Lean into “Brand for Good” and Make This Moment Matter
How is your brand showing up in this crisis?
How your brand shows up in a crisis says a lot about the brand and your company. We are living through a moment of truth, a brand defining event. Brand leaders are presented with an opportunity to demonstrate what your brands really stands for, what you’re committed to, the type of brand and business you are. Can you meet the moment and make it matter?
Because frankly, you can’t fake caring. You need to “Brand for Good” from the heart and that starts with leadership. We’ve been talking about this concept of “Brand for Good” since 2016, and now is as important a time as ever to embrace the concept.
To start, become hyper-customer focused.
Right now, this crisis is not just about the impact it’s having on your business and products. Of course, you have to attend to matters of business health. Yet, if you don’t take care of your customers, more problems will ensue. This time is just as much about the impact the crisis is having on your customer. Most of you don’t need to be told that, but those who are more product-focused may not be as tuned in to customer needs.
As you consider your customer, one thing you’ll need to recognize if you haven’t already observed it in your own behavior is that consumer mindsets will be regularly shifting as we evolve and adjust to what the crisis demands of us next… and then next. Customer behavior will change to accommodate new demands and short-term, ever-changing norms. So, listen closely to your customers and have empathy for them. You must step into their shoes and seek to understand their deep needs, from the functional to the emotional. Look for firms that are doing regular consumer connections to learn what’s important over time. Consider investing in your own ongoing (e.g., weekly, monthly) research starting now to keep a pulse on your consumers’ needs. Leverage social channels for always-on listening. Set-up a Covid-19 consumer panel to allow you to talk and engage with consumers regularly and directly. Get your marketers talking to consumers themselves.
Beyond that, reviewing several research studies and considering The Agency Oneto’s own perspective on Branding for Good, here are a few areas to focus on at this time to best serve and engage with your consumers:
Be present, transparent, and responsible.
Don’t disengage at this time. Consumers are expecting businesses to step up and demonstrate leadership and responsibility to society, their employees, and customers. Be transparent in the actions you are taking and be genuine in your communications. All will further build trust. And be ready to stay in this for the long haul. Just listening to California’s approach to coming out of the shelter-in-place order suggests we aren’t going back to “normal” for likely a year and more.
Looking to examples for being present and taking responsibility, we think of Coca-Cola turning over its social channels to organizations such as the American Red Cross, Boys & Girls Club, Feeding America, and Salvation Army, leveraging its large following to spread these organizations’ messages.
Gap Inc. and the Gap Foundation in late March announced a $1 million donation to non-profits to support underserved families during the crisis. They also were supplying millions of masks and gowns to healthcare workers. Finally, they were offering space in their facilities for first responders. Clearly, Gap was present, looking for needs, and acting responsibly to fulfill them. They communicated their actions directly on their social channels.
Starbucks was excellent at communicating early in the crisis what it was doing to adjust its services to both protect its workers and continue to serve its consumers. The communications were responsible, heartfelt, and transparent.
Be of service… not self-serving.
Not surprisingly, consumers are sensitive to brands that exploit the current situation. Instead, according to Kantar’s recent study, almost 80 percent of respondents in its study agreed that companies “should talk about how they could be helpful in the new everyday life.”
To accomplish this, we’d suggest asking yourself questions, such as:
How does my brand’s purpose and values guide the role we should take in this crisis and the contribution we can make to society?
What specific actions are we willing to take to serve that mission? How can we do so in a sustainable manner to contribute over time?
What guidance do we need to give to our teams to guide brand and employee activity and behavior in this moment?
Who are all my stakeholders and how do we need to show up for each of them?
Are there new consumer needs we can serve and problems we can solve with current or new offers or through content?
Under these circumstances, is our path to purchase as seamless and frictionless as possible? What new features can we implement to reduce friction?
Are we practicing Integrity Marketing? Is our tone appropriate to our brand and our role in the culture? Is our brand emotionally resonant with our consumers? Are we speaking to consumer motivations, not setting expectations? Are we being tone deaf?
Serving customers doesn’t have to feel like a big ask. Perhaps your brand purpose is about bringing the family together over meal times. If so, you could offer conversation starters for families, games to play at the dinner table, or recipes for family meal making. Hormel executed something a bit more functional, but still helpful. The brand hosted an Instagram Live with chef and caterer Vanessa Cantave and HGTV personality Laurie March to demonstrate brunch ideas featuring one its products.
