As businesses act to navigate the covid-19 crisis, maintaining brand authenticity will be the key to success.

By Xische Editorial, April 25, 2020

There’s an old saying that major shocks to the economy are like the tide going out to sea. When the tide goes out, you can see which swimmers are wearing a bathing suit. As more companies think about pivoting to meet the demands of the market, the Covid-19 crisis is bringing some facets of brand strategy into sharp focus. Without authenticity and clear thinking on the “why” of a brand, any successful pivot is nearly impossible. In other words, we can see which companies are wearing a bathing suit and which aren’t.

The key to unlocking brand authenticity is to start with the basics. Why does a business exist? It’s not about what a company does but why it does it. In this rapidly changing marketplace, companies that are able to work in myriad sectors are better positioned to face challenges. That’s not just because they operate in multiple environments (that does help) but because the power of their brand can carry across multiple revenue streams. Building a business model on the ‘why’ and not the ‘what’ is one of the most vital business secrets of the new global marketplace. 

As the global economy continues to contract due to the Covid-19 crisis, authenticity is going to be all the more critical for healthy businesses. The economic picture certainly doesn’t look great for the rest of this year. According to the IMF, the global recession caused by the Covid-19 pandemic will be one of the world’s worst since the Great Depression. With many countries still under lockdown to fight the virus, we don’t know what the economy will look like when we start opening up again. 

In this climate of uncertainty, brand authenticity will be a company’s most valuable weapon. This is especially important for any type of pivot that companies will need to execute to stay relevant. If you are clear on the ‘why’ of your business as opposed to the ‘what’, executing a pivot to unlock new opportunities is far less daunting than market conditions suggest. We will get through this storm and emerge on the other side far stronger and focused than before. 

Through Xische’s design practice, we’ve explored the importance of building a powerful brand narrative, ensuring authentic alignment between brand and business strategy, and deploying the power of brand to motivate a nation. We’ve also regularly written about brands in Backstory, such as this issue on the UAE’s branding and this one about city branding. Throughout all of our thinking and work on branding, it remains clear that authenticity stems from the why and not the what.

It doesn’t just apply to local companies. Last year, Facebook unveiled a new corporate logo that was applied to all its subsidiaries including Instagram and WhatsApp. The new logo, which one reviewer said looked better for a finance company than the world’s largest social media platform, caused quite the controversy.

The move also got us thinking. At the time, we wrote: “With the rush to keep brands fresh and relevant, do enough managers consider the simple question: Is your brand ready? Facebook’s recent history is a great example of the dynamics at play. The debate about Facebook’s new corporate logo is really about the health of the company’s overall brand image. 

Years of data privacy scandals have battered its image and calls to break-up the social media giant have put its house of brands under the microscope. While the new logo reflects a new, more inclusive vision for Facebook, it is simply not bold enough to overcome the mountains of negative PR the company is dealing with The logo doesn’t significantly differentiate between Facebook the platform and Facebook the corporate parent company. ”  

Since Facebook was unclear about it’s “why”, its rebrand and pivot didn’t achieve the desired effect and actually caused a backlash. By contrast, Google’s rebrand in 2015 had the opposite effect. Google was able to draw investors’ attention to the panoply of products in its portfolio without diminishing Google’s brand recall for the average user. A good brand is a visual extension of business strategy.

The lesson here has particular relevance to the current moment and its challenges. When businesses stay true to their “why”, whatever that might be, pivots and new directions can unfold seamlessly. Without this form of authenticity, problems linger and the ability to rise to new challenges is hampered.