It’s safe to say that I’ve encountered almost every kind of brand crisis during my career. 

When I worked for Coca-Cola in Asia during the late 1990s and early 2000s, we dealt with government regulations in Malaysia that threatened to ban our products. Later, I helped Coke make a comeback from a recall of 30 million bottles and cans in Belgium after a health scare escalated into mass hysteria. And, when I was CMO of Samsung Electronics America, we had to recover from the Galaxy Note 7 phone being recalled twice due to defective batteries.

All of those situations were big deals, but the current COVID-19 crisis is monumentally bigger. While most problems touch a small fraction of the population, this one is a global crisis. It marks the first time, aside from world wars, that a crisis touches our common humanity. We’re all trying to navigate a scary situation that’s impacting our families, our friends and our lives.

From Breakdown to Breakthrough

Albeit very different in nature, my experiences made me think about the role brands play during COVID-19. One thing I’ve learned over the years is that dealing with a crisis in the moment is often the “easy” part. It’s natural for brands to develop tunnel vision during crises. They focus all their efforts on solving the problem right in front of them.

But it’s crucial to think ahead, and I’ve learned that you can’t wait until you begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It needs to be built into your crisis response strategy up front. Otherwise, you risk making short-term decisions that may hurt your brand later.

I call this strategy “from breakdown to breakthrough.” It’s a plan to be better brands, businesses and people after a crisis is over. The vision is to be stronger 18 months later than you would have been if the crisis had not happened. It sounds ambitious, but trust me, it can be done. Here are five tips that can help you get there. 

Tip No. 1: Collaborate with Your Community and Turn Them into Allies

A strong community is an incredible and often underleveraged resource for brands. Every day at Salesforce, I see how our Trailblazers inspire and push us to do bigger and better things. As Andrew Blau and Peter Schwartz note in the Salesforce and Deloitte guide, , “remarkable times call for remarkable collaboration.”

During the Galaxy Note 7 situation at Samsung, the simplest but probably most important decision we made was to reach out to all customers who had purchased a defective phone and returned it. Our very humble message was, “We understand if you don’t want to hear from us ever again. But if you’d like to be informed as we investigate what went wrong and what we are going to do about it, raise your hand and we’ll keep you posted.”

Tens of thousands of people raised their (virtual) hands. This formed the group with whom we shared the results of our internal audits as they progressed. And there was an online and in-person collective invited to our “Root Cause” event with company leadership once we found out exactly what had happened.

Members of this hand-raisers group could ask us any questions, and we were transparent with our responses. We really trusted them, and they trusted us. We kept them engaged throughout the 12 months of preparation for a new phone launch. When the word on the street was that the Note brand was dead, these people said: “No, we love our Note. We want it back.”

It is incredible how collaboration and support from a community of fans helps push you forward during a difficult period. Whatever we were doing, we were doing it for these fans. And at a time when our brains were telling us to lay low during a rough patch, we acted boldly and bravely because the fans deserved it. 

Tip No. 2: Exceed Customer Expectations in Unexpected Ways

Today, you must if you want to be noticed. This remains true during crises and can easily be done if a brand truly listens, understands and cares for the people it serves. 

Let me walk you through a personal example: To stay healthy during quarantine, I wanted to buy a rowing machine, so I called WaterRower, an American brand renowned for its design, ethos and customer service. I reached an answering service, but to my surprise, a rep called me back before I hung up. They didn’t have what I wanted for immediate shipment but connected me with a trusted distributor in my area. That person took the time to locate the product and speak with their delivery service. The rower arrived at my home in Los Angeles before noon that same morning. I could start getting back in shape right away.

Both the brand and the distributor made their mark at a time when I just wanted something to make me feel better. Did I need the rower that badly? Of course not. But the way they helped me throughout the value chain was amazing. They built a human connection at that moment that will stick with me—and with all the people I have told about this experience.

Other fitness brands are also stepping up. I’ve been impressed with the way Under Armour’s 30-day fitness challenge and Adidas’s #HomeTeam campaign have reached out to motivate people to stay fit during the pandemic.

It’s something we all can learn from. 

Tip No. 3: Listen for Truth That Matters

In times of crisis, a “chaordic” organization—a mix of chaos and order—often replaces established structures and processes. Believe it or not, this is often for the best.

One thing that is often missing for the new C-suite is a real-time pulse: a customer-driven single source of truth for the brand. What do your customers and critical stakeholders think, and how do their sentiments evolve daily? Most importantly, how does it guide your decision-making? 

Sharing those  in a verbal morning briefing with your crisis management team can make a huge difference. They can prioritize which actions to take and also see what’s working and what’s not. I’ve often found this daily pulse is missing, and it’s a huge differentiator between the brands that recover fast and the ones that keep lagging. It’s also a great benchmark to compare your progress to the other brands that matter to your customers. Because in the end, that’s the only truth that matters. 

Tip No. 4: Plan for the New Normal—And Start the Transformation Now

Establishing trusted relationships can help a business rebuild after the dust settles. Still, you can’t just come back with business as usual.

Engineering Coca-Cola’s comeback after being away from the shelves (and the lives) of Belgian people for weeks was no small feat. We had to surprise and delight them when they went to stores, took a walk on the street or lounged at the beach. It couldn’t be business as usual.

