Marketing Innovation: The role of Marketeers Post COVID-19

It is no news that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we do business and essentially the way we live. It is perhaps one of the most unprecedented forces of nature that we as humans have had to deal with in decades. Although COVID-19 has disrupted our lives and maybe for the foreseeable future, it has also played a defining role in acting as a catalyst to embrace innovation and excite our experiences with work, brands, and the general market atmosphere.

The experience has been quite the leveler for nations across the globe. We have witnessed similar trends as an appreciation of technology in going about daily life routines, business services, remote working, logistics and supply chain automation, etc. For brands and marketeers, the focus has quickly shifted from a dominance of traditional modes of advertising to new value creation leveraging digital and technology.

In the thick of the pandemic, most brands were quite confused about what the direction of their marketing campaigns should be especially because they did not want to seem insensitive at a time where consumers were dealing with a lot. Most people were apprehensive, scared, uncertain about their future and in some cases – just worried about their loved ones. While aggressive marketing would have been in poor taste, it would have also been a terrible business decision to be silent and absent. At the core, consumers wanted to know that brands understood what they were going through and were willing to make their lives easier.

Understanding that the COVID-19 pandemic is here to stay, it is important to start to think of and question the new role of marketeers in this era. For a long time, marketeers have been stuck in a self-created bubble of creativity where they appointed themselves creativity custodians. It is safe to say that technology has redefined that. Every industry and career vertical has had to look within; applying creativity in order to deliver value to their stakeholders. Marketeers now need to learn how to integrate their innate skills of ideation, concept development and storytelling with technology to ensure that consumers receive value that can match today’s expectations.

Imagine industries such as telecommunications, banking, agriculture, education, and power to mention a few, all these industries have been redefined by technology to simplify value delivery, reduce cost, expand reach and increase efficiency. It has gone beyond marketing to the application of creativity to product development and experiences. Can we imagine what the COVID-19 lockdown would have been without the creativity and innovation behind brands such as Amazon with its redefinition of e-commerce and logistics; Apple from fundamentally being a computer company to a technology experience giving us the iphone and the iwatch which played a role with fitness; Netflix which allowed us watch movies from the comfort of our homes when it wasn’t safe to go to the cinemas. Locally, we saw the Seven Up bottling company take advantage of its available infrastructure and human capital to create a new product line in the 2sure sanitizer which played a role in addressing demand for alcohol-based sanitizers (this has been extended in line with its evident success).

Marketeers need to apply the same level of technology appreciation to their set of competencies and value delivery. While marketeers will always be the idea merchants, this era requires a refocusing that goes beyond touting such nuances as digital marketing but also immerses itself in the redefinition of other professions to learn how ideation in itself can be a valuable asset to subject industries. Marketeers should now think of themselves as innovation catalysts who have the unique competencies to create relatable human stories which can bridge challenges and solutions. Communication should also now be developed via omni-channel strategies instead of the cliché traditional versus digital.