We all are aware that today we are facing a global health crisis which can highly lead to the economic crisis as well. From past weeks, during this lockdown where customers are rarely visiting stores, e-commerce facing logistics issues, people working remotely, businesses facing out of stock due to the closure of factories, radical shift in demand for certain products have disrupted habitual behaviours of customers to shop and communicate in new ways. Considering the current situation we are facing and what we might face in the coming future, brands need to stay relevant amid crisis.
How brands react and communicate during such crisis shapes the perception of the consumers. The brand’s reputation and equity hinges on elements like trust, empathy, authenticity, emotional bonding, and ethics. During this crisis, as an aspiring PR professional, I have attended a few webinars and sessions that taught me how brands should maintain and strengthen their connection with their stakeholders. Some of the things a brand should do during a crisis are:
- A brand should be proactive, spontaneous, and respond immediately during a crisis. Whenever anything goes wrong all the stakeholders look up to the brand to communicate and tell them what happened. So before any fake news starts spreading and people make their assumptions it’s better for brands to be the first ones to respond.
- It is important to be connected with its stakeholders by being frequent and keep informing them about the actual situation and steps they will take to maintain transparency.
- In times, of a global or industry crisis, brands should extend their support. They can extend it through donations, providing discounts, or offering a product or a service to people.
- The brands need to be extra cautious during such situation and the messaging should be as per the context and situation by showing empathy and staying relevant.
- Brands need to anticipate and adapt to the situation. Adapting to the situation helps brands to connect with their audience. Anticipating the possible scenarios help brands to be more prepared that helps them to be more confident while implementing the changes.
- As digital technology is growing these days, it is getting more important for brands to communicate digitally. Brands can create digital content by thinking of ideas that can help them to engage with their customers.
- They should make consumers feel that they are being heard. Therefore, they should use multichannel communication to engage with its consumers like email, website, social media, SMS, and so on. This will ensure that their queries, concerns, and complaints are getting answered.
- In times of uncertainty, brands should utilise their budget mindfully. Building the credibility of the brand innovatively is more important than prioritising sales promotion.
In times of crisis, employees look up to their leaders for information, direction, and assurance. Whereas, people look up to brands for the same. Brands should never try to be opportunistic during crisis and be the leader of change and hope.
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