Establishing a unique identity and commonly understood value proposition is a challenge all marketers face. In the business to business (B2B) world, brands often struggle to standout.
Research by the LinkedIn Institute and market research group System 1 found that of 1,600 ads shown to a sample of 6 million people worldwide, over a four year period, around three quarters scored one star or less on System 1’s emotional measurement tool.
In capital markets, conjuring original, inspiring or engaging creative is exceptionally tricky.
After all, marketers want their brands to be taken seriously, they want to be relevant to their audience and they want to be trusted by their clients.
For companies that are a B2B2C business, the challenge is even more difficult. You need to resonate with multiple stakeholders while showcasing the solutions that you offer, in a way that inspires.
GTN Group falls squarely in the B2B2C bracket. The company has been trading for around a quarter of a century and has become very successful in the Middle East.
It runs an end-to-end trading platform – GTN Trade – for trading, clearing, settlement and custody, an investment platform – GTN Invest – which offers portfolio and investment management services and a proprietary suite of APIs so clients can connect front-end systems to its infrastructure.
In the broker world, it competes with competitors such as Saxo Bank and Interactive Brokers. In the fintech world, it competes against Apex and Alpaca and in the wealth space it jostles for position with companies like Drive Wealth.
At the end of 2021, GTN attracted new investment from IFC and SBI Ventures. Having grown in size and reputation from its successful beginnings in the Middle East, the company has since been accelerating its global expansion programme.
Group global chief marketing officer, Jorge Sanchez-Galiani has been tasked with crafting an integrated marketing programme that drives sales, brand familiarity and trust.
“I joined in 2022 and the business already had a strong reputation in the Middle East but we now want to ensure we go global so we’ve started to think about how best to engage with external stakeholders,” he says.
“We recognise that it’s important not to have any weakness which could delay our ambitions, so we need to have a clear understanding of what we are doing from a marketing perspective.
“We have looked at all aspects of communication and how we connect. That includes content, our website, brand, PR and more.”
Sanchez-Galiani is a champion of marketing using artificial intelligence, but cautions senior executives to be transparent about the genuine capabilities of AI.
“While AI can reduce the time to market, it is not going to reduce the need for expertise from PR and marketing teams, even where creation is an aspect,” he says.
“If companies all used AI for content creation, there would be no differentiation in propositions. There would be no uniqueness. AI should enable marketers, not replace them.”
Despite embracing AI as a tool for idea generation to shorten the time it takes for campaign conceptualisation, Sanchez-Galiani says that traditional marketing methods still have a place at the heart of successful, commercially-driven campaigns.
“I’m a believer in pragmatic marketing (a product marketing approach that affords adaptation based on changing client tastes),” he explains.
“It’s crucial that we understand the pain points of our clients and are clear about how we are trying to solve that. That is where offline channels, such as events, can help.” GTN sees physical events as a complementary support to their efforts through online channels, although Sanchez-Galiani says both elements are driving at different parts of the marketing aims.
“Marketing through online channels can be an accelerator to bring scale. Online marketing gives you the coverage and supports the nurturing of prospects, clients and key stakeholders,” he explains.
“At events, I’m a firm believer that it is beneficial to have marketers and sales people together. I believe companies can run faster when both sales and marketing channels understand client pain points.”
While he, and his colleagues in the leadership team, support event-led marketing initiatives, they also recognise the importance of being selective when considering the return on investment from budget allocations.
The marketing lead says he looks for events where delegates “are likely to have the right mindset about fintech innovation” and at times of the year which also work for the GTN’s own objectives.
“We have to build our pipeline in the first months of the year, so I need to be here,” he explains.
“Companies in a growth stage need a structured marketing strategy and must not be afraid to commit an amount of investment to offline marketing.
“If a company is past the critical three years, the business case is proven. I appreciate for some non-marketers, it can be scary, but if you don’t believe in your capabilities and the possibilities, you will always be defensive.”
When asked whether the current economic climate is increasing the pressure on marketers, Sanchez-Galiani is pragmatic and says that marketers need to appreciate that their role is intrinsically linked to the commercial success of the business.
“Marketers need to remember that if you don’t deliver the results, your role will go. The investment that we make in the positioning of brand and identity sometimes doesn’t pay back in the short-term, but it is not just about brand recognition.
“Marketers should remember it is about brand credibility. Do people know you? Do people trust you? Will people buy you? You can’t be something that you’re not. When you are in a business, you should be honest about what you do.”