With fewer face-to-face interactions with customers, your start-up should have a strong brand-building strategy, now more than ever. Create yours through these steps.

“New normal” has emerged as a buzzword lately, given the drastic changes the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to people’s lives. For the business sector, it’s largely focused on going online. This isn’t only in terms of employee management or team collaboration, making chat apps, and virtual meeting rooms buzzing all day long. The digital-first mode applies to brand-building strategy, and for a good reason.

With quarantine measures set in motion all over the world, it’s highly unlikely to have face-to-face interactions with audiences. The irony is in a crisis like this, it’s all the more important to stay in touch with your market. Otherwise, you lose an opportunity to be of service and, in a way, fail to make your brand felt. When people look back at this fragile moment in history and check what you did, it will be disappointing to not find anything there.

That said, it’s crucial to create a unique brand voice content for your business, which not only benefits you, but more so your audience.

What is Brand Building?

Simply put, this entails making your brand known to the world. It’s about increasing awareness about your products and services. This is a crucial business move in laying down the foundations of a reputable image, especially when you’re a start-up.

The process typically involves three phases: creation, characterization, and communication. A business without a content marketing strategy is one that is not successful. These principles of brand building are effective whether or not there’s a crisis at hand. Follow this guide in increasing awareness in order to be relevant to the times and relatable to the changing market.

Brand Creation:

Step 1: Know your customers.

One of the simplest yet critical branding tips you should remember is understanding your audience. To appeal to them, you need to know what captures their interest, what makes them tick, or what keeps them up at night. Ideally, you need to have a detailed profile of each of the customers you have. Aside from the usual demographics, dive into their psychographics, personality, life values, lifestyles, and the like.

This strategy is especially important now since consumers are very concerned and anxious. When you’re able to hit those psychographic points later in the last stage of the brand strategy, you would be able to make your brand stick.

Step 2: Go back to your core philosophy.

Your vision and mission statements will determine how you grow operations internally and how to create a brand identity that resonates with your audience. In this regard, ask yourself these two questions:

• Why does your start-up exist?
• What do you aspire it to be?

Again, the answer to these questions will influence how you communicate in the last stage of your brand-building strategy.

Take, for example, the automotive company Ford. According to their company profile, their aspiration is to become the world’s most trusted company. This vision influences not just their services, but also how they communicate during the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, they announced a credit support program that will extend financial assistance to those affected by the pandemic.

Remember this simple principle: revisit your core business philosophy and let it guide you in shaping your brand strategy.

Step 3: Determine what sets you apart from your competitors.

What makes your business unique from the rest of the industry players? Is it the quality of your clothing, the youthful vibe of your designs? Starting a brand of clothing begins with these value propositions. List them down one by one. Remind yourself of these crucial ingredients to make sure that they’re reflected in your communications later.

Take time to find out what makes your brand stand out as a start-up. This may be the very thing people would hold onto in a time of crisis.

Brand Characterization:

Step 4: Use visual elements.

Once you gather the building blocks of your brand identity, you can now proceed to making these abstract concepts more concrete.

The second step in how to build an online brand is by translating those customer interests, business philosophy, and value propositions into visual representations. This is a characterization or the actual construction of your brand identity. With this step, you’ll be easily recognizable.

Below are the basic visual elements you should have:

• Logo. Give your start-up a visual representation; the simpler, the better. Consider Nike’s Swoosh or McDonald’s Golden Arches. They’re quite memorable partly because of their simplicity.
• Typography. Select a font that best represents your brand. Think about the kind of persona you want to project. Are you professional or quirky, young or seasoned? These personalities will guide you in choosing between light or bold strokes, or geometric forms or brushed curves in typefaces, ultimately contributing to building your brand’s image.

• Color. One good way to choose the right colors for your brand is to use psychology. Colors signal different perceptions and moods. Blue, the preferred hue of many tech companies, symbolizes trust, security, and logic. Red, commonly seen in fast food restaurants, represents energy and excitement.

What do you want your market to feel when they think about your brand? Match that emotion with a color.

All these elements should be tied together and form one cohesive brand identity. Do note that these evolve through time. For instance, in this era of staying indoors, some brands are making social-distancing logos. These helps keep companies in people’s minds, while informing the public of important quarantine measures. Follow the same effective brand strategy examples.

Step 5: Make your brand human.

Aside from visual elements aiding in brand recall, you have to make a persona for your start-up. People engage with people, not with cold, faceless, intimidating companies. If you want to attract audiences, you need to humanize your brand. Below are some aspects to consider to make this happen:

Personality. If your brand were a human being, what character would it have? Is it like Hallmark or Disney, sincere and sentimental? Or, is it like Google and Microsoft, trustworthy and competent? Perhaps it’s Apple, who’s very sophisticated and sleek. Imagine your brand as a person and determine its personality.

