Marketing During Pandemics? Do not go back!
The present is the past and the future of communication!
Unlike probably the vast majority of your social media friends and “experts” out there I have no idea what will be happening in the future, what precisely will change and what are the new ways of living awaiting us at the end of this dark tunnel of COVID-19.
The history (including the one of world pandemics) has proved that people are not always good at learning from their mistakes and chances are we will be continuing our being without any changes in our social behavior later on.
However, the proper analysis of current situation will most probably help us understand what we had been doing wrong.
For me as a person of strategic communications the latest shifts in marketing has proven that the old ways of communication have long been extinct and most of the companies were doing it wrong.
As most of you do, I spend more time online these days and can’t help myself but notice the 2 major shifts in communications:
- Brands started to become more customer and situation oriented (That is, they have become more Customer Oriented and unlike the old days, they DO behave like customer oriented now)
I see them noticing the pain points of their customers and starting the search for business decisions — medications to cure those pains: “obliged to stay home — here is the free delivery for you”; “no time for going out shopping — we have gone totally online”; “Worried about the current situation — here is how our product/service can help you with that!”;
Have you noticed how relevant their communication has become?
2. There is a noticeable increase in the amount of communication from brands
Have you started seeing more and more e-mails and sponsored content from brands you had simply forgotten about? Did you notice how many of them are trying to break through the apocalyptic flow of information, trying to tell you how much of an effort they are putting in sanitizing their servicescapes or how many of them are advising you to stay home wash your hands? Have you noticed how many of them have just realized they are to be socially responsible and how many of them have started taking care of the patients or doctors engaged?
The shifts are of course good for everyone. I just assume they are a bit delayed. What I want us all is to think about whether the changes the global situation has brought around are indeed new and yet unseen.
Think for a moment:
Haven’t you (as a customer of course) always wanted your brands to be oriented on yourself rather then themselves? Haven’t you always wanted your brand to tailor their offer (be it a home delivery or distant communication) to your needs, rather than creating processes from their own perspective and pursuing the cost-minimization-customer-effort-maximization strategy? Haven’t you always been ready to pay price premium for that customization?
How many times have you tried to explain your special needs to your provider and how many times have you been disappointed with the absence of flexibility and spontaneity?
Haven’t we always wanted to feel like a tribe with and within our brands? Doesn’t it seem obvious now that the content the brands are giving us to consume should have always been this useful — giving us the resources for more simplified living?
Do you think this is the only situation the brands are to behave like socially responsible entities and help those in need around them?
Do you really think that the information quantity has increased? Or do you agree we just stumble upon more and more information in the process of searching for THE INFORMATION? Haven’t we always wanted the content to be unique and creatively disruptive?
My point is that this situation has always been here (well, not sure about the dolphins in Venice). We as marketers have just become more focused as the tension has increased and that’s none of a bad story.
I Just wish we remain this focused on our customers and their needs as the situation is normalized.
I just wish we never back on communicating every single aspect of our business to the customers.
I just wish the companies keep this way in terms of taking care of their employees and telling that to me as a consumer.
I just wish we realized that the information floods are nothing new for the universe and that communication is key to building trust and loyalty and that communication is never too much.
I wish the brands took at least this much care of us, their consumers and never stopped thinking about easing our lives.
I wish we all learned something from this situation and never went back.
Take care of yourself and the people around you.
God Bless the communication Era.
