Hofmeyr joins Synovate as Global Head of Insights for new brand practice

In his new role, Hofmeyr will be responsible for research and development of new products/solutions; improvements to current Synovate solutions, sales and training.

Cape Town, South Africa-based Hofmeyr is the inventor of The Conversion Model, the author of numerous books and articles and a consultant to the African National Congress (ANC). He has a doctorate in the psychology of religious belief formation from the University of Cape Town, where he taught until 1989.

One of the early white South Africans to make public contact with the ANC while it was still banned, he began consulting in political survey research in the mid-80s. In this capacity he assisted the Investor Responsibility Research Center in Washington, DC in a large-scale project to evaluate the impact of sanctions on white South African political behaviour.

In 1986 Hofmeyr developed The Conversion Model which measures the commitment of people to their current choices and their closeness to conversion regardless of the market. It was first commercially applied to banking in South Africa in 1989. Since then it has been applied in over 350 product categories in more than 7,000 projects in over 200 countries.

A frequent speaker at international conferences and seminars, Hofmeyr has published articles in both academic and trade journals. These include the social and psychological impacts of religion, political and ideological analysis, voter behaviour, but most of all, marketing. He has also authored or co-authored three books: The Cynic's Guide to the Stock Exchange; an analysis of the relationship between religion and politics called Religion, Intergroup Relations and Social Change in South Africa and Commitment-led Marketing which was co-authored with Butch Rice with whom he built The Conversion Model.

Until the end of November 2005, Hofmeyr was the CEO of the Customer Equity Company based in Cape Town. He will continue to be based in South Africa.

Synovate Global CEO Adrian Chedore, commenting on Hofmeyr's appointment, said, "Brand and communications is a fundamental part of our total business. We believe that this new practice structure will place expertise where we need it and assist our delivery of value-added services to both multi-country and national clients."