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 4th 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.

This event is now over, please contact Dublin City University for more information and a review of this event.

This event is now over, Please contact Dublin City University for more information and for a review of this event

Businesses in Ireland are being encouraged by the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ireland (CIM) to ‘get their skates on’ for Marketing Week. This year it takes place from Monday 19^th to Friday 23^rd October with events throughout Ireland to celebrate and encourage marketing best practice in businesses of all sizes.

 Already there are events planned in Belfast, Newry and Dublin with the flagship event ‘The Galbraith Lecture’ taking place on Wednesday 21^st October at The Ulster Hall in Belfast.

The Galbraith Lecture honours the late Irish marketer, Frank Galbraith. He is remembered for his original thinking, his creativity and his unswerving commitment to marketing as a benign driver of society. This year’s keynote speaker at the lecture is Charles Nixon MBA FCIM FCAM FRSA. Charles Nixon is the founder of Cambridge Marketing College and is renowned throughout the marketing world for his professional expertise. He has many years of marketing experience, from government relations and market research to marketing communications and strategy. 

Michael Maguire, Director of CIM Ireland said, “Businesses right across Northern Ireland should be encouraged to pay particular attention to marketing in times of economic difficulty instead of cutting back. Marketing is an essential element of any business success story. We are delighted this year to once again have a fantastic line up in place for Marketing Week with highlights including the ‘Galbraith Lecture’ in Belfast, ‘Capitalise on your Creativity’ in Dublin and a ‘Revenue Generation for Recovery’ Breakfast event in Newry.”

Michael Maguire continued, “There is still time for businesses to register an event or to attend one of those already featured. All events will be given supporting material and will be featured on CIM Ireland’s new website at  www.cimireland.org .”

Further information about any of the events listed for Marketing Week or how to book can be found by contacting Deborah Storey at Stakeholder Communications on 028 90339949 or emailing deborahs@stakeholdergroup.com  . You can now follow CIM Ireland on Twitter at www.twitter.com/cimireland

For further press information please contact Deborah King at Stakeholder Communications on 028 90339949