David Douglas Dunton

As Project Manager I typically:

•Take the brief from client.

•Distil the central strategic issue into a proposal, with budget, timing, discussion guide etc.

•Organise recruitment, whether it be for pre-recruited interviews or random intercept interviews in field.

•Explore the strategic issue in the field myself, while also managing other fieldworkers.

•Edit the fieldwork into clear themes myself (or brief an editor to do so).

•Embed the edited clips into a powerpoint report.

•Write and present the final report to client.

•Make strategic recommendations, and work collaboratively with client on the way forward.

While working as a freelance ethnographic consultant and strategist, I headed up projects for many big corporates, brands and organisations, such as:

Namibian Breweries Limited

Shoprite Checkers

Viva con Agua South Africa

ER Consulting

BIC

Mane

Spier Wine Farms

eNCA

Democratic Alliance

RCL

Landrover

PresLes

Heineken

Mane

Ipsos

KLA

• I based the product ideas for Murphy’s Gravy & Murphy’s Ice Cream on gaps I saw in the dog treat market – thanks to my own experience with my dog: Murphy.
• I grew the brand distribution to over 150 vetshops across the country.
• To achieve this I developed and maintained strong relationships with clients, resulting in repeat business and referrals.
• Oversaw daily operations, ensuring all tasks were completed accurately and efficiently by team members.
• Negotiated contracts with suppliers for better pricing and terms, reducing overall costs for the business.
• The business was sold as it was taking too much time from my core offering of ethnographic research.Managed day-to-day business operations.

In my time at CIA I progressed from junior fieldworker to Project Manager, Director, Senior Partner, and Shareholder.

As Project Manager I typically:

•Take the brief from client.

•Distil the central strategic issue into a proposal, with budget, timing, discussion guide etc.

•Organise recruitment, whether it be for pre-recruited interviews or random intercept interviews in field.

•Explore the strategic issue in the field myself, while also managing other fieldworkers.

•Edit the fieldwork into clear themes myself (or brief an editor to do so).

•Embed the edited clips into a powerpoint report.

•Write and present the final report to client.

•Make strategic recommendations, and work collaboratively with client on the way forward.

While at CIA, I headed up projects for many big corporates such as:

Unilever

Coca-Cola

Standard Bank

FNB

Woolworths

Media 24

Nissan

Johnson & Johnson

Diageo

Kraft/Mondelez

The O&L Group

Hans Grohe

Engen

Tiger Brands

The Foschini Group

• In my first ‘real job’, I got my grounding in the marketing world as an advertising copywriter at what was then Ogilvy & Mather Cape Town (now Ogilvy Cape Town).
• This gave me a solid foundational understanding of how to approach marketing issues strategically.
• However, it felt like there was a missing link – between me as marketer, and the people I was trying to connect with and advertise to: the consumer, but more fundamentally, the person.
• So, rather than trying to guess what consumers were thinking and feeling, I wanted to get the human truth from the horse’s mouth – hence my move to qualitative ethnographic market research.