Blog Archives

Charlie Mulligan, CEO & Co-Founder, GiveGab

4 years ago
by wellish

Charlie Mulligan, CEO & Co-Founder, GiveGab

“At the end of 2015 we were looking to better hone our brand and branding strategy and we decided to hire Warren to help guide that process. We were a growing startup at the time, but we felt like we could grow faster and accomplish more with improved branding and marketing. His process helped us create a fantastic, focused branding strategy and also created universal buy-in across the entire company since we all created the strategy together. That strategy is a big part of the reason we’ve been able to grow nearly 8,000% over the past 5 years. Hiring Warren was an absolutely fantastic investment.”

Charlie Mulligan, CEO & Co-Founder, GiveGab

Scott Norrick, President, Grand Traverse Pie

4 years ago
by wellish

Scott Norrick, President, Grand Traverse Pie

“Warren hit the mark in helping us clarify our brand positioning.  His experience and talents in bringing cross-functional teams together to generate the best and brightest ideas led to a successful outcome for our brand.  He also inspired some creative and forward-thinking menu ideas that we are excited to incorporate.”

Scott Norrick, President, Grand Traverse Pie

Bruce Keats, Chief Operating Officer, Assiniboine Park Conservancy

4 years ago
by wellish

Bruce Keats, Chief Operating Officer, Assiniboine Park Conservancy

“In 2018 the Assiniboine Park Conservancy (APC) was looking to develop a restaurant concept based on the pillars of our new attraction, Canada’s Diversity Gardens (CDG.).  APC awarded the expertise of Synergy Restaurant Consultants and Warren Ellish of Ellish Marketing Group. Warren and his team provided a strategic recommendation to maximize our business opportunity while reinforcing the mission of CDG, including concept and restaurant name.

 

The analysis began with an immersion in existing Park offerings, surveyed trends and voids in the local restaurant market through a discovery tour, followed by an in-depth brand positioning session.

 

Warren illustrated commitment to the project travelling several times to Winnipeg and exploring the culture of diverse restaurants in Winnipeg and Chicago, all the while presenting and collaborating marketing goals, philosophies and assessments.

 

Warren’s branding and marketing expertise was placed into action as he immersed himself in the culture of our City while observing the close association our citizens have with the Assiniboine Park and the appreciation of the importance of plants to daily life and wellbeing.  He was inspired by our mission illustrating a brand for guests to explore the role plants have in shaping the life and identity of the community.

 

We developed a great partnership with Warren and admired his dedication to our restaurant concept.  We appreciated his attention to detail, creative approach and we are excited to incorporate his vision.”

 

Bruce Keats, Chief Operating Officer, Assiniboine Park Conservancy

Guy Guglielmino, Vice President of Marketing – Vision Care, Bausch & Lomb

4 years ago
by wellish

Guy Guglielmino, Vice President of Marketing – Vision Care, Bausch & Lomb

“We were tasked with developing a consumer facing marketing campaign to launch our new Bausch & Lomb Ultra Lenses brand including television and social media. Warren was with us every step of the way as we developed the marketing plan and tools required for a successful launch including brand positioning, key communication messaging and a research plan to test our materials.  Warren also consulted on the agency search process, creative development and testing and director and casting selection.  Throughout the entire process, Warren working seamlessly with our internal team and agency partners to ensure a breakthrough campaign.  I am consistently looking for opportunities to engage Warren again.”

Guy Guglielmino, Vice President of Marketing – Vision Care, Bausch & Lomb

Bob Florsheim, CEO, CRB Restaurants (Chili’s Franchisee, Costa Rica)

4 years ago
by wellish

Bob Florsheim, CEO, CRB Restaurants (Chili’s Franchisee, Costa Rica)

“Four years after opening Chili’s in Costa Rica, we were struggling to find our way.  One Saturday morning I Googled international restaurant marketing consultants and decided to send email inquiries to interesting marketing agencies.  Warren contacted me within the hour. and within two hours we were on the phone together.  Within 60 days of the initial conversation, Warren made the trip to Costa Rica.  We spent three days together and during that time Warren made macro recommendations as well as micro detail recommendations on how to position a global mature brand in a relatively new market, how to improve our marketing, grow our business and to become profitable.  He has continued to drive this effort ever since.  We implemented all of Warren’s recommendations and immediately saw great results.  In fact, after our first year following his recommendations we were awarded Chili’s Global Franchise top comp sales award.  We have consulted with Warren for the past four plus years from marketing strategy and calendar creation, full advertising development and execution, the development of special promotional and menu offerings, leading menu engineering for a reduced menu size and then the actual menu design, creating and leading Facebook and social media programs and driving our Loyalty club program and email implementation.”

