Covid-19 Insights: Corporate and Brand Management (Part 2)

David Gallagher, President, Omnicom PR Group, EMEA

View the initial Insight on this topic (published May 12, 2020).

• Status Update: Companies and brands in most places are moving beyond the immediate public health and financial challenges associated with the pandemic and eagerly toward reopening — understandably! The challenge will be in the timing, as it’s not clear that consumers, customers or employees are as eager to resume pre-pandemic levels of exposure and contact with the same enthusiasm.
• Emerging Players and Themes: One agency in our group, Ketchum, is way ahead on this for clients, and advising several strategies:
• Moderate your pace. Check in with your people, clients and suppliers to get on the same page, and anticipate the need to reinvent some processes, like how you respond to customer feedback and how you collaborate with suppliers.
• Stay human. Respect the rules and regulations, but let your leadership and brand retain their best, authentic voices — KFC in the UK is doing this well, encouraging customers to “let us take over from here” for meal service.
• Think health. Organizations in any sector may be wise to embrace a “health strategy” — a commitment to protecting employee/consumer health — in much the same way sustainability has been embraced.
• Important Variables: Looking ahead, some companies are picking up themes that began before the pandemic, only now with greater urgency and possibly more earnestness, including creating a more conscientious form of capitalism. Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan CEO, began beating this drum way back in late 2019, encouraging the business community to look beyond shareholders when thinking about value, and in a recent memo urged employees and customers to “use this crisis as a catalyst to rebuild an economy that creates and sustains opportunity for dramatically more people, especially those who have been left behind for too long.” Where JP Morgan goes, others will follow.
• Useful Sources: There are lots of great resources to track who’s doing a good job with reputation right now and who’s not, but an easy daily read is Allan Murray’s newsletter from Fortune, CEO Daily.
• Personal Note: Friends and clients are telling me that the reality of a smaller economy, with continued volatility and ambiguity, is the “new” reality they’ve begun to plan around, and a top priority is simultaneously maintaining the trust of their people, customers and investors — and that’s a big job.