Post-covid-19 push and pull marketing trends to grow your business

The decline in marketing budgets 2020

Besides affecting people’s livelihoods and daily lives, COVID-19 how businesses approach has also involved their marketing initiatives. According to WARC’s June 2020 Global Ad Trends report, global advertising budgets in all industries have been slashed by 8.1% compared to 2019 for the rest of the year.

Industries affected by lockdown restrictions include travel and tourism by -31.2%, entertainment at -28.7%, financial services at 18.2%, retail at 15.2% and automotive at 11.4%.

Businesses have been laying low to protect themselves in case of an economic rescission and are fighting to survive. However, the best-case scenario suggested is not to pull the plug entirely on advertising budgets and to continue building on brand awareness. This way, businesses will maintain momentum for when the economy recovers and consumers start spending again.

Since the demand for click-and-collect options, online pre-booking shopping slots, seamless delivery, and better customer service options have increased during the lockdown, brands have spent the last few years investing in their website, app, or new technologies are now seeing the payoff during the pandemic.

Customers are also cautious with their spending habits and have become aware of when a business is trying to push product sales on them, even before the pandemic. As a result, some standardised brand communications, such as surveys and purchase reminders, were generally not appreciated.

Consumers want to feel security and positivity from businesses, especially during COVID-19. The pandemic is an opportunity to build trust and engagement in helpful ways.

The difference between push and pull marketing

There are two ways to approach a customer – through either push or pull marketing tactics. In push marketing, products are promoted by pushing them onto people; strategies include displaying discounted products on a shelf at the store. However, the objective of pull marketing tactics includes establishing a loyal following and attracting consumers to the products through developing trust.

Back to basics

WARC’s latest Global Ad Trends report (June 2020) states that brands choosing to implement a marketing plan during the COVID-19 pandemic are shifting away from push marketing tactics and developing pull marketing strategies to build trust with their audience by being helpful during this difficult time.

Chief Marketing Officer at Mastercard, Raja Rajamannar, believes that COVID-19 is crucial to developing brand trust. He quoted: “This is a time of need, and if you are not friends with consumers at this point, they will not talk to you later. Brands must build trust during this time. Brands are trusted, validated or invalidated during the time of crisis.”

Creativity and flexibility

Successful brands continuously look at innovative ways to improve their business operations and make fast decisions. As a result, marketing teams need to be proactive and stay ahead by embracing new challenges.

Some examples of proactive businesses in the retail industry include the British grocery store Sainsbury’s. A few years before the pandemic, the company began investing in upgrading its mobile app and e-commerce experience. Pre-COVID-19, sales from the app and e-commerce platform contributed about 8% of sales, where now sales have doubled to around 15% in just a few weeks.

Businesses that have not been able to adapt to changes in consumer behaviour experienced a significant loss during the pandemic. UK retailer Primark, which did not have an online presence, had its sales plummet from £650 million a month to zero after the lockdown before being forced to close.

As a result, brands need to understand how their customers have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic to better position themselves for crisis response and recovery.