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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Tags: Brand Positioning, Branding, Fergal Quinn, Irish Times, Management Consulting, Market positioning, Marketing, Musgrave, Retailing, Strategy, Supermarkets, Superquinn, USP, Value Proposition

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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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

Let’s say you’re at a networking event and someone steps in the elevator with you, notices your nametag, and asks, “So what do you guys do?” Quick–what’s your answer? You’ve got just 30 seconds before the doors open so you’d better think fast.

In many ways an Elevator Pitch is shorthand for what your brand stands for. It’s your one-shot opportunity to be different and present yourself in a compelling and memorable way. For most business owners, getting to the crux of what you really do is the hardest, yet potentially most rewarding, one-minute conversation you could ever have.

So what is an Elevator Pitch?

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Tags: @ThinkTank_, Advertising, Brand Positioning, Branding, Cork, differentiation, Elevator Pitch, Entrepreneurs, Ireland, Jonathan Amm, Marketing, Start-ups, Strategy, ThinkTank, Twitter, Value Proposition, www.think-tank.ie

Many SME’s recognise the importance of mapping out a future strategic direction for their business and acknowledge the need to become more structured in their approach, however, very often, business owners just don’t know how to start or where to begin. Without a clearly mapped out destination point for a business, its form becomes too malleable, shaped by the vagaries of an eternally changing environment, leaving the business a hostage to fortune. A business owner could learn a few lessons from Sarah Connor, the heroine of the Terminator franchise. A warrior, who challenges accepted wisdom, carves out a new path and in so doing rewrites the future. ThinkTank channels this wisdom as we highlight;

1. What is Strategic Planning Exactly?
2. How can businesses benefit from Strategic Planning?
3. How should a business prepare for the Strategic Planning Process?
4. Once the Planning team is selected, how does Strategic Planning work?

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Tags: @TTStrategy, CMO, Entrepreneurs, Leadership, Lisa Murphy, Management, Marketing, SMEs, Startups, Strategic Planning, Strategy

“Out there in some garage is an entrepreneur who’s forging a bullet with your company’s name on it,” Gary Hamel, a leading business strategy writer and consultant, has written. “You’ve got one option now — to shoot first. You’ve got to out-innovate the innovators.”

Unfortunately most organizations have an in built defence mechanism against new ideas. People don’t like change so immediately find reasons why ideas should not be considered. The problem is that if you don’t start anticipating the future you could be run over by it.

Many SME’s would acknowledge that they need to become more innovative but just don’t know how to start or where to begin. ThinkTank sat down to map out 4 practical ways SME’s  can generate ideas, capture insights and successfully implement a game changing innovation strategy.

1. Make innovation a priority

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Tags: @ThinkTank_, Business Consulting, Creativity, Design Thinking, Entrepreneurs, Innovation, Jonathan Amm, Marketing, Organizational Change, Start-ups, Strategy, ThinkTank

You don’t go on holiday without finding out about your destination.

You don’t accept a new job without checking the stability of the employer.

You don’t invest in a new car without checking it’s right for your needs.

You don’t develop your business without trying to discover your market size, value, potential and competitiveness… do you?

An essential element of any business strategy should be early stage secondary market research.

In order to analyse your market and make decisions on growing and developing your business, you must understand the business context you’re operating in:

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Tags: Branding, Entrepreneurs, Marketing, Research, Roisin Markham, Start-ups, Strategy, ThinkTank, Twitter

In tough times we need ideas more than ever before. New ideas are the rocket fuel that can propel growth, ignite economic opportunities and improve our quality of life.

INSEAD’s Global Innovation Index 2009-2010, currently ranks Ireland as the 19^th most innovative country in the world. Ireland Inc is basing its recovery on forging a new smart economy built around innovation. Crowd-sourced competitions like Your Country Your Call have recently been launched to encourage citizens to generate new ideas and proposals that could transform Ireland by creating new jobs, new opportunities and a new way of thinking.

The IDA (Industrial Development Authority) have also invested €2m launching a global campaign with the positioning ‘Ireland – Innovation comes naturally’. It is designed to attract greater direct foreign investment and stimulate economic growth. To highlight this focus, the ‘I’ word has even found its way into our political lexicon. Minister Batt O’Keeffe is now fondly known as the Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Innovation.

So what can we do locally to become more of an Innovation Nation? As part of a new series, we’ll take a closer look at innovation and how we can apply it to our businesses and our lives.

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Tags: @ThinkTank_, Cork, Design Thinking, Entrepreneurs, Innovation, Ireland, Jonathan Amm, Lateral thinking, Management, Marketing, Strategy, ThinkTank, Twitter

Running a business without marketing is like winking at a pretty girl in the dark – you know what you’re doing but nobody else does. Marketing is the lifeblood of any business and the engine that drives demand, turnover and cash flow.

Marketing is not about boring your customers to death. When you have a personality and a story that is all your own, you can create marketing that’s a tough act to follow.  Why is it then that marketing is a bit of a hit and miss affair for so many businesses? Team ThinkTank sat down to map out  the 5 reasons why companies get it wrong when it comes to marketing right.

1. It’s not planned. (more…)

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Tags: @ThinkTank_, Branding, CMO, Design Thinking, Entrepreneurs, Jonathan Amm, Marketing, Marketing Director, Startups, Strategy, ThinkTank, Twitter

New opportunities or good-paying jobs won’t come from bailouts like NAMA. They come from start-ups. And where do start-ups come from? They come from smart, creative, inspired people who are willing to take risks and not handouts.

So if you’re considering starting your own business – or looking for ways to expand an existing one – here are three time-tested strategies you can implement to fast track growth and gain a competitive edge.

1. Discover an untapped niche that’s ‘hot’

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Tags: @ThinkTank_, business models, Cork, Entrepreneurs, Innovation, Ireland, Jonathan Amm, Marketing, Strategic Competitive Advantage, Strategy, ThinkTank

The Credit Suisse Research Institute recently released a research report titled “Great Brands of Tomorrow.” It’s an in-depth look at how a company’s brand can be one of the few true competitive advantages remaining in modern industry. The research is   based on Credit Suisse’s proprietary framework and analyzes  brand case studies over the last century. The  framework uses two filters to determine how and when to invest in brand stocks: 1) identifying the industry and company specific conditions necessary for brand success; and 2) understanding the brand lifecycle and key entry and exit points from a shareholder perspective.

“We believe a strong brand is one of the most powerful and sustainable advantages a company can have, but one that is often ignored by the financial markets,” said Omar Saad, director at Credit Suisse. “We believe brand stocks will continue to outperform the market, and our proprietary framework analyzes brand lifecycles to determine how and when to invest in brands for optimal returns.”

Key Findings From “Great Brands of Tomorrow.”
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Tags: Brands, Credit Suisse, Strategy