Marketing_through_Crisis_08.04

Marketing_through_Crisis_08.04

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  Marketing Through
 Crisis April 6, 2020 TwentyFirstCenturyBrand
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  Thisisadecisivemomentforallbrands. 2
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  Introduction One certain thingin this new era of uncertainty is that the traditional rules of marketing no longer apply. Markets and consumers are acting in ways that are unprecedented and unpredictable and we are all operating without a roadmap. The purpose of this paper is to help marketers and leaders manage their brands through this crisis both in terms of sustaining demand and playing a wider role for their communities.  Unlike the heroic key workers who we depend on, most marketers and brands will not be able to save lives, but we can help save livelihoods by using all the assets at our disposal. People want and need this help. Global data from Edelman shows that 62% of people believe their country will NOTmake it through the crisis without brands playing a "critical role" in the fight against COVID-19. So, we’ve set out to address three questions, informed by the experience of our team, our clients and our network: 3 1. 2. 3. What do people need at this moment? What principles should guide our actions? What brands can we learn from? 
 

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  1.Whatdopeopleneedatthismoment? 4 TLDR: COVID-19 hasturned Maslow’s hierarchy on its head. Brands should focus on the lower layers of the pyramid for the foreseeable future, rather than on lofty aspirational messages. Emotions are intense right now. Valuable research released last
 week byThe Outsiders shows that both skilled and manual 
 workers in the UK are feeling huge amounts of confusion, 
 fear, and anger. People are worried about themselves, their 
 jobs, their families, and their communities. Relationships 
 are under huge strain as family units adapt to restrictions 
 they never imagined.This has massive implications for 
 the tone and content of any marketing. An intuitive leap that many brands will make is 
 to the ‘we’re all in this together’ types of 
 messaging, but don’t assume this will 
 resonate. A disturbing theme is that 
 people’s trust in others is declining; 
 38% of Americans worry that they 
 can’t trust others to behave in a 
 way that’s beneficial for the wider 
 community, according toTRIPTK. But there is also an optimistic side to lockdown culture. March data from neighborhood hub Nextdoor shows a 262% increase in US conversations about help, including a 17X increase in conversation about helping local businesses.The good is coming out! Inverting the hierarchy of needs We need to rethink the traditional wisdom encouraging marketers to elevate their brand above ‘functional’ physiological and safety needs in favor of higher order values of self- actualization and potential. Right now, basic physiological and safety needs are real priorities. We shouldn’t make the mistake of attempting to address the self-actualization needs when we don’t have their house in order in terms of the basic safety needs of customers and employees. Waterstones and Amazon, among others, have caught a lot of heat here with the former initially insisting on staying open during the lockdown while staff complained of proper safety precautions.   In the simplest terms, folks want to know: • Does this brand get me and understand my needs right now? • Is this brand helping me right now? • Is this brand showing up for my community … you guessed it… right now?
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  Given this re-prioritizationof consumer needs in this moment, brands need to rapidly adapt the ways they are creating value. We’ve identified three ways to address these needs based on data analysis of thousands of different tribes of interest across the US and UK by Codec 5 Source: Codec selectedTribes from a broad range of cultural spaces and analysed over 1.3m content interactions over the month of March. 1.Whatdopeopleneedatthismoment? (cont.) Safety & Security Needs From: Telling people to stay safe at home To: Helping people stay safe at home Rather than add to the huge volume of noise telling people to stay at home think about how you can help them do it. Take inspiration from UK garage legend DJ EZ who performed a marathon 24 hour virtual live set, dedicating it to those working on the frontline, asking for people to stay at home as ‘payment’. The hashtag #stayhomewithDJEZ reached over 40m people worldwide. Staying at home is much easier for some groups than others so how can your brand can help those who most need it? Love & Belonging Needs From: Owning the national conversation To: Facilitating (lots of) local conversations Confinement is leading people to explore much deeper into their neighborhoods, communities and passions.They’re looking to join and create synchronous online moments of connection to give much needed structure to lockdown life. Local businesses are leading the way here by organising virtual tastings for whiskey and wine lovers.Think about how your brand can help these new communities convene; what content or tools could you provide? Self-Esteem & Growth Needs From: Upselling your products To: Upskilling your community Social distancing is restricting people’s access to many of their favourite brands and services.  From DIY beauty treatments to home baking, the ‘make and mend’ mentality is a constant theme in the most engaged-with content as people look to learn new skills to cope. Think about how your brand can help people learn new skills to stay safe and/or sane They might not be able to buy your product right now if you help them emulate it you’ll likely have an advocate for life. Burger King has already addressed this insight in a charming smart way but there’s so much more for brands to do here.
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  2.Whatprinciplesshouldguideouractions? 1. Empathy: Atone that is genuinely considerate of people’s needs at this time. 
 2. Generosity: Mobilize your assets & community to help those who most need it, and avoid expensive endorsements. 3. Utility & Agility: Only say and do things that add genuine value, and constantly assess what constitutes value. What was meaningful last week may be table stakes or counter- productive today.
 4. Acts not ads: Make a meaningful contribution and document the story, avoid elaborate productions. 5. Hands-on leadership: People want to see your leaders’ personal commitment to making a difference. 6. Do it your way: Run initiatives through the lens of your brand’s purpose & personality so you still build long term value. TLDR: Here are the six principles to guide brand behavior in the Coronavirus era. We recommend always hitting at least four of these for any initiative. 6
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  3.Whatbrandscanwelearnfrom? Empathy
 A tone thatis genuinely considerate of people’s needs at this time   Headspace: “Weathering the Storm” free content + free subscriptions for medical workers. 
 
