Our Covid-19 Brand survival guide
Right now the strength of your brand will determine the success of your business in these unprecedented times. Those that have built their brand on their true values will outlast this crisis well and come out the other side stronger.
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Creatives thrive on chaos and breaking restraints but don’t try and reinvent yourself completely overnight. Your business needs to outlast this crisis so stay true to what you do otherwise you will be starting from scratch all over again. Obviously some businesses such as catering and hospitality will be hit hard and forced to pivot quickly but review your core values again and whatever new direction you decide to take, stay true to these as your loyal followers will still want to support you and advocate you to others.
"Out of constraints comes creativity, out of chaos comes growth, out of fears comes love."
Obviously your key focus should be putting plans in place to continue business and protect employees and customers but here are our
top 5 tips
to ensure your brand survives and succeeds during and after this crisis.
1. communication is key
Building a brand starts from within. When your teams are all working under one roof it is easier to keep up moral and get everyone working together. Make sure you are keeping your team energised and informed with regular meetings and conversations. Make sure you are communicating to your existing customers of your situation, ie is it still business as usual, how they can now contact or buy from you.
2. play to your values
in all your communications, emphasise your key brand values more. not only will it reinforce your brand but will make you seem more empathetic to your ideal client base. Think about how your ideal clients are being affected right now. How do they feel? What help might they need – functional or emotional? And how might they expect the brand to respond? People’s response to this crisis will vary by their basic attitude to life won’t, so it is important to align your brand’s response with its existing positioning and values or it will seem inauthentic.
"A brand is worthless if it does not connect with the right audiences in a relevant way."
3. look again at your competitors.
Every business in your industry is likely to have taken a hit in a similar way. How well you ride out the crisis will depend on responding to it more effectively than your competitors. How can your brand best ride out the turmoil? What are others not doing that may seem obvious to you. Many will be discounting and creating wow offers. Tread carefully here, a good offer will seem like a good way of helping others out but don’t start discounting because someone else is. Again think what is the one thing your ideal clients will need right now and give them that one thing for a no brainer price.
4. don’t stop your marketing.
You don’t necessarily need to do more marketing and certainly would not advocate spending or investing in new marketing efforts just yet. People generally now are spending more time online and are still buying. At the same time many big advertisers have pulled back. This creates a golden opportunity for businesses. The time to market is now – grow awareness and get your brand in-front of people. You will have more reach now for the same spend then you will ever have.
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5. come up with a new or premium offering
It may seem bonkers to come up with a new offering right now especially one that has a high price tag but despite many consumers and businesses likely spending less in the coming weeks/months, that saved capital will be burning holes in pockets when we come out of this. Perhaps offer incentives now to buy in early at a reduced cost for limited time. Brands that present us opportunities to spend that early-2020 "saved cash" will benefit later on.
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