Build—Don’t Destroy—Your Brand: How can your brand respond on purpose in a crisis?

Everyone's life and work is experiencing some level of disruption during this pandemic. Through our work, we have an opportunity to lead with our unique purpose and gifts. The pressure is on.

I’ve been in touch with clients and heard people who are feeling pressured to keep the sales funnel full. If you’re trying to sell, you may be doing it in a way that will bruise or damage your brand.

How hard is it to destroy, or damage our brand?

It’s not. Today I received an email from a colleague who is the current President of an organization of business owners. He began his email: Hi All, Another week, another $200k in lost monthly revenue for me – I hope your business is doing better than mine!

Yuk. Horrible negative intro: it’s self-focused and dripping with self-pity. Being others-focused is the key to success. Ironically, the first place to start to look outward is to have a solid standing on who your brand is inwardly.

This may not be the first crisis your business has faced. Still, we’re all navigating its economic and emotional impact on a national—and global—scale for the first time. With mammoth obstacles, it’s exciting to see people leading others through this.

Take Positive Action on Purpose

Do these three things today to keep your business and your team focused on your mission and thrive – this storm is temporary, but what you do now will have an impact for years.

1. Fulfill your purpose. 

Be clear about the purpose of your business. If this seems trite, think again. Now is the time, and always has been, to serve. When you serve through your unique mission and purpose, your brand will naturally grow.

Paletz Law

Mission: to enforce the rights of landlords and protect their real estate investments. COVID-19: Resources for Housing Providers

The Coronavirus pandemic has resulted in a lot of uncertainty in society, including for rental housing providers. Our blog this month highlights key links that may assist landlords and property managers.

2. Live your brand. 

Pull out your company’s Brand Blueprint: your guiding principles that include your core values, your brand’s mission, and vision. It’s too easy to get sidelined and let these foundational pieces get lost in the fog of a crisis. Evaluate your responses to the crisis in light of these and how you will let them be a central part of working out your company’s responses.

First, remind yourself and your leadership team what your purpose is and how you can continue to serve people with the unique gifts you have.

Second, cast your vision with your entire team.

MichBusiness, Corp! Magazine, Best & Brightest Companies

Jennifer Kluge, CEO of MichBusiness, Corp! Magazine, and Best & Brightest Companies, inspired her team and geared up for service as the storm clouds of quarantine were moving in.

“She was ahead of the curve,” said Judy Perry, Senior Director Best & Brightest. “Jennifer brought the team together and reminded us that we are about helping businesses, and we’ll continue to do that in any way we can. She got us set up remotely early on, and we were ready to go when the quarantine hit. We were able to transition our March event in Houston, Texas, to a fully digital experience, and it was exceptional—beyond what I expected.”

Jennifer is convinced that MichBusiness will come out of this crisis a stronger and a better company: her team believes it too.

3. Make and work your plan. 

Meet with your leadership team, or your employees, depending on the size of your company, and brainstorm ways you can serve your team, your customers, and your community. You are in business to bring a unique solution and solve a problem for your customers. How can that serve others in this crisis?

If a pillow company can shift to producing 50,000 masks a day, and breweries can turn the dial to bottle hand sanitizer instead of beer, what can we do with the unique talents we have?

Salon Owner

A friend’s stylist had to close her salon. What business is she in? Pampering and making people feel attractive in their skin. So, she’s contacting clients, coaching them with beauty tips, even shipping their unique color mix to their homes.

Wedding Planner

Rather than seek sympathy for her business woes, a wedding planner in Virginia has a disciplined focus. She’s tuned-in to the disappointment and sorrows of her customers who’ve had to cancel one of their most important life-events.

She moved quickly and began sending them a “Wedding in a Box.” The wedding-care packages are filled with the essentials to have a quarantine-compliant ceremony—with reassurances that the special celebration will happen at the right time. We may have a new trend: #2020pandemicweddings.

More brilliant responses from B2B companies who are in tune with their brand’s mission: they are serving.

Small Business Association of Michigan

Mission: to work for the success of Michigan’s small businesses.

The SBAM team is updating their website with current news about the COVID-19 crisis, including Facebook Daily Updates at 3 PM. to help Michigan businesses navigate legal & financial obstacles & opportunities.

C-12 Group

Mission: to equip Christian CEOs and business owners to build great businesses for a greater purpose.

Within days of the quarantine, they delivered a well-conceived  COVID-19 Risk Mitigation Tool. The tool will help you and your leadership team identify risk factors created by COVID-19 and then brainstorm how to convert those risks into short and long-term opportunities.

The DiJulius Group: Customer Service Revolution

Mission: to provide the best Customer Service content, education, consulting, and training, to allow our clients to become the brand their Customers cannot live without.

Our own experience with The DiJulius Group is that they have a passion for connecting people with genuine compassion. That’s why this video makes sense two days after the quarantine. VIDEO – Making Memories and Connecting in Meaningful Ways Under Quarantine

Auburn Hills Chamber of Commerce

Mission: to be at the heart of the community, connecting their members and to opportunities for commerce.

The team at the AHC has been on top of this crisis since Day 1. They put out a Call for Chamber members who can help other chamber members and support Auburn Hills first responders.

Implement your plan.

While events unfold, we realize how quickly we need to adapt. A plan we make today may not work two weeks from now. No one knows how this pandemic will run its course. While we don’t want to be hurried and careless, we need to move at a good clip.

Take some risks.

For years we have encouraged clients to add video and webinars to their messaging channels. Now, with reporters throughout the world conducting interviews from their home offices and backyards, the pressure to be perfect is gone.

Executive Wealth Management

As private wealth advisors, their mission is to focus on developing and sustaining enduring relationships through compassionate understanding of their clients’ needs.

The leadership team is acutely aware of the concern many of their clients have during this time of crisis. While working diligently to contact each client by phone, they want to make a way to stay in touch and keep clients informed with daily changes. So, the EWM team is preparing for their first webinar at record-breaking speed and creating in-house videos to keep their clients informed.

TIP: Review your current marketing channels and messages. They may come off as too sales-y during this pandemic. What was appropriate and humorous in a prospering time, can come off as cavalier or trite during a time of crisis.

• Remove ads that are out of character for this season of crisis
• Shift your social media strategy to inspiring and informative messages
• If you have automated email campaigns set up, make sure they are not arriving in your customers’ and prospects’ email inboxes with ill-timed messages.

Our teams, the market, and our communities are depending on us. This is what we do.

You have examples, too.

During the coronavirus pandemic, you’ve seen those leaders and companies who inspire others and lead with a positive perspective and courageous commitment.

We’d love to see this list grow with companies who are fulfilling their brand mission and purpose. Please take a minute to share them in the comments below. (And take another minute to leave a positive review for them online—let’s reward them with a shining 5-star brand review!