“Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room. A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.”
Jeff Bezos, Amazon

 Andrew Keen, Creative Director and Partner, White Label

COVID-19 has most certainly brought the social impact of businesses to the forefront and forced business leaders to question and review the nature of their organisation, its social impact, its character and its brand(s).

Questions that will confront us as we move into ‘the new normal’ will be focused around human and business resilience, as well as purpose. Is your business still relevant to our new reality? Why does your company exist? How does it contribute to societal, economic and environmental progress? Is your supply chain secure and ethical? How is the relationship between your business and customers changing?

This is your opportunity. Not only do business owners now need to draw on everything they’ve learned in order to survive and thrive in a post-pandemic world, but they need to learn new skills from lessons never before taught.

Here are our top tips for business leaders to enable their brands to pivot, survive and hopefully thrive (again).

1. Think like a startup

Some industry sectors have taken a huge knock through the pandemic, with some still not able to return in any capacity. Along with the new way of living, working and socialising, businesses have had to think more like a challenger brand or a startup. At White Label, with the loss of our events, sector-specific conferences and international exhibitions early in the pandemic, we had to revert our thinking back to when the company started. Where is the need? How can we adapt our offering to suit the new normal?

2. Reinvent your brand

A key lesson we’ve taken from this crisis is that we can change things really fast when we have to. Just look at how many companies have pivoted assets, capabilities and priorities to innovate, contribute and survive.

3. Find your purpose

Purpose was already rising in importance for a lot of businesses as they begun to acknowledge their social responsibility, but now it matters more than ever. The pandemic is testing our humanity and our values, both as individuals and as businesses. COVID-19 has touched all of us and, although it has affected everyone differently, it has pulled us all together and given us a common purpose – to survive. It is therefore impossible for companies to ignore the question of purpose and social impact. What can your company do to support this collective need to survive?

4. Prioritise collaboration

Brands need to think about ways in which non-traditional partnerships might help them counter the ongoing challenges. Businesses need to be exploring whether it makes sense for them to align their brands with others, even past competitors. We are all in this together and our priorities as businesses must be to survive for the sake of our employees at the very least, and collaborations can help companies to evolve and develop, even as the work available might decrease.

5. Dust off the vision and values

Brands have always sought to be relevant to users, but now brands are being forced to consider where they sit within their consumer’s new reality, as well as their employees’. A brand’s purpose will only be relevant if it sits within people’s own purpose, and not the other way around. If you’re not sure what direction to head in, let your customers and employees help lead the way.

Take your organisation’s values off the wall and, asking your employees for input, re-evaluate their relevance, update them and use them for guidance every day. One positive from the pandemic is it has allowed businesses to get off the proverbial treadmill, reassess what’s important and forge a new direction. The shift to virtual has been accelerated and the new focus will be purpose-led.

6. Find metrics that matter

Make a plan and plot the pathway to achieving it, identifying the best way to measure effectiveness along the way. A vision that cannot be measured, cannot be achieved.

7. Love your employees

How well you treat your employees is paramount. Make that your number one concern. It is probably shaping your brand more than you realise. Afterall, loyalty breeds loyalty and like all healthy relationships, respect, trust, honesty, kindness and consideration must be at the heart of your brand and the way you run your organisation. Your company’s success is rooted in your employees and the more your employees believe in your brand and your purpose, the stronger and more successful your brand becomes.

8. Listen, observe and react

Listen hard, watch carefully. Focus on trends and business insights and become an expert in detecting signals, what they mean for your business, and how you can respond at speed. Crisis drives innovation and we are in for a ferocious era of innovation so it’s important you are open to adapting your offering and overcoming the challenges this ‘new normal’ will throw at us.

It has been a challenging 12 months for the White Label team, but we have concentrated on what we do best; making things happen (against the odds), evolving and innovating, not being afraid of re-evaluating our purpose, and adapting and strengthening our offer to ensure our survival. We have done all of this while staying true to our brand values and embracing change. We have made mistakes along the way and learned from them but our greatest assets – our people and our brand – have ensured our survival and gotten us this far.