Brave New World
Reimagining Post Covid-19 Platform Life
So, who are you going to meet or invite over after the lockdown gets over ? I know some of us might want to continue avoiding people but still might be more open to catch up with a favourite brand of ours ! And believe me, I am not judging you if you have a desire like that. These seven weeks have transformed us and might set us on a completely different trajectory of life.
Talking about Businesses and Marketing, some of overzealous marketers might have been even ready with “May the Fourth be with you” ad copies ! Alas, their dreams were crushed by extension of #LockDown for two more weeks. But let me forewarn you to be ready to be slammed with the MayDay’ish marketing messages from Mid of May 2020. After the “We are Together in This“ kind of frivolity during the Covid-19 #LockDown , be prepared for shameless “Please Contribute to Nation Building” by buying our products and services.
See you on the other side.
DTW
During the Week, I got another email notification from INDIGO giving me tips to effectively work from home ! (You can insert any airline joke/meme/abuse here or watch this and continue reading).
I so wish I could also do a stand-up satire piece on them. Some day for sure.
Jokes apart, this is one of many attempts by brands to stay “relevant” during Covid-19 pandemic. Airlines are anyways in deep trouble and we just got a confirmation, when the Sage of Omaha dumped his entire Airlines Stock holdings ! This also tells us the desperation amongst Brands and tacit acknowledgement of their existential crisis. One thing is clear that many businesses that we saw around before the #LockDown are not going to be around when things become NORMAL or the new normal as I keep referring it to in past newsletters. On the other hand, we would see increased concentration of market power with market leaders accumulating disproportionate market share in near future. Both FAANG (along with MS) in USA and BAT in China are doing extraordinarly well in terms of both revenue growth and market capitalisation.
So, as we enter a brave new world , let us analyse the companies which might survive (and even prosper) vs those who are going to struggle (or worse kick the bucket).
Among the companies who might fail, the majority would be condemned because of their failure to imagine. We typically talk about ill-effects of Marketing Myopia and nowhere it is more evident than during a crisis. And I am not talking about short-sighted and ill-advised moves like selling face masks at fashion retailers or delivering groceries by fast food chains. They are like band-aids on gunshot wounds and would bleed the business to death.
For platform business, the difference between success and failure could be “number of sides”. Failure to launch a side to serve an exemplary need of an existing or potential partner in the ecosystem could doom a platform business. Sometimes, the bigger player have the side ready but do not see value in leveraging this side serving a niche. For example, video conferencing as a side is available on almost all big tech platforms but ZOOM took it to new level during Covid-19. Alas, it did not take long for BigTech to refresh and relaunch the Video Conferencing Side and thus push Zoom to irrelevance so quickly. Google refreshed and rebranded Meet/Hangouts and just to run salt in Zoom’s wound made it FREE. Now, who can beat free ! Of course, Facebook went ahead and launched Messenger Rooms that will let you join group video calls even if you don't have a Facebook account. Not that it matters to Facebook. At last count, with over 2.6 billion monthly active users as of the first quarter of 2020, Facebook is the biggest social network worldwide. Thats bigger than any country or even religion on Earth.
This is not to say that the Brick & Mortar stores would end ! On the contrary when the Trade associations like Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) start promoting its members to go online using “Bharatemarket.in, then it becomes clear that the New Normal has surely arrived. Watch out FaceBook-WhatsApp-Jio Platform, FlipKart and Amazon !
So , if your humble Local Kirana Wala is planning to set up a virtual store then virtual -whether work, education or leisure- is here to stay. That also means that the traditional boundaries between work and home which were already under pressure may be stressed further. And that’s a worrisome development from mental health perspective. Going forward, we must reimagine our lives and change this “"Availability “ syndrome. This would call for creating mental & physical spaces for work, family and definitely “me” time.
OTW
Over the Weekend, I received a message of gratitude from an old student friend and it filled my heart with joy and hope. Like always, I am blessed to have all of you in my life and would like to express my gratitude for your friendship. I am also volunteering for a Global Effort ThankYouCareTakers to collect 1 million gratitude messages to 10 million healthcare workers. And, yes, we deliver every single one of them. We are looking to reach out to relevant organisations including Health Care Institutions , PR and Media Firms, Student Bodies, Volunteer Organisations , Start Up Founders. So, please help us at NotOnMap to connect with them.
This is perhaps the right time to reach out to our loved ones and may be also someone who might be estranged for trivial reasons. These are difficult times and all of us could be better off with hope and positivity around us. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg wrote about her coping mechanism after her widowhood in her book Option B along with Adam Grant. Amongst the lessons of Bouncing Forward and Finding Strength Together, she wrote about Taking Back Joy. It resonates so much with me when she says that a life chasing pleasure without meaning is aimless but a meaningful life without joy is depressing one.
“Whether you see joy as a discipline, an act of defiance, a luxury, or a necessity, it is something that everyone deserves. Joy allows us to go on living and loving and being there for others.Even when we’re in great distress, joy can still be found in moments we seize and moments we create. Cooking. Dancing. Hiking. Praying. Driving. Singing Billy Joel songs off-key. All of these can provide relief from pain. And when these moments add up, we find that they give us more than happiness; they also give us strength.”
So, go ahead and bring back your joy !
I Love You.
Shailendra
PS- During the lockdown, low income families struggle to buy menstrual hygiene products. You can help by donating a hygiene pack to a girl in need on the Trice Community .
This newsletter indeed tells us how things are going to change in the "New Normal".However, what I like the most is how beautifully you have articulated one of the biggest lessons of life. The power of staying in a state of joy. I think there cant be a better medicine than laughter to face the toughest times in life. What it does is that it gives us the strength to move forward.
Thank you.
Shailendra Singh Bisht Sir.
I would selectively meet people at home. I am all alone in Pune now. The first thing I will do after everything resumes to normalcy is to go visit my parents. I feel like a crusader to be alone through this but now I know that this has prepared me to tolerate any kind of isolation in future and taught the true difference between "Lonely" and "Alone".
On the work front;WFH has been a good thing for me as I have some extra time now for self development.