Posts Tagged ‘Marketing’

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Nothing to play for

May 23, 2015

Chelsea-v-Manchester-United-Premier-League

The end of the football season is always a very strange time – it manages to produce unexpected results, surprising comebacks and even more surprising defeats.

Teams that were hopeless all season all of a sudden put a run together and start winning matches, virtually unrecognisable from before. They miraculously survive.

Teams that performed well all season but know that they can’t win the league start losing and drawing games, which before they would more than likely have won easily.

The teams that know they are ‘safe‘ from relegation take a breather for the last few matches because they know the job is done and they start losing matches.

The teams involved at the latter stages of the cup tournaments start performing lousy in league matches because the players are ‘saving’ themselves for the glamour matches.

At this stage of the season those at the bottom with the desire to survive always seem to be able to dig deep a little more than those near the top. Survival is possibly a stronger motivator than getting as high as possible at this stage.

The best teams to play against seem to be those who have ‘nothing to play for‘. With a stronger motivation to win surely the team who needs it more will have a better chance at overpowering a team who don’t really need it at all?

There are always exceptions like the team that is already relegated and manages to win their first away match of the whole season against a team fighting for their lives. The extreme pressure was off and they managed to relax and play the football they were capable of but never managed before.

It is at this stage of the season that you see who the great managers really are.

These managers are the ones who inspire their teams to win even when there is nothing to play for such as Jose Mourinho. Even though the team has already won the league he still manages to motivate his players enough to beat teams who have a lot more to play for.

No matter what you do you must give your team something to play for; some target, some goal, some challenge so that they can dig in, reach higher and keep winning.

What are your team playing for?

Greg Canty 

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion who offer Marketing, PR, Graphic Design services from our offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Management, Motivation, Teamwork | 6 Comments »

We are all connected 

May 17, 2015

PSA World Tour

As part of our normal Dublin routine we arrived early at the Mespil Hotel, our home in Dublin for the last few years. I parked up and quickly popped into the loo … Much needed after the spin from Cork!

As I walked past the reception desk a guy who was chatting with the receptionist caught my attention. He had an unusual shaped bag hanging off his shoulder. On closer examination it was a carrier bag for lots of, what looked liked tennis rackets.

Was he the manager of a team or playing in some tournament I wondered?

As always we had a busy day in the office, Dee was off at some networking event and I made my way back to the hotel and went about checking in. I was exhausted and was looking forward to chilling out for the evening.

We know the team at the Mespil Hotel well at this stage and I was greeted with the usual big smile as they looked for our room reservation. They seemed to have trouble finding the booking and slipped into the office to double check the paperwork.

Mespil Hotel

As I waited a couple came to the desk on spec hoping to book a room. Unfortunately for them there was no room at the inn!

The guy I was dealing with still had not appeared so I was starting to worry about our bed for the night. Eventually he appeared and apologised that they had no record of our booking.

Dee normally books the hotel in block a few weeks in advance and does this with faultless efficiency but this time the booking fell through the cracks.

There wasn’t a room to be had in the hotel so the really helpful team at the Mespil started ringing other places for us in earnest. It quickly became clear that due to some big conference that day, hotel after hotel were full and Dublin was totally choc- a-bloc.

I started my own search and discovered that even all the bed and breakfasts were full.

An hour later and still nothing … I popped outside for some fresh air and contemplated a drive to some hotel outside Dublin somewhere.

The receptionist came out to me beaming. “I have great news” she said “We have had a last minute cancellation. A guest of the hotel was in a squash competition but lost his match so he is heading home early!”

I presume it was the guy I saw in the morning.

We are all connected …

Greg Canty 

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion who offer Marketing, PR, Graphic Design services from our offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Customer Care, Hospitality | Leave a Comment »

Pick the right maverick and get out of their way!

May 13, 2015

Young Wonder

“Just a quick note to say thank you.  The video you created is really special; I’ve made videos for 15 years at a major label and hated nearly every single one of them…too many compromises, too many cooks….this is the treatment played out in front of us and its f**king brilliant… many many thanks”

Brendan Canty, Feel Good LostThis is a fantastic email my son Brendan Canty (he has his own production company Feel Good Lost) received after completing a recent music video project.

He tells me it was one of the smoothest projects he has worked on and one with a fantastic outcome.

They loved his original idea and he delivered it without any interference.

