Researcher's Biography

Position: Postgraduate Research Student

Qualifications:

1. Diploma in French and Marketing in Waterford institute of Technology.

2. Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in French and Marketing in Wolverhampton University.        

3. DipM in Chartered institute of Marketing UK and MA Marketing, Kingston University UK.  

Email: deirdremfleming@gmail.com

Biography:

On completion from her BA in 1992, Deirdre spent 16 years in various Marketing roles including Marketing Executive, Brand Management and Marketing Management. Between 1992 and 1996, she held marketing executive positions  in manufacturing and services companies developing markets both domestically and internationally. In 1996 Deirdre moved to the UK to work in the retail division of Compass Group, a FTSE 100 Food services company. Here she held Brand Management and Marketing Management positions which involved the development of brand plans for food service retail brands including store design, new product development, pricing strategies and promotional plans. After 5 years Deirdre moved to Sainsbury’s plc as Format Marketing Manager for small and Town Centre stores. This involved the development of Customer Propositions for these formats including store clustering-location planning, store design and local marketing. With the continuing growth of the convenience market, Deirdre moved into a separate division created by Sainsbury’s for convenience brands to interface with Trading. This gave her more commercial grounding of customer propositions where she was responsible for Category Space and Range plans, pricing strategies and Promotional plans for Sainsbury’s Local. 

Deirdre moved back to Waterford in 2006 and opened her own company consulting in marketing/retail and range planning. Her most recent contract was with Musgraves Retail Partners Ireland. She returned to full time education in September 2009 to do a Phd with a keen interest in small business entrepreneurship and networks.

Research Interests:

Deirdre’s main areas of interest are in small businesses, entrepreneurship and networks. Her aim as she broadens her study is to get actively involved in research groups such as RIKON and the South-east Enterprise Platform Programme.

Research Project: 

The title of Deidre's research project is: 'Overcoming the Customer Generation Barrier:  How can Entrepreneurs Strategically Recognise and Capitalise on Major Changes in Business-to-Business Networks?'