Brands need to adapt their marketing quickly to maintain relevance during the pandemic and beyond or run the risk of losing relevance with consumers.
The uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 has left businesses divided in their approaches to how they market themselves.
Colin Barnard, commercial director at adtech company Criteo Australia and New Zealand, told AdNews staying silent is not the way to go.
“Consumer behaviour has changed, entire industries have come to a halt and businesses are ‘stuck’ in limbo, however cutting marketing budgets and putting strategies to a standstill to avoid being seen as ‘opportunistic’ is not the way forward nor is it economical,” Barnard says.
“For marketers still in the denial and defiance stages of the pandemic, adapting their service offering, marketing messaging and digital assets to the new landscape is essential to staying relevant and connected with consumers.”
As consumers settle into their new norm of staying at home, a number of categories have seen success with spending up for online shopping.
Australia’s online sales spikes across essential categories like health, home goods, groceries and alcohol have spiked.
According to data from Criteo, in Q1 2020, alcohol sales increased by 179% with a peak increase of 288% on March 25 compared to January this year.
Health and beauty sales also significantly outperformed sales in Q1 2019. In the week of March 16 to 22, 2020 sales skyrocketed by 77% compared to January 2019.
Barnard says the increased interest in purchasing online from these categories is expected to remain high.
Other categories, that he refers to as “quality of life” categories like sporting equipment, fashion and video games, are more likely to fluctuate over the coming months.
For this reason, he says brands can’t become complacent. Instead, using a target and personalised approach remains key.
“Due to the nature of the pandemic, all businesses are in unknown territory,” he says.
“Therefore staying reactive, listening to customers and utilising customer data to forge ahead is the key to keeping momentum in sales in both the immediate future and post-pandemic.”
While marketing budgets may have shrunk and resources have become limited, he says marketers can help brands remain relevant for the right reasons through a number of ways.
His top best practice tips are:
- Update creative to feature activities and products indoors instead of busy spaces
- Get regular insights
- Prioritise high-performing products
- Drive conversions with context - Mother’s Day is around the corner; and
- Take the time to build relationships with customers.
“Now more than ever, brands must implement a messaging strategy that talks to their customers’ pain points and pivots messaging toward resonating with people’s values or else they’ll be seen as irrelevant, insensitive or opportunistic, impacting overall brand perception and sales,” he says.
“The brands that get this - the ones that make purpose their North Star, walk the walk and create authentic conversations to reach consumer passion points - are more likely to succeed.”
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