SAMRA conference offers key research papers

16 Feb 2010

The South African Marketing Research Association (SAMRA) conference takes place 2-4 June 2010 at Mount Grace Hotel and Spa and, according to SAMRA chair Salomé Barnard, delegates can look forward to three days of learning, knowledge sharing and networking. Its theme is Laduma! Goal-driven research for striking insights.

Salomé Barnard: SAMRA plans to encourage innovation and constant improvement of research methodologies and techniques.

Conference chair, Joanne van Schaardenburgh, states that 16 research papers have been selected for the conference, two expert Q&A sessions and seven keynote speakers, offering 25 presentations in total.

Keynote speakers

James Fergusson (global director emerging markets, TNS, Singapore) - Embracing digital in emerging markets
Adrè Schreuder (MD - Consulta Research, SA) - Revisiting customer experience measurement from 2002 keynote address to 2010 and beyond
Mark Earls (HERDmeister, HERD Consulting, UK) - Herd behaviour
Ari Popper (president: North America, BrainJuicer, US) - Innovation
Gunilla Broadbent (president - ESOMAR)/Finn Raben (director general - ESOMAR) - The state of the research industry
Haythem Guizani (researcher, Wesford Ecole Supérieure de Commerce et de Management, France) - Brand equity, brand personality measurement and modelling
Martin Kingdon (CEO, Sheridan Global Limited, UK) - Retail and shopper behaviour

Conference forms part of 2010 push

According to Barnard, the conference forms part of the 2010 objectives of SAMRA, which is a busy year with a full programme aimed at achieving various objectives. These include:

Promoting and maintaining professional standards in the industry;
Ensuring ongoing training and knowledge-sharing;
Establishing a viable networking forum for marketing research practitioners;
Promoting marketing research as profession; and
Promoting understanding of its contribution to society and the economy

“If the marketing research industry wants to stay abreast, SAMRA also needs encourage innovation and constant improvement of research methodologies and techniques. This we plan to do through a number of industry events, with presentations and papers by leading research experts, both local and international,” concludes Barnard.