For the last couple of years, every sector has been shaped at every level by the economic crisis that’s gripped the planet. It’s required big, difficult decisions on both the business and consumer sides, and caused tangible shifts, which brands have to understand and grapple with now.

Expectations

“It’s really economy related for us. When resources are stretched, your expectations for the product you’re buying are higher,” says Caitlin Ramsdale, Managing Director of Kid and Coe. “People need their resources to stretch further, and we have customers to us out of fear.”

This view is backed up by Katie Brinsmead-Stockham, Hospitality Brand Strategist and WePioneer specialist, who adds: “People are in this state where they really need a brand to deliver something for them… People have saved their cash. Everybody has put a lot of emotional weight on what that experience is going to deliver for them.”

Balancing the tough decisions

As resources are stretched for consumers, things are similar difficult on the brand side. Cuts have had to be made for businesses to protect their premiums, or even to survive, but those cuts can’t happen in vacuums.

Whether reducing quality of cogs in the process, number of staff or portion sizes, the quality of services and products is often collateral when such choices are made — potentially leaving brands vulnerable if done wrong.

Human-centric thinking

Decisions have to be taken with consideration of a brand’s purpose. To reduce quality, service level, generosity, or anything else when those are core selling points of the brand is simply self-defeating. Those choices must be made with the customer firmly in mind, and far too often they are not. Loyalty is taken as a given, not something that is earned and requires real work to sustain.

Such missteps can be catastrophic for brands, particularly in situations like this one, when they need their people more than ever. The global economic crisis has put a strain on relationships between humans and the brands in their lives. There are difficult calls to make for businesses. But as customers’ anxieties and expectations have risen, how many of those leaders can honestly say that they have risen to those challenges?

It’s a difficult line to walk, but far from an impossible one.

Read ‘Human Connection: The Beating Heart of Resilient Brands’ for more.