What Marketers Can Learn From Different Nations’ Covid-19 Responses

Countries that are successfully fighting the novel coronavirus pandemic have one thing in common; consistent, repetitive messaging to convince people to take action, sometimes against their instinct.

Sounds an awful lot like good brand marketing to me.

As we pass the three-month mark of the Chinese government first admitting the existence of what has become known as Covid-19, the world seems to be split into four broad groups.

The countries that have contained it; the countries that are on the way to containing it; the countries that are struggling with it; and the countries that don’t seem to have been hit hard.

Why have some countries been able to control the spread, and why have others lost the battle?

The Onus Is On Individuals

Unlike corruption or war, the onus of containing this pandemic lies with individual citizens. Governments can’t arrest perpetrators or draft soldiers. They can’t even buy their way out of this situation with new ventilators or increased face masks, unless effective social distancing is practiced first.

However, despite this simple truth, different governments have taken very different routes to reach this conclusion. Those with more scenic routes — i.e. nations with unclear messages either debating social distancing or promoting it inconsistently — have seen the most damage.

On the other hand, there are countries like Taiwan and Vietnam. Governments that saw it coming, imposed strict measures immediately, and immediately promoted the effectiveness of social distancing and hand-washing among other measures.

Vietnam released this catchy video explaining the virus and the need for washing hands soon after it became public knowledge. It went viral in hours.

On March 1, South Korea and Italy had the most cases in the world outside China. As of April 6, Italy had 40,000 cases more than China, and South Korea had 70,000 cases less than China. Meanwhile USA, who had 62 cases on March 1, is now the world leader with nearly 340,000 cases — or 260,000 more than China!

So, why did South Korea, Italy and USA have such different spreads?

Consistency, Consistency, Consistency

Many assume that proximity to, and travel routes with, China are the primary factor. That doesn’t explain USA’s six-figure case load, nor does it explain Vietnam’s zero deaths. That’s right, a country that has a huge land border with China, has zero deaths.

That Vietnamese song on washing your hands spawned a series of viral videos — including this one by celebrity Quang Dang — that played a huge part in spreading the word quickly.

Instead, effectiveness of promoting social distancing, hand washing, and testing seems to be the best way to get a hold on Covid-19. China did so by shutting down entire regions in January, and South Korea quickly followed suit (via a less autocratic method).

Using an effective social distancing method, South Korea tested hundreds of thousands of patients weeks before some countries even had efficient — or even approved — testing kits.

Italy tried to do this, but was inconsistent in their messaging. Occasional regional shutdowns were excused for football matches, while the mayor of Milan even trended the slogan “Milan Doesn’t Stop” in support of the re-opening of the city’s businesses.

Eventually, the country got a hold of the situation. They shut down all cities, banned all public gatherings, and the Milanese mayor apologised for his ill-thought out campaign. In fact, Italian mayors have now become famous for their outright derision towards anyone not practicing social distancing!

In America, confusion reigns. The Governor of New York state, Andrew Cuomo, has talked about how he has had to outbid other states for ventilators and protective equipment for medical staff. Journalists are revealing that America is hijacking shipments of equipment bound for other nations.

Meanwhile, when President Trump is not actively ignoring the advice of the medical experts on his staff, he is promoting the usage of a malaria drug that has not been proven to cure Covid-19. At least he seems to have belatedly started to appreciate social distancing.

These different messaging techniques have had predictable outcomes on the spread of the virus in each country. In South Korea, the case load has stagnated. In Italy, after a period of vicious growth and devastation, the number of daily cases and deaths seems to be decreasing. In America, grim records are being set everyday.

Italy and Spain, who both belatedly put out strong social distancing messages, have seen their deaths rise at a slower rate than the world average recently. In contrast, America’s mixed messages have seen their deaths double much quicker than the rest of the world, despite access to better infrastructure and liquid capital.

How Does This Relate To Marketing In Regional India?

If you need a large number of people across demographics to latch on to a singular idea, a widespread and repetitive branding campaign is the only way to go. Create an emotional bond to the action you want to recreate, and repeat it in every way you can.

Just look at the Indian government’s efforts to impose a sudden 21-day lockdown, which might extended if rumours are to be believed. We have not asked the public to sit at home out of a sense of fear — that is an emotion that is easily overcome with time.

Instead, we’ve been asked to stay home out of a sense of nationalistic pride, and we’ve been asked to do so repeatedly in different ways. The Junta Curfew was just the first step towards an emotion-based message.

It is brave to stay at home, it is strong to stay at home, it is the right thing to do to stay at home. Doctors are the new soldiers on the frontline; clap your hands in appreciation, bang your pans to support them, light a candle to remember them. We are special as a nation, and we have to use that uniqueness to fight the coronavirus in our own effective way.

It’s great branding, repeated over weeks, and spared no expense. It’s how a country that is a byword for chaos (and I say that with all the love in the world for our society) was willing to sit at home for 21 days with four hours notice.

Regional India is the biggest monolithic block of new Internet users. Obviously, that’s not true, but we are in our dotcom bubble phase. People are just numbers for now, and digital marketers tasked with targetting anywhere but Tier-I India have one overriding KPI; total number of people reached.

This will change. Nuance in targetting and a desire to analyse customers as market segments will become as important to regional marketing strategies as they are in Tier-I India. We’re already doing so at Lokal.

However, until that day comes, brand marketing to regional India is very similar to spreading a nationwide message fighting a worldwide disease.

Consistency, consistency, consistency.

Are you unsure of how to build an effective branded marketing campaign targetting Tier-II, Tier-III & Tier-IV India? Please reach out to me at tarutr@getlokalapp.com, or at malhotratarutr@gmail.com.

If you are uncomfortable talking to me over email, you can DM me on my LinkedIn page or my Twitter profile. I would love to talk to each and every one of you personally!

If you liked this article, please do consider subscribing to my weekly email newsletter. It provides a brief and links for all three weekly articles, as well as some interesting little tidbits for subscribers only!