He tells me this is often not the case. In many projects too many people get involved, there are too many opinions, too many opposing views, too many egos and too many comprises – he is not a compromiser but sometimes he tells me you end up doing what you need to do to get a job completed.

It tells us a very simple message about engaging with any creative talent including artists/designers/professionals.

Pick the right maverick, get out of the way and then let them do what they do best  ..

Brendan  has just finished a fantastic music video for a talented and ‘soon to be huge‘ Irish artist Gavin James.

The track is a beautiful song called “For You“.

You already know about this video by another Irish artist called Hozier, which he also happened to direct. At the time of writing this has been watched 247,000,000 times!

Greg Canty 

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion who offer Marketing, PR and Graphic Design services from our offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Creativity, Entertainment, Graphic Design, Media, Music | Leave a Comment »

Michael Cawley, Cork Airport and “What’s the Point?”

May 2, 2015

Cork City

It was my first time listening to Cork born Michael Cawley, the Chairman of Failte Ireland and former Ryanair deputy CEO and Commercial Director. He was speaking at a business anniversary breakfast for Paul O’Donovan and Associates, Accountants.

Everyone is a product of what they do and Michael a former accountant and a senior member of the Ryanair team for 17 years is certainly a product of his career.

At first he spoke a lot of sense and he believes that everything starts with great management. He spoke about Dubai “a hole in the ground” and how great management has turned the place into a major travel destination.

He then spoke about the Irish tourism and hospitality sector, which employs 205,000 people. He reckons this could easily rise by another 50,000 but says we must ‘elevate’ how we view the industry and start respecting the work that people do in it.

Cork Airport – hopelessly uncompetitive

He then went on to talk about the €17 landing charges at Cork Airport that he says makes the airport “hopelessly uncompetitive“.

He expanded on this by talking about the Ryanair perspective “The passengers belong to the airline, not to the airports. The airlines will seek to make money, whether that is in Bari or in Cork“.

While this message was delivered with all of the arrogance you would expect from a Ryanair executive it gives you a clear insight into the thinking of airlines that are removing routes from Cork Airport.

However he makes a good argument and suggested that if the airport wants to compete for traffic it must drop the rates, suggesting that the region could even subsidise it because passengers will spend significant money when they visit. We must look at the big picture.

All of this makes perfect sense and those running Cork Airport need to start listening and start to view Cork as an economic gateway to our region instead of a stand alone cost centre. If this requires some write off of the debt then it will be no different to so much other debt that has been written off in Ireland over the last five years.

Michael Cawley, Failte IrelandMichael went on to give some general business advice to those gathered in the room “You must define your competitive advantage to be successful”

He explained that in Ryanair’s case “price” was it and this was achieved by relentlessly driving down costs .. airport landing charges is clearly a big part of this and in Cork’s case it is easy to see how we are losing Ryanair routes to Shannon and other locations.

He also spoke about the importance of “innovation” and in his view driving costs down is the ultimate innovation – I don’t agree with this as I detest what Ryanair represent and I hate how they have wrecked the flight experience, which was a ‘treat’ many moons ago, even if it was a lot more expensive.

“Bring back the peanuts” I say!

Michael joined the panel at the end of this breakfast briefing whereby guests were able to ask questions – I asked the question “What did the panel feel was the unique selling point of Cork?”

Michael took this one on and gave the room his very worrying opinion of Cork – We should get over ourselves and realise that we are not as special as we think. All talk of us being a “competitor” in a European context is silly as Ireland is really about Dublin.

..I couldn’t believe I was hearing this

Even worse he reckoned that it was pointless for money to be invested promoting Cork as it was not a proposition worth promoting.

When a Cork born Chairman of Failte Ireland holds this view it is very concerning – who is going to subsidise Cork Airport’s costs/landing charges (as he suggested) if no one believes it is a region worth investing in?

Michael …

I 100% disagree with you and as much as I respect your role and your ‘cost squeezing’ experience I think you and your colleagues in Dublin are misguided.

Cork is a very special place for both tourism and business as we witnessed in our research on the Cork Brand Marketing project and a few others have noticed too ..

Lonely Planet were the first to start talking about our ‘friendly city’ and the Huffington Post included Cork in a list of “Overlooked European Cities you must visit in a lifetime”

Please take a fresh look at the place that you were originally from and ask the question..why are we so overlooked?

