The CPUT academic Marketing Department, which falls under the Business Faculty, has received a generous donation of 200 copies of the prescribed textbook eMarketing: the Essential Guide to Online Marketing from a Cape Town-based online marketing agency, Quirk eMarketing.

Quirk eMarketing was established in 1999 by Rob Stokes, a then 20-year-old Business Science graduate from University of Cape Town. With insight beyond his years, Stokes became a pioneer in terms of the advent of the eMarketing (online marketing) discipline.

eMarketing: the Essential Guide to Online Marketing has been prescribed for the second year students as a module in their Marketing II subject.

The process of adding this new and innovative textbook onto the prescribed reading list began when Lyndi Lawson, Assistant Marketing Manager of Quirk eMarketing, contacted Rodney Duffett, Advertising Lecturer in the Marketing Department, late last year.

Lawson expressed that their company wished to donate 200 textbooks (worth R65 000) to the faculty’s second year Marketing students.

The culmination of this initiative took place on 16 February 2009 when Stokes and Lawson, the agency representatives, visited the CPUT Bellville Campus to present the textbooks.

During the handover event, Stokes delivered an inspiring and motivating speech. He also made the students aware of several lucrative internships available at his company.

The textbooks were then distributed to the eager students.

Duffett closed the event by presenting Rob Stokes with an Excellence Award certificate to thank Quirk eMarketing for their valued support and development of Marketing students across the country.

By Thando Moiloa

Photo: Second year Marketing students appear elated after receiving donated textbooks from Quirk eMarketing.

Written by CPUT News
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The collaboration between CPUT and Koblenz University of Applied Sciences (KUAS) has yielded a life-changing job opportunity for a CPUT student to work as a Research Assistant in Germany.

The Research Assistant and Doctoral Candidate will work in Koblenz for up to three years. A suitable candidate must have an outstanding Master’s Degree in marketing, market research, brand management, business administration or any related area.

The successful candidate will complete a doctorate in the area of brand management at CPUT during their employment, among other responsibilities.  Applications should be emailed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by 31 August 2020.

The collaboration started when Professor Holger Schmidt (KUAS) spent a semester of his sabbatical at CPUT and collaborated with Dr Pieter Steenkamp from the Marketing Department on a brand management-related research project.

The collaboration resulted in a memorandum of agreement between the two institutions which was signed in 2019, with the Marketing Department being the custodian of the agreement at CPUT.

Steenkamp said the opportunity furthers CPUT’s internationalisation strategic imperatives and the student will be co-supervised by himself and Schmidt.

“Given the challenges in South Africa with access to quality education and employment, exacerbated by COVID-19, this opportunity will be life-changing for one of our students. At the end of the programme, the fortunate individual will be able to write Dr in front of their name and three years of international experience behind their name. Their life will never be the same again. This is how we are ‘Creating Futures’ at CPUT,” he said.

Mandy Jones, Head of Department: Marketing, said: “Every time our students get to experience different cultures, they grow, and this opportunity will be no different. Our investment in this partnership over the years has borne fruit for a life-changing opportunity for one of our postgraduate students.”

For more information about this vacancy contact Steenkamp on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Schmidt on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it...

Written by Kwanele Butana
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First-year Marketing students put their classroom skills to test to make a difference in the lives of The Big Issue street vendors.

Students used word of mouth, flyers and social media to advertise the magazine and hit the city streets to sell the magazine alongside vendors.

A group of students were assigned to one vendor and they then had to use all their marketing savvy to boost sales.

The project is a collaboration between the Marketing Department, the Language Unit in the Faculty of Business and the Service Learning Unit.

The Big Issue is a non-profit organisation that assists unemployed adults to earn a living through a developmental employment programme.

The project’s brief was to integrate community engagement into the language curriculum.

Yesterday students showcased their work and reflected on their experiences.

In the feedback session, students said they learnt a lot more from the project than in the classroom as they were challenged to use skills some did not even think they had such as dealing with nasty rejection from motorists as they were selling the magazine.

The vendors were also given gifts and certificates during the round-up session.

Written by Kwanele Butana
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Two CPUT students in the Marketing Department will soon be heading to Harbin University of Commerce, China, to attend a government-sponsored training programme on ecological tourism.

The Ecological Tourism Development and Management for Developing Countries 2016, is a one month training programme which is fully-funded by the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China.

Nomzekelo Mdloyiya and Zanele Lurafu applied for the programme through the national Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

Nomzekelo is leaving for Beijing on Saturday as she will be attending the Seminar on Economic Development and Social Policy which starts on Monday.

Zanele, a Masters student, will be leaving in August to undergo training in Modern Agricultural Technology and Food Security.

“I want to look at how advanced are technologies used by the Chinese to produce agriculturally and compare the differences between South Africa and them,” she says.

Zanele, who works as a Brand Strategist at Imagination Alliance, says she is excited about going to China.

Nomzekelo, who graduated with a BTech degree in 2015, is an intern at Pick ‘n Pay’s Department of Trade and Customer Insights.

She says that in China she will be trained in Ecological Tourism because tourism involves a lot of communication when marketing destinations.

“The sustainability of tourism concerns looking after tourist attractions such that they are not worn out without closing people off,” she adds.

Marketing Senior Lecturer, Kevin Ncube, says the department keeps in touch with students and graduates.

“I hope that initiatives such as this do not only improve just the students’ lives but also the companies in which they work as the students gain a broader view of the world,” says Ncube.  

Written by Kwanele Butana
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For academic excellence CPUT encourages its students to use the library’s resources.

The Marketing Department and Library Services embarked on a joint initiative which saw the second-year Advertising students square off to design and produce posters to encourage students to use the services of the CPUT libraries.

A library panel of adjudicators had fun deliberating over the winning posters and selected four winners. The prize-giving ceremony recently took place at the Cape Town Campus Library.

The ceremony was attended by staff members from both departments and each finalist explained their poster concept.

Mesuli Lostile was announced as the overall winner, Leigh-Anne Stober was second and Alain Moise Marora third. Leaney Barnard was awarded a special prize for the most eye-catching poster.

The prizes included folios, folders, bags and other branded goodies. A collage of the posters can be viewed at the Cape Town library and some posters will soon be placed at libraries on other campuses.

The posters focus on the recent redesigning of the space in the Cape Town Campus library, which included more computers in the lab, discussion areas, softer seats, round tables, plug points & wireless internet access for laptops. Other posters emphasize why students should use the resources of CPUT’s Library’s resources instead of the Internet.

“All the posters were judged according to the brief of promoting the services of the library,” says Senior Librarian Yunus Omar.

“The winning poster – CPUT Libraries collage - captured all the elements of the brief, namely advertising the modern, re-designed services and colourful spaces of the library.”

Written by Kwanele Butana
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