The good, the bad and the downright odd.

In these very strange times, we are seeing brands acting strangely. So whilst nothing currently is remotely normal, sometimes behaviour in difficult circumstances show the true colours of a company and brand.

Here is a few e.g’s which have caught my eye over the last week.

The good. In fact, the downright excellent. Mercedes F1 team.  Their focus in F1 is on innovation, problem solving, team working and doing it at pace.  They applied those skills and that mindset and by teaming up with clinicians they have designed a new breathing device which will avoid the need for patients to be put on ventilators.

They’ve done it all within a couple of weeks and are now in clinical trials.  Done with little fanfare. Fantastic job and a great example of a brand behaving brilliantly

Contrast that with the behaviour of Virgin Atlantic who pride themselves on being a brand of the people.  They have asked their staff to take 8 weeks unpaid leave.  Mr Branson who is the face of Virgin when it suits him has been suspiciously quiet of late. You ask for loyalty from them and us all the time. Do the right thing live up to your brand and pay your staff.

And for my odd it has to go to McDonalds in Brazil. They have temporarily separated the arches across social media. Apparently, this was meant to convey the idea that we are “separated for a moment so that we can always be together”. Maybe it’s because it just doesn’t work but for me it’s weird just weird.