I'm a brand marketing guy. I run a couple of workshops, and one of those workshops is designed to help business better understand how to stimulate and  achieve growth by helping to better internally align the brand, this in turn helps to deliver an externally aligned brand strategy. 

My tried and tested process is based around something I call 'consumer hedonics' which is a blog for another day but is underpinned by asking leadership teams in businesses to look in the mirror and better understand 'why' the consumer is choosing to spend their money with a competitor over them.

The other workshop is designed to develop a 'social media' strategy. 

It's aimed at companies who no longer have the media spend budgets or resource they once had, but for obvious reasons need to remain front of mind in order to deliver on revenue plans. 

I talk quite a lot about how companies completely miss the point about social media networks along with the strategies and skills needed to support them. 

I genuinely believe this is due to pre-Covid the marketing department having been reduced to the companies paid media digital communication sausage making machine. 

Instead of looking at social media platforms as a place to get free research on consumers, test reactions to new product ideas around the globe, and build authentic relationships they continued to see it as a place to bombard us with the ad-tech shit we all seem to want to ignore - why?, because this is the way it's always been done.

When we can eventually get back to the day job things will have changed. 

Many companies will be operating on tighter resource and most certainly with a greater restrained media budget spend than ever before.

I have a view that many retail companies (other sectors also) will be subject to 'revenge spending' as they start to resurface from the draconian lockdown measure.

What I mean by 'revenge spending' is those companies who were highly visible and appeared to help and assist consumers during this crisis will probably become the commercial beneficiary as brands try to get things going again. 

They will do this because the brands that sat on the sidelines, or continued with the self promoting messages are the likely losers.

Of course there will be an initial surge in spend as people that can still afford it rush to get their retail fix, but this is likely to be a short lived boost. I think crowded places such as malls, cinemas, markets and sporting events will be frequented less for a period of time, and at least until we have a global vaccine in place.

Consumers, just like you and me have already adapted behaviour throughout lockdown and as such will be more used to 'virtual routines' opting for more online services, such as online shopping and streaming movies, events and sports, as much as possible.

Moving forward, when dining out, consumers will adopt healthy eating habits and pay more attention to the cleanliness of restaurants. 

Online education service providers will also see a surge in demand for their services as more consumers are learning and discovering that e-learning can be just as effective as physical training.

So, if your competitor has taken the time during this lockdown to embrace social media and upskill the entire business as a way to better align the brand message and build relationships in a more authentic and helpful way than your brand, the chances are the consumer is more likely to give them their business instead of you, and that my friends is my version of 'revenge spending'.