A Legacy: Building A Bridge of Lives
Building bridges, that is establishing true connections between two people can result in life-changing consequences.
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ARTICLES
Useful articles about brands and the world they live in.
Gerard Tannam: Brandbuilder & Keynote Speaker
I aim to leave audiences with a practical sense of what they can do to build great brand relationships with their customers.
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The Persuaders
Host Alex Gibson dedicates this edition of The Persuaders to a discussion with Gerard on the challenges facing SMEs in
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Branding for SMEs: A Brand New Guide
Branding is something we leave to the marketing department. Because branding is really about our logo, right? How very wrong!
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Branding for SMEs – A Guide
A strong brand is good for business. Branding for SMEs – A Guide serves as a real bridge to practical action, and is packed with insights, tools and techniques to help small and medium enterprises to build robust brand infrastructures.
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A Reality Check: Bridging the Gap Between Perception & Truth
A reality check serves as a powerful tool for navigating the complex terrain where perception and truth intersect.
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Brand-building for Competitive Advantage
A strong brand is especially important for small businesses, which are unlikely to have the spending power or marketing resources available to larger competitors. The smaller business can play to the strengths of its brand relationship with its customers to distinguish it from other businesses in the marketplace, and so level the playing field.
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How to make business a handshake rather than an arm wrestle
Too often, as a business grows the customer gets left behind. When a brand is understood to reflect the relationship between the buyer and the seller, then a thoughtful, fair, and fruitful exchange is much more likely to be the result, which makes for better business all-round.
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How To Play Follow-The-Leader (Without Being Led Astray)
In 2021, leadership is often confused with prominence or notoriety. Yet, each of us is tasked with leadership, whether we like it or not, and must carefully decide our course of action before inviting others to join us or choosing who to follow.
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Make Your Brand The Bridge To Recovery
A brand helps an individual make an informed decision about the purchase they’re looking to make. View your brand through this prism as we enter this recovery period, says Gerard Tannam
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Take On A Hard Thought Battle To Stand Out From Your Rivals
Sharing knowledge and expertise is a cost-effective way of establishing your company as a leader in its field, finds Sandra O’Connell in the Sunday Times of September 26th, 2021
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Like A Virgin, Sold For (Almost) The Very First Time
Ever feel like you’ve just been bought and sold?
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Islandbridge Kingfisher Game Of The Name
Hey, did you see that? A flash of brilliance. Our lockdown walks along the river Dodder have been enlivened
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Brandwidth 2020 – The Year In Review
Although 2020 will be forever branded indelibly in our minds as the year of Covid-19, hindsight may find it more remarkable as the year the science fought back.
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Home Is Where The Heart (of Society 3.0) Is
In 2020, to be social is to potentially put yourself and others in your social circles in harm’s way, so how do we rethink and reconfigure our society for both the individual and the common good?
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Islandbridge Rebrands To Keep Building Bridges
In business, there are few changes as significant as a rebrand.
As your brand reflects the relationship you have with your customers, it’s understandable that many business leaders feel trepidation at the thought of undertaking a rebrand.
Using The 1% Rule To Strengthen Your Brand
It’s incredibly tempting to start the new year with a list of goals you want to accomplish in the next 12 months. But, while the intention is very good, executing on multiple goals may turn out to be more onerous than you thought.
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Your Brand Is More Than Your Logo
Don’t get us wrong; logos play a big role in helping to embed your brand’s visual identity in people’s minds.
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Why Community Mustn’t Mean Market
Islandbridge CEO Gerard Tannam’s submission to the Annual Unconference CongRegation.ie 2019, for presentation on 23rd November in Cong, Co. Galway.
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Barry’s And Lyons Deliver A Masterclass In Branding
Gerard Tannam, in his Guest Blog on Bizplus, November 18th 2019, wrote: Great brands like Barry’s Tea and Lyons Tea
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Win At The Company Name Game
Rebranding can get you noticed and help you to expand. Sandra O’Connell finds out how to go about changing firm’s identity.
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There Are Two Sides To The Branding Coin
Just as it takes two to tango, two separate elements must join forces to create a successful brand. Namely, these are the social and technical elements that go into building a brand that people love and customers buy into.
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Why Marketing Matters
Marketing Matters, is a new series from The Marketing Institute of Ireland, featuring perspectives from the most senior and accomplished marketers in Ireland.
