A boutique consultancy dedicated to delivering relevant insights that guide clients through complicated decisions and uncover new ways of thinking.
Shari Allison
Principal
Shari has spent the past 20 years helping clients refine the way they look at their marketplace, their customers & their business. Co-founder of Ignite in 2011, Shari focuses on challenging convention, redefining context & delivering clarity to client partners. Although she holds advanced degrees in consumer behaviour, Shari’s expertise extends well beyond research & insights to thought-leadership & true strategic-partnership.
Stephen Tile
Principal
For the past 30 years Steve has been helping some of the biggest brands refine their target, define their messages and build their businesses. He is a consummate strategist who uses an array of research tools to deliver crisp & meaningful insights that inspire and transform.
Ignite is brought to the table when senior level, objective, thought-partners are needed to help provide clarity, focus decision-making & optimize opportunity.
Our business model allows for intimate, hands-on engagements that are flexible & provide meaningful business outcomes.
While Ignite can of course execute basic research, our sweet spot is really those issues that are strategically significant to the organization.
We focus on strategic, high-touch engagements related to…
- Market dynamics
- Brand strategy
- Brand targeting & positioning
- Brand identity
- Innovation
- Concept development
- Concept evaluation/execution
- Communication strategy
- Communication development/evaluation
Specializing in retail, travel, packaged goods, alcohol, technology, financial services & luxury goods segments.
- Ignite employs a creative range of methods to uncover insights…from traditional focus groups & online surveys to inventive interactive, observational & ethnographic approaches.
- Emphasis is on driving insights deep into organizations, either up or down, where they can be actioned — use facilitation & workshopping methods to ensure organizational enculturation.
AT&T Innovation Showcase Features Trackable Luggage, Big Data Visualizers
At AT&T’s Innovation Showcase in New York City Friday, the company showed off a variety of projects being developed within AT&T Labs. The event’s general theme was the shift to more cloud-based networks and the greater interconnectivity of devices (the horribly titled, “Internet of Things“). Most of the projects on display at the Innovation Showcase are proof-of-concepts or foundations for larger ideas. These aren’t necessarily technologies that will make their way to market as commercialized products, but the research and development work may be used as the basis for more fully-formed products in the future. It’s worth noting that many of the technologies aren’t intended to be consumer-facing. Some are clearly targeted at the enterprise, while others offer a glimpse at features that AT&T or its partners could implement into future services. Read more about what was featured at AT&T’s Innovation Showcase...
How Humor Can Improve Your Business Communications Strategy
A good laugh is cathartic. I find I’m in a much better mood when I’ve had a chance to laugh. Often times it’s my husband who is responsible for this. Out of nowhere he will come up with these hysterical one-liners—often directed at himself—and it’s hard not to laugh. You see, he’s an engineer—not known for his communication skills. I would even say he’s a man of few words—not because he isn’t social—he is, but because he doesn’t need many words to get his point across. He uses humor. He’s self-deprecating, honest and real. He doesn’t take things too seriously, unless he has to. Those who work for him find him likeable, approachable and one of the most effective leaders they’ve ever had. The point here is not to stroke his ego—although I’m sure he is loving this boost! The real takeaway is that you don’t need an expansive vocabulary to be a great communicator. When you get people to respond the way you’ve intended, you’ve succeeded. Comedy is a great way to achieve this. I think we can all admit that corporate communications has always been a bit, shall we say, “dull”? Your typical corporate piece—whether a memo, email or article—is dry and either excessively wordy or lacks any real context to help the reader understand what it is they are supposed to do once they’ve read it. Ultimately, it is quickly forgotten, or worse, not even read because no one has the time, energy or desire to read something that takes so much effort. Read more about how humor can improve your business communications strategy...
