Produce companies should not back off marketing or advertising efforts now.
That was one theme gleaned from a conversation I had about a week ago with Gary Stibel, founder and CEO of the New England Consulting Group, a marketing and management consulting firm.
A 30-year veteran of management consulting, Stibel said the current crisis is the “worst time” to back off marketing efforts.
He recalled the mid-1970s “Pepsi Challenge” advertising campaign that sought to elevate Pepsi as the consumer’s choice in cola taste tests.
At the time, Coke was a client of a firm that Stibel was a part of. Coke decided to fight. The result was that the entire category grew dramatically even though the Coke share declined slightly, he said.
Royal Crown Cola, then a soft drink with a higher consumer profile than it enjoys today, decided to pass on entering the cola wars fray. Stibel said that fateful decision was terrible for the brand.
Fast forward to today, and Stibel said the current COVID-19 crisis climate is “the worst time in the world for any processor, farmer or marketer to step away from the plate.” If they do, they may well lose their market share , he said.
“There are too many competitors that are actively engaged in creating new demands and new values for their (product),” he said. “Executing the old strategy or pivoting to a slightly different strategy is not going to work.”
The adage that a “crisis is a terrible thing to waste” has truth, he said.
“If you let it get the better of you, this is a very difficult road,” he said. There is no category, he said, that should not be reevaluating its marketing efforts.
Looking at best and worst-case scenarios of the COVID-19 crisis, Stibel said “war game” analysis develops models so to help clients prepare for what might happen but cannot be predicted with any accuracy today.
“The closest (outbreak) we’ve had to this in our lifetimes has been SARS in Hong Kong,” he said, noting that Hong Kong experienced a second wave of SARS that was more extreme than the first.
“We can learn by analog modeling, or what has happened before that is most similar to what is likely to happen in the current event,” he said.
Marketing changes
Stibel said business to business marketing has been interrupted by the fact that it has been impossible to call on customers in person.
Hosting a web seminar to help their customers could be one among many options for business to business marketers, he said.
Business to consumer marketing is a lesser challenge, he said, as there are many digital messaging options since consumers are watching television and listening to radio in big numbers.
What is more, food marketers have huge opportunities to connect with their audience because consumers are “spending more time in the kitchen during the last two months than they have in the past two years.”
Consumers need help with recipes, reading code dates and storing food.
“We’re spending more time with clients successfully helping consumers prepare foods and store foods than we have in years,” he said. “Consumers need help and it is a new need state that our clients are satisfying.”
Stibel makes an effective point that waiting for the pandemic to be over is the weakest marketing approach possible, akin to sitting out the cola wars.
The Packer’s Fresh Talk Updates
