2020/21 has been brutal around the world, across age groups, throughout every industry. It has been a season that has left no one untouched but we have all been affected in unique ways. As one person commented, we may all be in the same storm but we aren’t all in the same boat. Each boat has had a different capacity to cope and adapt. Marketing seeks to empathise with the target audience for each brand but now we are being asked to go beyond that to compassion.
What’s the difference? Compassion is the broader of the two words: it refers to both an understanding of another’s pain and the desire to somehow mitigate that pain. It asks us to take cognisance of the trauma around us and the fragility of the person we are communicating with. It asks us to do more than say we understand how they feel and do something about it as well.
Compassion came up as one of four things people want more of from brands in the latest Hubspot research*. When you apply this, it doesn’t mean you need to increase your donations budget, it means thinking through every touch point with your prospects and customers and asking how you can do it with more understanding and make their day better for the interaction.
After the civil unrest, we saw a number of South Africans step up through their businesses. Whilst many of them gave financially and donated products, they also promoted messages of encouragement and hope. They commended the resilient spirit of our citizens, thanked us for protecting them and they committed to rebuilding, investing. They highlighted all that can be achieved when we unite as a country. These brands built a huge amount of goodwill and trust with their prospects and customers by bringing light in a dark time.
In contrast, some of the brands missed out and now, possibly, may lose out because of how they responded or lack thereof. One of the major retailers was completely silent for well over a week during and after the unrest and, when they did return to the public forum, made no reference to. It was as if it never happened. However, they cut their hours without communicating, they had empty shelves and so, nurses and other essential workers arrived ‘after hours’ or couldn’t find what they needed and so went without. The social media post of another large brand was completely tone deaf. They ignored the very community they seek to serve by bestowing accolades to the wrong group of people. This upset the very community who had protected them through the riots and are the ones that regularly purchase from them. In both instances, the brands came across as being insensitive, unsympathetic…lacking in compassion.
So how do you do compassion?
- Review all your prospect and customer focused material: reread or rewatch it in light of recent events. How can you be more empathetic? What needs to be changed or removed?
- Consider world and local events: what conversations do you need to join or step back from? If we aren’t aware of what is impacting our prospects and customers, we can’t adjust for it. Just as we ask “How are you?” at the beginning of most conversations so we can adjust what you say thereafter, we need to keep a gauge on what our prospects and customers are aware of and set their minds at ease, or encourage them, when we can.
- Have a plan in place that allows leadership to suspend all the scheduled marketing communications at short notice: Ill-timed messages can be seen as being hugely insensitive. Have a plan in place so that if a crisis hits, new messages can be created.
- Is it clear? In a world of confusion, clarity can be a gift. Refining your messages so they are easy to understand can be really helpful to your audience. Clear is kind.
Compassion isn’t a place we arrive, it’s a touchstone we keep coming back to. It’s a word to carry with you in your mind’s eye when you review new marketing material. Compassion is how marketing can make a change in the lives of others for the better.
*Hubspot Talkwalker 2021 Social Media Trends