Browsing by Author "Irwin, Ronald"
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- ItemOpen AccessA Hypothetical Exploration of Survival, Colonisation and Interplanetary Relations Around the planet Mars(2019) Reid, Caroline; Irwin, RonaldThree novellas exploring the short and long-term implications of Martian colonisation and an explication. The first part examines the necessity of a robust and mentally-fit crew along with the relationships between corporatism. The second, which happens a century later, explores the health effects of long-term living on Mars along with the Earth disconnect by Martian-born humans. In the third part, another century later, the long-term strains of sustaining such a project are examined on Earth and how Martians are used as scapegoats. The explication describes the scientific motivations behind some aspects of the novel, including how the conditions of Mars necessitates certain survival protocols.
- ItemOpen AccessArt, outrage, dialogue: a McLuhan reading of three visual communicative practices in Cape Town public space(2015) Brown, Storm Jade; Irwin, RonaldThis mini-dissertation places a specific focus on the City of Cape Town and considers the space between aesthetics, commercial interest and social relevance in public visual communication practices. Instead of making a general statement or providing a value judgement, this research examines the nature of the debate surrounding public artistic practices by referring to three main artists; namely Michael Elion, The Tokolos Stencil Collective and Freddy Sam. The basis of the discussion is centred around the recent controversy surrounding Michael Elion's Sea Point public art sculpture, Perceiving Freedom (2014) and the respective questions it raised about what public space means, who has the right to represent themselves, and what that looks like. By drawing a comparison with Perceiving Freedom (2014) to the visual communicative practices of Freddy Sam and The Tokolos Stencil Collective, this research examines the progression of the debate. This encompasses the ways in which each artist and their work serve to illuminate the different visual modes of engagement in Cape Town's public spaces. Due to the contemporary nature of the subject matter, this debate is engaged with on three different levels. The first level examines the context of this debate and each artist, whereas the second level considers the points where their respective visual communicative practices intersect and engage in dialogue with each other as well as the general public. The last level considers an alternative way of reading the content, context and form of visual communicative practices so that their resulting effect can be better understood. This is done with the use of Marshall McLuhan's (1964) total effect media theory. Although several other prominent South African artists are mentioned in the scope of this research, it is important to note that the focus still pertains to the aforementioned themes of aesthetics, commercial interest and social relevance in public visual representative practices. Therefore Michael Elion, The Tokolos Stencil Collective and Freddy Sam remain the specific focus of discussion, as their respective works are used to illustrate these three themes. The first level of engagement offers a theoretical background to the reader by briefly familiarising them with international street art and graffiti practices. This brief yet concise background allows for a better understanding of the history and politics surrounding unsanctioned public visual practices and how they differ to formal sanctioned and funded ones.
- ItemOpen AccessClose to home.(2012) Bright, Cayleigh; Irwin, RonaldLocated in the college novel tradition, Close to Home explores a number of the themes common to the sub-genre, specifically the ennui of university students from a wealthy background. The story's characters have an excess of money, privilege and leisure time, which leads to boredom and ultimate tragedy. The protagonist, Faye, epitomises the stereotype of a spoiled Cape Town girl- a personality that turns out to have a lot in common with the magnetic but ultimately dangerous characters of some of the best-known college novels.
- ItemOpen AccessConstructing brand loyalty via social networks(2014) Struben, Sarah-Annique; Irwin, RonaldIdentifying the construction of brand loyalty via social networks requires an analysis of the information sharing of a product or brand amongst a social network, therefore indicating the strength of the brand loyalty members of a social network not only have towards a brand, but also promote to other members of the same social network. This exchange of information amongst social network members is called ‘homophily’, where “similarity breeds connection” (McPherson, 2001, p.415). In order to determine the strength of brand loyalty amongst a social network, a qualitative study was performed on a sample of consumers from the ‘digital age’ generation (Castells, 2010, p.xviii), examining the extent of information exchange via social media as well as via the social networks. In addition to this a minor case study was conducted where participants were asked a serious of questions that pertained to a specific brand, that of Woolworths. This was done in order to determine the strength of the brand loyalty they had for a particular brand that may then be theoretically applied on a general scale. As a result the strength of their brand loyalty was determined, indicating whether or not brand loyalty can be constructed via social networks. On the whole it can be determined that social networks play a strong role in the development of brand loyalty, particularly as it pertains to the current digital generation. Keywords: Social Network, Habitus, Purchase Behaviour, Networked Society, Brand Loyalty, Consumer satisfaction, Homophily, Brand Trustworthiness
- ItemOpen AccessCrisis management at South African universities: A case of the University of Cape Town crisis management strategies(2024) Makubalo, Siyavuya; Irwin, RonaldIn recent years, crises have become frequent in society, affecting individuals, organisations, and institutions. Traditionally, higher education institutions were regarded as protected spaces. However, with the rising cost of tuition that significantly affects students from less privileged backgrounds, higher education institutions have been facing increasing crises in the form of student protests. When these crises have emerged, higher education institutions have resorted to implementing crisis response plans rather than developing crisis prevention strategies. The former can be distinguished from the latter by its focus on short-term resolution, which allows for crisis dormancy. This study examines whether higher education institutions' failure to distinguish between dormant and resolved crises has contributed to a culture of crisis management rather than crisis prevention.
