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.
7 Magic Words (And 10 Negotiation Ideas) For Entrepreneurs
Of all the skills we teach prospective entrepreneurs, there’s an element missing. Where in our MBA or business preparedness programs do we talk about the skills of negotiation? Um… with the exception of sales training, which is highly focused on negotiation, perhaps the answer is never. My friend Dr. Richard Kaye raised this point to me recently as we discussed our strategies for business at a recent Pro Speaker Biz event in Las Vegas, led by the head of Performance 360 Events andPerformance Magazine, Dr. Jeff Magee. (I’ve interviewed Magee before here.) Dr. Kaye, Magee and I are fellow faculty members of the CEO Space business growth conferences (as a note, these roles are unpaid). In his business life, Kaye is a retired chiropractor who teaches and presents on how to build better rapport, better communication (here’s to that!) and better negotiation skills. Read more about these 7 magic words and 10 negotiation ideas...
5 Brand Strategy Tips from the World of AMC’s Mad Men
Everybody knows that art often imitates life, and other times life imitates art. Sometimes these two opposite phenomena form a dialectic and complement each other in a fascinating cycle. A notable example of this right now is the way the acclaimed AMC series Mad Men depicts a 1960s advertising agency’s successes concerning brand strategy and consumer engagement (art imitating life), and how today’s marketing industry sees this depiction and successfully adopts many of these strategies in service of contemporary efforts to engage in advertising, brand building, and brand awareness campaigns (life imitating art). What follows are five such tips that the marketing industry can learn from Mad Men with respect to consumer awareness, building a brand, or just advertising in general. 1. If you don’t like what’s being said, change the conversation. Having created numerous brand strategy campaigns around products about which the general public was hearing negative things — Lucky Strike cigarettes in particular comes to mind — at one point early in the series Don Draper offered this wisdom to his colleagues and their client, Madison Square Garden, to inspire an ad campaign that “changed the conversation”. The concern was the perception that New York City was full of urban decay and Madison Square Garden would be a symbol of all that’s wrong with big cities. Draper offered a vision where something big, new, and ambitious like Madison Square Garden would be welcomed by the public if they did some brand building for it that painted the arena as a sign of a fresh, clean, beautiful new beginning for the city despite reality. Draper uses this aggressive and manipulative...
Three Tips for Creating an Aspirational Brand Strategy
Creating an aspirational brand strategy is an unexpected move that can help evolve a brand from ordinary to extraordinary. Celebrity culture is more pervasive today than ever before, which is why synergizing attributes of it with a product can have fantastic results. This topic is addressed in Trend Hunter’s Branding Trend Report, where the concept of creating brand loyalty is characterized with manageable tips for businesses of any size. Creating an aspirational brand can be done in three simple steps: Advertise with excess: Targeting your demographic with seductive lifestyles like those of icons as seen within Socialite Persuasion will help enhance the exclusive level of a product. Celebrities and socialites are associated with excessive lifestyles and giving a product a Hollywood status makes it more appealing to those looking for a taste of the good life. Read about all of the three tips for creating an aspirational brand strategy right...
10 Must Know Tips for Creating Winning Visual Brand Identities
On Friday I attended the 2012 Brand New Conference, a one day event focusing on the practice of corporate and brand identity. The event went smoothly again (hat tip to Armin Vit for organizing) and the speakers shared some great tips and stories on a large variety of topics. The most notable talk of the day for me, was by Simon Manchipp, the CD & co-founder of Someone. Simon’s talk was built around ten things to consider when creating a new visual brand identity. Here are some of the notes I took from his talk. There are some loose ends, but there are still a number of key takeaways so...
11 Tips For Building A World-Class Brand Identity
Bridge Bank is a full-service business bank focused on offering small- and middle-market loans in the highly competitive Silicon Valley. They launched in 2001 with a rather lackluster image. Their new re-branded identity is a case study in how design can affect a company’s image and people’s perceptions of it. The new look and feel preserves the bank’s original red-on-black color scheme, but adds a layer of style and sophistication seldom seen in the financial world. The new design feels super contemporary — almost like an internet company — and exudes a feeling of class without necessarily suggesting a higher cost to consumers. Lesson #1: Never underestimate the impact your brand’s visual components have on people. There are quaint sayings like “never judge a book by its cover” and “beauty is only skin deep. While the clothes might not “make the man,” they can certainly help him get noticed. If people don’t notice you, you’ll never develop a relationship with them. That’s why you need to look as good as you can. Learn about the remaining 10 tips for building a world-class brand identity right...Design a Brand Identity in 10 Easy Steps
It’s not as hard as you think! We explain how to create a new brand from scratch. When a client approaches you to create a new brand identity for their product, service or event, things can seem a little bit daunting. But don’t worry – all you need to do is apply all the skills you’ve built up in your design career in a slightly different way. To help you along, here are some expert tips on developing the perfect brand identity that will make both you and your client happy. Who knows, come next year it might be your brand on the corner of every street… Read more about the 10 easy steps towards designing a brand identity for your company...