All of us in Cork, our business and tourism groups, our stakeholders and politicians need to start making a lot of noise if we want something in change.

As for Michael…thanks for the helpful insight

Greg Canty 

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion who offer Marketing, PR and Graphic Design services from our offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

 

 

 

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Posted in Air travel, Cork, Destination Branding, Irish Economy, Marketing, Tourism, Travel | 21 Comments »

Opening a new business and budgeting for the essentials

April 27, 2015

Open for business

They were experienced operators with a successful business already up and running.

They decided to take the brave step to open another premises in a different location that they believed was currently under-served with a new concept. After all this is what you do to drive on and make progress?

The budgets were carefully worked out including renovating the premises, purchasing and installing the equipment, furnishing and decorating, branding and signage, professional fees and then some allowance was made for working capital and other opening costs.

Their budget also included a marketing fund – there is no point opening a new business unless you tell your target audience about it!

When all the budgets are done you look at your funding and cash flow requirements, some leasing, loans and an overdraft to make all of this possible and then you try to carefully manage the ‘opening project’ so that you come in on target.

For as long as I have been in business including my time as an accountant and in management there is a ‘rule of thumb’ that nearly always applies: “Everything takes longer than you expect, everything costs more and there is always the ‘unexpected’ that you also have to cope with“.

As sure as night follows day there was a problem with the fire officer that resulted in extra work that was necessary for the building – this delayed the opening and resulted in extra unexpected costs. As a result there was a serious unexpected ‘hit’ on cashflow for this essential expenditure, which could not be avoided.

As a result the marketing budget was wiped out and this new business suddenly had to rely on ‘word of mouth‘ and social media to get the word out there.

Unfortunately the momentum was not enough and the volume of business coming through the door from the date of the opening was insufficient to cover basic running costs and within months the new venture had to be shut as it was not sustainable.

The reality of the situation was that the marketing fund was even more essential than the demands that the fire officer made on the project. One was essential to get the doors open and the other was essential to keep the doors open. As a result all investment, dreams, sweat and tears were lost and the existing business will take some time to mop up the resulting debts and the recovery.

The guys were put in a total predicament and were forced to do what they had to do and this ultimately was the act that effectively closed the business and put their existing business at serious risk.

Did they have any options?

They took a view and a huge risk that they could sacrifice the most essential overhead of all and this was their ultimate downfall (while totally understandable).

Maybe they could have done a few things different ..

They could have:

  • Allowed for a contingency fund for delays/unexpected cost in the original budgets (you always need a buffer) – don’t go ahead until you have that
  • Explored other ways of cutting back and leaving their marketing fund somewhat intact
  • Looked for extra funds before proceeding any further with the project (would a bank manager have appreciated and understood their late request for extra funds? ultimately it might protect his own investment) – a strong open and honest relationship is a must for this to happen
  • Negotiated credit with suppliers – again a strong, open and honest relationship is a must (would suppliers understand?)

We have seen this cruel scenario being repeated time and time again with clients with the same awful result. Some manage to survive the setback and many unfortunately do not.

Once open you must have a fund to promote your business because without awareness and customers everything else is at risk.

Keep dreaming, keep advancing, keep expanding but most importantly keep succeeding!

Greg Canty 

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion who offer Marketing, PR and Graphic Design services from our offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Accounting, Business Start Ups, Marketing | 3 Comments »

Crushing young dreams 

April 12, 2015

Tears

My daughter Ellen has had a run of bad luck, which eventually seemed to be turning.

As she comes to the end of her beauty therapy course she was determined to find a job.

“I’ve been offered a job dad” she told me excitedly down the phone. I was thrilled for her, she deserved a break and I could hear the difference that confidence boost had made to her.

The following day it got even better “you won’t believe it dad, I’ve been offered another job” she beamed.

Two days later she called again “Dad, guess what? I’ve been offered a job in a salon and the lady is lovely and it’s exactly what I want, This is the job I’m going to take”.

Three job offers in as many days and my fantastic daughter was transformed – she was now a confident woman with a real spring in her step. She accepted the full time job offer and was due to start the following Monday.

She was then called for an interview to a beauty salon that came highly recommended by her course director on the Saturday.

On the spot she was offered a job by the salon owner despite Ellen’s lack of experience. Ellen explained to her that this would be a big decision as she had already been offered a full time job.

