What your brand CAN do during Lockdown

Authored by Shiraz Khan, Founder Director, Spicetree Design Agency (SDA)

Coronavirus from being an unprecedented public health crisis is racing towards becoming an economic crisis. We have restricted travel, movement between cities/states/countries in an attempt to comprise the deadly coronavirus. With many countries on indefinite lockdown, brands need to comprehend how to do business in these complex and novel circumstances.

Many businesses have been closed down completely by these restrictions, while some have had an easier transition to remote working. Having said that, there is no business left unaffected by the coronavirus outbreak.

Currently, business owners should converge towards looking after their people, interacting with their customers and working out on ways to access possible support. Most noteworthy, each and every business will need to adapt to persist. They’ll need to find new ways to operate, new ways to offer value and new ways to find, engage and sell to their customers.

Though there is a constant debate on whether or not to continue to spend on marketing and advertising in a time like this. The answer is quite subjective to the brand, the kind of product or service that are offered.

Here is what you should consider as a Brand during the lockdown period to sustain:

Make your brand broadcasts relevant messages: Consider your brand message to be appropriate to the current situation. Surely, you would not be happy to encounter communications that are inconsiderate and lack empathy towards the situation.

Audit and optimize your strategies to bounce back stronger: There is no denying the fact that demand is going to rebound, so make sure you are ahead of your competition when it does. The coronavirus lockdown is the supreme time to audit your business and get started on a big re-optimisation project. You should re-evaluate what their consumers necessitate during these stressful times.

Provide value to your audience: Concede with your audience and identify the problems they have that you can solve. You should take this opportunity ‘to shine’ as lockdown takes a toll on consumer confidence. See this as an opportunity to be noticed, rather than keeping quiet.

Negotiate on the possibilities: We exist and operate in a flimsy ecosystem. If individuals and businesses stop buying and stop paying their bills, the economy will grind to a halt and we’ll be in a global depression long after the quarantine has lifted. It’s natural and right for businesses to think of their survival, but we also need to work together.

Keep the engagement high: Ensure that you have the foundation in place to engage your audience during and after the crisis. Though the ways you use to correlate with your consumers are not practically possible now, just invent different methods. Keep consumers engaged with different things like live-sessions, online games, informative/educative videos, something around your brand concept. Ex - Restaurants can do videos on preparing a dish.

Show your consumers their value: An act of gratitude gets cut through even during a global crisis. Brands using their market position to be helpful during the coronavirus outbreak will have a positive consequence. Explicate your consumers that you are nevertheless here during this crisis.

Offer real value now for more sales later: You or your customers may decide that sales have to take a backseat when the surroundings are grim and the economy is bad. But as a brand try to offer real value now, maybe offer freebies. After the initial concussion, businesses and individuals will buy again. How you deal with the crisis now may shape consumer views beyond.

Avoid making fun of the situation:  Finally, if you unconditionally require to run promotions for your brand, please avoid having cringing promo and headlines. It may sound elementary to make out from the crisis, but not suggested to perform in hope to capitalise on the situation. This can turn out to be a major fail, damaging the reputation of your brand instead.

“This is the time you can build great amounts of brand equity if you’re in sync with how consumers are thinking or feeling."

Remember that this state is fleeting, COVID-19 is generating challenges for businesses worldwide. Currently, it is essential to stay healthy, stay positive and keep going.