It was the same at Samsung. The first U.S. commercial to air after the recall couldn’t be tone-deaf. It simply showed a group of teenagers in the streets of New York City interacting with different Samsung technologies at the end of a summer day. The products weren’t in your face. We didn’t try to persuade anyone to buy anything. We just wanted the wider community to look and say, “Oh, that’s lovable,” and get familiar with the brand again.

When businesses return to “normal” after COVID-19, the impulse will be to plead, “Buy me! I have a quarter to deliver my quota. Help me, I need to catch up.” The brands that stand out will be the ones that understand this new world and that a new normal requires a new vision and a new beginning. It’s time to think with  in mind.

That strategic work needs to begin now. And it can’t be driven by the same people focused on the present. Identify a few members on your team and give them the budget—and the reins—to work solely on post-crisis projects. This is essential because by the time COVID-19 is “resolved,” your core staff is going to be exhausted. It will be difficult to make another huge pivot when the bulk of your workforce is burned out.

Think of it like a wild duck formation. These birds can fly long distances because they take turns leading the way, with different members of the flock coming to the front when their colleagues get tired. Right now, businesses are focused on the front of their team’s flock. Identify a few in the back of the formation and tell them, “You’re going to be next—get ready for it.”

They’re the ones who will pull the organization forward later.

Tip No. 5: Turn Your Values into Value and Build Trust

Brand values are not something that should collect dust on your marketing bookshelves—especially during a crisis. They should guide your daily problem-solving. Use them to inform every decision you make and turn them into meaningful value.

I have always argued that brands need to follow a higher purpose—an iconic mission that ladders up from the product and brand. This is the time, more than ever, for brands to stand tall as beacons of hope for a better tomorrow. They must serve and create value for their employees, their immediate communities and the world at large. Not as marketers or business leaders, but as human beings.

While some brands seem to be missing in action, . “Coronavirus will launch a new era of responsible consumption,” Unilever CEO Alan Jope . “We’re trying to make sure our brands meet the needs of society and make positive contributions back to communities or the environment. We’ll need to adjust our innovation programs, our marketing plans and our brand portfolio to reflect the realities around us.”

Every contribution matters and the spectrum is vast. Look at how Mattel is helping to manufacture facemasks and other personal protective equipment to help fight the physical war against the virus. It’s also created a virtual playroom encompassing all of its brands, so children can .

Brands that engage and act now are building a unique trust capital that will live long after the crisis and won’t be forgotten.

We’re living in a unique time in history. Nobody knows exactly what’s going to happen next or what the timeline is. But we are a group of human beings all trying to get through this together while helping others do the same. We must tap into our deepest humanity whenever, wherever and however we can. This is a time to go from breakdown to breakthrough. It’s a time for brands to make history and help create a new future.

Please fill out the form below to access the Marketing News COVID-19 special issue.

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Part of the Marketing News COVID-19 Special Issue

When Consumers Feel Out of Control, They Prefer Numerical Certainty

By Christophe Lembregts and Mario Pandelaere

“,” Journal of Marketing Research, 56 (December 2018).

In a nutshell: Feeling a loss of control is a common reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study shows that when consumers are seeking to regain control of their environment, they prefer specific numerical product information (e.g., 12- to 14-hour battery life, 20 calories per serving). In fact, when people lack personal control, they appreciate point value information so much that they express preferences for a product that has a lower benefit but holds a specified point value, compared with when its benefit is higher but is presented as a range.

Practitioner takeaways: Consider your customers’ psychological need to control their environment in these uncertain times by advertising precise numerical benefits of your product—the more specific, the better. Even ranges are less optimal than actual numbers.

Please fill out the form below to access the rest of this article and the COVID-19 special issue.

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Part of the Marketing News COVID-19 Special Issue

The defining emotion of the COVID-19 pandemic may be uncertainty. But looking back on this time will also conjure the certainty of things that made us feel safe: video calls with friends, board games digitized over email and meals safely delivered. And, lest we forget, these touchpoints are branded; they’re Zoom calls, Hasbro games and meals from a favorite local café. Each experience provides brands with an opportunity to form a positive memory in consumers’ minds.

Marketers are, first and foremost, the same humans wondering about their own safety and logging in to those video chats. But they’re also in the unique position of listening and responding. Now that brands are past their initial emails assuring customers of their presence in these uncertain times, there’s an opportunity to play a meaningful, thoughtful role.

Industry leaders and academics are working to design best practices and guides to our current moment. For example, Ted Waldron and James Wetherbe designed the HEART framework of sustained crisis communication. The two Texas Tech University Rawls College of Business professors sought to focus on five strategies for how companies can interact with consumers amid the uncertainty. The acronym is broken down as: Humanize your company, educate about change, assure stability, revolutionize offerings and tackle the future.

“It’s a way to look for opportunities,” Wetherbe says. “You can get paralyzed out of panic and fear, so you [can use this to] go through the boxes and use them as a way to explore possibilities.”

One of the common threads in the framework, as well as any advice marketers are sharing with one another, is to offer empathy during the uncertainty. You don’t have all the answers and it’s inauthentic to pretend that you do. What you can offer are solutions (“We’ll bring the meal to your door”) and a plan for whatever the future may hold (“When it’s time to reopen, seating will be distanced and reservation-only”). Then, keep up the good work.

Please fill out the form below to access the rest of this article and the COVID-19 special issue.