- ItemOpen Access#EvenMore than just a brand of soap: a case study analysing LUX soap's use of Instagram(2020) Venter, L'André; Irwin, RonaldThis research investigates the ways in which Unilever's LUX soap has repositioned their brand away from their historical association with beauty pageants. This research aims to unpack the ways in which Instagram is utilised by LUX soap to effectively communicate a distinct brand personality. This research identifies that the repositioning of the brand on Instagram was achieved through a strategy that integrated social media influencers and brand events, whilst incorporating social marketing. Not only does this research focus on LUX's branding on Instagram, it critically engages with the content from a postfeminist perspective. This is the secondary theoretical engagement of this work. The paper highlights the ways in which the content is postfeminist in nature and how this was incorporated into the branding messages. The main focus of this dissertation is the #MoreThanYouCanSee and #EvenMore LUX soap campaigns. Through a mixed methodology of interviews, content analysis, and survey the paper focuses on the ways in which LUX created a relationship with their customers on Instagram and effectively repositioned the brand. The research suggests that three key techniques were repeated on Instagram to effectively create new associations with the LUX brand during the #MoreThanYouCanSee and #EvenMore extension campaign. The paper, furthermore, suggests that the LUX soap campaign employs postfeminist rhetoric in their Instagram strategy. This dissertation argues that the development of a strategy consisting of branded events, social media influencers, and social marketing content allowed LUX soap to reposition their brand.
- ItemOpen AccessExploring the relationship between organisational culture, brand, and word-of-mouth referral(2019) Farmer-Brent, Garret; Irwin, RonaldThe culture within an organisation affects organisational performance in a myriad of ways, but the existing research was found by this paper to only examine organisational culture’s effect on profitability. This narrow view creates a gap between culture as a starting point for performance, and profitability as an ultimate endpoint. What about everything in between that culture has an effect on? Rather than examining organisational culture in terms of how it influences profitability, this study looks at how organisational culture influences an aspect organisational performance, specifically: its effect on brand image or on word-of-mouth referral. To do so, this paper unpacks a causal chain of influences in four chapters. The research here shows how that employees situated within the culture influences customers to promise to refer the organisation to their social connections. The literature shows that organisational culture is a context that influences most facets of business, and this context is used as a filter by employees to understand how they should behave and what they should value. This paper proposes that employees receive internal brand communications within the context of the culture. Then, they conduct their service actions according to what is expected of them within this context. Customers who interact with these employees are then coming into contact with the organisational by the proxy of customer-facing employees. These interactions between customers and employees are what causes the customer to enjoy the service experience or not. The theory shows that when a service experience is enjoyed, there is likelihood of positive word-of-mouth referral. This paper correlates that and proposes that when there is a strong degree of alignment in organisational culture, employees receive internal brand communications and conduct their service actions in strong alignment of what is expected of them. This leads to customers perceiving the organisation in a way that is favourable and causes a significant number of customers to promise to recommend the organisation.
