With the coronavirus pandemic on everyone’s minds, brands are facing the challenge of keeping businesses afloat amidst fears of the virus. 

With the coronavirus pandemic on everyone’s minds, brands are facing the challenge of keeping businesses afloat amidst fears of the virus. While some brands find it more convenient to simply sweep things under the rug and to downplay the gravity of the situation, we believe that smarter brands should use this time to directly talk and empathize with their consumer more than ever.

1. Show your concern, and provide a solution to ease their anxieties.

Assure customers that you are handling the situation pro-actively by describing your cleaning protocols, and offering services that can help minimize direct contact. For example, Walmart shared a memo on how they are keeping their stores clean, and going as far as closing establishments earlier than usual to allow for thorough disinfecting. Chipotle took it a step further by encouraging delivery, allowing customers to provide special instructions to limit contact, and even creating a tamper-proof seal to take safety assurance to the next level.

2. Provide support as much as possible.

The transportation and tourism industries are two of the business sectors that this virus hit the hardest. The vulnerability of tourism is that people don’t really need to travel. They choose to. But instead of being insensitive about the issue, JetBlue was the first US carrier to waive changes and cancellation fees. In the midst of a crisis like this, JetBlue’s move will help them gain loyal customers while attracting new ones in the process.

3. Be sensitive about your messaging.

Learn to adapt your messaging to what currently matters. Acknowledge how perception of your brand will be affected by current events, and use your words wisely. Time Out New York has temporarily rebranded to Time In New York— a good PR move that will keep their brand relevant during this time of uncertainty. In contrast, KFC had to pull out a UK campaign focused on “finger-licking” due to the ad’s currently inappropriate nature. Now is actually the best time for the brand to promote “responsible licking” instead.

4. Open a conversation with your community.

Sometimes all it takes is being more direct. Sustainable fashion brand Reformation did this by posting on social media, “What’s resonating with you? Do you still want to hear about new collection launches and sustainability-related stuff? Or do you need a break? Please let us know.” A brand can benefit from transparency and sounding ‘human’ versus simply going after a sale without acknowledging what their audience is going through.

5. Get involved.

The fight against this virus is one that we must pursue as a collective and one that we must pursue wisely. Doctors, nurses, and other medical front-liners are dedicating their time and effort to help ensure the safety of our people. Brands can do the same or assist them in doing their heroic work.

When your brand’s intention is there, the next step is to find opportunities to provide such help and support where they are most needed. Some food brands and restaurants have offered their support by sponsoring and distributing meals in partnership with hospitals. NBA players have donated money to cover salaries of arena workers.

Think about what you can offer, and don’t hesitate to ask what these hospitals and health centers need the most help in. In times like these, it is important to give intentionally rather than giving just for the sake of.

With the health of the world being a primary issue, businesses’ mindsets should shift not just to caution but to concern. Ultimately, there is a way to lead your business through this global challenge, and one is to start with genuinely listening and engaging with your customers, pushing everyone to be part of a broader solution to this crisis. Once this tide passes, it will be loud and clear which brands people resonate with, and would like to keep supporting in the long run.

Rethinking Brands & Business

So what can we do? For better or for worse, brands & businesses collectively drive a lot of today’s culture. Here at Serious Studio, we take this quite, well, seriously. So instead of falling into the trap of helplessness, we choose to start with what we know. As we build brands every day, we are often challenged to reframe ideas and re-conceptualize industries and their impact on people. Perhaps, what this crisis is asking us to do is to walk one step further and go even deeper into the existential essence of how we do business. Below is a non-exhaustive list of a few things COVID-19 is pushing us to rethink in branding and in business:

1. The role of the workplace

With community quarantine continuously enforced, many companies have opted to work remotely. How much of our work really needed to be done in the office? But at the same time, can true collaboration be manufactured online? What is a truly human-centric workplace, whether online or offline? These questions frame the discourse around what the future workplace should be, as COVID fast tracks the urgency of finding these answers today. The challenge will lie in how businesses will create profit efficiently and humanely, through a workforce that lives in automation yet yearns for human connection.

2. The responsibility to the workforce

But not all of us are quite as lucky. While many of us read this from the comfort of our homes, the working class Filipino is left with the choice of either not feeding their family or braving the commute and the virus. With the working class including people who perform many of society’s most basic needs, along with artisans who create well-loved Filipino products, businesses need to be able to swiftly adapt their operations to allow everyone to work from home. And even with many small businesses heroically taking the high road on this, the question remains—how long will they be able to keep up? At the end of the day, we need to figure out how to protect all workers across the pyramid while keeping the business afloat.

3. The responsibility to the customer

Along with the responsibility to the workforce is the responsibility to the customer. Businesses’ mindsets should shift not just to caution but also to concern. The way you talk to your customers matters not just in the long run, but also most especially now. It’s a time for sensitivity and transparency. How can businesses start genuinely listening and engaging with customers and push everyone to be part of a broader solution? We wrote a digestible guide to help you along with this.

4. The coming of age of the Filipino business

As the world’s largest exporter, China’s problem is pretty much everyone’s problem and global manufacturing will inevitably face disruptions in their supply chain. If the primary source of imports is unavailable and all we have left to depend on are the things our country makes, will this finally push Filipinos to truly #SupportLocal, not just as consumers, but also as makers and manufacturers? Will we see the rise of a business that is Filipino from end to end? What does a business look like as a true locavore and will this effectively uplift auxiliary businesses as well?

5. The evolution of e-commerce

With malls closing and entire cities strongly advised to stay at home, a sharper shift away from offline and into online is likely, together with a growing dependence on delivery. Messages have circulated about where to get groceries online. Small Filipino businesses have urged the public to continue to support them in this difficult time. However, issues arise from this. Good online experience is now more important than ever. More broadly, the impacts of an even larger e-commerce industry on carbon emissions and the health of the new retail frontliners must be considered. Better e-commerce is now increasingly more urgent. How do we build a compelling, meaningful and fair business that is almost completely online?

6. The underlying nature of business

Underlying it all is the question of consumption. As of Monday, March 16, the entirety of Luzon has been put on lockdown and many delivery services have been put on hold. How will brands and businesses now thrive? Will people want new dresses, new shoes, third-wave coffee—no matter how fair trade these all are? At the same time, how do we continue to support the livelihoods of the people who make these products? It is with this that we wonder if business as it is today can thrive post-COVID-19. This, we have yet to find out. As with many things, often there are more questions than answers.

Finding and Making Hope

Now more than ever, we realize that it is not the time to drown in the magnitude of the challenges we face. Instead, let’s take the opportunity to build a new world with hope through the things that we make. We call on brands and businesses to reevaluate why they do what they do and to reimagine how they can contribute to a world that will survive and thrive, once the dust has settled. As the world continues to turn day by day, it may slowly reveal a tomorrow that’s drastically different from what we know today. But also hopefully, hopefully, we can build this tomorrow to be truly, genuinely better, if only because we have no other choice.