How to Keep Your Business Going During The Apocalypse

Often at the first sign of any economic headwind, advertising budgets can be the first things slashed. But as any smart marketer and business owner knows, marketing is intrinsically connected to sales, to awareness, to creating brand margin… you know, all the stuff that goes into actually running a business. The problem is that not only are there economic issues, but there’s also a question of how the hell you market when people are worried about other stuff?

We have also seen brands face backlash over, not only their messaging during Covid-19, but also during the Black Lives Matter protests. Even the most well intentioned brands could find themselves in the middle of a mindfield. To help us navigate this period we reached out to one of New Zealand’s best marketing minds, Jemma Whiten, to help give some clarity.

Jemma is the Marketing and Digital Director and driver of sustainability projects at ecostore, the leading environmental and sustainable brand in New Zealand. Her wealth of experience includes senior roles with Unilever (Global Marketing Director), Goodman Fielder (Senior Brand Manager) and Kimberly Clark (Brand Manager). While we do face challenges, Jemma believes that there is an opportunity for us to change the way we do business, the relationship with our customers and the impact that we have on the environment moving forward and that this could be the catalyst for a much better future.

We spoke to Jemma during Level 4 lockdown and, of course, things are moving quickly but Jemma’s insights in terms of how to market in a crisis and the future of business connected to positive change are just becoming more and more relevant.

 

Do you see that there will be this big shift when we come out of lockdown? A new way of doing business and new priorities, or is it going to be much of the same?

It’s the golden question. It’s incredibly interesting as a marketer, really understanding consumer behaviour and how consumer behaviour changes over time. This is a pretty incredible time for that. There’s been a huge consumer shift in such a short space of time.

If you think about it, it’s been three or four weeks, but just how much has changed in that three or four weeks? Yes, it was happening globally before then, but how much has changed for New Zealanders in the last three or four weeks in terms of our attitudes and our behaviours, how we shop, what we’re shopping for? It has been a time of huge change, in a really short period of time.

Everyone keeps talking about the new normal. I’m not really sure what that new normal is going to be or how it is going to be different. But I think the reality is, for many months to come, there will be differences.

There will be differences in how we shop, where we shop, how we behave, how we work with our families, how we engage with nature. We’re not going to be travelling so much, so how do we enjoy New Zealand? There’s been a huge shift in a very short space of time and, whatever that new normal will be, we’ll take a little while to settle. It’s going to be a really interesting time of change.

 

There was a lot of panic with people worried about supply chains and the like. How do you quantify the other, longer-term public sentiment stuff?

I think we are starting to see a shift there. When something like this happens that is so big and health-related, which is quite scary, people go into that fight or flight panic mode and that’s what we saw.

But I think that passes reasonably quickly and now what we are seeing is more settled behaviour. It’s coming back to the family unit. And then it’s going to be about how we look after those in our community that are at risk, the elderly and people that are alone.

I think there’s a real pride in New Zealand right now and how we’ve handled it, that we have gone into lockdown very early. That has been challenging for people, but I think there’s a real pride in how New Zealanders have done this together.

I think there’s going to be a shift in this move back to community, move back to New Zealand and being really proud of who we are. I think the final one is the shift in how we interact with or value nature. I know it sounds like it’s a bit different to the health scare, but in that, we are very lucky. Some of us have backyards or we have some parks and beaches that we can go to where we can walk, as long as we’re obviously keeping our personal distance.

We’ve been lucky that people have been able to get out and exercise. People have been connecting with nature. We are going to be sticking around in our communities and in New Zealand more. I think one of the things that is really going to be interesting is just how that plays out, people’s connection with the environment out of the back of this and in the context of staying healthy.

 

Are you worried that some of the environmental concerns will take a back seat in a time like this when you’ve not only got health concerns, but also economic concerns as well?

It is at the forefront of a lot of people’s minds right now. Environment, sustainability, plastic, waste, water, climate change; all of that was really at the very forefront of people’s minds. It had gained a lot of traction over a period of time and it has had to take a bit of a back seat.

It is going to be really interesting to see how this changes, but already I’m hearing so much chat. There’s a little bit of Covid fatigue. It’s big, it’s scary, they’re hearing so much about it and in a way, they need some joy. They need some happiness. They need something to counterbalance.

