Matt Brownell: It's not a branding job when it's part of your DNA

Highlights from the episode:Their Head of Brand position didn't exist. And in fact, there was no brand team, Yoco, in the startup phase that they were at, and in many respects, we're still at, the mentality is usually growth hacking, it's performance marketingThe core job of a brand team is to build a really strong competitive moat around yourself. So that if competitors do come in with a really low price product, or some fantastic promotion, or some campaign, you're not going to feel the effects of that. There was a realisation for me early on in this process, that the real gold that we had at Yoco was our customer's stories, not our own story.The concept of having a strong community of customers who are at the centre of that community and can become your evangelists over time, and you have the ability to have two way conversations all the time is absolutely critical for brand building, but also just building your business.We were a bit pissed off, to be honest, because we realised that the decision-makers in this country had no access to data to make good decisions.Everything from the internal values that we have as a company and how we work with each other to how we project ourselves out into the world, and how we treat our customers is all extremely purpose-driven, and that's what makes it such a great place to work More about Matt Brownell Matt Brownell is the Head of Brand & Communications at Yoco, an African technology company that builds tools and services to help small businesses get paid, run their business better, and grow.  Yoco offers card payment acceptance, software-driven business tools and working capital.Matt was born to educators in Kwa-Zulu Natal where he was raised, before attending Rhodes University to study Business Commerce. Post two years of travel, Matt joined Accenture in their Management Consulting division, working on multiple blue-chip clients across a three year period. A two-year contract with FIFA over the 2010 FIFA World Cup schooled him in sports marketing and project management on a global scale.Prior to Yoco, Matt was an executive at SABMiller where he led Strategy & Innovation for the iconic Castle Lager brand, as well as heading up the Trade Marketing department for the Egoli region of SAB Miller, a role in which he led a team of +30 people. In his role at Yoco, Matt is responsible for telling the inspirational stories  of the small business heroes who Yoco are lucky enough to call their customers. Find Matt here:LinkedInTwitter Show NotesPeople:Katlego MaphaiCompanies and organisations:YocoSAB To listen to previous episodes go to https://nwrk.co/omq.If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review and share it with your friends.