Do companies still need to do marketing during the epidemic? What to do?

People are in panic due to the epidemic.

The skyrocketing number of confirmed cases and the indefinitely extended start date of work made the beginning of 2020 both frustrating and unforgettable.

Some knife friends wanted me to write about how companies should do marketing during this special period? As a result, my mother scolded me before I even started writing.

“The epidemic is so serious, and you still want to do marketing?!”

"Thinking about making money at this time, isn't that speculation?"

So at this sensitive juncture, do companies still need to do marketing? After all, if you are not careful, you will be scolded and your image will plummet.

But if the epidemic continues for some time, and it becomes difficult for businesses and survival, will they not open? Is the marketing department just sitting at home and taking a break during this period?

In this article, I would like to talk about my views on how to do marketing during this period and the significance of marketing.

01

Do companies still need to do marketing during the epidemic?

Should companies completely stop all marketing during this period of time when disasters continue to occur?

no.

The outbreak of this coronavirus disease was so severe that the real economy has been hit hard, parts of the online economy have been suspended indefinitely, and the national economic situation has declined. Many institutions have predicted that the macroeconomic data in the first quarter will be quite grim.

When the overall economy was not good, I talked to many business owner friends and found that everyone was under a lot of pressure. The goal for 2020 became very simple - to survive.

Only when the enterprise survives can employees get their wages; only when the enterprise survives can it create more value for society.

Therefore, for most companies, their greatest contribution to society now is to survive.

The purpose of marketing should be to help companies survive better during this period and afterwards.

Today, many people think of marketing as a derogatory word, making money and cutting leeks. But marketing is never like that.

What exactly is marketing?

I have said in previous articles that the essence of marketing is to establish a connection between product value and user needs.

Good marketing should help society exchange value, making it easier for consumers to find products or services that meet their needs, and then the next step is consumption, thereby promoting the exchange and circulation of money and materials.

In special circumstances, we still need products to serve us, and we need to do marketing to let users know that we exist and help them.

Although it is sensitive and difficult, it is not impossible.

Marketing is essentially a tool, and tools are innocent. It depends on who holds it.

To me, the meaning of marketing is not only to bring growth to the company and help it make money, but also to enhance the company’s brand power and establish its sense of social responsibility.

Marketing, branding and public relations complement each other. It not only needs to serve enterprises, but also bring value to individuals and society.

Therefore, I believe that corporate marketing during the epidemic cannot be a speculative move, but should continue to serve to meet the needs of consumers.

02

How should companies do marketing during special periods?

To do good deeds, does it have to be through donations?

Isn't it a good deed to accurately understand user needs and do something to help the people who have difficulty in food, clothing, housing and transportation during the epidemic and meet their needs?

It is necessary to achieve the business objectives of the enterprise and survive, while also providing help to users. By striking this balance, the business itself can have warmth.

I think during this period, companies need to do three things to do marketing: understand user needs during special periods, provide their own value, and give up benefits within their capabilities.

We can specifically divide different types of enterprises and see how to do marketing.

The first type is the high-demand industry during the epidemic.

What are high-demand industries? These are the demands created when people are isolated at home and bored with nothing to do.

For example, online education, knowledge payment and remote work.

During this special period, the best marketing is to give up your short-term gains, meet the needs of different groups of people through various forms of public welfare, and provide them with warmth and value.

For example, for students and parents, having no school during the long holidays is a pain point for them. Especially for primary and secondary school students who are facing the pressure of entering higher education, it is very worrying if they cannot go to school for a few days.

So online education stepped forward, and online education institutions, led by NetEase Youdao, offered to provide free courses to students in Wuhan, where the epidemic was most severe.

Institutions such as Yuanfudao and Xueersi Online School followed suit, adding benefits and expanding the scope of free learning courses to primary and secondary school students across the country.

NetEase Youdao and Yuanfudao’s free course announcement

For those office workers who are bored and unemployed at home, taking advantage of the holiday time to improve themselves is obviously their primary demand.

Knowledge payment institutions such as Chaos Business School have identified this user demand and provided free one-month workshop courses for people in Wuhan. Mantou Business School also seized this opportunity and launched a series of public welfare live courses, which not only gained word of mouth but also attracted attention.

Doing charity and making everything free not only provides a solution for today's anxious and bored users, but also gives concessions to avoid misunderstandings. Instead of criticizing it, users welcomed it very much. Because it really solves the user's problem.

Before this, the cost of acquiring customers for online education was already extremely high, and the competition was so fierce that it was unsustainable. However, during this period of time, they have become the best products to meet people's needs.

Similarly, because of the epidemic, everyone is unable to go out to work, and remote office software has become a necessity for various companies.

For example, the remote collaboration software Graphite was the first to offer a free premium version to non-profit organizations in Wuhan. During the epidemic, personal accounts will be automatically upgraded to remote versions to better meet the office needs of enterprises.

