What Can We Learn From The Way Nestle Fight with Covid-19?
The past 2 weeks is unrepentant for everyone. When Covid-19 finally becomes a huge global issue, none of the individuals can get away from that. Everything becomes less important right now, except help, care and love, so do the business world. As a big conglomerate, Nestle does something special in this period. They are now substituting its core business value for “support”, which is warm and inspiring. Let’s take a look at what they have been doing and what can other businesses learn from these initiatives.
Emphasize Only on The Key Message “Support”
Nestle changes the whole interface of their official website in this hard time. They removed everything they used to put there, instead, they only put initiatives they are doing to fight Covid-19 here. Although many other businesses are taking actions for their community and add that on their website, they are still promoting their products at the same time in a corner of the page. That action can easily make people feel they are taking actions only because they have to look good as big companies. Though these companies act for the situation, the way is not genuine enough.
As the old Chinese quote says “Misfortune may be an actual blessing”, companies can actually utilize this situation and do something to optimize their image so as to leave a better impression for their customers. To achieve that, doing what they should do is not enough, they need to only focus on one core value they can offer at this moment.
Give Consistent Supporting Message
On Nestle’s social media, they are conveying a consistent message, the same as what they are doing on their official website. As for their twitter account, they changed the pinned tweet to an encouraging message that they will devote their business to people who need support. They did the same thing on Instagram as well. Some brands only made posts on one social platform to react to the Covid-19 incident. That is not so good. Nowadays, customers have various digital footprints. They hang out on different social platforms. Let’s see this thing from the customers’ standpoint. When they browse twitter, they see a post talking about what a company’s been doing to fight for coronavirus. But when they use Instagram, the company is doing their discount promotions. They may feel confused. And again, it’s easy for people to feel that company is only doing things to look good.
Seek Partnerships
No matter how big the company is, it’s very hard to take social responsibilities only by themselves in this hard time. Nestle cooperates with Freshly and Meals on Wheels America to help provide food for seniors. With this cooperation, the company can easily engage in the supporting process and make their part work well.
From a Public Relations’ standpoint, having partnerships can help the company promotes initiatives they have been doing broadly, thus to better serve the purpose of establishing a good image.
