How’s your brand’s health?

Whether things are in limbo or you’re charging ahead like never before, what you do for your brand right now will speak volumes when the world rights itself.

We’re all in uncharted territory – a unique situation that warrants a unique check-up on brand health.

We’ve spent a lot of time building brands and protecting them through good and bad. So we’re sharing our check points to dial in on ways to nurture your brand health now, and continue moving it forward in a post-COVID-19 world. Follow along with our 4-part series:

• Check your relevancy
• Check your transparency
• Check your brand purpose
• Check your post-quarantine communication plan

Part 4: Your Post-Quarantine Communication Plan

COVID-19 has a lot of brands living in the trenches right now. Things are changing so rapidly that it’s hard to look ahead of today, let alone plan ahead for three, six or 12 months from now.

As intuitive as it may feel to keep your head down and drive on, we urge you to look up and maintain a 360° perspective. If you’re keeping your brand relevant in a COVID-19 world, staying transparent with your customers and stakeholders, and letting brand purpose drive your actions, now’s the time to be thinking ahead, starting with your communication plan.

Be nimble. If COVID-19 has taught us anything, it’s that brands – both big and small – need to be able to adapt. Is your communication plan flexible enough so you can pivot if needed? As you look ahead, check to ensure your planning framework provides good directional guidance along with the nimbleness that allows you to change direction if needed.

Be resourceful. In a time of unknowns, we hold tightly to what we do know. Fortunately for brands, there’s already valuable consumer trends research coming out, and there’s going to be much more on the horizon. This is the time to put research to work and dial into your audience’s mindset and needs. How are their behaviors, interests and habits changing? Are there short- and long-term implications to how you communicate with them and how often? Use research insights to inform how you stay relevant and plan for the future.

Competitor analysis is just as important as your customer insights. Keep an eye on what others in your market are doing and how it could impact your communication plan.

Be visionary. It’s hard to know when – or if – life as we knew it will resume. But as much as is possible, start anticipating what the future looks like for your brand, what you’ve learned from navigating this crisis, what outcomes you’re striving for, and how you get there.

How people think about food and agriculture has shifted. Consumers have growing concerns about food availability, safety and affordability, while the coronavirus may fundamentally reshape global trade. And yet, people will sit down at a restaurant again. They will spend a day out shopping. At some point, consumers won’t be forced to live in a way that’s inconsistent with some of their beliefs, as in the case of single-use plastic right now. And when that shift back toward normalcy happens, it may come as quickly as our COVID-19-induced habits.

So what’s a brand to do? Plan for what you can, and be ready to adapt to what you can’t – all in a way that is true to who you are and what you do – both during and after a pandemic.

Maintaining health is the No.1 priority for all of us right now, and it should be for your brand, too. If you’re bogged down in the trenches, or feeling stuck on where to navigate your brand next, let’s connect. We have an immense amount of experience driving sound strategy when things get turned upside down, and building a healthy brand that lasts.