It’s 5th month of 2020 and 6th month since COVID-19 came into existence. These six months have seen unprecedented changes in businesses. The entire formula of doing business is challenged by social distancing norms. It’s not the first time that businesses were challenged by a pandemic. The impact of it has taken tremendous downgrades in economies, irrespective of their stature globally. The difference between COVID-19 and previous other pandemic recession is that now the world is highly intertwined with zillions of internet devices and services.

The effect of this pandemic started many terms globally, where people gave is various names  in different languages such as corona, Covid19, social distancing, mask, hygiene and many more. In businesses, particularly, the most spoken world seems to be ‘NEW NORMAL’, which is accepting the way the world presently is and will remain, therefore to adapt to it.

This so-called new normal will be here to stay for longer than expected. The social structure of new normal has forced people to adopt technologies to meet up, interact and stay connected to their loved ones. As a legacy of this pandemic, social events will turn into virtual events, house parties will remain in an app in the memory of this generation. In this new normal, businesses are leaning towards their digital & social strategies to reach out to people and sell their product and services.

In the last 40 years, digital has become an essential commodity that led to the way we were doing business. In the last 10 years particularly, we found many new ways of communication, entertainment and commerce. The popular media TV, Print and Radio were hit by emerging competitive internet which became the most popular medium for marketers to communicate. Though the traditional media will be with us for long, now they have also gone digital in many ways.

 

Today, when the majority of the world is seated at home, working from home and watching YouTube and Netflix more than regular television channels, it’s appropriate for marketers to relinquish the old days of marketing.

To understand the new normal and digital world, we have made some assessment for marketing. These might be heard of by many, but it’s a priority now for all brands.

–         New Segmentation: Unlike T.V, digital medium gives more information about the consumer demographics and behaviour in real-time, therefore, marketers should create new segmentation for the consumer to design and deliver product and services.

–         Highly local content: What stops us to engage with most of the consumers is that lack of local content strategy. Growth of YouTube channels, Instagram influencers have put forward the fact that niche content is not niche anymore and there is a huge market for it.

–         Always Mobile first: The reports suggest that mobile is highest used internet device than any other, therefore a content shall fit consumers mobile requirements making it crisp, precise yet intriguing

–         Explore New platforms: We may love the existing large networks and platforms yet people are trying new ideas regularly. The emergence of TikTok is an example of how businesses can try new platforms to create the content and reach to the audience. One  cannot avoid innovations that are being led by a new-age entrepreneur.

–         Product Price-Value Equation: It will become more evident that consumer will look for social references and reviewss on product price-value equation. A product that offers a highly competitive solution to the consumer will not require more budget for marketing.

–         Innovative Interaction: Brands had relied on a major brand campaigns in the past which were broadcasted on all media available, however, that may not work now. It is a matters of seconds while a consumer clicks on something they like. Eventually, interaction led by innovation will catch the eye of the consumer.

–         Being Simple: Yes being normal is important. In recent year, people started feeling that the large promises made by brands and their brand ambassador are not true. Therefore, they started looking to look out for recommendations on brands by other consumers. A brand promise has to be customer-centric that has to be ordinarily simple.

In summary, it might seem nothing new to marketers but our recommendation is for brands to explore and keep exploring new ways to reach out to customers.

Exploration is an adventure, every brand should follow it.