Will Your Business Survive These “Uncertain Times?”

“In these uncertain times…” Drink! That was the drinking game I proposed we play at my house. Every time someone in a commercial says “uncertain times” we drink. We never actually played, because we’d be drunk all the time and nothing would ever get done.

It’s not really funny, this situation we’re in. But reality is, we all have coronavirus brand talk fatigue. We’re tired of every brand telling how we’re in this together, we can pull through, this is the new normal and thank you to our heroes.

Nothing wrong with any of it. It is a good sentiment to have. The problem is almost every brand that is still doing advertising is saying it – whether it’s a global car company or the local law firm – and it is now falling on deaf ears. We’re tired of being stuck at home and hearing the same messages repeatedly. But, what should a company say and do?

Brand Storytelling During a Pandemic

Saying the same thing as everyone else has become tiresome. Yet, if you go into selling mode, will this come across as crass or tone-deaf to the current grim situation we’re in? What stories do you tell? The idea behind all the messaging currently filling our airwaves is right. You need to base your brand storytelling on empathy. Most of the successful campaigns coming out of the Great Recession were based on empathy for what we all went through. Or, more specifically, what their customers or community went through.

If you want to connect with those who are depending on your product, tell your story from their point of view. How is it helping them? Is it giving them comfort? Is it essential to their well-being? Does it help their own business survive or thrive? What is the story from their point of view. Tell that story. With empathy. Those are the stories that will connect with people and sell your brand without relying on overused phrases or resorting to old sales techniques.

The Business That Can Pivot Will Survive

“In these uncertain times… it’s only uncertain if you have no idea what you’re doing. If you’re good at your business, you can figure out how to pivot and get there ahead of your competitors” – Christopher S. Penn, on a recent episode of his Marketing Over Coffee podcast.

He’s right. We can bemoan our fate or we can roll up our sleeves, put our thinking caps on and figure out how our business can better deal with the problems currently facing it. There are always changes in the business environment – new competitors, new competing products, new government regulations, changes in consumer values, the list goes on and on. Granted, the issues facing business aren’t usually this severe, but the way out is the same: innovative thinking, good strategy, perseverance and, as always, a little luck.

In my post a couple weeks ago, I talked about some businesses that had pivoted. A bar owner selling frozen craft cocktail cubes so you could make your own craft cocktails at home and a restaurant owner who was curating wine selections out of his wine stock based on customer tastes and delivering them to their homes. Other examples include Taco Bell creating the $25 home taco bar kit, so you can make your own tacos at home.

It’s Saturday Night, Not Live

Every problem has a solution, if you’re willing to try something totally new. Take the case of Saturday Night Live. Here you have a weekly live sketch comedy show. They spend the week pitching ideas, writing them, rehearsing and then they go on live with an ensemble of comedians, a host and a band performance. How does that still exist when you can’t be together?

SNL found a way. They created sketches that could be done with either one performer alone or several on green screen at home put together with a new background or all together in a Zoom format. A host does their thing from home and a band performs via skype or Zoom or whatever. It wasn’t live, but it was fun. And, more importantly, it worked! Some critics even suggested the new format breathed life into a tired old show that had come to rely on tried and true ideas.

So, what can your business do differently to make it work given your current restrictions? How can you take your product or service and pivot it into something new or serve it up in a new way? The important thing is you don’t chalk it up to “uncertain times” but you push yourself to try something new. Sure, you might fail – but some of the greatest successes in our history have been born out of failure. The tragedy isn’t in trying and failing. It’s in never trying at all. What are you going to do in these uncertain times? I certainly hope it’s something wonderful in the end.

Mike McClure, feeling certain about this

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