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Edelman estimated that the countries where consumers based their purchasing decisions on brand responses to the contingency were China, India, Brazil and South Korea.
The health contingency has so far been one of the biggest challenges in the market and advertising and branding guidelines have had to be adjusted.
Today, brands that know how to communicate manage to position their products.
Andrea Davila, Senior Regional Manager for Brands and Content at Mars Wrigley, shared with Merca2.0 a series of recommendations, based on the experience that the brand has had during this health contingency.
Do not forget that you can perfect your strategies with the great offer in managerial and diploma programs of the Marketing School, so that your results are successful and efficient, especially when communicating and achieving empathic brands with the needs and concerns of the consumer during this health contingency.
Merca2.0 – Betting on the moments after the pandemic, how do you know when a brand should bet on its communication?
Andrea Dávila – The pandemic brought important challenges for all organizations, starting with the health of associates and ensuring business continuity, resource management and decision-making, to improvements in their supply chains and product innovation .
It is precisely in these moments of uncertainty where companies must show robust internal communication campaigns for their associates, as well as clear external communication with their consumers, telling stories that inspire them and give them a hopeful smile for the times we live in.
After staying home for more than a year, we know that people long for close connections with friends and family and look for reasons to smile again. For example, at Mars Wrigley with all the brands in our portfolio we aim to create better moments that make the world smile.
Merca2.0 – Advertising has a unique creative value, how to manage ideas in contingency?
AD – When a brand is real and committed in each of its communications, it places its employees and consumers at the center of its growth purposes and business objectives, it can better manage the ideas and strategies to continue growing despite the Current situation.
In this campaign that we are promoting, we have intentionally used a message to represent the near future, and we hope that when consumers see the ad, they will feel hope and excitement about going out again without fear. We find that this idea can be expressed through a fun and sincere advertising, which helps us tell an inspiring story aligned with the purpose of our company, creating better moments that make people smile, especially now in times of pandemic.
Merca2.0 – The health contingency changed the way brands communicate, what creative resources have been canceled?
AD – The pandemic came to transform the way we communicate the world around us. Before, brands highlighted the benefits of their products in different creative ways and very few invested in inclusion issues, social issues or engagement with their consumers. Today is different. Brands that did not adapt their messages to the current event were the most affected and lost consumers.
Instead, the companies that adapted these creative resources remained, because they were able to transform the way they perceived the world and began to tell stories, more humane and responsible for their consumers. The pandemic came to drive advertising strategies focused on the social and sensitivity to the current event, showing the qualities of the companies, the real benefits of their products and the true relationship with their consumers.
Merca2.0 – How do you consider inclusion in advertising, I know that this is not a campaign with this axis, but after the contingency it seems that now the inclusion issue has changed, do you agree with it and what has been modified?
At Mars, diversity and inclusion are a fundamental part of our corporate principles, including in our internal and external communication materials. Although, the focus of the Orbit® campaign is not inclusion, if there are elements within the commercial that reinforce inclusion and diversity, for example, the campaign shows people of different nationalities, sexual orientation, ages, etc.
As a company, we believe that our brands can make a difference in the world, and that this is good for business too. Our vision of our marketing is to be inclusive. At Mars we are convinced that the world we want tomorrow begins with the way we do business today, therefore the marketing of our brands must be as diverse as the world in which they are enjoyed.
We were founding members of the Unstereotype Alliance in 2017 and I am very proud that this year we became founding members of the Mexico Chapter, where I personally participate. As we progress on this journey, the support and exchange of learning and best practices between companies has been and continues to be invaluable.
We believe that more inclusion and diversity actions should be included within the communication, marketing and advertising channels. It is time for companies to begin to transform their messages and adapt their speeches to today’s world without losing their essence as a brand. This will not only help them stay close to their consumers, but they will also be visible to new customers. But not only that, we also work so that there is more diversity and equity in the teams that generate communication, that is, directors, creative men and women, etc.
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