Internet giants such as Alibaba and Tencent have also opened up their remote work software resources for free. Remote office service providers in new vertical fields, such as video conferencing expert Zoom and Xiaoyu Yilian, have also launched free services.

Free product announcements from ShimoDocs and XiaoyuEasyLink

The second type is other online businesses that are less affected by the epidemic

This type of online business is actually in strong demand during this period. For example, the content industry that we are all familiar with.

These companies, which originally focus on online business, can use this time, combined with their own professional capabilities, to see if they can solve any problems faced by users during this difficult period.

It not only expands dissemination and enhances its own influence, but also provides practical value to readers or viewers.

For example, Paperclip, which has been making popular science videos, is also quite popular even though it has been producing different types of knowledge videos before.

But recently a video called "Everything About COVID-19" was released, with a rational and serious attitude and tone, allowing everyone to have a scientific understanding of the virus. Needless to say, the results were very effective, with over 30 million views and hundreds of thousands of fans, all in just a short moment.

Paperclip's video cover of "Everything About COVID-19"

The valuable thing behind this is that it does provide a very good solution in its professional field.

Li Jiaqi, who is good at selling goods, is also providing value through his abilities. On the Taobao live streaming platform on New Year's Eve, he used his own advantage in bringing goods to call on fans to donate their own efforts to the Wuhan epidemic through the public welfare project initiated by Alibaba.

As of 1:30 a.m. on the first day of the Lunar New Year, a total of 71.4 million yuan in donations had been raised.

During this period, we can clearly feel that the demand for content consumption has increased.

If you pay close attention to the recent articles in your circle of friends, you will find that the threshold for articles with more than 100,000 views has been lowered a lot.

In addition to the basic needs of eating, drinking, defecating and urinating, people also have higher-level needs: spiritual. Going down a little bit, one of them is reading.

People's demand for content, especially good content, is becoming increasingly apparent and will increase.

Whether it is Paperclip or anyone else, they all combine their own characteristics and areas of expertise at this point to produce articles that are beneficial and valuable to readers.

At any time, people can be without everything, but cannot be without reading.

After this incident, companies should think more about how to improve their own content production capabilities and build strategies and talents for content marketing.

The third type is businesses that have been hit hard by the epidemic: such as catering, offline stores, consumption, retail, etc.

It is often difficult for these types of businesses because the number of people visiting their stores declines rapidly during this period.

Today I heard that a store of a usually very popular luxury brand only had 20 people coming in a day.

Offline traditional industries were hit the hardest by this incident.

For such enterprises, the reform is not limited to marketing, but from a business perspective, the battlefield is directly moved from offline to online, and online products are promoted in conjunction with marketing.

This period has accelerated the online transformation of many companies.

For example, Xibei Catering has set an example for the catering industry in this regard.

As the physical stores were doing poorly and suffering heavy losses, Xibei Chairman Jia Guolong had to step forward for help. In an interview at the time, he mentioned that his company's cash flow could only last for three months.

The day after the article went viral on the Internet, Xibei immediately promoted its takeout business, converted in-store dining into takeout, and donated money to doctors in Wuhan. Instead, it provides convenience to many people.

Traditional real estate companies also seized the opportunity to transform. VR house viewing was once a featured project of Beike, but during the epidemic it was adopted by many real estate developers, becoming an important step for real estate companies to transform into online marketing.

The offline gym Super Monkey tried online live classes for the first time during this period and achieved unexpected results.

The number of people online at the same time during the first live broadcast exceeded 170,000, making him the top anchor on Yizhibo, leading the second place by nearly 50%.

Today I got first-hand news that THE COLORIST, the first domestic cosmetics store brand that has just opened many offline stores, has immediately accelerated a series of online operations and refined user operations during this period:

They are about to launch mini-program e-commerce and live-streaming e-commerce sections, and will continue to increase investment in their KOC experience officers. At the same time, they will also open their official Xiaohongshu store, which will be the first cosmetics store brand on Xiaohongshu, providing users with a one-stop cosmetics purchasing service.

With the full rollout of its online channels, THE COLORIST has also shifted the cost of store trials, which was originally used to enhance user experience, to the online experience. During this period, a higher proportion of trial products will be provided to its users on mobile terminals, thereby meeting consumers' online shopping needs and creating a closed consumption loop.

Before the outbreak, THE COLORIST stores were very popular

In addition to these platforms, I have also been paying attention to the developments in the consumer industry, which I often write about.

Almost every company in the consumer industry has a long industrial chain, involving factories, logistics, e-commerce and online marketing. The epidemic has affected almost every aspect of the consumer industry.

But the consumer industry is not powerless.

For example, the food industry can actively participate in epidemic relief through public welfare means and contribute its own strength.

For example, Santonban, a young brand in the coffee industry, published a tweet on its official account that they would send coffee and thermos cups to medical staff fighting on the front line in Wuhan. The heartwarming article received a lot of praise from users.

In the face of disaster, do what you can and what you are good at.

