This COVID – 19 season is a daunting and defining moment for everyone around the globe. Marketing can be very tricky for brands during this period and as such, brands must carefully sail through these dangerous waters. One thing that is important is that brands need to be useful as much as they can to their immediate environment or communities.
Beyond the common actions taken to protect employees and businesses during a crisis, brands can either help or hinder the collective experiences of people in their community. So, when a cultural moment shifts as dramatically as it has in the face of COVID-19, it is important that brands become useful with tact, empathy, and mindful marketing.
Here is a list of 5 ways brands can be useful during the COVID – 19 pandemic:
#1. Practice Empathetic Marketing
While it is true that every brand is different, we see empathetic marketing as a basic action plan that can help brands of all sizes make the right choices and avoid serious mistakes. Even if your product doesn’t directly help people deal with the quarantine, your brand can still provide value to people. How can you show concern, educate, or inspire people stuck at home all day?
#2. Keep people informed.
Brands do need to communicate in response to the crisis, as it pertains to their business. For example, you should communicate about the proactive measures you’re taking, branch or store closures, or policy updates related to COVID-19. This adds value to customer relationships because they are informative.
#3. Be Responsible
If your brand or business is essential to people, don’t just be AWOL. Respond to comments or enquiries. During this period, being useful works because it is immediate and practical. Building on something that people know and feel comfortable with, is also easier and faster than asking them to learn or accept something new.
#4. Be Proactive
As tough and difficult as this time we are in appears, brands should not be on the fence because, customers will most certainly remember who was there when things were though. It’s time to get creative, get practical and help people through this difficult time. That’s what useful brands do. And, that’s what people need right now.
#5. Showcase How Your Brand Can Help
For sure, brands exist to provide value, and the products/services that help during this stressful time deserve the attention of those who can benefit from them. If what you do supports or enhances people’s lives while quarantined, tell that brand story.
In conclusion, this is such an important time for brands to act fast and ahead of the curve every single day. Most importantly, it is a time for brands to be as useful as possible, as long as they can.
As part of our COVID – 19 Management effort and as the measures to help contain the spread of the virus, all our staff have been working remotely during this time. However, we continue to servicie our clients and to provide quality PR, crisis management, digital, and more, support.
If you need any of our services, just send us an email via info@mediacraft.ng or call us: +2348033010074 or +23412933205-6, and we will surely get back to you.
