Building Your Brand In The Face Of Coronavirus

As a professional marketer or business owner there is no way you look out at the market landscape and think ‘today is no different than yesterday.’ And when I say that, I mean the world of brand marketing, now that we’re nearly three-weeks into a virtual economic shutdown due to the spread of Coronavirus, looks almost nothing like it did the day before it started. In fact, Forrester’s “Consumer Energy Index” demonstrates that consumer perception today (March 2020) has shifted significantly and this shift demands critical consideration regarding what you do next in your marketing. Additionally, Edelman released a special report “Brand Trust and the Coronavirus Pandemic” which shows that consumers around the world are making brand choices based on the crisis and that the way a brand responds is likely to influence the consumer’s future brand selection as well.

Many businesses are operating in the alien world of ‘work-from-home.’ Thousands upon thousands of others closed completely. Nearly every consumer between the ages of 25-80 is justifiably obsessed with avoiding contact with this invisible foe. Marketers and business owners all over the world are scrambling to figure out how to position their products and services during this unprecedented disruption.

If you manufacture and/or market almost any sanitizing or bio-containment product – including toilet paper – the rest of this article likely doesn’t apply to you. But if your business is one of the thousands of companies selling products and services people don’t feel the need to hoard, or even buy right now, read on.

The world has changed dramatically and maybe permanently. The brand positioning, marketing strategies, and communication you have in place today are likely disconnected from your customers at this time. The questions to ask are ‘what do we do next?’ Has our target changed? Do we need a new or refined brand positioning? What about strategies and messaging? All are important questions, but what do you address first?

Start with reassessing your customers and competitors.

1. Has the crisis fundamentally changed them in a way that affects the relevance of your positioning and strategic approach? It’s important to answer each part of this question before shifting something as vital to your brand as its positioning strategy.
2. Are your target customers’ expressed needs and desires different now? If you answered yes, has the change made your brand less relevant to them? Is this change likely to be long lasting? If you answered yes to both of these questions, then reassessing your brand positioning and your marketing strategies is imperative.

If you didn’t answer yes to both questions, you may not need to change your brand positioning, but your current marketing strategies, perceptual milestones, and messages will likely still benefit by making adjustments.

Brand positioning can be broadly defined as what you want customers to believe about your brand, and your marketing strategies are what guides them down the road to that brand belief. However, for many products and services, customers have detoured off the road you were guiding them down and will need to be carefully steered back onto it in the coming months.

To do that, you will need to determine where they are today and how this life disruption has altered their perspective and perception of the products and services in your category? Once you understand their new reality, you can begin to determine how best to reconnect with them and reengage them in your brand.

Think of your potential customers as residing on one side of a wide river. Your desired brand positioning, which you are trying to help them reach, exists on the other side of that river. Say we’ve already determined they still find the other side of the river attractive and have some desire to get there. Your job as a marketer is to determine how many perceptual steppingstones you need and where to put them to help that customer move across the river. It’s likely you’ll need to move some of those stones you’ve already set down because customers are not crossing the river from the same starting place they were yesterday.

I’m not talking about a wholesale change of your brand, its strategies and messages. I am recommending a careful inspection of how you are guiding consumers to your brand and the messages you have been using to get them there. Given the significant shift in consumer perceptions, and the emotional and psychological upheaval they are experiencing right now, the path to purchase has likely been altered. By understanding what the consumer is thinking and feeling today, versus what they were thinking and feeling in the ‘pre-crisis’ days, you can make the strategic and tonal adjustments necessary to re-engage them.

Consider what Forrester’s “Consumer Energy Index” tells us about how the Coronavirus crisis has shifted consumer sentiments and how these sentiments should be factored into your marketing. Looking at measures of ‘Identity,’ ‘Trust,’ ‘Novelty,’ and ‘Efficacy,’ the analysts at Forrester identified that, when comparing levels from March 2020 to levels measured two years before, consumer sentiment has declined in all four categories.

Consumers feel more fragmented and isolated, a finding that shouldn’t surprise anyone given the requirement for social distancing. Their trust of organizations to do the right thing shows the second largest drop of the study’s measures. Efficacy and novelty declined the least, which show consumers, despite fear and uncertainty, still have a propensity to look for unique tools and solutions to make the situation better. However, brands shouldn’t confuse a willingness to improve the current situation with an eagerness to buy the ‘next big thing.’

What we can learn from this study is that regaining the consumer’s trust is paramount. As a number of notable brands have done, demonstrating that you recognize these aren’t normal times goes a long way to reestablishing some of that trust. Equally important is matching the tone and tenor of your messages to the emotional state of your customers. The typical pharmaceutical brand showing happy, smiling patients strolling through the park may be 180 degrees out of phase with their consumers.

No one is sure how long this situation is going to last. It’s unlikely consumer sentiments will spring back to pre-crisis levels at the end of April. In fact, their sentiments may be markedly worse by then. Many advertisers have pulled back on their promotion amid plunging demand and sales while others have taken steps to ensure their traditional and digital promotions are not connected to Coronavirus coverage. Still others such as Ford, Hyundai, Toyota, and Lexus have modified their upcoming ads to show support of customers and workers who are struggling during this extremely stressful time.

If you think these trends may take time to develop, think again. Edelman’s special report shows that 29% of U.S. consumers are already choosing brands based on their response to the crisis. Almost two-thirds, 61%, of U.S. consumers say the way a brand responds during the crisis will influence their likelihood of buying that brand in the future.

The thing to keep in mind is that this crisis, which will undoubtedly disrupt otherwise successful brands, also provides opportunity for brands that may have been struggling prior to the crisis. With disarray in most markets, nearly every competitor will be forced to reevaluate the shifting landscape and their marketing stance. Struggling brands will have the opportunity to fully reassess their current positioning, redefine how they are perceived, and wholly change their perception post-crisis. For some lagging brands, this crisis provides an unprecedented opportunity to leap-frog their competitors.

Today is not like yesterday. Simply pausing your promotion and restarting it when the crisis resolves will not be enough. Continuing your promotion as though nothing has happened may be an even worse choice. As marketers, we can help consumers through these difficult times and strengthen our brands at the same time. Confirm what your customers are feeling and how this crisis is affecting their decision making, then make all the big and small strategic changes necessary to get your brand growing again.