One) was developed to investigate the above research objectives and was distributed, via e-mail to 437 employees of Ninham Shand (Pty) Ltd. A response rate of 269 was achieved. The research found that the following factors were rated important to the sample purchasing online: (1) the price of the product or service being purchased; (2) the convenience to the Internet user; (3) the experience as an Internet user; (4) the web site layout; (5) the ease of use of the web site; (6) the brand of the product or service; (7) the type of product or service; (8) the availability of online information on the product or service; (9) the method of payment; and (10) the web site security features. From the above factors, the web site security features was ranked as the most important factor influencing respondents purchasing a product or service online, the ease of use of the web site was ranked as the second most important factor and the web site layout was ranked as the third most important factor influencing respondents purchasing a product or service online. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that the results from this study can contribute to the body of knowledge on online consumer behaviour theory and knowledge of South African Internet users. / Thesis (M.B.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.

Thesis(M.B.A.)--University of the Witwatersrand, 1991 / The research investigated the evaluation of common goods and services by white and black consumers, and to determine where similarities and dissimilarities between these two segments existed. A review of the literature on consumer behaviour, with specific reference to decision making models, and a series of in depth interviews enabled the expansion of the Zeithaml (1981) set of constructs by a factor of two. A questionnaire was developed and administered to white and black employees of well known local firms in a variety of industries. Hypothesis testing enabled validation of the expanded set of constructs, and the comparison of white and black evaluative differences, while correspondence ;analysis determined the key evaluative dimensions. Important new dimensions discovered included Convenience, Loyalty and Reception. An invaluable method of clustering was found in the /chi squared trees technique. The results indicated that black consumers are significantly less experienced in the use and evaluation of common services compared to their white counterparts. As a result of this inexperience, a much less sophisticated set of key evaluative constructs are relied upon in the decision process. Both segments appear to be /ciware of generally higher risks associated with services, but are less prone to invest effort in information gathering prior to purchase. The white segment purchases services based on their convenience, whilst the black segment faces equal inconvenience for any purchase. The most significant marketing implications drawn were firstly, the need to appreciate consumer perceptual similarities across, and differences within, goods and services categories. Secondly, marketers need very different strategies for the black segment.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Strategic Marketing / The cosmetic industry over the years has proven to be one of the fastest growing and most profitable industries globally. In the male cosmetic industry, male grooming, metrosexual and dapper trends have rapidly expanded across global communities and, in recent years, have become a leading trend amongst South African men. These emerging trends subsequently shaped the way businesses and companies expanded product lines and developed marketing strategies. It is imperative that we understand what marketing capabilities companies require to stay abreast of local trends in order to gain a market share and strong brand presence in these expanding categories. Companies invest significant financial resources on marketing in order to have a compelling value proposition against competitors. Understanding the customer and what aspects of brand equity resonate with customers would ensure that companies have a streamlined customer centric marketing plan that meets the customers’ needs and addresses the accurate emotional touch points to capture the customer and encourage resilient repurchase intention. Four hypotheses are posited and in order to empirically test them a sample data set of 208 was collected in South Africa. The results indicate that brand loyalty, brand awareness, perceived quality and brand association positively influences repurchase intention of male branded cosmetic products in South Africa in a significant way. Drawing from the study’s findings, managerial implications are discussed and limitations and future research directions are suggested. / MT2017

