Responding to coronavirus: The content marketers' guide that helps brand plan content during crisis situations

Imagine a situation where a brand readies a content plan six months in advance keeping in mind festivals and occasions. But suddenly everything gets out of control due to an unforeseen and sudden crisis. In the beginning, the brand thinks the disastrous situation wouldn’t impact its communication but suddenly everything starts revolving around it.

The brand has no choice but to quickly evaluate and change the course of its content plan keeping in mind the surrounding occurrence.

A scenario like this is looming over the world for a few months now—the deadly coronavirus that has spread its tentacles across the globe and taken the lives of thousands of people. The virus has also entered India and has threatened to cripple everything—health-wise and economically. It took no time for the nation to realise the kind of adverse impact it could have. Suddenly, every conversation started surrounding around coronavirus.

Brands too realised it's time to stop seeing marketing opportunities around any moment and to be empathic.

Content experts suggest it’s highly essential to put aside business objectives and deliver content that benefits people in such times. And even if one tries to sell their products in such times, it could lead to a severe backlash.

Girish Bindal

Girish Bindal, Former Head of Content, Elara Technologies, said, “It is needless to say that regular marketing plans will not work for most brands in this unique situation. A thorough review of content plan is required to choose 'what you should say' and 'what you should not say' as a brand at such times. Overall, at a time when people across the world are sensitive about an issue, taking the route of hard-selling or humour, using an undertone or undermining the issue at large, could backfire. This is a time when the brand needs to live up to the 'brand personality' defined by brand managers, which will always have the customer at the focal point.”

For example, it would have been considered insensitive if brands would have flooded social media with content around World Happiness Day, which is celebrated on March 20 every year. Those who went ahead and produced content on the topic were questioned.

So brands have to put on hold their planned content calendar and devise a completely new content plan to match the content consumption requirements of consumers in such trying times.

Vishesh Sharma

Vishesh Sharma, Head, Corporate Communications and Content Marketing, Angel Broking, said, “During such times, your goal is not to acquire more customers or to achieve new sales milestones. Your undivided attention is on handholding your clientele and helping them get through the period of uncertainty. If the need is, ask them to stay put for some time.”

He said, “In the digital world, content is the only way we communicate with people. It could be anything from video or a social media update to a mailer or even an SMS. The primary goal of any organisation should be to give customers the desired assurance while being considerate as of now. This must reflect in the content strategy through and through.”

Also, a lot depends on the brand’s positioning. The starting point that should be deciding one’s content strategy in such a scenario is to understand the role played by the brand in its customers' lives. Hence, the brand needs to re-look at objectives and let them define the strategy.

Bindal explained it with examples. He said, “If your brand is an insurance brand, it is the right time for it to connect with your customers and make them realise the importance of having insurance, and hard-selling your service at such a time can be justified. However, it may be counter-productive for an FMCG brand to offer discounts and deals to maintain footfall. Even if it helps achieve business goals, it could tarnish the brand image in the long term.”

Another important aspect content marketers must consider while working on the content calendar during this phase is that just making slight changes won’t work. It has to be a fresh plan. The content ends up becoming less impactful and out of context if it is only tweaked to match the need of the hour.

Archana Tiwari Nayudu

Archana Tiwari Nayudu, Director, Content and Communications at upGrad, said, “First and foremost, don't repair the faulty painting, create a new one with new realities. Most of the times, we 'tweak' the ideas and plans, which might work or might not work. For example, during this isolation and social distancing phase, the content strategy has to be from both, positioning of content as per the needs of the target audience PoV (point of view) as well as practicality PoV. So, plan the content keeping your TG's present requirements for the short term, at least this quarter, and then juxtapose the practical elements of content creation during this phase with limitations.”

Bindal said that to win the consumers’ trust, the brands need to be transparent in their content strategy and inform them of the steps they are taking to fight the deadly virus.

He said, “Brands need to listen to their customers, understand what they are looking for, and keep them informed by communicating with them now more than ever. Inform customers with 100% transparency of the measures that your brand is taking to deal with the issues at hand, tell them you care for them and their safety.”

Some marketers play safe and halt their regular content and do not produce content around such sensitive topics.

But for Nayudu, this is not an option. She said, “Both lead to loss of connection, context as well as credibility from your brand engagement and trust point of view. If you go ahead with your earlier planned content, there is a danger of you dishing out irrelevant content or brand messaging and not 'talking' to your TG/customer is never an option, especially so in these hyper uncertain times. The sharp communicators and content creators will earn a lot of brand goodwill during these challenging times, and the reverse is true as well. So stay sharp in your content and communication as you have the attention of your TG who now has the time and attention which you always vie for.” 

For Sharma, halting the content production is never a solution. “People are already in a state of dilemma. On top of it, if you halt your content dissemination, you’ll be only adding to the market uncertainty and increasing their nervousness. Rather, you must guide them with all the insights and expertise that you have. It will offer them better clarity and empower them with optimal decisions.”

On the other hand, if one has to state an example where a brand kept silent and did not produce any interactive content and yet become a part of social chatter is the beer brand Corona. “That is a clear display of maturity and assumed responsibility of the brand. And if the situation calls for that, then yes it makes sense to halt communication,” said Bindal.

Sharma concluded, “Yes, it’s true that content strategies are made six months in advance. However, you always have to stay relevant and be dynamic. These are very fundamental requirements in the field of marketing.”