26 September 2011
Marketing journalist Siobhán O’Connell, wrote an interesting article in the Irish Times Media & Marketing section recently where she posed the question “Does Musgrave’s takeover afford the opportunity to reinvent or kill the Superquinn brand?” ThinkTank was kindly asked to comment and our thoughts together with the diverse views of other branding and marketing experts can be viewed here in the Irish Times article.
Superquinn’s excellence in the past was due to the extraordinary vision of Fergal Quinn. He understood brand innately and knew that every world beating brand is underpinned by a strong customer value proposition. He set about identifying the important problems that needed to be solved for Irish grocery shoppers, exceeding their expectations constantly through a culture of innovation, relentlessly placing the customer at the core of the organisation and in so doing building a hugely successful brand.
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Comments (0) | | Digg This | Save to Del.icio.us | Posted by: Jon
Tags: Brand Positioning, Branding, Fergal Quinn, Irish Times, Management Consulting, Market positioning, Marketing, Musgrave, Retailing, Strategy, Supermarkets, Superquinn, USP, Value Proposition
2 May 2011
At ThinkTank we were encouraged to read Alf Smiddy’s recent Blog post entitled - It’s all about your Brand - which also appeared in innovative financial services firm, Quintas’ spring newsletter.
As a former MD and Chairman of Beamish & Crawford Plc, for over twelve years and current chairman and director on a number of Boards, Alf has a tremendous depth of experience in both the financial and branding arenas. This combination of skills is particularly unique and it’s inspiring to hear one of Cork’s most respected business leaders recognising the importance and value of brands.
In an insightful and thought -provoking post he outlines why in our tumultuous economic landscape, business as usual has become irrelevant and how companies need to to “inspire and mobilise people around a common purpose.” He goes onto explain,“I firmly believe that it’s through innovation, the re-invention of existing brands, and the creation of new brands that will create the climate for business success going forward.”
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Comments (5) | | Digg This | Save to Del.icio.us | Posted by: Jon
Tags: Alf Smiddy, Beamish & Crawford, Brand Damage, Brand Positioning, brand relevance, Brand Valuation, Branding, Branding in Ireland, Cork, differntiation, Innovation, Irish brands, Jonathan Amm, Lisa Murphy, Management Consulting, Marketing, Quintas, Value Proposition, www.think-tank.ie
24 September 2010
Good design is good business. Yet it’s amazing how few good business people recognize and understand the commercial value of good design.
Think about how every day poorly designed products and services add complexity instead of simplicity to our lives. The tortuously convoluted language used by the financial services industry, the non-intuitive features on electronic gadgets that most of us will never fathom, big call centres that tell you what they can’t do instead of what they can, antiquated recruitment practices that tick boxes instead of identifying talent and newspaper layouts that are cluttered with ads all fighting for attention like kids on a sugar rush! The universe may contain intelligent design but many products and services certainly do not!
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Comments (0) | | Digg This | Save to Del.icio.us | Posted by: Jon
Tags: @ThinkTank_, Brand Architecture, Branding, Cork, Creativity, Design, design sustainability, Design Thinking, environmental design, Glucksman Gallery, Innovation, Ireland, Irish Design, Jonathan Amm, Marketing, ThinkTank, Twitter, www.think-tank.ie
3 September 2010
“Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of 2010, understand profitability. If I could offer you only one tip for the future profitability would be it”…..but more from Baz Luhrmann later…….
As a marketing lecturer, the second most common question I get asked (next to, “what is coming up on the exam”?) is “How am I ever going to get a job in marketing?”. Worse than this, in the students where the glass seems perpetually half empty, the statement “I am never going to get a job in marketing” reverberates every year as the academic term is coming to a close. Now, what is interesting is that this sentiment appears to transcend gender, age and academic achievements, and was heard as loudly during the “Celtic Tiger” era as it is now in our economic recession. Essentially, no marketing student seems to think they are going to get a job in marketing. For a marketing lecturer who has spent years working with these students this is a disheartening sentiment to constantly hear, but more than that, it is a frustrating one. Why is it that these bright, intelligent, articulate students, these Generation Y students who are constantly being told that they are the chosen ones, the future, the ones who are connected; why is it that these students think they won’t get a job in marketing?
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Comments (2) | | Digg This | Save to Del.icio.us | Posted by: Jon
Tags: @ThinkTank_, Career in Marketing, CIT, Cork, Cork Institute of Technology, Ireland, Irish Mad Men, Irish Marketing, Marketing, Marketing Graduates, Marketing Students, Rose Leahy, Strategic Marketing, ThinkTank, Twitter, www.think-tank.ie
15 August 2010
Hello. My name is Anna and I am a Millennial. I am part of the largest generation yet to exist. We populate Facebook and YouTube. We are social and always connected. We are armed with laptops, iPods and smart phones. We are Generation Y, or indeed Generation Y Not.
