Have you seen The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook?

This comprehensive and practical guide to the latest ideas in customer-focused marketing hands you over 200 packed pages of strategy, best practices, do's and don'ts, practical know-how, facts and figures, and ideas to optimise your marketing strategy, boost sales, market share, increase ROI and profit.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)

Three in ten have become Pandemic Pessimists

The new normal won't be normal for at least six months

The research identified a significant shift in 10 out of 21 activities tracked, with consumers moving them into the one- to six-month range before they think it will be acceptable to participate again.

Activities consumers have decided they'll wait a bit longer before resuming included:

• Going to the mall
• Going to a spa
• Attending classes in person
• Voting in person
• Going to a department store
• Eating inside a restaurant
• Going to a bar
• Getting a haircut
• Having people over
• Visiting relatives

"With 5+ million COVID-19 cases, 167,000+ COVID deaths, and 56 million unemployment claims, a pessimistic reality has set in among many Americans," noted Robert Passikoff, founder and president for Brand Keys, a New York-based brand loyalty and customer engagement consultancy. "The pandemic isn't going away anytime soon, and consumers aren't hastily throwing themselves back into normal activities."

Is Anything Safe?
"Consumer attitudes did shift positively for three activities," explained Mike Giambattista, publisher of TheCustomer, a weekly newsletter covering intelligence from the customer insight universe. "Given the current economy and the pandemic, activities consumer felt would be reasonable to resume in the next 30 days reflect, perhaps, the setting in of 'cabin fever,' people sheltering-in have reported."

Those activities included:

• Going to the gym
• Using an Uber or Lyft
• Using a motel room

Consequences of School Openings and Voting
"According to recent UNESCO reports, 100 countries are implementing nationwide school closures," said Giambattista. "In the United States, reopening primary and secondary schools has been politicized, with parents, teachers, and politicians at odds with when - and how - to reopen safely."

In a recent tweet, President Trump wrote, "Play College Football," calling for the sport to resume amid his push for academic institutions to reopen in the Fall. "It's interesting to note, the Pac-12 and Big Ten conferences have announced they will cancel or postpone the 2020 college football season due to the coronavirus pandemic," said Passikoff.

"As to voting in person," continued Passikoff, "Seventy percent of Americans believe the coronavirus outbreak will significantly disrupt people's ability to vote in the presidential election."

"Unfortunately, this wave of tracking data bears all that out," warned Giambattista.

The survey and analysis were conducted the week of August 3, 2020. Findings were based on 3,010 total responses from a US panel, aged 17-70 with a 50/50 gender split.

Have you seen The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook?

This comprehensive and practical guide to the latest ideas in customer-focused marketing hands you over 200 packed pages of strategy, best practices, do's and don'ts, practical know-how, facts and figures, and ideas to optimise your marketing strategy, boost sales, market share, increase ROI and profit.

Learn the insider's tricks and techniques to turn every customers into a 'super spreader' for your brand. It's better than free advertising. Once you start this ball rolling, your brand can grow rapidly through word-of-mouth, advocacy, influencers, and customer loyalty. Super-charge your company's marketing strategy, build up your market share, and make more sales through repeat business and customer loyalty.

Find out what works - and what doesn't - and who's succeeded, and how they did it. See how the world's top brands keep their competitive edge against all odds.

The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook walks you step-by-step through the techniques, metrics, reporting, analysis, marketing models, technologies, tools and innovations for successful marketing strategies - both traditional and emerging - with expert guidance from thought leaders in every major market. Find out the best ways to gather, analyse, and act on customer data to increase profitability, build your brand, empower your customers, beat the competition, reduce churn, and increase customer profitability. This is a marketing book you simply can't afford to be without.

This book aims to hand you all the facts, figures and research data you need for the best decisions for a more profitable, more engaging marketing strategy. It also highlights all the facts, forecasts and trends identified by our experts from the global Marketing Factbook's vast database of market data, news, studies, research and articles, and presents you with an invaluable library of ideas and practical support you can call upon at will.

With The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook at your side, you'll have instant access to a true goldmine of easily adaptable and up-to-date strategies, walk-throughs, trends, research and market data, plus all the supporting arguments you need to build a solid, profitable marketing strategy.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)