By Chandana Agarwal The pandemic has got us to re-evaluate many things — people, beliefs, priorities, the causes we support, definition of success, political beliefs, strength of human relationships, cultures of companies and so on…It got me thinking about how we judge people, is it basis of the intent of any action? Has it changed? And what about brands — what do we expect from brands with empathy? How do they talk? What do they do differently? Will they be expected to redefine purpose? Let us see an example.
Take two people in senior management — one of them, say manager A, almost stops daily work, shuns meetings and is constantly on the helpline trying to amass resources for the affected employees and their families.
Her energy is amazing, the whole system is energised, she rolls up her sleeves and is monitoring the work, using all the management principles of allocation of work, being proactive, keeping efforts updated, encouraging the volunteers and standing like a rock for people affected.
There is absolutely no question that as a leader, this person has empathy and her intent and impact of action is felt by everyone.
Now, let’s look at manager B.
She realizes that these are tough times not just for the agency but for the clients as well.
Their supply and demand has slowed down, their people have been affected.
The content they had created for IPL may not see the light of day and owing to the tough situation, they may not have any more marketing budgets for the year.
They do not want to reduce agency fees but to justify that they do want the agency to be standing with them, thinking of what they can do to motivate the trade, to reassure their employees of their support and to keep the brand current in the consumers’ mind.
She decides to give it her all and starts working overtime through her illness, taking on the work of colleagues or nursing the family that is unwell, she has no bandwidth for volunteering because she believes that being part of the leadership team, she should and will save every team members’ job.
There is evidence to suggest that people are more focused on their basic needs now.
Therefore, health and safety are the top concerns and job security also comes in the top three.
From that perspective, manager B is empathetic and purposeful too.
Let us extend the argument to company cultures and see how they treat their partners.
One client called me and said, “I know we are all going through stress.
I have told my team to go easy on timelines.
If you still face an issue, let me know, we will work around it.” The other called and said, “This is the opportunity for us to be seen as a sensitive brand.
Let’s try and get content out right now.” After all, the relevance of such work is heightened when it is done in the moment.
The earlier me would have been quick to judge them, the new me sees it differently.
I see that they are both being supportive in ways that they know best — one is trying to give relief in the immediate, the other is making sure that the position of the agency is strengthened in their system and the agency is better poised to win additional business.
Simon Sinek has been saying this for the longest time in the context of brands.
He has been asking us to start with “why” and then arrive at “what”.
Let the golden circle define the reason you exist, he says.
Increasingly this will find greater relevance than ever before in the “never normal”.
Experts are predicting that patterns of consumption and purpose are going to be very different when we re-emerge.
Accenture says companies and brands will do good to replace consumer insight departments with human insights.
And instead of measuring the number of people taking an action, it would do good to understand the context in which they are doing so and why they are doing so.
Whether we want to or not, the reality is that our expectations from people, brands and companies have gone through a reset.
As we grapple to come to terms with the changing situation and our growing anxieties, the question no longer is whether the consumers find the brand proposition relevant but whether the brand is making the consumers feel relevant about what they think, how they feel, what they say and what they do.
(The author is President, 82.5 Communications, North, The Ogilvy Group)
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