CIM Ireland is delighted to announce the 2010 Shortlisted Finalists of BRAND NEW 2010 Marketing Awards. Winners will be announced at the BRAND New Conference & Awards event on Thursday 23rd September 2010.

• APTX
• Army Recruitment
• Athletics NI
• Autoline Insurance Group
• AV Browne & National Trust
• AV Browne & NITB
• Belfast Tall Ships Ltd
• Dale Farm
• Decora Blind Systems Ltd
• George Best Belfast City Airport
• Gerard Graham & Company Estate Agents
• Independent News & Media
• Independent News & Media – NI JobFinder
• ION Online Marketing
• ION Online Marketing with Tayto and Young Enterprise NI
• ION Online Marketing with The Merchant Hotel
• Irish Football Association
• JCDecaux Ireland
• Life
• Linwoods
• Love Irish Food
• National Museums Northern Ireland
• National Trust
• Newtownabbey Council
• Randox Laboratories Ltd
• The Irish News
• The Quays Shopping Centre
• The Zoo, Belfast Zoological Gardens
• Translink
• Ulster Bank Belfast Festival At Queens
• Victoria Square
• W5 at The Odyssey

Our oldest business is probably that of Bushmills Distillery that can trace its origins back to 1608 when Thomas Phillips secured a licence to distil whiskey on his lands; a century after Columbus discovered America and a century and a half before the beginning of the industrial revolution.  In fairness, whiskey was being made at Bushmills for at least two centuries before that but for which there is no recorded history.  Now owned by Diageo, Bushmills is a global brand and one of the biggest selling Irish whiskeys in the world.  Another ‘veteran’ name is that of Smithwicks, the popular ale established in Kilkenny in 1710 by Richard Cole and John Smithwick on the site of an even older brewery run by monks.  Indeed, by their standards, Guinness, which celebrated its 250^th birthday last year, is a mere child!

Tracking forward a few years, we find that the giant Jacob’s biscuit brand was started in Waterford by brothers William and Robert Jacob in 1839.  The brothers had inherited a family bakery but were quick to spot an opening in the world market for commercially made sweet biscuits, and along the way also invented the Cream Cracker.

Our own White’s, the name behind Speedicook Oats was established a mere three years later at Tandragee.  Now owned by Fane Valley, it has become a popular Irish cereals brand.  Indeed, the now famous C&C Ginger Ale, which was the world’s biggest selling soft drink in the late 19^th century before the development of Coca Cola, dates back to 1852 through the entrepreneurship of the Belfast based medic and apothecary, Dr Thomas Cantrell and his later partnership with Dublin politician and businessman, Sir Henry Cochrane.

The point of all this is not just to highlight our enterprising history, but to make the point that the global reach of business did not begin with dot com era.  Indeed the current Forbes listing of the ‘top ten’ global companies does not include the many thousands of electronics and computer related brands.  It is largely dominated by financial services, energy, engineering and distribution companies.  Come to that, Wal Mart which is the biggest retail business in the world only pops in at number ten.

Having said that, the reach and success of world trade over the last decade owes much to the arrival of the Internet age.  Indeed, I for one have to kick myself occasionally to recognise that the product of Tim Berners-Lee’s invention of the World Wide Web was only launched in 1989, four years after the Apple Macintosh went on sale – just 21 years ago.

So here is the big question.  At what point in our evolution of global trade will the dot com companies rank among the world’s top businesses?  There is no doubt that companies like Microsoft and Google already dominate their segments of the market.  Well, I will fly in the face of conventional thinking and suggest that it may be some time yet before they replace Citigroup, General Electric, Toyota, Wal Mart and others.  My reasoning is very simple.  Despite the global recession, they are heavily diversified businesses with core interests in world markets.  The history of the dot com sector is one of continuous revolution where new inventions and products rise and mature with stunning speed only to be replaced by new inventions and products of competing companies.  Only with consolidation and market domination, can giants rise to the top of the tree.

One wonders what Microsoft will look like when it becomes a truly veteran brand and celebrates its first half-century.  We will have to wait and see, but it won’t be until 2025. However, one thing is certain.  Bushmills will still be with us and will be the grand daddy of them all at a mere 417 years young.

 Michael Maguire

17 May 2010

 This got me thinking about how brands can work for SME’s. The best brands create a special relationship with customers.

