Think Out Loud is a blog brought to you by the team at ThinkTank - a catalytic consultancy specialising in strategic marketing, branding and innovation based in Cork, Ireland.
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 betterthan 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.
No committee, no budget and no rules; The grassroots movement that’s determined to transform the way people look at Cork city.
A new movement has begun to “transform” Cork city into a better place for its residents and visitors. It’s a movement without a leader. Already, two cafés, two marketing companies, publicans, journalists, start-up businesses and unemployed people have pledged their support. It’s called Transform Cork and it’s open to everyone keen to improve the city. There’s no committee, no budget and nothing but the power of the internet at its service. It’s using Twitter, Facebook, blogs and now the Cork News. It seems to have sprung out of nowhere, committed to changing Cork from the bottom-up – rather than the top-down.
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.
Strong brands have once again proven their resilience in the recession in Millard Brown’s 5th annual ranking of the world’s top 100 brands. At a time when most key financial indicators plummeted, the value of the top 100 brands rose by 4% in the last year to more than $2 trillion – a 40% increase over the last 5 years. In the wake of the recession, more brands have realized that they need to maintain and even increase their marketing spend to support brand loyalty and engagement. As Millard Brown Optimor’s Research Unit comments:
“Strong brands have the power to create business value. They impact much more than revenues and profit margins. Strong brands create competitive advantages by commanding a price premium and decrease the cost of entry into new markets and categories. They reduce business risk and help attract and retain talented staff.”
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:
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 19th 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.
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.
In celebrating St Patrick’s Day last week, advertising agency Leo Burnett developed a great tactical outdoor campaign for McDonalds in Chicago.
This execution was placed on the banks of the Chicago River, which is dyed green each year in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. A perfect way to generate brand awareness and promote McDonald’s seasonal ‘Shamrock Shake’ in a fun and creative way.
This got us thinking as to why local Irish advertising agencies do very little to tap into celebrating our National Day. After all it’s a perfect opportunity to get your brand noticed and generate great buzz on social networks and other media.
Have we just become too blase about St Paddies Day? Are clients too risk averse or are our local advertising agencies starting to lose their creative edge?
South Africa’s low cost airline and equivalent to Ryanair Kulula.com, has been called off sides by FIFA for its recent guerrilla marketing ads.
“A multimedia campaign by the fun loving airline brand featured advertisements with the headline, the Unofficial National Carrier of the You-Know-What, showing stylized pictures depicting the Cape Town stadium, soccer balls, vuvuzelas and a soccer player has been withdrawn following a letter from FIFA threatening the airline with damages.”
The offending advertisement (see above) was part of a campaign to communicate to passengers that it was not charging higher ticket prices during the World Cup. The South African public and local media have been very vocal about high prices from airlines and hotels in the run up to the soccer which kicks off in June this year.
Kulula has a reputation for irreverent, tongue-in-cheek marketing campaigns and the brilliant creative concept and headline “The Unofficial National Carrier of the You-Know-What” has certainly unleashed a media firestorm as well as terrific local and international awareness for this upstart challenger brand. The response to the campaign has gathered momentum with people discussing the advertisement and FIFA’S actions on Facebook and Twitter, and the issue has also been picked up by the national media as well as BBC News.
FIFA says the ad campaign breaks the law with “ambush marketing” by, “Seeking to gain a promotional benefit for the Kulula brand by creating an unauthorized association with the 2010 FIFA World Cup.” Like the IOC, FIFA is known to come down hard on any brand making even the slightest unofficial reference to their event.
The campaign, which is drawing an increasing following on the Internet, also challenged other carriers to keep their fares low during the World Cup. Kulula.com, for its part, broke the news to the country via Twitter, “Oh dear, letter from Fifa’s lawyers says we broke their trademark of the use of ‘South Africa’.
Kulula.com was not only told they could not mention the World Cup, but they also could not use the country’s flag or even pictures of the country’s new stadiums in their ad. They also could not use images of a “vuvuzela,” a traditional South African horn that has been used by rowdy fans at soccer games in the country for decades.
Although Kulula.com has stopped running the ad, a spokesperson for the airline said that another tactical ad is being designed, so we’ll need to watch this space! Whatever happens the online outrage it has provoked in South Africa toward FIFA, who seem to have trademarked everything South African, will probably earn this little airline some big marketing points in the run up to the World Cup Soccer.
Paddy Power has been forced to pull its latest ad on TV after regulators feared it could cause widespread offence.
The spot, the third in a series of three ads created by the bookmaker’s new ad agency Big Al’s Creative Emporium, features four wheelchair-bound actors “doing a runner” on their bill from the ‘Star of Bombay’ curry house.
After the restaurant’s owner gives up on chasing them, a brand spokesman consoles him by explaining that while Paddy Power can’t get him his customers back, it can in some cases help get him his money back, thanks to its new Money-Back specials initiative, which gives customers the opportunity to have their stake, refunded even if their bet didn’t come through.
What do you think about the TV ad? Does it cause offense, and should it have been pulled. Either way the ad, which has been launched to coincide with next week’s Cheltenham Festival, will certainly create a buzz online and generate great PR for the Paddy Power brand.
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