How To Optimize Your Marketing Strategy During Unprecedented Events

It’s no secret that the most effective marketing is strategic, but what happens when your strategy gets a wrench thrown in it? For example, a global pandemic with significant consumer and economic ramifications. In our years of experience, our team of experts at Sun Graphics Media have learned that the best marketing is not just strategic but intuitive to its consumer’s needs, and those needs often change rapidly. So, how do you optimize your marketing strategy to meet those consumer needs during unprecedented events?

LISTEN TO YOUR CONSUMER AND PROVIDE A SOLUTION TO THEIR EVOLVING NEEDS

The biggest mistake you can make is to continue business as usual - your marketing strategy as usual - without acknowledging or considering a change in what your customer is experiencing and needing. At the core of each consumer is the desire to have needs identified, acknowledged, and met.

A little research can help you find out:

• What your consumer base is talking about
• What words they use to describe their needs and feelings
• What they are searching for
• How you can enter that conversation and provide a solution

BE SINCERE IN YOUR MESSAGE

Even if you do your research, know what your customer needs, and know how to meet that need, if your messaging is insincere or insensitive, it could be all in vain. In a crisis, people crave human connection and sincerity, so humanize your message and work to make them feel understood.

At SGM, we are inspired to see how innovative local businesses are, specifically how they have not just overcome significant hurdles but given back during the recent global pandemic. Torke Coffee is no exception...

Torke Coffee: Repurposing Product and Giving Back

If you want inspiration for sincere messaging, look no further than Torke Family Coffee Roasters in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. It was no surprise that this philanthropic, family-owned and operated business turned a pandemic into an opportunity to give back to their community. Equally impressive was their intuitiveness to their community and consumer’s needs, and their quick response.

When an order for two thousand pounds of freshly roasted coffee was canceled due to the pandemic, Torke President, Jay Torke, and his family acted quickly to not waste an opportunity. They decided to repurpose the coffee by donating it to healthcare workers on the frontlines in their local hospitals. The blend was fittingly named the “Stay Home Roast”.

But it didn’t stop there, remember what we said about being intuitive to your customers’ needs by staying in tune with the customer base you serve? Torke took this to a whole new level by immersing themselves in the community and leveraging their understanding of the communities to give back. While donating her time in a local foodbank, Heather Torke, wife of Jay Torke, learned many food banks have to purchase most of their salable goods and immediately took action to help. Within a couple of days, the Stay Home Roast was extended to a consumer-packaged goods, and for each unit sold, Torke donated $1 to a local food bank.

When company president, Jay Torke, was asked what inspired their intuitive response, he said: “ultimately, we were inspired to give back to our loyal customers who were always there to support us during prosperous times.”

We believe that Torke’s success during these unprecedented times is due to their intentionality in staying connected to their consumer base, their sincere messaging that is aligned with their company values, and their agility in responding quickly.

Are you looking for more inspiration for ingenuity during these unprecedented times? Check out the work our print division Franzen Graphics has been doing to meet the needs of healthcare workers during these times.