Impact of coronavirus on business environment, the response of brands and marketing team's focus.

As coronavirus is spreading at an alarming rate globally, we have now started to see businesses either being shut down or being downsized. With no or less sales, businesses across sectors are cutting their budgets and redirecting their investments towards hygiene sentiment running among the consumers. The governments are vary of the developing situation and thus are providing necessary financial support to make businesses ride through this pandemic. Whereas marketing teams are in dichotomy between opportunity and empathy. The businesses are confused on the communication strategy to be used during these turbulent times. In this article, we will be accessing the impact of coronavirus on businesses and will be talking on how to respond as a brand, and what marketing teams should focus on currently (during pandemic).

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“Moody’s cuts India’s GDP growth outlook in 2020 to 2.5% amid coronavirus outbreak.”

This news came just after few days when India went under a 21-day lockdown, which began on March 25, to contain the spread of coronavirus. Rating agencies saw this as a potential brake on the economic activity that would adversely affect the growth of the country, which is already on a downward trajectory for the past few quarters. Although the move, for a lockdown, from the government was necessary in order to safeguard the public health and protect the economy from getting worse from this pandemic. The lockdown, categorically, will put several liquidity constraints on the business environment and will affect the overall growth across sectors. The impact will be seen more in the first quarter of the financial year 2021, which began on April 1.

Anticipating this, Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, announced a 23$ billion package aimed at cushioning the disruption coronavirus outbreak might bring to the businesses. India’s central bank, RBI, also joined the fight a few days later with sharp interest rate cuts and a slew of unconventional measures aimed at making credit available to businesses that suffered due to this. The stimulus provided will give a line of breath for businesses where one does not know when this pandemic will be over and a normal course of life will begin.

With so much disruption across the country in all of the sectors due to coronavirus, one can easily see a dip in sales of products. Customer's impulse buying has dropped significantly. People are also averse to take any big financial decisions right now. Therefore, if there is no business, then there will be no money and thus borrower’s ability to pay will go down significantly. This consumer behavior will create a domino effect on the business environment across sectors in the coming days.

Let us take the manufacturing sector as an example, where the raw materials are stuck in transit due to disruption in the global supply chain. Production is stalled not only due to the unavailability of raw materials but also due to the unavailability of manpower (mostly blue-collar workers) who lives on daily wages and are mostly affected due to coronavirus lockdown. The unavailability of the workforce has also affected the operations of many e-commerce and local delivery companies. On the other side, we also see impacts on tourism, aviation, entertainment, and the hospitality sector. With cities in lockdown and restrictions on travel, global trade, commerce, and tourism are in disarray.

“How you respond and react to an adverse situation shows a lot about your character.”

The time of crisis, like this, is testing the resilience of businesses that will prepare them for future adverse conditions. Moreover, in current times, communication from every business and brand to their customers will matter a lot and will either make or break the trust in the minds of the customers. While designing the communication, a brand should revisit their values and reflect on what value they are bringing to their clients or customers. Brands must stand with their customers to combat the current situation. Brands, acting as humans during the present times, would not only help humanity to come out of this pandemic but also leave a positive impression in the minds of the citizens (potential customers). Today’s customers are ruthless (read smart) and can easily sense when someone is trying to sell or leverage something during the time of adversity. It is time for brands to show empathy and not to be opportunistic. The former can bring out the hero in you (your brand) and the latter can shatter your (your brand) image for life. The slightest mistake in communication can put your business at stake. Empathy, personalized communication and being truthful is the key for building trust among customers for a brand. Connecting and empathizing during these turbulent times will help businesses see an upward rise in brand recognition and brand value. With a majority of customers currently at home, they have more time to be online which gives brands an opportunity to engage them with the brand’s content and offerings either on social media or on the company’s website with smart communication. Engaging the customers through chatbots, email marketing or marketing automation will help one to build a positive brand character. Though it is challenging for marketing teams amid the budget cuts across companies, below are the five things that marketing teams should focus on:

1. Reducing marketing budgets on campaigns to drive short-term sales while focusing more on brand building campaigns.

2. Directing investments in marketing tactics that drive online sales.

3. Shifting focus from promoting premium products to the entry point or essential items.

4. Tracking social sentiments and google trends/query volume on keywords as indicators to take appropriate marketing actions.

5. Engaging customers with empathetic messages and brand stories.

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