The Millennials are the “wired” generation and we don’t know how to be any other way. We’re a new breed of consumers and unfortunately most businesses are not prepared for us. Businesses need to get to know the Millennials if they want to be relevant and successful in the future. Our global annual spending power exceeds $250 billion and we also influence another $50 million in purchases. Our generation has bigger potential purchasing power than the Baby Boomers and is set to supplant them as the most powerful economic force on planet earth.
So let me introduce you to the Millennials..
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Comments (2) | | Digg This | Save to Del.icio.us | Posted by: Jon
Tags: @ThinkTank_, Advertising, Anna Sablovscaia, Baby Boomers, Brands, Cork, Generation X, Generation Y, Ireland, Market Segmentation, Marketing, Marketing to Gen-Y, Millennials, number of Irish Facebook users, Research, ThinkTank, trends, Twitter, www.think-tank.ie
2 August 2010
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FACT: One in five Irish Enterprises fail according to the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association. In many instances they fail due to a lack of understanding of their customers and market place.
Post-recession shoppers are a completely different breed when compared to what has gone before. They’ve been profoundly impacted by a feeling of deprivation the recession caused and the way in which they’ve coped with it. Now they are more demanding than ever and their expectations are increasingly high. We all know shoppers are fickle and the days of being completely loyal to one brand or company are gone. Shoppers have been conditioned to search out the best price and value during these recessionary times yet they can be swayed at the point of purchase to make very different decisions. Other factors like emotions also come into play, hence the contradiction in terms, when you hear that more than one in two customers claim to be cutting down on treats but sales of premium products such as ice cream and chocolates are on the rise. How can that be?
Business consultancy Deloitte released an interesting research report just this week in New York where they talked about a ‘paradigm shift’ in consumer purchasing habits in the US. It found that a whopping 84% of households were examining their spending in every category to try and save money while 79% believed they were ‘smarter’ shoppers than they were two years ago. But it also found that 75% believed that the financial crisis had caused them to realise ‘which brands I really care about and which ones are less important to me’ and that there were only two or three brands which they ‘could not live without’.
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Tags: @ThinkTank_, brand audit, Branding, Colette Quinn, Company Analysis, competitor analysis, consumer insights, consumer trends, Cork, differentiation, Enterprise Ireland, Ireland, Jonathan Amm, Lisa Murphy, Market Analysis, Marketing, Marketing Director, post recessionary customer, Real Insights, Research, social media, ThinkTank, Twitter, www.think-tank.ie
24 July 2010
Insights & Tips on Company & Product Naming
Naming a business is a lot like laying the cornerstone of a new building. Once it’s in place, the entire foundation and structure is aligned to that original stone. If it’s off, even in the slightest, the misalignment becomes amplified.
The tougher it gets out there, the more important it is to put your marketing money where it will do the most good. Coming up with the right name for a company or a product can make a huge difference in building a brand and even in determining it’s future success. Too often companies jump straight into designing a logo and then spend the rest of the marketing budget trying to explain to people what they actually do and what their difference is.
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Comments (1) | | Digg This | Save to Del.icio.us | Posted by: Jon
Tags: 10 tips on company naming, @ThinkTank_, Advertising, Big Idea, Brand Positioning, Brand Strategy, Branding, Company Naming, Cork, differentiation, Fishy Fishy, Innovation, Ireland, Irish Patents Office, Jonathan Amm, Kinsale, Logo Design, Marketing, Product Development, Product Naming, Start-ups, Strategy, Trade Mark Agents, Trademarks, Twitter
8 June 2010
For a business to be viable, it has to do something as well as its competitors; to win in a competitive market, it has to do something better than its competitors.
Recent research by global marketing firm, Young & Rubicam highlights the fact that 80% of new businesses and brands fail. Lack of differentiation is cited as the major reason for business failure.
In order to ensure that your product is preferred over those of your competitors, you must consider the complete brand experience and how that experience will contribute to consumer perception. Your brand isn’t what you think it is – it’s what your customer think it is. Your brand isn’t your logo, web site design or tag line – it’s a research informed strategic premise that is designed to deliver competitive advantage and grow market share.
As a bit of a brand refresher and value add to customers, ThinkTank decided to take a peek into what really goes on inside the mind of your customer.
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Comments (0) | | Digg This | Save to Del.icio.us | Posted by: Jon
Tags: @ThinkTank_, Advertising, Brand Positioning, Branding, differentiation, Emotional Branding, Jonathan Amm, Marketing, Twitter, USP, www.think-tank.ie
