Revisiting The Pandemic Pivot

The word “pivot” has officially left the building. Remember when it was all we heard about for six months straight at the beginning of the pandemic? Businesses large and small were forced to pivot as their models were disrupted, and the marketplace was turned upside-down by lockdowns and COVID protocols. The art of the pivot, as this was happening, was all the rage.

Now, as the dust has settled a bit, we’re entering a post-pivot world. We get it. The pandemic hasn’t come to a halt yet and there are still some unknowns in the world, but that initial pivot has happened and things have started to settle into their new patterns and order.

With that in mind, it seemed like now was the perfect time to ask ourselves three questions. So take a few minutes, slow down to think through these questions, and take some notes…

First, how have you changed? Looking at your business, your teams, and yourself, how are you different today than you were eighteen, twelve, or six months ago? How has the pandemic forced you to change or allowed you to transform? Has your product or service offering changed? Have you changed how you deliver those products and services? Through the pandemic, have you felt your “why” and purpose shift or become more apparent? Is your internal team looking for something different from you? The answers to these questions are vital to creating something that will succeed today and in the coming years.

Second, how have your customers changed? Do they still want and need the same things from you, or have their wants and needs shifted? Are they experiencing new pain points, or do they have new goals and aspirations they want to create? The pandemic has altered realities for many people… how did they change those realities for your customers? Understanding where they’re at today and how their lives have changed is essential for businesses that want to thrive on the other side.

Third, how has the marketplace changed? Almost every industry has been altered on some level over the past eighteen months. We’ve had to rearrange, reassemble, and reinvent how we do things. Technology roles have been refined. Competitors have been removed. In some cases, the playing field has been leveled. In others, it’s been blown up and reinvented. Having an awareness of how the marketplace has changed and seeing how it impacts you and your customers today is required of all of us.

It can be easy in all the chaos to live life on auto-pilot and just keep moving forward. However, we need to take moments like this from time to time to slow down, reassess, and rechart our way forward. As an agency with a focus on brand messaging, this is the kind of work we’re doing with clients every day, helping them weave the answers to the questions above into their marketing and how they do business. Our encouragement to each of you is to do the same.

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Look at how you answered these questions and make those answers a core part of your marketing and the way you’re talking to customers, your teams, and yourself. The answers to these questions represent your future, at least in the near term. So, take your notes, think through your responses, and then use them to chart your course for what’s ahead. And, work these answers into your marketing and messaging so your customers and your teams can share in your forward-thinking.

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