Keeping it tasteful – how marketing can remain relevant during Covid-19

With the coronavirus pandemic having such a far-reaching impact, many people are taking the time for reflection. They are questioning what they truly value, which is something that’s caused many food and drink brands to stop and think about what marketing messages they are sending out.

This isn’t unusual. During a major crisis, brands will often pause social media content. Who after all wants to see promotional messages in their timelines mixed in amongst the sharing of grief, solitude or praise?

Similarly, brands often decide to acknowledge a crisis in their marketing but can live in fear that they’ll get it wrong. McDonald’s split its famous golden arches as a mark of COVID-19 social distancing. Some consumers liked it. Others viewed it as a company cashing-in on a crisis and were critical of the move.

Companies then also have to consider the operational impact of a crisis and what it truly means for their business. This is an even bigger challenge for food and drink SMEs, which are probably more concerned about trying to survive lockdown, rather than properly thinking through the messaging and content of their marketing.

All of these factors can leave companies believing it’s easier to put marketing on the backburner. It can seem more logical to do nothing, instead of risking something that may do more harm than good. This doesn’t have to be the case, especially for food and drink businesses. People still need to eat and drink during a crisis.

Companies can still continue with their marketing without being deemed inappropriate, irrelevant or opportunistic. Here’s what to consider:

Take your time
All crises are different and will develop at a different pace. However, because of the urgency of some situations, they’ll be sometimes a tendency to do something quickly from a marketing point of view. Food and drink companies may well have been tempted during the early stages of COVID-19 to assure people they still have supplies amongst public panic buying or that they’d remain open when the Government was asking people not to visit restaurants and bars. The situation will change quickly and it’s more advisable to follow how it develops to avoid doing something that quickly becomes outdated and incorrect. This will only incur more time and resource to put things right and can lead to mixed and confusing messaging. 

Companies should monitor the questions they are receiving from consumers via their usual customer service and social media channels. If they start to notice a large trend of people asking about the availability of food and drink, then it’s the time to proactively market what’s still on sale.

Monitor the mood
Social media and free-to-use web analytics tools like Google Trends are a great resource to sense check public sentiment. Getting a real-time steer on consumer’s attitudes, just by looking at the comments they are posting on social media or what they’re Googling, can be used to inform the content of appropriate marketing messages and content, and to properly determine the right time to try and engage people.

This tactic can help to identify key themes during a crisis and provide an indication of how they are being embraced by consumers.

Embrace key themes
Staying in at home and recognising the efforts of the NHS have been two themes of COVID-19, which have resonated with the public. Food and drink brands could develop marketing to appropriately fit with such themes. For example, they could make suggestions for the best meals, ingredients and tipples for lockdown lunches and for virtual parties and nights in with friends (another key theme). Brands could also satisfy the trend of people using new-found time during lockdown to learn more about the things they like – stories about food provenance would work well.

Food and drinks brands have also successfully donated products to the NHS and vulnerable people during the pandemic, while others are offering discounts for healthcare professionals. These are fantastic gestures and, like most marketing around corporate social responsibility and purpose, tend to benefit most from subtle and authentic marketing. Brands need to ensure they stay true to their values and don’t force donations or gestures of goodwill, just because it seems like the right thing to do.

Stay true to your values
If brands want to help out those affected by a crisis, the first thing they should ask themselves is how can they naturally help? By taking action that fits with what they do and stand for as a business, their gesture is more likely to be received for exactly what it is, as opposed to being seen as a marketing ploy. Speciality food retailers, for example, may decide to offer hampers of fine foods and wines towards the end of the pandemic for NHS workers to enjoy as they unwind after a high pressure few months.

Making donations may not be practical for all food and drinks businesses from both a financial and operational viewpoint. Instead, they could draw on their knowledge of speciality food and drinks to share hints and tips that time-starved NHS workers may find useful. This may involve foods that aid rest and recuperation, or recipes to make quick and easy, tasty and nutritious meals for the family. This can make great content for engaging digital marketing campaigns. 

The important thing to consider is how brands share such initiatives. They won’t always benefit from overt marketing and sometimes it’s much more effective to create the assets, such as small branded food parcels or recipe sheets, and then let the recipients share these themselves via social media.

Keep it audience-centric
Many food and drinks brands have had to innovate and pivot to survive the business disruption caused by COVID-19. In such cases, it’s natural to want to rush and share new changes with customers. The instinct is there to let people know you’re still open for business, which often leads to marketing that is very company-first, when it should be appealing to the wants and needs of the audience.

Food and drinks brands should remember to be identifying those key themes that consumers are embracing, taking stock of public sentiment and then thinking how does what I have to offer fit with what people want? They can then develop marketing campaigns that continue to be audience-led and relevant in the time of a crisis.