Five Ways To Ensure Your Brand Doesn’t Go Into Isolation Too
As the world continues with an extended lockdown, brands and marketers are in unfamiliar territory. The nature of branding is opportunistic, and isolation is counterintuitive. Whilst now is not the time to leverage uncertainty, that doesn’t mean, however, brands need to go into hibernation. We are in a global crisis that is evolving at a rate faster than we could have predicted and it is impacting all businesses.
By challenging ourselves to evolve fast we must scrap the old familiar strategies for initiatives that support the wider community rather than benefit from it. There is good in humanity, despite what we are led to believe, especially when we are the change we want to see. In these confusing, disorientating and worrying months ahead brands can and must remain visible and relevant. We all need cheering up, distraction and affordable treats. Agency and client relationships have never been more important not only to be creative but to filter and sanity-check communication substance and tone.
There are five key areas to consider to ensure your brand doesn’t go into isolation too.
1. Don’t be *that brand*
Stop trying to integrate into the C-19 conversation unless you can really help. It's a huge failing of a brand to attempt to break into the conversation, not to mention exploitative. Last week we saw LVMH use their factories to produce hand sanitizer to support the global need for protection, and in the same week BrewDog launched 'Brewgel'. For a brand known for their, at times, offensive stunt marketing, this, perhaps unsurprisingly, feels tone deaf and opportunistic.
We’ve seen surge pricing on goods that are in high demand. Amazon and eBay have been policing ‘price gouging’ on items such as face masks, babies nappies, sanitiser, tampons and toilet roll - all with exorbitant pricing from $150 delivery charges to $200 for a bottle of sanitizer. Even the newsagent outside our local train station was charging £1 a mask.
There are opportunities to assist and encourage good behaviour. We’ve seen Nike encourage people to ‘play inside’, Coca Cola to isolate, Netflix and Instagram to group watch through to everyone’s favorite PT Joe Wicks extending his YouTube workouts to daily sessions for #PEwithJoe for children who have found themselves trapped at home. Be the brand you aspire to be.
2. Help your employees: help your community
If you take care of your employees, they will take care of you. All businesses have had to act fast - many for safety, more for revenue protection, but in the minority, we’ve seen brands actively support their employees during this time. Long before government announcements Deliveroo set up a fund to support their workers with Covid-19 symptoms, Dominoes, Pret
and Starbucks soon offered free drinks and food to the UK’s NHS workers and wonderfully countless other businesses are now stepping up. Click and collect and local delivery has been offered in lieu of dining in, and in general we are seeing a responsibility to local communities come through from independent businesses to big groups alike. My 'mom-groups' on Whatsapp went wild with the news that Audible was opening up a range of children's books for free. Consumers appreciate compassion and kindness, we’ll remember these acts - and nothing breeds loyalty more than genuine connections. Your employees are your ground force community, nurture and support them in every way you can.
3. Be open
People are scared, frantic and worried, Anxiety UK has labeled this ‘Coronanxiety’ and it's a very real affliction. The twenty-four hour news cycle is relentless. No brand should exploit this. Brands that are being open about how their management, their teams and their customers are being affected, and what they are doing to adapt to this, help create a calming sense of control and support.
Society, Institutions and brands are turning to technology as the primary channel for communication, and unsurprisingly finding some innovative ways of doing so. The World Health Organisation is using Whatsapp to helpfully inform people of what to do, how to act and the latest stats and facts regarding Covid-19. TikTok has partnered with WHO to deliver on-demand info and live-streamed content where users are able to ask questions of experts to alleviate their fears.
If appropriate, get online - stream, share, communicate, be open about how things are and how things can be. But apply common sense, fear is contagious too.
4. Stop. Making money is not your focus
Fitbit, Headspace and Calm have all offered free access to their platforms to assist with soothing people with meditative technology or encouraging exercise at home and the like of Barry’s Bootcamp have given their fans access to home workouts to help ease the pressure.
All supermarkets and delivery services will drop to your door and changed hours accommodate essential workers and the elderly. Uber Eats has waived its commission fees - connecting workers with customers who can’t get out and about. It's no longer a luxury, our on-demand services have become a lifeline. Brands and businesses will thrive when they are prioritising philanthropy over profit.
5. Unbridled creativity can reign here, too
“I paint in order not to cry,” said the artist Paul Klee in 1922, as he presented his portrait Senecio. As philosophers, artists and writers have known for centuries, serious challenges and even profound traumas and unhappiness can provide a great source of creativity and innovation.
Psychologists label the process whereby people respond positively to serious difficulties: post-traumatic growth. Its characterised by a growing appreciation for the positive aspects of our lives, greater spirituality and increased ability to think creatively and solve old problems in new ways. Universities, research institutes, start-ups are all generating ideas and tools to tackle Corina. Dyson has invented a new ventilator.
There can be creativity in adversity. Right now, we are faced with global adversity and chaos, as difficult as it may be - embrace the unknown. Let creativity reign!
