The impact of the war in Ukraine is being felt by businesses throughout the world. As a result of economic sanctions, displaced workforce, and supply chain disruptions, risk managers are updating their risk profiles. Thousands of companies in Europe and worldwide have seen their go-to-market strategies messed up by these issues.
As a result of the war and the subsequent displacement of tens of thousands of Ukrainian developers, several firms have informed that their scheduled product launches have been suspended.
Just as they have been doing during the pandemic, portfolio marketers should take action now to review their go-to-market strategies and have up-to-date, consistent, and empathetic messaging across their entire portfolio.
Four Actions Portfolio Marketers Must Take
- Reprioritize market segments by revisiting your go-to-market architecture – The organization’s go-to-market strategy and target buyers are essentially changed by withdrawing from a market segment. Target segments need to be adjusted if you stop activity in Russia, or if the activity is discontinued when targeting other markets.
Although buyer personas rarely change, their needs may have encountered a shift that you should address. For instance, they may now have crucial questions about supply chain shortages, product or service delays, or cyber security that providers should address.
- Add a campaign to expound on changes to potential buyers – As a manufacturer and service provider, you need to communicate clearly, whether you need to notify buyers currently engaged in a buying cycle about delays or shortages or to explain the organization’s approach to trading with Russia or support for Ukraine.
To ensure the tone and messaging frequency is appropriate to the crisis, work with brand and corporate communications and campaign teams. Take actions that are authentic and rooted in the organization’s brand purpose.
- Taking note of the conflict, review current messaging – Ensure content and messaging are authentic to your brand and sensitive to the conflict. Messaging that resonates with buyers should see to their needs. Your buyers’ situation may have changed, creating more buyer needs.
Analyze whether offerings need to be repositioned to demonstrate these shifts. Potential opportunities could come up as new buyer needs emerge, work with brand and corporate communications to explore if this is the time to promote to those needs. - Ensure consistency by commissioning buyer-facing reps across the organization – the entire organization should be adjusted to the new go-to-market strategy and its response to service delivery or supply chain issues. Issue updates to sellers and ensure they understand how to explain the changes to buyers as well as why they are occurring.
Provide updated messaging to content, demand, and campaign teams so they can quickly pull content, audit materials, revise where need be, and/ or pause campaigns that market to Russia or Ukraine.
Portfolio marketers bear the responsibility of understanding buyers and markets. Any disruption that affects their targeted audiences needs to be recognized and acted upon with diligence.
