Lockdown has started to ease and businesses are stepping up their communication and promotion. It is a tough world that they are reopening into. People are concerned about shopping because of the possible circulation of the virus and also because many are facing reduced incomes and redundancy. Over the weekend I become very aware of many of the PR, comms and advertising campaigns that have appeared to support business reopening and thought there needs to be more.
The main message from what I have seen is along the lines of being glad to be back, welcoming others back and pleased to be reopening. I understand why that is. We have never experienced anything like lockdown before and businesses have been waiting to come back. They want to create a bond of trust and confidence to encourage people to go out and about.
But after seeing it for the 10th time it made me more than a little bored and disinterested with the latest business that was glad to be back. There had to be more that could be said that would distinguish the return of business X from that of business Y. I was craving some authentic communication that highlighted the differences and made it much more personal.
This next few weeks is an opportunity for businesses to build a strong recovery if they can understand the views of people they are connecting with, recognise the difficulties that they had faced and will continue to face, and speak with honesty and authenticity. It is time that they will not have again so needs to be used wisely.
Re-establishing a strong brand and position is vital as there is an uncertain future with the possibility of local lockdowns stopping businesses in their tracks. Recovery, as I always say, is going to take as long as it needs to. What I mean is that you can’t rush to recovery which is always a challenge when businesses need to keep money coming in to stay afloat. The balance has to be between moving with customers and service users rather than too far ahead of them. Re-establishing quickly may be flimsy and lack the solid foundation for the future.
I hope to see some more creativity and personality come through the campaigns and activities in the coming weeks.
If you would like a copy of my Recovery Communication Readiness Assessment guide email me amanda@amandacolemancomms.co.uk
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