28 June, 2017

The Need

In 2016 Cork City Council identified the need to develop a new branding strategy for the Victorian Quarter, the City Centre and North Main Street Cork. In need of some fresh marketing ideas, they collaborated with CIT and briefed 4th year Brand Management students on the branding challenges they faced.

The Solution

The students were tasked with devising a brand strategy for the Cork City Council on one of the 3 areas stated above. Out of the 33 groups that took part in the assignment, only 5 groups were chosen to present to Paul McGuirk and Catherine Casey of the Strategic Planning & Economic Development unit at City Hall.

The winning group comprised of Stephen Goggin, Saoirse O’Riordan, Aine Ahern and Megan Hurden-Webb. Their solutions for the North Main Street area were the following:

• Improve lighting & street signs.

• Develop student accommodation in the rundown shopping centre.

• Create a Humans of North Main

• Street Facebook page, using story-telling as a way of informing people of the culture of the area.

• Running Gatekeeper of North Main Street elections.

The brand strategy that was developed was regarded as one that when actioned could help overcome the challenges faced by that area.

Benefits of the Engagement

Cork City Council benefited immensely from this collaboration due to the quantity and variety of ideas that were presented to them by the Brand Management students. All brand strategies had solid research supporting their theories, and had reachable targets set out.

The winning group commented that the project was a valuable experience that gave them great insight into the Marketing world.

“We were delighted with the involvement of the CIT marketing students in various projects around marketing the City Centre. Their proposals provided our stakeholders and ourselves with new insights and plenty of food for thought. I would have no hesitation in using CIT’s Extended Campus again.” – Paul McGuirk, City Centre Coordinator in Strategic Planning & Economic Development.

“The students thoroughly enjoyed this live assignment and I must admit it surprised me to feel the sense of fondness for, what is for the majority of them, their home city ring through in the presentations. The feedback afterwards indicated that they found it a particularly engaging consultancy project as they learned so much about the history of Cork City, as they built up an appreciation of the origin and history of the brand they were researching.’’ – Conor Kelleher, CIT lecturer of Brand Management.

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