 
   Bestpracticeexamplesofourkeyprinciplesinaction Audible is providing hundreds of free educational and entertaining audiobooks in multiple languages for anyone to listen to during this time, supporting working parents concerned about how they can educate and look after their children during school closures.  Is this sensitive to someone who might be worried about their health or the health of those close to them? Is this sensitive to someone who might be worried about their financial stability?  Is this sensitive to the essential workers who are continuing to work and support their local communities?  7 The 21CB team uses a simple tool to pressure test the empathy of all communications through three mindsets:
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  ££￡ 3.Whatbrandscanwelearnfrom?(cont.) Bestpracticeexamplesofourkeyprinciplesinaction Generosity
 Mobilize your assets& community to help those who most need it. Avoid expensive celebrity or influencer endorsements unless a big chunk of the fee is going to charity. FIFA: All-star footballers are using their celebrity status for good and raising funds to fight Coronavirus by playing a series of competitive matches in FIFA20. 8 The Spotify COVID-19 Music Relief project has been set up with charity partners Help Musicians, the PRS Foundation, and MusiCares, to fundraise for artists. Spotify will match donations to the relief fund up to a collective total of $10M. A separate feature will also allow fans to directly donate to individual artists through their profile page. Unilever - Introduced early payment terms for smaller suppliers, partnered with the UK govt on a £100M awareness campaign while Lifebuoy shared its adspace in India with competitors acknowledging that customers may have easier access to other brands at this moment.

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  Utility and agility
 Onlysay and do things that add genuine value.This is not a one-off moment—constantly review how to adapt marketing and product assets to the needs of your communities. Decathlon: Working with 3D printers to hack scuba gear to make ventilators. 
 Visa: pivoted its Olympic campaign to put out a series of PSAs using its ambassadors to demonstrate how to wash your hands like Olympian. GTB bank:The leading Nigerian bank moved quickly to set up a mobile self-assessment ‘pre-test’ for users and bankers, and partnered with the government to convert Lagos’s Teslim Balogun Stadium into a fully equipped, 100-bed intensive care center. Brewdog, LVMH, AB InBev: Adapted production to make hand sanitizer for hospitals and health care workers around the world. Lyft: Expanded business model to include food delivery and medical suppliers—kept staff employed and the community healthy. Ford: Joined forces with 3M to design powered air-purifying respirators that can leverage existing parts from both companies, boosting production of healthcare supplies. 3.Whatbrandscanwelearnfrom?(cont.) Bestpracticeexamplesofourkeyprinciplesinaction 9
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  Acts not ads
 Focuson what is really needed and how your assets (be it money, space, tech, or product) can meaningfully address it. Doing this and documenting it will create newsworthy content, as the likes of Apple, YouTube, and Amazon have demonstrated. 
 
