Advice to CMOs
CMOs field guide to operating in a pandemic
Strategic
- Do not live in your fears
- Do not disappear by going quiet and leaving your corporate brand to the whims of the market
- Understand your role in the economy and how you can have a positive impact
- Do not be afraid to tout your contributions and actions to help
- Communicate aggressively, do not leave your audience in the dark
- Corporate brands are the culmination of perceptions, impressions can be made quickly but perceptions change slowly over time
Tactical
- Make sure all departments are in alignment with the overall goals and game plan
- The best time to get the most value from advertising is when everyone else is pulling back
- The companies that communicate successfully will shorten and decrease the negative impacts on their corporate brands
- Corporate brands are resilient resources that move slowly, they can be boosted to retain value, but value lost will also recover slowly — work hard to retain value
Actions
- Review your corporate vision and mission because these are the center of your brand
- Reassess your core values to be certain they are in alignment with today’s changing needs
- Develop real-time insights capability using text analytics and build predictive forecasting models
- Identify the issues you are hearing from your employees and customers
- Develop a communications plan that provides a consistent message to all constituencies
- Establish short-term and long-term goals for the campaign, the coronavirus won’t last forever so plan for the business trending back to normal
Innovation is the fuel that propels the most successful companies forward. However, innovation is not an easy endeavor for companies to take on. There are many moving parts. Such a melding of art and science. How does one who oversees a brand provide the focus, the energy and the tools required to make innovation work?
The way customers experience brands from end to end is more important than ever. But what’s the best way to craft an experience that’s unique?
Creating a new brand is, more often than not, a very complex undertaking. A large number of tasks and critical decisions face brand strategists and there is precious little room for error. The list is long and includes everything from critical elements like name choice and trademark to brand platform and positioning to visual identity decisions. There are also many work streams to coordinate: research, strategy, graphic design, messaging, communications materials, web development and digital outreach, and on and on.
Some of today’s most powerful brands are prioritizing innovation as a critical source of differentiation. It’s a macro shift that goes much deeper than chasing the latest fad in an attempt to rise above the competition. These brands go much deeper by fostering a deep-seated culture of innovation that extends across the enterprise.
In 2018, technology companies with an eye on the long-term health of their businesses are set to aggressively change the way their products and services work. As a result of this shift, marketers will find it much more difficult to be present in the digital spaces consumers look to for information.