Marketing During COVID-19: The Demand-Delivery Matrix

by Denise Blasevick, CEO, The S3 Agency

Companies often cut their marketing efforts during a recession, an act that research shows often leads to significant sales decline while making recovery more difficult.

The “Marketing During COVID-19 Demand-Delivery Matrix” was created to help businesses determine their best marketing strategy based upon their current demand-delivery quadrant.

Marketing during COVID 19

High Demand / Easy Delivery Quadrant:

People WANT and CAN EASILY GET Your Product / Service
Your offering is more in demand right now because of the pandemic. Perhaps it fills a temporary situational need or competitive offerings are less available.

Why is marketing important right now?

To help your brand command post-pandemic loyalty, don’t just make a profit – make a difference and let marketing boost the signal. This will increase awareness of (and affinity for) your brand in the future.

High Demand / Difficult Delivery Quadrant:

People WANT and CAN’T EASILY GET Your Product / Service
Your offering is always in demand BUT the pandemic makes it harder to fulfill. That may be due to supply shortages, delivery channel difficulties, forced brick-and-mortar closures, or other reasons.

Why should you be marketing when you can’t deliver easily (or at all)?

Even if they enjoyed strong loyalty prior to the Coronavirus, brands can’t simply expect customers to return. As people get used to life without your offering, they may re-evaluate the need for it. To maintain those valuable customer relationships, stay top of mind: share how you are helping others and how you are developing new solutions that can be delivered at this time.

Low Demand / Easy Delivery Quadrant:

People CAN’T USE but CAN EASILY GET Your Product / Service
Your offering lacks awareness or temporary situational need because the crisis makes it harder to see or interact with and/or financial worries preclude purchase.

Marketing now is imperative for future top-of-the-funnel development.
Whether it’s about alternate offerings you’ve developed or simply to stay top-of-mind, get your messaging out there (and expand beyond your existing customers). The last thing you want is to get past the crisis and have zero pipeline ready and waiting.

Low Demand / Difficult Delivery Quadrant:

People CAN’T USE and CAN’T EASILY GET Your Product / Service
Right now, buying or utilizing your offering is basically impossible. Sporting event arenas and trade show venues are two prime examples.

Yet marketing is still important, even for businesses in this quadrant.
When the crisis is over, people will be loyal to brands who helped make a difference – like NY’s Javits Center becoming a temporary hospital.

Maintaining an emotional connection to current and potential customers (and possibly to the public at large) can drive future business.

Summary: Brands that do the right thing, both as companies and with their marketing, will have the best chance to emerge from this crisis as strong as possible – and possibly even stronger than before.

Related story: What Impact is the Pandemic Having on Digital Marketing and PR?

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