Q&A with the Coronavirus Czar
The world is changing fast. Last week, I was Tom McAllister, humble Digital Marketing Specialist here at Sol Marketing. Digital Marketing would come to me, and I would make it a little more Special. This week, however, everything has changed - including my role.
Meet Tom McAllister, Coronavirus Czar.
I don’t have a background in medicine. In fact, I grew up in the type of family where visits to the doctor were almost exclusively for broken bones. No matter the ailment, I was going to school.
Even to this day, my mom’s version of a care package comes in the form of kefir grains, bentonite clay, and a Neti Pot. It’s not exactly penicillin, but I play along to make her happy.
Our current health situation - you know, the pandemic - requires all of us to learn a lot, very quickly. In that spirit, our CEO Deb Gabor thought it would be a great idea for me to be the Coronavirus Czar at Sol Marketing. My first question was, “What sort of power and authority would I have over my fellow coworkers?’ I was quickly informed that this new ad-hoc position wouldn’t result in any tangible benefits, but I was allowed to change my title on LinkedIn!
So as the newly appointed Chief Coronavirus Officer, I was tasked with formulating an internal response plan with guidelines for our team members.
To create this plan I participated in a webinar geared toward entrepreneurial businesses, and sat down with Deb to get her take on how we (and other brands) should respond to this pandemic.
The Plan
First thing’s first: Sol Marketing values the health and wellness of our team members over everything!
If somebody gets sick, we want them to stay home and take care of themselves. The popular term right now is self-quarantine, but as any good branding agency would do, we coined a new term - social abstinence!
Next up: institute a work-from-home policy, like so many other companies around the world. Our social abstinence can help prevent transmission of coronavirus in our community. Beginning Monday, Sol Marketing goes fully digital. We’re planning a two week break from the office right now, and we’re ready to extend if it’s absolutely necessary.
Finally: well, I don’t think anybody knows what the next step is. I’m going to take a lesson from branding. It’s the lesson that teaches us to draw on our core values. In times of crisis, we’re all going through some degree of fear and uncertainty. This is a time for you to lean into your core values with authentic and transparent communication.
The core value that resonates most with me right now is “a win for one is a win for all.” If anyone on our team finds themselves having to work from home for an extended period of time, we’ll do everything in our power to make sure they have the resources they need to remain healthy and productive.
It’s also in times like these where we get to see the humanity that lives within a brand. Perfect example - Deb literally tried to send a dog walker to our coworkers home last week while they were out sick! She’s showing us what it means for a brand to care for its own.
Now that we’re in the Age of the Coronavirus, I sat down with Deb to get her thoughts on how brands should behave.
Q&A With Deb Gabor
Q: Why is now a good time for companies to focus on their brand?
A: I love a downturn. I’m reading an article right now, “How to grow when it’s slow.” And in this rapidly evolving economy, it’s a good time for your brand to figure out how to best position yourselves to help people with your products and services. But you don’t want to take down your brand while you do it.
That being said, I go back to my default: “What do I know about branding?” I don’t know about coronavirus, I don’t know about epidemiology, I don’t know about population genetics. But what I do know about is branding. And I know what it takes for brands to endure during this time.
The best brands in the world are going to come out just fine on the other side of this because they have a lot of positive equity built up in their emotional bank account, they behave consistently, they behave according to their values and beliefs, people know what to expect from them, they show regard for humanity, they exercise restraint, and also practice common sense.
Q: In what ways should brands join the coronavirus conversation?
A: First of all, always show regard for humanity. Think about how we can help the people who are affected - at this point it’s a pandemic, so that’s everyone.
Second, understand what your values and beliefs are as a brand - what do we really care about? It’s also important to understand the values and beliefs of your Ideal Customer, so that you can align with them and show up in a way that’s authentic. When I think about authenticity in branding I think about aligning your values and beliefs with your customer’s values and beliefs, and behaving with actions that match your message.
Third, let common sense prevail. The counterpoint is that common sense isn’t all that common, is it? When you’re dealing with something that has reached crisis proportions you need to be very careful not to step in something. There are ways to avoid shining negative light on your actions so that you can keep supporting the rest of the world in the challenge of keeping coronavirus at bay. So to summarize:
Show regard for humanity. Use your brand values and assets to help other people. Be like Airbnb, the vacation home-sharing platform, who is overriding their normal policies to provide full cancellation refunds for travelers grounded for the next several weeks. I’m a vacation homeowner with guests scheduled out for the next several weeks. While my rental income is going to take a direct hit, and that definitely doesn’t make me happy, it’s good for travelers. In contrast, don’t be like Vrbo, who is leaving cancellation policies up to individual vacation homeowners, many of whom are refusing to offer refunds to travelers unable to make their vacations. Guess which platform travelers are going to use once we see the other side of this pandemic?
Do something that’s authentic to your brand. Be like UHaul: when colleges and universities announced that classes were ending for the spring semester, leaving thousands of students stranded, they immediately offered up free storage space in their facilities to take one small worry off these students’ plates.
Let common sense prevail. Now is not the time to be overly pushy with sales offers just because your competitors aren’t. Not only may your message be totally overlooked, but customers might also find it offensive during a time when we all have anxieties about income and revenues. And while I’m on that subject, take a look at your automated marketing activities like email campaigns and digital advertising. On the day after the WHO announced that COVID-19 had become a pandemic, I received an automated email from my mobile phone carrier inviting me to upgrade my International calling plan.
Finally, here’s a bonus piece of advice for you: Eat your own dog food. Treating your employees well through the pandemic will benefit your brand in more ways than you can imagine. Sol sent our employees home for at least two weeks, and we offered to buy them anything they need to make their work from home period comfortable and productive. Anything means anything. Shopify is giving every employee $1000 to purchase anything they need to support WFH. Your customers often look to brands for cues on how to behave. When they see you treating your employees well, they get a glimpse into your gooey insides and see hints of how you’ll treat them. That’s always good for your brand.
Q: Brands are using the same CDC & WHO messaging when communicating to their customers. Is there a more authentic way to communicate?
A: With the lack of information, we just don’t have the resources we need. To fill the space, we look to the most official party-line we can toe so that people don’t make up the narrative for us. This is the reason why there’s no fucking TP on grocery store shelves - because we’ve allowed people to make their own narrative. And the narrative today is, you're going to be quarantined for 14 days and have nothing to wipe your ass with. In the absence of information, people will create a narrative and carry it on with or without you.
What brands can learn from this is if you don’t lead the narrative, then someone is going to make up the story for you. That’s how we get things like what happened with Corona beer. If you lack a point of view, people are going to make it up for you. As a brand, know when it’s time to communicate, what’s appropriate to communicate, and when you don’t know what to communicate. Then refer to the best source of information that isn’t you putting your own expert spin on it.