The Marketing Life: COVID-19 Edition
Supplies for Success in the Home Classroom
August 13, 2020
Unsung Heroes: Customer Service Representatives
November 5, 2020
READ TIME: 3-5 Min(s)
You’re invited for an exclusive interview with the Guernsey marketing team. Sally and I will be sharing our thoughts and experiences living through the COVID-19 era and how we’ve adapted to these unprecedented times from a personal and marketing standpoint. Let’s get started!
Ethan
When the ball dropped in Times Square to kick off the year 2020, everything felt so promising. Maybe it was the bright lights and confetti talking to me, but I had a good feeling that this year was going to be special. Starting off a whole new decade, my New Year’s resolutions were ambitious. Well, ambitious to myself at least. I planned to get to bed earlier, hit the gym more often, start picking my camera again and venture on travels overseas. (Fun fact: I have not been on the airplane since I was six, so you could tell how excited I was.) However, as most of you know – nothing went according to plan due to the coronavirus pandemic.
I, like many of you, did not expect 2020 to be the year of hand sanitizers, masks and social distancing. The local grocery stores were emptied out as people started to hoard essential supplies. I mean c’mon now, who needs that much toilet paper? The regular bottle of Purell hand sanitizer on my work desk now had a renowned value to it. Everyday basic household items were in high demand while the supply chain was strained. Also, going outside was shunned upon. Staying home was the new norm and Netflix became my new friend. I felt like I was living in one of those zombie apocalypse movies where the world was coming to an end.
While many things came to a stop, Guernsey did not. Fear and anxiety loomed upon at the end of February and no one had any idea what was going to happen next. Although I’ve only been working for a couple of years, I’ve never experienced something like this. If no one was willing to buy products and services, how will the economy survive? Will this be the downfall of small and local companies? Is my job at risk?
With all these unanswered questions, the global response came slowly in bits and pieces. For us, the switch never went off. Our company had found new ways to connect with customers and continuously be the source for all workplace needs – this time with new bucket of products. I may be a little bit bias, but our organization did an outstanding job and still continues to move forward which involved all facets of the company to work in unison. The strategies our marketing team had planned out for the year had to be reevaluated, focusing our attention to what really mattered and the end-user’s current needs. The last couple months have been hectic but an eye-opening experience indeed. It made me realized a lot of small things I took granted for in my daily life. It also made me appreciate my job more in what I do. I realized Marketing work will always change, as to many things in life. And that’s what I love about my profession, I’m always up for the challenge. Together we can overcome these times and come out stronger on the other side!
Alright, that’s enough Ethan stop talking. Now, let’s pass the baton to Sally.
Sally
I was so ready for 2020 and knew it was going to be a great year. It was the start of a new decade and I was ready to invest in my fitness and health, pick up new hobbies, and do other nice things for myself (I know… cliché). At work, I had new campaigns planned and other ideas I wanted to bring to life. All was well until March hit. I’m sure you can guess what I’m talking about… Yup. COVID-19. These past few months have been such unprecedented times and we’re still going through it five months later, that I want to share my experiences as a Marketing Coordinator for an essential business during a pandemic. While my personal life came to a halt during this pandemic due to quarantine, my life as a Marketing Coordinator ran business as usual… No lagging behind as an essential business!
Back in March, it felt like everything escalated within a few days and everyone went into panic mode. I was seeing the panic at my local grocery stores with toilet paper, hand sanitizers, and disinfectant wipes suddenly being out of stock. And I was seeing the same nervousness in our Guernsey customers who were looking for the same products, only to find them out of stock with no estimated delivery times. It was from this moment when I began to feel the intensity of the virus and our Marketing Department’s priorities had to shift and our Marketing practices had to reflect that change. Consumer behavior was rapidly changing, and we had to meet the current demands.
Since March, we’ve been constantly modifying our marketing plans to meet and improve our customers’ needs while getting more creative to promote health & safety and PPE products. But, one thing I’ve learned these couple months is the power of getting the right message to the right person at the right time. Although delivering the right message to our prospects and customers is important, making sure we’re doing it at the right time has a bigger impact. Our consumers’ demands were quickly shifting these past months, and creating and promoting the right message and content at the right time and was where the most opportunity lied. We always have to stay relevant. As you can imagine, our Marketing plans and projects we had planned for this year looks completely different now than it did at the beginning of the year. But I’ve enjoyed responding to the world as it changes. No one projects are the same in Marketing, and that’s the best part… my job changes with the seasons.
If you’re a fellow marketing geek and you’ve made it this far in the post, let us know how your past couple months have been. We’d love to hear it! And… this wouldn’t be a post written by Marketing without a little bit of company promotion. (; Let Guernsey help you prepare your facility for reopening and implement proper policies and procedures to keep your employees safe. Check out our page on Reopening the Workplace and let’s plan together!
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