An Outbreak of COVID-19, a Boon For Digital Society: Virtual World Witnessing a Surge in Post-epidemic Period

 An Outbreak of COVID-19, a Boon For Digital Society: Virtual World Witnessing a Surge in Post-Pandemic Period

Digital Marketing campaigns have survived both medical and economic crises. Digital Communication is one strategy to keep yourself in the long run.

The virtual world of Digital Marketing retorted to the pandemic positively, as many of the stores have gone online. Vigorous Lockdowns have definitely boosted the sales of online stores, which executed Digital Marketing as Indoor-people got everything they wanted online. The traffic on the websites increased tremendously with enhanced marketing campaigns and raised brand awareness. Many firms are looking to build their online presence and awareness because many agencies have claimed that COVID-19 has brought unexpected benefits.

What’s currently happening with the consumers bound at home? How did they respond to this new situation?

-        Are Budget-cuts necessary?

Marketers should not cut down their marketing budgets because by doing so they will run the risk of lowering their market credibility compared to their competitors. Maintaining the share of voice of any company is crucial for growth after the recession. Budget cuts can harm the brand value in the long run.

-        Price promotions

Business analysts advise the companies to avoid multiple offers and promotions in this crisis situation. Because, once the situation returns to normal, the consumers will hesitate to accept the higher prices. The pandemic has made all the brands do things they’ve never done before. Everyone has different clients with different demands, and interests and some are even multi-nationals. Clients or customers can be categorized as ‘essentials’ and ‘non-essentials’. The essentials can be those regular customers with whom the brand has been doing business since the pre-pandemic period.  While the non-essentials can be the ones who are looking for short-term dealing with the company. To keep the essential clients engaged with the company’s brand, the marketers need to re-frame their connections with them with a new way of messaging and updating. Keeping the customers committed to one’s brand is not an easy task for any marketer. After doing extensive research, we can realize many brands go down in the times of recession, depression, and crisis-Esque periods. Those brands have a very difficult time restoring their businesses after things begin to normalize. Brands must figure out how to maintain their presence relative to the ongoing situation. Connection and engagement of the customers will save any company that is about to collapse. Other things that are to be focused on are the fundamentals, especially for some larger brands. Larger brands do prioritize their fundamentals, but in the course of accomplishment or targets they’ve to achieve every single year, they fail to recall their base of fundamentals. Solidifying the foundation of any brand can make them ‘future-proof’, i.e., it can survive any kind of crisis or calamity in the forthcoming years with lesser work on the backend. Marketers should keep themselves updated about what changes are taking place on a monthly or weekly basis. Purchasing consumer’s or manager’s indexes from any market analytical firm will give a clear idea about what this recession is. No one has an idea about when the vaccine will come, what will be the pricing of the commodities and how will they affect them. There are disturbances in the supply chain and people are adopting more digital exchange. There are a lot of uncertainties that can be classified as an Abnormal Distribution.

We don’t live in isolation or quarantine, for now, so, we need to see this situation from different angles. Those angles are from society, the market, and individuals or consumers. The individuals are looking for a specific source of relevant information and want to stay updated regarding news on vaccines. Social media platforms are the key source of information in today’s world.

-        Capitalizing on Crisis

In the initial stage, the industrialists are stocking up on a lot of non-perishable products. Beauty and self-care products have been affected significantly due to their de-prioritization of items. The products related to clothing, garments, and even chocolates and sweets have seen reduced priority among their consumers. As an opportunist, many brands are trying to capitalize on this situation such as a soap manufacturing company claiming that their soap is 99% effective against the COVID-19 virus while the scientist and researchers are still working on the vaccines. Other face-mask producing companies have done the same by including graphics of the COVID-19 virus on their products. While some brands have tackled the situation in a mature way by promoting social distancing and hygiene with a periodic re-structured logo of their brand. Predominantly, most brands have spread positivity in these times and have shifted to digital platforms.

As mentioned earlier in this blog, people want to stay updated and also connected at the same time when at home. Brands can help their consumers to create new moments in their life. Consumers are still celebrating birthdays, and anniversaries, and spending more time on TV, and social media platforms. Brands need to re-consider the objective of their products to cope with the new consumer demands and produce relevant products.