Right now, people are getting out into nature, enjoying walks with the kids. People are talking about hearing the birds. The water quality is lovely. In some countries around the world, we’re seeing animals come back into the cities.

Quite naturally, some of the conversation and some of the focus is coming back into this environment space. Just in the last few days, I’ve been hearing more chat globally around the fact that if we’re really looking after the environment and we’re looking after nature and we’re keeping a balance, then these kinds of viruses are kept more in check.

There’s going to be an interesting global conversation around how looking after the health of the environment and the earth will also help us to look after our health as well. Then playing back down into people’s community engagement and New Zealand environment too.

 

We’re seeing what happens when you let nature have a bit of a break and you see the positive side. Do you think that that might actually have more of an impact in terms of some of the changes that we could make, rather than focusing on the negative side impact?

Oh, I hope so. I think it’s so easy to be doom and gloom and scaremongering in the space of the environment and the space of health. It’s the last thing that consumers want. People feel guilty, people are scared, people have uncertainties, all of those things are human truths. It is a reality.

I think as a brand, you are doing a serious disservice to people if you play on those insecurities, that guilt and that fear. More than ever, we need to be about this force for change, force for good. That’s certainly something we really try and do very much with ecostore.

It’s about having a belief in the future, but in a really positive way. We can all do little bits of good and all those little bits of good add up to a bigger change. People want to feel like they can do something, they want something that’s not overwhelming.

These things can be overwhelming. It’s how we as brands help to pick them apart and help to make people feel a bit more empowered to make a change, they can do something different. We need to talk to them in a positive tone. It’s not about being unnecessarily, ridiculously upbeat, but it is so important to turn to focus on the positive side of these stories.

 

How do you sell in this environment, where people are worried about their jobs, worried about what’s going to happen?

It’s such a big topic at the moment and there’s two parts to that. From a selling perspective, we’ve been incredibly privileged and grateful to be an essential business because we sell hand wash, we sell laundry detergents, we sell dish washing and cleaning products. They’re not super sexy, but through thick and thin, these are the kinds of products that people need.

We’ve been really lucky to be in that position, but we’ve recognised that that’s a privileged position to be in and we’re very grateful for that. It’s about also trying to give back and do what we can.

We helped support some KidsCan essential family boxes that they put together. KidsCan are amazing at looking after the community through tough times. We’ve helped Waikato Hospital, we’ve given some products to St John’s, we’ve done what we can.

In terms of looking after consumers, it’s really important that we do what we can, to send them information on how to keep the kids busy, how to keep the kids happy, how to look after themselves. We’ve had some free online meditations through InstagramTV.

We’ve been supporting our frontline workers by giving them fruit and veggie boxes every week to keep the families happy and healthy. We’ve been really lucky to be able to continue to sell and it has meant that people had jobs the whole way through. They’ve been able to work, they have been able to earn through those times. It’s really important to keep that going, but to look after them at the same time.

In terms of marketing, that has definitely been at the forefront of marketers minds. You don’t want to take the wrong approach to this. You don’t want to take advantage of these kinds of situations in any way, shape or form.

I think one of the things that’s been really important to me is understanding where consumers’ heads are at right now. There’s been some good research that’s been done by lots of different places, lots of different agencies, lots of different groups. One of the things that has been quite consistent through all of them is that there is this need for a little bit of normality from consumers.

There’s this really big crazy thing happening out there. All of our lives have changed quite quickly, even if it’s just for a short period of time and there is a sense that they do want some normality. They’re saying that they do want to hear from brands, they do want to hear what we’re up to. But perhaps the way in which we talk, the messages that we tell, just need to be a bit different.

What are we doing to help? How are we supporting the New Zealanders? How are we supporting your community? It’s just more about recognising that people do want to hear from you, but you just have to tailor your messages to where consumers’ heads are at right now.

 

I like the idea that magazines are a part of that normal, regular thing as well.

Absolutely. It’s almost a psychological timeout, to just have a moment to yourself. A magazine or a podcast or a favorite show or favorite book does that, because hopefully you can find a corner of your house to just hide away for maybe half an hour here and there and have those moments to yourself. I think we’re all becoming better at finding ways of doing that so that we can keep our sanity.

