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.
Master These 4 Dimensions of Communication to Shape Your Company Culture
For the entrepreneur, the art of communication is a key to inform, inspire and engage investors, employees and customers. Communication is where change begins. Culture is where movements are born. When you focus solely on the how-to of communication (“7 Social Media Essentials!”) and neglect the foundation, you miss an opportunity to create a culture of communication. 1. Be strategic to communicate purpose. Stephen Covey declared: “Begin with the end in mind.” You’ve got the long view and the big picture. Be certain everyone else knows how you plan on getting there. Vision aligns your purpose and mission. Culture aligns your vision and values. Remember, the clarity of your purpose is realized by the directness of your strategy. Strategy and focus tell your team and customers that you know where you’re headed and how you will get there. People want to belong to a cause, join a movement and work toward a vision that has clearly defined purpose and actionable strategy. Read more about these 4 dimensions of communication...
National Communication Expert Shares Tips for OVERCOMING FAKE TALK
Earlier this year, the American Psychological Association released its much-anticipated 2014 Work and Well-Being Survey – a study that revealed a startling absence of trust in today’s employer-employee relationships. “This lack of trust should serve as a wake-up call for employers,” warned David W. Ballard, PsyD, MBA, head of APA’s Center for Organizational Excellence. “Trust plays an important role in the workplace and affects employees’ well-being and job performance.” The APA’s survey cites a number of culprits for the lack of trust in today’s professional relationships, one of the most significant being that only half of U.S. workers believe their bosses are “open and upfront” with them. In fact, the study cites “effective communication” as one of the top three skills leaders should develop to build trust with their employees. In his book “Overcoming Fake Talk: How to Hold REAL Conversations that Create Respect, Build Relationships, and Get Results,” nationally recognized business communication expert John Stoker offers a solution to the APA’s “call to arms” for greater trust in today’s workplaces. “We’re suffering from an epidemic of what I call ‘counterfeit conversation,’ or ‘fake talk,'” says Stoker. “This is an approach to communication that undermines our ability to have trusting relationships at work because we fail to talk openly and effectively about what matters most.” Read more...
6 Superb Tips On Effective Communication With Millennials
For those who do not know, Millennial, also termed as Gen Y, is the generation that is age between 17 and 33 or the ones who were born between 1976 and 2001. It is the new version of the generation X genes currently dominating the workplace, making their moves in an aggressive yet efficient way. One of the biggest problems with this generation is communication. In order to communicate with them and convey your message in a proper manner, you must know that exactly what factors can help you convey your message in an effective manner. Read more about these 6 superb tips on effective communication with millennials...
Before You Hit ‘Send’: 5 Tips for Thoughtful Communication
Hasty communication can break relationships and ruin careers. Too often we write an email or send a text without double-checking the content or being mindful of the tone of the message. We have no idea how that message will get interpreted. Once you hit the “send” button, it’s kind of too late. Here are some communication tips that will keep us from burying our head in our hands. The following five recommendations are coming from my own personal communication blunders. 1. Don’t write emails or texts when you are angry During moments of anger, our mind and intelligence become clouded. We become heated and just the way clouds cover the sun, our emotions cover our ability to think rationally. Such a heated frame of mind won’t usually lead to a positive or productive message and can only make things worse. Read more about these tips for thoughtful communication...
Effective Communication Tips for Operating a Business Across Time Zones
With the internet facilitating global connectivity, it’s becoming easier for large companies to spread around the world, oftentimes with each branch focusing on a particular function and acting more or less independently. A small startup with teams in multiple cities and at least an eight hour time difference will frequently face different obstacles. We’ve compiled a list of things we’ve learned as a result of running Coub, a 30-person startup with teams divided by the Atlantic Ocean (or the Pacific, depending from which side you look at it.) Read more about it...
Build a Movement, Not a Brand
Crowds are never a good thing for business unless it’s outside your front door. How do you stand out in today’s tech drenched smartphone in hand world full of noisy content? Most of you have a muddled go to market strategy blending/borrowing from competitors, what your exec staff, BOD, marketing & agency geeks thinks, etc., etc. OMG Where do we Start? >here Your not shouting fire in crowded theater? Your trying to make a business stand out from the herd. Read more about it...