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For offering their thoughts on life during the coronavirus outbreak, our thanks to:

• Jennifer Miller, president-elect of Austin ÂÜŔňÉçšŮÍř (director of marketing at )

• Chris Hill, president-elect of ÂÜŔňÉçšŮÍř Knoxville (CEO and producer at )

• Emily Fay, VP of special events at ÂÜŔňÉçšŮÍř Nashville (marketing manager at )

• Aaron Templer, president-elect of the ÂÜŔňÉçšŮÍř Professional Chapters Council (founder of )

• Gina Bonar, VP of strategic alignment at ÂÜŔňÉçšŮÍř Cincinnati (chief marketing partner)

• Chad Annable, VP of sponsorships at ÂÜŔňÉçšŮÍřDC (marketing coordinator at )

• Mandy Arola, secretary for ÂÜŔňÉçšŮÍř Nashville (director of marketing at )

• Tyler Samani-Sprunk, president of ÂÜŔňÉçšŮÍř Lincoln (CMO & co-founder of )

• Scott Elliott, treasurer at ÂÜŔňÉçšŮÍř Birmingham (president and partner at )

• Kimfer Flanery-Rye, VP of diversity, equity and inclusion for ÂÜŔňÉçšŮÍř Puget Sound (founder and principal consultant at )

• Jamie Parris, president of ÂÜŔňÉçšŮÍř Birmingham (marketing director and founding partner of )

• Dennis Devlin, chair of the CMO Roundtable Program and VP of the Executive Marketer Community for ÂÜŔňÉçšŮÍř Cincinnati (CEO of )

Illustration by Bill Murphy.

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When customers noted an offensive pattern on a line of H&M socks in 2018, the company bungled its chance at an apology. To be fair, the controversy was a bit of a surprise: The socks depicted a Lego figurine wearing a construction hat and holding a jackhammer, and the pattern made by the tool, when turned upside down, somewhat resembled the Arabic word for “Allah.” When the image made the rounds online, the socks were pulled from shelves and a saying that the symbol was “entirely coincidental” and apologized “if the motif has offended anyone.” Not only did this apology fail to claim responsibility—H&M was only sorry because people were angry—if the statement was drawing attention to what would have likely been a nonissue.

This kind of mistake falls under the category of what Mason Jenkins, assistant professor of marketing at Northeastern University, calls an “ambiguous failure”—an error a customer wouldn’t notice and therefore not expect an apology for. And demonstrates how apologizing for an ambiguous failure only serves to enrage otherwise tame customers.

In the study, the team partnered with an unnamed Grubhub competitor and surveyed the reactions of about 3,000 customers who had received deliveries that were as much as 15 minutes late. Some of those customers were issued a proactive apology before they had a chance to complain, while the others received nothing (other than their food, of course). An immediate post-purchase survey noted lower levels of satisfaction, trust and likelihood of a recommendation across the apology group, compared to the non-apology cohort. And 90 days later, those who received an apology were less likely to reorder from the same restaurant.

“What apologies are doing is influencing what aspects of the experience that [customers are] more likely to remember,” Jenkins says.

This phenomenon can be generalized beyond food delivery services and touches every company promising a core service to its customers. Examples abound: Online banking should be executed smoothly and without errors, and apparel companies shouldn’t sell anything that would disintegrate when laundered—the trick is to determine whether the error is egregious enough for a proactive apology or if the act of addressing the mistake does more harm than good.

Take a Brief Pause

Start by answering the biggest question first: What is necessitating the possible apology?

Negligent service, accounting errors or harassment claims are unambiguous reasons to be sorry and issue an apology. Tamara Rodman, EVP of employee experience at Edelman, says that companies should evaluate the gravity of the error by hypothesizing how it would be viewed by a general consumer base. She says companies should consider whether the mistake was within their control, and allow for potential caveats for everything else.

“If it’s truly, totally ownable by the company, just acknowledge it,” Rodman says.

Mike Schaffer, SVP of digital corporate reputation at Edelman, urges companies to bear in mind that the reason for an apology may have more to do with the customer than the encounter itself. “A lot of customers will leave negative feedback or demand an apology because they don’t feel that they’re being heard,” he says. “If you’re able to show that you hear them and you have empathy for what they’re going through, even if it’s not your direct fault, that shows that you’re listening and you’re caring. And that’s a great way to build strong relationships with your customers.”

Let Data Dictate the Rest

The next step is determining how egregious the error was. The threshold at which an apology is warranted needs to remain the same across multiple customers for the sake of consistent word-of-mouth. Companies must be ready with an apology should the situation warrant one, and a case-by-case policy isn’t sustainable.

Modern analytics remove much of the guesswork from gauging the precise moment when a customer notices a mistake and begins seeking an apology. Check for patterns in your data: Perhaps customers reach out after two bad service experiences and demand an apology, but one bad experience seems to sail under the radar. Or maybe customers rarely complain when food orders arrive 25 minutes late but start lighting up the switchboards at half an hour. “It’s not a one-size-fits-all—understand … your gating function,” Rodman says.

Pick the Proper Medium

Apologies take many forms, be they delivered in person, over email or during a nationally televised address.

“You want the apology to be as personal as the situation dictates,” Schaffer says. “If there was a massive outage of an airline’s computer system, there is no expectation that you’re going to call everyone in your database. That’s where social media posts should suffice. But if there was an error in one person’s reservation that made them 10 hours late to their destination, you could take that to an email. People want to feel apologized to personally when they’ve been wronged individually.”