 

What are you reading at the moment?

I was reading Shantaram, which is sort of a travel book. It’s a bit of an old school book, a bit of a wild one. I’ve been listening to a few podcasts and listening to interviews, which I’ve been really enjoying and reading kids books. I have young kids, we’re reading The BFG, it’s good.

 

How do you strike that balance between your own bubble time reading a book and then the family and the work?

It’s a juggle that everyone’s having to find their way through. The thing that I’ve struggled with the most is I used to compartmentalise a little bit. I used to be full on work, come home, full on kids and then try and do a couple of full on hours for me in the evening. It’s harder to do that right now, but I’m a bit of a night owl.

I really do try and focus on my work, focus on the kids again, try and keep a bit of that structure, a routine for the kids as well. I do go to bed very late so I just tend to stay up and just get a bit of quiet time. Some people are morning people. I’d love to be that, I’m not. I just get that time at night. It’s a nice way to just switch off.

 

Have you found that you’re more productive where the lines are blurred?

I can be so full on and very focused on one thing and then move on to the next thing, but you’re having to juggle between the two. We’re all feeling a little bit of it, you don’t feel like you’re doing a great job of either because you’re trying to juggle both and that’s really normal. I think it’s important to recognise that.

We’re working incredibly effectively with the team. My team is just amazing, they’ve been absolute legends. The wider team has been incredible as well and we’re connecting really well.

I do like to work at pace and that’s just a little bit easier to do when you do have a bit more face to face interaction. I do really miss my team, but it is also nice to get those moments of quiet time of work at home, where you can just get your head down and focus on some things.

 

With so much uncertainty, have you needed to be that comforting voice? How do you do that from a distance?

In terms of being a comforting voice, what I love is that I feel like everyone has been a comforting voice for each other. I think it has made it not only okay to talk to each other about how we are feeling, but it’s become the new norm, which is really neat.

We are very lucky. We do have a really supportive team at the best of times, so that helps. I think it’s about those regular check-ins. It’s the check-ins with the immediate team and also the wider team. The way we’ve been doing it, we’ve had quite a lot of fun. We’ve had a couple of emails to team members, who had left during this time. It was planned anyway and one of them had to dash back to Thailand.

And even then we still managed to do a farewell via Slack and we did cards and there were songs. It’s taking those moments. We have afternoon tea catch-ups, and celebrate people’s birthdays. I think it’s so important to have those moments to just sit back and have a bit of a laugh with your workmates because we are all crazy busy working a lot. It’s about checking in on each other and taking those times to just have a bit of fun and have a laugh.

 

Will there be anything that you learned from the lockdown experience that you will bring back into the workplace?

The whole team probably will. They’re very engaged, very supportive of each other and keeping an eye out for each other. I think that will continue. People are a little bit more aware of others as well, which is nice.

From a technology point of view, I do love that we’ve all taken a giant leap forward in technology and our use of technology to stay connected. When I worked in Europe, I worked across multiple countries at any given point in time. Once you get into it, it can be incredibly seamless and very powerful.

We’ve been really spoiled in New Zealand, a lot more face to face, a lot more personal connection. But now all of a sudden, we’ve learned that actually we can keep that personal connection going, even when it does have to be through technology.

I think there will be more and more of that. If we connect back to one of the conversations we were having before about sustainability and the environment, if you can do more virtual conferences, if you can do more virtual meetings, it potentially cuts back on travel and has other positive ramifications as well. I think our embracing of technology and embracing of e-commerce and the way that we shop has been fantastic steps forward for New Zealand, which is good.

 

Someone had suggested that many New Zealand businesses have moved forward eight years, in the space of a couple of weeks because of what we’re forced to do. It’s a really fascinating time in terms of the potential here for us.

Absolutely. There’s more hyper-connectivity going on, which is neat. We’re such an incredibly inventive, innovative lot in New Zealand that sometimes we just stay within New Zealand, we look within New Zealand, we don’t need to look further afield. But, so much of what’s happening now is happening in other markets first.

They’re a little bit ahead of us and it has meant that we’re looking to them and then going, ‘Okay, we can do it better. We can learn from that and we can do that better.’ I do hope that we take that approach through into business as well. Broadening our horizons a little bit, thinking a little bit more globally, looking a little bit more globally.

