Can marketing change to cope with COVID-19?

Since March 2020, things have changed drastically. We don’t shop anymore as we were used to do. We don’t travel anymore as we were used to do. We don’t go to the pub as we were used to do. Sometimes I wonder if we will never go back at “what it was” or if this is our new reality and we will get used to it as any other time we have lived some drastic changes in life.

I had the opportunity to visit Spain, Italy and Greece in the last few months and it is unsettling how all these countries are acting differently from each other when shopping and leisure time is concerned. And all different from here.

Some are more careful regarding the mandatory face masks, temperature measurement when entering shops, the mandatory use of hand sanitisers, restrict numbers of customers at the time. Some others are less strict with rules, maybe because they had fewer cases during these months.

No matter what are the rules, what I noticed is that people are dividing into two distinct categories: those who are living worried about the disease for them and their families – maybe because they are in contact with categories at risk or have suffered some loss, and those who are living like the disease doesn’t exist, doesn’t concern them, it is someone else’s problem.

Tailoring marketing to different views of COVID-19?

So, what I am wondering is if, from a pure marketing and business perspective, this specific distinction needs to be taken into account in the future when businesses develop their new campaigns, their new adverts, refurbish their retail stores?

We marketeers generally segment the population according to specific characteristics such as age, gender income, personal interests, and so on. Once we have identified specific groups of potential customers, we “target” them with dedicated messages through advertisement, social media, the launch of new products, store settings, etc.

Making health a priority

Is health now becoming a new commodity, a new aspect to insert in companies’ customer services package? Do we need to consider health as a new layer to add to our segmentation process as something consumers will consider fundamental to enter our shops and trade with our brand?

Do we need to start incorporating specific health measures in our brand offers as something that a specific group of customers is looking for, as for free return policies and click and collect? Or would it all disappear soon like it never happened, like it was all a bubble?

Maybe what KFC did recently when it dropped its famous “Finger Lickin’ Good” slogan is the dawn of a new era.