• With personality in mind, your brand will have a unique voice when talking to customers. You can be authoritative, friendly, or quirky in your messaging later. Follow best practices and industry standards in creating a unique brand voice for your content.

Developing a brand entails having these two elements well-reflected in your communications later. Even in times of crisis, it’s important to be consistent to your brand personality and voice.

Consider Dollar Shave Club, which is known for its blunt and sarcastic persona. They recently posted the most outlandish thing they did since the quarantine started and asked Facebook fans to share theirs. The message is relevant to the times yet still aligned to their “human brand”.

Brand Communications:

Step 6: Maximize the right platforms.

This is the last of the stages of brand building. Exposure is now the focus. The general principle is that the more exposure, the better. However, it’s important to note that you don’t want to be out there just for the sake of being out there. Every appearance should count. Besides, you don’t have unlimited resources to be present everywhere, all the time.

The truth is it’s not about being on every online channel just to achieve more exposure. By picking the right platforms and being consistent in your presence there, you’ll get the right exposure. Below are some key reminders in using online channels:

• Get cues from your market. Where do they loiter? Where do they go online to get information about you? With the stay-at-home policy today, people have turned online to be informed, educated, and entertained. Part of a good branding strategy is to be on the same platforms they’re on.
• Understand the basics. As a general principle, you should be present on two platforms: your website and on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn). This will help you catch the people searching for you on Google and, at the same time, talk to them in real-time.

Step 7: Aim for relevance.

Aside from online channels, what you want to focus on in communications is your messaging. For sure, you’ve heard all the things your content should have: clarity, completeness, conciseness, and more. And if there’s one thing that you should never forget, it’s relevance.

The brand strategy framework starts with your understanding of customers, their demographics and psychographics. Let this guide you in the last stage of brand building. Incorporate your consumers’ interests and concerns in your content. Ziploc has been doing a great job on this. Knowing that a lot more people are working from home now with the stay-at-home policy, they give tips about quick-and-easy meal preparations.

A brand-building strategy is crucial, especially if you’re a start-up, and necessary when there’s a crisis.

More than being remembered, you want to take part in addressing the needs of your customers during such a sensitive time. With branding strategies done right, your customers would know that you have the right solutions.

We’ve all likely stayed later at work when we’ve been super busy or had to catch up on work, however sadly, in recent years, long working days and taking work home has become the norm for many employees. Not only is this causing employees to miss out on enjoying the pleasures of life and spending quality time with family and friends, it might not be worth the hassle.

On average, in South Africa, workers work some of the longest work weeks at around 2,209 hours a year. 18.1% of workers worked very long work weeks of 50 hours or more, which is significantly more than the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) average of 13%.

Last year, Microsoft trialled a four-day work week, resulting in a 40% boost in productivity, suggesting that perhaps it isn’t necessary for employees to be putting their life and soul into their job when the same amount of work can be done in a considerably shorter amount of time. Productivity can be enhanced through industry software, such as accounting and invoicing software for small businesses, which can help financial and accounting professionals to evolve business productivity. Some businesses may discover that the path to increasing productivity isn’t working hard but working smart.

Here, we’ll look at different countries’ overtime and compare it to how well a company’s economy is performing to see if there’s a correlation. Will it be more favourable to work overtime in certain countries based on the hours they work a week?

The countries that works the most

From the data, as mentioned before, South Africa’s work week is the longest at 2,209 hours a year. Considering the overtime workers are putting in, their economy is worth $349.4 billion, the 10^th smallest of the countries analysed. South Africans have been hailed as some of the hardest working across the world, with research reporting they are three times more likely to work a 60-hour work week than their American counterparts, despite labour laws forbidding being asked to work over 45 hours a week. However, South Africa’s economy has experienced an upward trend over the last ten years — is this boost from the hard-working nation, and would it be significantly worse off without overtime?

Mexico worked the second longest work week (2,148) with 28.7% working 50 hours or more; third came Costa Rica (2,121) however data wasn’t available for the percentage of employees working 50 hours or more. Fourth was Korea (1,993) at 25.2%, and fifth was Russia (1,972) with 0.1%.

