On Thursday 2nd April, I attended (for lack of a better word) a super interesting webinar all about “pandemic culture” – looking at the impact of social isolation, the role of 24/7 media coverage, and what brands can do and what they shouldn’t do etc.

I initially wrote this up as a thread on Twitter but to make it more accessible I’ve now transferred this across to here. Hopefully it’s useful and interesting to some of you.

But here is the thing:

Anxiety is not fear.

Fear has an object. It relates to a known threat.

Anxiety is about the unknowns, the uncertainties, the lack of clarity or security. Anxiety is going down the steps in the dark and realising there’s one more step than you expected. It’s the sickly swooping-stomach of surprise as your foot finds air, and you’re falling and desperately trying to readjust all at once. 

Not individually as we all isolate.

Not nationally or globally as the world grinds slower and slower every day. 

Not even our leaders really know what they’re doing and scientists seem to be coming up with new, conflicting models all the time.

So of course we’re anxious. We’re being confronted by uncertainty on a colossal scale. And this ends up triggering a sense of lack of control within many of us. We are being overwhelmed. We are frequently confused by all the unknowns.

Add to this our “Availability Bias” and no wonder our anxiety is being aggravated.

We are bombarded by the media by new information about Covid-19 and its impact every minute of every day: Death tolls. Case rises. Economic impacts. Loss of jobs. Businesses going under. 

Thing is Covid19 is a newsworthy virus – political agendas, scientific advancement AND media interest are all aligning. But the inundation of information fuels our anxiety. And – somewhat ironically – this in turn causes us to seek out more information and perpetuate our own stress cycles. 

The WHO have even talked of an “infodemic” due to the all consuming nature of the media exposure of the virus.

Side note: remember when people were talking about “contagion” theory with Grexit (I know what a throwback)?

Well social contagion of situational anxiety is very real – particularly whilst we’re isolated and lonely.

Loneliness has a lot of secondary symptoms and impacts on mental health. It intensifies our worries and can create a sense of being powerless. 

So where does all this leave us?

I mean – it’s not really news that people are anxious right now. 

Some ways of doing this are by looking at what customers need emotionally and how they’re responding societally.

Think about anxiety: it’s triggered by unknowns, uncertainty. So how can a brand help to give back something known, something people can be sure and in control of? 

BUT don’t shoe horn yourself into the narrative right now.

It’s okay not to have a voice on this crisis, to hunker down and deliver what you can in the current conditions without spinning it. In fact that might be better for your brand than to try and capitalise on the chaos. 

For many businesses and brands, we’re looking at a period of restrained consumption.

The values and habits that traditionally shape spending are changing massively and fast – some are entirely disrupted already – so what might that mean long term? 

Living with less by necessity is very much a thing today – partly because we simply cannot consume like we did before.

We don’t have the access, cashflow is not great right now, supply shocks abound – the coronavirus is absolutely hitting our instant gratification monkeys.

Of course – there’s still the Lipstick / Mascara Effect.

Mini indulgences are going to happen.

People will buy stuff that helps them reinforce their sense of self, identity and esteem. It is a known coping mechanism for anxiety as gives sense of control. 

Basically, there are new habits and new contexts to embrace – so for businesses, it’s important to be ready and willing to pivot, you need to be flexible and think about how you can tap into these crisis behaviours in a positive and emotionally sensitive way. 

To stay relevant you’ll need to think about new customer journeys:

Streaming, take aways, socialising around Netflix.

Reinventing your access points.

Not depending on old ways because – frankly – you can’t. 

And finally, it’s as much about what comes next as now.

There will be long term changes and impacts on our wellbeing and habits, so consider how those will change our spending and consumption behaviours.

Right now we’re anxious and uncertain.

But we will adjust.

We will find a new normal.

Question is – will you and your business be ready?