Adapting to the New Normal!

An Overview of the Pandemic

After a testing period of almost a year, life seems to be almost returning to normal. Now the vaccine has just started being administered however there appears to be an overwhelming feeling of hope and a belief that all would soon be well.

However, this is a good time to reflect on all the learning's that as marketers we picked up through the pandemic. And also to think about the new skills that have become must haves in the tool kit of a new age marketer. 

If I reflect back to last March, while initially we all felt disoriented & confused. However, it didn’t take long for us to reach out to our agency partners & start building the plan for what lies ahead & how will we try and make the most of it.

The first realization was that any natural disaster does last 6 to 9 months, before humanity starts bouncing back into a natural rhythm. Integrating learnings, adapting & then thriving again, into the new reality. The four phases of the pandemic that we then defined were the Breach, Crisis, Resilience & the Renewal phase.

The first phase is the Breach phase that we saw between March – May where there was wide spread disbelieve and consumers were anxious & confused. Consumers were seeking information and Brand stepped in to provide the same.

The next phase of the pandemic was the Crisis phase that we saw between May – July where there was a lot of concern for ones loved ones, a fear losing the jobs and their livelihood. It was a time where we all developed OCD and spent massive amounts of time cleaning & sanitizing. I was myself worried that my stash of Scotch is about to run out.

I guess around Aug, when the Resilience phase started, we all became comfortable with the pandemic & our society entered the resilience phase. Here we adopted new behaviors and new habits. While the vaccine was nowhere on the horizon yet, we all had a feeling that maybe this is not all that bad and a sense of optimism started setting in.

And I would say that we all started entering the Renewal phase around Nov- Dec as Open ups were announced and we entered, what’s famously being referred to as the New Normal.

Key Communication Passion Points

Now, 2020 was not a great year for most, yet I believe many Brands did do well for themselves and how they managed it was through the 7 Key Passion points that they identified and invested in.

The first of the 7 passion points were ‘Spreading Awareness’, I believe many Brands took on the mission of educating India on the fact that all that needed is to wash your hands and brands like Dettol, Lifebuoy did this particularly well!

The next of the 7, was about ‘Things to do at Home’, and I was particularly surprised to see how soon Surf Excel reacted with ‘Daag Ghar par Rahaingay’. They explained that now we can’t tell you to allow your kids to roll in the mud, but they can still make a mess of your walls and don’t worry, Surf Excel is always there to clean them up.

Next were Brands which invested in helping the consumer ‘Celebrate their Home Time’. And a number of Brands then invested in unique Cooking Shows.

There was then definitely a role of ‘Appreciation & Gratitude’, Amazon of course took the cake by celebrating their employees.

Post which was the time for ‘Support & Solidarity’ and Parle G donating 3 Crore packs definitely won them a number of eye balls

Of course as the Open up started, Brands like Mc Donald and Dominoes assured consumers about ‘Their Safety Protocols’.

And who can forget how moment marketing through ‘Vocal for Local’, became a buzz word. Something I refer to as ‘Free Riding on Topicality’.

Adapting to the New Normal

However, as we get into the New Normal and the Marketing Play book continues to evolve the Big 7 Themes that I am focusing on are:

1. How do I best continue to leverage E-commerce as there has been a huge spike in this segment, but more importantly there are a large number of trialists who have used E-commerce at least once & will continue to need investment & engagement to make it a behavior.

2. OTT Platforms are the new media on the block and we are all keen to understand how smart TVs and the growth of platforms like hot star allows us marketers to reach out to the elusive millennial who refuse to switch on their TV sets

3. What was YouTube & Facebook a decade back is now Spotify and Gaana and us as marketers are yet to figure of the creative units that best work here. It took us some time to understand that TVCs need to be made that even work on mute. Now we need to make creative units that work well on new emerging platforms like Spotify, and crass radio ads don’t cut ice here.

4. How best to use Online Payments and Digital wallets for gratification. I guess cash backs seem obvious, however I don’t think we have scratched even the surface of all that can be done here.

5. Moment Marketing: With all of India finally being engaged by the same experiences, the role of moment marketing is definitely going to grow and I don’t think even our current Digital agencies have the capability to tap into these. We need a blend of Social Listening and Conversation Marketing which is an emergent field.

6. A listers as Influencers: We had so far Bollywood stars and influencers. I feel the pandemic blended the two, which made the whole role of influencer marketing far more main stream rather than something we ‘also’ did.

7. Hyper Local Services & Society Marketing: The consumer expects Brands to come far closer to them. Retail stores like Nike & Lifestyle have made Society stores a part of their play book. However, how will food brands leverage forums like Foodie buddy is something that I am keen to observe!

I guess these trends have been growing for some time. However the pandemic has enormously accelerated the growth of the same and made the fringe mainstream. The agile will definitely thrive and it’s an opportunity to invest and to gain a sustainable advantage. And of course to have some fun experimenting with these avenues!