Why Covid-19 is forcing marketing and supply chain to ‘rip up the rulebook’
From rethinking media strategies to streamlining product lines as demand surges, marketing and supply chain are teaming up to weather the coronavirus storm.
During the coronavirus crisis, supply trumps demand. At least that’s the opinion of Eve Sleep CMO, and incoming CEO, Cheryl Calverley.
In a recent opinion for Marketing Week, Calverley points out that the current Covid-19 pandemic is not (yet) a recession and therefore the common issue being faced by most brands is not a case of dwindling demand, but a contraction in supply.
In the UK, frozen food giant Birds Eye got a head-start by liaising closely with its team in Italy to understand the situation in a country where the spread of coronavirus was more advanced.
The team began holding internal incident management team meetings from the end of January, restricting external parties’ access to the supply chain, introducing social distancing in its factories and non-contact thermal imaging technology to detect the temperatures of anyone arriving for their shift.
Next the team made some “bold decisions” to temporarily rationalise the range to free up space in the supply chain, explains UK and Ireland marketing director, Sarah Koppens.