I was chatting with a friend and she quipped “I have come to realize how interconnected we are in this wide world, imagine something that doesn’t concern me in Wuhan China has ended up affecting the whole world and me in my small space”
This she said innocently and quite carefreely.And, I began to ponder…it struck me that, if anyone has a good product or service, that it doesn’t matter where you are,the world is much closer than we think.
While I was trying to rest this evening, I had an epiphany-the management of Covid 19 was actually possible through two channels the healthcare professionals and the media (electronic media and social media).
I paid a little more attention to the media as a channel in the management of this pandemic. I asked myself what the media did differently. I found out that one media house (CNN) was a little more creative and strategic in its information dissemination and communication mechanism. What it did differently was that it did the following:
- collated data
- processed the data
- presented a structured information from the data analysis
- gave particular coverage to any region/country with escalating or highest number of Covid 19 virus cases
- focused on a celebrity and built conversations around him (Mr.Trump,president of the United states of America )
The outcome was a captivated world.The numbers displayed on their screen frightened and sickened the world all at the same time.There was palpable fear and people were willing to buy (a closed sale of the severity of the pandemic) into the advice of their respective countries health systems.The provided entertainment by reporting all they could find about president Trump!
The social media took a cue and the rest they say is history. Some smart folks tried to pull a similar stunt about 5G causing the pandemic,guess what ? They failed.They didn’t fail because their story did not get traction,no.They failed because they did not have a dedicated electronic media to share their story.
How does this relate with marketing?
Marketing is all about spotting a need in the market and designing values to meet that need,then reaching out to consumers whose needs you have met with a value proposition.
Product -The CNN News ‘dashboard’
The media giant CNN figured this out.In the race to disseminate information and get a better coverage of the pandemic,they decided to create a news ‘dashboard’ that displayed information concerning the pandemic in a structured manner .This news ‘dashboard’ was the product that they sold.CNN built this news ‘dashboard’ in a way that gives viewers first hand processed information at a glance (value proposition) .You do not need to wait to hear them reel out the numbers every now and then.Such information like:
- the total number of infections in the world
- total number of deaths in the world
- the region with highest prevalence of pandemic
- the total number of deaths in the region with highest number of cases in the world.
All these were displayed on the news ‘dashboard’ and caught the attention of the world (their customer).
Lesson
Entrepreneurs should be able to :
- collate data from their environments (market research)
- process this data (market intelligence, competition analysis)
- develop marketing strategy
- creatively develop products that are innovative which will give them an edge in the marketplace.
CNN was not the only international news media reporting the covid 19 pandemic,but,they got me, and I am sure you too, hooked with their news ‘dashboard’.
Place-Wuhan in China
The whole world is suffering from this covid 19 virus emanating from Wuhan in China.China is not the capital of the world,but the whole world was affected by a virus that it played host to.
Lesson
It is possible to reach the ends of the world with a good market positioning and a carefully crafted marketing communication (especially online marketing).And utilising the right channels of communication to pitch your brand to the whole world.
Be open,be alert you never can tell where the next life lessons hides.