By Cariona Neary

What is marketing’s purpose during this coronavirus? A temptation for some marketers could be to continue to promote their business with the usual marketing activities. We know what this feels like as consumers, when we watch something we’ve recorded a few short weeks ago, the ads seem so out of touch, so clumsy. Our hearts and minds are in a very different place now.

What are we feeling, is there a name for it? Maybe if we […]

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By Karl O’Connor and Cariona Neary of OCN Coaching Champions*

Working from home – control the controllables!

A period of crisis leadership under former Taoiseach Charles J. Haughey was described as GUBU: grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented. This acronynm helps to describe the current Covid 19 challenges.

For managers suddenly thrust into the role of managing remote teams, at a time when everyone in the community is feeling stressed, we need to adapt quickly and learn how to manage and motivate […]

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Daniel Kahneman explaining our irrational choices

We’ve known for a long time that as consumers, we make a lot of irrational decisions. In the past year, we have seen how vulnerable we are to fake news. In fact, voters seem to like to suspend their disbelief, if what they’re hearing suits their preferred version of reality. So it is good to know that we can actually start to understand the conscious and unconscious biases that help explain apparently irrational […]

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by Cariona Neary

Read my latest tips on DIY Marketing – where I feature the up-and-coming icecream company, Nobó, as well as founders of The Happy Pear, Dave and Steve Flynn and get them to tell us how they have achieved great marketing success. The article, just published in the August edition of Hotel & Restaurant Times, is the second in a series in which I focus on marketing for food and hospitality companies.

To find out more about effective marketing using […]

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How come companies are happy to spend considerable money investing in their brands, improving their technology or operations but often skimp on the final and most important link between the organisation and the customer? Well, here’s the thing: customer service is as much about finance as, well, finance!

Depending on your business, the cost of chasing new business is at least five times more expensive than keeping the customers you have happy. Here are […]

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A small increase in customer retention can have a big impact on your profits. Not only do you not have customer acquisition costs but loyal customers are also more profitable. So here you’re ‘Note to Self’ when sitting down to write your Marketing Planning.

My company will increase customer retention levels by 5% in 2014.

To make this objective a reality, you need to define how you will measure customer retention. You need to measure the volume of sales from retained clients […]

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Essential SME Marketing Techniques: Part 1 – How to Kick Start your Marketing Plan 2014

It’s already the end of October and the signs are looking good for 2014. So make sure your business is ready to grow by having a smart Marketing Plan in place. But lots of people put off marketing planning, seeing it as a big task. The best way to get past your ‘writer’s block’ is to kick start your strategic marketing thinking. Just start by answering […]

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The DIT Masters in Professional Practice, supported by the Design Print & Packaging Skillnet starts this November. The great news for the SME sector is that you do not have to be a member of the Skillnet to be eligible to apply for a place in this programme.

The other great news is that – thanks to the support of DPP Skillnets – the one year taught Masters is just €4,500 for members and €5,500 for non members.  But hurry, closing date […]

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DIT Masters in Professional Practice  – the perfect qualification for SME Sector!

If you have been considering doing a Masters programme this year but have been put off by   lengthy academic programmes and concerns about going back to education when you’re trying to run a small business, the DIT awarded Masters in Professional Practice, kicking off this November, is just the right programme for you. This highly regarded programme has three major advantages over other taught Masters programmes:

Taking […]

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They don’t really have a category for students like me. When your daughter drops you off to UCD’s Smurfit Business School and offers some words of encouragement as you go through the big gates to kick start an MSc in Digital Marketing, you know you’re going to be a bit of a maverick.  The fact that I’m a part time lecturer makes the move from know-all to know-nothing all the harder.

Will my inability to turn off predictive text mean I […]

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