Crisis marketing: How brands are changing their Branding Strategy in the Post COVID World?

During a crisis, the market is very volatile, consumer behavior is unexpected & subject to change, and the business, in general, will face sudden fluctuations. Brands messaging & ads will go for a toss. Therefore, evaluate the current market scenario and predict short and long-term market behavior, and plan your crisis marketing activities accordingly can be the best way forward.

As per the above survey, 93% have opted to change their marketing strategy. 70% think COVID-19 will result in a change in branding communication overall. So in this blog, we will be talking about the different marketing communication & strategy adopted by various companies. So let’s get started.

So let’s answer the 1st most relevant question –

what is the marketing strategy brands should follow to remain relevant?

Post Covid-19 brands re-think & re-evaluate their strategy to adapt to changing environments. The research was recently conducted by a beverage company on the ‘shift in consumption behavior’ and 3 main pillars emerged which needs to be quickly adopted in the crisis marketing strategy –

What is ‘HOPE’?

Hope – As post-COVID-19 people sentiments are very high & volatile. Empathy is a strong need that has emerged.

Brands need to ingrain empathy in their craft message which is acting as a reassurance to consumers during this pandemic & unprecedented times.

What is ‘TRUST’?

Trust – The need of the hour is people looking out for support. How can the brand lend support & gain trust in these uncertain times?

Brands need to provide things which can be considered as value for money. Brands need to add trust in their core promise & lend support beyond their product or service.

What is ‘FUN’?

Fun – In these dire times where everywhere there is an ambiguity & negativity. The environment needs to be calmed down and the efforts should be to bring a smile on your consumer’s faces. A lot of people are working overtime & doing whatever is in their capacity to earn & survive. A lot of noise & adjustment to work is going on.

So for 1^st part Brands should do fun activates for their consumers in the form of a social media campaign and brand messaging should be casual and fun to rejuvenate them.

For the 2nd part, Brands should act as enablers to provide them an opportunity to engage wherever possible.

There are a lot of brands that are using just communication to show support & bring relevance from a messaging standpoint. See the below images for reference. Other brands are using the 3 pillars very effectively.

Crisis Marketing – 5 things brands need to be aware of when communicating to consumers during a crisis:

Innovation is the need of the hour, sit in front of a whiteboard, and write what your brand objective is pre-Covid & post-Covid. With the available resources check what additional you can offer, what part of messaging you want to change with your existing objective, and make it more relevant in these times.

• Be consumer-centric – Put consumers in the center & innovate your offering. Make sure to include the empathy element in the communication & keep the communication simple and relatable. Put content consumption at an all-time high on social media & treat it as a priority medium for deepening the message to the consumer. Keep the messaging a mix of value, education & compassion.

• Build Trust – Trust cannot be built with just changing the communication. With the change also add what roles additionally a brand can play to justify the message. Consumers are anxiously in search of solutions to adjust to the new normal. So make sure you are not underplaying your role and are acting responsibly with your communication.

• Innovation & Digital – Digital was always there but post-Covid it just got accelerated. Physical contact has gone down & digital is at its peak. Digital will act as an extension as well as the primary messaging space for most of the brands for some time. Pure play advertising will not be effective and has to be extended with quality content in association with influencers. It has to have a leg of engagement on a regular basis.

• Frequency of Conversation – The frequency needs to go up as content consumption is at its peak. People are spending more time on online education & binge-watching. At this point reaching out to them would be easy. Make sure communication needs to be in a meaningful way. The sensitivity, emotional & responsible tone needs to be maintained rather than being too promotional and bombarding them with ads.

• Long term Messaging – On Communication, Maintaining communication for a long time is also required as this post-COVID phase is here to stay and impact a lot of lives. Make sure value-oriented messaging is being delivered from a long term perspective.

Now let’s look at some brand examples who are following everything stated above and are most relevant in terms of messaging during COVID times.

Example 1 – UBER

UBER is a perfect example of ‘HOPE’ & ‘TRUST’. They quickly switched their service model to suit the immediate needs of their consumers. They are supplying items from pharmacies, pet stores, or anything from a person ‘A’ to ‘B’ resolving the gap of essentials broadly addressing ‘HOPE’. There is no change in brand messaging. Just to keep the trust intact, UBER sent notification to all its users informing them about the additional services. No promotion, no jazz. Acting responsible & empathy was the core of the message.

Example 2 – Restaurants (Pizza Hut | Domino’s | Mc Donalds)

Look at an example of Domino’s ad given below as a comparison of how It went from the fun & frolic messaging to serious messaging post COVID.

Another great example of ‘HOPE’, ‘TRUST’ & ‘FUN’. As we all know restaurants are a segment that has been severely hit. A lot of people will stop visiting these places for the time being. Uplifting the consumer’s emotion and regaining the lost trust was something that needs to be gained.

Example 3 – IKEA

Ikea has hit the hammer on the nail with the perfect ad in relevant times explaining the importance of home. A great example to exhibit Hope, Trust & Fun. All 3 and it has been perfectly captured in the ad. Ad extension was there where there was a welcome message to Spanish for coming back to their home. It acted as a reassurance.

All the above 3 examples are relevant with respect to the 3 pillars. Below are some of the elements which are strongly associated & are visible with their communication strategy.

Last but not the least the office decorum & cultural values has also gone for a toss. So you need to put employees in the right space and create a digital ecosystem for your employees and provide them comfort & new guidelines to work. Provide them with sanitizer packages, update leave & sick policy, boost morale by inducing creativity, and provide work from home strategy. Communicate care & safety commitment to employees. If this is taken care your outside communication will also flow smoothly.

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Reference: https://www.financialexpress.com/brandwagon/pepsico-indias-tarun-bhagat-on-the-marketing-strategy-which-brands-need-to-follow-in-the-time-of-covid-19/1991739/

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