“The future is uncertain… but this uncertainty is at the very heart of human creativity.” – Ilya Prigogine
The times are certainly unpredictable, but should we call it the end of all that is precious to us on earth? Are we going to continue fighting through these tough times or throw in the towel? Perhaps we should take some minutes and remember history, draw insights and see further because the generations before us have experienced diverse forms of adversity but here we are, representing those who never gave up on humanity.
While this period of uncertainty is new for most people, it’s undoubtedly not the first-time human beings have confronted serious adversity, and it won’t be the last. At this point, every form of hope helps, so we’ve decided to take stock, track down progress from the strategic decisions we made to sustain our going concern as an organization. Having survived the dazing blow of COVID-19 pandemic, we are excited to see the progress made even as we continue to thrive in the midst of the strangulating effect of the pandemic on the business environment.
We have made some changes in our business model and this in turn has led to the recent rebranding of the business logo. Hence, we will be talking more about the mindset we adopted, strategic approaches implemented and the major milestones we have achieved to wrap up and celebrate the year 2021.
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MINDSET SHIFT
Making this turnaround required NOT only innovation, but in particular, the unique mindset shift of our entire team. As a team, we took up the term “UBUNTU” which literally means ‘We are because you are’ and a possibility mentality to counter the discouraging effect of the pandemic. We held several strategic meetings, assessed the current situation and noted what was required to remain in business and thrive in the heat of the pandemic. This required building a cohesive, flexible and adaptable team, even as most of the regular routine changed. Not only did we add new employees while other businesses were laying off workers, our resilient leadership drove change and managed the mindset transition process of every staff onboarded. The results we see today are a function of quality, empathic and visionary leadership that helped in the reimagining of our business model and every operational process which also led to the recent rebranding initiative in the organization.
As many businesses in Nigeria and across different continents are pivoting and looking for ways to spring back from the disruption caused by the coronavirus, we took our planning and execution to the next level by resolving to help partners and clients achieve part or all of their yearly PR, advertising, and brand management goals. This resolve produced significant results that have helped our business partners and clients achieve their goals in terms of creating awareness, building strong reputation, increasing sales, revenue and profits.
How did we help clients achieve so much despite the pandemic? We simply availed ourselves as the helping hands by adopting a flexible tailored budget approach.
We refused to be lost in the moment of our making and took up the challenge to recover revenue lost during the lockdown, rebuild operations, rethink the organization, and hastened the implementation of digital solutions.
Here are the two lessons we learned from adopting a proactive mindset shift;
- Haste is not speed in the journey to recovering lost revenue.
Rushing to make changes as a reactive measure to catch up to changes can be devastating when not strategically thought out. On the other hand, speed does matters, but speed gained strategically. Recovering revenue slowly can be dangerous for a business going concern, hence, it is important for companies to remain ethical and also strategic in speeding up things to survive in the wake of a crisis. To do this, top management executives must rethink their revenue profile and reposition themselves for the changes and competition ahead.
- Early adoption of digital technology as a part of traditional process saves
You must have heard that the COVID-19 pandemic made many more companies move online (see this article for how to do so). An example of such adoption is the working remotely approach adopted to help defeat the pandemic. While considering digital technology as a favour, data analytics has accelerated and given more meaning to business that moved online. Analyzing your audience and knowing the numbers of the business provides useful insights and value to the businesses that are moving online. We must not forget the role Zoom, Whatsapp, Microsoft Teams, Google collaborate, etc played in helping businesses and individuals through there trying times.
STRATEGIC APPROACHES
Given that more firms are re-evaluating existing marketing and communication expenditures and refocusing their ad campaigns and sales promotions in an attempt to gain significant volume of the market share, it became pertinent that we reviewed out strategy and media offering to help business generate adequate revenues. There is a tight timeline for promotional activities and planned content, as well as a review of images and texts used in commercials. This is due to the fact that brands want to keep consumers engaged. Hence, businesses must assess compliance with the provisions content policy prior to releasing new victuals, texts, logos, slogans, or any other copyrighted material.
We have created a solution to help business answer the following questions;
How do we effectively promote our product or service with our current budget that will relate and attract target audience in the pandemic?
Who are the influencers that have a similar personality to our brand?
What social media platform and content strategy can we use?
Some strategic approaches businesses can use are discussed below;
- Adopt an agile operational model for teams.
There is sense of urgency to adopt agile methodologies, such as frequent virtual meetings to address issues and empower distant workers to participate in major decision-making processes.
Agility is about creating a new business model that is focused on the needs of the client and backed by appropriate methods, procedures, and resource management. Effective sales techniques must be able to handle the quick redistribution of resources between business units.
- Develop a workable business model and customer journey map.
Businesses must consider its core operational strategies and reinvent in light of significant changes in the marketplace and customer preferences to establish market edge and unique selling point. Innovative firms will rethink and create new value as a response to the needs of the market which may include but not restricted to new product or service development, improved client experience, etc.
- See and embrace the big picture.
Companies could take advantage of almost any moment of uncertainty provided they are ready. Firms that follow a far more aggressive and long-term strategy in the pandemic might build up the appropriate response to the crisis and remain in business. Thus, the need for visionary and proactive leadership is paramount to stay in the race of tomorrow.
- Be sincere in a time of crisis because trust is principal.
One simple solution to almost any challenge a business is confronted with is domiciled in the ability to sincerely assess its strength, weakness, threat and opportunity in a situation.
So, what have we achieved this year?
There are quite a number of feats for us but we’ll leave you with just three things;
- New brand identity
We recently changed the logo of our brand as part of the big picture. See the master piece below;
You can learn more about this artistic piece and its meaning here
- New staff
We have added a new crop of super talented copywriters, SEO specialists, Web administrators, Media buyers and Relationship managers.
- New businesses and campaigns
We have indeed come a long way looking at how the year started and seeing how it is ending makes a big statement for us and we are grateful. Included in our portfolio are great brands like DHL express Nigeria, Regus international, Mobil Nigeria, Heriot Watt University, Quick Print Shop, Wakanow, Digital Passion, University of Dundee, Nottingham Trent University UK, Lagos Business School, Shorelight University USA, TGM Education to mention just a few.
How we can help
At Babsomo Communications, we can help you run your PR, advertising, brand management, and digital marketing campaigns on a tailored budget. We have strategically repositioned many organizations in various industries in past eleven years. We do this through our business-focused approach, peccable timing and customer
Do you wish to establish a strong reputation, boost visibility, brand awareness, and ultimately sales?
Reach out to us for a tailored budget.