Community Insights Lead – Grassroots & Consumer Intelligence (South Africa and Kenya) at Publicis Groupe

Role Purpose:

• This role is dedicated to decoding the everyday realities of South African and Kenyan consumers in lower LSM segments, township economies, and rural communities. The primary purpose is to build a granular, data-rich understanding of community consumer behaviour—specifically their journeys, decision-making triggers, touchpoints, and media consumption habits. The Insights Lead will translate this intelligence into journey maps, trend reports, and opportunity frameworks that inform brand strategy, activation planning, and go-to-market models. This role does not own brand strategy but acts as the internal authority on how, when, and why grassroots consumers engage with categories, brands, and media.

Responsibilities

Community Consumer Journey Mapping

• Lead qualitative and quantitative research to map end-to-end consumer journeys for target communities (e.g., from need recognition to purchase and post-use behaviour).
• Identify key friction points, unarticulated needs, trust triggers, and abandonment drivers specific to lower-LSM and rural consumers.
• Produce visual journey maps segmented by region, language group, and distribution channel (e.g., spaza shops, hawkers, clinics, mobile wallets).

Behavioural Analysis & Trend Identification

• Monitor and analyse shifting consumer behaviours, coping mechanisms, value-seeking patterns, and purchase hierarchies within constrained economic environments.
• Identify emerging grassroots trends (e.g., collective buying, barter behaviours, influence of stokvels, faith-based networks) and their implications for brand relevance.
• Synthesize behavioural data from field observations, retail audits, community panels, and secondary sources into quarterly trend outlooks.

Touchpoint & Media Consumption Audits

• Map all physical and digital touchpoints where communities encounter brand messages, including point-of-sale, community radio, WhatsApp groups, taxi ranks, clinics, schools, and events.
• Conduct structured media consumption studies to understand platform preferences, trust in information sources, content format preferences (e.g., voice notes, SMS, video), and receptive windows (time of day, location).
• Evaluate the effectiveness of existing touchpoints and recommend under-leveraged or new opportunities for community connection.

Insight Generation & Activation

• Translate journey maps, behavioural patterns, and touchpoint data into clear, actionable insights for brand, media, and trade teams.
• Develop insight packs, personas, “day in the life” narratives, and opportunity briefs that inform campaign development, messaging architecture, and channel investment.
• Facilitate workshops to embed community intelligence into marketing, innovation, and sales planning.

Cross-Functional & Field Collaboration

• Partner with brand and media strategist teams to ensure strategies are grounded in grassroots realities.
• Work with field marketing and agency partners to co-design research methodologies (e.g., in-home immersions, accompanied shops, community listening sessions).
• Feed field learnings back into national and global planning cycles, advocating for local nuance.

Qualifications

Insights & Research Expertise (Non-negotiable):

• Consumer journey mapping – demonstrated experience building visual, multi-stage journey maps for mass or low-income consumer segments.
• Behavioural analysis – ability to interpret observed behaviours (not just stated opinions) and derive motivational drivers, barriers, and habits.
• Touchpoint auditing – hands-on experience auditing physical and digital brand interactions in informal trade or rural settings.
• Media consumption analysis – proven ability to study and report on media habits, including radio listenership, mobile data usage, social platform preference (WhatsApp, TikTok, Facebook Lite), and trust in community influencers.
• Insight synthesis – experience turning raw field data (observations, interviews, shop-alongs) into strategic insight documents without jargon.

Research Methods & Tools:

• Proficiency with qualitative methods (IDIs, focus groups, ethnographic immersions, accompanied shops, community diaries).
• Working knowledge of quantitative tools (surveys, simple analytics) to validate findings.
• Familiarity with secondary sources (e.g., AMPS, Target Group Index, local retail audit data) is a plus.

Market & Cultural Intelligence:

• Deep understanding of South Africa’s lower-LSM consumer landscape, including township and rural economies.
• Sensitivity to regional differences, language nuances (proficiency in Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho, or Swahili is a strong plus), and informal social structures.
• Ability to navigate community dynamics respectfully and without extracting harm.

Leadership & Collaboration:

• 6–10 years of experience in consumer insights, market research, or behavioural analytics (agency or client-side), with significant exposure to emerging or underserved consumer segments.
• Strong communication and visual storytelling skills—able to present complex human behaviours simply and persuasively to senior non-researchers.
• Comfortable working in a matrixed, global organization and managing external research partners or field agencies.

Education & Other Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in social sciences, psychology, marketing research, anthropology, or related field.
• Formal training in consumer behaviour, ethnographic methods, or data synthesis is advantageous.
• Fluency in English required; proficiency in at least one local South African language strongly preferred.
• Passion for community-centred work and commitment to ethical, empathetic research practices.

Success Measures (KPIs):

• Journey map adoption – number of brand/activation plans informed by community journey maps produced by the role.
• Insight-to-action rate – documented instances where insights led to a change in media mix, messaging, or touchpoint investment.
• Media consumption depth – completeness of media profiles for target segments (e.g., daily listenership windows, trusted messenger types, preferred formats).
• Reduction in “assumption-driven” briefs – measurable shift from anecdotal planning to insight-backed community strategies.
• Consumer behaviour trend lead time – ability to identify emerging grassroots trends at least one quarter ahead of broader market detection