The route to CEO via marketing
What impact has Covid-19 had on businesses? And how can they bounce back? We ask 4,500 business leaders across the world.
The outlook is certainly quite gloomy for businesses, even with positive headlines about vaccines emerging more recently. According to Kantar’s Global Business Compass, our survey of nearly 4,500 business leaders across the world – over 900 of them C-suite, in 60+ markets and 40 global businesses – more than half of business leaders (57%) believe that the economic drag of the Covid-19 pandemic will last a year or more after the delivery of a vaccine, with more than one quarter (27%) expecting their business to take at least two years to fully recover from the crisis.
How we did business in 2020
More than two-thirds (69%) of businesses expected to end the second half of 2020 in decline, with one in six of those leaders expecting their business to be down in excess of 40% year-on-year. At least 54% of businesses expressed a requirement for continued support – primarily in the form of improved tax conditions or deferral of tax payments.
Focusing on the marketing function, we identified that almost two-thirds (61%) of companies had reduced their marketing spend in 2020 – the average decrease was 37%. Half of companies said they had cut communications and media spend, by an average of 39%. Where does that leave them, and what happens next?
How will businesses change in 2021?
In the post-pandemic world, business leaders expect there will need to be a fundamental rethink of businesses and strategies: 90% of them expect changes to consumer behaviour established during the pandemic to persist post-crisis. Indeed, it would be fair to say that no recession to date has brought consumer change of this magnitude. But, interestingly, nearly half of those surveyed (48%) claimed they’d be spending less on understanding changing consumer behaviour.
We urge leaders to recognise the importance of a purpose-led strategy and the role of sustainability in their operating models, to ensure that they continue to remain relevant to this evolving customer base.
Marketing teams should reflect on what explicit or implicit needs are being met and consider the impact they can have on people’s lives, functionally or emotionally. Integrate purpose as a living element of the communication, product, brand experience and brand commitment, rather than treating it as an isolated concept.
2. Digital transformation
According to our Covid-19 Barometer, 40% of consumers say they have increased their e-commerce spend during lockdown, and 45% of consumers say they will continue shopping with online stores they found during the pandemic.
As a decade’s worth of incremental change takes place in a period of months, 95% of business leaders surveyed agreed that online spending will likely increase. But just 55% of companies say they have invested in their e-commerce capabilities during the pandemic, so there is clearly more work to be done to adjust to this new reality.
