Will your brand survive coronavirus?
branding through coronavirus: part one
(Published March 9 2020 – Before widespread lockdown in Australia)
Why brands should be looking over their shoulders right now
Illustration: Creature of course!
Is you brand setup to survive a tough year ahead?
Growing up in Australia you tend to become complacent regarding the array of fauna that could kill you. Redbacks. Red bellies. Great whites. King browns. Drop bears. Pffft… whatever.
But as the new decade rolled in, and the vast majority of Australians finally sat up and seriously considered our climate predicament, there suddenly appear to be dozens of headline issues that could lead to our untimely death. Bushfire. Bushfire smoke. Isis. Coronavirus. Iran. Trump. Kim. Xi. Putin. Malaysian Air. This sentiment is further compounded by a never ending list of domestic issues... Record low interest rates, a failing dollar, fake news, coral bleaching, drought, wage theft...
It’s all adding up to a perfect storm of consumer uncertainty. Personal survival aside, what should your brand do to survive over the coming year?
Image: NT News
Have you stocked up on ‘TP’ yet?
What Alan Kohler dubbed The Great Toilet Paper Panic of 2020 is just one example of how herd mentality and consumer uncertainty can manifest as chaos. Sure, business is booming for the ‘TP’ trade in the short term, but with panic buying we consumers tend to ignore brand, and brand loyalties... errr... go down the drain. Smells like dangerous times ahead.
Consider this…
You get to Woolies and your usual Quilton isn’t available. $H!†. You see a woman fill a trolley with some brand you’d never heard of. Survival instincts kick in. You imagine being quarantined at home with no TP and just a copy of the NT news (and not to read).
Image: The Guardian
You grab whatever is left, you pay, you rush home, you realise you have to go, right now, you try, you like. Turns out you’re not a Kleenex pup after all... turns out you’ve been a Quilton kid all along.
Point is, panic disrupts habit, and as brand loyalties are revised, products you may have once overlooked could suddenly find themselves your new go-to.
En mass, this churn could have dire consequences for TP brands, and so now is the time to roll out the Labrador puppies and reinforce brand with presence in market. Even if you’ve sold out of everything anyway, even if you think you already have a strong brand, and especially even if you don’t usually advertise. Because there might be a sales boom right now, but when everyone finally comes to their senses and realises they couldn’t possibly use 2,300 rolls of the stuff in one lifetime, there will likely be a bust.
If your business relies on the steady sale of toilet paper, baby wipes, children’s Panadol, face masks, or the like, then how will you survive the yin to the current yang?
Bad by association
Image: russelfox.com
Image: trends.co
A recent spike in Google searches for “Corona Beer Virus” and even sillier “Beer Virus” highlights just how easily consumers can be spooked…
But how exactly should a brand with ‘corona’ in its name react?
Do they even need to? They could always change their name, but then, changing your name is a big call for any established business. “From where you’d rather be” their campaigns spruik, but I wouldn’t want to be in their brand manager’s shoes right now. Yet, stormy waters are easier to ride out as a big brand.
It’s the smaller brands that risk total wipeout.
Snapped by Jonathan Leishman
Ever heard of Corona Cabinets? Me neither. But it’s a good example of a smaller business looking down the same barrel as the big end of town. Will the name association impact a business of this size, or will they fly under the radar? Time will tell.
Personally, given Corona Cabinets isn’t exactly a household name, I’d be considering a rebrand.
Not all publicity is good publicity, and in my view, the potential for coronavirus to hang around for years to come could break a business like this before they know it. I’d suggest quietly rebranding and simply keeping their existing customer base in the loop. They’ll understand. Plus, the brand look and feel is looking tired anyway, so why not kill two birds with one stone benchtop?
If the directors of Corona Cabinets are listening, by all means, get in touch.
…but don’t actually touch me.
Ebola handshakes out of the way, if your business is done face to face, then what happens when (it’s not looking like an ‘if’ right now) your staff get sick, are forced to self-quarantine, and can’t hit the pavement? Will your customer base acknowledge the collective disruption and ease up on the one-star Google, Trip Adviser or Facebook reviews? Or, will chaos and panic turn them all into irate zombies clambering for attention because, you know, it’s now life-or-death and I need my Uber Eats delivery NOW!
Is your brand prepared to be under staffed and to under deliver? Communication is key during these times, not only with your customers but also with your staff. If they ignore advice to stay at home for fear of losing income or even their job, then we all have an exponential problem.
What if your brand becomes ground zero?
That’s the challenge currently faced by Princess Cruises. Of course, they’re not at fault, they’re just in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s pretty much the same problem Malaysian Air had not long back, and how have they faired? I couldn’t tell you… I haven’t flown with them since. So it will be interesting to see how Princess Cruises recover from their current situation.
They have a strong brand, the kind I’d expect to ride out this particular storm, but what if you’re a local business and a cluster of infections is traced back to you? Like a cafe, pub, restaurant, travel provider, shopping centre or beauty salon?
One of Creature’s clients, the Ekka, faces a similar problem on a yearly basis. If you’re not from Brisbane, they’re pretty much a punchline for influenza season, and ticket sales are heavily effected by the perceived severity of flu each year. Of course, it’s all a symptom of the media beating it up, but it has a real effect, so how will they fare with coronavirus and the daily onslaught of headlines?
Well, the event is still months away, so it’s hard to say how this pandemic will play out. There is history there though… the Ekka was cancelled once… during the Spanish flu outbreak of 1919.
Will history repeat itself? Are there ways to ensure it doesn’t?
Even if it is cancelled, the Ekka brand is strong, and its value to the agricultural industry and community is without question. But if it’s not cancelled, the risk is that an infection does happen, because that will only serve to further fuel their yearly flu battle.
They already have plenty of personal hygiene stations in place for all the animal exhibits, but perhaps it’d even be worth a campaign in which people are screened for infection upon entry? “Ekka fights coronavirus” – Now that’s the kind headline I’d like to see.