 

We do consider ourselves an innovative country, right? Have we been true to that concept?

Yes, we have been. We are innovative, but sometimes I do think that we miss an opportunity. We have this desire to create everything ourselves because we’re a clever, innovative bunch. But, I think we shouldn’t be afraid to look overseas and take those learnings and then supercharge it, make it better.

That’s where I think we can do more. I see that, having worked overseas for most of my career and then coming back to New Zealand, you see how clever we are, great thinking, entrepreneurial, but we shouldn’t be afraid to push our thinking, to stretch ourselves by looking overseas too.

 

Are there any opportunities that we should be looking at post-lockdown or coming into the new New Zealand?

Being with ecostore, being in this environmental and sustainability space, I think certainly the way in which we structure our cities, it’ll be interesting to see people doing more walking, people doing more biking. People are shopping more locally, they are doing things ever so slightly differently.

It would be nice to keep some of that going forward and then learn from how other cities are operating in a more sustainable way. How are we doing transport differently? How are we doing more virtual meetings? How are we using e-comm differently such that we can perhaps create more sustainable, more environmentally-friendly cities?

I think there’s lots of opportunity to look overseas at that. We’ve got such an incredible opportunity to implement that here in New Zealand as we’re shaping and changing our cities. We certainly are shaping and changing Auckland. It’s like a building site, the entire city. There’s roadworks everywhere, there’s things happening all the time. I think we have an incredible opportunity.

 

In terms of the recovery, what sort of skills do you think we need to start really focusing on?

From a business perspective, we must absolutely understand our consumers, understand where people’s heads are at right now. And, therefore, how we talk about our businesses and how we bring our products and services to them in a way that’s most relevant to them at any given point in time. It’s always been important, but it’s so much more important now as things are changing so fast.

From a personal perspective, with kids and things and what they need to learn, at the moment, there are very structured things that they learn when they’re at school and we’ve had to find all sorts of things to keep them entertained over the last few weeks.

Everyone’s found the way with their kids. What’s been interesting is finding some areas that my kids really enjoy that they don’t necessarily get to do as much. They’ve been doing kids’ yoga in the morning, which they’ve been loving. They’re getting far more into their art, which is really neat. My son’s learning Chinese on Duolingo.

There’s been a little bit more space for kids and for families and parents to find new passions, new things that the kids enjoy doing.

 

Do you think that if we allow some flexibility and allow some room for some craziness, that when uncertainty happens, we can just roll with it?

Yeah, I love it. What you find with kids is that through any situation that requires change, you think, ‘Oh, it’s going to be a big deal for the kids, changing schools, that sort of thing.’ But, it’s always more challenging for the adults than it is for the kids.

Kids are able to just roll with the punches a little bit more. They do see the positive inherently in things, rather than the challenges. That’s what the adults are there for, we sort those out. There’s certainly something that we can learn from children with that.

To go into business situations with an open mind is a very good thing. To focus on the positives rather than the negatives and the risks is a good thing. Sometimes you’ve just got to roll with it and be comfortable doing so. I think there’s definitely things we can learn.

 

There’s going to be a big hit on the economy, there’s no doubt about it. Can you give some thoughts of optimism in that environment around the new potential of things?

What I see is an incredibly supportive, wider community. I think people will rally around small businesses. We are the masters of small business. We have so many small businesses and we’ve only ever had so many small businesses because we love them, we support them. That’s only going to be greater out of the back of this.

It’s going to be a really tough time for people, absolutely. But what I think is good is that people recognise that right now and there are already rallying cries to get out there when you can. I’ve had a friend who creates websites and helped their personal trainer to get online. Everyone is helping each other out, supporting small communities and mucking together.

New Zealand is so good at that. I think this will be our time to shine out the back of it and we will really show our true colours by picking those businesses back up and helping them to get back on track.

 

You mentioned this shift to more local support. Had that been a shift that you were seeing anyway with a move away from globalisation?

I don’t think so. Maybe it was becoming more extreme. There was a lot more global, which comes with huge positives, real interest, benefits, learnings for people. I think the reality of New Zealand though is we really are down in the little corner of the world, which comes with some huge benefits as well.

