Thimna Rapiya

Engaged directly by Trigz Snacks' CEO as sole insights consultant, owning brand audit, research design, ethnographic fieldwork (30 interviews across three age cohorts) and strategic recommendations end to end. Diagnosed a shift from customer-inward to product-outward messaging across Nielsen retail and social data, then reframed Trigz's addressable market into a three-cohort strategy, identifying

Translated 20 million+ social conversations (Trendscope) into a category trend map spanning face, lip, nail and eye for Coty's product innovation teams. Applied a volume-versus-growth framework to surface high-potential signals a popularity ranking would miss, including a February 2026 taxonomy refresh (179 trends, 19 territories, 6 pillars) and Statement Lips (+30.8%) as the top lip growth signal

Led a 47-interview segmentation study reframing Woolworths' relationship with Gen Z (60% of South Africa's population, 55% of its spending power), presented to leadership and feeding into the Store of the Future initiative. Led the cultural interpretation strand of an ethnographic study into Maskandi (3,000%+ playlist growth, 2 million+ monthly plays), reframing it from a content opportunity into

Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Psychology, currently in progress at the University of South Africa.

Bachelor of Science degree in Genetics and Physiology from the University of the Free State.

Higher Certificate in Brand Building and Strategy from Vega School.