Because of its exorbitant reach, Twitter is a prime outlet for mass apologies. Some companies have set up separate accounts to address service outages and other errors; Verizon, for example, owns both @verizon and @verizonsupport, the latter of which handles most of its apologies. But Jenkins says that by posting apologies under their main Twitter handle, companies are viewed as more transparent and garner favorable word-of-mouth.

Regardless of where this apology appears, be sure it’s issued as soon as possible to minimize how long the incident stays with customers. “This minimizes the chance of someone forgetting that they might have been remotely inconvenienced and then having it be redrawn up for them,” Rodman says. “The potential fallout from an apology is far mitigated the quicker you make it.”

No Ifs

As far as language goes, the only requirement across the board is to use the word “sorry.” Almost anything else is fair game, but Schaffer cautions against the use of one word in particular.

“One of the things that has always been a pet peeve of mine about corporate apologies is the word ‘if,’” he says. “When an apology says, ‘We are sorry if you feel this way,’ or ‘We are sorry if we inconvenienced you,’ that puts the responsibility back on the person who was already materially or perceptually wronged. … You should be sorry regardless. Whereas if the apology was, ‘This happened, we are sorry,’ full stop, that really takes accountability for the action.”

Part of that accountability includes eliminating any doubt that a similar incident will ever occur again. “Instead of being recovery-focused, communicate and ensure that the customer’s next experience is going to be unambiguously positive,” Jenkins says. “[It’s] less defensive, more offensive.”

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People want what they don’t have, and there are ways of figuring out exactly what it is that they don’t have and how they’d like it served to them—even during a pandemic.

1. Cater to the Underlying Psychological Need

When my friend had a bone marrow transfusion to treat her leukemia, she had to stay indoors for 100 days to avoid getting infected with germs from the world outside. I couldn’t imagine what this would feel like, to be locked down and isolated. I sent her a tea towel with an image of the sea—not because she needed a towel, but so that she could enjoy an image of the ocean and the sun. I figured this was her desire, something that would reassure her more than chocolate or flowers.

I’ve seen this applied in pharmaceutical marketing. There, people obviously have medical needs, but if you only appeal to these needs—such as controlling high blood pressure or diabetes—and ignore emotional ones, your marketing is less effective.  

. The presenter is reliably older than 50, but not much more. He stands near a body of water, which signifies movement and freshness, the opposite of stagnation and of, well, being old. He’s avoiding discussing the reason why people take Lipitor or any other statin, to reduce the risk of stroke. Instead, he presents it as a way by which to “stop kidding myself about high cholesterol.” He speaks his final lines from the water, wearing nothing but his tan and chiseled arm muscles. The psychological needs of people on statins to be fit, adventurous and attractive are fully answered.  

When I trained a national team of sales reps about a new and costly cancer medication, I focused on the doctors’ psychological needs. On the surface, they needed information. Psychologically, however, the doctors needed certainty that prescribing this contender to the blockbuster was the right thing to do. If you missed this point, you’d be flooding them with graphs and evidence, but not converting them. Some of them also needed to be innovators and lead—which is why our appeal to doctors led with “dare to prescribe.” From an informational point of view, it’s meaningless. From a psychological and marketing point of view, it’s brilliant.

But sometimes marketers miss the psychological mark altogether. An agency created a diabetes-management program for a company’s employees. It failed miserably. It was a free product, but employee uptake was incredibly poor and I was hired to discover why. I found that the diabetic employees hated the phone calls alerting them when their blood sugar level went up. To them, it was a talking-to, an intrusive Big Brother intervention. When you consider how many people pay to receive calls from health coaches, you wonder what went wrong and why these calls were resented.

There’s a hitch, which leads us to the second tip.

2. Cater to the Need Discretely

For a product or service to restore a person’s wounded sense of self, it needs to do so implicitly. When the product screams, “You’re ill, I’ll tell you what to do,” it forces the consumer to think of the problem. Instead, the product should be offered discretely and provide an empowering psychological benefit.

At my own company, Buddy&Soul, we’ve worked to design such tools by way of a personal development platform. Our offerings, such as science-based, actionable e-courses on stress management, self-esteem and authenticity, aim to elevate people instead of labeling them as patients. In my career, I’ve seen consumers walk away from too many sites that only catered to their medical identity.  

Under our current pandemic, we don’t have power. We’ve been stripped of the power to leave the house, to go out and spend money, to decide who to meet and where. Also stripped of the power to make things better, for ourselves, our loved ones and the world in general. We dislike feeling powerless.

One way people have found they can regain power and protect others is through charitable donations, which are a rather humane version of compensatory consumption (there are others, such as expensive facemasks, that allow for —but they’ve received their fair share of criticisms).

Donating to others in this challenging time helps us to feel powerful in a way that implies gratitude and solidarity, not superiority and one-upmanship.

The moral of the story is that to market now, you need to:

1. Find what the underlying psychological needs are. In these challenging coronavirus times, the secret to marketing is to understand that people crave being back in control.
2. Pretend like the medical need does not exist. If you attack it directly, consumers will flee. If you help them feel as though a huge existential fear isn’t looming over their heads, they’ll let you in their pockets. They’ll even feel good about it.

Photo by visuals on .