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / Globally and locally, print media publications and companies have been under immense pressure as circulation and advertising revenues have declined steadily. The rise of the internet and subsequently, Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 created new platforms on which consumers can access information. As a result, advertisers have followed consumers and have moved their funds away from print to digital and broadcast portals. The impact of the changing environment and changing media consumption behaviour on the newspaper industry has been well documented. This research report sought to understand the impact of these changes in the environment on the women’s magazine industry and to add to the lack of a body of knowledge in the academic sphere. The researcher chose a sample of women’s magazine editors based on the non-probability convenience sampling method, and to answer the research question, the researcher undertook a qualitative research methodology study. The researcher held in-depth interviews with each editor and open-ended questions were posed to them in order to understand their views on the future of women’s magazines based on the media consumption behaviours of readers, the media consumption behaviour of Millennials and the evolution of content and migration from print to digital. Findings from the survey revealed that the women’s magazine publishing industry has been in a steady decline. Older and more established glossy magazines have struggled to stabilise circulation figures. Consumer magazines in print format targeted at young females have closed down in favour of digital platforms. The future of women’s magazines in South Africa is dependent on the publishing companies’ ability to capture the Millennial consumer on appropriate and relevant platforms, but the industry first has to understand the drivers for media consumption behaviour in that particular market. One of the researcher’s key findings from this research is that women’s magazines will not only change platforms but that the old revenue model based on circulation and advertising revenue will need to be replaced by a completely new business model.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in the field of Strategic Marketing / Menstrual Hygiene Management is a process of keeping clean by girls and women through washing, changing and disposal of sanitary protection during their monthly periods. When schools provide a conducive environment for girls to manage their menses, girls become empowered and confident to participate in education without fear and embarrassment. Lasi High school in Mpolonjeni constituency is a rural school in low income settings whose girls like many girls in the area have to manage their monthly menstruation. The purpose of this study is to explore the experiences and practices of rural school girls in Mpolonjeni community in managing their menses. A qualitative exploratory and descriptive study was undertaken through focus group discussions. The researcher managed to purposively select a sample of two focus groups with ten participants, each, three teachers and the Deputy Head Teacher. The study finding reveals that girls experience a number of challenges when managing their menses in the school setting which the school administration is not entirely aware of. Some of the issues raised by the girls can be addressed without unreasonable costs implications but through empathy and general support. The study recommends a further investigation for Education and school policies that will enhance enabling school environments to support girls in managing menstruation at school. / GR2018

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Computer Science in the School of Computer Science. Faculty of Science November 21, 2016. / There is stiff competition for customers and market share in the South African telecommunications industry amongst the four predominant mobile service providers, namely Vodacom, MTN, Cell C and Telkom Mobile. The First National Bank (FNB) through one of its entities, FNB Connect, has also joined this intensely competitive environment. These companies face a constant challenge of having to come up with new and innovative ways of attracting new customers and retaining their current ones. Cell C has embarked on a good strategy of claiming solid market share and growing itself against the competition by using the Private Label Promotions (PLP) group, a leading BEE Level 3 company that provides a variety of business solutions, to market GetMore, its value-added service package. A recommender system could be used to suggest and promote the items available in this package to existing and potential clients (users). There are different approaches to recommendation, the most widely used ones being the collaborative and content-based recommendation. The collaborative filtering approach uses the ratings of other users to recommend the items the current (active) user might like. In the content-based approach, items are recommended in terms of their content similarity to items a user has previously liked, or elements that have matched a user’s attributes (features). Hybrid recommendation approaches are used To eliminate the drawbacks individually associated with the CF and CBF approaches and to leverage their advantages. One of the aims of this research was to design and implement a prototype hybrid recommender system that would be used to recommend Cell C’s GetMore package to current and potential subscribers. The system was to implement matrix factorisation (collaborative) and cosine similarity (content-based) techniques. Several experiments were conducted to evaluate its performance and quality. The metrics used included Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) and Area Under the ROC Curve (AUC). We expected the proposed hybrid recommender system would leverage the advantages provided by its different components and demonstrate its effectiveness in providing Cell C’s customers with accurate and meaningful recommendations of its GetMore package services. Keywords: Content-based Recommendation, Collaborative Recommendation, Hybrid Recommendation, Cosine Similarity, Matrix Factorisation, Association Rule Mining, J48 Classifier, Decision Table, Naive Bayes, Simple K-means, Expectation Maximization, Farthest First, Predictive Apriori / LG2017

