MAR K E T I N G
‘ The Times They Are A-Changin’
Amy Jansen, the newest member of the Brouha team, discusses new approaches
to marketing in the post-COVID world. To listen to an extended version of this
article, follow the QR code below to the BrouHappy podcast.
I can quite confi dently tell you that before the
beginning of
, ‘unprecedented’ was not
a word I would have considered, let alone
relied on in conversational situations. Yet here
I am, repeatedly standing in the well-spaced
supermarket entry queues throwing it around like
it was the newest, semi-shouted version of The
Weather Chat. From small talk to work, we all
rely on a safe and common language. Weather.
Sport. Unprecedented. Which got me thinking.
Before the March „ lockdown pushed pause
on the economy, the world was buying and
selling in recognisable, expected ways. We had
our common language: Buy, sell, improve. Now
though? Those familiar, reliable approaches have
changed in order to prioritise more customercentric
messages over product- or service-centric
comms. With the impact and implications of the
lockdown likely being felt for months, we are at a
point where the changes wrought over the past
six weeks is likely to become ‘The New Norm’.
THE NEW NORM
There has been a monumental shift in operations
for those businesses able to continue running. In
fact, the lockdown has been a digital coming of
age for our industry with how we communicate
internally and externally. The types of social
media messaging previously used to hard sell
are, quite rightly in this environment, insensitive
when the country’s priorities have moved so
dramatically.
Aside from the tone, there has been an
even more fundamental shift in how we utilise
social media. Businesses have been forced
to acknowledge and utilise social media in
ways they weren’t before. It’s not there just as
a white noise generator. It’s not just another
platform to replicate the standard to-print
marketing approaches. It’s not something to
use just because ‘we probably should be seen
to’. Social media marketing requires a nuanced,
empathetic approach that understands and
takes into consideration UX and more than a
small understanding of Nudge theory. We only
have two or three seconds in which to get our
message across in the images and text we choose
so those messages must be concise, impactful,
sophisticated and supportive.
ASK AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE
Our customers are overwhelmed and
oversaturated with digital information – how
are you going to cut through? You can only do
that by knowing your customer – what do they
want? What is stopping them from getting what
they want? What do they fear? When you know
that, you can then speak directly to those fears
and desires whilst ensuring they feel like the
centre of the narrative. These seem like simple
questions and yet the answers to them give
us the focus and clarity to communicate and
market effectively. And now, more than ever,
we need to make sure that we have asked these
questions. The answers we had before lockdown
will undoubtedly have changed and we need
to know how they have changed because that
means every message we had planned will need
to change, too. These questions are part of the
‘Brouha Brand Audit’ which can be implemented
wherever you are, in whatever situation your
business is in, and will provide the foundation to
everything you choose to do moving forward in
whatever the post-COVID landscape looks like.
I cannot see a situation where we go back to
the way we were. Our comms, our offi ces (and
I daresay the lower half of our offi ce attire) have
all changed in a potentially permanent way.
That permanence isn’t necessarily a bad thing
and although there are no tealeaves that give
us the What Next answers with any precision,
what we can do is objectively look at how we
have adapted under pressure and apply that
to whatever the post-lockdown, post-COVID
world of marketing looks like. What does your
New Norm look like? Let Brouha help build your
Brouha Brand Audit and we’ll fi nd out together.
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