 Consumers are ever more sophisticated these days and they are particularly savvy during the current economic crisis. That means they can increasingly see through hype.

A brand can create huge worth for a company; Google’s brand is now worth $100bn (according to Millward Brown), and Microsoft has a brand valuation of $76.2 billion. Frequently, some 40 to 75% of company’s assets can be attributed to its brand. So it is worth considering how you can develop a brand – but how do you do that? Surely building a brand is going to cost too much money for a small company to consider? And do small companies really need to worry about branding anyway, when there are so many other things to worry about? In fact, building a strong brand could be a key way of ensuring that your business is a success.

 A brand is a seal of quality, and indeed this is how brands began – ancientRoman vases carried the stamp of their maker underneath, to prove that the product came from a certain source and to act as a guarantee that the product would be what the customer expected. Today, all brands can be assumed to signify a quality product, because a business doesn’t last very long if its quality isn’t up to scratch. So brands now act as a differentiator for the company.

Good use of a brand can create emotional resonance in the mind of the customer – think of how Barclaycard makes a dry and apparently unemotional product like financial services seem human and appealing with its Waterslide and now Rollercoaster ads. Washing powders don’t just wash clothes, they are ‘part of the fabric of life’, and a car isn’t just something that gets you from A to B, it’s something you go on ‘a Mini adventure’ in. Can you create a similar emotional response in the minds of your target market with such an approach?

If you’re operating in a crowded marketplace, a strong brand can be the best way to distinguish yourself from the competition. Remy Martin set itself apart from the many hundreds of similar cognacs from small brandy producers in France, by positioning itself as a luxury brand. Consider who your target market is, think of what other people aren’t doing that you could do, and build your brand accordingly.

Think of what your values are, and try to reflect those values in the brand. Virgin is a dynamic brand that conveys speed, youth and joie de vivre, largely thanks to its being synonymous with Richard Branson’s daredevil ballooning and extrovert personality. easyJet offers a fast, no-frills airline service, and its brand reflects that; the friendly typeface and sunshine orange conveys a laid-back, holiday approach to life instead of many other airlines’ formal, serious natures. In contrast, BA emphasises different values that separate it from the low-cost carriers, to appeal to the business traveller or the older customer – superior service and a sense of responsibility, reassurance and tradition. Both approaches work well; choose whatever differentiator works best for you, and emphasise it in the brand.

However, no brand can be successful without having a solid business plan in place first. Get the product right; ensure it’s what the customer wants and that there is demand for what you offer; make sure you differentiate yourself from the competition; ensure your service is of good quality; and then, use the brand to further your successful business. ‘Compare the Meekat’ is a brilliant stroke of branding – it finds a way of repeating the company name and making it stick in the mind of the customer, without being irritating; yet it wouldn’t work if the basic product wasn’t up to scratch.

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need a bottomless pot of money to start building a great brand. The Body Shop turned necessity into virtue when it designed its simple, plain packaging; it was inexpensive, because the company was too small to afford fancy labelling, but that plainness became part of the brand ethos: pure and simple products that did not damage the environment. Virgin’s logo was famously scribbled on the back of an envelope by a student. And if building a brand seems too much of a challenge, or irrelevant when you’re starting out, then just remember – all the great brands started out as small companies. Less than a hundred years ago, Tesco was a single market stall in the East End of London.

Your brand name should echo the ethos of your brand and your company values. Innocent drinks position themselves by containing nothing but pure ingredients, and by appealing to a young audience with a friendly and unjaded approach to life. The name ‘Innocent’ reflects those values perfectly. 

In essence, a strong brand does several key things. It helps you compete on more than just price; generates loyalty; stimulates innovation, and creates a link in the mind of the customer so that they think of you as opposed to a competitor when they considering buying what you offer.

If you want to find out more about branding and hear from leading experts in the field join the Chartered Institute of Marketing for the inaugural ‘BRAND New 2010’ Conference and Awards at the Ramada, Shaw’s Bridge Belfast on Thursday 23rd September 2010. Further information is available at www.cimireland.org

 Michael Maguire

Regional Director – Ireland

The Chartered Institute of Marketing

Pictured (l-r)at Hillmount Garden Centre launching the CIM Ireland 'BRAND New 2010' Conference and Awards which will take place on Thursday, 20th May are Michael Maguire, Director of CIM Ireland and University of Ulster Marketing student Laura Strain.

