We here at Emerging Marketing continue to flex and adjust to our clients’ daily needs in this market, and prepare for the coming boom as an organization ourselves.
Several practices have surfaced as helpful to keep things steady. Our own strategic internal communications (ICOM) to associates and to current clients and stakeholders offers transparent insights into our business, continuing the dialogue in a way that makes everyone feel invested. And, we’ve seen this as a business tool for our clients as well. Here are a few insights from our recent work that has focused more on ICOM, change management and the organizational behavior in our client organizations:
- Keep morale up with constant communication and celebration of the little accomplishments. Because we all tend to be reactionary creatures, the more factual messaging that you can put out to your teams and to your company, the more the associates will operate with fact instead of fiction. An uptick in this practice means that your teams will be better brand ambassadors. They will feel a shared accountability in your success and utilize the tools that roll out. Likewise, in a time that management teams are looking hard at costs and processes, associates need to spend more time and strategic thought on the executive communication opportunities that they have, and use them to prove their merit.
- Now is the right time to think hard about prioritization. Many companies that have laid off workers are asking the remaining staff to do more with less. This can create short-term efficiencies and be the right thing to do from a corporate standpoint, no doubt, but as department heads, our clients are seeing success when they proactively manage the priorities. Therefore, it’s important to put a significant focus on your company’s organizational behavior. If adjustments need to be made, make them quickly and with certainty so that there is no confusion. Mixed signals achieve mixed results.
- Be counter-intuitive. Things that didn’t work in the past will now. Other ideas that weren’t practical before now are. You have a greater chance of differentiating and capturing mind-space right now when there is generally less clutter in the market, and when the audiences are looking for new ideas. More innovative thinking comes in a downturn than in an upswing. But, act fast. It’s true that total recovery will take a while, but we believe that many of the postponed marketing decisions will begin to come online by the second half of this year.
- Elevate your department or role. Take this time to build alliances in other lines of business, departments and associations. Those who truly partnered and helped each other through the turbulence will be the ones who are held in higher regard and promoted in the next uptick. Prepare for the coming boom by helping those around you and practice strong organizational communication tactics.
- Take risks and don’t worry so much about what other people will think. We saw a campaign recently in the hospitality sector that focused all around the recession, but in a new way. {Expletive} the Recession is the theme for Morgan Hotel Groups’ campaign. We found it intriguing to read many of the responses posted online were somewhat negative, claiming that it’s inappropriate. Many of these posts were from laid off workers who took offense. Our response is that at least the Group is engaging a future-forward approach by getting out there and doing something. Hopefully it will build business and they will re-hire all of those offended workers. The internal and change management implications are touchy but more importantly for now: will this resonate with the audience? We think it may. It’s a trusted and loyal fan base, looking for an excuse to shed “recession chic” and get back to the attitude and travel that makes them happy. Even if they do not respond immediately due to their own economic changes, Morgan may be top of their mind when they are ready to blow off steam and relax on the other side of the recovery.
