30 guidelines for brand marketing in the post-epidemic stage

Recently, a large number of companies have resumed work, and the city has begun to slowly recover its former vitality and get back on track. China's economy will enter the post-epidemic era. Nietzsche said, Whatever does not destroy me will make me stronger. So where will the brand owners who have already pressed the start button for marketing in 2020 go?

By referring to third-party reports and launching the "Post-epidemic Marketing Trend Changes and Brand Opportunity Analysis" by the Timely Interest Strategy Team, we have summarized the guidelines for formulating brand marketing strategies in the post-epidemic era from three dimensions: consumer insights, media market, and marketing trends, for your reference.

1. About consumer insights

1. From a psychological perspective

Consumers' increased demands for quality of life and changes in their attitudes towards life will affect the adjustment of personal life priorities and focus, causing them to pay more attention to high-quality social relationships.

Shiqu believes that brand owners need to focus on marketing scenarios centered on high-quality relationships and families. After the epidemic, marketing strategies based on consumerism and selling anxiety will encounter more disgust and criticism. The specific market performance is as follows:

1. Entertainment applications centered on family scenarios are popular among users. As everyone stays at home, the economy has improved, and the use of long videos and games has increased. According to Aurora Big Data, during the Spring Festival under the epidemic, the daily active users of "Honor of Kings" exceeded 109 million, an increase of 58.9% year-on-year; the daily active users of "Peace Elite" reached 67.1 million, an increase of 115% year-on-year.
2. Social media micro-businesses and purchasing agents have become a channel for consumers' daily purchases because they can communicate and interact directly with consumers, have high consumer trust, and are easy to resonate with topics. The construction and maintenance of WeChat shopping groups will become the new standard for offline physical stores.
3. Consumers' mentality has changed. People want to live in the present more. Consumers will pay more attention to self-care, prioritize mental health and seek products that meet specific health needs, and are willing to pay for a better life.

2. From the perspective of behavioral changes

Consumers' awareness of health and risk aversion has significantly increased, which may suppress post-epidemic retaliatory consumption.

Daka, a partner at Shiqu Strategy, believes that after the epidemic, the effectiveness of brand owners' impulsive marketing strategies will be limited. In addition, strategies that promote excessive consumerism may cause consumer disgust and encounter market backlash.

1. In the future, it may promote the development of consumers' mask culture, mask living habits, and home disinfection habits. Healthy disinfection products will become a must-have or stockpiled household lifestyle for consumers. The product's characteristics of alcohol sterilization, self-purification, and sterility will become a major selling point.
2. During the epidemic, in order to prevent cross-infection, the habit of separate dining was promoted. The miniaturization of family structures brings more traffic and sales to online fresh food platforms.
3. During this epidemic outbreak, consumers' acceptance of telemedicine, online consultations, and tiered diagnosis and treatment + telemedicine has increased.
4. The demand for contactless products during the epidemic period has given rise to the contactless logistics industry, drone delivery, unmanned supermarkets, etc., and the daily purchasing habits of ordinary consumers will change.

3. From the perspective of consumption

Consumers tend to respect science and facts more, which will lead to the rise of rational consumption awareness and focus on input-output ratio.

For brands, marketing strategies based on facts and science are more popular, while purely emotional, sensational and IQ-tax marketing are further declining.

1. During the epidemic, online live courses, online education and adult education were favored by users, and users' payment habits were significantly improved through this opportunity. According to iResearch Consulting Group data, the scale of paid online education users in China has maintained steady growth, and is expected to reach 194.85 million in 2020, and is expected to maintain an annual growth rate of more than 15% in the next three years.
2. During the epidemic, consumers tend to choose high-profile brands when making purchasing choices.
3. As consumers are unable to leave their homes, online "cloud economy" such as cloud car and house sales can help users fully understand product performance, connect consumption scenarios and consumers through technological means, and win users' attention.