Mexico’s economy is worth $1.27 trillion, Costa Rica $57.06 billion, Korea $1.63 trillion, and Russia $1.64 trillion. Although Costa Rica’s GDP is relatively small in comparison to other countries, it is a small but stable country which wouldn’t generate trillions of dollars. In June of 2018, South Koreans were forced to cut down on the hours they were working to introduce a better work-life balance and help boost the falling birth rate. With so many more Koreans previously working 50 hours or more a week than other countries, the GDP doesn’t outrank many others.

The country that works the least

Germany works the fewest hours per week at 1,362 a year, with 4.3% of the population working 50 hours or more. Considering a significantly lower work week than other countries, Germany’s economy is the third largest at $3.86 trillion. At the start of 2018, millions of Germans won the right to reduce their work week to 28-hours to help them achieve a good work life balance and spend more time with their loved ones and doing things they enjoy. It seems that countries don’t need to work long hours to get more work done — Germany has been recognised as one of the most productive countries with a booming economy despite a cut in hours, striking the ideal work life balance while being 27% more productive than the UK.

The second country to work the fewest hours was Denmark (1,392) with 2.3% working 50 hours or more. Third was Norway (1,416) with 2.9%, fourth was Netherlands (1,433) at 0.4%, and fifth was Iceland (1,469) at a higher 15.1%.

Iceland has the smallest economy at $23.91 billion, followed by Finland at $251.9 billion, Denmark at $324.9 billion, and the Netherlands at $902.36 billion. A 2017 report found that Norway is one of the most productive countries despite having one of the shortest working weeks.

Lead researcher of Expert Market, Adelle Kehoe, said: “Our data has shown, both this year and last year when we first ran the study, that there is a definite correlation between a shorter working week and productivity.

“Countries that have shorter working weeks in general are more productive, whereas countries which have a culture of presenteeism and long desk hours actually get less out of their teams.”

There’s more to life than work — hopefully more countries will realise that long hours doesn’t necessarily mean productivity.

With just a few cool adjustments, the Film industry can remain opened and produce with safety than other industries of the community, and I believe myself to be lucky for it.

Paul Chronnell

Worthily Films explains that it is not possible to shoot a film, a short one, with a more than 20 people team (cast and crew) along with following the guidelines of BFC (British Film Commission). It was the end of May, and we were almost ready to go, but the commission finalised COVID-19 Production Guidelines.

A script, “Waiting for Time”, written by Paul Chronnell, was the mean we probably would apply for finding out the intricacy of shooting a socially-distanced film. During Pre-Production, we make changes in the original script, and unimportant handshakes and bodily contacts were taken out to make it COVID-friendly. Luckily, Waiting for Time script aims to explore the life of a socially dysfunctional fellow. The narrative was excellent because our lead has to spend most of the time alone.

However, we were supposed to open an unchartered section, and undoubtedly we ought to have our hesitations. Could we be succeeded in this way? Will everything would likely to come together? Where to start?

First of all, we started preparations. We stocked up on suitable cleansing stocks to disinfect an entire hospital that was a hurdle in and of itself thinking of the way that some supermarket shelves remained destitute of disinfecting wipes and mitts.

After that, we emphasised that the whole team admit to a presentation that outlines the safety measures putting in place. On the set, our casting director, cast and their members were settled that we stick to a position of strengthened etiquettes. Their interests highlighted our previously performed trials, and hence, Worthy Films had ignored all the news and guidelines about film updates. We were fully combat-ready and able to stick to the guidelines of BFC.

On the set, social distancing was executed, and we put masks and gloves throughout. For dodging too many people passing routes, we set each section in a designated area. Both the guidelines of BFC and the team of “Waiting for Time” knew that it is impossible to keep a distance of two-metre during the shoot. Even when the proximity was a foremost concern, according to BFC’s guidelines, we used gloves and sanitisation.

Waiting for Time, a short film made from the script was touching on mental health. In the lockdown, we were strongly desiring and feeling the need for a story that was delivering hope’s message. On the set, we got an exceptional review from our team and were motivated for working great all together.

At this stage, we are in post-production and are getting ready for our festival series. Worthily Films are concurrently growing our slate and excited to walk into our following production. We have such honour for all the expertise that helped in this play with us. A tangible confident attitude was observed in the atmosphere, and that was the only catching part of the adventure.

Climate change is a worrying issue that affects every government and individual in the world. According to NASA, Earth’s average temperature has increased around 1.1°C since the end of the 1800s, with most of the warming occurring in the last 35 years.

The likes of harsher heatwaves, rising sea levels, greater precipitation, shrinking ice caps, more hurricanes, and generally more erratic weather conditions are all devasting impacts of global warming that play a part on the state of the environment. However, do we truly know how climate change will affect specific aspects of society — such as business and trade?

