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.
How to Improve Communication in the Workplace: 5 Tips for Franchisees and Business Owners
Like every other business, a franchise deeply depends on the relationships that are maintained and nurtured in the workplace. This means there will never be room for positive interactions and results if the members of a team don’t make an effort to promote a certain grace in their place of work. Still, easier said than done… Many companies still struggle when it comes to turn words into actions. If you feel you are part – as an employee or as the boss – of a company or franchise that could improve its workplace communication, the following tips are for you. Read more about how to improve communication in the workplace...
Tips for Communicating Better with Your Employees
Are you satisfied with the level of communication from your agency leaders? My organization, the Partnership for Public Service, and Deloitte, recently analyzed the government-wide responses to three employee survey questions to see how federal leaders were doing regarding their communication with workers. The results were not very encouraging. Overall, the analysis found that only about half of federal workers government-wide are satisfied with the level of communication they receive from senior leaders, and the percentage of positive responses has been declining since 2009. Read more about it...
Psychologist Dr Eddie Murphy Gives Tips on Communicating with Teenagers
Young people experience a vast number of changes as they move towards independence. Their beliefs and values may conflict with the parents’, they may develop interests that you don’t understand or quit hobbies that you encouraged in their younger years. Try to see this in a positive light as they are becoming their own person. Right now your teen might be facing into stressful exams or requesting to go on a summer holiday or to a music festival with friends. As a parent, it can be a struggle deciding how much independence to allow. Bear in mind that there is no ‘one size fits all’ rule. You will always feel responsible for your child’s wellbeing and safety, no matter their age. Rules are important to create boundaries and respect but some are more important than others, e.g. not getting into a car with someone who has been drinking alcohol is always worth arguing over but cleaning up an untidy bedroom may be best to ignore. Read more about it...
Leadership Communication: Getting Beyond the Basics
Look at any job description for leaders at any level and there it is under essential qualifications: excellent communication skills. Recent leadership literature suggests there’s more to it than being a good listener and an articulate speaker. I scan or read a fair number of leadership publications and blogs. Hardly a week passes in which I will not encounter a title like this or some variation on it: “The Most Important Skill Every Leader Needs.” Invariably the author will focus on some essential leadership quality that is fairly well known as a skill leaders need to have. Sometimes it’s trust, transparency, or integrity. It might be the importance of having a clear vision or establishing a particular culture. But the one leadership skill that comes up time and time again, perhaps more than the others combined, is communication. Read more about it...
6 Tips for Young Professionals Flustered by Small Talk
College graduates today are the most tech-savvy generation to ever enter the workforce. While knowledge of the latest and greatest devices can be a tremendous asset to landing a job, it’s also proving to be a hindrance. Graduates today too often use technology as a replacement for essential communication skills that are still coveted by employers. The Center for Professional Excellence at York College of Pennsylvania conducts an annual survey to evaluate the status of professionalism in America. Most recent data from college and university career development offices noted a troubling trend. Respondents believe professionalism has decreased in the past five years. They attributed that drop to a loss of communication and interpersonal skills due to technology. Read more about it...
Age Targets Vary by Brand, Product
Companies seek different segments of the family niche with various targeted brands. Steve Lutz, vice president of marketing for Columbia Marketing International, Wenatchee, Wash., said the company’s Hero brand is targeted to grade-school children. “We’ve found in consumer testing and though our work with schools that kids that age are really receptive to the message, and their parents are supportive as well because the message is targeted, but healthy,” he said. Mac Riggan, marketing director for Chelan Fresh Marketing, Chelan, Wash., agreed kids age 4-12 are a good age to target. Read more about this...
Why P&G’s $8 Billion Brand-Shedding Plan Will Bulk Up Customer Value
I always say that I got my first MBA while working at P&G during the liquefying hey-day of launching Liquid Tide and Liquid Cascade. (My second was at Kellogg). During that time, P&G taught me that brand management can be defined through P&L responsibility and accountability for growth, not just the stereotypical focus on communications and strategy execution. P&G has always blazed the trail in the management of brands; look no further than Unilever, Kraft and others to see the power P&G has had on reshaping categories for decades. Read more about it...
Brand Who You Really Are for TV, Radio and Internet Success
I believe that the world needs you – your voice, your message, your story – to help us in our eternal search for happiness and fulfillment and to experience phenomenal success. My mission now is to empower individuals, small to medium sized business owners and professionals in transformational leadership, wellness and coaching to have an extraordinary impact in the world by providing you with the tools & training to effectively promote your message, brand or product through the media in a way that is authentic to who you really are, and in line with your values and personality. Read more about it...
5 Skills Every Successful Entrepreneur Must Master
While the debate rages on as to whether entrepreneurs are born or made, one thing can’t be disputed: polishing certain skills can help you be a better entrepreneur. Whether you’re already great at the following skills or could use a few pointers, these are the areas you should focus on for success. 1. Communication. When you’re a solopreneur, you may think communication is less of an issue, since you don’t have staff to interact with. But you’ve still got to maintain clear lines of communication with your customers via email and phone, as well as ensure that the message you send through your website and social-media profiles is the one you want. Read more about these five skills...
Women And Personal Branding: Oil And Water?
In my career coaching with women, I have conversations daily about personal branding – what it means, why it’s so challenging for many women, and how women can overcome their reluctance to communicate their brands powerfully. Personal branding is not a “nice to have” today – it’s an essential endeavor for all professionals who want to advance, thrive, and grow. They need to know exactly what they stand for in the world, and how they stand apart from others, and communicate that competitive difference with confidence and clarity. If you can’t do this, you’ll lack the visibility and recognition you need to reach the next level of success. Read more about it...
Delta Dental Names Brand Strategy Leader
Delta Dental Plans Association (DDPA) has announced the appointment of Andre Richards to director of brand strategy and management. He will assume responsibility for managing and evolving the Delta Dental brand. Richards has more than 20 years of experience in strategic brand marketing. He most recently served as VP of brand strategy and research for the Select Service and Extended Stay divisions at Marriott International, where he focused on improving customer experience, brand positioning, consumer research, segmentation and European brand launch efforts for eight brands in the Marriott portfolio. Richards has also held brand strategy roles at AOL and Levi’s. Read more about it...
Brands: Don’t Let Your Hashtag Strategy Turn Into a #Fail
This planning season, hashtags are all the rage. Put one on the print ad! Tag the end of the spot! Add it to the waiting room brochure! As we’ve seen, hashtags like #askjpm, and #myNYPD are the latest examples of brands that thought their hashtags were an amazing idea until they blew up into a wildfire of negative sentiment. Yet we’ve also seen a lot of well-used hashtags, like the recent #allin from Adidas during the World Cup or #6secondscience from GE. But what separates a #win from a #fail? Read more about it...Ignite Lab Inc.
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