Adapting your business to seize this unique opportunity

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Adapting your business to seize this unique opportunity: How a business and a brand adapt to challenging situations will shape their future, and in true British style, now is the time to work hard and make sure that these unprecedented times don’t define you.

The impact of the coronavirus outbreak can be felt across the world and in every industry as it continues to transform the way we live, work and do business. As physical interaction has been suspended, we see digital channels becoming more important than ever to communicate with each other. The UK’s lockdown alone has roughly doubled the UK’s internet usage during the day, according to Virgin Media, which is why it’s even more important to ensure that you’re still actively talking and listening to your audience through the likes of social media and PR. Trade and consumers will be carrying out considered online research and will be identifying the strong, decisive brands that stick with them in a crisis.

Adapting your business to seize this unique opportunity

Adapting your business to seize this unique opportunity

In the same way as consumers are doing, use this time to get your house in order so your brand and business can come out of this crisis faster and stronger than your competition. Your employees are living in uncertain times and positive, impactful changes will give them a new focus and an exciting story to tell when normality resumes. Having a robust growth strategy and plan in place will support your business in minimising the negative impact of the outbreak and will pave the path to recovery. In times of crises such as this, the most successful businesses are those that have a progressive approach with an optimal combination of defence and offence.

Martin Dupree, Managing Director of full service marketing & brand development agency Dupree International, commented: “Since lockdown, the majority of us have allocated more time and effort to communicate with the ones we love and offer them support. At the same time, while it might seem difficult to prioritise the cost of ongoing brand communications, some companies are abandoning customer relationships by simply not talking to them. In peoples’ minds, the strength of their brand relationships can be equally as important as with their best friends – if not more important. These relationships may have taken a great deal of time and effort to build and we may never resurrect them if we suddenly stop.

In contrast, we’ve recently worked with a number of brand teams around the globe to help them re-discover and define the ‘authentic identity’ of their brands. This has helped develop solid, short and long-term strategies to help them cope with the here, now and beyond this challenging climate so they can emerge stronger. Once Coronavirus has been contained, these forward-thinking brands will have stolen a march on their competitors, building upon the relationships that they’ve continued to service.”

With long term thinking in mind, consider:

  • Does your audience know your ‘authentic identity’ and do they understand why they should buy from you and not your competitors?
  • Is your key messaging right for your audience? and where appropriate does it transfer globally
  • Do your team know and understand your core values and are you living them?
  • Is your advertising achieving the results that you’d like?
  • Are your assets such as your website and brochures reflective of your brand and are they working hard enough to change audience perceptions and drive sales?

Long-term strategic planning can often be a challenge for internal teams as they can be too close to the situation, which is why Dupree International are offering free, no commitment video calls with their strategic team to start the process of developing key messaging that aligns with your core values and resonates with your target market to alter perceptions and in turn drive sales.

Learn more about Dupree International via www.dupreeinternational.com. You can also view their e-brochure via goo.gl/v2LLUo.

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NEW Fertilizer From ICL

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NEW Fertilizer From ICL: ICL has announced the launch of SierraformGT CalMag into the UK & Ireland market.

New for 2020, SierraformGT CalMag is a homogenous slow release fertilizer supplying calcium, magnesium and trace elements for turf growth and all-round plant health.

NEW Fertilizer From ICL

NEW Fertilizer From ICL

The product is ideal for fine turf or stadia pitch application through the late spring, summer and early autumn. The nitrogen content is mostly slow release (MU) based to create a sustained release and steady even growth. The new analysis also contains the mineral polyhalite to supply potassium, calcium and magnesium when these are indicated as required from soil testing.  The added SeaMax (soluble seaweed concentrate) in the formulation aims to bring benefits from plant rooting and stress tolerance.

Ed Carter, UK Sales & Development Manager is delighted with this new addition to the SierraformGT range:

“I am delighted that we are launching this new analysis through our dealer network in 2020. The nutrient analysis will really suit both golf course and stadia managers and the addition of SeaMax is a real benefit. Our formulation team have worked hard to create a nitrogen release pattern that will maintain consistently healthy growth through the duration of its 8-week release period. In my opinion this is an outstanding addition to our SierraformGT range.”

Please contact ICL on 01473 237100 or visit www.icl-sf.co.uk.

For more news and insightful views, you can follow ICL on Twitter @ICL_Turf

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Celebrating 10 years of seminars

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Celebrating 10 years of seminars: Dennis and SISIS are celebrating an impressive decade of groundcare seminars this year. In this article, we look at the history and development of the seminars and how they have proved to be so beneficial for so many of the unsung heroes in a wide variety of sports turf sectors.   

The ever-popular Dennis and SISIS groundcare seminars, are first and foremost, education-based events, supported by expert speakers with both indoor presentations and outdoor practical sessions. The seminars aim to connect like-minded people where they can find advice, learn new skills and techniques as well as offer fantastic networking opportunities. A large number of groundcare individuals have significantly benefitted from attending the seminars over the years including volunteers and professionals representing schools, sports clubs, local authorities and contractors.

