Covid-19 requires your brand to recalibrate and take immediate action
Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, Boy Building a House of Cards, 1735, The Rothschild Collection
Recognize the new era
Brands regardless of size, will need to recognize that from this time forward, their relationship to their customers is forever changed. The connection between audience, user, viewer, etc. is being fundamentally altered by recent events. The objective to become extremely adaptive, self-critical and socially aware - qualities that even pre-virus era were already a stumbling block for most companies - have become the only option to stay relevant from these days on. No brand is exempt from this challenge and the mobilization of resources towards rethinking your brand from the ground up needs to start right this second. What will connect you during and post a Covid-19 world? Will customers believe in you? More importantly can they lean on you and what value do you bring to a world with amplified self-awareness?
Answer the challenge
To think that once #stayathome has become #backtonormal, commuting restarts, shops and cubicles reopen, things will be back as we have known it, is an illusion. We cannot ignore the psychological component of this time that will be the impeding fallout of this period. Mistrust, anxiety, suspicion, and a re-calibrating of what constitutes value, impulse and aspirations are just few of the new inputs that need focusing when re-considering your brand and its actions. This doesn’t even include the redefinition of what ‘social’ and ‘responsible’ means (a philosophical recalibration of that is literally happing while you read this). This time is your brand’s come-to-Jesus moment and there is no end to it. And in truth, there never really was: The need to be constantly critical about a brand’s role, purpose and responsibility in society has been the answer to brand vitality for a long time. However, it comes with a courage that most companies have always shied away from. It means asking tough questions, disrupting that what has always worked so well and to be ok with opening conversations that are generally ‘making things difficult’.
Don’t delay
Things are difficult enough now that it will either force a rethinking of who you are, or it will lead to a swift falling out of consumer favor. Don’t wait for the government to tell you that you are back in business to get started or spend this purgatory stasis trying to think up ways to bring things back to ‘normal’ when the time comes. Use this time to reposition yourself. To re-define your brand’s value, be it metaphysical or practical. Outline new management objectives to quickly explore and implement new ways to play a role in your customers lives that ring true to who you are and what your product is. This is a chance to part ways with the empty promises we have seen plastered on billboards for too long. The opportunity to play a meaningful role opposed to running a successful marketing campaign. This is not about creating impactful experiences, but about asking what impact actually means. And what people need. Mentally and physically. The answer is certainly not in your logo and your brand’s looks but in your brand’s actions. And it will be for some time.