The same is true for the yogurt brand Le Chun, which delivered oats and meal replacements to frontline medical staff, while also offering discounts to consumers through profit-sharing. This article on the official account received a high number of 43,000 views.

So, in addition to the food industry, other beauty industries, etc., what should be done for those companies that have difficulty shipping or whose majority of business is offline?

My advice is, think about what other value you can provide?

These values ​​can be passed on to consumers through marketing methods, such as preferential promotions and preparations for the sales period after smooth logistics. Spiritual satisfaction can also be delivered through content, either allowing people to gain knowledge or happiness.

Haidilao, which everyone is worried about, even made an instructional video today to teach you how to make noodles.

Let me think about it. In fact, beauty products can be used to make online makeup tutorial videos and so on.

In addition, during this "less busy" time, the marketing or operations department can choose to manage their own private domain traffic well during this period to achieve online promotion.

For example, Perfect Diary launched a Valentine's Day-themed game in advance, allowing users to kill time while getting exclusive coupons while playing and find the fun of shopping.

Valentine's Day game produced by Perfect Diary

Therefore, during this period of time, you need to cultivate your inner strength and do some important but non-urgent things, such as thinking about refined operations, annual planning, etc., to accumulate strength and wait for the opportunity to overtake in the future.

03

Is marketing just about finding ways to help companies make money?

Many people think that marketing is about helping companies make money.

Actually, it’s not.

Marketing is not only about managing the immediate benefits of a business (growth and traffic), but also about looking at the future (brand power and social responsibility).

Marketing is not just about attracting new customers, it should also help companies build soft power, shape corporate values, and enhance their sense of social responsibility.

If you are a business owner and you cannot do anything right now, don’t forget that business itself also includes brand power, trust and social responsibility.

This epidemic is not only a disaster, but also a mirror that exposes the truth.

Just like the great waves washing away the sand, all kinds of brands are washed away, and what remains in the end are good brands with solid reputation.

For example, if you order takeout now, will you be more concerned about safety and only order from large brand chains?

In the face of the epidemic, people's trust in any brand has dropped sharply, and the need for safety is even greater. Just like buying masks, I will definitely buy a brand I trust.

In an emergency, what matters is the brand power of the company. Small businesses that may be able to show their strength in normal times will naturally be eliminated in the face of a crisis.

What marketing can do at this time is to help companies fulfill their social responsibilities and build long-term brand power.

Internet celebrity Xin Youzhi became a hot topic because of his donation of 100 million yuan. When most netizens didn’t know who he was and suspected that he was defrauding donations, the 100 million yuan in cash had already arrived in his account.

Internet celebrity Simba and Meituan’s actions during the epidemic

Other celebrities who donated money to Wuhan may not be remembered, but netizens remember this responsible post-90s internet celebrity.

For corporate marketing at this time, perhaps you can refer to Meituan.

Affected by the epidemic, Meituan’s food delivery orders have declined. Instead of trying every possible way to make money, Meituan chose the opposite path and spent money.

It also provided great assistance to catering shops in Wuhan, providing a package of support plans for small and medium-sized enterprises, including commission reduction or exemption, free cash register systems, and preferential interest rate loans. It also opened Meituan University's high-quality online courses for free to help merchants tide over the difficulties.

Of course, donations, which involve real money, require one to be especially aware of one's means.

Enterprises should use their own conditions as a benchmark, weigh their own capabilities, and ensure that they have sufficient operating reserve funds.

Externally, enterprises have social responsibilities; internally, enterprises have even greater social responsibilities.

Don't just focus on external public relations and forget about your internal employees. They are your greatest social responsibility.

The inability to resume work during the epidemic is a good time to hone the company's soft power, which can be used to improve employee quality, enhance corporate cohesion, and shape the company's positive values.

Although the company has been shut down for nearly 10 days, it is said that the employees of catering giant Haidilao have not been idle. Haidilao Group has formulated a detailed work and rest schedule for its employees, filled with various learning courses.

The legendary Haidilao employees' work and rest schedule during this period

It not only meets the needs of employees to improve themselves, but also improves their competitiveness in the entire industry, thereby enhancing the efficiency of the entire enterprise.

Finally, marketing during the epidemic is what tests a company’s responsiveness and response capabilities the most.

Rather than talking about marketing, it is better to say that it is about how companies can participate in this battle to the best of their ability.

Marketing is for the long-term benefits of the business, and for people to get some value and comfort from this disaster.

At the same time, during this quiet period, companies can also better reflect on their business models, polish their products, practice basic skills, and do something important rather than seasonal.

As I finished writing this article, there were nearly 3,000 new confirmed cases across the country today. Behind these cold numbers are living people.

If you still don’t know what your business should do and what else you can do in the face of this disaster.

Then I suggest that you take action first and market to the best of your ability.

Marketing during the epidemic is both self-help and altruism; it is for both yourself and society.

Author: Daojie Doris

Source: Daojie Doris