Celebrating 10 years of seminars

Celebrating 10 years of seminars

The humble origins of the seminars can be traced back long before this ten-year period when both Dennis and SISIS were operating as separate entities and hosted educational groundcare events for their respective customer bases.  However, in 2011, SISIS was acquired by the Howardson Group to sit alongside Dennis as a division to provide the groundcare industry with a truly comprehensive range of British manufactured turf maintenance products. It was at this point in history that the two manufacturers combined their extensive knowledge and expertise and the groundcare seminars were taken to another level.

This monumental year saw a series of seminars addressing a wide range of sports turf topics including a dedicated bowls seminar which took place in North Kessock, Scotland; and a cricket themed seminar which took place at Uxbridge Cricket Club in Middlesex, London.

These early seminars set the precedent and over the years, they continued to evolve. From winter pitch maintenance, to early spring maintenance; from renovations to soil core clinics – the seminars have, and continue to, offer advice in a number of groundcare aspects.

As the seminars grew in stature, support and reputation, so too did the illustrious and extensive list of expert speakers. Take for example the expert panel at the most recent seminar held at Durham County Cricket Club’s Emirates Riverside which included Vic Demain (Durham CCC), Karl McDermott (MCC, Lord’s), Jim Dawson (BT Murrayfield) and Keith Kent (Head Pitch Advisor to Rugby Groundsmen Connected).

From the first seminar in North Kessock to the most recent at the Emirates Riverside, the series of seminars have accumulated some truly astonishing statistics.

  • 87 venues across the country
  • 550 hours of education
  • Expert speakers covering 300 informative sessions
  • Over 4,800 delegates

Whether a groundsman or a greenkeeper in employment or a volunteer; whether highly experienced or just starting out in the industry; throughout this ten-year period so many people associated with the maintenance of sports turf have benefited from attending the Dennis and SISIS seminars. One look at some of the testimonials which have been gathered over the years are certainly testament to this.

Vic Demain has been a long-term supporter of the seminars and has been a speaker at many over the years: “Having been involved with the Dennis and SISIS cricket groundcare seminars since their launch in 2011, it has been fascinating to see the growth of the events, together with the interest shown by the industry.

“The beauty of many of these events is being able to share time with likeminded folk, making new contacts and discovering that no matter what level one works at, we all have the same passion. The interaction between presenters and delegates at these events will give the audience a desire to get back onto their grounds.”

Commenting on the seminars, Keith Kent explained why he feels they are so valuable: “I think that as part of everybody’s education, every day should be a school day and these seminars, where there are such high-quality speakers, are a vital opportunity to progress.

Commenting on a bowls seminar held at the Backworth Miners Welfare Bowls Club in Newcastle upon Tyne, Robert Blacklock from North Tyneside local authority said: “I’ve found the day to be extremely useful and informative with excellent presentations. I do not have a lot of experience in this field and have recently started some courses on turf maintenance. The seminar was not overwhelming, and it was pitched at the correct level.”

Nigel Pearce, Head Groundsman at Lechlade Cricket Club, attended a seminar at  Gloucestershire County Cricket Club along with his chairman and revealed that it was beneficial for the both of them: “For me it was great to catch up with a number of fellow groundsmen who I already knew and it was good to meet new ones as well. It was also really interesting listening to speakers like Chris Wood and having the opportunity to go out and look at the square. My chairman also came along with me today and I’m really pleased because he has learnt a lot about what I do and received an insight into the issues I may encounter on a day-to-day basis.”

Speaking at a renovation seminar held at St Albans School, Woollam Trust Playing Fields, Lee Marshallsay, Grounds Manager at Charterhouse School said: “It’s been very beneficial for my team and I like the fact that it is aimed at everyone – it’s not just for those in the top positions. To get everyone together from grass roots upwards works really well. I think the indoor seminars and the outdoor practical demonstrations have provided a good mix. You get to see the machines in action and many people here wouldn’t have seen that before so for them to have more of an idea of what equipment is out there is ideal.”

Derek Traill of Cricket Scotland, summarised the seminars perfectly after attending the most recent event in Durham: “The key message coming out of today’s event is that it is all about communication and to strive to learn off one another – we learn from one another’s experiences, failures and successes and from these we can build on them and improve as one,” he said.

Although we are currently facing testing times, Dennis and SISIS are looking forward to resuming the seminars with the groundcare community.

“I’m extremely proud to be celebrating ten years of groundcare seminars – they have a long history and a great tradition,” said Roger Moore, Sales and Marketing Manager. “The seminars are about attendees getting as much information as they can and making the day enjoyable. They can go away with some excellent knowledge which they can then put into practice on their own sites. Over the years the events have been a tremendous success and I am looking forward to continuing our support for the groundcare community.”

Further information about the range of maintenance products available can be found by visiting www.dennisuk.com / www.sisis.com.

For more news, reviews and insightful views, you can follow Dennis on Twitter and Instagram @DennisMowers and SISIS @SISISMachinery. You can like the Facebook pages – www.facebook.com/DennisMowersUK and www.facebook.com/SISISMachinery. You can also view the latest Dennis and SISIS videos by visiting www.youtube.com/DennisMowers and www.youtube.com/SISISMachinery.

For the latest industry news visit turfmatters.co.uk/news

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