“The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence – it is to act with yesterday’s logic.” – Peter Drucker
In our last newsletter, we talked about the need to not stick with the status quo, to act decisively and be deliberate in your approach and thinking. To work proactively to balance changes in tone, the pace of innovation and level of risk acceptance to maximize your upside. Our previous client pulse check suggested that marketers took action and were seeing some early improvements in campaign response rates, with 32% reporting increases in March.
In our latest survey, the next question was, “Is the market normalizing enough to change the plans companies put in place at the end of April? Overall, the answer has come back “No”. Only 9% of companies surveyed indicate that they are actively reconsidering their initial response. Since roughly half our base had pulled back their marketing plans, this means that 1 in 5 of those who cut back are looking to get back to their original plans. In general, the jury is still out; the path forward remains different from each company to the next, based on their unique situations.
While we are still waiting to see how marketing efforts will change over time, we are observing a clear change in mindset among consumers – one that promises to have significant long-term implications. There will likely be a seismic shift in how consumers shop even after the lock downs end across the country. We are already seeing signs of this change in how retail markets are reporting back. In her recent April month end update, Polly Wong of ALC’s sister company, Belardi & Wong, reported 86% of her clients (primarily from the high-end DTC sector) reported ecommerce sales above LY, with 74% reporting greater than a 10% increase. 96% reported a notable increase in ecommerce sales the last few weeks of April, ending the month on an even stronger note. Much of this of course is coming at the expense of traditional retail store sales.
As a colleague, Chris Marriott, President of Email Connect, stated: “Once consumers have learned how easy it can be to order a much wider variety of goods and services online for delivery to their door, they will be unlikely to go all the way back to shopping at brick & mortar stores absent a compelling reason to do so.” If you subscribe, the Wall Street Journal’s article on May14th “Coronavirus Finishes the Retail Reckoning That Amazon Started” does an in-depth review of the change occurring.
All this means that we need to continue to read the changing mindset of consumers and be prepared to adjust our marketing campaigns accordingly. We also need to be prepared to build marketing campaigns and solutions that can effectively identify and reach consumers in timely ways for a broader array of products and offerings. Email marketing and effective digital advertising that supports direct to consumer response will play an even bigger role going forward. Key will be companies’ ability to use their technology, data, and media channels in an integrated and cohesive way.
ALC in Action:
As we have previously shared, ALC is committed to helping fight the COVID battle by making our data available to those who can have a positive impact. To date some 35 organizations have engaged with our non-commercial COVID-19 offering, including the following:
- Georgetown University
- Ohio State University
- University of Texas at Austin Covid-19 Modeling Consortium
- University of Saskatchewan
If interested in ALC’s offer, email COVID19Response@ALC.com for more details.
Articles of Interest:
Our insights are again only a small fraction of what is being shared out there. Here are some other interesting articles and opinions we thought to share to both inform and inspire discussion.
- Dave McIndoe at Forbes has some interesting thought share around what business should be thinking about as they look to get their marketing efforts back on track
Getting Back To Business: First Steps For Marketing
- Blake Morgan, a customer experience futurist, has really spelled out how we should all be thinking about the customer post COVID-19 in her recent Forbes article
Customer Experience Mindset Post Covid-19: An Infograph
- Vivek Laksham’s of Reve Marketing does a solid job talking through where the world is headed with the deprecation of 3rd Party cookies
A world without third-party data: The end of personalized marketing?
While “zero party” data is an interesting approach, and we know several companies are helping collect data to support this, we also know there is a growing demand for the evolution of 1st and 2nd Party data and facilitating the collaboration of data between advertisers and publishers. This can all be facilitated through identity solutions not reliant on 3rd Party cookies like the ID graph we have built here at ALC.
- Ben Jeffries at The Drum shared some interesting thoughts on how to get customers engaged in today’s environment, you should consider live marketing
Coronavirus: what a time to be live
Positivity Press:
We can all use a little positivity in life. Here are some of the recent highlights from our internal Positivity Press that we wanted to share with everyone:
Airbnb Online Experiences: May not be able to travel, but you can still get a touch of local experiences
The Happy Arc: Now you can track the positive side of the COVID stats
Some Good News – Episode 7: Can never get enough of everyone’s friend John Krasinski
Get Help – Give Help: Everyone needs a little help these days, here’s a way to get and give help
As always, we look forward to keeping you up to speed with useful and actionable info that can help us all get through this together. Stay safe.
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