She rang me “you won’t believe it dad – I’ve been offered another job, I can’t believe it! What will I do?”

On the recommendation of her course director she accepted this offer and turned down the previous offer. To her credit she wrote a very professional email to the other salon, explaining the reason why she would not be taking their job offer after all.

Unfortunately the next call was Ellen sobbing on the phone. The salon owner that she had accepted the job from had a change of heart and suddenly her lack of experience was an issue and the full time job offer was rescinded. This news was delivered with barely an apology. While the salon owner thinks there is no consequence to her careless actions she has done huge damage to her reputation.

In the blink of an eye my precious girl was crushed and totally devastated and on top of this blow she now had to contemplate crawling back to the people she had already turned down in the hope that those opportunities were still alive.

Ellen is a strong, determined, talented young woman with a great personality who will recover from this cruel setback but it is one that she should not have to deal with.

I’ve shared this story with a number of people and to my horror nearly everyone I spoke to were able to give me similar stories.

When you offer anyone a job this carries with it a big responsibility – besides the obvious financial consequences you also bring the person, their dreams, hopes and wishes with you.

This is a big responsibility… Mind it.

Greg Canty 

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion who offer Marketing, PR and Graphic Design services from our offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

 

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Posted in Brand Loyalty, Management, Recruitment | 5 Comments »

Good for the soul

April 6, 2015

Back garden

I totally agree … That is the best way to describe our ‘nothing’ afternoon.

After walking the dogs in the park we grabbed a few rolls and some salad stuff and sat outside and of course we opened some vino and a beer or two and sat in the sunshine.

Mum and dad popped in for a while for a cuppa and to collect dad’s phone – he had left it behind yesterday when they were over for dinner.

We chatted about very little and at times didn’t chat at all as we sat outside in the garden taking in the sun on this gorgeous bank holiday Monday of the Easter weekend. The dogs pottered around us looking for leftovers from the table. There is something very comforting having them around us.

This feels just perfect.

Joan, one of our best buddies announces that this is “Good for the Soul”

I know what she means …

We all need a little more of that.

Greg Canty 

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion who offer Marketing, PR and Graphic Design services from our offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Friendship, Personal development, Relaxation | 4 Comments »

Dunnes Stores – Building your Reputation

April 2, 2015

Dunnes Stores Strike

It was a strange thing – I heard news of the Dunnes Stores strike first thing this morning on Newstalk and immediately without hearing any of the detail I was on the side of the workers.

I wondered why did I think that automatically?

The truth is I never hear any good things about the company.

I don’t hear about charities they support, I don’t hear about a focus on Irish products,  I don’t hear about how they work closely with suppliers, I don’t see them being helpful on social media, I don’t hear about how much they contribute to the Irish economy and I don’t hear about new jobs that have created.

Instead I remember the strikes of old and the trouble and controversy that the company has had down through the years.

This doesn’t mean for a second that they do none of these things – it just means I don’t know about the good things they do and as a result when I hear a negative about them I tend to believe it.

When we use the words ‘building your reputation‘ it is a powerful analogy because your reputation is something that is built over time.

It is a culmination of all of the things you do; how you look after suppliers, your team and most importantly your customers. It also includes how you interact with the general community – while we are all in business to make a profit it is vital that we respect our environment and those around us and genuinely try to be a good, responsible corporate citizen.

Besides doing good it is vital that this is communicated clearly and effectively so that people understand that this is a business that genuinely cares about something more than just making money.

When an ill wind blows it is vital that your reputation has been built carefully and robustly so that it can withstand it easily and that you will have the support of your customers, investors, the media and the general public in these circumstances.

“There is a strike at Dunnes”

If a good job was done here our first thought when we hear this should be “They are a great company who are really responsible and fair – there must be two sides to that story”

Build your reputation … it will protect you

Greg Canty

Fuzion with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland offer a full Crisis PR Service. Deirdre Waldron, (Partner) heads up the Crisis PR team, which includes former journalists, media training and social media expertise.

 

 

 

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Posted in Brand Loyalty, Crisis PR, Customer Care, Strikes | Leave a Comment »

Mr Motivator

March 28, 2015

Mr Motivator

“There is just one Greg Canty and he is special and don’t you forget about it” he said

“Just keep being the best ‘you’ that you can be” ..ok, I will.

It had been a while since I had chatted to him but it is always great when we do. He always leaves you feeling ten feet tall and better about yourself than before you had spoken.

