Managing your brand through the coronavirus crisis

Rebecca Ariyo
3 min readNov 17, 2020

In moments of a crisis, most businesses find themselves in unfamiliar territory, and managing your brand through the coronavirus pandemic seems to become a challenge.

Marketers, to be specific, are left more confused about their pending marketing campaigns. Also, they have to restructure their campaigns to suit the prevailing circumstances. Nevertheless, as a business you must decide if this is your crisis.

Don’t rush to weigh in on others’ crisis. But take note of what is going on. How is it affecting your customers, community and other stakeholders? It is at this point that you will craft a marketing strategy that will keep your brand strong throughout the epidemic.

Below, we’ll look at ways of managing your crisis through the prevailing coronavirus crisis.

Always give your best

In brand management, reputation is everything. Yes, we understand the coronavirus pandemic comes with its fair share of problems for businesses, but that doesn’t mean you allow your brand equity to fall. So, as long as you are operational, give your best. If you are an airline, avoid delays. If you are small business or eatery, make sure the food is good. Customers will be loyal to businesses who deliver. Even a start-up business should give the best service as an advertising tool.

Associate your brand with virtue

American activist, Martin Luther once said, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. “The same applies to bands. People remember brands for their good acts during a crisis.

Despite the harsh terrain that most companies use at such times, it is only those brands that remember to engage through charitable events that will stand out. However, as you donate foods, medicines, masks etc, never expose that you’re giving is commercially oriented. Instead, it should be done to help the community.

Take an agile approach to media coverage

As the crisis evolves, there is a need for more creative messaging, while still marketing your brand. Of course, this is a time when social distancing, sanitizing and wearing of masks are dominant phrases. Capitalize on these to drive your message home.

Beyond creativity, also target an optimal mix of media to reach as many people as possible. Already, video streaming is increasingly becoming a favourite spot for marketers. Make use of it and other avenues to ensure your brand message is relayed as widely as possible.

Track market trends

Of course, nobody knows how long the covid-19 crisis will last. But if we are vigilant at tracking events and building scenarios, our marketing may remain relevant throughout the pandemic. By measuring sentiment and consumption trends across several social media platforms, marketers will structure their messaging to suit the client’s preferences.

Adopt remote workplaces

The covid-19 pandemic has shifted the way we work. Increasingly, most companies are now allowing remote workers. Working from home has ceased to be a preserve of freelancers. Since we don’t know when the pandemic will end, working from home will continue. Marketers should therefore devise a mechanism of working remotely in a collaborative manner. Through the deployment of collaborative technologies, marketers will remain productive throughout the pandemic.

Flexibility is the way forward when managing your branding and marketing — contact Olori Marketing to find out how we can partner with you during this time.

Photo by Edwin Hooper on Unsplash

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Rebecca Ariyo
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Owner of Olori Marketing. Talking about all things Tech, Brand & Marketing Strategy.