Marketing during and with Covid-19

Businesses and their marketing team have fought and fought with the constant ups and downs for the past 18 months.  PaM++ says it isn’t time to give up, but to get it on with marketing during Covid.

The name “Covid-19” clearly signifies that the virus originated in the year 2019; however, Covid-19 will likely be here for years to come, if not indefinitely.  Similar to many other previous viruses before it, it will soon become part of mankind’s daily life.¹  Hence, the widespread belief that ‘life, as we knew it’ will be back after ‘Covid, is Gone’ needs to be attuned.  People must learn to live with it, and businesses must learn to evolve with it.  PaM++ shares recommendations and inspirational business practices to ‘get it on with the marketing and public relations of the present world.

With the repetitive semi-lockdown measures in Thailand, the world may seem quiet, or one may argue that it appears to have stopped turning.  Several businesses have felt the effect and responded similarly while some have flourished in a very unprecedented way.   At PaM++, we believe that marketers must never stop moving, thinking, and improving regardless of the situation.  There are opportunities within reach as evidenced by the flourishing businesses that were created out of persistence combined with creativity.  Be ‘productive’ though the meaning of the term could have a different meaning and direction than what had been done before.

Get Up, Get On, and Get Ready

For starters, start thinking to make some moves.  Strive to be ever-ready as the situation turns rapidly every moment of the day.  Find the weak links within you or the company that you never had time to rid of them.  Turn crisis into opportunities in order to adapt and evolve with the world, or to be ahead.  Brush up on what you were lacking.  Whichever you aspire to do, there must be an outcome.  Results should involve measurable constituents such as:

• improved efficiency or productivity
• enhanced USPs or brand image
• identifiable key differentiators
• strategic, relevant, and flexible action plan
• awareness among your existing customers and potential ones

2022 is Still Uncertain, but Here are Some Marketing Ideas to Be Ready

Though BOI’s forecasts² are slightly optimistic about the GDP growth in 2022, but businesses would be fortunate to recover from the 18-month struggle. Uncertainty will still be aloft.  Regardless, be ready.  Therefore, PaM++ shares a few marketing & public relations ideas to consider for those businesses committed to staying:

• Newfangled Marketing & PR direction to align with the New Normal
• Step out of your comfort zone.  Your pre-Covid marketing activities may have been about new product campaigns and promotions.  Now you could start focusing on previously-idle activities such as CSR and Community Services.   These could help not only to maintain awareness and boost up the brand image, but it could help you help the community you live and do business in.
• Consumers are listening harder than ever.  Take more chances, think outside of an even bigger box.
• Partner up. It is no longer purely for synergy, it is to ‘do more with less resources’.  Everyone has had to cut back.  Collaboration is key.
• Pop up or appear in unexpected spaces, both online and offline to stir up greater attention with the same or lower budget.
• Start selling directly to the customers.  Find ways to cut the middle channels and create more value propositions for the end-users.
• Open up for free services, free trials, or free tools, ones that actually benefit the users, as a lead-in to familiarize them with your products and services, and for brand penetration.
• Be dynamic and adapt your communication style to the new buying pattern and behavior
• The way you interact, engage and build relationships with customers matters.  Be more personalized, starting from your online platforms, automated reply messages, documentation, and ad content.  Bobbi Brown made a good impact when it had its B.A. do LIVE Q & A sessions with customers when counter service was not available.  It not only created bonding, but also sales!
• Forget annual marketing plans, be real-time.   Campaigns and plans should be considered weekly, while tracking and analyses should be on a daily, if not hourly, basis.
• Expand, reach out by adding a new product or service line and/or delete some that are about to be obsolete.   Origin Properties PCL diversified into health & beauty, logistics centers, and wealth management.
• The budget is stringent.  Be precise, be effective, and be tactical.  But remember to also be smart and add brand value to every message.

The World Moves On, and So Will You.

The world is not stopping.  People still has to live, eat, learn; hence, the opportunities are out there.   Do not disappear from your client’s mind but instead be present in a meaningful way that helps to benefit their lives.

At PaM++, we have chosen to be ever-ready since the first round of Covid-19.

• We have expanded to serve more industries in addition to Lifestyle and Hospitality

• We have added two more marketing services as a result of years of understanding our clients’ needs.

• We rolled out quarterly small yet tactical marketing campaigns that yielded awareness as well as leads during the lockdown periods.

We partake in the ‘ever-evolving’ mentality and combined it with our in-depth understanding of our own marketing and branding skills and expertise.  We then were able to branch out from our existing service and consulting platforms.

All we did was open up a few more creativity buckets and roll with it.  (marketing during covid)