The Coronavirus has taken the world by storm and has led to unprecedented circumstances of ‘new normal’ and ascertaining the transformation businesses have to undergo in terms of their marketing strategies to sustain, thrive, and grow their consumer base. Companies are finding novel ways to promote their product and services to engage with the consumers while remaining sensitive to the situation. According to Ali Ahmed Almohannadi, the founder of marketing and design studio, Kinfolks Co., “The situation calls for a fresh new approach. It is time for brands to deviate from the traditional marketing strategies and embrace creative ways to grapple with the pandemic and stay relevant.”
As the pandemic enforced lockdowns, consumers started gravitating to e-commerce for their essential and non-essential purchases. This brought fore several issues for brands to review and overcome, such as how to sustain, whether to innovate products in alignment with the ‘new normal’, and how to tackle competition in the given environment. Almohannadi states, “Many marketing agencies have altered the marketing strategies for their clients to navigate and address the underlying challenge by presenting innovative campaigns to target the audience effectively, identify the potential for new products and services, and evaluate the advertising tactics to get ahead of the competition.”
It has become imperative for brands to jump on the digital bandwagon and existing brands to reallocate their funds and dive their efforts to improve online presence and strengthen their relationships with consumers virtually. Discussing the shift in trend due to the current situation, Almohannadi says, “Optimizing the website is essential to the marketing efforts apart from an impactful content-driven social media campaign to reach the target audience. Many brands have also initiated engagement and interaction via webinars or hosting an online event or workshop to widen their digital footprint and gain an advantage on the competition. Refocusing the marketing strategy to capitalize on social media has also proved advantageous to analyze productivity, measure growth, and gain an insight into the return on spend, cost per lead, and new visitors.”
Based in Qatar, Almohannadi started working at the age of 15 at his uncle’s company and developed a passion in marketing and management that led him to earn his Masters in Marketing from University of Sussex, UK, and launch his own business. Kinfolks Co. has helped several companies boost their marketing efforts and scale to great heights.