CIM Ireland is sending out Moneymaker tomato seeds to local businesses to make them aware of the ‘BRAND New 2010′ Conference and Awards. Companies are being encouraged to grow the Moneymaker tomato plants between now and the conference on Thursday, 20th May at Belfast’s Ramada Hotel.

‘BRAND New 2010′ is CIM Ireland’s first-ever conference and it will focus on successful all-island brands. Delegates will hear from the people behind some of Ireland’s best known brands and participate in a range of interactive workshops. Speakers include Gavin Bell, Social Marketing expert and author of ‘Building Social Web Applications’ and University of Ulster Professor Stephen Brown whose publications include ‘The Lost Logo’ and ‘Harry Potter Brand Wizard’. The Awards ceremony will take place on the evening of the conference.

Michael Maguire, Director of CIM Ireland, said:

“This year we’ve decided to use a novel technique to generate interest in our inaugural CIM Ireland Conference and also in the Awards, which were launched during Marketing Week in October. The tomato seeds we are sending out to local companies are called Moneymakers. We felt this was appropriate as both brands and seeds need commitment, nurturing and investment, in order to prosper and if you build a successful brand it will inevitably ‘make money’ for the company.

“The accompanying instruction card we have sent includes details on planting, watering and general care as well as key dates in the run up to the CIM Ireland Awards and Conference. These include the deadline for Award entries on 19th March, the deadline for registration for the Conference and Awards on 31st March and the BRAND New 2010 Conference and Awards on 20th May. We are encouraging people to keep up-to-date with progress on their Moneymaker and further information on the Conference and Awards on our Twitter site at www.twitter.com/cimireland

“The BRAND New 2010 Conference will be the first conference that CIM has organised and it is in response to a CIM Ireland study last year among local companies, which showed that the time was right for a marketing-focused conference to capitalise on a spirit of open-mindedness in the business community. We also felt it was appropriate to hold our Award ceremony on same evening as the conference. Our keynote speaker Gavin Bell will discuss how companies need to use social networking sites to market their products and services, while our other keynote, Stephen Brown, will focus on the success of marketing of the ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Da Vinci Code’ brands.”

“We hope that companies will take the opportunity to grow their Moneymaker tomato plants in time for the Conference and Awards on 20th May.”

For more information on the Conference or Awards please go to www.cimireland.org.

Award categories are as follows:

Sectoral Excellence Awards
Marketing Excellence Award (Manufacturing Sector) 2010
Marketing Excellence Award (Services Sector) 2010
Marketing Excellence Award (Retail Sector) 2010
Marketing Excellence Award (Social & Public Sector) 2010

Professional Excellence Awards
Best Marketing Campaign 2010
Best On-Line Marketing Programme 2010
Best Brand Programme 2010
Best Marketing Team 2010
Best Performing Young Marketing Business 2010
Best Performing Marketing Business 2010

Personal Excellence Awards
Young Marketer of the Year (2010)
Marketing Director of the Year (2010)

For more information please contact:

Eleanor Anderson
eleanor@stakeholdergroup.com
028 9033 9949
07834101627

Deborah King
Deborah@stakeholdergroup.com
07834101627

In conversation with a prominent American businessman a few years back, I asked him what proportion of his brand investment worked for him and his reply was a classic.  He said: ‘…about half of it but I never had the courage to act on that judgement in case I axe the wrong half!’

While pondering on the issue of brand placement I muse how long established brands often evolve a personality of their own that engages people in different ways and despite the best of intentions the message is not always received the way we anticipate.  Let me illustrate this with an anecdote. 

I am sitting in the lounge of a popular hotel in the West Fermanagh town of Belleek, across the road from the famous pottery.  I have a cup of coffee in my hand and stare out the window as I wait for a colleague to join me for lunch.  The vast Victorian edifice that dominates the landscape is magnificent.  Robert Williams Armstrong built it in 1857 for John Bloomfield, the entrepreneur who established the company and the Belleek brand name.  I notice that the parking area is packed with tour buses delivering scores of visitors who have travelled from everywhere and I marvel at how Belleek has reinvented itself as a modern urban brand to delight a new generation of customers. 