In this issue, Gerard Tannam of Islandbridge Brand Development discusses his career, the challenges facing marketers today, his advice on how to be a great marketer and his favourite marketing campaign of all time.
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Brexit: How To Remain Standing When Two Giants Collide
Whilst a referendum offers the advantage of a clear-cut decision, it’s a crude instrument to use when dealing with the nuances of relationships, whether between countries or people
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All Has Changed (But Not Utterly)
How The Future Of Marketing Looks Just Like The Past
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Debased Metal: Restoring The Currency Of The Olympic Brand
It’s hardly news that the Olympic movement returned from Rio with its precious brand badly tarnished, causing many to question its value to the world
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Bridge That Gap
6 Tips On How To Build A Brand That Connects With Customers
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Faster, Higher, Stronger…Cheater?
All over the world this morning, young athletes are shaking themselves awake and taking to the track, the pool and the gym to complete yet another round
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All Articles
Useful articles about brands and the world they live in.
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Articles – Brand Tools & Tips
Useful articles about brands and the world they live in.
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Articles – Brand Commentary
Useful articles about brands and the world they live in.
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Articles – Brand Reviews
Useful articles about brands and the world they live in.
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Articles – Client Brand Stories
Useful articles about brands and the world they live in.
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Articles – Published Articles
Useful articles about brands and the world they live in.
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2015: The Brand Year In Review
With 2015 a year when the Oxford Dictionaries’ Word Of The Year is a pictograph (the ‘tears of joy’ emoji), it’s unsurprising that it was also a year when the idea of a brand took some surprising turns
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Seven Great Reasons To Brand
What Can Branding Offer To The Small, Local Or Independent Business?
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3 Do’s And Don’ts For Connecting With Customers
Being in the same room as a customer does not a connection make! Here’s some ways to connect with customers in a meaningful way
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3 Do’s And Don’ts For Engaging With Potential Customers
Sometimes, we can be too eager to impress a potential customer rather than focusing on what’s important for them during that first meeting
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Always On My Mind: Three Do’s & Don’ts For A Great Business Relationship
We don’t mean to, but we often lose focus on our customers and on what they need from us
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3 Do’s & Don’ts For Business Growth
It’s not that we don’t work hard enough or fail to plan; it’s just that we don’t always finish what we started
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Me And My Big Mouth
Six Ways To Lose Friends & Alienate People Online
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You’ve Got To Have Heart
You’ve got to have heart. Otherwise, even the most inviting stores can become unwelcoming places for your customer
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Whistle A Happy Tune
In times of uncertainty, it’s more important than ever that we open our door wide and make our customers welcome to do business with us
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Hitting The Target
In times of uncertainty, it’s more important than ever that we open our door wide and make our customers welcome
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Creature Comforts
So how did the decision to build a brand that doesn’t check in its personality at the door work out for its owners?
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Sell Me What I Want
People are spending, but just not with the same abandon and lack of critical judgement as before
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The Show Is About To Begin
In whichever marketing arena we find ourselves, we must learn to play to our audience and deliver a performance that brings our customers to their feet.
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Roll Up, Roll Up
For the successful brand-owner, there is truly no business like show business, and brands that draw the greatest crowds know how to play to the galleries.
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In Trust We Brand
Where must we start to regain lost trust? Why, right at the beginning, of course! One Night To Bring It
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All Eyes On The Customer
The ‘customer bull’s-eye’ – this is the ideal customer, the one who wants exactly what it is you have to offer
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A Meeting Of Minds
As we know from experience, nothing changes if nothing changes
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Does This Name Ring A Bell?
Launch of a New Irish Hotel Brand – Maldron Hotels
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A Knight In Branding Armour
This, mark you, is a true story
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Some Strings Attached
Even those of us whose stock-in-trade is persuasion and influence can baulk at the prospect of tackling the big issues of our time
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Purpose – Built for Success
The best taglines capture something of what’s on offer to the customer in a catchy and memorable way and can help bring a brand to life
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Time To Take A Stand
It stands to good sense then that the first decision of the business-owner should be made around position and stance
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Mind The Gap!
