So now it is time to look forward. To plan for a return to more normal circumstances and to make sure businesses and brands are fit for the future.

These have been strange, difficult times – disruptive to lives and business. But there is an end in sight, at least to the full lockdown.

The Issue

The kind of seismic disruption that we have lived through has prompted us to change – behaviours, attitudes and habits.

How quickly we will revert back to the way we used to live, and which changes will stick and become a ‘new normal’ has been the subject of much recent debate.

Some argue that for most there will be a swift and complete return to the way things were. Others believe this may be the beginning of a revolution in the way we live, shop, work and act.

It’s impossible to know who is right. But it does suggest that we should start to think about how this might impact on businesses and brands…

Some Things To Consider

• What has been the impact of Covid19 on the sector(s) in which you operate? How have purchase or consumption behaviours changed? How has it impacted on the way in which your brands and products are used? How have consumer attitudes changed towards your brand and your competitors?
• What have you learned about the way in which you operate as a business over the past few months – what lessons can you take forward to help us in the future? Think about remote working, the supply chain dynamics, customer relationships, consumer marketing, social media activity..?
• If, as widely predicted, we are about to move into a global recession, what new challenges and opportunities does this raise for your business?
• What is the impact of ‘Coronaworld’ on your brand strategy and proposition – is it as valid and potent as it always has been, or does it need re-purposing? What impact should there be on brand messaging? Are there new brand stories that you should be telling?

So – What Could You Do?

In many ways this is a really good time to both think and act. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that the brands that invest during a recession are those that gain the most and build the strongest long-term franchises.

Those brands and businesses that are most prepared may be able to gain some ‘first-mover’ advantage in the immediate post-lockdown world. So, having a clear plan for the next 6-12 months, and being ready to deliver it straight away will put your business in good shape to pick up on any opportunities arising.

Thinking through the right messaging content and the most appropriate tone in which to convey these messages will also be vital – as ever, both the traditional and the social media world will be highly congested, and cutting through in a way that engages with your target audience is vital.

We believe this means you should consider doing the following;

• Bringing together your core brand or business stakeholders to spend some time evaluating how your business, market sector, customers and consumers have been impacted by Covid19 and determining the impact this will have on your next year of trading.
  A workshop session, or a more extended online forum that you can all participate within can deliver this. Consider the benefits of using an external moderator to run this – to provide guidance, to manage the agenda and to offer an objective, external perspective to open up your thinking.
• Undertaking consumer research to evaluate how your key audience(s) might be changing their perspective on your market, your competitors and your brands and products. Their world has changed, but how has this impacted on their thoughts and feelings towards your offering?
  Given the ‘captive’ nature of the lockdown, this should actually be a good time to engage your target consumers in research; online forum studies can provide a window onto their behaviours and allow them to articulate their feelings, wants and needs, delivering the kind of ‘real time’ insight that should be valuable in enabling you to plan how best to meet their evolving requirements.
• Re-evaluating your brand and communications strategy – identify any changes that need to be made to your brand story in order to set out what you need to say, how you need to say it, and where/when it needs to be said. Preparing the materials and outputs that you will require so that you are in a position to act as soon as the time is right to do so.

The Role For The Brand Nursery

We are experts in helping brand and business owners to navigate a clear path through tricky strategic planning issues, and in delivering the brand outputs that enable them to most effectively tell their brand stories.

We have considerable experience of shaping, moderating and reporting on workshop sessions, and we have the capability and expertise to run workshops remotely either in ‘real time’ or via a proven online platform that offers greater flexibility.

We are also well practised in running online research – both quantitative and qualitative – that also uses proven methodologies to deliver valuable consumer insight.

We are really good at brand story-telling too – at finding the best way to bring your brand messaging to life in an interesting, impactful and engaging way.

So, if you want to ensure that you are fit for the future (that will come!) then contact us and we’ll begin a conversation about how best to shape the way forward.

Shopping & eating during lockdown. We’ve all been experiencing dramatic changes to our daily lives over the past few months, and we’re all finding our own, differing ways to cope. But what has been the overall impact on UK food shopping behaviour, and how is it affecting the way we plan and eat our meals? What has really changed, and will the changes last..?

The Brand Nursery has conducted online research amongst a sample of 100 shoppers from across the UK. Some of what we’ve discovered will no doubt echo what you might have experienced, or expected. Other findings may surprise you.

Here are some of the key insights from that study:

1.–Shopping behaviour has changed, but the stores we use are largely the same

Our attitudes towards and experience of shopping is clearly very different under lockdown – 97% of shoppers are planning more carefully when to shop, and 89% say they are thinking more about what to shop for. 61% say they are using a list when they shop, and almost all find that shopping is taking longer, with queueing to get into the store becoming a new norm.

Unsurprisingly, the vast majority (74%) say they are finding shopping to be more stressful during lockdown.

However, the stores (both supermarkets and local specialist food stores) that are being used show appear to be largely unchanged – only the Co-Op showed any significant increase in penetration, probably due to its proliferation of stores within the heartland of local communities. Grocery sales figures across the supermarket estate have clearly increased during this period, so the number of visits, and the amount we are buying from stores have increased.

Respondents were also overwhelmingly positive about the way in which their supermarkets have coped during this period – over 90% of people agreed that “supermarkets have done really well to keep feeding people during this crisis”.

So, in the longer term, this crisis may not have any real impact on the pattern of where we shop.

2. Hanging onto familiar home comforts

Life may have changed, but many of us are trying as hard as possible to maintain as much normality as possible. Familiar ‘comfort’ foods were cited by a number of respondents as being the things they sought out and were enjoying most – no surprise too that with trips to pubs, bars and clubs now off the agenda that alcohol sales are up and in-home consumption of booze is increasing, as are crisps, chocolate and biscuits

The simple pleasure of a roast dinner on a Sunday was also mentioned plenty of times – another key anchor point in this disrupted new world – and barbecues featuring a good old British banger were also on the agenda for many.

Does this signal a brake on the demand for new cuisines and taste experiences as we re-discover, or place greater value, on what we know we like?