Accepting The Changes COVID-19 Brings to Business
In our the original post on our website we spent some time reiviewing data from an Ernst and Young research report, you can view the full dataset on our original blog but for simplicity, it stated that consumer confidence has taken a hit through COVID19. Unsuprisingly so. What it cannot clearly give a steer for every single industry and brand positioning, it does demonstrate the significant swings in consumer confidence and buying behaviour. People have touted this for a long time, and not with too much data, given this type of assumption didn’t require it. What the EY dataset shows us, just how different they may be.
This leads us to accept and plan for the fact that these changes cannot simply be taken at very surface level, we must embrace the fact that there will be changes that fundamentally affect and require our businesses to adapt to them in alignment and process.
What Matters To Our Customers?
Market segmentation and alignment is intrinsic to the success of any business. Those that do it well, understand their customer segmentation and align their value proposition to each segment effectively. This makes buying from such businesses easy because they are meeting our demands clearly. Good businesses either stumble upon this segmentation and alignment through chance or make an engaged and meaningful approach to deliver their value proposition in such a way.
COVID-19 however, is likely to change what our customers buying behaviours are. I touched on this lightly in a post aimed primarily at smaller businesses. In this post I discussed how existing qualifiers and differentiators had changed through COVID-19. Now more than ever it is important to understand these buying decisions by segment and align closely to them.
Finding out a customer’s buying profiles always seems to baffle businesses. If you want to know what your customers want, it really is as simple as just asking them. Believe it or not, most of the time they will respond with a very truthful answer.
Adapt Your Business Post COVID-19…
Adapting a business model, or go to market strategy for a segment may seem like a daunting task. There is of course, a proven process to business process redesign. After all, it in itself is simply another business process. What businesses are generally lacking is the knowledge or rationale to execute it. COVID-19 and its ramifications may just be the reason to put that project into place. Ensuring that your processes take into account the new set of buying decisions and segment requirements.
Or Another Business Might
I hate to make any post sound like it is doom filled, or cliff edge stuff. It rarely is in business and I don’t truly believe that adapting your business model post COVID-19 is any different. If there is to be a revolution in buying behaviours, and one that affects businesses. It will not be instant. It is often best to describe it as an iteration and there will be iterations to business. Those that adapt quickly will benefit from the first mover advantage and this diversified approach will deliver gains to those willing to “fast prototype” their response.