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Economic turbulence will put a strain on even the most harmonious of relationships. For good or for bad a crisis will affect a partnership, and often a third party is called in to smooth out the bumpy ride – or offer a neutral, panic-proof explanation at the least.

It’s no different in the brand-consumer relationship – that powerful, elusive and complex bond that marketers try diligently to understand, fortify and exploit. During a recession, the bond is unavoidably affected. Brands are vulnerable to the whims of consumers, who may change their allegiance in the worst case, or strengthen their loyalty in the best.

What’s a brand to do when a crisis hits? The credit crunch affected all markets, but Mark Hutchinson, regional director of brand equity at market researchers TNS, points out that it has not meant the end of the world – and there are some good lessons to be learned.

“First of all, it’s very important for brands to offer certainty to consumers,” he says. “In uncertain times, just by human nature, we all look for certainty. We are looking to anchor our lives to things that make us feel safe and secure, things that we trust. A lot of the time, it’s a very emotive and powerful response, and that is why we need to understand how consumers behave in that sort of environment, and also how they feel.”

Hermann Behrens, CEO of The Brand Union Middle East, says that consumers will look to cut back on their spending, but they will still spend on brands they believe in. “In other words, consumers don’t want to take a risk with their hard-earned money,” he says. “Trust and belief are earned through brands.”

SEEING THINGS IN 2D. Anne Woodhams, regional manager for brand and communications at TNS, says each consumer deals with recession in different ways.

“Some people have quite high anxiety and are highly stressed about it, while other people are much less stressed and much more optimistic,” she explains. “And some people might have an individual type of response like, ‘This is an opportunity for me, I think I can come out on top.’ For others it is about battling it together and collectively getting through it. So if you think about the two dimensions – the high stress, low stress, and the individual versus the collective response – that is what helps us create a model of different consumer responses.”

That might be a lot to think about, but Hutchinson breaks down the rules of branding during a crisis, and says that recessions don’t need to have an adverse effect on everyone, citing CNN and MTV as examples of two brands launched during tough economic times.

“The iPod is also an example not just of a brand that was launched during a recession, but a product and brand that was launched at a time of great turmoil globally, because it was launched immediately after 9/11,” he says. “So, there are opportunities.”

Providing security and comfort to consumers comes easy to some brands. They can keep them close and ease their stress in difficult times. Woodhams says it doesn’t matter whether brands are high or low end, they can all tailor their messages to suit the general mood.

“If it’s a statement brand, like Jimmy Choo, you don’t even need to acknowledge the recession – it is about tailoring your advertising to be a little bit less flashy and obvious,” she says. “But do not give in to the recession, because the consumers who buy those kinds of products still want to have them.”

For those consumers with higher stress levels and a collective outlook, Woodhams says, a brand like McDonald’s plays its role well, engaging consumers’ emotional responses. “McDonald’s is very much about friends, a cheery atmosphere,” she explains. “So its response to the recession would be very much like, ‘We still want you to enjoy our menu, here is a special recession meal.’”

After providing a sense of certainty and security by sending reassuring messages to consumers, a brand should then go back to its roots, and remember what made it successful in the first place. Hutchinson says people find security in buying established brands; brands shouldn’t walk away from their positioning, but tweak it to fit the times instead. “Most importantly, don’t cut quality,” he says. “This will open you up to competitor threats, and it also erodes trust in your brand.”

Hutchinson cites Kit Kat as an example of cost-cutting gone wrong. Its manufacturing company Rowntree made the layer of chocolate that covers Kit Kat wafers thinner in order to cut costs during the recession of the ‘70s. “[Rival confectioner] Mars did not,” explains Hutchinson. “What do you think happened? Kit Kat lost market share and it took years and years to recover from that. They eroded the trust among their consumer base.”

Another cardinal lesson of branding during a recession comes in the form of value, which Hutchinson says does not mean cutting prices or costs. He explains that marketers should think about perceptions of value and how to build value-added services into their cost (for example, Starbucks offers wi-fi in its shops), or adding a “fighter brand” at a lower price (Anheuser-Busch brewery introduced a cheaper lager called Colders 92 in the US during the 1991 recession to capture the market share that was drifting away from Budweiser).

“It’s easy to cut prices,” says Hutchinson. “But it’s much harder to put prices back up once consumers are acclimatized to paying less, and that spells disaster for brands.”

Behrens agrees that cutting prices is a slippery slope, and it should be avoided. Emirates Airlines reacted to the crisis by introducing a low-cost airline (Fly Dubai) while maintaining its premium offering, and Behrens says the airline is a good example of adding value to a brand.

“But even if your brand is under pressure, you have to be very careful in positioning yourself on cost, because it’s not a sustainable position,” he continues. “There’s always someone who can come in cheaper than you. Unless it’s a long-term positioning and it’s sustainable, we recommend our clients don’t sell themselves on cost price and value for money. It doesn’t build customer loyalty. It’ll build short-term tactical sales, but also potentially denigrate your value to customers in the long term.”

Just like most of the industry, the branding sector has been affected by the crisis, and Behrens says clients tend to pull back on projects during a recession. But he says agencies have found new areas of branding which clients are interested in, areas Behrens calls “more strategic” than the work they have done in the past.

“We have clients in Saudi Arabia who are looking for brand tracking studies, to track their brand health and see if it is as strong as it should be,” he says. “Also, we are working with some companies that operate in multiple markets with multiple brands. In many instances, those brands have been acquired rather than organically grown. What companies are saying is, ‘Instead of trying to support six or seven brands in different markets, let me consolidate my funds and my brand equity into a single brand, and let me use a single brand approach across different markets.’ A good example is Zain, who were pioneers in the concept, where they actually had acquired companies and rebranded them to Zain. It’s a trend we’ve seen, and ultimately what clients are looking for is to spend less money building multiple brands, and rather build a single strong brand and extend their reach into different markets.”

The reaction of consumers to brands can change unexpectedly depending on circumstances, but branding experts are clear that this response is emotive. And if marketers can understand how their brand affects people’s emotions, they can persuade them to stay true.

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