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Strategic digital marketing among a global privacy and security landscape is already a challenge, yet has been further exacerbated during the global coronavirus pandemic. But it’s now even more crucial for digital marketers to strongly consider the privacy and security of their consumers. This is especially true with the increased digital transformation that organizations are now facing and the trail of data left by consumers. The fact that many consumers are voluntarily or involuntarily quarantined or working from home means that they rely further on the internet for many facets of their lives. This can include greater engagement with digital marketing for their immediate needs.

Amid coronavirus, digital marketing can help to provide real-time or quick access to relevant products and services, as available. At the same time, this can raise many privacy and security concerns. While marketers often consider privacy and security to be at odds with digital marketing, it doesn’t have to be. By considering these five key strategies, marketers can be on their way to a successful balance during crisis situations.

Be Open ÂÜŔňÉçšŮÍřt Your Privacy and Security Measures

Consumers should know where you stand in terms of privacy and security during a pandemic like this. Don’t be shy about making this public and don’t hide your potential lack of privacy measures and force the consumer to figure it out themselves. Let them know how you handle their data and what the benefits are for providing such data to the organization. Include how you’re securing their data or how your products are secure. This can go a long way in building trust with consumers.

Open a privacy policy nowadays and the first thing you might read is that the organization cares about a consumer’s privacy. Consider if your privacy policy contradicts other statements within it. In a digital marketing context, consider where else consumer data may end up and assess whether security measures are possible. You should also educate consumers on privacy and security considerations outside of your organization’s control as they engage with your digital services and integrated marketing communication during the crisis.

Don’t Overpromise Privacy and Security

Do not overpromise what you deliver. Avoid statements such as “100% secure” or “completely private,” as you are not able to assure this. Trust can easily be lost, especially if consumers are more willing or compelled to provide further data to obtain needed services during a crisis but are then affected by a privacy or security breach.

Ensure That You Deliver Value

Providing value is a key component of all marketing. Organizations may choose to significantly revamp their digital marketing efforts as more consumers work from home. Consider value in relation to privacy and security as you make marketing decisions during these times. For example, if your organization collects heaps of consumer data and uses it to provide products and services, consider what value you are giving back to the consumer for what they’re providing. In a pandemic context, this can potentially amount to a constant stream of data fed into a digital marketing system. Consider how this increases value for consumers and how you can use the data to personalize and provide relevant, timely services. It’s crucial to do this the right way while being sensitive to the times.

Some retailers have set up a digital alert option for consumers to let them know when products will be available or have run out. Others are implementing tactics to digitally reach a consumer looking for something they offer. However, when the pandemic is over, be considerate in relation to the data collected and held. Providing consumers privacy choices about their data may be strategically prudent in these circumstances. For example, should you collect the data for use only during the pandemic? If you don’t need certain data, consider getting rid of it where appropriate, so as to avoid potential security breaches.

Communicate Pandemic-Related Messaging Based on Audience

If you’ve redirected your marketing spend due to the coronavirus situation and determine that it’s relevant to your customers, digitally communicate to let them know what benefits this could afford them. If you’re offering new relevant products and services that consumers do not know about but might need, offer these through your digital channels. If organic traffic and conversions are down, consider alternative digital marketing techniques.

Consequently, email isn’t the only effective way to reach consumers. As you consider your digital strategy, and to protect consumers’ privacy, avoid personalizing all digital marketing content during a crisis. For example, there may be a variety of products and services that consumers may not feel comfortable about having tracked. Personalized messaging should be avoided unless it’s secure or expected.

Consider local need during the pandemic and where you might fit in to help or provide a valued product or service. Ensure you are communicating these efforts through local digital channels. This is not a time to use personal data in your possession to take advantage of consumers and their needs. In fact, some marketers are heavily engaged in marketing-related philanthropy and helpful efforts in these crisis times.

Also, if you have enhanced privacy and security in your services, for your products, or for customer data in response to the crisis, communicate this to consumers—it may matter. This can assist in enhancing their trust in your organization, especially due to the further reliance on digital marketing that you may offer. Don’t forget to address privacy and security as you communicate to reassure consumers about the longevity and resilience of your brand and the steps you’re taking during the coronavirus. This can help consumers build confidence in your organization and address their privacy and security concerns.

Consider Whether This Pandemic is a Trigger to Creating a Privacy Culture

Many digital marketers are concerned about the growing regulations on the privacy front and complying with various jurisdictions. However, if a privacy culture is built, this can help with compliance efforts and create an opportunity to be a privacy-conscious digital marketer. Although this is not an alternative to understanding the intricacies of global legal regulation as applicable, consider whether this is a way to enhance your privacy orientation. Proactively considering privacy in a digital marketing context can help form a basis for marketing decision-making for online channels. And, if your organization proactively implements privacy-enhancing strategies, why not tout this as a differentiating factor?

Marketing in a digital context is especially complex amid a global pandemic. It also opens opportunities to reconsider privacy and security related digital marketing strategies. These strategies can help guide and inform your marketing decisions with the hope that the pandemic concludes in the shortest of order.

Image by Darwin Laganzon from .

