Ep 06: CEO of T3, Ben Gaddis talks about how multi-location brands are navigating the COVID-19 crisis
This episode marks the first in a new era of the Clicks-2-Bricks podcast where we’ll be focusing on how brick-and-mortar brands are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our first guest is Ben Gaddis, CEO of Austin-based T3 and the author of Embracing Irrationality. T3 is a brand consultancy whose main focus is to help brands in retail, restaurant and financial services spaces embrace the challenges of going digital. In our conversation with Ben today, we learn his perspectives on how brands should be responding to the COVID-19 crisis and the role agencies such as his can play in helping them navigate these uncharted waters. Ben weighs in strongly on the idea of localized marketing in the present climate. Now more than ever businesses should be hypersensitive to their customers’ needs, and willing to restructure their services in a matter of days, not weeks.
We hear about playbooks that T3 is designing to help their clients act in response to their individual situations. Of course, we touch on Ben’s book and the strategies it provides for brands to stay ahead of the curve by identifying ‘shaky constants’, the highly topical idea that things which seemed unchangeable a moment ago weren’t. Another key takeaway from our discussion is the idea that the pandemic might change the way businesses operate even after the virus has largely passed. The cautionary tales and perspectives on the potential for innovation that Ben brings in today’s show are exceptional so don’t miss it!
Key Points From This Episode:
Services T3 provides to help brands embrace the digital transformation challenge.
The opportunity the crisis provides for people to band together and get innovative.
T3’s service to help IRL brands provide digital experiences and win customer loyalty.
Helping clients in restaurants, retail, financial services stay essential during COVID-19.
A strategy of listening to customers’ needs in the crisis to keep your business model relevant.
The value in big businesses ‘thinking local’, thus providing for site-specific customer needs.
Playbooks T3 is developing for clients to change business models pertaining to location-specific demands.
Using stories of a franchisee’s independence to market their individual chain outlet.
An argument for supporting restaurants through the quarantine by ordering in.
Reallocations of media budgets to delivery and e-commerce.
Shifting from brand to performance marketing: what Hyundai did in the 2009 recession.
The need for CMOs to act on their customers’ new desires in days, not weeks, to stay afloat.
Offensive marketing opportunities and how all brands are on a level playing field now.
The potential for new strategies invented now to last well after the crisis.
Embracing Irrationality: guidelines for innovating and overcoming fear while changing.
Identifying ‘shaky constants’: things your business relies on that could surprisingly change.
Topline messages vs hyper-local and context-specific marketing strategies.
Unbranded searches and how T3 helps clients attract customers without paying for SEO.
Ben’s thoughts on the crisis in relation to Gen Zs and influencer marketers.
Tweetables:
“Right now is a time where listening to customers and really understanding what they’re going through is so much more important than trying to force a business model that worked last week on to a new world.” — @bendgaddis [0:13:26]
“This thing could be three more weeks. I guess if you're the president, you think it's going to be two more weeks according to him today, but it might be six more months and we don't know.” — @bendgaddis [0:15:16]
“Behind what might look like a big chain is one guy who put his life savings into this thing and really needs your support.” — @bendgaddis [0:20:31]
“How can you be irrational in your career? How can you be irrational in your home life? How can you be irrational in today's world?” — @bendgaddis [0:38:14]