Diageo North America is serving bartenders and the restaurant industry, donating up to $1 million, by showcasing bartenders’ recipes and asking consumers to share back their cocktail images on social media. This effort does double-duty—providing tips to consumers sheltering at home and donating to those who have lost income.
P&G was called upon by Ohio’s governor (Ohio is the company’s home state) to help get the word out to young Americans to take physical distancing orders seriously. The company answered the call and engaged Grey, its agency, to create a campaign called #DistanceDance on TikTok with a 15-year old influencer. The video reached 8.7 billion views globally and 1.7 million response videos. P&G’s resources and reach thankfully got the word out beyond Ohio.
Many additional service examples abound from Zoom offering free product to educators, &Pizza offering free pizzas to their employees and hospital workers, and Google and Apple collaborating to provide a solution for contact tracing, while protecting people’s privacy.
Be positive.
We already knew this year was going to be a tough one with the election, so The Agency Oneto anticipated the need for brands to offer some positivity amidst the noise. It’s doubly important now. According to Kantar’s study, 60+ percent of consumers agreed that brands “should offer a positive perspective.” In our 2020 Trend Forecast, we had suggested brands:
Build your brand’s soft power and lead with purpose and values
Offer kindness and positivity
Offer consumers a respite and delight
Help bring people together
These continue to hold true.
Some positive examples that have resonated thus far include advertising such as Guinness’ St. Patrick’s Day message. It’s worth a watch even now; it will make you feel good, promise.
Disney added some cheer and relief for parents (or maybe not after multiple replays) by releasing Frozen 2 early on Disney+.
Old Navy is doing a particularly good job of being a bright spot amidst this serious pandemic, communicating on its social channels in a very on-brand way, setting the right, positive tone.
Be people first.
For years consumers have been looking for businesses and brands to step up and care about people and society beyond just their shareholders. In today’s environment that means being “people first,” considering consumers, employees, those on the front lines, and broader societal needs.
What does that mean for consumer? Meet their needs. That could be ensuring product availability to developing new products to meet current unmet needs. It could mean widening your view of stakeholders to be more inclusive to considering emotional needs, not just functional.
For employees, consumers want you to care them. According to Edelman’s Trust Barometer Special Report, 78 percent of respondents said, “Businesses have a responsibility to ensure their employees are protected from the virus in the workplace and do not spread the virus into the community.” In Kantar’s study, ~80 percent of respondents wanted employers to “worry about their employees’ health, sanitizing workplaces.”
Consumers are calling on companies and brands to donate to people on the front lines. And on a societal level, they look to companies to put their knowledge, technology, and resources to bear to help solve the challenges we’re facing.
It’s important to recognize that there are many companies and brands stepping up. To be sure, there are some that are not, but businesses also need to survive in order to rehire workers as we come out of self-isolation and manage through the phases to come.
On the people-first side, consider Netflix offering Netflix Party to help us connect from a distance while live-streaming shows and movies, or U-Haul offering 30-days of free self-storage to college students. Take Mark Cuban who is paying his hourly employees during this time when they can’t work, recognizing and sharing his own good fortune. AllBirds offered free shoes to all NHS workers. Many are donating food to hospital workers who can’t care for themselves while they are fighting Covid-19. And, we saw LVMH convert factories to make hand sanitizer, increasing the much-needed supply.
Lean into “Brand for Good” and make your brand matter.
Yes, we are in a unique moment in time. Not just because of the virus, but also for what this time demands of businesses, leaders, and the brands they manage. How will you show up? Can you demonstrate genuine care? If you lean into Brand for Good, you have the opportunity to make your brand matter in this moment and make it stronger in the months and years to come.
Sources:
“What’s next: Steering brands through COVID-19,” Ogilvy Consulting.
“Covid-19 Barometer,” Kantar, March 2020.
“A regularly updated list tracking marketers’ response to coronavirus,” Adweek.
“Special Report: Brand Trust and the Coronavirus Pandemic,” Edelman Trust Barometer 2020.
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The Agency Oneto is a disciplined yet agile business and brand strategy agency whose mission is to partner with leaders to make a positive impact on their business and brands and for their consumers and teams, unlocking potential.
We do work in Business Strategy, Brand Strategy, Portfolio Strategy, Brand & Product Positioning, Brand Architecture, Marketing Strategy, Content Strategy, Innovation Strategy & Process, Consumer Insights, and Trend Studies.
We also lead workshops and facilitate strategy and business planning sessions, provide advisory services, and offer Executive Coaching.