History says now is a great time to invest in your brand.

In a wide ranging webcast of marketing during coronavirus, Mark Ritsen, Marketing Week columnist and founder of Mini MBA got down to brass tacks at around the 33 minute mark.

A comparison between the performance of stocks in the Morgan Stanley World Index and Standard & Poors 500 against Kantar's (previously Millwood Brown) BrandZ portfolios revealed two things:

• Brands are more resilient
  While having a strong brand doesn't necessarily protect you at a time of crisis, it does help you come out of the crisis sooner compared to other businesses.
• Brands deliver faster growth
  A strong brand produces a widening gap in business performance versus less brand-centric businesses as time continues.

If it is indeed the case that the majority of marketer's are planning on cutting back their marketing activity (as per the earlier link), that gives an advantage to those who invest now.

And the advantage is twofold:

• By taking themselves out of the market, your competitors may be reducing the bidding price on Pay Per Click (PPC) search terms, enabling you to attract more website traffic for a lower price.
• By either investing more than before, or by maintaining your investment, you will be increasing your share of voice, and, accordingly, your share of market. (Although simply increasing share of voice won't effect a change in market share if you don't have the right messaging or channels.)

Think of Hiscox - okay, they're having a tough time at the moment. But the reason we bring them up is that before Hiscox became a brand that is admired and envied in the industry, its ability to attract and retain talent would have been no better than any other well regarded Lloyd's Syndicate.

But can you imagine the talent pool they've had to choose from over the last 10 years or so. People want to work for businesses other people have heard of. They want some of the magic of the brand to rub off on them.

Studies show that businesses with a higher profile are perceived to be more trustworthy. And that means they're chosen more readily by customers and clients too. There's a reassurance people get from buying a trusted brand, one that's worth paying a little more for.

So, not only does a strong brand increase its bottom line by reducing the cost of acquiring talent and business, it makes people less price sensitive and grows top line numbers too.