March 31, 2009
General Marketing, Segmentation
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I’ve been doing strategic marketing for a restaurant client and naturally undertook some research on the restaurant industry.
So far, in my research, I have found 54, that is FIFTY FOUR types of restaurant in this country of ours. I’m pretty sure that there are more and I’ll be looking for all the readers help on this. Can you believe it?
In case you didn’t know what they are - I’ve made a list. And if anyone can tell me the difference between Modern English and Modern British, then I’ll buy that person a coffee!!!
The 55 (and counting) restaurant classifications are:
A
B
- Bistro
- Breakfast
- Brasserie
C
- Cafe
- Cajun
- Californian
- Caribbean
- Casual Dining
- Chicken
- Chilean
- Chinese
- Classic
- Contemporary
- Continental
- Creole
- Cuban
E
F
- Family Dining
- Filipino
- Fine Dining
- Fish
- French
G
I
- Indian
- Indonesian
- International
- Irish
- Italian
J
L
M
- Malaysian
- Mediterranean
- Mexican
- Modern British
- Modern English
- Modern European
- Modern French
- Modern Irish
- Moroccan
N
P
- Pakistani
- Portugese
- Pub Restaurant
R
S
- Scandanavian
- Seafood
- Spanish
- Steak
- Swedish
- Swiss
T
V
54 and counting…..
March 27, 2009
Drogheda, General Marketing, Good News Thursday
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Okay - so it’s Friday. But the good news is that it was mental this week so only calming myself down on this gorgeous Spring Friday. Thankfully, there are companies out there that don’t believe spending on marketing is a false economy.
Let’s get straight to some good news.
1. Recruitment is still alive & well with SMEs…..
Mor Solutions, an award winning web development agency based in Drogheda are looking for talented PHP Web Developers. Check out the recruitment page of Mor Solutions for more information.
Virgoe McInery, an award winning landscaping company (Bloom 2007 & 2008) is looking to hire experienced and qualified landscapers. Contact 01 840 7674 to learn more.
2. Baggot Street Businesses to create a ‘Cheers’ environment on street
Marketing Network, a marketing services company located on Baggot Street is hosting a Network evening in Larry Murphys Bar, at 5.45pm on 23rd April. As Roisin at Marketing Network explained “there are so many businesses on Baggot Street, so why not meet up, get to know our neighbours and maybe create business or networking opportunities with our neighbours.” Contact 01 690 9000 for more information.
3. Drogheda Chamber/Drogheda Independent launch shop local initiative
The Drogheda Chamber and Drogheda Independent launched their ‘Think Drogheda, Shop Local’ campaign. The campaign is not to tell readers of the DI or members of the Chamber where or how to spend their money - but simply asking them to Think Drogheda before they spend and consider the benefits of shopping local.
4. Strategic Alliances that are working for the benefit of SMEs…
Today more than ever, managers need to know how to lead their staff and make everyone feel part of a team. Surpass Consulting and Xtreme Ireland have teamed up to help companies build up leadership, behavioural skills and team playing abilities…outside of the boardroom.
***Ends until next week***
March 20, 2009
General musings, Good News Thursday
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Well it’s Thursday already! I had some great feedback as I mentioned last week about GNT (Good News Thursday).
A lot of people have advised me that they have good news coming and it’s just what we need. Hope everyone had a great St. Patrick’s Day and we’ll be properly back on track next week for GNT.
Some stories for this week:
Home Brokers
Home Brokers has saved Irish property buyers over €2million in negotiated discounts. Home Brokers is an independent agency for property buyers offering a comprehensive array of property buying services such as contract negotiation, lettings and property management.
Hookies Twitter Party
George Hook is an avid twitterer. As a newbie, I’m in awe of his 2,350 followers. He regulary twitters and is inviting all like minded twitters to a party. Date to be arranged. Oh the power of the online social network.
Another Hollywood Movie to Ireland
A new Hollywood movie, Leap Year will be filmed in Ireland and will create 150 temporary jobs and will hire approx 1,500 extras.
Recession May End this Year
US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said during the week that there is a reasonable prospect that the current recession will end in 2009 and that 2010 will be a year of recovery.
The All Island Talent Show is Over
Sunday night TV has always been bad but thankfully the All Island Talent Show is over. Congrats to the winners. No more Irish reality TV for a while!
Other Comments of Interest
Michael Deasy of Omac Financial Solutions advises me that we are in ‘Pre Boom Years’ and Good News Thursday should remind everyone of it.
Alan Higgins of Higgins Life & Pensions send me this FANTASTIC powerpoint. Check it out - it’s about a guy who bought a barn in Portugal. Would you swap places with him?!
Have a look at this powerpoint: thebarnfind1
***Ends***
March 13, 2009
General musings, Good News Thursday
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I’m thrilled that so many people have emailed me about Good News Thursday. People want to hear good news.
So keep it coming….I’ll be looking for and compiling stories next Wednesday.
I got a mail from someone (who wants to remain anonymous) who said that when they opened the email, they were feeling doomy and gloomy. When they read the mail, they picked up the phone and called a prospect that they had been meaning to call and meaning to call and meaning to call. You know the drill!
So he picked up the phone, called and got a great response. So he took action there and then and hopefully he’ll be part of Good News Thursday in a couple of weeks.