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The emerging black middle class in South Africa provides immense opportunity for marketers who wish to capture this segment of the market. However, in order to be relevant, a deep understanding of this ever-evolving segment is absolutely necessary. Characterised by complexity, the black middle class is heterogeneous and evolves at rapid speed. Studies by the Unilever Institute of Strategic Marketing highlighted the immense value of black middle class women, coined Black Diamond™ women. The primary objective of this research was to gain insights into the life of young black professional women and, secondly, to understand the driving forces behind their decision-making. This was achieved through an in-depth exploratory study. The first step in this study was to conduct a literature review on the black middle class in various African countries and the black middle class in South Africa. A review of literature on marketing communication provided the basis for reasoning on the appropriateness of different marketing communication tools. Literature also revealed the emergence of a possible new consumer type, the hybrid consumer. The literature review provided the framework for designing the interview schedules used in the expert interviews and interviews with the Black Diamond™ women. The findings of this research assignment were that the modern black middle class women face many complexities in their daily lives. Brands can, therefore, be significant to them by supporting them in their lives. Brands should customise their offerings, meet the black middle class women in innovative ways at different touch points, and bring meaning in their lives. Brands should also know that culture is prominent in all areas of their lives, which presents unique challenges.

DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF COMMERCE IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS TO THE FACULTY OF COMMERCE, LAW AND MANAGEMENT UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND, JOHANNESBURG FEBRUARY 2015 / Social Network Sites (SNS) such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Piniterest and Google+ have made it easy for youth to communicate, produce and share information. Using SNS has become a daily activity for many youth and young adults around the world, including South Africa. The use of SNS by youth may be motivated by needs for safety, belonging, self-esteem and self-actualization, and others such as enjoyment. Yet, the use of SNS by youth may also carry a number of risks. They include risks to violations of privacy, social and psychological risks that may harm the user’s self-image, as well as time and financial risks resulting from excessive SNS usage. The purpose of this study is to understand the tension between risks and motivation in the use of SNS by university students. To do so, this study developed an extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Multi-dimensional risk and motivation constructs were examined for their interactions with TAM constructs of perceived ease of use and perceive usefulness and their effects on SNS usage intentions and actual usage were examined. To test the model, a non-probability convenience sampling method was adopted using students from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Five hundred and fifteen students participated in the study. The ages ranged between 18 and 34 years, 26% males and 74% females took part in the study, and included students from 1st year through to 4th year undergraduate or Honours level. Facebook was found to be the most used SNS. Approximately 80% of respondents reported accessing SNS on their mobile phones and 66% reported being always connected. More than 25% of respondents were actively using SNS for more than 3 hours a day, with 35% using less than one hour per day. Interestingly, only 35% reported having public profiles although 10% did not know whether their profiles were public or private, and nearly 40% of respondents knew less than half the “friends” they were connected to on SNS Partial least squares approach to structured equation modelling was used to test the hypothesised research model. Results showed that motivation influences perceived usefulness (β=0.239, p<0.001) and perceived ease of use (β=0.319, p<0.001) positively. The results suggest that when motivations such as enjoyment and need to belong are high, SNS will be perceived as useful and easy to use. Risk was found to have a negative influence on perceived usefulness (β=-0.0764, p<0.05) and perceived ease of use (β=-0.3265, p<0.001). The results show that when risks are considered high, users are likely to increase their vigilance and consequently will report SNS as less easy to use. Moreover, as a result of risk users may find the SNS less useful. Perceived usefulness (β=0.295, p<0.001) influences intention to use SNS positively. This suggests that when SNS is useful to users, they will have intentions to use it. Intention to use SNS is also influenced by perceived ease of use (β=0.0396, p<0.01). An easy to use SNS will make users want to use it, as opposed to one considered more complex and requiring more effort. Motivation (β=0.281, p<0.001) was found to have more of an effect than risk (β=-0.071, p<0.05) on intentions to use. Respondents thus appear to recognize some risks associated with SNS use, but they appear to be driven more by motivations and less by risk avoidance when deciding on SNS usage. The study will have implications for researchers, SNS providers and users. The results of the study have implications for how researchers conceptualize risk and motivation. The study shows how different dimensions of risk and dimensions of motivation affect the overall risk and overall motivation construct respectively. Currently SNS providers may not have deep understanding of the risks which hinder the use of SNS and motivations which drive the use of SNS. Providers will be better informed to design SNS that are less risky and where possible mitigate the risks. Results also show that SNS providers should not only mitigate risks but also provide online social networks that better fulfil motivational needs of youth. Users will be aware of different risks they are exposing themselves to by using SNS. Since users will be aware of the different types of risks, they can be vigilante when using SNS. / MT2017