Most brands have refreshed or redone their marketing and communications plans during the pandemic, maybe even several times over. As social distancing and remote working is likely to continue in 2021, now is not the time to put your communications strategy on cruise control.
People will continue to grapple with how to adjust their work, family, social, and travel behaviors. Understanding the decision-making context of your customers is critical to creating marketing communications that keep your brand both empathetic and relevant.
Depending on your category and target audience, your brand may need to conduct a thorough assessment of its strategy in terms of content, frequency, and delivery mode.
Understanding the decision-making context of your customers is critical to creating marketing communications that keep your brand both empathetic and relevant.”
Brand content should be assessed for its ability to be meaningful, believable, and memorable:
- Are your existing talking points still hitting on relevant needs and expectations of consumers?
- What, if anything, needs to change to make your messages more believable? It needs to be clear how your brand is able to deliver on its mission given that business is not necessarily running as it has been.
- How can your brand stand out from its competition while staying true to its authentic brand DNA?
Flexibility is the name of the game when it comes to planning your brand’s communications frequency and delivery. More frequent shifting of social and traditional media buys may be necessary to keep in step with the ever-changing context. Determining the most compelling content, effective frequency, and delivery channels requires continuous learning through agile, yet strategic communications research.
Flexibility is the name of the game when it comes to planning your brand’s communications frequency and delivery. More frequent shifting of social and traditional media buys may be necessary to keep in step with the ever-changing context.”
The one big lesson we’ve all learned during COVID is that no one person or brand can predict exactly what tomorrow will bring. But one thing is certain: successful brands must remain agile and flexible in their communications strategy and align messages to meet the context of customer decision-making.
Want to understand more about assessing your communications strategy?