PayPal Unveils New Brand Identity
PayPal has revolutionized the way people across the globe think about and use money. Today, they announced transformational changes to its brand identity, including the unveiling of a new logo. The new look reflects PayPal’s simplicity, convenience and security, redesigned for today’s dynamic, mobile-first world. This is the first time PayPal has updated its identity since 2007. “Our new brand identity goes far beyond an updated logo,” said David Marcus, PayPal’s president. “We have aligned this with our first global brand campaign. We’re setting a new expectation with our global consumers, developers and merchants: PayPal is redefining the future of money by putting people first. After all, money doesn’t make the world go round, people do.” Read about their new brand identity...
Our Inability to Communicate is Literally Making Us Sick: Strategies and Solutions from Doctor Neha
Do you find yourself steering clear of difficult conversations with your spouse, your children, your co-workers, your boss? We all have defense mechanisms that kick in when we want to avoid the harder choices in our lives. But avoiding everyday communication that we really need to face causes stress and can actually make us physically ill. Dr. Neha Sangwan, Internal Medicine physician, entrepreneur, andHuffington Post contributor, took as her mission empowering people in their own health by teaching them practical communication tools to strengthen their relationships, decrease stress levels, and create the life they deserve. Doctor Neha trained as a medical doctor. For over a decade, she worked 36-hour shifts and saw up to 18 hospitalized patients a day. She found that this punishing schedule quickly took its toll on her health. “Instead of acknowledging my headaches, throat constriction, insomnia and physical exhaustion as warning signals, I powered through shift after shift, fueled by caffeine, sugar and a fear of failure,” she told me. “Eventually the grueling pace, erratic sleep schedule and blatant disregard for my own physical, mental and emotional well-being led to burnout. I was so focused on other people’s health and doing what was expected, I rarely paid attention to what my own body was saying. My official diagnosis: a classic case of people pleasing.” Read more about this inability to communicate here and how it can be fixed...
These Two Communication Strategies Will Get You What You Want
A mother said to her three-year-old daughter, “When you get a chance, can you please clean your room?” The young girl responded, “Mom, no, I not gonna get a chance.” A colleague told me this story about her daughter, and after I stopped laughing, I had to tell her that she hadn’t use a little-recognized, yet powerful communication tool. Since she had hired me to teach assertiveness for her organization, I felt comfortable giving her this feedback. Her stumbling block? My colleague had used a question instead of a direct assertive statement. Using a question (Can you please clean your room?) allows the other person to make the choice, and you may not get what you want. You are being less direct. Read more about these two communication strategies...
5 Steps to an Effective Instagram Strategy
At first glance, Instagram doesn’t seem like a powerhouse lead generator. The photo-sharing app, which allows you to add filters, descriptions, locations and hashtags to pictures taken on a mobile device, is great for brand discovery and engagement. But marketers can’t include clickable buy links in their product posts, as they can on other sites like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. And yet, Instagram has been described as “the world’s most powerful selling tool.” A recent Forbes article noted that user-generated photos with branded products, as well as Instagram’s sponsored posts, help to boost consumer reach, recall and awareness, and, ultimately, lead to sales conversion. Read more about these five steps to developing an effective Instagram strategy...
26 Tips for Creating a Powerful Personal Brand Online
The social web is a game changer. It’s not a fad but an evolving ecosystem of web technologies that allow any individual to publish, promote and engage with a global audience. The real power of this is that it has put the tools in your hands should you choose to use them. No longer do you have to pay the mass media gatekeepers to be published or to gain attention. Passionate and creative individuals that understand how this works can go from zero to hero. One great example is Bethany Mota who started a fashion oriented YouTube channel for fun (also read passion) in 2009 when she was just 14! In 2014 her videos have over 209 million views and she is estimated to earn over $40,000 per month or nearly half a million dollars per year from YouTube. Bethany is just one of many who have used the social web to make a difference to their lives and inspire and influence others. Read more about these 26 tips for creating a powerful personal brand online...
Five Tips to Inspire Employees and Amplify Your Brand
After more than a decade of trying to figure out the ins and outs of social media, it’s pretty clear that people mostly share only what interests them. So how is it that employees usually hesitate to share their companies Facebook or Twitter posts? Simple—they’re not involved or inspired. Most of them are far happier to share family photos or memes that relate to their likes (or dislikes) or articles relating to something they feel passionate about. You can’t force employees to share something that doesn’t feel right for them to share. But if you involve them in the process and inspire them wisely by producing content most of them can’t resist, you can easily create a team that doubles or triples the size of your marketing staff. Read more about the five tips that inspire employees and amplify your brand...Ignite Lab Inc.
40 Eglinton Ave. East
Suite 703
Toronto, ON
M4P 3A2