The key to business success is to look carefully at your mistakes – and stop repeating them. But extraordinarily, some companies never seem to learn.

Culture change programs are all the buzz in the corporate world these days. Read about the 4 key factors we believe need to be in place for any culture change program to be successful, rather than just an expensive dalliance.

Market Research is a skilled profession that gives many marketing professionals the certainty they need to proceed with marketing programs and launches. Research can be one of the most defining factors in guiding intelligent decision making. The problem is, there's a lot of unintelligent research that doesn't help guide the future, and in fact, gives the discipline a bad name. So in this e-Book, read the vital factors I believe make the difference between a great research outcome and an average one.

Have you ever wondered why people identify so strongly with brands in everyday life (their Nikes?) – but don’t feel the same way about their workplace? This is one sign of a workplace that is not engaged. As an employer, if you’re not worried about that then you should be! The growing skills shortage and generational change means you will find it harder and harder to attract and retain the best people in your workplace. So what can you do to improve your chances? A good start is a Company Brand Health Check, inside and out.

Anyone can facilitate a meeting, but facilitation of a meeting that results in a specific list of actions; in a disparate group of people to become aligned; in a committment to behave differently tomorrow than they did yesterday - now that's a skill! Read about our Top 7 Secrets to great facilitation.

Stakeholder engagement is one of the buzz words of the moment particularly in government, with all levels keen to be seen to consult with the community and provide transparent and accountable vision, policy and implementation. But as is often the case, it is easier said than done.

The fact is that despite a slowing global forecast, attracting and retraining the best people remains a key issue for CEO's. And one way to help build a committed workforce is to build a more engaging workplace brand. This e-Book outlines the key aspects of workplace branding.

This e-book is the final one in the series of four looking at how to gain greater commitment by moving from Behaviour to Results. It is important that a brand’s behaviour reflects that which is true to the essence of what it’s about.

One of the most important things Penny has learnt over her career is that building greater commitment is the most critical success aspect for any marketer, whether it is commitment to buy a certain product or service, commitment to behave in a socially responsible way, or commitment from employees to a workplace. True marketing success lies in the ability to deliver functional benefits, but more importantly, an inspiring emotional promise. Penny developed a proprietary model called the 'Commitment Model', which you'll find in the attached eBook.

This e-book is looking at how to gain greater commitment by looking at the third quadrant, moving from Distraction to Focus.

This e-book is looking at how to gain greater commitment by moving from Confusion to Clarity. People often say isn’t KNOWLEDGE and UNDERSTANDING the same thing? And this is the crux of this quadrant because they are absolutely two different things. Knowledge is good, it is important, and given no information at all, is an excellent starting point. But ‘knowledge’ is not the same as ‘understanding’!

Through her consultancy and research projects with a wide range of clients it has become clear there is a growing need for better Employer Branding; a need for employers to place as much emphasis on internal branding as they do on external branding. This book uses Penny’s wisdom and experience together with purpose built research conducted amongst the various generations to understand what today’s employees want out of their work life, and to help employers focus on the urgent need to build a more engaging workplace brand.

Penny developed Forced Focus thinking to help guide actionable outcomes for a variety of issues and problems. Indeed, the process applies beyond marketing solutions, to any type of problem that requires a rethink because circumstances have changed.

There has never been a more important time to hone the skills of your organisation in pitching to win business. But when it comes to pitching, I find that organisations focus on rational, functional reasons why their product, service or brand is better than their competitors.

Any marketer or seller should be interested in future trends that will shape the consumption curve. In this e-book, the 6 key global trends in consumerism are outlined and explained with excellent real life examples and a global focus.

There are some marketing consultants out there who like to make marketing very bloody complex. Lots of words, lots of pages, lots of complexity. At Essence, we are specialist in making complex marketing issues simple. And let’s face it, if we make marketing too complicated, how will the poor old target market ever be able to follow it?