Just as a result of that, inherently we have to be quite local. We have an inherent love of local, but there are still those benefits of global businesses and global learnings. What I hope is that we really become even more supportive of our New Zealand businesses, of our small businesses, of this local community. I’m certainly seeing that happen right now and I believe it will continue to do so. But I hope that it doesn’t come at the expense of us being a big global community.

Again, even there has been that extreme. How many other situations have there been that have been truly global? Even shocking, terrible things like wars aren’t necessarily fully global. Natural disasters tend to be reasonably localised to a country or to an area. This really is a once-in-a-generation type event where it affects everyone. I’m having the same conversations with friends on the other side of the world as I am with friends in my community and inherently, that’s bringing us together as a globe, which is neat as well.

 

The thing I worry about is there are countries, in the Pacific in particular, that are going to be really hurting and they don’t necessarily have the economic capacity to be able to deal with that. They will be relying on the support of us and Australia. I hope that we can still look after our neighbours as well along the way.

I think that’s so important. I do hope that out of the back of this, all nations don’t become too insular. I think there is power in coming together across nations and across borders and will be even more so right now, given the scale of the problem. We can’t necessarily travel between borders, but we can definitely show our support in other ways. It’s going to be incredibly important right now.

 

Have there been any shifts in terms of your approach with ecostore, in terms of global supply and trade? Have you had to change strategy there?

Yeah, I think every business in some way, shape or form is impacted. We’re incredibly fortunate in that we are made in New Zealand, all our manufacturing is done in New Zealand. That’s been a huge benefit for us. It’s meant that we’ve been able to continue to supply New Zealand consumers and with greater speed as well.

But the reality is of any business, it’s very uncommon that all of your ingredients or components come from New Zealand as well. I think all global supply chains have been affected in some way, shape or form. We have a cleaning product with a trigger spray and we’re going to have to put out a trigger spray that looks awful, from a marketer’s point of view, but we’re doing it because it means that we can continue to put cleaners on shelf.

There are impacts for all businesses. I do feel for supply chain people right now, they are certainly having to roll with the punches. There’s a lot of uncertainty in their business. There will be a reshuffling, a reset link between this global and local. We have had a mix of local and global that will continue, but we may have to do more.

There may be more businesses that are going to step up and start producing here in New Zealand. They’re going to have more customers to sell to because there is going to be a greater certainty for a short, maybe medium term and local supply. I think there’s some great opportunities for New Zealand businesses here and it’s a great way to get New Zealand businesses back on track and to pump some energy into the economy. There will be a lot of changes and I think we’ll be working through those changes for some time.

 

As soon as Covid-19 came to light, all of a sudden you had all these emails coming in out of the blue from companies about their approach. How do you strike that balance between really starting to communicate with your customers and not just appearing out of the blue at a time like this?

I think the key message is value. How do you add value to consumers and to their lives right now? Does everyone want to hear what you were doing in this kind of situation? I got so many of those emails. There are posts on social media as well. It comes back to just understanding where the mindset is.

I think the businesses and companies that did well with those were the ones that offered support. Support for frontline workers, support for health workers. Allbirds globally provided shoes to doctors and nurses across America. Businesses here in New Zealand gave product, donated product.

I think it’s about that support for the frontline workers. It’s what you’re actually doing that has real substance, rather than just communicating for the sake of communicating. Communicate what really matters to consumers in that moment is what’s key.

 

What are you going to do when you get your freedom back?

There are varying degrees of freedom. I’d love to go to the local cafe and get a coffee. Further afield, I am a bit of a travel junkie. I love to be exploring other places, being amongst other cultures. It’s very uncertain times, the travel industry is doing it very hard. I love going to developing nations and supporting tourism in those places and helping out locals.

I would love to get back to a place and I hope that the world returns to a good, healthy norm quickly, so that people can start travelling and exploring. It’s through shared travel experiences that we come together as a bigger global group.

 

Is there a question that you’d like me to ask small businesses and entrepreneurs and founders that we talk to?

How can we help each other out? How can we all come together as a collective group to help out others that are going to be doing it tough, that don’t have jobs, that are going to need some additional support? Coming together as collective groups and business communities is going to be important to get things back on track as fast as possible.