Brand communications need to be planned differently in these times

A webinar organised by the Advertising Club of Bangalore touched upon the utmost crucial topic i.e. ‘Communication in the times of COVID19’. To unravel the strategy, Sumant Bhattacharya, Head, Strategy + Integrated Solutions (South), Motivator India and Upali Nag Kumar, CSO at Motivator India joined the session where they highlighted the necessity of the right communication, an accurate approach and the required tone.

Upali pointed to a study conducted by Kantar that states that brands which choose to go media dark during a pandemic suffer 20% sales loss which are hard to recover. “It is important to communicate to build a strategic coherence for the brand. It is required to bring operational efficiency than resorting to a cost cutting practice. Investing for the future in terms of consumer needs, collaborations and new business models will help a brand to flourish,” she added.

There are three scenarios in a pandemic - Outbreak, Recovery and Stabilisation and all three scenarios demand a unique approach to be adopted. Highlighting the strategy to deal with an outbreak situation, Sumant articulated, “It is important to be agile in the dynamic situation to stay relevant. Brands should connect with today’s context. Secondly, the tonality of their communications should be designed to be a part of a larger narrative than just a short-term goal which builds reassurance and demonstrates empathy towards the affected people. Thirdly, it is the time to collaborate to build services and communications for the cause like Bollywood did for the film fraternity”.

While the cause remains the same during the pandemic, brands can still work towards building a unique brand identity for themselves by looking at the next level of social nuisances and behaviour, suggested Upali.