With health and economic concerns making headlines, it’s a good time — a necessary time — for your brand to be a considerate friend.

Today, brands should act according to their principles — the same ones you uphold during normalcy. There’s no reason for your brand personality to shift into a press release robot. Instead, let the situation expose your core beliefs and strengths. Show people who your brand is when it’s not making money.

You may not be able to produce a cure, but you can make life easier for somebody.

Think through the ripple effects to identify where your brand can help.

	Medical professionals are dealing with extreme workloads and stress on their mental health.
	Parents are juggling a remote 40+ hours while caring for kids out of daycare and school.
	College kids have been sent home, some with no home to go to.
	Grade school kids get an early summer break, but a lot of them rely on school systems to eat.

All of us could use some levity in a world now barraged with bad news.

These brands have found niche avenues to help others.

	Google is giving free access to Hangouts while people work from home. So are Zoom, Webex, Loom, Salesforce, Microsoft and many others.
	Domio offers free stays for medical professionals and first responders.
	U-Haul is offering 30 days free for displaced college students.
	Just Eats cut its fee to restaurants.
	Under Armour is putting $1mil towards its Healthy at Home efforts in addition to their $1mil donation to Feeding America.
	CVS has waived fees for home delivery of prescription medications so that patients can avoid coming to the pharmacy for refills or new prescriptions.
	Chipotle offers Zoom lunches with celebrities. Each day, 3,000 fans mingle virtually with celebrities in online chats.

Find the helpers, be the helpers

Linking your brand to a health scare typically isn’t wise, but some brands will try to exploit fears in a scary time. It’s why platforms like Twitter and Google are already blocking promoted content and ads capitalizing on the coronavirus pandemic.

Where’s the line? If you’re responding to COVID-19 in any way, ask yourself if your brand is helping. Do more than simply check the box of acknowledgement. Offer solutions. Show your creativity and your heart.

Be a helper.

Read the other articles in this series:
1: Quarantined Customers & New Behaviors
2: What now? Postpone, Maintain or Double-Down on Marketing
3: Giving Instead of Giving Up
4: Recessions Create New Leaders
5: What to Do When Ad Spend Must Be Cut
6: Pivoting through a Storm
7: Springboarding to the New Normal
8: Coming Back Stronger: A Marketer’s Guide for Recovery

Or skip the articles and get our entire strategy on how to grow market share during economic change. It’s free. It’s not even gated. Just be sure to tell us how you’re putting it to good use.