Typically at this time of March, I am watching a lot of college basketball as March Madness is playing through the brackets. This is not a typical March, but we are experiencing a new madness! Sporting events being canceled seems like the least of our worries. With the effort to contain the pandemic, many businesses have closed their offices except for essential employees. Industries that depend upon large numbers of people coming to their location have been mandated to close. Other employers have laid off staff and closed their businesses for the duration. How long will that be? It’s anyone’s guess. The optimists say that a few more weeks and we should be back to normal. The pessimists are making predictions in months, not weeks. The workforce will, eventually, go back to the job. But when we go back, will it be the same?

Anytime there is a disruption in what we would call "normal” in business, there is an opportunity to change that normal. Especially when the old normal is stopped for any length of time and business has to continue, smart people find a new way to get the job done. I suspect this will be the case when we all go back to work after this virus has run its course.

So what will change? First, employers who may have contemplated letting their personnel work remotely, but had never given the idea a trial run, are getting to kick the tires on that opportunity now. Many people can be more productive at home. Business managers are seeing if that is reality in their case or not. Likewise, workers are finding out if they have the ability to separate home life from work life in a home office situation. Expect more remote and home office opportunities as part of the new normal. Secondly, we are finding out that we may not need person-to-person meetings to have face-to-face conversations. If you can eliminate time and travel expenses in lieu of a video conference with the same results, why not make this change permanently? Expect online conference meeting formats like Zoom, Google Hangouts and GoToMeeting to be utilized more and travel for meetings to become less. Thirdly, we will forever be more cautious about big events with large crowds of people. What will this do to tradeshows, conferences and big sponsored events? Look for public health to become a large part of these events. Expect everyone to be required to use hand sanitizer and turn in a ticket before they enter the building. Look for more isolation in eating vendor areas, with more immediate cleaning requirements on shared surfaces, like bars, tables and chairs.

What does all this mean for marketing? New changes are opportunities for marketing. For instance, remote employees can be a boon for the image of a company if you play it right. Selling the concept of at-home employees are more productive employees is only a short step away from telling customers you are getting our best. Plus it makes your company look like it is on the cutting edge of employee flexibility. This is a perfect piece of information to promote through social media (like the at-home employee of the month.) And what about those large gatherings? Health should be a part of your marketing message. What about putting your logo on bottles of hand sanitizer and handing them out at your next event instead of stress balls?

We are living in changing times and you can expect your customers will demand more of you in regards to your health policy. What’s that? You don’t have a health policy? You may need to create one and market it on your web site. That may seem a bit extreme to you, but it is the reality of where we are living now. You may find that publishing an employee health policy on your web site that includes healthy ways of touching people, distances to separate two people when talking to them, requirements of employees if they are feeling sick at work, the health insurance your business provides employees, etc. becomes essential to marketing your business.

If you think this sounds more like an HR issue than it does a marketing issue, think again. Just last week, we had a client who asked us to craft an employee health statement and send it to their customers in response to the current viral crisis. That was precipitated by one of their customers who asked for such a statement before they proceeded with a contract. Anything that gets in the way of a customer signing a contract is a concern for marketing.