How to market your business in a crisis: Seven experts on seven trends
While living through a pandemic offers a ready-made excuse to take each day as it comes, this approach shouldn’t be to the detriment of tomorrow. We must not be blinkered by the moment, however traumatic or dramatic that moment might be. There’s been a fair bit of trauma and drama this year but if my conversations with business and workplace leaders are anything to go by, there’s a lot more positivity out there now. It feels like the industry is slowly building back up. Hurrah. But looking forward to where you want to go isn’t enough. You have to analyse the crossroads, pick the right route and do your best to avoid the bumps in the road, too.
Covid-19 has affected every business in some way, and in these uncertain times it’s understandable that all costs are carefully scrutinised. Marketing is often one of the first expenditures to be cut, but that can be a mistake. While it’s prudent to examine costs, simply slashing budgets can leave a business losing a lifeline to its customers and struggling to recover when the situation improves. By carefully examining the market and customers’ changing needs, and adjusting marketing strategies and tactics accordingly, organisations are more likely to prosper now – and when the good times return.
While most are concentrating on the day-to-day demands of running and marketing a business in this challenging climate, the Deloitte Insights CMO network is thinking ahead. Its recent report serves as a reminder that crises often double up as catalysts for change and innovation.
The communications landscape transformed with the arrival of the Spanish Flu, for example. According to Harry McCraken’s Fast Company article, “one piece of technology promised to help life go on: the telephone.” Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone forty years prior to the outbreak of 1918, but it was still being slowly adopted by society when the virus hit. The Spanish Flu pandemic expedited that process and its popularity grew, perhaps due to newspaper ads that claimed, “people who are in quarantine are not isolated if they have a Bell Telephone”. This is a case in point that during times of crisis we rely on communication. And, a hundred years on, that fact remains.
In crazy times, people look to brands to offer a bit of sanity, familiarity and comfort. I don’t pay much attention to TV adverts but I found myself lured in and, I won’t lie, a little bit emotional during lockdown when Tesco told me together, we can do this; when Nationwide shared stories from others missing their loved ones; when Bupa reassured me that it was not just normal but OK to feel down. And it turns out I’m not alone in experiencing some sort of connection with known and trusted organisations. Following a consumer survey conducted by Deloitte, “almost four in five people could cite a time a brand responded positively to the pandemic and one in five strongly agreed it led to increased brand loyalty on their part.”
Conversely, the same poll found that brands that fail to engage are more likely to lose popularity and, of course, money: more than a quarter of those surveyed said they would walk away from brands if they noticed them acting in their own self-interest. So there’s a lot to be said for making the effort to connect with customers, to put their needs first, to tap into their thinking, and to be present.
Deloitte’s report identified seven key trends to help in that regard:
- Purpose
- Agility
- Human experience
- Trust
- Participation
- Fusion
- Talent
What better way to dissect each of these trends by turning to seven business and marketing experts. I spoke to Lizzie Neave, Robin Davies, Roya Babadi, Rachel Houghton, Allison English, James Greenwood and Matt Chapman to explore this magic seven in terms of what it actually means for the modern-day marketer.
Lizzie Neave, group marketing & communications director of Churchill Group, on purpose:
“A sense of purpose is important as it is a unifier within an organisation. Not only does it give a clear indication of what that organisation’s about externally but it also provides the ‘why’ internally, enabling employees to feel part of something and to use that sense of belonging to fully understand the part they play in making an organisation great. This is particularly important in organisations that aren’t SMEs, where it’s harder to have personal engagement with every individual. It’s also true in sectors that are highly crowded – differentiation is often sought through innovation but the individualism that forms your unique culture is also key in setting an organisation apart from competitors.
“A sense of purpose is particularly important in growing a company – both in terms of understanding the right fit of clients to work with and understanding who the right people are to take the business forward. Both of these fits are critical in creating the ‘x factor’ element to partnerships.”
Robin Davies, business development director of Freespace by Workplace Fabric, on agility:
“Agility relies on good leadership – the ability to keep calm and not panic, to think ahead, to look at the bigger picture, to act as a positive role model, and to ultimately adapt and respond quickly to events so that you are in control.
“As the country went into lockdown, Freespace’s CEO Raj Krishnamurthy convened a leadership meeting to bring the best minds together in order to move forward when everything else was standing still. We developed a return-to-work technology solution which was launched within two months of that initial brainstorm. Since then, the volume of sales has exceeded our expectations.
“Marketing has obviously played a key part in this success. Working with our PR partners Magenta we were able to double our website traffic in under a month. We’ve got more work to do but we’ve proven we can be agile and resilient, so we’ve got a head start.”
