It is still unclear how long the negative economic impacts that occurred around the world with the outbreak of the Corona virus Covid-19, which emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan, in December 2019, will last. In particular, the imposition of a complete curfew or Partial growth in many countries until the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changes consumer behavior and reshapes the industry and brands. While physical stores, in particular, are negatively affected by the pandemic due to the measures taken and customer preferences, brands on the online platform are constantly gaining customers by increasing their sales volume. Consumers have begun to prefer e-commerce, which is considered the fastest and most practical way to meet their needs in the pandemic environment.
This period, of course, also affected brand communication. As restrictions increased in everyday life, brands began to meet consumers more in digital life. While some brands are suffering economic losses in these days of severe economic recession, some brands have turned this situation into an opportunity and have reached very good points economically.
Brands should move forward with approaches that align with customer expectations, especially considering the pre-pandemic, post-pandemic and post-pandemic period. The brand should not shrink due to economic recession, but rather act in line with the desires and expectations of the customer. Brands that meet customers’ demands and expectations gain empathy and create a strong relationship with their customers.
Hygiene is one of the things that consumers care about most during the pandemic. Brands must review their product and service operations on the basis of health and hygiene and create trust in their customers. In this period, the relationship of trust that brands will create towards their customers is very important. The bond of trust created by the brand will make consumers identify with the brand and prefer that brand more. While most brands collapse economically during the pandemic, brands that create a relationship of trust with their customers will reach better points economically.
There is no doubt that the pandemic period brought with it many challenges in addition to the search for new solutions. Following developments resulting from necessarily changing business processes and business technologies during this period, many new brands met their customers in many sectors. According to statistics published by the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office at the end of 2020, there was the highest increase in trademark registration applications during the past nine years. He pointed out that the number of applications to register trademarks for companies increased by 26.6 percent compared to the previous year, reaching 149,164 applications.
We seem to be hearing that many new brands will be formed after the pandemic. While many people and organizations on digital platforms, especially during the pandemic period, are taking step by step towards becoming a brand, they protect their rights in this field by registering a “trademark” with the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office.