With how Coronavirus has altered lives across the globe, it is an essential step for companies to understand the most important aspects behind how your customers are thinking, feeling, and behaving from a qualitative and quantitative perspective. Understanding what’s going on with them, how they’re behaving and finding out what their driving factors and motivators are to cause them to behave or act a certain way is crucial. To say customer behavior has changed, would be a colossal understatement. Behaviors will never go back to “normal” and that is why it is important to understand how things are shifting.
Things Changed Radically and so Should Your Strategy
There will always be the few companies caught with a marketing plan mapped out in advance and who are unwilling to put in the work and adjust. Yet it is so important right now to take a pause, think, and fine-tune plans to fit with the current climate, and keep track of the new attitudes that will emerge. Companies that have not acknowledged the current situation are going to be seen as non-responsive. Now you have a bad image of a brand in mind, that you may have previously loved or admired. Customers who follow or like a brand that didn’t behave how they expected them to at this time, whether through a bad response or no response at all, will consider switching to a different company or competitor.
Shift with Data
It is key for a lot of businesses to be adaptable and agile to survive in this environment. Most businesses are shifting at such a rapid rate but to be able to know how to pivot your business, sufficient market research is needed.
Online Focus Groups and One-on-One Private Discussions are a great way to have your customers talk about how their habits have changed and or stayed the same during this time. Most are open to explaining how they want to interact with a certain company now and in the future especially if they’ve done business in the past and they need something else right now. Being able to shift your brand’s message in a way where it feels more sensitive, sincere, and relevant is a great way to be more responsive to your customers.
Turning the Negative to Positive
An economic downturn can also mean opportunity. There are companies right now who are thriving and that are in increased demand. A perfect example is Zoom, which is now being used virtually by most educational school systems and companies. However, it’s not just the big multinational organizations, there’s a lot of local businesses as well thinking – what can we do differently? How can we help? There are small local businesses trying to connect with the community to help them out during this time.
It is interesting to say that new problems bring new opportunities, and the people and companies who provide the biggest solutions will surpass any storm that comes their way. Even if your company has been hit by this crisis, there is always an opportunity to pivot your message and business model to appeal to a new audience or adjust to the same audience who now has different buying habits. It’s all about change based on data. Companies need to make shifts that reflect where people are at in these uncertain times, and how to provide solutions and comfort. Create a strategy that is going to thrive now and in the future with market research.
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