Our work in Consultancy and Research

Building brands for small business

25 August 2009

Bord Bia Vantage is the Bord Bia (Irish Food Board) division that provides practical assistance and support to small food, drink and horticulture companies to help them to build and grow their businesses.

Research conducted by BFK for Bord Bia in 2007 showed that, alongside finance and distribution, managing branding was one of the key issues of concern to Irish small food and drinks firms. In 2009 Bord Bia commissioned Martin Crotty, Managing Director and senior brand communications strategist at BFK, to create and deliver a series of practical workshops to help these firms to understand and apply branding best practice in their business.

Held in a variety of locations around Ireland, the day-long brand workshops drew on BFK's branding and training expertise and were very hands-on, incorporating both exercises and case studies. They provided the small business participants with both knowledge and practical resources that they can adapt and use to build their own brands.

The Bord Bia Vantage brand workshops proved successful and were very well received by the participating firms.

BFK had previously designed the identity and communications material for Bord Bia Vantage, previously the Small Firms Division of Bord Bia.

Aiden lectures at IADT

31 October 2008

For the third year running, Aiden has participated as a Guest Lecturer for the School of Creative Arts at the Institute of Art Design and Technology in Dun Laoghaire. Aiden gave a presentation on corporate and brand identity to the third-year Visual Communication students at the beginning of their corporate identity design module in September. He returned four weeks later at the end of the module for the final critique and assessment of their identity projects. Gerard Fox Lecturer in Visual Communication said “Aiden’s critique and his informed perspective was most helpful for our students, and it was of great benefit for them to get a fresh viewpoint from a designer with such experience in this particular field”.

NUI Galway brand research and strategy

19 March 2008

In 1998, this long-established university re-named and re-branded from University College Galway (UCG) to National University of Ireland Galway (NUI Galway). The reason for renaming the university at that time was the understanding that all constituent colleges of the National University of Ireland (NUI) would rename, highlighting their NUI-member status. However University College Dublin (UCD) and University College Cork (UCC) retained their existing names and identities. Only the two smaller colleges in Galway and Maynooth rebranded.

BFK's role in this project was to measure the level of internal buy-in and the success of the 1998 re-naming as a basis for future brand development. The project involved internal focus group research with academic and administrative employees. Key findings from the focus groups were quantified in an online survey of all 1,500 employees carried out by our quantitative research partner Ipsos MORI.

Following evaluation of the research findings, and of additional external research, we recommended alternative strategies available to the University for naming and for future brand development. After consideration of our findings the University decided to retain and build the brand based on the name NUI Galway. This research and strategic consultancy project was completed in November 2007.

OSi brand development strategy

19 March 2008

Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi) offers a range of mapping and navigational products and services targeted at professional and consumer markets. Trade and professional products account for the majority of OSi's business and thus get the greatest proportion of internal mindshare at the expense of the consumer product sector.

OSi needed to understand consumers better so as to inform business strategy to cater for changing market trends and increased competition within consumer markets. More specifically, OSi needed to understand the views, attitudes and experiences of people that use maps and other navigational aids for driving, business or leisure, in terms of their perceptions of the image and personality of the brands available on the market.

BFK was commissioned by OSi to review existing brand recognition and equity and to advise on the strategic development of the OSi consumer brand.

We measured perceptions and experiences of OSi, of its products and of its consumer brand among key internal and external stakeholders. This consisted of several stages.

A communications evaluation reviewed and assessed the quality and effectiveness of existing brand application and communications. Internal in-depth interviews with key employees measured brand buy-in by staff and similar in-depths were used to assess trade partners' perceptions of OSi.

Working on our behalf our quantitative research partner Ipsos MORI carried out face to face interviews with tourists across key information sites. In conjunction with these interviews, BFK undertook focus groups with end users, especially drivers and outdoor enthusiasts.

Following evaluation of research findings we recommended a brand development strategy for OSi that would result in enhanced stakeholder awareness, improved trading opportunity and an increase in brand equity. This research project was completed in February 2008.

Houses of the Oireachtas internal research

01 November 2007

This research project, undertaken in late 2007, involved internal in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with senior members of the Parliamentary Public Service and with Members of the Dáil and the Seanad. The objective was to identify and evaluate the extent and relevance of the Oireachtas brand heritage and name, and the effectiveness of its communications from the perspective of key internal stakeholders. The purpose of this research was to provide a basis for an appropriate brand strategy for the Oireachtas and to inform the process of creating a new and distinctive identity for the Houses. Following completion of the research and strategy stage BFK subsequently designed a new Oireachtas identity system which will be introduced during 2008.

More articles about our work in Consultancy and Research

	Topline research and brand strategy 01 September 2007
	Bord Bía brand and communications research 31 March 2007
	Shamrock brand positioning strategy 15 November 2006
	Roma brand research 01 October 2006
	Smyths research and brand strategy 19 March 2006
	Promed: positioning a business-to-business brand 05 January 2006