Crisis marketing: build community as well as commodities

By Simon Cox, Founding Director, The Apple Yard

First published on The Apple Yard on Saturday 4 April 2020 2020: https://theappleyard.com/blog/crisis-marketing-build-community-and-commodities

How to offer empathy & build your tribe alongside selling a commodity

INTRODUCTION

In the last blog, I wrote about initial approaches to your marketing when faced with an existential crisis, using Joe Wicks, The Body Coach, as a central theme. Key to this were the need to review, avoid panic, build trust and continue to offer value to your audience (among other things).

This blog is about moving from the high-level review stage, taking care of any firefighting and grasping the situation to the implementation stage

RECAPPING WEEK WEEK 2 OF LOCKDOWN

As the pandemic lockdown has moved into its second week, attention has turned to past trends in similar downturns for guidance. See below for further reading on this topic.

And the message is clear: if you shrink back from your audience, whether through reducing marketing, advertising or confused messaging, you do so at your peril.

Although counter-intuitive, by continuing to invest in building your audience and demonstrating value in dire straits, (a) there is less competition and (b) your brand will be better-positioned and more prominent in your audience’s mind when you come through.

Short term pain for long term gain.

However, as I underlined last week, empathy and trust are critical factors in the mix, as people see through and are turned off by those who are seen to take advantage or are purely in it for personal gain.

“Go from ‘community over competition’ to ‘community and commodity’”

The phrase ‘community over competition’ is used often, but businesses need to survive, so my call is to ‘community and commodity’ (further reading below).

Commodity derives from the Latin commodus (definition) and has come to mean ‘an article of merchandise, anything that can be bought or sold’. Importantly, it carries the sense, ‘something useful or valued’.

So, the crux of moving from the fog of overwhelm now is not only to rally around your audience, but also seriously refine how you offer benefit and value in a compelling way that still wins you sales.

What can we do to take these principles and apply them practically to our contexts?

Here are my reflections based on conversations with previous clients - thanks to Abigail Wastie, a creative artist based in Derby in this instance - looking at how to develop and implement new products and services.

Here’s what Abigail said after our conversation:

“Simon’s chat was extremely useful from a technical perspective, but he has also given me the information to have a more cohesive marketing strategy and utilise tools like Google My Business far better than I was before. I really appreciated his kindness. It can be lonely working on you own and it is so rare for anyone else to understand the nitty-gritty of my business infrastructure. Simon took the time to understood mine precisely, making his advice all the more relevant and effective.”

— Abigail Wastie, tapestry artist & sustainable maker

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TAKE YOUR REVIEW & GET A GRIP

Last time we stepped back to get an overview - critically important to avoiding panic - but the clock is still ticking and others are getting their act together, so it’s really important to ground the information we have gathered.

A short Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats (SWOT) exercise can be very revealing, and quick, and here are five to ten minutes of insights I drew out with Abi.

If you’d like a handy template for doing a SWOT in the current COVID-19 lockdown or with a view to a similar existential crisis, I’ve put together a simple template here, in which I’ve added some extra explanatory notes.

GET YOUR TEMPLATE

STRENGTHS

• I have an existing engaged audience on Instagram
• Up until the lockdown, people were happily buying my workshop places
• My branding and visual identity are attractive and coherent with professionally-taken photos of myself and work
• I can develop and sell new products - my new test product line sold out rapidly
• I have a high open- and click-rate on my email list via MailChimp
• I know lots of people who have the time and skills to help me a low or no cost at the moment

WEAKNESSES

• My time and capacity are limited because of family and homeschooling demands
• Video and technology are not my strongest skills
• I don’t have capital to invest or emergency reserves to draw on
• I’m managing my own mixture of emotions in the lockdown
• It’s just me, so I am juggling everything
• I don’t have loads of time and space to think strategically

OPPORTUNITIES

• People are on social media like never before in the lockdown!
• People are bored and cooped up at home with time on their hands
• There is a new openness to hobbies, crafts and doing things at home
• People desperately want an escape and encouragement
• There’s a higher awareness of mental health generally
• The market is generally a bit more open

THREATS

• Current severe economic downturn
• Widespread uncertainty, fear and anxiety
• People are spending less and managing expenditure

After your SWOT and a quick review, the key openings should start to appear, plus you should be more aware of what to watch out for, which will allow you to get much more practical now.

