The document provides strategies for adapting a brand's storytelling during COVID-19. It recommends reviewing how consumer needs, emotions, and the competitive environment have changed and adapting strategic brand elements accordingly. Five key strategies are outlined: 1) address customer concerns to ease fears, 2) highlight how the brand can help with problems customers now face, 3) act in alignment with core values, 4) expand digital brand experiences through social media and online engagement, and 5) monitor changing consumer behaviors and new habits to engage customers. The document stresses the importance of ongoing reaction, adaptation, and remaining relevant through brand storytelling during unprecedented times.
2. Speaker Intro
Experience
✓ 10+ years product marketing at Rogers
Communications & Atria Networks
✓ 3+ years startup marketing leadership
in local SaaS industry
✓ Marketing Professor at Conestoga College
(part-time)
✓ 3+ years marketing consulting at 2B
Communications & LWDG
Andrea Martin, Director of Marketing
With over 15 years of marketing experience, Andrea is an experienced
marketer passionate about helping brands understand why they are in
business, what they want to accomplish and how they are going to get there.
Driven by her natural curiosity to derive meaning from information, Andrea
collaborates with clients to solve business problems with strategic marketing.
✓ Marketing & Communications
✓ Strategic & Marketing Planning
✓ Brand Strategy & Management
✓ Market Research
✓ Product Marketing
✓ Digital Marketing
Expertise
Andreamartin1 | andrea@lwdg.ca
3. Agency
Introduction
Boutique experience.
Big agency results.
Lesley Warren Design Group is a boutique agency dedicated to building brands through
strategic marketing and design. We believe great design starts with great strategy
derived from deep client understanding. As a team of seasoned marketing and creative
professionals, we draw upon our collective talents and expertise to solve business
challenges and execute meaningful design solutions that engage, differentiate and
inspire. We tailor our solutions to our client’s needs, and manage expectations with
transparency, authenticity and respect. We promise a boutique client experience
backed by a proficient and passionate team who consistently deliver big agency results.
4. Brand Strategy Def:
is a long-term plan for the development of a successful
brand in order to achieve specific goals. A well-defined and
executed brand strategy affects all aspects of a business and
is directly connected to consumer needs, emotions, and
competitive environments.
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What is a brand strategy?
5. Brand touch points:
✓ logo
✓ proposals
✓ website
✓ emails
✓ customer service
✓ campaigns
✓ social media
✓ employees
Brand Strategy
6. Why adapt your
brand strategy?
✓consumer needs
✓emotions
✓competitive environments
Because COVID-19 has changed…
7. How has your industry changed?
Consumer Needs
✓ People are working from home /
laid off / unemployed
✓ Priorities: health & safety /
financial considerations
✓ Perceptions: what is important?
✓ Buying behaviour: online vs
in-store / local vs international
✓ Looking for new/safe solutions to
everyday challenges
Emotions
✓ Fear of illness/unknown
✓ Social isolation / loneliness
✓ Financial uncertainty/stress
✓ Tension caring for children 24/7
✓ Desire to support & protect health
care workers/elderly/high-risk
✓ Stress of re-opening economy
Environment
✓ Government closures
✓ Supply chain disruptions /
shortages
✓ Industry demand
✓ Retooling / new purpose
✓ Reopening guidelines /
regulations
✓ Changing competitive landscape
8. Brand Strategy
(strategic elements)
“Your Why" – Why does your brand exist? What’s your ultimate reason for being? It’s like your guiding star,
forever pursued but never reached. Yet although purpose itself does not change; it does inspire change.
“Your How" – How are you going to get there? Unless you know ‘why’ you’re in business and ‘what’ you expect
to accomplish, how you get there is meaningless. The first two steps are hard to work through, but you can’t
have a believable company mission without them.
“Your What" – What is the ultimate goal of your company? What does your finish line, or outcome look like?
