A brand’s PR or media campaign should be ongoing, consistent and share a clear simple message that resonates with the right audience. Excite and influence them to buy for the first time and keep coming back.

Times of change like these mean people are very receptive to new ideas, products, and technical innovations, picking up new habits and spending patterns.

Long-term studies show that the best approach during economic uncertainty is to increase, not decrease, your marketing spend.

First and foremost people want to hear what a brand is doing to contribute back to their community, including looking after their own team and increasing connectivity with their customers.

Media are currently eager to hear positive stories that entertain, inform and divert from the unrelenting news of Covid and political uncertainty.

This is the next in our series of marketing during troubled times.

Meet The Needs Of The Target Audience At This Present Time
PR campaigns must present solutions that meet the immediate needs of consumers. Consumers do want to hear from brands now. Brands that are wrong to assume they do not. People want things that remind them of good times and brands that offer luxury, escapism and safety. Consumers are looking for solutions.

Meet Customers Where They Are
Innovate with ways of presenting your brand to make it easier for customers to engage with you and your services. Offer genuine care and support. Make their lives easier, and their customer journey to your services simple, low touch and convenient to operate.

Digital Delivery
Make the process of interacting and ordering services and products as easy and as fast as possible. Mobile phone ordering is now a must. Even the slightest advantage in the purchase process will increase sales by a noted percentage.

Communicate Your Benefits
What does your brand do that helps make the client journey and business better? How will people know unless you tell them? Get your message and narrative out consistently.

Inform First, Sell Later
Brands should be addressing the concerns of their audience. Fine-tune the message to speak to clients and serve their needs now, during the pandemic and after. The strategy must include the present issues and adapt the message to suit.

Value-Based Communication
Your marketing should inform, reassure and offer solutions to worries. Luxury escapism is needed now more than ever.

Digital Marketing = Digital Footprint
Virtual meetups, online purchases and digital entertainment are accelerating the rush online. Your digital footprint is now the most important aspect of your brand perception. It should be the core focus of your marketing so that when people look you up, it reflects the quality and values of your brand.

Customer Journey
Empathy. Genuinely address customer needs to strengthen relationships. Safety, security, and everyday convenience

Safe Physical Spaces
You can still hold events, but they must be bulletproof in their safety. This is the one area where showing off is allowed. Demonstrate that safety is your first concern. Treat all customers as VIP's whom you value and make their experience one on one. Safety can also be a more exclusive luxury experience. Show to small groups of individuals, who get your undivided attention. Network people together in much smaller and intimate groups. The connection will be much greater and create long-lasting trusted relationships. Also, ensure that guests do not need to touch anything, doors should either open automatically or be open. Filter people stylishly, demonstrating all your services/products along the way.

Brand Awareness
Focus not on short term sales, but on building brand awareness and informing the target audience about your brand. This will pay off as the brand value grows both online and in customer perception.

Consumer Loyalty
Now is the time to engage with customers and build consumer loyalty as other brands slow their marketing efforts.

Trade Shows Exhibitions
Many brands rely on events and shows to reach their audience, both B2B and B2C. A common mistake is to put all your budget into one basket. A big error, huge. Brand events will put you in front of hundreds of customers, but the right narrative around these, particularly luxury and celebrity events, can put you in front of millions through print and digital media and press.

Time
Time gained form the loss of events can be turned to better digital platforms and engaging customers more profoundly, sharing ethics and values.

Celebrity Endorsement
Celebrity and influencer endorsement are set to grow exponentially in this new virtual setting. There are opportunities out there for those quick to adapt. However, it must be carefully thought out to effectively engage and influence the right audience.

Database Marketing
Building a database of regular customers and engaging more with them, offering them rewards for loyalty and inspiring them to bring in their network of friends. Get your database properly categorised, so that you can drill down and target people with what they want most.

3D Virtual Events
3D virtual events are a novel method of presenting your product or services. Still in its infancy, but with the potential to surprise and thrill a jaded audience.

Social Media Multiplier Effect
If you are a luxury brand with all your ethics, values and pillars aligned then your most valuable asset will be your own team and colleagues who are committed to the brand. Get them sharing stories on their social media feeds to benefit from the Social Media Multiplier Effect. Sharing tags, stories and interactions between them and clients.

Think Long Term
React fast and with agility to present issues, but always have a long term strategy. It takes time to build a truly great brand, and plans should be made for the long haul. Problems don't go away, they change, so the strategy should allow for every possibility and be future proof. React to events now, but with a solid long term plan in place.

Working Practices
Use this time to create a working environment that considers employees and colleagues. How to look after their mental health and to create a happy productive, challenging, but stress-free working environment. This should not be mere words. Happy people are much more creative and productive. Allow mistakes to be made as it fosters a more adaptable and efficient company, which discovers and adopts new working methods faster.

Track Trends
Measure sentiment and consumption regularly. Monitor feedback for ideas and patterns of behaviour. This will help you stay up to date and plan for the future.

2021 will be about communicating regularly with your customers, to build a relationship that advertising alone cannot match. Modern audiences are looking to know much more about a brand and its ethos. Customers today connect first with a brand’s principals: quality, design, vision, innovation, customer service and respect. These values create enduring trust and loyalty.