{"id":224083,"date":"2020-03-16T11:52:57","date_gmt":"2020-03-16T06:22:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qcsglobal.com\/marketing\/compassionate-to-cringeworthy-brands-navigate-the-covid-19-messaging-minefield\/"},"modified":"2020-04-18T17:10:28","modified_gmt":"2020-04-18T11:40:28","slug":"compassionate-to-cringeworthy-brands-navigate-the-covid-19-messaging-minefield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qcsglobal.com\/blogs\/compassionate-to-cringeworthy-brands-navigate-the-covid-19-messaging-minefield\/","title":{"rendered":"Compassionate to cringeworthy, brands navigate the COVID-19 messaging minefield"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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For better and often for worse, marketers and brands feel compelled to weigh in on public tragedies, natural disasters and other major social upheavals \u2013 some with sincerity and some opportunistically. The coronavirus is no exception.<\/p>\n

Inbox blowing up with coronavirus<\/h2>\n

Over the past 24 hours my inbox (and I assume yours) has blown up with coronavirus-related missives and even promotions tied to the pandemic. Many of these messages are thoughtful, some are gratuitous and some are outright crass. Some messages are intended to help or clarify and some are not-so-subtle prompts to buy or shop.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s appropriate and important for companies in the travel and hospitality segment, for example, to inform the public about new rules and steps they\u2019re taking to ensure safety and hygiene, as well as any relaxed cancellation or change fee policies. I think I\u2019ve received a version of United\u2019s \u201cOur response to the coronavirus outbreak\u201d email from every airline I\u2019ve ever flown in the past 24 hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cHello paradise\u201d email promotion<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Tone-deaf promotions aplenty<\/h2>\n

In the tone-deaf category is an email I received just this morning from the resort chain Sandals. It featured the subject line \u201cSaying Hello to Paradise Has Never Been Better.\u201d There\u2019s no recognition of coronavirus or the associated travel anxiety that people are feeling.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s solar products company GoSun, which sent an email with the cringeworthy pun of a subject line, \u201cIs There a Bright Side to Coronavirus?\u201d The body of the email wasn\u2019t as bad as the subject line but it was wholly opportunistic and, under the guise of trying to be upbeat and thoughtful, intended to generate sales.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m also getting lots of ads and emails from retailers about sales. Given the general mood of seriousness and anxiety these appear awkward at best \u2014 maybe there will be a new shopping category: stress-commerce. A few retailers, including Crate & Barrel, Bed, Bath & Beyond Macy\u2019s, have sent out messages about how they\u2019re dealing with health and safety in their stores, and encouraging people to shop online if they\u2019re not comfortable coming in. This straddles the line between helpful and promotional. But they\u2019re trying to inspire confidence in consumers, which is important.<\/p>\n

Reassuring shoppers about in-store hygiene<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Mixed motives on display<\/h2>\n

Below is a Facebook ad from Peet\u2019s Coffee, pointed out by SterlingSky\u2019s Carrie Hill, that offers a discount on coffee subscriptions. It was presumably inspired by the new WFH imperative. There\u2019s no mention of coronavirus, but that\u2019s the subtext. We can debate whether it\u2019s smart or purely opportunistic but it doesn\u2019t come off as exploitative.<\/p>\n

WFH promotion with coronavirus as subtext<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Generosity or user acquisition?<\/h2>\n

Some tech companies are relaxing their terms of service or making tools available for free. Zoom, Webex, Loom, Salesforce, Google, Microsoft and a number of others are doing versions of this. Some of this is generous and about helping the community and some of it is about new user acquisition. It\u2019s often difficult to tell.<\/p>\n

Two Octobers\u2019 Niki Mosier pointed out to me that U-Haul is offering 30 days of free self-storage<\/a> for college students displaced by the coronavirus. The motives here are also likely mixed. It\u2019s generous but intended to bring in new business, some of which will probably convert to paid accounts after 30 days. But on balance this is positive.<\/p>\n

In a Slack group organized by ThriveHive\u2019s David Mihm, where some of these examples were being discussed, marketers have been sharing instances of small businesses trying to capitalize on the crisis to promote themselves. One example was for a local plumbing company offering a discount on furnace checks and touchless plumbing fixtures: they\u2019re a \u201cGREAT way to prevent the spread of viruses in your home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the barrage of PR pitches related to the virus, which have really picked up in the past few days. All manner of experts from coast to coast are standing by prepared to opine on how COVID-19 will impact anything and everything in our daily lives.<\/p>\n

Be mindful of the message<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s important for marketers to recognize that all advertising and marketing (and PR) right now is happening against the backdrop of the outbreak. And that must be carefully considered in thinking about promotions and messaging.<\/p>\n

In January, MarketingLand published a piece advising brands<\/a> on when to engage in or avoid conversation about public tragedies and natural disasters. We\u2019re planning a follow-up on this next week.<\/p>\n

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For better and often for worse, marketers and brands feel compelled to weigh in on public tragedies, natural disasters and other major social upheavals \u2013 some with sincerity and some opportunistically. The coronavirus is no exception. Inbox blowing up with coronavirus Over the past 24 hours my inbox (and I assume yours) has blown up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":224084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qcsglobal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224083"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qcsglobal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qcsglobal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qcsglobal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qcsglobal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224083"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/qcsglobal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":224091,"href":"https:\/\/qcsglobal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224083\/revisions\/224091"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qcsglobal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qcsglobal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qcsglobal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qcsglobal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}