How is a brand supposed to act during a pandemic?

How can CEOs and brand owners serve their users in a meaningful way while still struggling to survive themselves?

It’s a difficult situation that requires sensitivity, listening and an open mind.

In this week's podcast, Jean-Louis and I survey the current brand landscape for examples of companies that are doing it right. From Marriott’s open display of vulnerability to Parsley Health’s implicit giving of permission and Cameo’s smartly aligned feel-good content - the answer to this dilemma is never as simple as “We’re here for you” founder letters and reduced prices.

To really serve your users, you have to read the room and know one thing: business may be slowing, but culture is accelerating.

While all of us are holed away in our homes and commerce quiets down, our norms and beliefs are silently evolving in the background.

Among other things, automation will change our relationship to work, a retreat to nostalgia will further the divide between Gen Y and Z, and a sense of self-sufficiency will change how we view our most intimate spaces.

We discuss why this may be the best time to explore daring new forms of user interaction, and how the way we perceive ourselves will be even more disconnected from the way we actually are. In that disconnect there is always a brand opportunity. 

Most importantly, we try to predict what the future may hold in a time of quarantine because, like all strategy, you can’t see your next move if you can’t envision how the world will change.

We know how hard it is to see what's around the corner right now, and this episode is about looking at the macro to find likely patterns and clues. 

You can also listen and subscribe on Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and Simplecast.

Links to interesting things mentioned in this episode:

• The Moral Meaning of the Plague (New York Times)
   

• Is This the End of Influencing as We Knew It? (Vanity Fair)
   

• Health care workers aren’t just “heroes.” We’re also scared and exposed. (Vox)
   

• What Everyone’s Getting Wrong About the Toilet Paper Shortage (Marker)
   

• ‘You have to be hypersensitive’: As the coronavirus spreads, standard PR strategies are falling flat (Glossy)

Quick programming note:

We’re dedicating this episode and the next few episodes of the show to business topics that can help us makes sense of the current pandemic climate, both in branding and in our personal lives.

We hope these discussions provide some meaning as we navigate the future together. 

Calm in the eye of the storm.

Here's what we've been consuming.

How Pandemics Change History (The New Yorker): "Epidemics are a category of disease that seem to hold up the mirror to human beings as to who we really are. They obviously have everything to do with our relationship to our mortality, to death, to our lives. They also reflect our relationships with the environment—the built environment that we create and the natural environment that responds. They show the moral relationships that we have toward each other as people, and we’re seeing that today."

For Small Creatures Such As We (Talks At Google with Sasha Sagan): "While our calendars have shifted and our climates have changed, politics and superstitions vary, somewhere in the depths of whatever you celebrate, there is very likely a kernel of some natural occurrence. We needn't resort to myths to get that spine-chilling thrill of being part of something grander than ourselves. Our vast universe provides us with enough profound and beautiful truths to live a spiritually fulfilling life."

How People Learn To Become Resilient (The New Yorker): "Resilient children had what psychologists call an “internal locus of control”: they believed that they, and not their circumstances, affected their achievements. The resilient children saw themselves as the orchestrators of their own fates. In fact, on a scale that measured locus of control, they scored more than two standard deviations away from the standardization group."

Coronavirus Will Change the World Permanently. Here’s How. (Politico): "America has long equated patriotism with the armed forces. But you can’t shoot a virus.[...] Perhaps we will finally start to understand patriotism more as cultivating the health and life of your community, rather than blowing up someone else’s community. Maybe the de-militarization of American patriotism and love of community will be one of the benefits to come out of this whole awful mess."

(OK, time to go to the bunker.)

Three principles for marketing in insane times: Velocity Partners

Hims launches group therapy services as first foray into broader mental health initiative: TechCrunch

DTC Design: Premium Mediocre, Domestic Cozy, & More: Design Driven NYC

How Cameo Turned D-List Celebs Into a Monetization Machine: Marker

Start-Ups Are Pummeled in the ‘Great Unwinding’: New York Times

We live in Zoom now: New York Times

‘Hope You’re Well’: Emailing Through a Time of Pandemic: Wired

The coronavirus is upending the direct-to-consumer calculus: Modern Retail

Strategy in the wild.

Brand news you can learn from right now.

Animal Crossing has taken over the screens of our social isolation. There are no bad guys or conflicts or pandemics to deal with - just a relaxed atmosphere where players and anthropomorphic animals can find a safe abode to unleash their creativity to build anything, even Gucci-filled wardrobes.

For adults living through the anxiety of the unknowns in the future, the game provides a much needed respite. It’s been described as “the white picket fence often associated with the American dream”, which is only becoming more elusive.

Social isolation has forced us to challenge deep seated beliefs that we have about ourselves. In my article 3 Stories We Tell Ourselves: Pain, Villains and Fuck You Money I talk about our relationship with the characters we perceive as heroes or villains, and how “our [new] heroes are an embodiment of the world we see ourselves in. Not right or wrong, but somewhere in the middle.”

Unlike Fortnite, you don’t have to kill to survive in Animal Crossing. Instead your goal is to turn an uninhabited desert into a thriving community. Our current fight is to thrive, and that’s the feeling that Animal Crossing captures beautifully.

Meme Of The Day

Have a safe and meaningful weekend, friends.

Jasmine Bina
Founder & CEO
Concept Bureau, Inc.