Saturday, March 28, 2020

Role in Crisis

There are a lot of articles online about how marketing needs to change during the crisis/pandemic. Be mindful of tone, support other businesses, remind customers how your employees/company have been impacted, etc.

Don't exploit the situation by using fear, etc. to drive sales. Seems obvious enough.

It is estimated covid-19 will cost the economy $2.9 trillion. People are losing not only money but also traffic and conversions.



According to Neil Patel, e-commerce was a mixed bag, depending on what sites sold, traffic was either up or down. For example, if you were selling baby products like diapers or wipes then you saw a nice bump in traffic. But if you were selling luxury goods like big-screen televisions you saw a drop in traffic.
I agree companies should in no way exploit the pandemic, but companies are in dire need to drive growth and increase traffics. It's not about profit, it's about surviving, saving jobs, and getting back to normal. I think brands should be as creative as possible to drive growth during this difficult time, while also keeping the health of our society at the forefront.

1 comment:

BrunoM said...

I agree with this point. I think your analysis about brands having to get creative during times of crisis is absolutely on the mark. The issue is that most retailers don't have the ability to do it, especially in the apparel business. The main reason is that there had to be immediate and dramatic cut backs on spending via furloughs to survive from a cashflow perspective and it wasn't easy to find bridge loans to have time to find short term financing. Having said that, I think the stimulus package now gives some brands the option to get back to work, in which case the door is open for innovation.

Great read!