Brandgym research paper #13 on Working with virtual teams to keep your brand fit.

1. COVID CRISIS:
IMPACT
ON BRAND
STRATEGYEMBRACING VIRTUAL WORKING
TO KEEP BRANDS FIT
BRANDGYM RESEARCH PAPER No.13

2. About the research
This year our annual research project explores the impact of the
Covid-19 crisis on brand strategy. The crisis is an unprecedented
shock in terms of severity, suddenness, media hysteria, duration
and globality. 80%+ of UK people admit that “daily life has been
turned upside down” since lockdown started.
Much research has been published about how this crisis has caused
companies to cut marketing investment. Our own study shows
that 70% of companies have cut marketing spend, 1/2 of these
significantly, to protect profit and in some cases fight for survival.
But what about the fundamental foundation of brand strategy?
Has investment in brand strategy work suffered the same cuts?
We started by assessing the importance of maintaining brand
strategy work to be in good shape post-crisis and which specific
aspects of strategy were most critical, including needs for new
consumer insight. We then explored if, as with marketing investment,
companies have indeed cut back on brand strategy work.
We then looked at how the process of brand strategy has been
impacted by lockdowns and social distancing. Specifically, we wanted
to understand how many companies are running virtual brand
workshops and how effective these are.
The research used a quantitative survey of 100+ senior marketing
professionals across the globe covering different sectors. We also
did in-depth interviews with marketing directors to get first-hand
experiences. Findings are further brought to life with examples from
our own brandgym work on virtual brand strategy projects. We also
surveyed 400 UK consumers to get new data on switching of buying
habits during lockdown, and satisfaction with these changes.
Contents
1 Need: brand
strategy more
critical than ever
2 Challenge: brand
strategy in a socially
distanced world
3 Solution: fully
embrace virtual
brand strategy
3-point action plan
1 Assess your brand fitness for now and the future: use existing and new insight work
to explore changes in consumer attitudes and behaviours and help find the right balance
of freshness and consistency, both in terms of brand positioning and core business offer.
And start working now to make your brand as ‘recession-proof’ as possible.
2 Maintain or enhance your brand strategy program: resist requests to cut back on
brand strategy work owing to a short-term tactical focus or worries about online
collaboration. If anything, see this period as an opportunity to sharpen and bring
your brand strategy to life.
3 Fully embrace virtual projects: re-invent brand strategy projects for a socially
distanced world, using smart design and facilitation to maintain quality of
output and team engagement, along with online insight programs.
Peloton’s
virtual fitness business
is perfectly set up for a
socially distanced world.
Their business has seen
66% increase during the
Covid crisis vs. gyms whose
business has stalled with an
uncertain future.

3. BRAND
STRATEGY
MORE
CRITICAL
THAN EVER
NEED:
11

4. IMPACT ON BRAND STRATEGY
Brand strategy more important than ever
The seismic shock of Covid-19 requires urgent short-term tactical responses.
At the same time, 97% agree it’s important to keep working on brand strategy
to be in good shape post-crisis.
Refresh the fundamentals…
Strategic priority one is growing the core, with 67% rating this very
important, 4x more than brand stretching (see graph below). Radical change
may be needed for the 36% of companies in our survey suffering significant
or potentially fatal declines, such as travel businesses. Uber, for example,
is “re-focusing on its core ride-hailing and food delivery businesses.”
For the 22% lucky enough to see business growth, the challenge is responding
to increased demand. Online card and gifting brand Moonpig.com,
for example, has quickly updated its core product offer, with new ‘Stay at
Home’ cards already 10% of sales, and changed its 24hr delivery promise
to 5-7 days, to manage supply chain issues.
Brand positioning is also a fundamental strategic priority, including reviewing
the role of social mission. Now is a good time to ensure your positioning is
razor sharp (see Uniqlo example). The challenge here is balancing freshness
and consistency, which will vary by category:
• Consistency: attributes and brand properties which made the brand
famous and remain relevant.
• Freshness: changes in positioning to reflect ‘the new normal’.
…and drive efficiency
The crisis also requires teams to drive efficiency and maximise return on
often reduced budgets:
• Portfolio strategy: focusing on brands and products with best return;
culling ‘dwarf’ products/brands that drain resources and distract
from the core.
• Net revenue management: optimising product/price to
communicate value for money and protect profit e.g. Smaller-sized
versions for those struggling with cash availability and larger sizes
offering good value per unit.
3
Uniqlo
sharpened its positioning
to survive Japan’s great
recession: from a discount
retailer to an innovator in
high-quality clothing at
reasonable prices.
Coronavirus provides
companies with a
‘strategic time-out’
to do things they
should have done
but couldn’t
because there was
too much going on.
Mark Ritson,
Marketing Week
“
Importance to keep
working on brand strategy
Brand
stretch
Importanceforbrandfitness
post-crisis
Portfolio
strategy
Net revenue
mgt
Social
mission
Brand
positioning
Growing
the core
15%
43% 44% 46% 50%
67%
Core Growth and Positioning Most Important
working on brand strategy
Very
important
61%
Important
36%
Not
important
3%
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
IMPORTANT
VERY
IMPORTANT

