In the Future, All Brands Will Be B Corps

Ten ways to reorient your brand strategy to revive your business

Crises are great truth-tellers. Brands are, in real-time, going through the crash course in social responsibility, and there are already winners and losers. Winners acknowledge what their customers are going through. Losers are pitching Mother’s Day sales and charging premium for medical masks on eBay.

Crises tell the truth about a company. They expose organizational and operational strengths and weaknesses. They challenge leadership. They bring on business disruption, revenue drops, layoffs, and the pressure to reduce expenses and find new ways of making money.

Crises seem to particularly accelerate transformation of industries that are already in flux, like publishing and retail. Publishers are preparing for 30 percent drop in forecasted revenue; the figure for fashion retail is between 25 percent and 35 percent.

But crises also offer a creative toolbox. They force thinking and acting differently, and force businesses to address problems in new ways. In the process, a business may stumble upon a great new idea, discover an unexpected revenue stream, take a risk it was too cautious to consider before, or find a way to be closer to the community it serves.