With the Covid-19 pandemic having forced the part-time closure of all non-essential stores across the nation, it’s fair to say that the business and trade sector has had many variables impact its success recently. More specifically, research into the issue of changing weather patterns and how this could affect UK commerce, comes from leading UK suppliers of luxury umbrellas, Fulton Umbrellas.

What about Transport?

The impact climate change will have on infrastructure will differ across the EU, with some countries being more at risk of this than others, according to the European Commission. From roads and buildings to bridges and railways, most aspects of infrastructure that help people work and commute could be adversely hit by global warming.

One potential outcome of climate change is longer heatwaves. Unfortunately, extreme heat can damage major roads, which may lead to more congestion and affect how easily and quickly people can travel to work day by day. In turn, this reduced efficiency could negatively impact productivity in the workplace and alter the job landscape. If it’s harder for employees to commute, companies will have to put more money and effort into offering incentives to make travelling easier in order to attract the best workers, which may impact on profits — especially detrimental to small and mid-size companies.

Transport can withstand the local weather occurrences that it is used to enduring in most European countries. However, if an area is subjected to a growing number of storms and precipitation, this will reduce the longevity of structures like bridges and roads. This means that local authorities may have to use more public spending to maintain and repair infrastructure to ensure its safety — money that could have been used elsewhere.

With this said, in terms of the emissions that vehicles produce, it’s suggested the negative impact they cause has been partially put on hold. Recent studies suggest that since global economic lockdown restrictions have limited the need for travel via vehicles, global emissions have decreased by 17million tonnes a day lower than the 2019 average. Think of the climate and the business sector having an interdependent relationship on each other. What impacts one, impacts the other. Therefore, this part time pause on individuals travelling to and from work will, in the long run, help prevent the potential extreme weather patterns effecting transport infrastructure.

Climate Change and People

A study conducted by Friends of the Earth found that due to climate change, millions of people’s livelihoods and living situations have been affected, forcing them to leave their homes. Shockingly, the UN Refugee Agency claims that, eventually, changes to weather and environment will become the greatest instigator of population displacement.

Not only can extreme weather conditions such as droughts and heatwaves affect a country’s ability to grow food and feed its population, it can also make living, working and raising families much more difficult. During the Syrian drought of 2006-2009, approximately 1.5 million people left the nation and by 2100, around 75 per cent of the global population might be exposed to deadly climate situations.

On the other hand, the lockdown restrictions that were placed on countries throughout the world, are  suggested to have caused the biggest fall in anthropogenic emissions since World War 2. Although other initiatives such as the Paris Agreement are striving to prevent climate change, the continuous issue of extreme weather patterns and environmental changes may result in an increasing number of people being forced to migrate elsewhere. This could put an initial strain on national economies, housing, education, and medical care until people adapt to their new home country.

The Farming Industry

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, farming is responsible for more greenhouse emissions than exhausts from all transportation put together. Also, livestock and its by-products make up 32,000 million tonnes of CO² a year — that’s more than half of all global greenhouse gas emissions!

Climate change has been branded the ‘greatest threat to global health in the 21^st century’ by the World Health Organization. It’s easy to argue that commercial sectors guilty of particularly high carbon emissions — such as agriculture — will face strict protocols and monitoring to reduce their already heavy carbon footprints.

If global warming continues, businesses within sectors that handle livestock or trade in food sourced from farms may be scrutinised more closely. In fact, every sector may face stricter regulations to help lower carbon outputs. If agricultural processes are deemed not eco-friendly enough, the government may levy higher taxes on them, which would reduce their profit margin — not an attractive outlook for anyone considering starting up in the sector. This could lead to reduced numbers of farming and agricultural businesses, which would have a knock oneffect on the amount of food produce the UK would have to import and how much it can export.

The Potential Positives

If we do not get the issue of climate change under control, it will affect more than just the weather since the aftershocks could be significantly harmful to the UK. However, it’s the nationwide drive for climate change control that will bring positive effects to the UK.

In order to provide increased greener energy sources that help not only create more jobs, but also better air conditions, technology firms invest more into research and the production of new technologies.

To help protect people living in flood-risk districts, countries will have to invest more in water management to prevent individuals being affected by drastic weather conditions. Again, this is a positive when you consider how devastating flooding can be and it will also allow for more housing projects to take place in areas previously deemed ‘at risk’. This, in turn, may ease the pressure on providing adequate housing for families.