5. IMPACT ON BRAND STRATEGY
Consumer insight is key...
Almost 90% recognize a need for consumer insight to keep up with
significant consumer changes, with 50% needing completely new insight
work. We suggest exploring three areas: HOW = behaviours; WHY = values
and needs; VALUE = price and promotion vs. quality.
Changes in behaviour: HOW
The instant and radical changes in buying behaviour provoked by the Covid-19
crisis are unprecedented:
• Extras: buying more of a product or service, without replacing something
else (e.g. home and personal hygiene products).
• Switches: switching to another service where the ‘tap’ of supply has
suddenly been turned off (e.g. switching from dining out to ordering more
take-away food). 34% of people UK consumers have switched like this
across four categories in our new study (below).
But how will these new behaviours adjust once lockdowns are lifted?
We are creatures of habit, giving hope of a sharp ‘snap-back’ in demand,
as happened with air travel a year after the 9/11 attacks frightened people
off flying. However, new habits form after 66 days on average (UCL) and
lockdown has lasted longer than this. So, might some switches persist?
This depends partly on satisfaction with the switches made, we suggest, a
topic we explored in a separate study of 400 UK consumers:
• Higher chance of snap-back - Gyms: 25% have switched to online fitness,
with 16% satisfied but 9% dissatisfied (net +7). Pubs/restaurants have
similar levels of net satisfaction, but more switching, to in-home drinking/
take-aways. This suggests lots of people are waiting for a chance to go
back to the gym or pub! The challenge will be meeting hygiene and social
distancing requirements without cutting capacity below profitable levels.
• Lower chance of snap-back– Cinema: 40% have switched to online
movies with most satisfied, helped by early online release of big movies
and cost savings. The challenge here is selling experiential benefits to get
people off their sofas and visiting again.
4
The ‘new normal’ is
likely to significantly
impact how people
shop, cook and
consume food.
We are looking at
changes to our
innovation, channel
and communication
strategies.
Global Marketing Director
“
Changes in behaviour: HOW
No real
change
Moderate: fine-tune
current insights
Significant: new
insight needed
11%
38%
50%
Consumer changes drive need for new insight
Effectofcrisison
consumers
Gym=>
Online
fitness
Pub=>
Drinking
at home
AVGE 4Restaurant=>
Take-aways
Cinema=>
Online
movies
16%
22% 22%
36%
24%
9%
14% 12%
4%
10%
+7 +8 +10 +32 +14
Cinema switchers are most satisfied
%switchingand
satisfaction
34%switching
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
DISSATISFIED
SWITCHERS
SATISFIED
SWITCHERS

