With the economy finally poised for reopening, many brands have the opportunity – and some, the need – to be realigned and reenergized. If you’ve hunkered down and worked, and reworked, your organization’s strategic operations survival plan, it’s time to pivot to a post-Shelter in Place brand revitalization.
We’re laying out six steps you should make in our Brand Pivot series running over the next several posts to help you strategically reorient your brand thinking and planning to meet the many challenges ahead.
Step 1. Refocus on Brand
If you’re like most micro- and SMB owners/executives, right now your organization is focused on the here and now. After the virus subsides enough to begin picking up the pieces, it’s time to refocus your organization around basic, common goals, with internal challenges being first priority. Your employees need to know what is going on and what will happen to the business, the mission, and to them. Employees are generally on board with refocusing, especially when an organization is dealing with a crisis. In return, they expect to know in what direction they are sailing, their destination and a likely itinerary. Properly executed, with consistent communication to and from leadership, your team will be all hands on deck helping move the organization forward.
Step 2. Restore Brand Relevancy
Relevancy is critical to brand health and a crisis such as the pandemic turns relevance on its head; what was important a few months ago may not be at this time, and possibly, ever again. Relevance is a key driver of purchase intent; if a brand is relevant it is perceived to be addressing current customer needs and problems. Restoring relevance requires allocating resources to uncover, understand and maintain thorough knowledge of the current marketplace; defining clear market segmentation; and revitalizing the brand’s promise, one that is aligned and balanced between what the market can support, what consumers want and need, and what you can ultimately, successfully deliver.
Major shifts in consumer behavior also mean a complete, objective review of your organization’s differentiated benefits. The world is now different; a “different” not experienced on a global basis in more than one hundred years. What made a brand relevant a few short months ago is probably not the same as what relevant means today, tomorrow, for the next several months, years – maybe even decades.
For example, health and safety are now very relevant, and intensely, if not consistently, regulated. Virtual communications are also relevant; and working from home is emerging as a workforce trend that may be here to stay on a larger scale than anticipated, as corporate employers are beginning to signal a move away from centralized, expensive real estate. Organizations need to think about how just these three behavioral shifts align – or not – with their brand. Your organization’s ability in reading new and emerging behaviors impacting and shaping consumer wants/needs, and its agility in aligning product/service offerings, delivery channels and platforms to meet those wants/needs, determine your brand’s overall relevance to customers.
Step 3. Realign Your Organization
Alignment means everyone working together, with understanding and support for the same mission, the same view as to where the brand is headed, the same brand goals, the same common definitions, the same priorities, and the same common KPIs and metrics. Aligning an organization requires enterprise-wide commitment to a common ambition and strategy and no-holds barred execution in achieving that ambition. Throw the pandemic spanner into the works, and it’s possible there is damage done to the very core; the question is now much damage and whether it’s a restoration to your organization’s former state, or a rebuild and transformation to something very different.
Realigning your organization to address the rearranged customer wants/needs, new habits, societal restrictions and new customer-centric problems requires intense ideation. How does what you offered three months ago fit with the world and its customers today? Which products/services may still be viable? Which can be modified to meet customer wants/needs? What new innovations can you deliver that align who you are and what you stand for with today’s altered reality?
Fostering an environment to spark powerful realignment requires information sharing across your organization, across functions, across geography. Information sharing is key to generating “collective imagination,” essential for creativity and innovation.
Up next
It’s safe to say there is consensus the post-Shelter in Place world looks to be very different. Next week, a look at the reimagined brand experience.
Contact us if you have questions or need help wrangling your brand and organization to perform and prosper in the new paradigm.