“What decisions will get you closer to that finish line?” Your Vision is what you want to accomplish as a result
of remaining committed to your purpose.
Purpose
(remains unchanged)
Vision
(variable by industry)
Mission
(likely impacted)
9. Brand Strategy: Intangibles
(emotional elements)
Review & Adapt Intangibles
(align with current consumer needs,
emotions & environment)
Core Values, Brand Promise
Tone & Personality
Positioning
10. Brand Strategy
(strategy + emotion = story)
The best strategy
is a story…
Review strategic elements
(slightly impacted)
Modify intangibles/emotion
(align with current consumer needs,
emotions & environment)
Adapt your story
(share to stay relevant)
Purpose Vision Mission
Core Values & Brand Promise
Tone & Personality
Positioning
Brand Story
11. Brand storytelling
a narrative used to emotionally connect your
brand to customers, by linking what you stand for
to the values you share with your customers.
Brand Story Def:
The hero of the story is
always your customer
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12. Adapting your storytelling
React. Adapt. Repeat.
Phase 1: React
Mitigate negative brand impact:
✓ Protect employer brand
✓ Communicate with customers
✓ Adhere to new government
restrictions
Phase 2: Adapt
Adapt your brand strategy:
✓ Active customer listening
✓ Remain relevant; innovate
new solutions
✓ Manage customer
expectations
Phase 3: Recovery
Ongoing reaction & adaption
as the situation evolves:
✓ Stay top-of-mind: increase digital
presence & engage online
✓ Diversify revenue streams
✓ Stay educated on latest developments;
anticipate / scenario plan & react quickly
13. Adapting your
brand story
5What strategies can you implement in your storytelling to remain
relevant & top-of-mind during this unprecedented & challenging time?
Strategies
15. Example 1:
Kleenex & Cottonelle
#shareasquare for United Way
✓ Respond with optimism
Strategy 1
Address Customer Concerns
Show us how you shared toilet paper with those in need
and we will donate $1 for each social post that features
#ShareASquare through June 1, 2020 (up to $100,000).
16. ✓ React quickly
(first post was March 13, 2020)
https://www.pcoptimum.ca/galen-updates
Strategy 1
Address Customer Concerns
Example 2:
PC Optimum, Galen Updates
Actions we’ve taken so far
• We have made the decision to temporarily increase compensation for our store and distribution centre
colleagues by approximately 15% retroactive to March 8th in recognition of their outstanding and
ongoing efforts keeping our stores open and operating so effectively
• As part of our ongoing effort to protect you and our colleagues, we have acquired plexiglass shields for
the checkout counters and we’ve started installing them in stores
• We continue to work around the clock to secure medical grade masks, hand sanitizer, and gloves for
store colleagues in the face of a worldwide shortage of all three. We are making progress and are
sending them directly to stores as we get them. But, for a little while longer supply will be inconsistent
• We are reducing operating hours in our stores – for rest and sanitization (check online for details).
• We are modifying our service counters to have more pre-packaged product – for less touching
• We will begin limiting the number of customers allowed in our busiest stores at the same time – for
social distancing
• We have the food, drugs, and essential products you need and that supply will continue even as
Canada closes its borders.
• We are going to make sure our stores stay up and running to serve your community.
• We will not, under any circumstance, change our actions or prices to take advantage of COVID-19
17. How can I ease customer fears?
Take-aways:
✓ Communicate transparently
✓ Share what you are doing
✓ Offer reassurance
✓ Act with empathy
✓ Follow government reopening guidelines
Strategy 1
Address Customer Concerns
18. Strategy 2
Highlight how you can help
Consider: What problems
are my customers struggling
with right now?
19. ✓ Communicate changes happening in your
industry & how it impacts your customers
Strategy 2
Highlight how you can help
Example 1:
Economical Insurance
20. ✓ Repurpose your assets to fulfill a current
or unexpected need
Strategy 2
Highlight how you can help
Example 2:
Enterprise
21. What problems are my customers
struggling with right now?
