I missed it this year. The signal that summer is coming to an end.
The Canadian National Exhibition — known as The Ex — is an iconic end-of-summer tradition for Torontonians. It is one of the largest fairs in North America that takes place the last 18 days of every summer ending on Labour Day.
It’s like so many fairs: the scent of freshly spun cotton candy along the midway; cheers and screams coming from the rides; frozen spaghetti and flaming Cheetos, corn dogs and deep-fried Twinkies. It’s a cacophony of sounds, smells, sights, and experiences.
With Covid-19 this year, The Ex was cancelled. This is only the second time it has shut down in 142 years. The last time was during the Second World War.
Everywhere you look you can see the signs of the great reset we are experiencing in 2020. We will look back at this year with a clear dividing line: before coronavirus and after coronavirus.
We are being forced to look forward and reframe our expectations.
Often this gets boiled down to cliches like, “the new normal.” I have to roll my eyes to this phrase. There’s nothing normal about 2020!
Quite frankly, I find so much of our current circumstances frustrating and sad.
Until the virus is under control we will face uncertainty and disruptions — in all aspects of our lives. This means we are not out of the woods yet, and business is not going back to “normal.”
It’s more likely that you will be adjusting your value proposition (and business) for the better part of a year.
Salesforce.com, for instance, is looking that far ahead. On August 19 it announced, “we have decided to extend our work-from-home period, allowing all employees to continue working from home until at least July 31, 2021.”
Big companies are planning for a long transition, and you should too.
In our Crisis Marketing services, we have been asking three questions to reimagine how to connect with and serve customers:
- Who needs my company and its expertise the most right now?
- What products or services can we deliver to solve real problems that are valued?
- How can we proactively sell and deliver our services to the people who need them most?
Looking ahead and reframing your value proposition opens you up to a whole new world of opportunities. This is where 2020 starts to look very hopeful.
With great change comes even greater opportunities:
- Capture market share
- Reinforce and deepen your brand relationships with partners and customers
- Accelerate projects and reorgs — things you always wanted to do, but never had time
The work isn’t easy and it’s constantly evolving, but when you embrace the uncertainty of the pandemic you start to see how you can come out of this crisis stronger than ever.
This is as much about mindset as it is about opportunity. How you choose to look at this situation and how you decide to act will define what your business looks like when we finally get to the “next normal.”
Slingshot Your Business Out of the Crisis
Learn how to slingshot your business out of the crisis. In Crisis Marketing we show you how to adjust your value proposition to generate sales rapidly. If you’re interested, call me (Jeremy Miller) directly at 416.479.4403, or check out our Crisis Marketing services.