The Power of Strategic Communication
Numerous articles and research have shown effective communication to be an important driver of employee engagement, which leads to improved financial performance. Gallup reports that those organizations falling within the top 25% of employee engagement in their client database not only have significantly higher productivity, profitability and customer satisfaction, but also reduced turnover, lower absenteeism and fewer safety incidents than those clients falling in the bottom 25%. These numbers make a strong case for the value and importance of strategic communication. Well-designed communication programs are essential for sharing a company’s strategic plan and providing other important organizational information that informs employees of the organization’s goals and objectives, business priorities, products and services. Read more about the power of strategic communication...
Branding Begins at Home
One of my firm’s clients—a regional pizza chain—rarely advertises, never discounts, won’t issue coupons, and doesn’t even deliver. Yet they’re one of the most beloved brands in town. The secret to their success? A powerful, genuine, carefully cultivated culture that recruits, hires, trains, and rewards polite, smiling teenagers who deliver consistently pleasant customer experiences. The company is careful about whom it hires, how it acculturates new employees, and how it induces them to live up to the brand’s values. As a result, customers are happy to come back again and again—and pay full price. The chain generates sales per store equal to or exceeding those of the world’s biggest, most valuable restaurant brands. Contrast this with an experience I recently had at one of those big chains. I asked a simple question about how big its soft drinks were—I wanted to know how many ounces were in each size, because these days you never know if what you’re ordering will come in a Dixie Cup or a gallon jug. Read more about why effective branding begins at home...
Samsonite’s Brand Strategy: ‘The Product Is the Hero’
Samsonite products have been charged by a bull, caught in revolving doors, tossed out of cabs and mauled by the entire Pittsburgh Steelers football team. But they have not — repeat, not — suffered a beat down from a gorilla. Rather, that was a bright red piece of American Tourister luggage, not Samsonite, being manhandled by a primate in an iconic 1971 TV commercial. (It wasn’t a real gorilla, animal lovers; it was an actor in a monkey suit.) But Samsonite executives understand, and forgive, the confusion. The company eventually bought American Tourister and revived the gorilla character in its advertising, recognizing a breakout star when it saw one. Read more about Samsonite and their new brand strategy here....
Brands Should Invest in the Right Followers By Targeting Relevant Social Networks
Creating an effective content marketing strategy often means carefully cultivating the proper social following. B2B companies, for example, will generally be more successful if they target LinkedIn users instead of Snapchat loyalists. But even within individual networks, different kinds of behavior are going to change the way a brand comes across to its own followers as well as new leads. As Brafton reported, a recent social study found 44 percent of Twitter accounts have never actually tweeted. That isn’t an indication of the platform’s marketing utility – after all, people still manage to send at least half a billion Tweets every day – but it does prove followers aren’t created equal, and it isn’t all about the total number of followers a business has. Instead, it’s about cultivating loyal and sustainable social connections through valuable content and high engagement. Read more about the brands that invest in the right followers by targeting relevant social networks...
Coca-Cola, Cadbury and Amazon Named Top Brands for Targeting Youth Market
In research published by VCCP’s new youth agency Rough Hill, 60% of young people use Cadbury, while 34% follow the brand online. For Amazon, 58% of people use the brand and 33% of them follow it online, and 59% of young people use the Coca-Cola brand regularly, while 31% follow it online. The research, called ‘ASBO Generation (Adept Social Behaviour On and Offline)’ used responses from nearly 4,000 people aged between 16 and 22. It found there are brands that engage with a youth audience in real life. Boots is a popular offline brand, but only a sixth of respondents following the brand through social media. Likewise, Pringles has 40% of the youth market regularly buying the brand, but only one in 12 engages with it online. The research found that the content young people are least likely to engage with is ads, competitions and surveys or polls, whereas the content they find interesting and are keen to interact with comprises images, text or chat, video, music and articles. Read more about these top brands that have effectively targeted the youth market...
Will Chevy’s Ad Breakthrough Lead to More Spots Targeting LGBT Consumers?
