Was great to join Jonny Ross recently on his CMO podcast and discuss my perspective on the reasons why brand is now more important that ever in the AI world.

In the new world of AI search, brand is no longer just what makes you memorable after someone finds you. It is part of what helps you get found, trusted and recommended in the first place.

Here are the key takeways:

 

✅ Brand is a commercial growth lever, not just a logo or visual identity. Enabling you to charge more and differentiate from competitors.

✅ Strong brands sell meaning and emotional value, not just products or services. It’s deeply linked to consumer psychology.

✅ A good brand strategy sits at the intersection of customer, competitor and company.

✅ Customer conversations are still one of the richest sources of brand insight.

✅ The buyer journey is now messier, longer and spread across more channels. Your brand needs to show up consistently across multiple platforms.

✅ AI visibility is an important trust signal – being cited or recommended by AI can creates better quality, more informed leads. That convert 3 times higher.

✅ Brand and performance marketing should work together, not separately.

✅ SEO, AEO and GEO work better when the brand foundation is clear.

✅ Businesses need to audit how they show up across Google, AI tools, reviews, social and third-party sites.

✅ SMEs can gain an advantage because they can move faster and show expertise more personally than larger organisations.

 

Link to podcast below!  Enjoy!

 

I’ve always loved Ted Lasso and some of the philosophy linked to the show. The importance of belief and perseverance.

People are naturally impatient. (personally guilty for sure). We all want immediate results and we all want it yesterday.

It can be hard for small and medium sized businesses to fully ‘BELIEVE’ in the benefits of brand strategy and marketing. All too often it feels like a cost not an investment. As soon as things get a bit tight it’s always the first thing to be reviewed and often cut.

When working with SMEs and talking about the benefits of brand strategy it can be hard to get them to ‘BELIEVE’

A question I often like to pose is…..

Why do big corporate companies invest so heavily in brand?

Large corporates have teams of Brand strategists, use Big Brand agencies to help develop the brand look and feel. Have pages of Brand Guidelines with exacting fonts, colours and rules that must be adhered to. They work relentlessly on Brand Execution and Brand Experience (for both colleagues and customers). Marketing spend is often ring fenced purely for ‘Brand’ The Brand performance and metrics are reported religiously at board level. The list goes on. The effort and investment is immense.

Only last week a fellow marketer could not comprehend when I explained that when I worked in the Lloyds Banking Group Brand Team there were over 30 people full time working purely on Brand Strategy.

You could argue it’s simply because corporates have too much money! Brand and advertising is just something they love to spend on………

But the real answer is that Brand investment drives long term value for the business.

Companies with a clear brand strategy have been shown in many acclaimed studies to drive 3 TIMES MORE GROWTH than those without.
A strong brand means that customers will pay a premium for a service or product offered by a brand they know and emotionally connect with versus a competitor. The perceived value is higher even though a product can be identical.
Customers have a stronger preference for a brand they know vs a brand they don’t
A strong brand increases the overall value of a business. It’s an important asset especially if you want to sell or franchise your business.

It’s quite easy to think that a small business can’t afford to invest in brand. There’s so many other demands on cash flow….

But as with many investments – it takes time to realise the benefits.

If you invest time and money to get your Brand Strategy right then the benefits are huge and they will materialise.

I help small businesses step out the day to day. I use my unique framework, to create a bespoke brand for their business. A brand that’s aligned to their business and values, but more importantly that creates connections with their customers to ensure they stand out in their market.

Big businesses have not got this wrong. SME’s just need to ‘BELIEVE.’

I now support SMEs with Brand Strategy – reach out for a Brand Zest Session to discuss your brand.

The challenges for B2B Marketing have never been tougher.

As AI evolves at lighting speed and economic uncertainty continues to shape the SME landscape, one message is clear:

Marketing in the B2B space is simply going to get more complex.

To stay ahead, businesses must understand the shifting dynamics shaping this environment.

There are number of themes attributing to the challenge:

👉 Customer attention is at an all time low

We are in an era of attention deficit. As humans, we’re overwhelmed with information. Bombarded by notifications, feeds, and content at every turn. How many times do we pick up our phones, lose 20 minutes, and can’t even recall why we picked them up in the first place.

Research is showing that we have 2.6 seconds to make an impression, we have 275 distractions every day and there is even thinking that a gold fish has a better attention span than humans.

Companies need to work harder to stand out in their market place.

👉 Increase in AI Overview and click less marketing

Search behaviour is evolving fast. Google dominance is waning and businesses need to think beyond SEO. They need to be embracing AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation)

Around 60% of searches are now “click less”, meaning users find what they need directly within AI-driven summaries or featured snippets.

Visibility is harder to earn. To stay seen, brands must continually evolve and invest in visibility strategies, blending human creativity with AI-driven insight

👉 Sales Journeys are getting more complex

As a marketing strategist, I would argue that sales journeys have never been linear. But it’s definitely the case that they are now more squiggly than ever. The complexity of the customer sales journey is increasing.

Daniel Priestly has talked about the 7-11-4 rule since 2015. The crux of the rule is that before a customer commits they needs 7 hours of time, 11 different touchpoints and 4 different platforms where they see your company. As customer attention declines, there’s a compelling argument that suggests these numbers should now be doubled. It simply takes more touchpoints, time, and trust before customers feel ready to buy

👉 Consumers are engaging off platform

Customer are seeking wider opinions in many channels.

LinkedIn comment threads, Slack communities, Reddit discussions, and podcasts, buyers are seeking peer opinions and real experiences.

Sometimes termed as ‘dark social media’ . This is making it increasingly hard to develop consistent multi channel presence.

Here’s my key takeaways for B2B Marketers:
✅ Invest in Brand Strategy – the importance of brand has never been greater. Businesses need to develop strong, clear, consistent brands, that truly make emotional connections with their audience. The customer attention and increased number of touchpoints mean your business really needs to stand out. But also needs to do this consistently. Brand experience is paramount to success. I offer a unique approach to creating a Brand Framework. Post | Feed | LinkedIn

✅ Strategic thinking has never been more important. Stepping back and considering the business dynamics and challenges will be a key driver to success in the B2B space.

✅ Innovation is key – if you want to stand out in your market place you need to be driving innovation in terms of your marketing, your positioning and your messaging.

✅ Hyper- personalisation is expected – Customers want instant, personalised responses from businesses on questions they have. Businesses need to be able to answer exact queries. Adapting AI or a business model that does this quickly is important.

✅ Omnipresence is a necessity – Consistency and being seamless across platforms and devices is expected. This topic has been key in branding for a while. But this now goes wider. Ensuring information and insight for customers is also consistent and seamless.

If you’re and SME needing support with your marketing and brand I offer brand and marketing audits to support SMEs to be more strategic. Reach out for a Zest Session to discuss the fresh perspective I can bring

I recently talked to Judy Parson on a linkedin Live about getting your marketing AI ready.

Click here to access the Utube video.