What are you going to do to be part of Good News Thursday?
March 12, 2009
General Marketing, General musings
3 Comments
Enough already! I’m done with the bad news, the doom, the gloom, the negativity.
So I’m introducing….
Good News Thursday
Let’s share our good news stories about our businesses - I know, through talking to many SMEs out there, that there are good news stories out there - so why not tell the world about them?
These days, we shouldn’t be so shy about our achievements and accomplishments.
Why Thursday?
Thursday is the perfect day for sharing our stories. It will keep us motivated to get stories to share with others and it will keep us driven over the weekend.
If you could share with me your short story, I’ll post them all on Thursday…under the aptly named Title ‘Good News Thursday’!
This week’s Good News Thursday
Healthforce
Anne-marie Graham of Healthforce has just launched a new business unit. It’s called Weigh-Less and is a programme that assesses and addresses diet and behaviour in a simple way. In just under seven weeks, she has helped 3 participants lose over 40lbs and each participant has made permanent changes to their eating behaviour.
Gifts & Vouchers.ie
Gifts and Vouchers.ie is helping Worldvision with their goal of getting 1,500 new child sponsors. They have created a page on their website so that people can donate and buy from the Worldvision store. 100% of what is spent online at Gifts & Vouchers.ie is passed onto Worldvision.
Achieve Marketing
I have just finished creating a 2 day marketing course that is being run at Bill Cullen’s Europa Academy in April. Spaces are filling up.
Paycheck Plus
Paycheck Plus picked up two awards at the Louth County Enterprise Awards last week. Best Service Provider and Overall Business at the Awards went home to Clogherhead, Co. Louth on Friday. (We were delighted to be a part of her success.)
*** Ends (until next Thursday) ***
March 11, 2009
General Marketing
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Last Thursday, 5th March, the BNI Abbey Chapter, based in Swords, held a visitors day. Normally what happens on a visitors day is that we get about 40 people to come along and see the concept of the BNI for themselves.
Our BNI visitors day was one with a difference. We had Bill Cullen. The Apprentice Hirer, the Chairman of the Glencullen group, the motivational speaker, author of Penny Apples and owner of the Europa Academy where our BNI meetings are held, gave us a motivational speech at 7.30am.
Now, I’m not fond of early mornings but it was such a wake up call. He told us the story of going to see a top-notch consultant in the US, I can’t remember his name now. He paid $250 to attend the seminar and he estimated that there were several thousand in the room. That consultant made at least a million dollars for two hours of telling this group how to be successful.
Bill, recounted the event and told us about the dramatics. He said there were lights; there was music; there were sounds of lighting & crashing; there were flashes and then there were two words on the screen.
“Sleep Less”
Bill was so thrilled with this advice that he shouted up, “I got that same advice from my granny and it was free!”
Wonderful stuff…so now, when I’m feeling tired, I say to myself that I’ll be a long time dead and that I’ve to make the most of the time that I have awake!
But getting back to the Visitors Day. Bill entertained us and motivated us and cajoled us for 15 minutes. It was fantastic. I’ve been doing a lot of this thinking (as you’ll have seen from my ezines)..that this is the year for massive action.
Bill echoed this sentiment when he said - Positive Attitude + Positive Action = Results.
We had over 50 visitors at our visitors day - it shows the power of networking as a marketing tool. It’s not sufficient on its own but it does work. And the BNI does work. It’s about Givers Gain…those that give, gain!
I’ll let you know how many people join our chapter as a result. And I’ll finish with a review of advice in six words about what Bill said to us -
Take More Action, Sleep Less, Smile More
March 11, 2009
General Marketing, General musings, Internet Marketing
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Mary Rose over at Brightspark posed an interesting question to the grammar police yesterday - http://brightspark-consulting.com/blog/2009/03/when-to-use-punctuation-on-bulleted-lists-a-question/
It was to do with question marks, full stops and bulleted lists.
It got me to think about how we write full stop. (Excuse the pun!). Do we write differently for the web than we do for print? I posed the question back to MR and her response was a really interesting one. She said:
“I believe that web writing has risen the bar for offline writing. If we don’t put up with waffle and marketing fluffle online, why should we put up with it on a piece of printed paper too?”
An interesting perspective, especially as earlier on today, I sat down with a cuppa and read the Sunday Business Post main section - in 10 mins!
I got the gist of most of the articles, I have an idea of what ones i want to go back and read and now, I’m ready to move onto the Agenda section of the paper.
What happened to leisurely Sundays reading the papers?
I’m now applying my ‘read-at-a-glance’ technique to offline media now. Is it just me?
Someone said to me recently that “This Recession will slow us all down”. Maybe that person has a point.
And if she does, then the way we promote our businesses and brands will change. If we have more time, then we’ll chat more on the phone rather than SMS or Twitter. And that’s one simple way our life could change.
But will we ever go back to being slower? People want information now and have come to expect it….so it’s part of our psyche now. And if that’s the case, then bite sized pieces of information to attract customers will stay important.
So getting back to my original point - if we write differently for the web than print, then we and our audience read differently. So right now, there is very little difference between offline and online in terms of reading and writing.
The essentials of life…and business!