Consumer attitudes and perceptions will be changed forever. Industries, companies, and brands will be forced back to the drawing board to re-learn and re-understand their markets and their customers. Companies will have to reinvent, re-position, and rejuvenate their products, services, marketing, and advertising. No one knows how attitudes and perceptions will mutate and evolve, but any company or brand that fails to re-invest in basic marketing research to understand and stay in touch with their markets and customers is at peril of oblivion.

After roughly 7 weeks of sheltering in place, most consumers are less than comfortable with the idea of going out and about when orders are lifted. Acceptance differs greatly across categories which include things like shopping in stores, attending small or large gatherings/events, and traveling. The data is from our Covid-19 Consumer Reactions Study wave 6.

“To be or not to be, that is the question” was famously asked by Shakespeare’s Hamlet as he pondered the value of choosing life over death.

In business, opposing positions (such as Hamlet’s) often lead to asking more marketing-nuanced versions of this question: What does your brand or your company wish to be? Or what does your brand or company not wish to be? The answers to these questions form the essence of your company’s strategy, and the answers can lead to corporate life or death as well.