Ottawa

5 reasons why the new Ottawa Convention Centre is a game changer

April 26, 2011

Tweet If your job is to write a marketing strategy for a City you need something shiny. Something to attract eyeballs. With the new Convention Centre, Ottawa has a brand new shiny object to take to market. These are the top 5 reasons why it’s a game changer for Ottawa. Architectural beauty. It’s a stunning [...]

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Successful marketing builds an emotional bond

March 17, 2011

Tweet Marketing Communication is easier if you create an emotional link with the target markets. Sometimes it’s short-term, like an appealing ad; sometimes it’s deeper, like a long-term customer relationship. A recent study shows how storytelling can be used to create emotional connections in successful market development campaigns. The study looked at the power of [...]

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Canada Post misses a marketing opportunity

February 22, 2011

Tweet Marketing needs to drive organizations to look at more than just marketing strategy and promotion. It needs to get employees thinking about the entire customer experience. We sent an urgent package via Canada Post from Ottawa recently. Unfortunately, the package did not arrive anything close to its promised delivery time so we asked for [...]

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When renaming an iconic brand is a mistake

February 8, 2011

Tweet When is renaming an iconic Ottawa brand a mistake? When the brand is The Bear radio station. Two years ago, in December 2008, 106.9FM The Bear decided to take on the mantle of Virgin Radio, after 14 years of rock. The new owners, Astral Radio, were looking for a way to announce a fresh [...]

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How can strategic marketing help a city like Ottawa?

January 25, 2011

Tweet Nobody owns the branding of Ottawa but, as the new Ottawa Convention Centre takes shape along the Rideau Canal, it’s clear that its brand is about to take a major ratings boost. Cities are like organizational brands; people need reasons to take notice. If you were tasked with writing a strategic marketing plan for [...]

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Is marketing possible when it’s -30?

January 24, 2011

Tweet As we enjoy a cold snap in Ottawa, I was wondering why marketing is so difficult when it’s -30. After all, how many of the world’s greatest brands were developed in places where it regularly gets to -30? Hmm, that’s what I thought too. Effective marketing is challenging enough without it being so cold [...]

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The two common errors in market segmentation

January 18, 2011

Tweet Market segmentation is one of the basic building blocks of market development. Not only do you have to understand the precise needs of the market but also, if the market is sizeable, you need to be able to segment it in to sub-groups with similar characteristics. Never assume your market is like you. Just [...]

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When does marketing communication go out-of-date?

January 6, 2011

Tweet Well if the marketing communications are related to urgent matters, they can have a pretty short shelf life. A 147 year old American Civil War message was just extracted from a bottle and deciphered for the first time – a wee bit too late. Not that the message to General Pemberton, “You can expect [...]

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Marketing strategy: Does Kodachrome define failure?

January 4, 2011

Tweet It’s tempting to look at the death of Kodak’s Kodachrome as a failure of a corporate marketing department. Perhaps someone forgot to conduct a full marketing audit? Or never wrote a marketing strategy? Or never considered the competitive threats? In actual fact I think the product was a huge success. Kodachrome, the first commercially [...]

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Are gift cards a good marketing idea?

December 6, 2010

Tweet 66% of Ottawa residents did not use the full amount of the Christmas gift cards they received last year. This is a bonanza for local stores – you get paid up-front for merchandise, which is never collected. Fantastic cash flow, but is this great marketing? Is this about business development? It’s like seeing someone [...]

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