The fast and furious nature of COVID’s impact has created new challenges for us to deal with and opportunities to leverage. The changing market dynamics are driving shifts in the marketing function and though many of the shifts unfolding in marketing had already begun before COVID-19 emerged, the pandemic has definitely accelerated those trends. However, owing to these new trends, finding a market for your products or services may not require the same skills as were required in the pre-COVID period. Here are some tips to help you in your endeavours to locate new markets for your business in the new normal!
- It has become clear that we won’t be back to “business as usual”. Hence, marketing will be focused much more on reaching consumers at home. Also, remember, you are competing with the last best experience your customer had. So, it is important that you ‘better’ that! In tandem with this thought, you must leverage opportunities in the new environment for personalized experiential brand building; such as, providing online digital experiences to existing customers, who will be your best bet to help grow your market through word-of-mouth appreciations.
- Innovating constantly is the key. In the face of COVID-19, the marketing function has come under pressure to bring the idea-to-implementation timeline down to months or even weeks. With unprecedented challenges and constraints to address, that speed needs to be accompanied by new levels of creativity and risk tolerance.
- Marketing today needs more people who would push boundaries, challenge the status quo, and propose novel ideas. A balance of intellect and the relevant skills is what you need to look out for while commencing your hiring process. Hence hiring wisely is imperative to support and grow your marketing skills.
- ‘Agility’ is the modern marketing approach you should adopt. The fortunate outcome of this pandemic has been the creation of a mindset which encourages marketing agility. This includes continuous consumer listening and demand sensing, not only for the benefit of marketing but for the full company to capture the zeitgeist of consumer sentiment. It is a great marketing catalyst. Meanwhile, operationally too, it means faster decision cycles and more flexibility across key areas like creative, budgeting, and media.
- You need the right balance of factors , including technology, to drive modern marketing success. For your technology architecture to drive results, it must be matched with sufficient scale in data to fuel its success, the right use cases to drive results, and the right approach to human enablement. We must achieve the perfect balance of humans and automation to unlock a robust marketing strategy. We must use data as the fuel yet respect the craft of storytelling to drive meaningful human connections which forms the base for successful marketing.
These new marketing truths embody the confluence of strategies, operations, and technologies required to drive growth in a post-Covid-19 world. Embracing them will open the doorway to recovery for your business and ensure long-term success.
Avtar Madan
Himanshu
Shree Lahiri