Roya Babadi, bid & marketing manager of Anabas, on human experience:
“The Covid-19 pandemic has created a sense of uncertainty and anxiety amongst consumers and employees alike. Given this environment, there has never been a more crucial time for organisations to strengthen their relationship with their customers and employees. You should never underestimate the power of a personalised and tailored message to connect on a level that builds trust and makes a virtual experience feel more human.
“The human experience has therefore become a premium for marketers, as we try to navigate through the pandemic and connect with our clients. The use of technology, in an age of social distancing, has been accelerated by the global spread of coronavirus and now is the time for marketers to recreate the human experience and build empathy with the end user of their service or product.
“Marketers should be working towards a strategy that goes above and beyond the ‘why’, asking, ‘How can we be helpful?’ As people crave a more personal connection, we should be moving towards a more human-centric approach and focus on the ‘human experience’ rather than the ‘customer experience’.”
Rachel Houghton, MD of Business Moves Group, on trust:
“Crisis or no crisis, it’s so important that brands build trust. Building trust should be there from the beginning, underpinning everything an organisation does. These are turbulent times. But it’s not a time for excuses. It’s a time for clear, concise communication that sets out goals and commitments.
“Empathy is a huge part of business – being able to understand, share and support each other makes us human. Emotional intelligence, combined with compassion, allows brands to connect with their customers on a humane and empathetic level, which bolsters trust. Thinking about the brands you trust, what do they do differently? They care. They listen. They deliver. To build trust you have to be honest, see things through and keep communicating.”
Allison English, deputy CEO of Leesman, on participation:
“Without customers, you don’t have a business, so customers must sit at the heart of any business decision or business plan. That’s why Jeff Bezos keeps an empty chair at each of his board meetings—it represents the customer and the customer’s voice. At Leesman, we’re taking that mindset with the new solution we’re creating that provides an in-moment, unsolicited reporting structure for employees to share their experience and employers to monitor sentiment drift. The first wave of customers are on the journey with us as co-creators, so we can ensure each iteration is built for their needs.
“Opening up a dialogue with customers and encouraging them to participate as influencers, brand ambassadors and collaborators is what will give marketers the biggest advantage and help organisations differentiate themselves from the competition.”
Sabrina Stubbs, Magenta consultant and former marketing consultant for JLL, Sydney, on fusion:
“Cross-industry partnerships are a great way to come together, spark innovation and creativity and be able to offer customers more value which is critical, especially in this climate. Professional collaboration - ‘fusion’ - is fundamental for evolution.
“At Magenta we work closely with IWFM, RICS and CoreNet on a voluntary basis and have been involved in helping support their communications, events and fundraising initiatives. These relationships have been fundamental in moving our industry forward, establishing and building key industry contacts and our work with these bodies has also delivered more insight and value for our clients in the built environment. 2020 has been a good illustration that together we are stronger, so this couldn’t be a more appropriate time to join forces.
“Fusion among leadership teams has been key for survival and authentic collaboration among all business relationships and will be vital in the new normal. Businesses want partners and suppliers that understand them, their motives and their goals and that can work in alignment with them to achieve common aims or support them in times of crisis.”
Matt Chapman, chief marketing & development officer of Atalian Servest, on talent:
“Since the furlough scheme was introduced in April, organisations and their marketing teams have had to make do with reduced numbers, while at the same time doing everything to ensure momentum doesn’t dip. That’s why marketers have had to push talent transformation to the forefront of their agenda. The spotlight is on marketing – as it always is when a crisis strikes – but suddenly that spotlight has hit and lit up people who would usually be offering support backstage. Crises like this pandemic mean that everybody in the business has to become a marketer of sorts. But you can’t force people in a certain direction; you have to take them on a journey with you.
“Roles and responsibilities have changed and will continue to change. Leading that change requires more than upskilling. It’s about nurturing the talent that you have to encourage more creative, innovative and ‘bigger picture’ thinking. That’s what Atalian Servest’s ONE project is about. It’s our L&D initiative – a competition where Dragon’s Den meets Britain’s Got Talent to uncover hidden talent, encourage an entrepreneurial spirit and inspire people to put forward innovative and diverse ideas. The aim is to reach and engage with colleagues at all levels and locations so everybody feels involved with the future success of the business.
“The best talent strategies should centre on ensuring people have the best chance of enhancing their careers, all while supporting marketing efforts and business needs.”
For further reading, here’s the original Deloitte Insights 2021 Global Marketing Trends report, and here’s Magenta’s guide on why now is the perfect time to market your product or service.