I called him out of the blue just for a chat but he always has this knack of saying something that makes you feel better about yourself.

I remember years ago we had him over at the house for grub and at the time we were feeling a little but low because we were struggling to get some sponsors signed up for our Catwalks event. This was a high end fashion and beauty event that we used take on tour around Ireland.

I think he picked up that we weren’t as positive as we usually were and after a while he grabbed a flyer in his hand from a previous Catwalks event that we had run and he gave us one of his magical pep talks.

“Do you see this?” he asked “You and Dee created a national event from nothing. You have already signed up some top brands and its been a huge success to date. Never forget that it is only you two who could have pulled something like this off”

After he left we were punching the air, feeling special, full of motivation and determination, ready to take on the world … sure enough we signed up more sponsors.

We all need people like that in our lives, the ones who make you fell better about yourself, the ones who you can call if you need that little gee up …they are precious.

Pat Dolan Thank you Pat Dolan..

Who is your Mr Motivator?

Greg Canty 

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion who offer Marketing, PR and Graphic Design services from our offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Friendship, Motivation, Personal development, Positivity | Leave a Comment »

LinkedIn and Temptation

March 22, 2015

Temptation

I remember a few years back being asked to give some LinkedIn training to the senior team in a large company.

When I was asked to give the training my contact stressed that I wasn’t to mention that it was a popular platform for job hunting and for putting your CV ‘out there‘. Apparently their financial department had recently been poached en masse and they were putting this down to LinkedIn so it was a delicate issue.

I carefully went through my presentation and removed any references to job hunting or it being a platform for hosting your  ‘online 3D CV‘.

I duly arrived, started my presentation and just 30 seconds into the session the first question was fired at me “Isn’t LinkedIn just a great place for finding a new job?“!

It was clear I wasn’t going to get away with avoiding the ‘elephant in the room‘.

Personally I see LinkedIn as a lot more than a place for online CV’s.

It has been a fantastic way for me and Fuzion to highlight our services, to make new contacts and great connections and to really drive our visibility. We blog frequently and we push our blog posts on LinkedIn and it helps showcase out team and their expertise.

However I must admit that the ‘CV’ dimension and the increased focus on job adverts combined with the relative ease of finding and targeting possible candidates is starting to have a huge impact on employees and employers. It has had an impact on our business.

Unfortunately I feel it can be detrimental to both employees and employers and if we are not careful this will only get worse.

Temptation..

In the good old days (I started my first proper job in an accountancy office in 1982) we took a job and tended to stay with companies for quite a while. In many cases we worked our way up the ladder through a combination of experience and on the job training.

jobs

Generally the senior long serving team members would live and breathe the organisations they worked for and they tended to have a deep practical knowledge of them including the ethos and core beliefs that the places were built on.

When the job stopped interesting and challenging you, when you stopped learning or when the career progression stopped then it was a natural time to start looking for a new job.

At this moment you started flicking through the job pages in the newspaper on a Friday and you might even register yourself with an employment agency. It was a very considered process.

Now things have changed significantly ..every single day anyone with a LinkedIn profile (there are over 1.4 million people in Ireland) can receive a job enquiry, a little temptation is dangled in front of them and long before they have even considered looking for another job their head has been turned and they are unsettled.

Two of our team left in the recent past and the story was the same for both of them “You know me, I love it here. I wasn’t even looking but they contacted me and the offer was so good I couldn’t resist“.

While this is a detrimental issue for employers who now have to contend with much higher staff turnover it is even more detrimental for the individuals who are letting their heads be easily turned.

Before their full skill-sets are developed and they have a chance to grow in their roles they are off and starting again, never reaching their full potential anywhere.

Technology has clearly changed all of our lives and in the workplace these changes are very significant.

Avoiding temptation..

This new temptation is detrimental to everyone and we need to take a little control back to limit how detrimental it is.

For the individuals that are tempted have a really good think before you allow your head to be turned – is this temptation really the best thing right now for your development and your long term career?

For employers who are tempted – do you really want to take someone on who has their head turned that easy? This won’t be the last time their head will turn!

Temptation ..no thanks!

Greg Canty 

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion who offer Marketing, PR and Graphic Design services from our offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

 

 

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Posted in LinkedIn, Management, Personal development, Recruitment, Social Media | 2 Comments »

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