PRIORITISE

Your SWOT will still have thrown up quite a bit to chew on, and you can get way more detailed with it (for example, adding categories like, economic, political, geographic, social media etc.), but you need to foster a sense of urgency to move the key things into implementation.

I use an aspect of a planning exercise I learned in the Army, which is brilliant for this, which focusses on factors and deductions.

Here are the insights Abu and I came up with.

FACTORS

1. People are buying my new product line that I tested out recently
2. I can’t make everything (videos, assets etc.) perfect at the moment
3. I’ve got a high open- and click rate on my newsletter
4. There’s more of an open playing-field in my sector for my products
5. I know people who have time and actively want to help me right now

DEDUCTIONS

1. I will develop and build on the products that are resonating with my audience

• I’m going to be agile with my product development and follow demand where it is
• I’m not going to be afraid to stop and adjust where required

2. I’m going to get things out of the door

• Better to deliver value and generate sales and refine after
• Now is not the time for perfection; do that later
• Embrace the economic necessities in order to drive my product innovations
• How is the time as an entrepreneurial business owner to show my mettle!

3. I’m going to build around my existing warm audience on my mail list

• I will focus my energy on direct marketing and messaging to my audience as they have time and attention in this unqiue time
• I’m going to continue to add value through sharing insights and my expertise
• I’m not going to falling into hard selling but show empathy and give

4. I’m going to take advantage of the opening to put my business in a better position in the long run!

• I’m going to summon confidence to step into my market fully and take a risk
• I believe in my business, what I do and my values, so focus on its long-term success
• I want to be in the market to offer hope, certainty and encouragement if others aren’t

5. I’m going to work with my skilled friends to prepare for future growth

• While my brand advocates have time and capacity, I will take them up on their offers
• I’ll use these low-risk collaborations to plan how to out-source key skills in future
• This will help me test out how I can build capacity by working with others so I can grow my business

Within hours of this conversation with Abi, she had already implemented some key findings that were critical for her business in moving forward with empathy and impact. And that’s how effective this small exercise can be, giving you confidence and focus to get things done.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT

My conversation with Abi also focussed on some practicalities, and so things crystallised for her with the following results:

• Abi went away and optimising her Google My Business (GMB) profile and worked on incorporating its tools into her marketing workflow
• Why? Because GMB is a powerful platform and tool for reaching your audience, particularly in a locality, without too much extra time and effort
• Within hours, Abi had got a new blog and MailChimp newsletter out of the door, focussed on sustainable eating and living
• So what? These areas are both core to her brand, plus she is showing expertise to her highly engaged audience, as well as providing value to those at home who want to maintain a sustainable lifestyle
• The newsletter also included appropriate calls to action to buy her paid products, so the combination of the two is powerful for her business

If you’d like a chat about your business and how to navigate through an existential crisis with empathy and impact, do get in touch.

RESOURCES

Etymology of commodity https://www.etymonline.com/word/commodity

Definition of commodity https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/commodity

Kirsten Martin (Squarespace Studio) talks about how ‘community over competition’ works

Articles on the long term benefits of advertising in an economic downturn:

Thought leaders on LinkedIn:

• Dan Kelsall: Marketing when you haven’t a peanut
• Lucy Handley: Acts not ads - The fine line between being helpful and flogging stuff on the back of a crisis
• Frank Raczon: Most of your competitors are going to drop their schedules and run from marketing like it was on fire. This is an opportunity
• Max Heppleston: Focus on values and market share, and when this recovers history suggests that you will reap the rewards!