Marketers can help the world win corona-fight

With one of the deadliest and fast spreading viruses the Covid-19 still getting powerful after three months of its appearance and death toll crossing over 197,297 globally, many people are desperately
‘looking up to the skies for help.’ All the influential groups and communities—notably governments—are trying their hardest with little success globally in controlling the virus. While there aren’t perhaps any magic ways to contain or fight the virus, businesses—particularly their marketing departments—can be very successful agents in this fight against the ‘hidden enemy’ as Mr. Trump named it.

Marketers are thought to be a culprit behind several wrongs in the society including manipulating people to buy into their arguments. Many people are quick to point out that big corporations have the power to influence people’s behaviors. There are loads of allegations that argue that marketers manipulate people and persuade people to buy things they don’t need by creating needs that don’t exist. I endorse this point of view to the extent that marketing function of companies as whole has the power to influence people to adopt certain behaviors and quit others; and this article bases its argument on this.

Following are the reasons to believe that marketers can help the world to stop the disease from rapid spread and adverse effects on the populations around the globe.

Access to the right media

Almost all contemporary businesses have either their in-house marketing departments or they hire other separate businesses called the “creative agency” to look after their marketing function wholly or partly. Further, they have contracts signed with powerful and frequently accessed media channels. This can be helpful in designing and conveying the right message to the public. Mercedes Benz’ poster ad given in the picture is an example of how companies can disseminate right information without incurring marginal costs, because they have the necessary expertise and channels.

Knowledge of peoples’ behavior

To influence people’s behavior, it is quite essential to first know how they behave. Companies have detailed knowledge of customer behavior, and customer touchpoints and bottlenecks more than any other agency or government because of their extensive market research. Companies like Google, its subsidiary YouTube, and Facebook are the prominent examples of companies with useful customer information and access to billions of people online. These companies along with Twitter cosigned an agreement to fight online misinformation and spread the right information among publics to aware them about the hazards, symptoms, and prevention from the epidemic.

It is a different argument though that misinformation is so much so that there still is plenty of it despite these companies’ efforts to eradicate it.

Financial and human resources

With several companies’ individual revenues equaling countries’ GDPs, big corporations and small businesses have the right resources necessary to fight any crisis. Companies spend large sums on their advertising annually, these funds can be channeled to provide for the medication and prevention of the virus. In Europe, Ferrari was one of the first companies to donate €10 million to help Italy fight Coronavirus pandemic in the beginning of March. This was a marketing decision as it was intended to boast company image and stakeholder relations. The charismatic owner and CEO of Tesla Motors in USA announced that their workers could stay home if they were afraid of corona or felt any symptoms. He further ensured that they would get paid time off (PTO) for up to 60 hours during the outbreak.

Conclusion

Businesses are one of the most affected stakeholders in the situation of crisis of any kind, but they can also be one of the most helpful agents in getting the world through the crisis. Past experience suggests that the companies with more effective marketing have survived crisis and fared better in troubled times. So, marketers should better sharpen their axes and roll their sleeves to prove to the world that their jobs are meaningful and positive rather than manipulative ones. World should also expect better from this sect of the society.