The emergence of the lockdowns broadly affected the different brands on a global scale. It thus threw novel challenges to the brand managers who in turn were required to strategise their branding activities and designs their action plans for effectively appealing to the prospective consumers. The brands irrespective of the product type and business category are required to act based on four main action plans like to empathise with needed authenticity, advertise with due relevancy, performing to serve the needs of the masses and finally in terms of carrying out needed research for bringing about needed changes.
The mark of a great brand is to empathise in an authentic manner based on having an effective understanding of the needs and expectations of its stakeholders. The brands must earnestly focus on serving the needs of the world, where the same needs to be carried out, with due humility and also in an understated manner. The brands are needed to restrain from labelling the empathetic activities to categories of brand building or Public Relations.
Brands are also required to redesign their advertising strategies based on the designing of sensitive advertisings that are relevant to the current times. Though the designing of the sensitive advertisements essentially suit the brands associated to hygiene and fast moving consumer goods yet other brands also need to refocus on the designing of like advertisements. Nike, an international sports brand contributed in designing an effective tagline for one of its advertisements based on the use of words, ‘Play Inside, Play for the World’. Likewise, the advertisements of the hygiene brand, Dettol focused more on emphasizing on the parameters of cleanliness and health.
In these hard times when people are also expending to meet their basic necessities, the brands are required to performing an active role for meeting the needs of the society, both home and abroad. A large number of online learning platforms like Harvard Business Review are observed to disseminate its learning contents, linked with Coronavirus, for free. Online businesses, whether educational or not, are thus eyeing this tough time to earn an effective opportunity in serving the needs of the needy consumers, locked in their homes. LMVH, an international luxury brand, contributes in meeting the objectives of social responsibility through the manufacture of sanitizers for meeting the needs of both the health workers and general people.
The post-pandemic era is totally unknown to the different brands. It is difficult for the brand marketers to predict changes in consumer attitudes and behaviour during the post-pandemic era. It is thus imperative for the brands to generate investments for carrying out needed market research. Information gained from the market research, suggesting an increase in online sales, requires the concerned brands for changing its selling approach to gain needed competitive advantage. It requires installing of effective software for carrying out the online business and also training the staffs accordingly.