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Managing Your Brand in Crisis: A Response to COVID-19

Managing Your Brand in Crisis: A Response to COVID-19

This deck is designed to help you navigate this difficult time, while maintaining your brand's purpose. Learn more about how to adjust your messaging and media approach in the time of COVID-19.

ampersandagency

April 03, 2020
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Transcript

  1. AGENDA WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOUR BRAND HOW TO RESPOND

    IDENTIFY YOUR CUSTOMER’S EMERGING NEED STATES POSITIONING & MESSAGING BRAND VOICE & TONE MEDIA INSIGHTS & RECOMMENDATIONS
  2. WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOUR BRAND A crisis is not

    the time to abandon your brand’s purpose or its promise. It’s the time to double down on what you stand for. It’s an opportunity to prove your relevance and your worth. Especially your trust-worthiness. If your brand has not already established a higher-purpose, now is not the time to try to create one, instead take stock of what it is that you do extremely well and talk about how to amplify your strengths in the appropriate context. Take stock of your strengths. Know your weaknesses. Do not make promises that you cannot keep! 4
  3. 6 IDENTIFY YOUR CUSTOMER’S EMERGING NEED STATES The most valuable

    internal exercise you can do when thinking about how to shift messaging in a crisis is to identify your customer’s emerging need states. Normal priorities may have shifted. You can ask yourself these questions: • What are your customers’ priorities now? • How do their needs today differ from the norm? (make a list!) • What does the data say about how shopping patterns, items purchased, spend and frequency of transaction say about emerging needs? • What are your followers saying on social media? What are your competitors saying and doing? What is the social sentiment? • What does recent research tell us about consumer opinion and which brands are they celebrating and advocating in this environment?
  4. HOW TO RESPOND Do not be silent. Several studies have

    been conducted in the past two weeks that confirm that consumers are closely watching how brands respond. Silence is not golden. It indicates that you are either out of touch, incapable of connecting in a meaningful way, tone deaf, or worse—guilty of something, like “selling” instead of “helping.” 8
  5. What is the appropriate context? It’s being relevant, helpful, and

    responsive to customer needs. What is inappropriate? Sounding like you are more concerned about making money than helping people. If you do this right, you’ll make money by helping people! 9 HOW TO RESPOND
  6. 11 POSITIONING & MESSAGING Your positioning should not shift dramatically—but

    what you emphasize and prioritize in messaging will. For example, if you’re positioned as the small, community-first brand versus the big box provider, enhance that position by calling out HOW you are uniquely responding to meet emerging community needs, being nimble, hiring more delivery drivers, etc.
  7. 13 BRAND TONE & VOICE Your brand voice should not

    dramatically change either, but it should take on the appropriate tone for the times. For example, if your brand is normally casual and carefree sounding, you’ll want to remain positive and upbeat— but avoid sounding out of touch or irreverent. Knowing your audience intimately is what helps most to adjust your tone to better match their sentiment.
  8. 15 SUMMARY • Be your purpose. Express your worth as

    a brand that lives up to its purpose and promises. • Do not abandon your competitive position or try to advance a position that has not been a fundamental part of your brand in the past. • Examine your strengths & amplify those that can align to your purpose. • Find the continuity and connection between what you want to emphasize and what your brand has always been known for. • If you have not communicated a purpose, focus on your strengths and align them to customer needs. Doing a simple SWOT through the prism of RELEVANCE can be the start of finding your purpose! (Remember, it’s not a strength if it’s not relevant to the customer!) • Maintain your brand’s identity by staying true to your brand’s DNA. If you don’t know what makes you unique, or what is essentially in your DNA—revisit that! We can help.
  9. MEDIA OVERVIEW Now more than ever, online communities are crucial.

    People are spending substantially more time online and they are looking to the businesses that they know and trust to feel safe, protected and supported. 17
  10. MEDIA OVERVIEW The social media landscape has changed dramatically in

    the past few years. These platforms are pay to play, and we want to ensure that all of your content is seen by all of your core customers, as they are spending more time online due to recent circumstances. 18
  11. MEDIA OVERVIEW Organic content without paid support is not seen

    by the vast majority of your fans and followers. Your core customers are your followers, and there is no more direct and clear way for them to engage with your brand. 19
  12. FOLLOWERSHIP & ONLINE COMMUNITIES The good news is you’ve already

    started to develop an online community, and that consists of all of your Facebook fans and Instagram followers. We strongly believe that these online communities are crucial to your business at this time. They are proven supporters of your brand and have a conscious interest in your business. 21
  13. FOLLOWERSHIP & ONLINE COMMUNITIES We recommend shifting media spend to

    increase your reach and expand communication to your followers, fans and their friends. This will allow you to get more for your money, see substantially stronger engagement rates and you’ll be speaking directly to your most loyal customers who are critical at this time. 22
  14. AUDIENCES/ACTIVATING CUSTOMERS From your existing Facebook fans, you can build

    a variety of audiences. The Facebook algorithm is designed to connect to 5-10 of your fans’ most engaged friends (who have likely engaged with your brand already) which gives you access to a large number of potential fans and customers. This is the most cost efficient and effective way to deliver your message at this time. 24
  15. AUDIENCES/ACTIVATING CUSTOMERS The five key components to reach these current

    and potential fans: • Boosting posts so that all of your followers and fans can see your content • Implementing retargeting to those who have clicked on paid ads or boosted posts • People who have engaged with your posts (liked, commented or shared) who aren’t fans of your page • Creating lookalike audiences based on your followers and fans • A follower campaign to grow your online community The least effective means of spending in this new environment is advertising to groups at large. 25
  16. POSTING RECOMMENDATIONS During tough times, your customers want to feel

    consistently supported, so you may need to increase your number of posts/ week in order to deliver effective messaging. You will need to remind them of ways that your business can make their routines feel normal and how you’re here to help during this time. 27
  17. While your brand’s social content categories may have previously included

    things such as promotions and lifestyle posts, you’ll need to prioritize these categories a bit. You can still promote different things (even something as simple as “we are open!”), but consider adding additional categories such as community, well-being and positive perspectives along with highlighting products that people need at this time. 28 POSTING RECOMMENDATIONS
  18. MODERATION It is important to acknowledge all positive comments and

    responses at a time like this. Like any positive comments or respond positively back! Now is the time to support your fans, especially within your online communities. It is also important to address all negative comments and provide fans with any necessary information they might need. 30
  19. MODERATION Take all comments into account and pass feedback along

    in order to improve operations and the overall experience at this time. For example, if customers are requesting hand sanitizer at the registers, can we pass this feedback along to store managers? Rework your FAQs for moderation—audit your social pages, take into account which questions are being asked the most, and create a new FAQ sheet for moderation moving forward. 31