Crisis in Business

Covid-19 has brought an unprecedented change in every one of our daily lives. Businesses are no exception to that change. About 54% of small businesses struggle to sustain themselves due to the Covid situation across the globe. Not just that, many well-established brands, including Disney, Gucci are also bearing the loss caused due to pandemics. However, some other businesses are managing to increase their sales even in this time of crisis. For instance, luxury brands like Versace and Michael Kors have announced a rise in their sales. How exactly are they managing to do that? 

Brand crisis management is the ways to face the challenges posed by the crisis conditions.

This article provides few guidelines to implement within your brand management strategy to combat the effects of Covid-19. 

1. Update your inventory according to the need: 

While the world is hounded by Covid-19 and trying to cope with the situation, it’s the right time for you as a business to update your inventory according to the changing customer needs. You can consider adding Covid-safety products to your inventory. You can start selling masks to your customers as it will only help you raise the revenue or add a bonus along with a consumers shopping cart. 

For instance, High-end brand 3.1 Phillip Lim has started adding masks to their websites for its consumers to buy along with their signature clothing products. 

2. Offer support: 

Any form of crisis requires support in various ways. In the given scenario where the world is devoid of various medical tools, you can come forward and offer a helping hand. A helping attitude will boost your brand image, thereby increasing customer loyalty. 

So while dealing with the current crisis, consider your business as a platform that offers support to the needy. 

Tory Burch, a well-known fashion brand, started providing masks to its customers without any profits for themselves. The mask’s cost is broken into the production cost of the mask and $5 as a donation for the Medical Corps and brand’s foundation (Tory Burch Foundation). Similarly, Burberry, Louis Vuitton, and Channel have produced and shipped out protective clothes to health workers for free. It is a representation of appreciation that enhances the brand’s goodwill. 

3. Network: 

The best way to sustain your brand during the pandemic is by creating a network. You should not be dependent upon only one manufacturing company for producing your products. You can work on building relationships with other businesses and, thereby, negotiate prices for your manufacturing and shipping requirements.

4. Connect: 

Now is the time when the world is isolated, which implies over-reliance on the Internet for connecting and communicating. Thus, you must reach out to your customers and connect with them through various platforms to build and sustain a loyal customer base for your business.

Glossier, a makeup brand, has started a website blog that is being promoted on its Instagram page. The brand connects with its audience by sharing COVID-precaution measures and other tips relevant to the present time. 

5. Advertise and promotion: 

There are around 1.8 billion people who prefer shopping online. With the increased number of mobile devices, people spend most of their time in front of screens browsing social media. This scene has only amplified during a pandemic. You can exploit the situation to improve your visibility online. You can sustain your brand’s identity by promoting and advertising it on popular online platforms to attract traffic to your company website. 

6. Work on the brand’s website: 

With the amount of free time available in the pandemic, you can work on your brand’s website, either updating website content or working on backlinking. It is the best way to improve your brand’s ranking and online visibility. 

Concluding Thoughts

Given the challenges presented by the pandemic, you can still work on sustaining your business by launching new strategies that might help you in the long run. This article provided basic tips to respond to a crisis that may or may not yield immediate results. But they will create a base upon which you can continue to build and sustain your businesses. 

Automation remains one of the most effective ways to curb any crisis that can be brought about. With multiple tech giants offering enterprise application softwares, like ONPASSIVE businesses can reduce their dependency on manual tasks and automate business functions to deal with dire situations. This is not just cost effective but time effective too.