fear of touching paper , hard copy sales of magazines fell suddenly and drastically . This coupled with advertisers cutting down their budgets further reduced revenues . Publishers were initially hopeful that Covid-19 was a passing cloud and sooner than later would be behind us , like a bad dream that disappears in the morning . As we all appreciate now this was not to be and the Covid-19 hangover is still being felt today .
How CMM navigated , and continue to do so , these unpredictable changes was Carole ’ s story and she spoke about five things she did that helped them navigate through these two crises and not just survive but thrive .
The first thing they did especially during the onset of Covid-19 was to seek to understand the crisis . Her advice is therefore for one to seek information from credible sources filtering through the noise and avoiding fake news to get to the truth . They sought information by reading , listening , watching , and talking to people whom they considered experts . What is Covid-19 all about ? How long is it likely to last ? What are the implications on our business ? Information is power and it will enable you make better decisions . You cannot act in a vacuum .
Secondly one should take a long and hard microscopic view of their business with the crisis in mind . So they asked themselves questions , probing deeply ; what is it that we really do ? What ’ s our offer ? How does it benefit our customers ? What assets do we possess and how can we recalibrate them
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one must accept what they cannot change and move on . They must not be married to the way they do their business , otherwise without a shift of mind-set , they cannot navigate a crisis and get to the other side in one piece .
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Listen hard and carefully to your clients for there-in lies your business opportunity and a chance to leverage the crisis . Ask yourself what are their needs , fears , hopes , and aspirations as they navigate the crisis ?
to circumvent this crisis ? What alternatives do you have using the same assets while still staying true to your business promise and brand ethos ? What they realized about their offer leads us to the next point .
Thirdly , they realized that a mind shift was necessary . It dawned on us that thinking ourselves simply as publishers of hard copy magazines was narrowing our options and limiting our potential . Wearing wider lens gave us a 360 degrees view and it dawned on us that we are content creators and the platform on which we offer this content need not be restricted to hard copy magazines . Our readers had changed the way they wanted the content delivered , they preferred it digitally . We had been blind to this shift , hidden in plain view .
On realizing this we acted quickly and repurposed the True Love cover story into the True Love Exclusive on YouTube . In a short time they were garnering an average of 400,000 views per episode . Their interview with Tanasha Donna , on 1st , April 2020 stands out as their pride and joy . It quickly gained 500,000 views the highest to date . True Love Exclusive became a critical strategy in growing their digital numbers and advertisers took note thereby generating revenue for the business .
This segues to her next point : listen hard and carefully to your clients for there-in lies your business opportunity and a chance to leverage the crisis . Ask yourself what are their needs , fears , hopes , and aspirations as they navigate the crisis ?
They realized that their clients were looking for a platform to tell their Covid-19 stories ; how it affected not just their businesses but themselves as individuals and how they were able to navigate through it . They believed that by sharing their stories others in similar circumstances would benefit . So CMM gave them the platform in the name of ‘ Pivoting in Heels ’ a coffee table book launched during the height of Covid-19 . It was very successful not only from a business sense but also in positioning CMM as a brand that cares , further cementing our relationship with our clients . Moreover it fired our morale , taking it to new heights .
Her last nugget is one must take calculated risks . CMM did this by going into the uncharted waters of organizing events . But first Carole gave some background . True Love Magazine is aimed at women aged 25-35 years . This means that women above that bracket , who had been their loyal readers when younger , no longer found the content relevant and felt orphaned . Yet they kept telling them that they knew we could still do something for them . Some are retired and are doing well financially and can be described as ‘ cash and time rich ’.
Looking beyond the obvious , CMM took a risk , and held a curated luxury event for them titled ‘ A Woman in Her Prime ’. The event was a huge success , well attended and sponsored and a ‘ win win ’ for all , the audience ( women in their prime ) the sponsors and CMM , business wise .
CMM have now made events part of their offer to date .
Carole concluded by saying that one must accept what they cannot change and move on . They must not be married to the way they do their business , otherwise without a shift of mind-set , they cannot navigate a crisis and get to the other side in one piece .
I hope that these nuggets will be useful as you navigate this unpredictable business terrain .
Robert Wamai is a trainer and advertising consultant , a passionate consumer advocate and believer in the power of brands . You can engage him on this or related matters via email at : Wamai . Robert @ gmail . com .