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Telehealth is taking center stage during the coronavirus pandemic, as facilities try to avoid overwhelm and contagion. But prior to the outbreak, the statistics around consumer confidence in the platform suggest patients hadn’t yet been won over. found that only 53% of participants felt that their telehealth providers were just as knowledgeable as someone they would see in person, and fewer than half claimed the wait time was shorter, the doctor made them feel comfortable and that they received the information they needed. , America’s decentralized healthcare infrastructure isn’t well-suited to host a robust telehealth system. It’s often not even clear who will be reimbursing customers for the costs, if at all.

But in reinforcing the principles of social distancing while providing sick patients with immediate support, which means marketers must immediately educate consumers on the benefits. The good news is that they won’t be starting from scratch: Deloitte further discovered rising numbers—particularly among millennials—in utilizing other forms of technology to monitor their health, including voice assistants, mobile prescription alerts and fitness-tracking software. The next step, then, is to start promoting telehealth as not just a viable alternative to an in-person visit but as a necessary first line of defense against the virus.

Rajesh Midha, chief strategy officer at , explains how healthcare marketers can undergo a paradigm shift in how they view their customers holistically, plus what the healthcare landscape might look like post-pandemic and where marketers best fit in.

Q: What are some key points for healthcare marketers to keep in mind?

A: The No. 1 thing to know is that we are living in a totally new time. The majority of areas that people were focused on, those have all been deprioritized. … What has emerged is a laser focus on clarity of messaging to help patients who are trying to understand how they should access the healthcare services in this new COVID-19 time.

I would say let’s use our excellent communication skills and help our health system partners with, say, where should [patients] be going for testing? How can they access telemedicine or other online services? Or what should they be doing to practice social distancing, but also take some exercise or stay engaged on their mental health?

Q: Have you noticed a change in use over the last month or so?

A: They were always priorities—for example, making an online or video visit was always a priority for health systems—but they were not major. Those virtual types of visits have now moved to the top of the list. And I’ll be very specific: There’s one health system that we work with where as soon as COVID-19 started to move to this side of the world, we had some conversations with them and we said, “Your access to your telehealth is three pages down from your main website. Let’s put it right on the homepage.”

Q: What should consumer messaging look like?

A: The things that will resonate with consumers now are [that] it’s possible to take care of your health and still practice social distancing. I would be encouraging people to do simple exercises at home, stretching or walking. I would be directing people to different mental health-type mindfulness exercises and apps. And I would be encouraging people to think about their total health during this period of social distancing.

It can’t just be about your product. It has to be your product with deep empathy for what’s going on in the consumers’ or patients’ lives right now with actionable suggestions that are relevant to a world of coronavirus.

Q: How have consumers’ perceptions of telehealth changed?

A: Having looked at some of this data, there was a perception that [telehealth] was lower quality, the tools were hard and the patient couldn’t figure it out. And I think there was a perception that it just wasn’t as good. I’m not saying all of those things are solved, but [now they think], “Wow, it is good enough.”

Q: Did the coronavirus expedite those changes?

A: A lot of people are forced to adopt new ways of communicating. And in some sense—[things like] online grocery delivery have been around for a really long time. But right now, all of a sudden, online grocery delivery is utilized everywhere. And stats are through the roof. It’s similar to accessing telemedicine, whether that’s for physical healthcare or mental healthcare. [They’ve] been around for a long time. But it’s now the primary suggested way of keeping yourself and your physician safe. It’s forcing people to move to it more quickly.

Q: What can marketers do as a first step in adapting to the needs of a digitized healthcare industry?

A: There’s not a lot of appetite for new initiatives, but I try to prepare myself for the period of time when healthcare marketers are ready to partner. The kinds of things I would be thinking about are patients as consumers. [When they] visit the website, they need to be able to create an account and receive communication from their health system that’s appropriate for them and their condition at the right time.

That health system needs to think about the lifetime experience of that patient, and helping them to take action on the things that are most relevant to the stage of life that they’re in. And the market in general is very competitive. If we are a healthcare system, which manages hospitals and many doctor’s offices, we need to think about having a relationship [with patients] and shifting the world from healthcare where somebody is contacting us when they’re sick to really thinking about—it’s not sick care, it’s proactive healthcare on an ongoing, future-looking basis.

Q: Will these changes stick after the pandemic is over?

A: This trend started before COVID-19 and will continue long past. Healthcare is probably the area that is most ripe for innovation out of all the sectors that have a very strong technology component and a very strong patient, customer-centric type of mindset. Healthcare is a laggard.

We have so much opportunity in healthcare to take the best of what we’ve learned in the B2B and B2C sectors, including from big technology companies, and apply that now in terms of how we think about taking care of a patient for their life.

Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

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Governmental and self-imposed restrictions related to COVID-19 are affecting our communities and businesses more each day. As the new normal encompasses social distancing, working remotely and elimination of public gatherings for the foreseeable future, it’s time to take a hard look at your business events strategy and make changes immediately.

While shifting to digital across the board may seem like a good plan, our clients—especially our global clients—are taking a measured approach to identify what can convert to digital and what cannot. 

Whether you’re a large company dealing with hundreds of scheduled events on the horizon or a small or mid-sized business with a handful of important events planned, here are five tips for pivoting from an in-person strategy to a digital event strategy.

1. Create an Events Steering Committee

The committee should consist of your core team of go-to marketing events experts and may also include partners or resources from other teams (technology, for example). These leaders can provide guidance to your local and regional marketing folks who are trying to understand what’s happening on a global scale so that they may act in their own markets. The committee can also help streamline processes and communication around changes in strategy, as well as train marketers on how to respond in this unique environment.

