INSIGHT PAUL REES ASSOCIATES HOW TO BUILD A BRAND


What is a brand?


One of the first questions I ask when running a brand workshop is “What’s your definition of a brand?” Generally, I’ll get many different answers such as logo, name, advertising.


Common misconceptions about what branding is or isn’t often means that people don’t fully appreciate the benefits branding can bring to their business.


I have worked in marketing for over 20 years across a broad range of sectors including Betting & Gaming, Retail, and Consumer Goods for well known brands such as Coca-Cola, Nestle, Argos, Campbells, and SIS, and seen the value a strong brand can contribute to business success.


A brand is much more than a logo, strapline, or colour scheme – it’s your reputation and the culmination of everything your target market thinks and feels about your business - whether good or bad.


David Ogilvy, the “Father of Advertising,” defined brand as “the intangible sum of a product’s attributes.” Te Dictionary of Brand defines brand as “a person’s perception of a product, service, experience, or organisation.”


Te importance of longer-term thinking


In this article I’ll explore why brand is important and in the following series of articles for G3, I’ll set out the key elements of building a strong brand, which includes target audience definition, brand proposition development, brand personality, brand messaging, and brand identity.


Many business owners I meet are keen to discuss lead generation. Tis is understandable as growing businesses need a healthy pipeline of good opportunities, however, it’s important to also consider brand building. Strong brands tend to exhibit high levels of trust and awareness which can positively impact everything from deal close rates to company exit values.


Brand building is about shaping and amplifying the public perception of your business in a way that benefits your company and ultimately, impacts your bottom line. If sales is about who you know, brand is about who knows you and what they think.


Betting and Gaming observations


In online gaming, as is the case across different categories, successful brands convert better than any other site because they convey a feeling of trust and security to the user. Whilst at ICE in February, many affiliates told me that they prefer to work with well-known brands because they convert.


Big brands across all categories are generally


Paul Rees Founder Paul Rees Associates


Paul Rees is a marketing consultant with 20+ years' experience in successfully driving brand and revenue growth across a range of sectors including Betting & Gaming, Retail, and Consumer Goods, for companies such as SIS, Argos, Coca-Cola, Nestle, and Campbells.


Paul works with SMEs who have ambitious growth plans but require senior marketing expertise to help develop a strong brand and an effective marketing approach. Paul helps businesses by utilising best practice brand and marketing planning processes, as well as lead generation to help drive company growth.


strategy is important, and by getting to the core of what makes your brand unique, and understanding how your brand can look, sound and, ultimately, connect with customers, and communicating that in an engaging way, can help drive awareness and engagement with your company.


One of the key brand topics I will cover in my series of articles for G3 is brand communications, which is an important element in building a strong brand.


Sports betting ads have traditionally focused on promotions rather than brand (with some notable exceptions) and are often characterised by a tactical rather than brand message, and in many cases involves a celebrity telling you to “bet now”.


Many business owners I meet are keen to discuss lead generation. This is


understandable as growing businesses need a healthy pipeline of good opportunities, however, it’s important to also


consider brand building. Strong brands tend to exhibit high levels of trust and awareness which can positively impact everything from deal close rates to company exit values.


On average, betting customers switch between three-to-four betting apps on their phones with little separating them outside of surface-level differences such as marginally better odds or bonuses, often referenced in ads. For younger bettors who grew up playing video games and are used to the depth, high-end graphics, and social experiences that go along with them, providing them with entertainment value and design is the key to capturing their attention and loyalty.


To drive this entertainment value there must be connection between the on-site or on-product entertainment experience and the outward- facing brand you create through every marketing touchpoint.


Within B2B (business-to-business) betting & gaming marketing (like many other B2B sectors), communications tend to be largely functional, with a focus on product features and benefits, rather than directly referencing customer needs and pain points (which has been the modus operandi for many B2C (business-to-consumer) brands in other sectors).


recalled well with customers, which is unsurprising, given the investment in ad spend when marketing themselves.


Seeing all the big, impressive stands at ICE highlighted to me the importance of having a presence in your target customers’ minds and building what marketers term ‘mental availability’ ie: investing in longer term brand building activities in order to be top of mind when your prospects are in-market to buy a product or service such as yours.


But if you haven’t got the ad spend of the big brands or the ability to invest in expensive stands at exhibitions, focusing on branding


B2B is often spoken about as a rational decision but a common misconception about “the rational buyer” means that many B2B marketing communications focus on features and technical sales rather than considering what motivates people to buy.


A rationally planned purchase process isn’t the same as people purchasing rationally. It is important to consider what informs buying decisions rather than just listing features, in order to drive marketing and communications effectiveness.


Brand building can help lead generation


Marketers sometimes refer to brand building and lead generation as the ‘long’ and ‘short’ of marketing (a reference to an influential study published by the IPA some years ago).


WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS P21


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