Bob Florsheim, CEO, CRB Restaurants (Chili’s Franchisee, Costa Rica)

Chris Reade, President & Founder, LookFar

4 years ago
by wellish

Chris Reade, President & Founder, LookFar

“When we were first setting up what would eventually become LookFar, I knew we needed professional help of the highest caliber.  I had been lucky enough to attend one of Warren Ellish’s talks at the EO Global Leadership Conference in Chicago about a year earlier and it really resonated with me.  I decided that since Warren was the best I’d ever heard speak on the subject of marketing and branding that I should reach out and see about working with him.  That was 100% the right move.  Warren, and then later his team, walked us through articulating the guiding principles that inform our Company’s every action to this day.

 

Our work with Warren was far beyond developing a name and a logo, even though those came out the best of any I’ve done in almost 30 years in business.  We realized what we were trying to do and what LookFar would stand for.  Years later, it is still amazing how on the mark we landed during our work with Warren.  Truly the professional’s professional and an inspiration to me on how to communicate what you stand for and care about.”

Chris Reade, President & Founder, LookFar

Angela Zoiss, Vice President of Marketing, Bottleneck Management

4 years ago
by wellish

Angela Zoiss, Vice President of Marketing, Bottleneck Management

“Warren and Ellish Marketing Group helped uncover key elements to successfully reengineering our menu. Warren also helped us with a number of marketing initiatives, one of the most impactful being his help with direct mail. The insights and lessons Warren provided were essential to the revenue we were able to drive and a key part of our success with direct mail marketing. This is now part of our ongoing strategy.”

Angela Zoiss, Vice President of Marketing, Bottleneck Management

Kathleen Galy, Executive Director Asset Finance, ANSA Merchant Bank Limited and Partner 600 Degrees (Trinidad)

4 years ago
by jrist

Kathleen Galy, Executive Director Asset Finance, ANSA Merchant Bank Limited and Partner 600 Degrees (Trinidad)

“Warren Ellish was easy to get along with, a precise listener and gifted at extracting creativity. He was very professional and focused in his conduct and this allowed for an extensive brand positioning session that was both timely and precise. This session brought our premature concept to life and brought out an enthusiasm in our team as we placed a name, a face, and a personality to our new restaurant brand. His brand positioning session and all other other involvement were very organized and detailed and flowed smoothly. The finished branding product was on spot! It has been a pleasure to work with Warren and your team as we look forward to opening our new restaurant concept.”

Kathleen Galy, Executive Director Asset Finance, ANSA Merchant Bank Limited and Partner 600 Degrees (Trinidad)

Tristen Griffith, President, Sacramento 49er Travel Plaza

4 years ago
by jrist

Tristen Griffith, President, Sacramento 49er Travel Plaza

“I had the privilege to work with Warren Ellish on the food service brand refresh initiatives for my family’s business – The Sacramento 49er Travel Plaza and Silver Skillet Diner. Warren led the discovery phase, brand positioning and developed the brand concept book. His creativity and ability to understand our customer base quickly was admirable. Warren also developed our ingenious, unique and chosen brand descriptor. Warren’s overall kind and infectious demeanor was truly a pleasure to work with.”

Tristen Griffith, President, Sacramento 49er Travel Plaza

Tony Carroll, former CFO, VICORP and current CFO at Palo Alto, Inc.

4 years ago
by jrist

Tony Carroll, former CFO, VICORP and current CFO at Palo Alto, Inc.

“I engaged Warren to run a process of helping VICORP Restaurants to establish a strategic marketing direction and, in connection with that, to execute a search process to identify and hire a new advertising agency. Warren’s knowledge of the industry (both agency and restaurant) enabled us to go through the process very efficiently–both in terms of the time to execute and in terms of identifying appropriate agencies and negotiating an appropriate contract. All of the constituencies at VICORP (the CEO, the head of marketing and myself) were very pleased with Warren’s knowledge base, his ability to assess relative strengths and weaknesses of the bidding firms, his attention to detail and his ability to deliver on a timeline.”

Tony Carroll, former CFO, VICORP and current CFO at Palo Alto, Inc.

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