How brands turned Covid crisis into an opportunity

The over two month long nationwide lockdown which was put in place to slow down the spread of the Covid-19 infection has led to several brands re-strategising their business models in order to recover from the sweeping losses they had faced during the lockdown. Some of the brands include Gem Selections, India’s biggest gemstones brand; 750AD Healthcare Pvt Ltd, an online healthcare platform which was launched around the same time when the pandemic hit the world; Gympik that launched a virtual gyming platform amongst others. 

Some brands also turned this pandemic from a crisis to an opportunity. Illumnus is such a company that has changed completely through Covid-19. Post-lockdown, when 99% of the institutes were looking for some steady solution for online learning and were striving to conduct online examinations, Illumnus brought in a new solution for all these problems and helped bring entire schools online. The brand added new features like online examination, video lecturing, prearranged assignments, smart attendance, content suggestion, institute library, and in-depth analytics to aid the process of online education for institutes across the country, during lockdown. 

While the well-known and very popular online jewellery brand Gem Selections incorporated an augmented reality & 3D hologram imaging technology for its complete inventory at their flagship stores so that the customers can try all the products physically, rather than trying them virtually before purchasing. This, according to the company, was roped in so that the customers can try these jewelleries without having to physically touch them again and again.

 As for 750AD Healthcare Pvt Ltd, which was launched just ahead of the global lockdown, it re-strategised its policies and branding to help people during the lockdown with online doctors, counselling and many other features. The brand also launched multiple campaigns during the same period which included their awareness campaigns like ‘Together We Can Help Prevent Suicides’, ‘Thankyoudoctors’, ‘Health is True Independence: Independence Day Campaign’, ‘Thankyounurses’, ‘HospitalReviewProgram’, among others. 

Owing to the pandemic all gyms were closed for the longest time as compared to any other business. Gympik, a fitness brand, took this opportunity to launch an online portal for the fitness enthusiasts and integrated virtual training in its club management software. It developed a scalable model to endure in the changing landscape and this was done through its newly developed interface, live streaming feature that was integrated seamlessly to make training sessions interesting through virtual experience that is controlled and implemented from one platform.

 However, for TAA Music Label, a music company that works with talented musicians and singers from across the country, the lockdown came as a blessing in disguise. The brand made a radical shift from focusing on generic music towards discovering and honing every artist’s unique skills and produced EPs based on the same. Also, there was a shift in the marketing model. While earlier social media was one of the major promotion platforms, the pandemic opened the gates for radio shows like RedIndies shuffle show (A 93.5 Red FM, all independent music show). 

Additionally, the brand has also developed new and innovative ways of saving video production costs through ‘Mobile Shoot’ and ‘Graphical Videos’ saving the cost for shoot, travel, crew which is now being invested into promotion.