 I know this partly because I am familiar with the brand offering but also because I am eavesdropping on a conversation between a group of American tourists huddled at an adjacent table.  They have just emerged from an evidently pleasurable, if heavy laden, trip to the visitor centre and their exciting chatter tells me much about their collective experience.

‘What an amazing place!  I did enjoy the Museum tour,’ suggests one.  ‘We’ve been collecting Belleek for years but the range of stuff in the shop is to die for!’ adds a second.  ‘What a funny name, Belleek.  I wonder why they put the store here?’ puzzled a third. ‘Sam says it is in Ireland but I dunno!’

It is this latter comment that sets my mind perambulating down the foggy pathway we call ‘history,’ as I reflect on the brand’s humble beginnings.

 In the wake of the Irish famine, Bloomfield who owned the adjacent Castle Caldwell estate that incorporated Belleek from which the brand takes its name, was desperate to find new ways to alleviate local poverty.  He had deposits of quality kaolin and feldspar on his land but shipping it to the English potteries was impractical.  Inspired by the views of the railway pioneer William Dargan that Ireland needed to develop a manufacturing economy to offset the reliance on agriculture, he hit on the idea of establishing a world class pottery in the heart of rural Fermanagh.  While he failed to profit from it personally (actually it bankrupted him), he and his partners faced down massive local opposition to bring it about. 

Despite the partitioning of Ireland and two world wars, the company, famed for its elegant basket weave giftware and shamrock covered parianware, survived in the hands of various owners and was finally acquired in 1988 by George Moore who transformed it under John Maguire as MD.  Since then, there has been significant investment in the Belleek brand.  New product ranges have been added and complementary brands have been acquired like Aynsley China, Donegal Parian and Galway Crystal and of course the retail visitor centre was built. 

At a time when other product companies like Waterford have struggled to understand where their market has gone, Belleek has been completely repositioned as a modern lifestyle brand with significant international appeal.

Back here in the hotel lounge my companions are repacking their purchases and preparing to rejoin their tour group when the third visitor finds a Belleek leaflet in her bag.  ‘Hey,’ she says, ‘did you know that Belleek was first produced in Ireland a century and half ago? I guess this theme village must have adopted the name and that’s why they put the big store and restaurant here!’

I smile inwardly and drink my coffee.  ‘Branding is more art than science,’ I mutter.  ‘At least they bought something.’

Now let me see…. “Do you wish to confirm this ticket?”… Yes… “Enter your Credit or Debit Card details from the selection below”… OK, but wait a minute you haven’t given me an option to use my Debit Card, that can’t be right… “Your card is rejected…ending transaction”… WAIT COME BACK…

 If this brief scenario is familiar to you then it is likely that you are one of thousands of customers who have difficulties everyday in buying travel tickets on line.  What should be a simple and pain free business transaction is all too often an elongated nightmare that is brought about by a combination of badly designed or ambiguous input systems, poor software or poorly maintained websites. 

 I recently arrived at a Belfast airport to check in for a prebooked flight, entered my booking reference number only to have it rejected.  On taking the matter up with the desk I was informed that I should not have been given a reference number as the system didn’t have me listed on any flight!  Further, the planned flight was full and there was nothing they could do for me.  Bahhh.

 On an earlier occasion my wife was prebooked on a 6.30am flight from Dublin to Lisbon only to discover on arrival at Dublin Airport that the airline had discontinued that service two weeks previously without telling the passengers. 

 On a similar note I had reason to book a ferry ticket some weeks ago only to discover that while the ferry operator’s website gave the sailing times there was no capacity to book an outward journey.  Assuming the booking system to be broken I endeavoured to call the shipping line but a telephone filtering system merely directed me to the website.

 One can look at these experiences as being the typical hurdles of modern life like trying to get an appointment with a dentist, returning garments to a store because they shrank to the size of a mobile phone on the first wash, or returning your car to the garage because it failed its MOT an hour after it was serviced.  However, in a modern world where access to services is optimum and competitive such experiences are frankly unacceptable. 

 Part of the problem is that the roll out of Internet access has been matched by an attitude of customer detatchment on the part of many companies who no longer feel any responsibility for customer cultivation.  The one to one relationships have been replaced by impersonal input screens.  Such businesses need to reflect on the value of customer retention and loyalty because if then don’t, pretty soon they are going to find that they have an unsustainable business on their hands.  We have been through a major recession and the public is losing its patience with shoddy service and can be punishingly cruel in that regard.