- ItemOpen AccessExploring the Use of Digital Communication Channels as a Means of Employee Communication and Internal Brand Strategy Within South African Corporate Companies(2023) Johnson, Michaela; Irwin, RonaldThis research paper aims to understand how the digital acceleration, engendered by the COVID-19 pandemic, affected employee communication in the remote workplace. For brevity, focus is maintained on South African companies only. Particular emphasis is placed on digital communication channels' use to engage employees. With these two design principles, this study develops to sparse literature of South African companies' use of digital communication. Six medium to large companies that represent the key industries of South Africa have been sampled; mining, logistics, tourism, insurance and finance. The companies interviewed are the top South African businesses within in their respective industries. These companies include insurance companies Sanlam and Old Mutual, gold mining company Sibanye Stillwater, logistics company Imperial Logistics, tourism company Cape Town Tourism, and retail banking company Capitec Bank. The representatives selected in each company were based on the role they played in the implementation and operation of the digital communication channel within the organization. These roles ranged from heads of brand, heads of group strategy, and heads of communication. Qualitative interviews were preferred for data gathering and a grounded theory and thematic analysis approaches were used to analyse the data. The full sample of six companies were found to blend company-owned mobile communication and third party-owned software platforms to communicate in online spaces. Research additionally found remote communication strengthening organizational identity in most cases. This was arguably due to synchronous communication emphasizing employee wellness. Resistance to adoption of remote communication channels was offset with relevant training. Further study of this emergence of resistance led to identifying employees need to negotiate work- and home-identity in remote work environments. Studying this work/ home balance further led to a study of employee comfort. Findings in this area point to a proportional relationship between employee comfort and clear, direct and personalised communication. As a consequence of these findings, focus was then shifted to the nature of personalisation in internal branding, which again adds to a limited literature currently available. These shifting areas of focus are used to puzzle out how South African companies are attempting digital transformation. All of which builds to the conclusion that while South African companies might currently prefer enhancing their numerous platforms, conversion to a single protocol is likely, given these companies' openness to digital transformation.
- ItemOpen AccessInterpersonal communication and brand interaction on mobile social media: South African adolescents' use of MXit, Facebook Twitter(2012) Griffiths, Samantha; Irwin, RonaldThis paper explores the mobile social networking patterns of a sample of Black, White and Coloured adolescents attending three different schools in Cape Town, South Africa. The researcher utilises the Uses and Gratifications theory and qualitative research methodology in the form of focus groups and one-on-one semi-structured interviews to explore what gratifications this sample of students, aged 14-7 years, derive from three mobile social networking brands - MXit, Facebook and Twitter.
- ItemOpen AccessThe rise of the 'Instagram economy' phenomenon in a South African context : An exploration of how conspicuous consumption on Instagram contributes to brand value creation(2017) Kleintjes, Alyssa; Irwin, RonaldThe number of brands using Instagram as a branding tool is steadily rising and so too is the rate of brand related consumer Interactions on social media. The sociocultural shifts in behavioural norms on Instagram have facilitated an increase in social word-of mouth that is surpassing traditional media advertising as the primary influence on consumers' purchase decisions. This revolution in Instagram marketing has facilitated the development of the Instagram Economy. This research aims to draw actionable insights into the South African Instagram Economy, which brand managers can use to inform their Instagram marketing strategies in order to leverage the economic capabilities of this platform. In order to draw actionable insights the study focused on each of the three main role players of the Instagram Economy: brands, Instagram influencers and consumers. The method of research for each of these three components of study was: a case study of a brand Instagram account, a quantitative content analysis of Instagram influencers' brand sponsored posts and lastly a closed, fixed response consumer questionnaire which prospective respondents could voluntarily participate in. This research identified that in order to develop successful brand presence on Instagram and increase the rate of brand related Instagram interactions that influence consumer purchase decisions, brands need to develop the right content for their target audience, partner with influencers that match the brand's values and know their audience's Instagram usage habits in order to reach them effectively.
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- ItemOpen AccessThe Online Communication of Corporate Social Investment: How is the intricate task approached by South African companies?(2022) Dyssell, Emily; Irwin, RonaldCorporate Social Investment in South Africa has come to mean more than abiding by the B-BBEE regulatory requirements. It is a way for companies to showcase that their priorities move beyond profit-making, and stem into community upliftment. While actual contributions to CSI are of the most importance, CSI communication is a field that requires more strategy and focus than it did before. However, with no templates for the best online communication methods available, there is a wide range of types of message content and communication strategies. Utilising a mixed-method analysis, this paper explores the webpage communication of CSI in South Africa by conducting a content analysis of the CSI webpages of highly regarded South African companies, an in-depth semiotic and discourse analysis of two award-wining company webpages (Pick n Pay and Investec), and lastly a practical case study wherein a communications strategy was designed for national company, Ultra Liquors. This dissertation aims to explore the question: How is CSI webpage communication approached by South African companies? The research was approached through three sub questions: What are the common themes, methods of communication, and types of content on the Corporate Social Investment webpages of highly regarded South African companies? How do Pick n Pay and Investec, both award winning companies in the CSI field, successfully communicate their altruistic values through their CSI webpages? Utilising Ultra Liquors as a case study, how does one approach creating a CSI communications strategy, and what are the essential factors that should be considered? While there is significant academic research within the overall field of CSI, research into the communication of it is limited. However, companies and their stakeholders are beginning to pay more attention to it. This research aims to contribute to the limited research available in South Africa regarding CSI communication and highlight the importance of CSI communication and strategy – both practically and within the realm of academic research.