When Chevrolet prominently featured gay and lesbian couples in a family-focused commercial titled “The New Us,” marketing experts saw it as a breakthrough. And they think other automakers will come to see it the same way. Justin Bell, CEO of Arc & Arrow Creative Group, an agency focused on connecting brands with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender market, calls the spot for the Traverse crossover, aired during NBC’s Olympics broadcasts, “monumental,” and says it was “no tiny move for Chevrolet” to include three families headed by gay couples among the 12 who were spotlighted. Read more about the effect of the Chevrolet ad breakthrough on LGBT consumers...
T-Mobile, Univision Launch Wireless Brand Targeting Latinos
Starting Monday, Univision Mobile will offer customers monthly plans that include 100 minutes of international calling to eight countries in Latin America, including Mexico, and unlimited text messaging to phone numbers in more than 200 countries around the world. With the help of Univision’s well-known brand and marketing muscle, T-Mobile hopes to tap into the Latino market of nearly 56 million Americans. The Latino market represents the fastest-growing demographic in the U.S. and includes some of the most active smartphone users. Nielsen said Thursday that 77% of Latinos own a smartphone, nearly 10 percentage points higher than the national average. They also spend more time watching digital video and use more data, and are adopting smartphones at a much quicker rate, Nielsen said. Mike Sievert, T-Mobile’s chief marketing officer, said Latinos are among the most influential groups in the country and “deserve wireless tailored to their interests and needs.” Read more about the launch of this new wireless brand targeting...
Achieve the ‘Innovation Mindset’ With These 8 Keys
Poor Lou Gerstner. A widely respected executive credited with leading RJR Nabisco and American Express to corporate glory, the 51-year-old had just accepted the job nobody wanted.For nearly a century, IBM had risen practically unfettered from bland holding company to industrial-strength powerhouse. A premier technology provider globally, IBM was credited most recently with ushering in the personal computer revolution. But that was then. By 1993, as Gerstner took over as CEO, “Big Blue” was in free fall. Bloated and teetering on bankruptcy, the company posted an eye-popping $8.1 billion loss the year before. IBM under Gerstner quickly returned to profitability. But stopping the bleeding was one thing, restoring relevance was another. Read more about the ‘innovation mindset’ and the 8 keys you can use to unlock it...
Microsoft Outlines Plans for Innovation Center on St. Elizabeths Campus
Microsoft officials say they plan to open one of their first training centers in the United States on the city-owned east campus of the former St. Elizabeths hospital, in one of the poorest areas of Southeast D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) has made redeveloping the east campus of St. Elizabeths one of his top economic development priorities and has repeatedly said he would like to see Microsoft play a role in it. Officials for the software giant said last week that they were committed to doing that by way of opening one of its Microsoft Innovation Centers, facilities in emerging economic areas where the company provides software training for students and entrepreneurs. To date, Microsoft has nearly 100 innovation centers worldwide, with concentrations in Eastern Europe, India and Brazil. There are none in the United States, though one isopening shortly in downtown Miami at a tech incubator and accelerator called Venture Hive. A second center may open in Houston. Read more about Microsoft and the plans that they have outlined...
12 Tips For Better Email Writing
Email writing training is one of my favourite topics. I often write about the impact of good (and bad), email writing on our professional success and reputation. The Risk Of Email Most business communication is by email. We try to build and maintain relationships using this one-dimensional, sensory deprived mode of communication that was never designed to do what we are using it for. Email was designed for the United States Defense Department in 1971 by Computer Engineer, Ray Tomlinson as a way to send a simple (note the word ‘simple’), message to another person across a network.email3 Email has gone far beyond sending a simple message. Not only are we using it as a project management and relationship-building business communication tool, in many ways we are using email to replace conversations — displacing many phone and face-to-face conversations. For example, it’s not uncommon for business associates. In another city to never meet or speak with each other, and to only communicate by email. Who sit next to each other to do most of their communication by email. Read more about the 12 tips for writing better emails and communicating through email messages effectively...Ignite Lab Inc.
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