Marketing During Covid

It’s been more than a month now since the Corona-virus started to flip our lives upside down.

From having to practice social distancing and getting used to life without the outdoors to continually washing our hands and wearing masks and seeing loved ones and friends getting sick, the Corona-virus is something none of us expected.

As the Covid-19 corona-virus spreads rapidly across the world with a complete disregard for national borders, class or gender, communities everywhere are seeing a complete overhaul of 'life as we know it'.

It's clear that the overall public health crisis and the drastic changes in buying behavior caused by the Corona-virus have led the economy to go into a slowdown. In fact, the economic impact of the Corona-virus is expected to continue long after the last patient is treated. While companies across sectors have been hit, the biggest blow has undoubtedly been to the travel and hospitality industry.

While marketing your products and services might not result in any impact at a time like this, you can start posting positive and informative content that can help your consumers. Posts that create public health awareness or uplift your audience's spirits during this time can be the best way forward.

E-commerce saw a huge surge just ahead of the lock down, but with delivery disruption during the lock down, there is a lull. Most e-commerce lines are shut except for essentials. Delivery timelines are also not being promised by any retailer. Despite that, there is a 100% increase in Google searches for Big-basket and Grofers.

The pandemic of Covid-19 has led to tough times for brands. Plunging consumer confidence, loss of jobs, restricted mobility and falling GDP has led to recession-like situations and falling consumerism.Marketers are worried, brands are in dilemma and new launches have come to a halt! But innovation happens when we look for bright spots in these dark days.

Suggestions for the marketing campaigns during COVID19

As per the world economic forum there are approximately 41% active internet users in India. Approximate 1.4% productive consumption of Internet and contribution to online retail sales in India as compared to the developed countries. Developed countries have 14% productive consumption of Internet and contribution to online retail sales. And the third statistics is approximately 28% of active internet users in India are below the age group of 18.

As we know from the statistics above, digital literacy is very less in India and so companies and businesses need to identify where and how they can generate awareness and accordingly they have to create educational content for their business or product or services and they should educate their potential customers.

As we know from the statistics, most of the internet users in India are young generation people so businesses should focus their service offering and product offerings towards the younger audience.

Many people are at home browsing, looking for discounts to save money during a time of unrest. It’s a great way to engage with your customers and keep a steady stream of revenue that will keep your doors open. You can push out your special offers through pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and social media.

Constant bits of knowledge and innovation that foresee shopper premiums and needs are basic for advertisers and brands to make significant, strong commitment with customers. Brands have a chance to convey ongoing affirmation, a sentiment of association.

Brands should follow a simple process of LAC model: Listen, Act, and Communicate.

Listen - Social Media listening is the initial step, which a large portion of the brands consistently does as a major aspect of their advanced promoting technique. Brands gather data and do opinion investigation to comprehend the feelings covered up in those tweets or Facebook posts

Act - The next step is to act on the information collected in the listening process.Brands should find innovative ways to act on the information to ease the pains of consumers.

Communicate - The third step is the communication to consumers. A critical aspect of communication is to gather free media and support from consumers.

The sudden spread of the Corona-virus has certainly come as a shock to consumers and brands everywhere. But with the right strategies, brands can emerge from this trying period with greater brand equity, more engaged audiences and powerful new assets. The most important thing to focus on now, of course, is to stay safe until this tides over!