What Should Brands Be Doing During The COVID-19 Pandemic?
We don’t need to state the obvious about the challenges of being a brand right now. These are hard times. Things are weird, and quite frankly none of us were prepared to deal with what has become more or less a mass shut down of business. Over here at Henryk Branding Co., we’ve been quietly watching things unfold, and reflecting on what’s working and where there’s room for improvement.
There are lots of opinions floating around about what brands should or shouldn’t be doing right now. This is ours, based on our observations over the past few weeks. It’s not the first, and it’s certainly not going to be the last, but we feel compelled to share what we hope will be a few valuable ideas for your brand to consider as you navigate COVID-19.
[1] CLEAR COMMUNICATION
These days processes and procedures are changing every minute. It’s extremely important to make sure your brand is clearly communicating these changes with your audience. In the last two months, we’ve seen many instances where brands aren’t properly communicating and it results in lost customers. Your audience shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to find out how to order, how to do pick up or delivery, or how your brand is keeping customers safe. When this information isn’t readily available or is unclear, many customers are prepared to walk away without purchasing — they would rather spend their dollars with a brand who makes the buying process easy. We can’t stress enough how critical it is to clearly communicate right now.
[2] LIVING UP TO BRAND VALUES
We appreciate that it can be difficult to think about your brand values when the world has been turned upside down, but it’s during times like these that it becomes more important than ever to be operating with your brand values and purpose front and centre. If your brand holds a purpose that’s built around more than just selling products/services, what are you doing during this pandemic to continue to fulfill that? Or maybe you’re a brand with customer-centric values. Customers may not be ready to purchase from you again, but that doesn’t mean those customer-focused values should fly out the window. Why not use this as a time to help your customers out in different ways?
[3] CHECKING IN
We’re all marching knee-deep through scary, uncharted territory, and sometimes all your audience needs to know is that you care. Take the time to connect with your community, find out what they need, how you can help, and how they are feeling. Show them that you are listening and that you are human. Not only does this help you maintain those important customer relationships, but it will give you valuable insights into what your brand can be doing right now to effectively help your customer base (see #2 above).
[4] SHOW COMPASSION
Some very wise women recently shared that empathetic leaders feel the pain of their people, but can freeze up when it comes to knowing how to help. But compassionate leaders understand the pain of their people, while maintaining their ability to spring to action and help. Yes, be empathetic, but more importantly, be a compassionate brand. Whether you’re the sole employee of a company or the CEO of a large organization, remove the job title for a minute and consider all the feelings that you’re currently experiencing. Chances are, your audience and customers are experiencing the same emotions and challenges.
[5] STAY AGILE
The way we live is changing day-to-day and hour-to-hour, so brands need to stay agile and be prepared to adapt to these changes. Right now, doing what you’ve always done won’t cut it. To represent your brand in the best way possible, you need to be ready to shift your messaging again, and again, and again, to ensure that it is always relevant, considerate, and authentic. The nice thing is, people have lowered their expectations when it comes to anticipating perfectly curated content or a seamlessly executed ad strategy from a brand — we’re all okay with the realness of a shaky video filmed on an employee’s iPhone. Every brand is always trying to “be authentic” and in this moment, being authentic couldn’t be more easy.
These may not be sales-focused or high-gear marketing times, but that doesn’t mean brands should go dark. Instead, we’ve got to shift our focus, connect with our audience (maybe on a deeper level than ever before), and find innovative ways to help.
We would love to hear how you’ve been managing during the COVID-19 pandemic and what Henryk Branding Co. can do to help support your brand. Let us know in the comments below or, drop us a line at hello@henrykbrandingco.com.