P&G Brings Braun Back to TV as Brand Rebounds From Long Decline
After a fall from Procter & Gamble Co.’s pantheon of billion-dollar brands and a media benching, Braun will re-emerge as a prime-time player this fall with a return to TV and a high-profile NFL partnership alongside big brother Gillette. The “FaceGreatness” campaign featuring Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson comes as P&G prepares to shed as many as 100 brands globally, with some analysts believing Braun could or should be one of them. So could this be the last chance for the brand with P&G, or a dressing up for sale? P&G executives working on Braun declined to comment on any divestiture plans. But Brian Messerschmitt, senior brand manager for Braun, said the brand had the strongest sales growth in its history in North America for the fiscal year completed June 30. And he said grooming remains strategically important to P&G. Read more about it...
Prevent Your Strategy Offsite From Being Meaningless
I was facilitating the two-day executive offsite of a mid-sized technology company. The goal of the meeting was to solve major issues and identify potential opportunities that would guide their efforts, as a company, for the next year. We were halfway through the first day and, while everything was going according to plan, I couldn’t shake this nagging feeling that something wasn’t right. I struggled to put my finger on it. I took in the scene. The CEO and all his direct reports were sitting around the board room table and everyone was engaged. People were being respectful, listening to each other without interrupting, asking clarifying questions, and moving efficiently from one presentation to the next. Everyone seemed satisfied; the presentations and conversations were useful and clear. Read more about it...
‘Prankstervising’ Is The Latest Brand-Boosting Ad Strategy
It’s a brave new world for advertising. In an attempt to vie for viewers scattered attention these days, ad agencies will do pretty much anything to cement brand awareness in the minds of consumers. Enter the age of “prankstervising.” If you can get someone to scream, chances are you’ll get them to remember, or so marketers believe. Here are a few of the best/worst prank ads. Read more about prankstervising...
Six Strategic Tips for Social Media Success
Though social media presence and strategy is critical in areas such as the fashion and food industries, it is important for almost all companies and products to create, maintain, nurture and grow their visibility online. Regardless of the nature of your business, these tips can give your social media strategies a lift and give you brand awareness in a crowded online marketplace. A forward-thinking, hands-on, digital media focus can enhance brand identity by getting, and holding, attention in even the most competitive digital spaces. Define your Brand, Create your Personality As any successful company is likely to tell you, creating and defining your brand identity is imperative. Whether a television network or a soft drink company, a tech giant or a car manufacturer, how people perceive your company is critical. Social media has taken brand identity to the next level, so use that to your advantage. Companies that work to define a clear strategy on how to speak to their fans and consumers on social networks and then execute those strategies skillfully are never out of the conversation or far from the consciousness of the consumer. The first step is to decide who you are, what your brand ethos is, what your voice will be, and what types of content you’d like to publish. Read more about the tips...
Understanding Identity, Unleashing Brand Love: 3 Essential Strategies for Connecting with Your Customer
Data-driven and digital. Omnichannel and always-on. Mobile and social (mocial?). If marketers can feel overwhelmed by the complexity and pace of our ever-evolving digital world (or at least by the jargon), imagine how a customer feels when seeking to connect. Customer loyalty has long been a challenge for even the most dedicated consumer brands. Losing a long-time customer is often times the result of failing to meet an expectation of some sort, but here’s the rub: It hasn’t been easy to discern what customers want and expect from you and your brand. If it were that simple, after all, then every business would be jumping on the bandwagon to success. It’s up to you, the marketer, to know the individuals that comprise your market and to make it easier than ever for them to buy into the experience of your brand. That’s why a data-driven approach—to relate with, reward, and retain your customers is so vital. Read more about brand love here....
Kellogg School of Management Launches New Brand Strategy Focused on Inspiring Growth
The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University announced today key milestones in its Envision Kellogg plan for transformation, including a new brand strategy focused on “inspiring growth.” This theme encapsulates what Kellogg has accomplished over the past four years and provides a beacon for where the school is headed. “Growth has long been the imperative and continues to be the biggest challenge that every organization faces,” said Kellogg Dean Sally Blount. “But the rules have changed since 2000. Bigger is not always better. Sometimes growth means pulling back to attain greater clarity and focus. Our ‘inspiring growth’ brand strategy highlights the important dual meaning of the English word ‘growth’ – both in terms of increasing economic value and increasing self-knowledge and insight.” Read more about the Kellogg School of...Ignite Lab Inc.
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