6. IMPACT ON BRAND STRATEGY
Values and needs = WHY
The second area to explore is deeper, more fundamental human needs
from brands, with three dimensions being hotly debated:
• Personal enjoyment vs. Societal good: “All future brand activity will
need to benefit society, and not only the individual,” claims a recent
Forbes article.
• Adventure vs. Safety: will holiday makers be emotionally scarred
by Covid-19, and prioritise safety over adventure, for example?
• Novelty and newness vs. Trust and familiarity: will recent strong
growth in tried and trusted food brands continue, in contrast to
previous losses to smaller ‘insurgent’ brands (See Times article on left).
Here, brands need to avoid ‘knee-jerk’ changes and find the right balance
of freshness and consistency. Mainstream consumer values were largely
unchanged in April 2020 vs. July 2018 in a study by Reach Solutions; needs
for conformity and tradition were slightly higher, as you might expect. This
suggests that whilst HOW we consume products and services may change
significantly, WHY we consume brands will change more slowly. We’ll still
buy Volvos for safety, but also VW Golf GTIs for speed and fun!
Price and promotion vs. quality: VALUE
One thing everyone agrees on is that all brands needs to prepare for
a severe post-Covid recession. Already, 60% of people are being more
careful with online spending, versus only 12% spending more online,
in a UK study by Mapp.com
The recession may require a fine-tuning of brand positioning, as was
the case with work we did with Sainsbury’s after the financial crash
in the late 2000’s. The brand idea evolved from being focused on
experimentation, “Try something new today”, to more of balance
between enjoying life and saving money: “Live Well for Less”.
This inspired business building initiatives such as ‘Feed your family
for a fiver’ and Brand Match, which gave a coupon on check out
if your shopping was more expensive that other supermarkets.
Smart marketers are also working on price, promotion and
product offer. “Is it better to offer more everyday low prices versus
the volatility of deep promotions?” asked Bird’s Eye UK’s general
manager Steve Challouma in a Marketing Week interview.
“That’s something we’ll work on over the next couple of months
with customers.”
5
ACTION POINT
Assess your brand’s fitness for now and the future: use existing and new insight work to explore
changes in consumer attitudes and behaviours and help find the right balance of freshness and
consistency, both in terms of brand positioning and core business offer. And start working now
to make your brand as ‘recession-proof’ as possible.
the brandgym helped
Sainsbury’s upate their
positioning in the 2008
financial crisis, from “Try
something new today” to
“Live Well for Less”, to tap
into evolving customer
needs that balanced
enjoyment and value

7. 222BRAND
STRATEGY
IN A SOCIALLY
DISTANCED
WORLD
CHALLENGE:

8. Strategy work stopped by some…
Although 97% agree its important to maintain brand strategy during
this crisis, as we saw earlier, almost 1/3 of companies have stopped/
paused some (22%) or all (9%) of their brand strategy work.
“Our brand planning usually starts in April but is on hold till August,”
commented one respondent. Whilst this proportion cutting strategy
work is lower vs. those cutting marketing spend, this still means many
companies risk compromising the future fitness of their brands.
We recommend following the example of the companies continuing
brand strategy work as planned, or even using this time as an
opportunity to start new work. “We’re using this time for a deep
re-think about brand strategy and what we stand for in a post-Covid
world,” commented one marketing director.
IMPACT ON BRAND STRATEGY7
…with social distancing a challenge
Some cutbacks in brand strategy reflect prioritisation of tactical
initiatives to protect short term sales. Whilst we appreciate the pressure
brand leaders are under, unless the business is in danger of extinction
(only 2% of our survey), this does seem short sighted.
Cuts also reflect concerns about the ability to do quality brand
strategy work in a socially distanced world, where teams can’t
physically collaborate, based on survey verbatims and 1-on-1 interviews.
Here, smart process design and expert facilitation can go a long way to
addressing these concerns, as we’ll see in the final section.
We were midway
through a full brand
strategy review when
lockdown happened:
we put on hold a
planned workshop
due to social
distancing
Marketing Director,
Charity Sector
“
…with social distancing a challenge
Stopped/
paused ALL
Stopped/
paused SOME
As Planned Started
NEW work
9%
22%
43%
25%
ACTION POINT
Maintain or enhance your brand strategy program: avoid the temptation to cut brand strategy work
and focus on short-terms tactics only. This period is an opportunity to sharpen and bring to life your
brand strategy. And don’t let social distancing get in the way of brand strategy projects.
31% have stopped or paused brand strategy work
Approachtobrandstrategyprojects
50%
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%

9. 333FULLY
EMBRACE
VIRTUAL
WORKING
SOLUTION:

