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Brand as Public Service
This document discusses how brands need to shift from selling to serving during the COVID-19 pandemic. It argues that brands are now in the business of public service and should provide safety, protection, health, shelter, sustenance, and education rather than focus on marketing and sales. The document provides suggestions for how brands can audit themselves to identify relevant competencies and how they can serve frontline healthcare workers, employees, vulnerable groups, and customers by directly or indirectly providing aid and information.
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Brand as Public Service
- 1. Brand as PublicService Ed Cotton-March 25- 2020
- 2. Original LinkedIn Post-March24 • Every brand is now in the business of public service. If they are going to act responsibly and don't want their interruptions to be ignored and dismissed and ultimately damaging to their brand. All messaging needs to change. I don't want to buy a toothbrush from you, I want to learn how to look after my teeth when there are no dentists available, I don't want to buy a car, I want to know how to keep my car running, I don't want to buy a CD from my bank, I want to know how to do everything I can to save money, I don't want to know your grocery chain has a great new brand purpose, I want to know if you are open and how I now need to shop... repeat the above across hundreds of categories and you have plenty of work for marketers and agencies to be doing right now.
- 3. The Switch • FromSelling to Serving
- 4. What Service Means •Providing • Safety and Protection • Health • Shelter • Sustenance • Education/Information
- 5. Audit Your Brand •What are your relevant competencies? • Do you indirectly or directly provide? • Safety and Protection • Shelter • Sustenance
- 6. Audiences • PRIORITY- THEFRONTLINE- Healthcare workers • Employees • The Vulnerable • Customers and Prospects
- 7. The Frontline- HealthcareWorkers • Can you directly provide? • Safety and Protection/Health/Mental Health • Shelter • Sustenance • Transportation • If not- donate to or partner with someone who can
- 8. Examples • Hand Sanitizer •Shoes • Masks • Hotels
- 9. Employees • Are youconstantly making sure they are • Healthy • Safe • Clearly know what they are working on • Know their job is secure
- 10. Employees • “How companiesrespond to that very question is going to define their brand for decades. If you rushed in and somebody got sick, you were that company. If you didn’t take care of your employees or stakeholders and put them first, you were that company,” • Mark Cuban
- 11. The Vulnerable • Thosein the poverty line/homeless • Can you directly provide? • Safety and Protection/Health/Mental Health • Shelter • Sustenance • Transportation • If not- donate to or partner with someone who
- 12. Customers and Prospects •How can you serve them, not sell them? • Can you easily re-configure your products and services to be relevant and more accessible? • Think about how your products and services can directly help them right now? • Does it make sense for your brand to provide them with information that can help their health and livelihoods? • Is this a brand fit? • Can you engage them in and inform them of your efforts to help the other audiences?
- 13. Examples • Quickbooks SmallBusiness Fund
- 14.