Marketing

Through 

Crisis
April 8, 2020

TwentyFirstCenturyBrand
This is a defining moment for all brands.

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Introduction

One certain thing in this new era of uncertainty is that the traditional rules of
marketing no longer apply. Markets and consumers are acting in ways that are
unprecedented and unpredictable and we are all operating without a roadmap.

The purpose of this paper is to help marketers and leaders manage their brands
through this crisis both in terms of sustaining demand and playing a wider role
for their communities. 

Unlike the heroic key workers who we depend on, most marketers and brands will
not be able to save lives, but we can help save livelihoods by using all the assets
at our disposal. People want and need this help. Global data from Edelman shows
that 62% of people believe their country will NOT make it through the crisis
without brands playing a "critical role" in the fight against COVID-19.

So, we’ve set out to address three questions, informed by the experience of our
team, our clients and our network:

1. 2. 3.

What do people What principles What brands

need at this should guide our can we learn
moment? actions? from? 




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1. What do people need at this moment?
TLDR: COVID-19 has turned Maslow’s hierarchy on its head. Brands should focus on the lower
layers of the pyramid for the foreseeable future, rather than on lofty aspirational messages.

Emotions are intense right now. Valuable research released last


week by The Outsiders shows that both skilled and manual 

workers in the UK are feeling huge amounts of confusion, 

fear, and anger. People are worried about themselves, their 

jobs, their families, and their communities. Relationships 

are under huge strain as family units adapt to restrictions 

they never imagined. This has massive implications for 

the tone and content of any marketing.

An intuitive leap that many brands will make is 


to the ‘we’re all in this together’ types of 

messaging, but don’t assume this will 

resonate. A disturbing theme is that 

people’s trust in others is declining; 

38% of Americans worry that they 

can’t trust others to behave in a 

way that’s beneficial for the wider 

community, according to TRIPTK.

But there is also an optimistic side to lockdown culture. March data from neighborhood hub
Nextdoor shows a 262% increase in US conversations about help, including a 17X increase in
conversation about helping local businesses. The good is coming out!

Inverting the hierarchy of needs

We need to rethink the traditional wisdom encouraging marketers to elevate their brand
above ‘functional’ physiological and safety needs in favor of higher order values of self-
actualization and potential. Right now, basic physiological and safety needs are real priorities.

We shouldn’t make the mistake of attempting to address the self-actualization needs when we
don’t have their house in order in terms of the basic safety needs of customers and employees.
Waterstones and Amazon, among others, have caught a lot of heat here with the former initially
insisting on staying open during the lockdown while staff complained of proper safety
precautions.
 
In the simplest terms, folks want to know:
• Does this brand get me and understand my needs right now?
• Is this brand helping me right now?
• Is this brand showing up for my community … you guessed it… right now? 4
 1. What do people need at this moment? (cont.)

Given this re-prioritization of consumer needs in this moment, brands need to rapidly adapt
the ways they are creating value. We’ve identified three ways to address these needs based
on data analysis of thousands of different tribes of interest across the US and UK by Codec

Safety & Security Needs

From: Telling people to stay safe at home
To: Helping people stay safe at home

Rather than add to the huge volume of noise telling people to

stay at home think about how you can help them do it. Take
inspiration from UK garage legend DJ EZ who performed a
marathon 24 hour virtual live set, dedicating it to those
working on the frontline, asking for people to stay at home as
‘payment’. The hashtag #stayhomewithDJEZ reached over
40m people worldwide. Staying at home is much easier for
some groups than others so how can your brand can help
those who most need it?

Love & Belonging Needs

From: Owning the national conversation
To: Facilitating (lots of) local conversations

Confinement is leading people to explore much deeper into

their neighborhoods, communities and passions. They’re
looking to join and create synchronous online moments of
connection to give much needed structure to lockdown life.
Local businesses are leading the way here by organising
virtual tastings for whiskey and wine lovers. Think about how
your brand can help these new communities convene; what
content or tools could you provide?

Self-Esteem & Growth Needs

From: Upselling your products
To: Upskilling your community

Social distancing is restricting people’s access to many of their

favourite brands and services.  From DIY beauty treatments to home
baking, the ‘make and mend’ mentality is a constant theme in the most
engaged-with content as people look to learn new skills to cope.

Think about how your brand can help people learn new skills to stay
safe and/or sane They might not be able to buy your product right now
if you help them emulate it you’ll likely have an advocate for life.
Burger King has already addressed this insight in a charming smart way
but there’s so much more for brands to do here.
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Source: Codec selected Tribes from a broad range of cultural spaces and analysed over 1.3m content interactions over the month of March.
2. What principles should guide our actions?
TLDR: Here are the six principles to guide brand behavior in the Coronavirus era. We
recommend always hitting at least four of these for any initiative.

1. Empathy: A tone that is genuinely considerate of people’s

needs at this time. 


2. Generosity: Mobilize your assets & community to help those

who most need it, and avoid expensive endorsements.

3. Utility & Agility: Only say and do things that add genuine value,
and constantly assess what constitutes value. What was
meaningful last week may be table stakes or counter-
productive today.


4. Acts not ads: Make a meaningful contribution and document

the story, avoid elaborate productions.

5. Hands-on leadership: People want to see your leaders’

personal commitment to making a difference.

6. Do it your way: Run initiatives through the lens of your brand’s

purpose & personality so you still build long term value.

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3. What brands can we learn from?
Best practice examples of our key principles in action

Empathy

A tone that is genuinely considerate of people’s needs at this time  

Headspace: “Weathering the Storm” free content + free subscriptions for medical workers.

Audible is providing hundreds of free educational and entertaining audiobooks in multiple

languages

 for anyone to listen to during this time, supporting working parents concerned
about how they can educate and look after their children during school closures. 