10. Online brand fitness programs
The Covid crisis has triggered a sharp increase in demand for online
fitness as people seek to stay in shape at home. Google searches for
online fitness programs are up +400% and the stock price of smart
exercise bike brand Peloton is up 95%. Our study shows a similar online
transformation is well underway for brand strategy work.
The increase in online qual/quant research (below) probably represents
late adopters catching up, given that research has been moving online
for a while; the same goes for marketing training. Our own brandgym
projects, for example, use a ‘curated’ collection of online insight tools,
such as mobile ethnography and AI-enabled cultural analysis. More
significant, in our view, is the move of collaboration online, with 41%
doing virtual brand strategy workshops.
Virtual workshops can work
Virtual brand workshops are 70-80% as effective as face-to-face for
48% of respondents and equally effective for 14%. Virtual workshop
benefits mentioned include savings in travel cost/time and carbon
emissions. However, a minority do rate them as poor, with challenges
including engagement, collaboration and creativity (see quote on left).
An approach to address these challenges is suggested on the next page.
A fully virtual brandgym
approach enabled Pladis to
maintain an urgent brand
revitalisation project under
social distancing. Insight
fuel included quick online
quant and AI-enabled
cultural analysis.
A virtual workshop created
3 promising positioning
routes and a series of
innovation concepts,
all visualised overnight.
IMPACT ON BRAND STRATEGY9
Virtual sessions work
for information sharing,
but are challenging for
anything creative.
A bit of the energy is
lacking. When physically
present you can ‘riff’ off
each other more.
Marketing Director
“
ACTION POINT
Fully embrace virtual working: ‘do a Peloton’ and re-invent brand strategy projects for a
socially distanced world by, using smart design and facilitation to deliver quality of output and
team engagement.
Virtual workshops can work
Marketing
training
Qual
research
Brand
workshops
Quant
research
53%
44% 41% 32%
Significant shift from face-to-face to virtual
Changedface-2-face=>
virtualsincecrisis
Poor/
Very poor
OK Very good:
70-80% of
face-to-face
Excellent:
same as
face-to-face
14% 14%
24%
48%
Virtual brand strategy workshops can be effective
Effectivenessofvirtualvs.
face-to-faceworkshops
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%

11. Designing virtual brand strategy projects
Based on the findings from our research, and experience from multiple brandgym projects, we summarise
below an approach to create effective virtual brand strategy projects, especially in terms of designing and
facilitating virtual workshops that work.
Recent clients for virtual brand strategy projects
IMPACT ON BRAND STRATEGY10
31%
6%
below an approach to create effective virtual brand strategy projects, especially in terms of designing and
INSPIRATIO
N
andvisualisati
on
Livecrafting
Virtual breakout
teams using
bespoke templates
COLLABORATION
M
a
nage
‘airtime’
a
nd
useonline
voting
PA
RTICIPATION
E
N
GAGEMENT
M
ake
presentations
shortand
visual
EFFICIENCY
Pre-reads and
pre-work to reduce
online time
EFFICIENCY
frequentbreaks
and
Shortersession
s,
onlineenergis
ers
ENERGY
VIRTUAL
BRAND
WORKSHOPS
SMART PROCESS DESIGN
EXPERT FACILITATION
ONLINE
INSIGHT
FUEL
REMOTE
‘DREAMWORKS’
CREATIVES
‘LIVE’
CONSUMER
FEEDBACK
FAST
ONLINE
EVALUATION

12. Conclusions
TEAMS NEED TO ‘DO A PELOTON’,
DESIGNING VIRTUAL BRAND
STRATEGY PROJECTS TO ENSURE
THEIR BRANDS ARE FIT FOR THE
‘NEW NORMAL’
• It’s no time to cut back on brand strategy: maintaining or even expanding
brand strategy work is critical for brand and business fitness, now and
post-crisis when a sharp recession will follow.
• Refresh your fundamentals: brand positioning and growing the core
are central foundations of marketing effectiveness, with the balance of
freshness vs. consistency depending on your brand situation and category.
• Keep insight up to date: assess how consumer attitudes (why) and habits
(how) are changing, and which of these changes are likely to have a
short-term vs. long-term effect.
• Brand strategy programs are going online: the crisis has accelerated
the move of brand workshops and insight online, enabling brand strategy
work to continue in a socially distanced world.
• Virtual workshops can work: online workshops need smart design and
facilitation in order to maintain quality of outputs, keep teams engaged
and encourage creativity.

13. About the brandgym
the brandgym’s global team of senior brand coaches has extensive
experience of helping marketing leaders design and deliver effective
virtual brand strategy projects, including many since the Covid-19
crisis started.
Books
8 books on brand-led growth and a Top 10 European branding blog.
www.thebrandgym.com
Core Services
Prasad Narasinham
prasad@thebrandgym.com
Simon Gore
simon@thebrandgym.com
Anne Charbonneau
anne@thebrandgym.com
David Taylor
david@thebrandgym.com
Diego Kerner
diego@thebrandgym.com
Jon Goldstone
jon@thebrandgym.com
David Nichols
davidn@thebrandgym.com
Bety Martinez
bety@thebrandgym.com
Remona Duquesne
remona@thebrandgym.com
CONTACT
ANNE CHARBONNEAU
Global Managing Partner
anne@thebrandgym.com
M: +31(0) 611 64 3407
www.linkedin.com/in/annecharbonneau
www.thebrandgym.com