The Optimist’s Guide to Marketing While World Is Burning
11 forward steps towards marketing with humanity, and promise of brighter days ahead
I initially set out to write about marketing in a post-pandemic world. Then George Floyd happened. And as I watched a life needlessly taken, some of our cities go up in flames, and responsible citizens taking to the streets, it was only right to ask a much broader existential question:
How can we, as humans first, and marketers second, thoughtfully and responsibly navigate through this ever-escalating chaos?
As humans, this latest crisis feels like a bridge too far. Just as we’re emerging out of a pandemic, we now face a new impasse that goes far beyond burned buildings and looted stores. This is a moment to take a full x-ray of our character, our humanity, and our will to dutifully do our part to contribute towards a more just and compassionate society.
As marketers, our segmentation work here is simple — these compounding crises have, for the time being, converged our demographics into one singular block, and it’s one that is deeply anxious and fearful. It transcends age, gender, income level, and everything in between.
And while it’s now clear COVID-19 will linger with us for a while, we must do our part through a mix of outreach and action to help our customers safely venture back into the world as they emerge from self-imposed hibernation.
As marketers and brands, we collectively hold the keys to marketing platforms capable of reaching countless millions. How do we best leverage those platforms responsibly and generously to provide value, useful guidance, and an empowering boost forward?
THE OPTIMIST’S MANIFESTO:
If we are to live by the adage “This too shall pass” then it’s time to plan for the day after and transition from somber messages of support to actionable optimism and hope. Our customers have had enough of feeling like victims of a cruel destiny, and it’s time to lift them up and help them win tomorrow.
It’s time to boldly pivot from “We feel your pain in these uncertain times” to “Let’s strive together for brighter days ahead!”
THE WAY FORWARD:
Now, I’m not going to join the prevailing chorus advocating that we rip up the traditional marketing playbook and start all over to adapt to the “New Normal.” Human nature dictates that most inherent aspects of who we are will eventually click back into place, while a few elements won’t.
Consequently, we need to retrofit our marketing arsenal accordingly to reflect the changes we anticipate in consumers while keeping our North Star centered around serving others with generosity, humanity, authenticity, and consistency.
THE BIG PICTURE
It feels like we experienced a lifetime in 90 days. It’s wise to start by fully grasping the impact of recent events and how it informs our marketing approach going forward from the tone, to context, content, and incentives.
The Bad:
- 114,000+ lives tragically lost.
- 44 million jobs lost.
- Drastic drop in discretionary spending.
- Indoors is the new outdoors.
The Good:
- It’s been proven throughout history that crisis drives new innovation and breakthroughs.
- People picked up new habits and skills during their time under lockdown. How do we support keeping them on this positive path?
- People have a genuine desire to come out of this period as better versions of themselves. How do we support and nurture this personal renaissance?
CONSUMER CHANGES:
- What they value
- How they prioritize
- Their shifting expectations
- The way they shop
PLAYBOOK FOR THE DAY AFTER
1. TONALITY:
It begins with setting the tone that best reflects a renewed sense of optimism, empowerment, and positivity. It should then permeate clearly through all creative output, advertising, content, and various consumer touchpoints.
2. ACTION:
It’s time to walk the talk! There are two distinct brand categories at the moment — those who post statements of support, and those who electrify those words with action!
The consumer clearly prefers and needs the latter. Now more than ever, they need to know their brands of choice care, feel part of the solution, and willing to back it up with action!
3. DEEP LISTENING:
It’s particularly essential during this current phase to rely more on real-time Social listening than 2–3 month-old insights that now seem out of date given the speed at which all recent events are taking place.
Real-time listening will uncover some incredibly valuable new insights and the shifting customer sentiment caused by recent events. How do we then synthesize this new intelligence into actionable plans to super-serve our customers?
4. CUSTOMER-CENTRICITY:
These are times when shifting behaviors and priorities will cause brand loyalty to come a little loose. Some new customers may gravitate towards us, and some will chip away.
A singular focus on Customer-Centricity could both incentivize conversions and reduce churn. But more importantly, it could go a long way in cementing satisfaction and loyalty. Impeccable care in turbulent times is good for our customers as well as our brand health and NPS scores.
5. LET CREATIVITY SOAR:
So what does it mean that hundreds of thousands are transitioning to a WFH ‘Work From Home’ environment? What does it mean that E-Commerce has shot up from 18% to nearly 30% of transactions? What does it mean that personal well-being is gaining priority in the human conscience?
These are just examples of recent large ripples through the marketing landscape. Creative answers to these questions could unlock significant new product categories and solutions to meet new needs, enhance lives, as well as trigger new revenue streams.
6. COMMUNICATION & PERSONALIZATION:
Many brands have frozen or significantly cut down their consumer outreach during the pandemic. However, we now know our customers want to hear from us in turbulent times.
As life slowly begins to return to a semblance of normalcy, we need to stay in touch through relevant messaging deploying our best personalization tools, provide useful information to help them safely restart their lives, and organically recommend products and solutions that best appeal to their current needs.
7. PURPOSE:
Brand-Purpose has been front of mind for many of us forward-thinking marketers, and now is the time to accelerate our march towards firmly defining what we stand for the long-term. Especially at a time when our customers are re-examining their values and stance on social issues, and they want to know if the brands they associate with share their values.
8. EMPATHY:
A perfect example of an element to be carried over from our short-term crisis plans where every brand elevated the measure of empathy by which they engaged consumers. This should continue as the road to healing and recovery might be longer than we think.
The three cornerstones of Empathy; Emotional, Cognitive, and Compassionate should be practiced evenly and equally throughout the consumer engagement journey.
9. GENEROSITY:
If you’re offering a 1-month trial, make it two. If you’re offering a 10% discount, make it 20. Additionally, there is the bonus that consumers presently have more time to explore new products and new solutions while many are still social-distancing at home or transitioning to a WFH lifestyle.
10. AGILITY:
Many of us never heard of COVID-19 back in February. The George Floyd tragic incident and subsequent protests escalated overnight. Tectonic cultural shifts are happening in the blink of an eye.
We must tweak our systems to move at the speed of culture and technology to insure continuity in our service to customers. Marketing plans must also be crafted with added elasticity anticipating similarly unforeseen future events.
11. EXPERIENTIAL GONE VIRTUAL:
When looking for the best examples of brilliant creativity during the pandemic lockdown, look no further than the countless brand virtual events generously meant to entertain and offer some much needed escapism.
These events should become permanent for the long term and regularly planned in-between public experiential activations in normal times. They’ve proven successful and cost-effective. They have the power to be engaging and certainly have the potential for some dynamic E-commerce integration.
Finally, all of us marketers just happen to be part of this population longing for a bright spark to signal better days ahead. We know how it feels, and we can relate. So if we simply let our natural impulses take over, it should all feel all so simple to sense the distress in those around us, and humanely act to make it better using the tools at our disposal.
I was recently asked by a client to share my point of view on the best way to thoughtfully engage consumers in these times without sounding transactional, to which I responded, “Treat them like a friend” That’s all. Often times, the answers to the most complex questions are surprisingly simple.
After all, a closer look at most of the disciplines above are grounded in how we’d normally act to support a friend through rocky times. It typically starts with the genuine desire to listen, empathize, show compassion, generosity, and back it with actions to make a tangible difference for the better.
These are times where lining up our marketing approach with our decent human impulses goes a long way towards fulfilling our duty as kind humans and rockstar marketers.
