Strategy
23 Sep 2020

Don’t waste a good crisis

Don’t waste a good crisis

The ongoing crisis has likely led to a number of changes in your market, partly driven by the disease itself, partly by the ensuing economic changes as a result of it. Some of these changes are more short-lived than others in that they occur as a result of quick adaptations needed to be made, whereas others will probably last long-term.

 

In many ways, the COVID-19 crisis has only pushed forward developments that were essentially inevitable to happen in a few years, maybe most importantly the drive towards digitalisation and that only strong companies will flourish.

Therefore you should be defining and developing what a strong company is and how you can become one. This will not only help you to recover faster in this and future crises, but it will most of all ensure that you will reach higher profitability during good times.

After all, you did not come this far to only come this far, right?

So how can you do this you might ask? What should you focus on?

Brand distinctiveness to drive digital success

In a digital landscape, it is not enough to be known. You need to be distinct in order to stand out and get noticed and many companies are lagging here. The risk that new competitors take market share by taking advantage of the power of digital marketing is closing in on more and more companies. If you are not sure about how you should balance performance and content marketing today, you are in a risky position.

Brand position to drive growth

Few companies have carefully thought about how their brand position could be a true driver of volume and price premium. The risk is that you invest in a brand that does not get you closer to your EBITDA goals. Finding that position with the objective to streamline marketing and sales activities to increase your competitive edge is imperative.

Brand thought leadership to drive interest

An increasing problem with many companies is that they are starting to be perceived as being boring. Bland brands that don't stand for much and don't have a story does not excite and even if you feel that your company does not offer the most exciting of products or services, telling your story in the right way could do wonders for attracting buyers. Ask yourself, if your company was a guest at a dinner party, would people want to sit next to you?

If you are in doubt, please meet us in Brand X. We have gathered a set of experts that would love to find the story of your brand and together discover how to tell your story in a way that will motivate employees, make the board proud and customers want to be part of your world.

 

The Brand X journey is a great opportunity to get a current state analysis of your business on your journey to create a competitive advantage and achieving commercial success. Through the Brand X programme, our team of independent experts will advise you both on quick fixes and long-term development. Then we gather with all participating companies to get inspiration for turning strategy and purpose into action. We define a concrete marketing strategy that aligns your commercial actions towards success, and yes, in a way which helps you in practice communicate the value of your services with a heart to your customers, to support them in achieving their goals. Be mission-critical and join our purposeful Brand X journey.

 

About the author

Erik Modig is the Brand X programme director and assistant professor at the Department of Marketing and Strategy at Stockholm School of Economics. His research focuses on market communication and how our knowledge of customer psychology can increase the effectiveness of marketing communication as well as the delivered value to the customer. Erik is an experienced teacher and has years of experience from working with global brands on how marketing and market communication could have an impact on business results. His latest book Bang for the buck won the price Marketing Book of the Year in 2017. 

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Erik Modig
Speaker, author and researcher

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