2. Evaluate Events Through Q2

Be realistic about what’s absolutely necessary. Solve through the end of the second quarter for now, keeping the following in mind:

What to cancel: Any in-person event scheduled for the upcoming two to three weeks can’t be executed well digitally in this short time frame. Networking-focused events also don’t translate well to virtual meetings. Push or cancel these.

What to convert to digital: For the second quarter, evaluate what can and should be shifted to a digital format, and what can be postponed until the third quarter or beyond. Educational or product-focused events—as well as keynotes and interviews—adapt well virtually. Anything else could probably be pushed out. Think in terms of what your customer and audiences could benefit from now.

Consider consolidation of similar content: Create fewer events and invite bigger, broader audiences.

Identify what success looks like: Conversion of an in-person event to a digital format (even on the same topic) will have vastly different benchmarks of success. As you evaluate what to cancel and what to convert, think about what success would look like—attendance numbers, how long attendees stayed, social media shares, content downloads and so on—and whether the success goals are achievable for this particular event in a virtual environment.

3. Take Inventory

Determine what technology resources, workstreams and team skill sets you have access to.

Consider event platforms: If you need a third-party events platform, do your research on what other companies your size are using. Create a list of best options and compare it to a matrix of features you desire, such as analytics, bandwidth charges, customer support, embedding capabilities and social media integration.

Evaluate workstreams: Do you have access to a studio, video team and professional production team? Or maybe you have a studio, but need to hire professionals to help with recording and production. When considering formats, evaluate which tools and teams you have and which you’ll need, as these could add time and cost.

4. Create a Solid Virtual Experience

Before you craft a single piece of content, strive to understand your audience, their pain points and what they will gain by attending your event. Make sure you’re offering a unique and valuable experience, one they can’t get anywhere else. 

When it comes to content, think like an audience member: How can you help them in their business? What do you have to offer that’s unique?

• For big-picture topics, one strategy might be to create either very short, prerecorded video content or a TED Talk-style presentation of 15 minutes or less that’s engaging and inspirational. 
• For educational topics, break them out into smaller pieces, perhaps more of a video on demand, where the content is prerecorded and can be consumed as needed.

Innovate: Try different engagement approaches. Use pre- and post-digital event surveys to learn what consumers are looking for and how you can incorporate topics into your digital event, whether it’s an inspirational message, a product announcement or a demo.

Use the right format: Provide experiences that allow customers to consume content in the best way possible. Should content be provided in video format? Or would a blog post, an email or some other format be better? And if it’s video, should it be a livestream or would prerecorded content be sufficient, such as video on demand?

5. Double Down on Your Promotional Strategy

Think about your audience—where they spend their time and key messages that might spark their interest.

Consider user behavior and platforms: Whether the mode of communication is Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or email, think through how much to promote and when.

Communicate creatively: In the current environment, customers will be receiving a multitude of emails and communications each day with a link to a virtual experience. Yours need to stand out.

Highlight and differentiate your content: Why should your audience care about the content you’re presenting? How do they benefit? And why now?

Once you map out what form this new landscape of events, operations and processes is going to take, measure your results. Are your customers feeling satisfied and getting what they need through virtual formats? Depending on the answer, pivot or iterate to offer the best experiences possible.

There’s no doubt we’re in the midst of something likely none of us has experienced before. But now is the time to lean in to evaluate how you need to invest—in terms of both time and resources—in a virtual event strategy. The endgame is to ensure your customers know that you are a leader in innovation and technology, and that you have their best interests at heart, presenting content and experiences that speak to their needs.

Photo by Simon Abrams on .

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Many industries are struggling in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, and perhaps none is more consumer-facing than restaurants. Many beloved mom-and-pop shops have had to close up entirely, while other eateries can only offer pick-up or delivery. It’s an uncertain time for anyone trying to market their restaurant, so we spoke with Rick Silva, board member for the National Restaurant Association, about how restaurants can communicate with customers.

Q: The National Restaurant Association has been recommending and promoting drive-thru, takeout and curbside pickup delivery so that restaurants can stay alive and consumers can be fed. How exactly are you recommending that businesses alert their customers that this is an option?

A: It’s so important because consumers are disoriented. They don’t want to take any risks by going out. Any normal mediums where you’re speaking to your guests—if you’ve got loyalty programs, social, digital—you want to reach out to them and communicate to them. Let them know that, first and foremost, it’s safe to come to your establishment and you’ve created mechanisms to ensure the safety of your employees, and that your food is safe and that they can access the food in a safe manner. What we’re advocating is, obviously, the off-premises where people feel most comfortable. That’s delivery, including pickup and they can drive-thru as well. It’s critical that people understand that you are open first and foremost, because many establishments are closed. You want to let them know that you’re available and leading with what you’re doing to make sure that your employees are safe and that the food is safe and the method of accessing the food is safe. The more you communicate in advance, the more comfortable people will feel coming to you.

Many people are worried about where they’re going to get food from. (…) Restaurants have been feeding the population for decades and decades. It helps the consumers to know they can access food independently from grocery stores, and your local restaurants that are convenient, they’re safe to get to, where you don’t have a lot of crowds. Going to a grocery store can be very unsettling for folks because they have to walk the grocery store, they have to stand in line to pay. Restaurants offer a great solution. But it does start with communicating to [customers].

