3 Questions to Ask When Leading During the Coronavirus Lockdown
Brands can’t catch a break these days. Since the World Health Organization declared that the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak was a pandemic, it’s been one brand crisis after another, according to Deb Gabor, CEO of Sol Marketing. She is also the author of the bestselling book, Irrational Loyalty: Building a Brand That Thrives in Turbulent Times.
Gabor explains that while some brands perished, others have adapted to reach their customers in new ways. Despite this, many brands inadvertently rubbed salt in fresh wounds by neglecting to turn off their marketing automation, and served up tone-deaf pre-coronavirus ads to traumatize the populace. Then, we as a nation received the “we are all in this together” email from every single brand we’ve ever used or considered using. You remember these - an overzealous copywriter or podcast host overuses the word “unprecedented” and urges you to buy something, or listen harder to pearls of wisdom from a variety of podcast guests who recently graduated to the status of ‘expert.’
Significant as these sycophantic disasters are, the most prominent brand crisis in the ‘Age of Corona’ hasn’t yet happened, according to Gabor. As economies open, she believes that brands are more at risk than ever because we’re at Sophie’s Choice: Do you remain closed, suffer revenue loss and the ire of COVID-truthers, or open and risk becoming the center of a new outbreak questions Gabor. It’s a very challenging situation. The answer lies in each brand’s roots because each can take these three actionable steps to ensure they answer the reopening question correctly for themselves:
1.Focus on your employees: Your employees are your brand. They’re tasked with delivering the experience of your brand on the front lines. How many brands did we #boycott because they behaved callously toward their employees? How many brands have doomed themselves by forgetting the humans that make them possible? Don’t join their ranks. Consumers want you to care about your team, so show them that you’re listening.
2.Know your own values and beliefs: How do you discover your values and beliefs as a brand? They should align with the values and expectations of your ideal customer. Your ideal customer is the singular human being your brand is made for. They’re the champion of your brand, your best and most delightful customer. Profile them. Understand them. Walk a mile in their shoes. And then reflect their values and beliefs faithfully.
3.Be a leader: Customers are looking to brands for leadership in a world where authentic leadership is lacking, confusing, or contradictory. They need someone to tell them what to do next to survive this crisis. It’s more important than ever that brands know their values and beliefs to lead confidently. Mark Cuban summarized the reopening question quite succinctly: “How companies respond to that very question is going to define their brand for decades.” The People’s Billionaire has it right. Brands that lead with their core values through this terrible time will prevail. Brands that leave the narrative in the hands of customers will find themselves mired deeper in crisis.
Unprecedently unprecedented, indeed.