Brands’ action plan during the COVID-19 crisis

These are times for great brands to display empathy towards their customers, suppliers, employees and society at large. This can take different forms — top managers cutting back on their remuneration to ensure that wages and jobs of employees are least impacted, making donations to funds meant to fight COVID-19, allowing buyers the needed time to pay their dues and so on. Important in all such actions is the element of authenticity. These actions should not be seen by others as an exercise in PR or brand building.

The fundamental rule is to do good to the world in a somewhat understated manner and with humility. When a brand shows a genuine concern for its stakeholders, the world will eventually notice and acknowledge. Such brands will be remembered for their goodness when it mattered the most — the best possible marker of a truly great brand.

We observe a sharp decline in advertising on print media and TV. However, brands can actually step in and support the fight against COVID-19 through sensitive and relevant advertising. No doubt, this may suit some brands (such as hygiene related brands, FMCG brands) more than others (say, a luxury car brand), there is room for all types of brands to communicate the right messages.

Nike for instance, launched an advertisement with a tagline ‘Play Inside, Play for the World’. Hygiene brands such as Dettol is advertising to encourage cleanliness and health. And then there is an example of India’s very own brand, Amul, which has launched a series of interesting advertisements encouraging work-from-home and other required behaviours.

Surely, brand advertising need not succumb to the COVID-19 assault. Certain brands, such as FMCG brands, can and should continue with their usual advertising even in these times, with due modifications to media spends and plans as may be warranted. And brands in a large variety of categories (including FMCG) should consider COVID-19 relevant public service advertising which will serve both the brands and their stakeholders.

For several brands, these tough times present an occasion to show care and to make a difference through their performance. Take for instance, the crucial role that can be played by online learning platforms around the world. With school and colleges shut, these e-learning providers have a business opportunity rooted in the possibility of service. It is a time when great brands in this domain will emerge and stand out. Can they provide the right content? Can they enter into right tie-ups? Can they price their products keeping in mind the financial hardships? Can they provide a customer experience such that post-epidemic too the customers stay with them?

Harvard Business Review has made its coronavirus related content free, Amar Chitra Katha is offering the digital version of its comics free and so on. Online businesses have a unique opportunity to serve people locked in their homes and highlight their sense of social responsibility. And indeed they will have the opportunity to convert the millions whom they serve in these trying times into their long term customers.

Meanwhile, performance-based serving opportunities also exist for brands in a somewhat different way. When, LVMH, the French luxury giant, manufactures sanitisers to meet the growing demand from health workers and people, it too is performing to serve and adding to its brand image.

The world after the present crisis is likely to be different from the one before. Consumers may think differently, spend differently and plan differently. Would they become more frugal? Would they cut down on luxury spending? Would they order more stuff online at their homes and offices and venture out less? Would big malls and supermarkets be less frequented? Would movie watchers, keep away from big-screen theatres in favour of home-watching on Netflix and Amazon Prime?

Consumer mindset, attitudes and behaviours are always evolving but the present epidemic may change them significantly and for a foreseeable future. Brands need to be aware of customer attitudes, how they are thinking and how they may behave. Consumers in the post epidemic world may reduce, stop, defer or trade-down spending on their favourite brands.

The evolving world will be very different and brands must invest now in marketing research to make better sense of the future realities than their competitors. While placing research executives on the ground is not an option, there is no dearth of online marketing research tools available to brands and their research agencies.

Brands must remember that this epidemic has hit them and their competitors equally hard. So what will matter in the post-COVID-19 world is the brand’s speed and direction vis a vis its competitors; when they all take off from the same starting line.

A timely investment in marketing research can become a brand’s competitive advantage. For instance, if research by an apparel brand suggests a strong increase in online purchasing, then the brand can invest in its online business capabilities viz. upgrade its software, re-train its off-line staff for greater online business, hire the required talent and so on.

If an automobile major expects trading down by customers from its higher-end to medium range models, it needs to plan its brand strategy accordingly. If movie-watching habits are set for a major change, then producers and distributors may need to work out imaginative solutions based in co-branding, collaborations and innovative partnerships.

It is true that the present times are unlike any other we have witnessed in living memory. The lockdown has brought economic activity and consumption to a sudden halt. Yet, these are not the times for brands to fall back into inaction. Rather, brands that take the right actions in the present, will be the most well placed to emerge as winners in the post epidemic period.

These will be brands that empathise with their stakeholders in these tough times, communicate with them on issues that matter to them now, perform in order to serve the customers and society when its needed the most, and ones that make an effort to understand the evolving customer attitudes, needs and realities.