Q: One of the things that I’ve noticed, just with some of the restaurants that I follow on social media, is that a lot of them are doing things like waiving delivery fees or offering some sort of discount. But of course, these businesses are already hurting financially right now. Do you have any recommendations for the types of discounts that they’re offering, or even the language for discounts?

A: First and foremost, I think the folks that are doing that, they’re joining in partnership with the third-party delivery companies Whether it’s Grubhub, DoorDash or Postmates, and they’re funding that together. Because as you said, restaurants are suffering a great deal, even though they may have delivery and drive-thru open in many cases, in fact, in most cases, it’s still not the majority of their business.

In terms of how to discount it, there may be smart ways of doing that. Most people that are (ordering from restaurants) are probably not just buying food for just themselves. Potentially a smart way of providing discounts is by bundling foods into meal packages. It’s a smart way of doing two things: One is addressing people’s need to feed their family at home. And then by pushing that average check up, you’re giving yourself some room to provide a discount. It’ll allow you to provide potentially even more throughput for your kitchen because by standardizing or offering a meal package and moving people to a standard meal package, your kitchens can produce things more efficiently, more of the same thing and potentially actually be able to produce more food more efficiently out the window.

Q: I saw something else that the association was recommending was offering family-targeted offers. Is that what you’re referring to when you describe packaging meals?

A: That’s right. We call it home meal replacement. You’re trying to feed your family and by offering it in a in a complete package, it has your main plate, your sides, even your drinks, and it’s meant for multiple people and you can have multiple packages. You can create a discount for bundling those together. You’re addressing the need that most consumers are having right now, because they’re trying to feed their family. And then you can also help expedite your kitchen by producing more of the same product, it’s more efficient for kitchen to know that these packages could be 30% of your volume, and therefore they can be much more efficient producing a product.

Q: I wanted to also ask about some of the planned events that some restaurants might have had, whether that was something special for an upcoming holiday or anything like that. How should they handle of their marketing materials that they’ve already spent money on?

A: Everything is so unpredictable right now, in terms of when we’re going to be able to go back and change our behaviors. We’re obviously still in the cycle where we’re seeing potentially more restrictions placed on what people can do, including in restaurants. I would certainly say hold on to that POP (point of purchase). If you can redeploy it in some way, of course we deploy it. What’s really important is that you communicate in advance to your customers, to the extent that you will not be able to offer the event or to the extent that you’re changing the way you’re communicating the event.

One thing that we’re finding is it is absolutely critical to reach out to your customers. The practical side is many consumers are finding they have a lot more time on their hands than they ever had before and they really are taking their time to review emails, to respond or stay up with their loyalty programs. Because they’re not busy at work, unfortunately, most of them, and so they’re probably engaging socially (with restaurants online) more than they had. It’s a great opportunity to be thinking into the future and be considerate of the fact that they are available and you can let them know if you’re going to have to make changes to your plans.

Q: Speaking of emailing with customers, it became a running joke at the very beginning of this that companies you’ve engaged with were sending you an email about their plans for handling the pandemic. Other than sending out communications that say, “We’re open. Here’s what we can offer you. Here’s how we’re keeping staff and the customer safe,” are there any other communications that you’re recommending right now?

A: For restaurants, I would keep it really short and be really considerate of what matters to them: We’re open. We’re offering these kinds of deals. Most importantly, again, I know it sounds like overkill, but tell them how they can access your food in a safe place. Let me know that you have drive-thru available. Let me know that an employee can walk it to my car if I don’t want to come into the restaurant. Let me know that you will be open late so that we can access that. Let me know that you have employees and are staffed up so you can serve my food. Let me know that you are adhering to not only your standard health code requirements, but extensive other mechanisms to make sure that the food is not only safe to consume, but that I can access in a safe manner.

Those are things that matter to everybody. And you can do that in a very, very tight way that makes people feel good. I don’t think you have to have a lot of corporate speak and several paragraphs to get that accomplished. People will appreciate that.

There’s a lot of anxiety out there in terms of how do I just live my life right now without potentially putting myself or my family in harm’s way as it relates to contracting the virus. If you can help them understand that you could provide them a service in a safe way, it helps make them feel better.

Q: Any other thoughts for restaurants during this time?

A: One thing I wanted to say is to remind folks that the restaurant industry has very, very strict health and safety guidelines that we adhere to. That local health departments and restaurants are always vigilant on making sure that the food is prepared in a manner that it cannot be contaminated by anything on the exterior regardless of, in this case, we have a very obvious containment, which is this virus. But in the food industry, we’re used to dealing in that environment because even the common cold, whatever it might be, the procedures in kitchens are designed to make sure that food is safe. People should realize that that’s always the case, and that’s certainly something that is even more heightened today. That should not be what worries folks.

What really should worry all of us is the social distancing. How do we access the food, the services, the items that we need, in a safe manner. The great thing about your local restaurant is that they can do that through delivery, through drive-thru and other mechanisms. People should feel comfortable doing that.

At the end of the day, they should also know that the vast majority of these restaurants are run by folks in your community. These are local families. To the extent that people feel safe, they should be frequenting and helping these restaurants. It’s not only a nice alternative to going to the grocery store and standing in line to get your products, but it’s also a great way to get great food that’s hot and safe and supporting a local business, because businesses are struggling right now, given the change in customer behavior.

Illustration by Bill Murphy.

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