Marketing in The Time of COVID-19: Be Human First, a Businessperson Second

If you’re still reeling from the pace with which life and business have changed due to the COVID-19 crisis, you’re hardly alone. Well, because of social distancing, you may literally be alone. But in the larger sense, we’re all very much in the same boat – and that boat keeps rocking as we try to find our footing.

If you were worried a few weeks ago that Amazon was monopolizing the market, you’re probably now more concerned about when they’ll be restocked with hand sanitizer and toilet paper. “You don’t know what you got till it’s gone” is starkly true as we lose, for now, all of the business and personal benefits of unfettered human contact. I never thought I’d say this but, I really miss being annoyed at crowds on the subway!
Trade shows? Gone. In-person sales calls? Gone. Getting coffee with clients or teammates? Not any time soon. And to continue with the campaigns so carefully planned quarters ahead would be tone-deaf, if not outright offensive.
So, what’s a business to do?
Every company, large and small, needs to market differently during this crisis and very likely after. Clear communication is incredibly important – both to customers and your team. This is true right from the accidental winners such as Purell or Netflix all the way to industries that are just trying to survive and prepare for their comeback.

However your business has been impacted, your brand will be defined for years to come by what you say and do now.

There’s no pre-built playbook for black swan events. We can only, to quote the wisdom of Frozen 2, try to “do the next right thing.” Having spent twenty years helping companies sharpen their messaging and marketing, I’d like to share three principles that will help you discover what that next right thing might be.

1. Be human first, a business person second

2. Adjust your offering, not just your marketing

3. Know that it’s still okay to sell (appropriately)

I’ll start with “human first” today and fill in the other two principles in successive posts.


Principle 1: Be Human First, A Businessperson Second

In a time of physical isolation, people are rediscovering the fragility and preciousness of human connection. This is the worst possible time to be a faceless corporation. If you can, help your fellow humans in both word and deed.

The businesses that have inspired me during this crisis, and those that I expect to prosper in that long term are those that have responded with simple humanity. This includes helping out in ways that might go against their short-term interests.

Kudos to Zoom, Microsoft and Google for making remote work tools available and free to those who suddenly need them. Likewise, to Seamless and Doordash for waiving fees and helping local restaurants stay afloat. These contributions are both good public service and smart business, since their tools and services will stay in use after the crisis.

But I’m more impressed when companies go beyond the obvious, such as French luxury conglomerate LVMH converting their perfume factories to make (unbranded and free) hand sanitizer. The exact opposite of “tone-deaf,” this response was pitch perfect! Instead of shuttering factories and laying off workers, or delusionally cranking out luxury perfume while the world is in dire straits, LVMH instead found a way to offer aid. As a brand message consultant, my job is to help businesses find and clearly express their essence. From a superficial perspective, LVMH’s move might seem superficially off-brand. But it is deeply on-target for this unique moment. Instead of an out-of-touch corporate Marie Antoinette, they are “La Rosie the Riveter” for our times.

We’re often told that consumer memories are short, but perceptions formed in moments of crisis have a way of burning in. I may not be a target buyer for Christian Dior scents. But, when something like normalcy does return, I will look upon that brand more kindly forever.

Of course, the best reason to help is because help is needed and because you can. But doing so in the right way now will help your business weather the storm and come back stronger.

Jeffrey Pease is the founder of Message Mechanics and developer of the Message Matrix system. Previously Chief Marketing Officer of public company Medidata Solutions and an executive at Oracle, Jeffrey has led hundreds of messaging makeovers for corporate giants and entrepreneurial businesses in good times and bad.