You Bet Your Brand Matters Now More Than Ever

There's no extra budget to take a flyer on a fly-by-nite, fix-things-fast product right now. There's no time for experimentation on wacky services you saw on the Instagram feed Saturday night. And there's no patience for working with a company that isn't there when you need them. And make no mistake about it, your customers will be depending on you as they reopen.

That's why ensuring that your brand rises to the occasion is more important now than it ever was. Which isn't to say that you shouldn't be yourself. After all, this isn't about faking it and presenting your company as something it's not.

That's one way of branding yourself I guess.

But it is about being authentic, being seen as a partner, being seen as being "there" for when your customers are ready to start talking again. And while campaigns and offers and promotions are great, the flight to quality that we're already seeing in other industries is related to how your brand is viewed.

We all know that brand is hard to measure--it's an intrinsic characteristic and set of qualities that all add up to the decision on whether we (as consumers) want to be associated with company A or company B. One of them is better for us, aligned with our values, who we aspire to be, or just "gets" us and understands us. That's all branding right there.

So while dashboards and metrics and tangible ROMI will be hypercritical as we all get back to work, don't forget to take a pulse check on the health of your brand. Customers won't have the luxury or time or budget of lots of options--so make sure they want to be aligned with you right out of the gate.