Advice to CMOs

CMOs field guide to operating in a pandemic

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

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

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