 Apple launched a COVID-19 screening tool so you can see if you need testing.  
 Apple is also giving people stuck at home the chance to try out some of its professional creative applications at no cost. For example, the company is extending Final Cut Pro X's free trial period from 30 days to 90 days.  Airbnb have set a public goal of providing housing to 100,000 COVID-19 responders, the latest evolution of their global disaster response initiative which was actually inspired by a Brooklyn host in response to Hurricane Sandy in 2012. 3.Whatbrandscanwelearnfrom?(cont.) Bestpracticeexamplesofourkeyprinciplesinaction Hands-on leadership This is a human crisis and we want to see business leaders stepping up personally. Tim Cook broke open Apple's supply of masks from construction projects and donated 10 million of them, including 200,000 to his home state of Alabama. Meanwhile, the Lyft founders introduced a new driver service to deliver essential goods to those in need while also donating their salaries through June to help support drivers. 10
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  Do it yourway
 All the while running the initiatives through the lens of your brand’s purpose & personality so that you continue to differentiate and reinforce long-term equity. A clear understanding of your brand archetype is a great shorthand guide here. Pinterest and Nike, two of the brands that are responding in a coherent, creative, and authentic way, show the benefits of this in action. 
   Pinterest, guided by their mission and focus on being ‘the world’s inspiration company,’ has the clear archetype of the Muse and is framing all of its content through the line STAYINspired, while providing tailored inspiration to its communities. 
   Meanwhile, Nike has consistently adopted the Hero archetype in all its communications— encouraging its community to think of staying in as a heroic act while also donating significant funds and making premium NRC services available for free. THE MUSE 3.Whatbrandscanwelearnfrom?(cont.) Bestpracticeexamplesofourkeyprinciplesinaction 11
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  Well-intentioned but tokenisticactions A notable example is the ‘logo-distancing’ from the likes of Coca-Cola, which has generated a lot of heat for being opportunistic.This is subjective––there’s also the case that simple visual messages can cut through when people are constantly being overwhelmed with fake news and complex messaging. However, for many, Coke’s media placement at one of the world’s biggest meeting points confused the social distancing message it was promoting for many consumers. 3.Whatbrandscanwelearnfrom?(cont.) Whatnottodo 12
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  Pandemic profit mongering Ofcourse businesses have to drive demand to survive and eventually thrive again, but we need to be cognizant that this is a hyper-sensitive environment. People are also responding badly to any sense of brands capitalizing on COVID-19 with relevant but insensitive messaging—one example being Ritual, who was forced to apologize for sending insensitive CRM emails regarding Coronavirus. 
   3.Whatbrandscanwelearnfrom?(cont.) Whatnottodo 13
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  Finalword Marketing was alreadybloody complicated and now we’re writing a new playbook in real-time while trying to secure the future of our families and businesses. It’s a daunting moment, but brands have a fighting chance of making a difference if we set about it with integrity, purpose, and a clear understanding of what our communities really need. To that end, we’re partnering with cultural data gurus Codec to profile the ways Coronavirus is impacting the moods and needs of different social tribes and what they need from brands right now. Please let us know your burning questions so that we can all build this roadmap together. TwentyFirstCenturyBrand 
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  If you haveany questions, ideas, or comments on MarketingThrough Crisis, please contact steph@21cb.com - we’d love to hear them.