Marketing is the only discipline we can help with. Let’s help our community if we can afford it.

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How we deal with the crisis now may shape consumer views beyond. Brands using their market position to be helpful during the Coronavirus outbreak will leave an impression.

Let’s provide education, webinars, pro-bono support. It’s not a lot and it won’t safe lives. But it might help small companies to face the disruption and to be better prepared for the moment when this situation will be over (because it will be over).

And again, these are the kind of thing that gets remembered many canada cell phone number list years later.

As Seth Godin puts it: “In this moment when we’re so disconnected and afraid, the answer might not be a freebie. That might simply push us further apart. The answer might be showing up to do the difficult work of connection, of caring, and of extending ourselves where it’s not expected.”

This means that we should not follow the examples of individuals and brands who have professed and promoted, for many years, the cult of customers and employees, and then suddenly show their real soul during an unprecedented crisis like the one we’re living — treating badly employees and customers.

In a few words: be a responsible marketer.

Go long-term
It’s no longer business as usual.

A prolonged disruption and a risk of lower consumer spending will result in many advertisers delaying brand awareness projects, instead favoring a tactical retreat into performance marketing.

This would be pertinent during the Mothers Day period, for example, with retailers and CPG brands, in particular, focusing on discounting and promotions in the hope to recover some sales.

Yet, don’t be tempted to focus all your (already reduced) budget into short-term performance marketing and sales promotions. While that might look like a natural choice, sustain monthly and quarterly sales pipelines, that would be a mistake.

Quoting Prof. Mark Ritson: “No amount of hot deals and clever sales activation can stimulate a market that is currently terrified, locked inside their homes and unsure of their future.”

Confronted with a dramatic cut in marketing budgets, the smarter strategy is to actually focus on longer-term brand-building. Performance marketing is going to underperform in the current market conditions.

Marketers need to be mindful of long-time horizons during crises and make decisions on this basis. They should also look for ways to add value to the consumers they service, the media owners they buy from, and the societies in which they operate.

“The smarter strategy is to actually focus on the longer-term brand-building mission.

Prof. Mark Ritson
A crisis such as this one will have many unfortunate consequences, but the changes in behaviors that will follow from it could create new opportunities for marketers to engage with all relevant stakeholders.

It might not look a natural choice but it will pay off.

Be a responsible marketer and think long term.

And if you’re wondering the real value of Content Marketing in uncertain times, check the Rock Content case study, with real data from our blogs!