The Gap Year Gift is a practical model for grandparents who wish to inspire and reward the action of their grandchildren in tackling third world poverty and disadvantage
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When Words Fail Us
In business, our words are often the first thing our customer sees and hears from us
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Brandwidth 2007 – The Year In Review
It seems 2007 was the year which brought everyone to their feet
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Let The Mystery Be
The typical customer shuns complexity and unnecessary detail. He doesn’t have time for it
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The Leading Role
In a real world, the business-owner has many customers, each wanting to be king and each vying for attention
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Finders Keepers
If a customer relationship marketing approach is to truly succeed, it must go to the very heart of the brand relationship and play to its strengths
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Branding To The Power Of Three
Brand-owners are urged to build awareness by stepping out from the crowd and offering something startling and rare
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When Great Brands Come In Small Packages
There are a number of brands that celebrate the individual whilst delivering success to their owners
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Brandwidth 2006 – The Year In Review
A brand called ‘you’?
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Irish Entrepreneur Magazine – A Brand New Start
Entrepreneurs can come in all shapes and sizes, but we typically have one thing in common: an eagerness that’s difficult to resist
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All The Riches In The Night
The challenge for the host is to rediscover a language of hospitality and to ensure that is spoken throughout the business
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IFSC: International Market Leader or No-Man’s Brand?
For almost twenty years, Dublin’s International Financial Services Centre has been at the heart of the Celtic Tiger revival
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Guests Of The Nation
Stories of the hospitality industry that is occasionally in two minds as to how it should treat its guests.
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By Accident Or Design?
The Role Of The Brand In Your Business Success
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Filling The Space
An approach, which invites us to enter a world of make-believe, has the effect of somehow making the world in we operate more real
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Empty Space
The space that lies between a business and its customers and of the importance of stepping in there and taking charge
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Don’t Stop Me Now! (I’m Having Such A Good Time…)
The team at Quality Hotels Ireland decided to set their course to shoot beyond the stars.
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Business & Finance – Branding Your Start-Up
In the absence of a brand, the new business lacks purpose and direction
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Seven Steps To Brand Success
Let’s be clear from the outset. The road to brand success is not easy
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That Certain Something
Graduating into leading hoteliers, tourism chiefs and venue managers across the world
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Brandwidth 2005 – The Year In Review
I shop therefore I am?
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Adding To The Mix
So how do we find another way to breathe life into our business and safeguard its future?
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Jacob Fruitfield – Cool, Clean (and Local) Hero
Size matters. Or, at least, that is what the big players like to think.
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Something Smells Good In The Kitchen
PR is defined as the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill between an organisation and its public
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The Magic Ingredient
Taking charge of your brand destiny and building a business that stands on its own two feet and really makes a difference.
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MCANAX Equipment – Putting The Brand To Work
You would think the choice a simple one
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Everyone Can Play
Using storytelling to stand out in the marketplace and stand up to the competition
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Inside Business – I’d Rather Go Blind
A Story Of Vision & Courage
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All Fired Up: David McKernan and Java Republic
The story of man is as much the story of fire as it is anything else
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The Perfect Match
If we find the part that our business can play for our customers we can deliver our service or product in a way that offers true competitive advantage
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Genuine Affection
A writer in ‘Fast Company’ magazine recently suggested that companies that prosper over the long term don’t just offer good deals – they exude genuine affection for their customers
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Building A Great Brand For Your Business
To Brand Or Not To Brand? That is the question
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Bringing It All Back Home
Every great business has a great story to tell. The task of every business owner is to find a compelling story and tell it
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Brandwidth 2004 – The Year In Review
The brand is dead! Long live the brand! Some would have it otherwise but last year was one where the brand played on
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The Road To Success
Enjoy a thrilling ride during these early months; the first leg of your journey
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Tell Me A Story
The success of every type of communication we create in business comes down to our ability to tell a good story
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This Time Its Personal
People are much more likely to be moved by story than by argument
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Telling The Brand Story
When we tell our own business story, we have the opportunity to draw our customer audience in on our side
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The Brand As Story
If we can weave our own business experience into a compelling narrative, we stand a much greater chance of engaging with the customer.
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The Brand In Action
Let’s take a look at what happens when theory is put into practise.
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Writing the Recipe for Brand Success
In writing the recipe for our brand we are seeking to build as much certainty and consistency as possible into our processes.
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Choosing Ingredients for your Brand
We must resist the temptation to simply lump everything together into the pot, stir it up and hope for the best
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How To Raise & Keep A Brand
The challenge in raising a brand is to describe what sort of people we are, how we relate to others and how that makes us different.
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Essential Ingredients for Successful Brand Building
How To Cook Up A Great Brand For Your Business
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Keeping The Faith
The Road To The Promised Land of Brand Greatness
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