The Rotten Truth About Brands in a Post-Coronavirus World

Crappy marketing is everyone’s problem now.

I’m writing a couple of posts about brand and customer experience in the new world. This is the first, and it’s about a foundation for resilience and how some companies are demonstrating best-in-class beyond marketing. I’ll link to everything as it publishes. -PM

As individuals, we have huge piles of personal COVID-19 dread to deal with, and it feels almost rude to create another Medium post about marketing and customer experience, but we’ve never been more at the mercy of how well these companies adapt and perform. It’s everyone’s business now.

The way brands are behaving now is an early indication of what to expect from them later. It’s also revealing a lot about what they’ve invested in (or not) in the past. Maya Angelou’s oft-recited quote, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them” is also true in the business world, particularly when it comes to authentic, effective brand experiences.

Brand Isn’t a Bullhorn, It’s a Handshake

It’s important to note that businesses doing it right are demonstrating more than nimble social marketing skills or expensive agency partners. The best-looking brands the last few weeks are those that have always considered their brand an effective framework for customer experience, and are using that solid foundation to extend and appropriately adapt.

It’s not about a campaign, a design element, or even voice and tone. It’s the difference between brand being a rule book for marketers, and brand being an actual representation of who you are. At its most effective, brands function as ecosystems, thoughtfully threaded through every experience. It isn’t a bullhorn, it’s a handshake.

Being Weak Has Never Been So Expensive

It’s never been more costly to be a weak brand in the marketplace, instead of curating experiences like an always-evolving museum of self-expression. It’s painfully obvious which companies are basically business-as-usual, pushing irrelevant content or tone-deaf jokes in between We Are Here For You (read: PLEASE BE HERE FOR US) emails.

In many cases, the right way to handle a crisis is to just shut up. But this is so intensely, unavoidably, dramatically different than anything we’ve ever endured, and silence will make companies look out-of-touch and insensitive.

Clumsy cause marketing on top of a weak brand is even worse, and will be a black spot on your business for a very, very long time. If your organization hasn’t designed this yet, adapting to the new world economy is going to be much harder. (Hint: I’m not referring to something that looks like this. That’s part of the problem, and I’ll write more about it soon.)

There’s definitely a tightrope aspect to getting it right, but it isn’t hard work if you have prepared. We’ve been talking about ‘authentic brands’ for a long time, now we are learning who understands what that means. With a solid foundation that your entire organization (not just marketing) believes in, and that you effectively deliver to customers, the right approach comes naturally.

It’s Easy to Be Yourself

There are lots of great examples (I’d love to see more), but I’ve been most impressed with those that are not only acting philanthropically, but also resisting the urge to turn their brand into a hollow cause machine.

Hotels.com paused in-flight ad units and updated them, changing tone but staying true to the brand’s humorous, if somewhat oblivious, Captain Obvious character. They didn’t ditch who they are to create a patriotic hashtag, they just extended their existing personality into a different context. It feels authentic, and demonstrates a truth beyond the message, plainly agreeing that no one should purchase their products for now.

Skyscanner continued to send marketing emails, but turned them into a curation service, saying “Stay at home — we’ll bring the world to you.” They include links to online experiences of great museums, exploration of music ‘from the festival to the dance floors of 1980s Nigeria”, and downloadable kid’s play-packs, complete with puzzles and games that “help them explore their great big world without ever leaving the house.”

Remix Your Core and Do Something Useful

Many companies are reflecting on who they are, and finding simple but impactful ways to respond. A thoughtful redesign of the status quo can be extremely powerful, and is fundamentally opposed to “We know times are tough…” emails. Particularly if you are lacking a world-class brand experience, it’s as good a time as any to experiment with remixes of what you already deliver.

Ally bank voluntarily deferred loan payments for their customers for 120 days, and pledged $3M in financial aid to local communities. Brilliant: they’re a bank, they don’t try to be the Red Cross, and they’re doing something useful. COVID-19 information is their default homepage. Jeep is promising “better days ahead” and offering 0% financing for 84 months. We can forgive the overwrought One Republic song since they reference their product relevantly (the road ahead, long drives, American determinism, etc.) nicely and offer a significant deal despite still asking us to buy stuff.

Or Actually Redefine Your Space

Some businesses are using their physical spaces in useful new ways. Gap, Hanes, Dyson, Tito’s Vodka, Burberry, Armani, Dior, Joann Fabrics, Neiman Marcus, Ford, New Balance, and many others are using their factories and floors to make masks, gowns, shoes, and other relevant materials. The booze brands that started making disinfectant alcohol instead of adult beverages are smart.

Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt hotels are using rooms as quarantines for healthcare workers. Carnival Cruise is offering to leverage ships as temporary hospitals.

Consider the lessons these companies are learning while they make a difference: they are prototyping and testing what it means to transform their operations and customer base in almost real time. There is huge potential for the much-needed modernization of global supply chain economics, and these companies will be trailblazing that innovation longterm.

Pornhub, known for their playful marketing, has avoided the temptation to be too informal or humorous in their outreach, while being useful in relevant ways. They donated 50,000 surgical masks to NYC healthcare workers, made their premium service free, and will be giving 85% of their video sales profits to performers whose jobs have been affected. The only (figurative) crack in their composure was neatly hidden in Vice President Corey Price’s statement, “With nearly one billion people in lockdown across the world because of the coronavirus pandemic, it’s important that we lend a hand and provide them with an enjoyable way to pass the time.”

What do all these responses have in common? They’re all extensions of the brand that feel natural, authentic, and self-aware (only a few are making huge deals out of their own press releases). None have attempted to redesign who they are, distract with stunts, or publicly thirst for engagement metrics.

There’s No Sanitizer For Poor Employee Care

Brands that are already known for taking good care of their employees (and some that want to be) are supplementing customer-facing efforts with internal ones. Shopify gave employees $1,000 to buy supplies for their home offices to ease the transition to remote work. Comcast has set aside $500M dedicated to employee support.

Google and Facebook might gain much-needed points in this department with their promise to provide additional paid emergency leave (FTEs only).

Look for businesses that go above and beyond a CEO promising to cut her own salary: these people make most of their dough in stock options and bonuses, it’s very easy for them to make an ornamental (and insulting) change to some paperwork.

If It’s Not Authentic, It’s Just Advertising

There’s no point in spending time on examples of companies getting it wrong. You’ve probably already read dozens of soulless emails from them, the persistent shadow of multi-departmental approvals looming heavy, like a 400-page brand deck. There are also examples of companies that have had to be pressured to take meaningful steps, by either customers or employees.

We have a long ways to go in a short amount of time, but I’m hopeful that the coming months will be a crash-course (albeit a painful one) for companies that have been slow to design a meaningful culture, brand, and experience strategy. They’re learning quickly that it doesn’t come from a great deck, a marketing all-hands, or a clever logo.

The expression must be an authentic reflection of the business and its people, or it’s just advertising. For those companies that have excelled at this already, the internal engine needed for adapting to the rest of our future is already in place. It’s a little bit marketing, but a lot of survival. More on that soon.

If you were thinking your company would survive what’s ahead with just advertising, prepare: reacting to the future will be a lot harder than slowing down and learning how to do it right, right now.

In the next article, I’m going to explain more of what I mean by ‘brand ecosystems’, and how some companies have used a strategic and authentic approach to brand and CX to prepare themselves for what’s next. (Hint: it’s still not a deck or this thing.)