Stay the course: Brand management during the coronavirus crisis

During this time of rapid change, volatility, and uncertainty, many businesses and professionals may feel a desire to update their brand presence to fit current conditions. But if I had to summarize my advice in one phrase, it would be stay the course.

No question, this is a difficult period, and we’re in uncharted territory. Recessions usually build over time and impact segments of the economy first before spreading more broadly. In a typical down cycle businesses suffer incremental reductions in sales, but they don’t stop all together.

In contrast, the world response to the coronavirus has been immediate and wide-reaching; large swaths of the economy were literally shut down overnight. Many restaurants, especially small family owned establishments, have seen their sales drop to zero, in turn leading to mass layoffs.

So while I’m not surprised by the desire to adjust, I’m also not sure it’s the right thing to do. I’ve put together a few thoughts to help stabilize your marketing thinking. Hopefully a foundation of stability will foster creative thinking to help you make the most of these difficult times.

Don’t feel an immediate need to do or change anything to your brand or message

If you’re worried about what to do, take a deep breath. The best action might be no action. I understand the impulse to update messaging in light of the current crisis; we want our businesses to be viewed as alert and responsive, and it may seem tone deaf not to react. But the world is overwhelmed by news and information about the coronavirus and related issues, along with supportive messages and the like. So it might be refreshing to stay on your standard brand message, and give your customers something to look forward to when things return to normal.

There is one exception: Make sure that none of your messaging or advertising runs contrary to the health and safety guidelines, or is in poor taste. For example, this probably isn’t a good time to promote anything that requires in-person interaction. Let’s say your company had a corporate event or conference that has been postponed. Given the uncertainty, it doesn’t make sense to promote it right now. This is, however, a good time to consider pivoting it to an online/virtual event.

Think about your advertising too. Major brands were quick to pull potentially offensive messaging, and the April 3rd episode of American Public Media’s Marketplace radio show (click to access the piece) mentioned a few examples:

“In one ad for Apple’s AirPods, a woman is walking the streets of New York City. It’s cramped and overwhelming. She puts in her AirPods and, poof! Manhattan’s streets are empty. Or there’s a KFC ad, set to Chopin, in which the camera zooms in on people eating fried chicken, licking their fingers and their partners’ fingers.”

Communicate with your customers as needed

It’s a good idea to stay in touch with your customers. While I go into more detail about listening to the voice of the customer a little later, make sure you periodically update your customers and stakeholders via email and social media as to the status of the business. Let them know about changes in your operating hours, service offerings, and the like. Let them know how your team is doing. All of this is valuable and vital. Just make sure you don’t hit them too often and turn into spam. I think a communication every two or three weeks (barring any emergent news) makes sense.

It’s also a good idea to add static messaging to your website with your current status and any important news. This lets the world know that you recognize the difficult circumstances and your business is doing its part. Any charitable donations made or ongoing support programs could be listed there. The key is to be honest, humble, authentic, and most of all, not overly commercial.

Adapt your product/service to fit the current needs

The best example of this is restaurants which have rapidly and aggressively retooled to support takeout and delivery service. Their agility has been nothing short of amazing. If the products or services you offer can be tailored to meet client needs, make those changes and let your customers know. Don’t be shy about marketing your capabilities, just be true to form (see the next point) and avoid any perception of opportunism. To use an extreme example, don’t be the guy in the St. Louis suburbs selling N95s out of his van at exorbitant prices (true story).

Stay true to your company/brand values

This aligns closely to the first point. Chances are that you/your company spent considerable time articulating its core values and mission statement. (If you haven’t taken the time to do this, now would be a good time). There is no reason to deviate from those values, or feel the need to update them to adapt to current conditions, which are temporary anyway.

Don’t position yourself as a information hub, unless that’s your organization’s mission

I’ve seen companies lately that are pushing out a lot of information about current events, mitigation strategies, and best practices. While that may seem like good corporate citizenship, I see nothing but downside. It takes precious time/emphasis away from core messaging, it opens up the risk of possibly communicating misinformation, and adds to an already crowded public information space. While an occasional uplifting or supportive message makes sense (especially if it is somehow tied to your brand), my advice is to leave the expertise to the experts.

Focus on digital strategies

Lockdowns, social distancing, working from home means one thing across the board: People are online more than ever. Some estimates indicate that Facebook usage alone is up 50% (as much as 70% in Italy). Not to mention multitasking on all those Zoom calls! Your customers are online all the time right now…it’s that simple. 

While you may be conserving ad spend during the slowdown, it makes sense to redirect remaining dollars to digital ad buys. Not only is it an unprecedented opportunity to reach your customers, they might enjoy seeing messages about something other than the coronavirus. I know I’ve been clicking on more cooking gadgets and running shorts recently.

When it comes to allocating your digital ad dollars, I’m still a big fan of Facebook and Instagram. The targeting capabilities are the most robust and they’re very popular platforms. But depending on your product/service and the demographics of your customer base, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and now TikTok are all viable options. Launching a TikTok ad might be buzzworthy in and of itself. If you have questions about how to best spend your digital marketing dollars, let’s talk.

Keep in mind that this, too, shall pass

This little nugget isn’t just important for your own sanity, it has implications for your business. There is a good chance that the economy will come back to life fairly rapidly when conditions permit reopening, and there will be pent up demand for many goods and services (restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and other public meeting places come to mind right off the bat). 

Give some thought to positioning your business to be ready to grow along with the improving conditions. I realize that this may be tough given the financial losses incurred, but do your best within your parameters.

Some questions to prep for the other side of the crisis:

1. Is your business ready to reopen? 
2. Can you easily bring back key employees or do you need to hire new people?
3. Are your seasonal messaging and marketing campaigns ready to go? Summer is essentially upon us, and some companies will begin holiday planning cycles in the next few weeks.
4. Are your inventory levels managed to balance demand with cash flow?
5. What types of messages will your company want to deliver once things are returning to normal? 

You may also want to use this relative down time to update your website, make any desired enhancements, etc.

Above all else and as always, listen to your customers 

No general guidelines or advice can ever beat listening to your customers and clients. Engage with them now as much as you ever have. They will tell you their concerns, and answering their needs will shape your message in the best way possible.

A few ideas on staying in touch with the voice of the customer:

1. Make sure that your customer support functions, whether live or via email, are responsive in a timely manner. Ask questions and use each interaction as an opportunity to understand how your customers are doing, the challenges they’re facing, and how you can help.
2. Founders, execs, and other leaders in your organization should periodically field customer calls and support requests. And I don’t mean simply answering the phone, exchanging pleasantries, and then handing off. I mean handling the issue from front to finish, even if that means that customers will have your info and reach out to you directly in the future (although there are ways to do this anonymously). This isn’t just important during crisis times, it’s an important listening tool that will increase your company’s value.
3. Continue customer conferences, roundtables, advisory boards, and other interactions. Digitally. If you haven’t implemented these in the past, use this time to start.
4. Engage your customers on social media. This is easy and free, it just takes a little time. Like #2, this is something that should be done all the time. Examples include posing questions and responding to comments. 

These are unprecedented times, raising fears and concerns among business managers and customers alike. We will come through it, though, as we always do. The world will be different after all this, but not that different, in my opinion. Keep running your marketing teams and your businesses essentially the way you have, making adjustments where needed. If things keep up for a long time more change may be necessary, but for now, stay the course!