 Now where was that phone number?… “All our operators are busy…Please continue to hold or book on line through our website”….AHHHH!

Keynote Speaker, Mr Charles Nixon pictured outside the  Ulster Hall, Belfast with Ms Susie Galbraith, daughter of the late Frank Galbraith and Mr Charles Fulton, Chair of CIM Ireland.

The Galbraith Lecture which is the keynote event in the Chartered Institute of Marketing’s annual Marketing Week provided guests with many thought-provoking words of wisdom.
Renowned Marketer Charles Nixon MBA FCIM FCAM FRSA was the keynote speaker at the event which took place in the Ulster Hall on Wednesday 21st October 2009.
 
Charles Nixon is the Chairman and Director of Cambridge Marketing Colleges and is world renowned for his business and marketing expertise. Charles was joined by brand expert Susie Galbraith, daughter of the late Frank Galbraith.
The Galbraith Lecture honours the memory of the late Frank Galbraith who is remembered for his original thinking and his creativity as well as his unswerving commitment to marketing as a benign driver of society. Frank Galbraith passed away in 2005 following years of commitment to the Chartered Institute of Marketing and marketing as a profession in Northern Ireland.
During the keynote address guest speaker Charles Nixon was very forthcoming in his views that the current recession is over. We cannot be guaranteed that there won’t be a second wave but he stated that history shows that single recessions never last longer than one year. He said the difference in this recession and others is that it is global. Every market has been hit and must take steps towards normality, not as we used to know it but as he called it, ‘the new normal.’

Charles Nixon was also very clear about the role that marketing plays in recovery. He proclaimed that marketing is a fundamental part of everyday life. People expect to be marketed to by companies. In a time of ‘globalism’ where the wider world is becoming more accessible to a greater number of people, there is a better understanding of consumer choice. Companies need to take advantage of what is going on around them and instead of just doing nothing because there is a recession they must seize opportunities.

Charles Nixon also highlighted that 50% of the existing Fortune 500 companies were founded during recessionary times which shows how companies can use the current downturn to acquire other companies or diversify to enable them to flourish when the recovery comes.

The event ended with a lively question and answer suggestion which stimulated debate and discussion among the participants.

The Galbraith Lecture which is the keynote event in the Chartered Institute of Marketing’s annual Marketing Week provided guests with many thought-provoking words of wisdom.

Renowned Marketer Charles Nixon MBA FCIM FCAM FRSA was the keynote speaker at the event which took place in the Ulster Hall on Wednesday 21^st October 2009.

Charles Nixon is the Chairman and Director of Cambridge Marketing Colleges and is world renowned for his business and marketing expertise. Charles was joined by brand expert Susie Galbraith, daughter of the late Frank Galbraith.

The Galbraith Lecture honours the memory of the late Frank Galbraith who is remembered for his original thinking and his creativity as well as his unswerving commitment to marketing as a benign driver of society. Frank Galbraith passed away in 2005 following years of commitment to the Chartered Institute of Marketing and marketing as a profession in Northern Ireland.

During the keynote address guest speaker Charles Nixon was very forthcoming in his views that the current recession is over. We cannot be guaranteed that there won’t be a second wave but he stated that history shows that single recessions never last longer than one year. He said the difference in this recession and others is that it is global. Every market has been hit and must take steps towards normality, not as we used to know it but as he called it, ‘the new normal.’

Charles Nixon was also very clear about the role that marketing plays in recovery. He proclaimed that marketing is a fundamental part of everyday life. People expect to be marketed to by companies. In a time of ‘globalism’ where the wider world is becoming more accessible to a greater number of people, there is a better understanding of consumer choice. Companies need to take advantage of what is going on around them and instead of just doing nothing because there is a recession they must seize opportunities.

Charles Nixon also highlighted that 50% of the existing Fortune 500 companies were founded during recessionary times which shows how companies can use the current downturn to acquire other companies or diversify to enable them to flourish when the recovery comes.

The event ended with a lively question and answer suggestion which stimulated debate and discussion among the participants.

This  event is now over, please contact Pierce Communication for more information and for a review of this event.