How marketers can respond to China's Omicron outbreak

As China continues to be impacted by the Omicron Covid-19 subvariant, Edge, an insights team at Publicis Group, has released its latest insight report on the impact of COVID-19 on the market. To date, Omicron has spread across 30 provinces in China with more than 800,000 people infected and 65 million people affected due to strict Covid protocols. Shanghai, which has been at the centre of the latest outbreak, has now started to ease restrictions on businesses to kickstart the city’s economy after weeks of lockdown.

Here are four takeaways from this report for marketers: 

• Offer 'little luxuries': As consumers move to buy beyond daily necessities, brands with the ability to provide products that help make life in the lockdown better should continue to advertise and explore alternate purchase channels to fulfil consumer demands.
• Belt tightening to come: While consumers are willing to pay for little luxuries while in lockdown, this will not continue as the long-term impact of a slowing economy may impact consumer confidence.
• Exposure, exposure: Ad awareness is still impacting purchase intention in such times therefore reducing ad spends may cause brands to shrink mental availability and impact brand consumption post the lockdown.
• Create new occasions: Help consumers discover new ways of using your product in home, expanding their consumption repertoire.