This pandemic could revolutionize your brand

We’re sitting in our homes. Isolated. Wondering how this unprecedented era will play out. Will we be thrown into recession? Will our brands retreat and retrench hoping we can make it through the long slog ahead?

I’ve been through downturns in ’91, ’01, and ’08. I’ve seen the majority of brands all do the same thing. Hunker down and try to eke out anything that resembles success. And be happy with the meager results. Getting back to breaking even suddenly seems like a big win.

Pay attention to what happened last time

An interesting thing happens amid the wreckage of the markets. People have this tendency to get back to fundamental human stuff.

’08 was the biggest of the downturns I mentioned. The Great Recession. It was out of this darkest of times that something game-changing happened. A movement toward purpose-based branding started to really gain momentum.

Maybe it was because an older under-saved and over-spending generation saw their retirement hopes vanish. Maybe it was because a younger generation saw themselves being handed a mess that they were expected to help clean up. Maybe it was because people just woke up to the emptiness of the hyper-consumerism.