2. About the Media Market

1. From the perspective of media strategy

Combined with third-party industry trend analysis, from the perspective of the media market, Shiqu recommends that brand strategies focus on the following four points:

1. The content strategy focusing on videos, online dramas, and live broadcasts has ushered in short-term dividends. The backlog of online dramas, which are broadcast first and then introduced with advertisements, has attracted the attention of advertisers, and the sales format of online drama and variety show advertisements may undergo changes.
2. During the quarantine period, a large number of grassroots mid- and tail-end bloggers emerged. Their resources are cost-effective and can be used as an option to quickly increase volume after the epidemic. Large enterprises can focus on stimulating demand and improving sales conversions; small and medium-sized enterprises and internet celebrity start-up brands can focus on building brand awareness and attracting traffic.
3. Online traffic focuses on long videos and games. Mobile games, two-dimensional community dividends, corresponding derivative peripherals, cross-border cooperation, and content implantation will have short-term dividends. We can consider in-depth cooperation to attract fans, such as B station’s BML during the summer.
4. Offline media prices may decline. The retaliatory rebound in people's outdoor activities will increase the coverage efficiency of outdoor media in the short term , and it is a bonus opportunity for cost-effective brand image communication, CEO brand, and social responsibility/CSR in the post-epidemic era.

2. From the perspective of the media market

1. OTT viewership has increased significantly, and OTT advertising has become a "high-exposure" media, gaining the attention of advertisers who mainly place ads on traditional TV channels. OTT provides high reach and exposure opportunities for brand owners with marketing demands in home scenarios.
2. The traffic of e-commerce platforms has skyrocketed, and online e-commerce platforms have become the core hub for offline and online integration. Advertising and marketing methods based on e-commerce platforms may become the marketing focus in the post-epidemic era, and the digital operation of online member users will become a rigid demand.
3. There are marketing opportunities in groups that use communities as marketing units. It is a channel for brand owners to conduct market education, emotional communication with new and old customers offline, and to expand into the lower-tier markets. Community marketing services will usher in a round of brand marketing trials and innovations.
4. Brand communication and growth demands will force innovation in interactive advertising with content as the carrier, which is a marketing window for brand owners with the need to go beyond the circle.

3. Marketing strategy trends

1. From the perspective of marketing strategy

Combined with third-party trend analysis, Shiqu puts forward three suggestions for practical brand marketing strategies:

1. Now is the period of creating window dividends for brand image of the Internet, games, virtuality, e-commerce, etc. We can build brand image and reputation by harvesting offline outdoor media and cooperating with online traffic dividends.
2. The epidemic has led to an increase in the public's attention to personal well-being. This is a window period for building CEO personal brands, group brands, and technology brands. Companies' views on well-being/a better life will be more attractive, such as driverless technology liberating manpower and drones providing convenience.
3. After the shocking market shrinkage, the traditional, hotel and travel, consumer goods and other industries that have been severely affected will see a battle for market share due to rapid growth in sales. At this time, the focus is on coordinating e-commerce content and traffic strategies, community marketing + short video live streaming + community influencer shopping guides, such as video content platform sales, e-commerce Super Product Day activities, virtual car viewing and buying, etc.

2. From the perspective of marketing trends

1. Public welfare + marketing , shouldering social responsibility, delivering positive energy and exporting brand values ​​will become part of the daily marketing of large enterprises.
2. Improving the ability to digitally operate consumers has become a core demand of advertisers, and brand owners will focus more on digital media. More brand owners pay attention to connecting data between various traffic platforms and media, promote data-driven marketing, and favor marketing methods based on facts and science.
3. In the early stage, we will focus on digital media + cross-platform sales of e-commerce, pay attention to the operational efficiency of social media and membership channels, communicate with consumers, and improve customer loyalty and repurchase rate.
4. Advertisers are more concerned about precision marketing based on crowd insights in order to optimize marketing delivery. The marketing focus will be on personalized mobile terminals, reawakening consumers by deepening their awareness of the brand.
5. Industries such as beauty, education, and healthcare will focus on new scenarios such as home beauty, online education, and telemedicine. After the epidemic, marketing strategies can update product portfolios and promotional ideas and reshape consumer shopping habits.
6. Due to the impact of the epidemic, city image marketing will also occupy a popular market share among various advertising types.

IV. About Marketing Minefields

Shiqu believes that after the epidemic , there are three potential minefields in brand marketing:

1. The resurgence of racism due to the epidemic will cause brands and artists based in the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia to face public opinion risks, and cross-border marketing and cooperation require high caution.
2. The frequent negative events in Hong Kong and Taiwan have triggered widespread criticism from the public, and the official tone is the same. The corresponding brands, artists, film and television dramas, etc. are facing risks, and cooperation requires high caution.
3. The rationalization of public opinion has led to the need for marketing in the post-epidemic era to avoid exploiting the epidemic and sensational hype. Marketing that ties the epidemic to public welfare faces extremely high risks. Brands should pay more attention to how to use their own advantages to deliver value for people's better lives.

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Author: Zhang Rui

Source: SocialTouchST (ID: SocialTouchST)