‘Box, box, push, push’

‘If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs…’ then could it be you’ve seriously misjudged the situation?

Sure, wiser men than me have offered words of wisdom on how to keep your shit together when you’re up against the wall. So what possible reassurance and comfort can this brand consultant bring you in such times of crisis?

Here’s the thing. ‘The safety car is out — box, box.’

If you’re a Formula 1 fan, you’ll maybe see where this is heading. Either way, if you’re looking for a lockdown silver lining, indulge me for a second…

In the world of F1 when there’s chaos on the track — crashes, stray goats, or just the good old British weather — out comes the safety car. All cars on the track have to stay behind the safety car — no overtaking allowed. The safety car limits speed and keeps things… well… safe, until everything’s back under control.

The safety car also levels the field. In some cases it even resets the balance. Cars begin to bunch together while they’re held at lower speeds. The driver at the front has an 11-second lead cut to mere tenths of a second. The lead team look on as their carefully planned race strategy turns into something as aimless and reactive as the final episode of ‘Lost’.

If your luck’s in, you may find yourself in the fortunate position of being close to the pit entrance. Now’s your chance to ‘box’ — duck off the track, make a pit stop — change your tyres, fix a missing wing, take a breath. You rejoin the race in better shape, with minimal loss of time or position.

Back runners and underdogs, take note — the arrival of the safety car is your gift from the proverbial gods. A window of opportunity for you to turn the tide. Who knows, you might just be on the brink of a near biblical parting of the entire F1 waves through to a podium finish. Awesome!

Right now, I reckon the safety car is most definitely out for most brands. How your brand comes through the restrictions will depend on the current shape of your drive. So let’s explore how your brand could capitalise on this free pit stop.

And let’s see just how long I can keep this F1 themed blog out of the digital gravel pit of my own making.

‘Box, box’

‘Box, box’ comes over the team radio — the driver gets called in to make a pit stop. When you find yourself in the eye of the storm, your best brand strategy is to take a breath. Use the space to take a good look at yourself — be critical, be creative, check out the competition. You’ve been blessed with an opportunity to find clarity.

Remember you are not alone. Even the brand leaders have had to put the brakes on. Now’s the time a brand can find extra traction on the corners and extra speed on those straights.

Box box! Grab this opportunity to patch your brand and fine-tune your business for when normal racing conditions resume.

Anything broken?

You’ve been gifted an unforeseen window to evaluate your brand — what’s working and what’s not:

• Brand strategy — how was it before the chaos kicked in?
• Is your strategy still relevant — short term and long term?
• Marketing goals — have you had to shift them, or maybe you should?
• Customers — have they changed their attitudes or habits?
• What do your clients think of your brand?
• Does your message still work with your brand positioning?

Find more traction

Could this be the time to double down on marketing?

Almost certainly your finance team won’t think so — they rarely agree with the opinions of marketeers even in times of stability. To be sure, it may fly in the face of every natural survival instinct. But now is not the time to cut back on marketing your brand. Now is the time to spend!

Consumer trends may stay the same or they may change. But whatever way they go, you’re marketing budget is key — to help you maintain a steady pace or to react and adapt. When it comes to keeping up with the front-runners post-chaos, history favours the brands who stick with purposeful marketing throughout.

Stopping advertising to save money is like stopping your watch to save time. Henry Ford said that.

Get on the team radio

This may seem blindingly obvious, but yes, speak with your brand team, your departments, your people. And not just those group meetings — focus on more meaningful and dedicated 1:1s.

You’ll find that 1:1 conversations throw up the biggest fears, frustrations and questions — stuff too big and scary to bring up in a group discussion. 1:1s can also spark inspired thinking and creative solutions. Make sure you arrange to have 1:1s regularly — weekly if possible, bi-weekly if you have a big team.

The answers you’re looking for will almost certainly lie within your own team. All you have to do is:

• reach out to your team for ideas and input
• take time to plan your conversations
• think about the right questions to ask
• don’t kick out the small talk

Fine-tune what’s working

Certain aspects of your brand may be working just fine. Even so, that’s not to say they wouldn’t benefit from a little more focus and fine-tuning in key areas.

Fuel your marketing

No prize for guessing that social media will play a big part in your brand marketing strategy:

• Are your pre-chaos channels still working for you?
• Are you still reaching your audience?
• Are you delivering the right content for your brand positioning?
• Is it worth diverting more resources/time/energy into one particular channel?

If your budget allows, why not try some aggressive PPC Adword campaigns? If nothing else, they’ll increase your impressions, brand awareness and site traffic.

Work with your team

And now we come to your most expensive and most valuable brand resource — your people. So if you’re not doing it already, start investing in your team! Every one of them is as vital to your brand as your equipment and systems.

Get them some training to develop skills or industry knowledge and promote best practice. Reward them with an upgrade. Find ways to boost morale. Acknowledge the value of each individual. Then watch them take ownership of the brand and become your best ambassadors. People who feel appreciated always over-deliver.

Buff up your brand

Refresh? Rebrand? Reposition? Restructure?

Did you know that most successful start-ups suffer from growing too quickly? Prioritising sales over brand strategy is a common, if understandable, mistake.

For all you young companies out there, right now is your golden opportunity to give your brand a little more love:

• revisit your brand positioning, message and narrative
• check to see if your audience has changed
• make sure your message and tone of voice still works for you

And it’s not all about start-ups. Established companies often fall into a trap of relentlessly subdividing products and services with brand extensions and sub-brands. What better time to focus on a spot of brand architecture restructuring?

Hold on to your message

You must have noticed how big brands have shifted their message and tone over the past few months. Trying to catch the Zeitgeist to corner the emerging market. All too transparent and even pitiful at times.

Simply changing your message from ‘Buy our cars’ to ‘Keep safe — buy our cars’ is desperate and reactive. And who isn’t tired of being reassured that a trusted brand is ‘with us during these difficult times’?

Beware! Just because you clock the competition emerging from the pits with a new caring voice — do not be tempted to automatically start lip-syncing.

Your brand’s narrative should be its backbone. Adjust with care! Take time to review what you’ve got.

If you still feel your message needs to change, make sure it’s because your products, your service, your audience or your brand has changed. And because you have something new and different to say — you’ve found a different racing line

If it’s working, just stick with it and drive it home. Talking of which…

‘Push, push’

Found a new strategy? Good.

Depending on what you’ve given yourself to do, you need to manage your most expensive resource, your time. Set dates for your goals, break those goals down into steps, find your racing line…

Then drive your strategy hard! Foot down, short shifting, no lifting through the bends with DRS wide open whenever the competition is in range. There will always be winners and losers.

The key is to do something now, but always with an eye to the future. Make sure your strategy works over the arc of the race. Know and accept that for every lap you do, there’s a chance of that safety car coming back out.

Take a moment

Times may be hard, but they’ve been harder. It’s easy to forget that our very existence is born out of chaos. And most of us spend our lives oblivious to the universal chaos that surrounds us.

Try taking a look at the bigger picture. We’re all just holding out on a spinning rock, a speck in the middle of an unknown universe, circling a dying star which will one day implode on itself. Suddenly life’s problems begin to pale into insignificance.

I feel it’s time for a Gumball moment:

Take care and rest easy in the knowledge that we’re all in this chaos together.