On December 10, at a webinar in the WorldFood Connect community, speakers from RBC, AlphaChef and HookahPlace discussed what businesses need to do first — stimulate sales or build a brand, and shared their cases

The online meeting was opened by Anna Afanasyeva, editor-in-chief of RBC Franchise, who explained what the concept of “brand” means and shared the secrets of working with the media.

The expert noted that brand building is an integral part of business development. It is brand recognition that leads to increased sales in the long term. The importance of brand building is understood by 97% of large businesses and only 73% of small ones. Most small companies pay very little attention to brand positioning and increasing recognition. Most often, they are primarily aimed at stimulating sales.

"A brand is a single organism, a complete image in the consumer's mind, and all attributes together should work to form it," Anna Afanasyeva emphasized. Most include the name, logo, slogan, corporate style, packaging and other similar elements in the concept of "brand". But a brand is also a reputation that needs to be built. And a reputation is built on customer experience, recognition and emotional connection with the audience.

According to the editor-in-chief of RBC Franchise, it is the media that provide the fastest access to a mass audience to build a reputation and recognition. "The higher the recognition, the more chances you have to subsequently get a loyal, "warm" client and achieve your business goals," said Anna Afanasyeva. However, it is impossible to get into the media without a budget. In order to cooperate with the media, a business in any case needs capital: social, human, time, intellectual. Press releases, expert articles and comments can be used as conditionally "free" publications in the media.

During the webinar, Anna Afanasyeva also talked about how much an article on the Forbes website, a story in the regional news on the Russia 24 TV channel and “free PR” cost, what should be in a press release or article about your brand and what should not be, and what you should not do if you want to get into the media.

Then Irina Zabolotskaya, Director of Brand Development at AlphaChef, shared her experience of promoting a new plant and a new brand in the prepared food market.

The speaker emphasized that 360 marketing is huge. It includes participation in exhibitions, SMM, organization of training and excursions, billboard advertising, digital promotion, PR support and reputation. "But the key at the stage of launching and promoting a brand is the formation of knowledge about the product and the plant and the delivery of correct information to all channels," said Irina Zabolotskaya.

General PR areas for promoting the AlphaChef brand include working with thematic publications and bloggers, writing press releases on behalf of the brand for the media, collaborating with business-themed podcasts, recording and publishing interviews with brand experts in specialized publications, participating in ratings and promotion in Telegram publics.

Currently, the key channels for brand promotion are the website, social networks and exhibitions. Speaking about the latter, the expert noted that "this is the place where you can try the product, evaluate it, and communicate with representatives of enterprises and partners in person." When primary distribution appears, a digital channel will also be connected, which will help work with the target audience more precisely.

During her speech, Irina Zabolotskaya also told how the idea of ​​creating a new brand was born, what the plant and its technologies are, what product lines are already ready and what will be presented on the market soon.

Vladimir Fionov, Head of Marketing at HookahPlace, concluded the webinar. The expert shared how to increase brand awareness in the dark market.

The main promotion tools of the Deus Group holding, of which HookahPlace is a part, include: geo-services, SMM promotion, media content, influence marketing, performance marketing, SEO website promotion, PR tools, product placement, events. In order to promote among the B2B audience, the brand uses such channels as ratings and catalogs, exhibitions and business events.

Vladimir Fionov also spoke about successful cases of promoting the HookahPlace brand and organizing the world's largest hookah culture festival.