The 21CB team uses a simple tool to pressure test the empathy of all


communications through three mindsets:



Is this sensitive to someone who might be worried about
their health or the health of those close to them?
 
Is this sensitive to someone who might be worried about
their financial stability? 

Is this sensitive to the essential workers who are

continuing to work and support their local communities? 
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3. What brands can we learn from? (cont.)
Best practice examples of our key principles in action

Generosity

Mobilize your assets & community to help those who most need it. Avoid expensive celebrity or
influencer endorsements unless a big chunk of the fee is going to charity.

The Spotify COVID-19 Music Relief

project has been set up with charity
partners Help Musicians, the PRS
Foundation, and MusiCares, to
fundraise for artists. Spotify will
match donations to the relief fund
up to a collective total of $10M. A
separate feature will also allow fans
to directly donate to individual
artists through their profile page.

££￡
FIFA: All-star footballers are using
their celebrity status for good and
raising funds to fight Coronavirus
by playing a series of competitive
matches in FIFA20.

Unilever - Introduced early payment

terms for smaller suppliers,
partnered with the UK govt on a
£100M awareness campaign while
Lifebuoy shared its adspace in India
with competitors acknowledging
that customers may have easier
access to other brands at this
moment.


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3. What brands can we learn from? (cont.)
Best practice examples of our key principles in action

Utility and agility


Only say and do things that add genuine value. This is not a one-off moment—constantly
review how to adapt marketing and product assets to the needs of your communities.

Decathlon: Working with 3D printers to hack scuba gear to make ventilators.

Visa: pivoted its Olympic campaign to put out a series of PSAs using its ambassadors to
demonstrate how to wash your hands like Olympian.

GTB bank: The leading Nigerian bank moved quickly to set up a mobile self-assessment
‘pre-test’ for users and bankers, and partnered with the government to convert Lagos’s
Teslim Balogun Stadium into a fully equipped, 100-bed intensive care center.

Brewdog, LVMH, AB InBev: Adapted production to make hand sanitizer for hospitals and
health care workers around the world.

Lyft: Expanded business model to include food delivery and medical suppliers—kept staff
employed and the community healthy.

Ford: Joined forces with 3M to design powered air-purifying respirators that can leverage 9
existing parts from both companies, boosting production of healthcare supplies.
3. What brands can we learn from? (cont.)
Best practice examples of our key principles in action

Acts not ads


Focus on what is really needed and how your assets (be it money, space, tech, or product) can
meaningfully address it. Doing this and documenting it will create newsworthy content, as the
likes of Apple, YouTube, and Amazon have demonstrated. 



Apple launched a COVID-19 screening tool so you can see if you need testing. 

Mars is doubling down on its efforts to help communities and pets the world over with a $20
million donation to charities supporting women, refugee populations, and cats and dogs. 

Airbnb have set a public goal of providing housing to 100,000 COVID-19 responders, the latest
evolution of their global disaster response initiative which was actually inspired by a Brooklyn
host in response to Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

Hands-on leadership
This is a human crisis and we want to see business leaders stepping up personally.

Tim Cook broke open Apple's supply of masks from construction projects and donated 10
million of them, including 200,000 to his home state of Alabama. Meanwhile, the Lyft founders
introduced a new driver service to deliver essential goods to those in need while also donating
their salaries through June to help support drivers.

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3. What brands can we learn from? (cont.)
Best practice examples of our key principles in action

Do it your way

All the while running the initiatives
through the lens of your brand’s
purpose & personality so that you
THE
continue to differentiate and MUSE

reinforce long-term equity. A clear

understanding of your brand
archetype is a great shorthand guide
here. Pinterest and Nike, two of the
brands that are responding in a
coherent, creative, and authentic way,
show the benefits of this in action. 


Pinterest, guided by their mission and focus

on being ‘the world’s inspiration company,’
has the clear archetype of the Muse and is
framing all of its content through the line
STAYINspired, while providing tailored
inspiration to its communities. 


Meanwhile, Nike has consistently

adopted the Hero archetype in all
its communications—
encouraging its community to
think of staying in as a heroic act
while also donating significant
funds and making premium NRC
services available for free.

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3. What brands can we learn from? (cont.)
What not to do

Well-intentioned but tokenistic actions

A notable example is the ‘logo-distancing’ from the likes of Coca-Cola, which has
generated a lot of heat for being opportunistic. This is subjective––there’s also the case
that simple visual messages can cut through when people are constantly being
overwhelmed with fake news and complex messaging. However, for many, Coke’s media
placement at one of the world’s biggest meeting points confused the social distancing
message it was promoting for many consumers.

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3. What brands can we learn from? (cont.)
What not to do

Pandemic profit mongering

Of course businesses have to drive demand to survive and eventually thrive again, but we
need to be cognizant that this is a hyper-sensitive environment. People are also
responding badly to any sense of brands capitalizing on COVID-19 with relevant but
insensitive messaging—one example being Ritual, who was forced to apologize for sending
insensitive CRM emails regarding Coronavirus.



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Final word

Marketing was already bloody complicated and now we’re writing a new playbook in
real-time while trying to secure the future of our families and businesses.

It’s a daunting moment, but brands have a fighting chance of making a difference if
we set about it with integrity, purpose, and a clear understanding of what our
communities really need.

To that end, we’re partnering with cultural data gurus Codec to profile the ways
Coronavirus is impacting the moods and needs of different social tribes and what
they need from brands right now.

Please let us know your burning questions so that we can all build this roadmap
together.

TwentyFirstCenturyBrand

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If you have any questions, ideas, or comments
on Marketing Through Crisis, please contact
steph@21cb.com - we’d love to hear them.