Not all Positives are Negatives in the Time of Pandemic

In the times of pandemic is it good to do away all marketing? The answer would be obviously NO. During such crisis, it becomes imperative for the ‘brands,’ to remain connected with their customers. However, nCOVID 19 crisis is unknown zone and no brand was prepared for this. In such crisis hour, when there's immense panic across the globe and pan India, brands across categories are going the extra mile to ensure the safety of their products. The country is cruising through bad weather with three-week lock-down due to nCOVID19 outbreak. People are running out of essentials, maintaining social distancing, stock market crashing while others are testing positive and battling for life in isolation. Society is panic gripped. During such severe hardships what stories would brand tell their consumers? Any brand communications would be perceived and labelled as opportunistic statements. The need at this hour is to spread social messages through prevalent media vehicle. Let us have a look at some of the communication. In this hour of crisis, people need support and brands demonstrate as a ‘back-up support,’ through their communication. In this process, if a brand clicks correctly, they could possibly win customers for life. Brands can’t remain silent and wait for the crisis to get over. Connectivity is the order of the era; hence brands are required to find prospects that will enable them to develop customized solutions and maintain long-term relationships with their customers while maintaining suggested distancing. Brands obviously looks for sensitive, innovative and cost-effective ways to converse during this difficult time. Unless it is an essential offering, brands do not make attempts to sell as this does not add value in a pandemic situation. Rather, brands will be required to make use of all touch-points, from logos to warehouses and manpower. This is a time to be supportive when brands can come together and launch collaborative initiatives. Examples are Netflix, Paytm, Radio City, OlaFood or even BookMyShow which are utilizing their network to help. BookMyShow, known for out-of-home (OOH) entertainment, is organizing live events on social media platform, in the format of in-house entertainment, free for users. Radio City urges through a social message to its audience to stay at home to break the chain with a hashtag #garvsegharpar. This would help people sail through this crucial time and develop loyalty with their customers. The pandemic has led not merely a health crisis but also economic instability across the world. The longer the duration of lock-down, more burden will it cause on the economies, consequently affecting the balance sheets of its companies leading to layoffs and pay cuts. Therefore, expecting a huge surge in unemployment rates, ‘The One Club for Creativity,’ a non-profit organization designed a social message ‘The One Club COVID-19 Jobs Board’ to support the creative community. This sets an example of the ‘support’ a brand can offer to the industry to connect the global community with job opportunities. Axis Bank in their effort to connect with customers demonstrates the way to be relevant and still remain helpful in the gloomy times; requests employers to transfer the salaries of their domestic helps directly into their bank accounts, which fulfills the objective of social distancing. Financial institutes are also promoting their digital financial services, which are of immense help during these difficult times, for example Paytm. Hospitals brands too are promoting their tele-consultation services. Ola Foods released an advisory that emphasizes precautionary measures undertaken by the brand with ‘Eat safe, stay safe!’ message to its customers, highlighting the hygiene measures while preparing and delivering food. Also, the brand created engagement among its audience by inviting their audience to confess their cooking experience on twitter with a hashtag #CoronavirusLockdown #StayHomeStaySafe #CookingFails #Khichdi. In addition to the brand stories, there are some more positive takeaways of the pandemic times. Family time has increased, options for digital and online platforms have quadrupled, not limited to business only, but also education and worship to name a few. Follow the rules of nature, remaining quarantined, social distancing, work from home and praying from home will be the new normal. Time for some self-reflection from our otherwise busy routine schedule. Just as the saying goes ‘all that glitters is not gold,’ so also all positives are always not negative.