We’re already seeing positive steps in the right direction being made by the UK motoring industry, as the rise of eco-friendly electric cars have helped lower vehicle emissions. Despite lockdown measures having negative intrusions on our everyday lives, for the environment, it has seen many positive changes. If more daunting statistics regarding the detrimental effects of climate change are taken seriously enough by the government, we could see a greater push towards cleaner vehicles like these, which will improve air quality for pedestrians and motorists alike.

Climate change is happening. However, making changes to how we travel when we no longer have to work from home due to the Covid-19 pandemic could see us continue to make huge improvements on the state of the environment.

New inventions and creations have been around since the beginning of time. From the wheel and sliced bread to the modern day where you use a smartphone to find love, surround yourself with felines at a café for lunch, and use a streaming service to listen to music instead of a cd.

As time moves on, so does our ability to come up with ideas that are outside the box but have the chance to thrive and cement themselves in everyday society. Here, we look at some of the business ideas that weren’t quite run of the mill concepts but shout the loudest when it comes to thriving beyond expectation.

Smartphone dating lights up

Throughout the course of time, when people get asked where they met their partner, it would normally be a tale of speaking at a bar or meeting through friends. Anything outside of that could be perceived as an “odd” way to meet.

Although, with video dating and then online dating being a tried and tested method, there was still an untapped market that nobody had really sunk their teeth into when smartphones and apps became the normal way of living. Step forward Sean Rad, the creator and founder of Tinder, the dating app where you don’t need to complete 100 questions to find a compatible match. Simply swipe your finger to potentially meet the person you’ll spend the rest of your life with.

When it launched in 2012, it was an instant success. Over two million matches were made on the app less than two months in to being live on the app store. In 2020, after years of success, the app made $1.2 billion worth of revenue from people paying for extra matches. It’s safe to say Tinder will continue to thrive, and that conversation you have around where you met will be a lot less awkward now.

Dinner with pets

Cats and dogs are the most common companions for humans. As pets they are a staple part of communities and households across the UK. In 2019, around 25 per cent of people in the UK owned a dog, and 17 per cent owned a cat.

If you have a cat or a dog, you’ve probably eaten in front of them, fed them some of your food, and in the case of dogs, taken them into a dog-friendly café or pub. But would you ever think of surrounding yourself with cats or dogs whilst deciding what to order on the menu? If you’ve seen the toilet paper adverts with puppies running around, well it’s a bit like that, only you swap the loo roll for cake and coffee.

Cat cafés originated in Japan where they’re known as Neko cafés. But, like most trends, it wasn’t long until the UK would follow suit, and places started to pop up throughout Britain. From 2014 until now, we’ve seen the likes of Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium (the UK’s first cat café) for felines and the Edinburgh Chihuahua Café for dogs open, among many others.

You may be surprised at the emergence of this concept in the UK, but when you consider the positive impact cats and dogs can have on your mental health, and how they can reduce loneliness, lower blood pressure, and improve social interaction, it’s no surprise that they’ve taken things by storm. Once the coronavirus pandemic passes, they will arguably continue to be popular.

If you have a dog – and want to take it to cafes that allow it – but are worried it may not behave well around other canines, you could take your pet to a behaviourist or trainer. Just check that they are fully covered with dog trainer liability insurance.

Life is a stream

Music is steeped in history, and we’ve seen everything from the swinging ‘60s to the pop-filled ‘90s, with every genre suitable for different tastes and cultures. But the way we consume music has changed dramatically over the years.

From vinyl record players to Walkman’s that felt like a brick in your hand or pocket, technology has determined how we tap our toes and shake our hips to our favourite tunes. These days, you can still find modernised players for vinyls and DAB radios that look like your old wireless, but it’s the digital download that rules supreme now, with streaming service Spotify one of the go-to platforms for music.

Developed in 2006 as a response to the growing piracy issue the music industry was facing, Spotify launched two years later. It offered a free service with the option to upgrade for more choice and no adverts. Fast forward to 2020, and the company is worth a projected £22.5 billion with over 130 million paid subscribers.

Like most successful companies that become a disrupter in the market, Spotify hasn’t been without its critics. American superstar, Taylor Swift, famously removed her music from the platform, citing issues with being part of an “experiment” that didn’t fairly compensate the writers, producers and performers of music. It led to the rival launch of Tidal from Jay Z, but Spotify is still reigning supreme with no signs of slowing down.

You would have been crazy to predict that swiping right on a mobile device, being surrounded by cats and dogs whilst tucking into a panini, or simply tapping a digital button to play music, would be hugely successful just over a decade ago, but here we are.

What does the future hold though? At this rate, who knows, but let’s hope it will be filled with people and businesses pushing boundaries to come up with the next big ‘thing’.