Strategy 2
Highlight how you can help
Take-aways:
✓ Be first to offer a solution
✓ Responsibly bend the rules
✓ Share industry expertise
✓ Innovate a solution
22. Strategy 3
Act in alignment with your core values
Consider: How will your
actions/response be
perceived and remembered?
23. ✓ Act and sound like
yourself, aka “on-brand”
Strategy 3
Act in alignment with your core values
Example:
Ford Motors
24. Strategy 3
Act in alignment with your core values
How will your actions/response
be perceived and remembered?
Take-aways:
✓ Proactively position your brand
✓ Act authentically
✓ Think long-term brand value
✓ Deepen customer relationships
25. Strategy 4
Expand digital brand experiences
Consider: How can I share
my story and engage my
audience online?
26. Tell your story on social media
Strategy 4
Expand digital brand experiences
Source: https://canadiansinternet.com/2019-report-social-media-use-canada/
• A significant 86% of
Canadians interact with
businesses on social media
• Canadians spend over 80%
of their social media time
interacting with companies.
• Canadians also follow
brands and businesses on
social media as well:
✓ On Facebook, 59%
follow businesses
✓ On Instagram 27%
follow businesses
27. Facebook ShopFacebook Live Auction
Strategy 4
Expand digital brand experiences
Local Example:
Natural Sound
28. Did you know?
47% of Canadian social media users are shopping on
social networks, spending an average of $77 per month.
Source: https://canadiansinternet.com/2019-report-social-media-use-canada/
Strategy 4
Expand digital brand experiences
Here are examples of what a shopping
post and story look like on Instagram:
29. • Music Lessons
• Museum Tours
• Haircuts
• Health & Fitness
• Cooking
Going Virtual
Strategy 4
Expand digital brand experiences
Examples:
New virtual experiences
30. Strategy 4
Expand digital brand experiences
How can I share my story and
engage my audience online?
Take-aways:
✓ Start social selling
✓ Go Live
✓ Build online community
✓ Share your expertise with video
✓ Create a virtual experience
31. Strategy 5
Monitor Changing Consumer Behaviour.
New Habits are Forming.
Consider: How can your
brand engage customers
in forming new habits?
32. Strategy 5
Monitor Changing Consumer Behaviour.
New Habits are Forming.
✓ Working from Home
✓ Online Learning
✓ Online Shopping
✓ Virtual Events
✓ Virtual ExperiencesNew habits
are driving
category growth:
33. Dine & Distance
Food & Beer
Collaboration
Curbside Pickup & Delivery
Strategy 5
Monitor Changing Consumer Behaviour.
New Habits are Forming.
A restaurant in the Netherlands has been testing out an idea on how to offer classy outdoor
dining in the age of the pandemic: small glass cabins built for two people.
35. Strategy 5
Monitor Changing Consumer Behaviour.
New Habits are Forming.
How can your brand engage
customers in forming new habits?
Take-aways:
✓ Adapt your product or service to fit new lifestyle adaptations
✓ Learn from what other nations are doing (what’s working, what’s not)
✓ Be accessible to your customers & stay top-of-mind
✓ Engage virtually to deepen customer relationships
36. How to adapt your storytelling?
5Strategies
Address
customer
concerns
Highlight
how you
can help
Act in
alignment with
core values
Expand digital
brand
experiences
Monitor Changing
Consumer Behaviour.
New Habits Are Forming.
1 2 3 4 5
37. In Summary
❑ How can I ease customer fears?
❑ What problems are my customers struggling with right now?
❑ How will your actions/response be perceived and remembered?
❑ How can I share my story and engage my audience online?
❑ How can your brand engage customers in forming new habits?
Considerations to ask yourself…
38. 105 Randall Drive, Unit 2, Waterloo, Ontario
519.634.1124 • info@lwdg.ca • lwdg.ca
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