Jordi Mateu, a Spanish professor at the School of Master’s and Postgraduate Studies at Pompeu Fabra University, led a webinar on the challenges and opportunities facing brands in the new normal resulting from COVID-19. The talk was titled “Brand Strategy in the Face of a Crisis” and took place on Monday, July 13, 2020, moderated by Prof. Pedro García Maggi, who teaches Brand Management in the Bachelor’s Degree in Communication.
“What is a brand?” asked Jordi Mateu, who offered three definitions that are not mutually exclusive but rather complementary:
- An expression of a company's purpose and commitment to its stakeholders.
- What people think, say, feel, and share about a product or service.
- The promise of an experience.
Mateu pointed out that, at present, only 15% of brands manage to become meaningful to people.
85% of the world’s brands are redundant. This puts them under constant pressure to secure a prominent place in consumers’ minds. For example, people don’t care if a bank wants to be the global leader; what matters to them is what that bank can do for them.
The Challenge Facing Brands in the Face of the Crisis
"This is not an economic or financial crisis," Mateu clarified. "It is a health crisis that is having an economic impact—in fact, a greater economic impact than a financial one. It is a crisis we haven’t experienced in many, many years: physical fear makes us feel extremely vulnerable, and we are also in a situation of uncertainty, not knowing when it will end."
On the bright side, he said, the only positive aspect is that “there are instances of collaboration and solidarity, as well as an urgent need to find new ways of working and communicating.”
The crisis caused by the pandemic forced companies to act very quickly, even to improvise: “Companies that weren’t culturally digital (or even digital natives) had to transform themselves; we’ve had to adapt to a new economic reality and revise our goals and forecasts; all of this has led to a reassessment of assets.” For example, he said that a large number of companies realized how useful it would have been to have well-structured databases, or how important it would have been to have a good e-commerce system in place to keep selling while their physical stores remained closed.
All of this “affects the ways in which brands connect with their audience,” leading them through three stages:
- Lockdown: Action, Not Just Words.
- A New Way of Living Together: Building Trust.
- The New Normal: Redefining Meanings.
In closing, he stated that “this crisis will accelerate processes, requiring agility, flexibility, and digitalization,” and that the key to survival will lie in understanding that “the most compelling brands aren’t the ones that sell, but the ones that speak.”
Jordi Mateu is a partner and managing director at Summa, Spain’s leadingbrandingagency and one of Europe’s top firms in the field. His clients include companies such as Inditex, Telefónica, RTVE, Santander, BBVA, Grupo Planeta, Seat, FC Barcelona, IKEA, and Nestlé. He also holds a degree in Business Administration and a Master’s degree from ESADE, with postgraduate training at IESE and Harvard. A specialist in Brand Strategy, Marketing, and Business, he has built his career holding leadership positions in companies across various sectors: Consumer Goods, Telecommunications, Real Estate, Advertising, and Services.