- ItemOpen AccessThe ship in the sky(2019) Evans, Tracey Ellen; Irwin, RonaldThe sky’s grumbling. Layers of gray grinding above me the way teeth grind, angry and wanting, all nap long. Two boom-clap bangs and my eyes snap open to clouds thick as clay, metal-sheet lightening and thunder thumping close and heavy as fists. I grab the stone floor and I’m watching and listening, listening and watching and I’m hearing yelling and it’s my own heart yelling, and I realize this ain’t dreaming. This ain’t dreaming. I ease myself near the rock ledge, hanging there like a loose tooth when the ground rips apart, it clear splits thirty feet in front of me right through the Joneses' veggie patch. My gut leaps to my throat. Would be an awesome sight if it weren’t so terrifying. Air and water and fire and earth dancing into one, blasting the ground inches from the Joneses’ farmhouse splitting their flagpole, my eardrums just about splitting in the roar. I clasp on tight. Next thing, my legs are falling from my body, or my body’s falling from the rock and we’re sinking together, sliding down. Then silence. Earth shattering silence. A venomous pause. Nothing moves, not even my lungs. I grab at the ledge hanging, waiting, watching. Come on Bill. Get out of the house. Get the Missus and get the fuck out. The elements are hovering, brewing a soup so thick and dark a rich thick and dark soup. Triple decker boom and I’m rolling to the spine of the rock as it tilts and digs its feet in, crushing or protecting, as the sky breaks open with rain belting down. I crank my head towards the farmhouse and it’s sinking. Come on Bill and Betty. As the sky belts the earth belts my skull belts on the back of that blasted crushing protecting rock, the ground sinking further under the weight from above and rock falling, consciousness too, and then I’m dreaming of everything.
- ItemOpen AccessValues-driven marketing and IMC: How can emerging critical success factors from a values driven marketing approach bridge the divide between brand owners and brand implementers in the effective execution and application of IMC?(2023) Jacobsen, Anneleigh; Irwin, RonaldMuch has been written about the widening rift between brand owners (“clients”) and external brand implementors (“agencies”) in the context of implementing Integrated Media Communications (IMC). In considering four long-term case studies we found four emerging critical success factors that seem to indicate that a values-driven marketing approach can help bridge the gap between brand owners and brand implementors and support effective IMC implementation. Where previous work has focused on the brand implementor side of the relationship, this research focuses on the brand owner side. Using semi-structured interviews with leadership as well as facilitated group workshops on values and the development of value propositions in order to understand (a) the impact of a valuesdriven approach to brands and marketing on the relationship with brand implementors, and (b) the success factors that were common across all four case studies. The four emerging key success factors found can be summarised as follows: 1. The process and values must be driven by the brand owner 2. The roles, responsibilities, measures and remuneration for each brand implementor must be absolutely clear to all involved, and decided by the brand owner 3. The business must have absolute clarity at all levels on the values and value proposition of the brand 4. The brand owner must prioritise finding the consulting services, advice or support of an experienced marketing expert if they do not have this skill set themselves These insights could form the basis for enabling brand owners to more effectively implement and benefit from the potential of IMC in their businesses, particularly in the SME context where marketing skill sets are less prevalent.
- ItemOpen AccessThe white man's numbers(2012) Shah, Sunil; Irwin, Ronald
- ItemOpen AccessWriting for mobile media: The influences of text, digital design and psychological characteristics on the cognitive load of the mobile user(2019) Speechly, Amanda Karen; Irwin, RonaldText elements on the mobile smartphone interface make a significant contribution to the user’s interaction experience. In combination with other visual design features, these words curate the path of the mobile user on a journey through the information to satisfy a specific task. This study analyses the elements that influence the interpretation process and optimum presentation of information on mobile media. I argue that effective digital writing contributes to reducing the cognitive load experienced by the mobile user. The central discussion focuses on the writing of text for this medium, which I suggest forges an entirely unique narrative. The optimum writing approach is based on the multi-dimensional characteristics of hypertext, which allow the writer to facilitate the journey without the user losing control of the interpretation process. This study examines the relationship between the writer, the reader and the text, with a unique perspective on the mobile media writer, who is tasked with achieving balance between the functionality and humanity of digital interaction. To explore influences on the development of the relevant writing techniques, I present insights into the distinctive characteristics of the mobile smartphone device, with specific focus on the screen and keyboard. I also discuss the unique characteristics of the mobile user and show how the visual design of the interface is integral to the writing of text for this medium. Furthermore, this study explores the role, skills, and processes of the current and future digital writer, within the backdrop of incessant technological advancement and revolutionary changes in human-computer behaviour.