As of the end of February, the pandemic had lasted over a month. During this time, we witnessed the rapid national emergency response and the hard work of medical staff. This black swan event also disrupted many companies' original marketing plans. In times of national crisis, how can brands win trust and respect? After analyzing the pandemic marketing of Coca-Cola, Yili, Nongfu Spring, and other companies, we found the correct way to market during the pandemic. **-01-**User-need-oriented: Marketing during the pandemic is not shameful Is it shameful for brands to market during the pandemic? No. Some believe that marketing during the pandemic is profiteering from national calamity or speculation, but this view is biased. First, let's look at the definition of marketing. Doris, founder of Women's Knife Method, once mentioned: The essence of marketing is to establish a connection between product value and user needs. During the pandemic, users still have consumption needs for food and personal care products, and due to the special environment, they present special consumption needs. Brands provide value to match user needs, helping users find solutions to their difficulties. Pandemic marketing can help build brand reputation and add soft power for post-pandemic brand development. How to build brand power in this war without gunpowder tests the brand's emergency response and consumer insight. During the pandemic, sales are secondary; building brand image and fulfilling social responsibility are the primary aspects. According to research firm data, 37% of users said they would prioritize brands that showed heartwarming actions during the pandemic. So, good pandemic marketing is not shameful but can win respect. Data source: Digital 100 Market Research Company **-02-**Insight into three groups, launch heartwarming actions During the pandemic, major brands first donated money and emergency products to ensure the smooth progress of anti-epidemic actions. We can see numerous donation information online. In reality, many brands cannot donate hundreds of millions like large enterprises. So how can they leverage their product advantages to play a positive role? There are three important groups during the pandemic: medical staff on the front line, consumers isolated at home, and business owners and employees affected by the pandemic. Brands can gain insight into the urgent needs of different groups and provide product support. First: Warm and care for medical staff, let the charging warriors feel love. During the pandemic, every move of medical staff touches everyone's heart. We see them tearfully parting with family to rush to Wuhan; we see them working selflessly, with masks leaving deep marks on their faces. Caring for these people is immense support for the pandemic. Therefore, actions to care for medical staff are particularly likely to attract widespread attention. For medical staff, masks and protective suits are urgent needs, as are convenient and nutritious food and nutritional products, and sanitary products for female medical staff during their periods. We see major enterprises trying to raise and donate masks, protective suits, and other scarce materials to meet needs. Convenience food brands like Master Kong, Uni-President, and Zihaiguo donated products, solving the problem of quick meals for medical staff. In the donation process, we also found many highlights that can be spread and moved, reflecting meticulous care. Let's give a few simple examples. Coca-Cola: Medical staff need not only physical satiety and thirst relief but also psychological satisfaction and comfort. In addition to the regular "24 Hours of Clean Water" emergency drinking water rescue mechanism, Coca-Cola donated a batch of Coca-Cola products this time, saying "We understand, and we have enough." For frontline workers, a bottle of happy water relieves fatigue and fear. Coca-Cola's "happy water" is not just a drink but a spiritual comfort. Coca-Cola's subtle insight added a bright spot to its pandemic marketing. Yili Cheese: The Yili Cheese Business Unit donated 10 tons of high-quality butter to address the quick meal problem for medical staff, cooperating with two well-known Wuhan bakeries, Qianji and Crown Happiness, to make "Love Refueling Packs" provided free to medical staff. Through insight, the Cheese Business Unit found the value point of cheese products and, through cooperation, output high-quality food to convey this value, passing on care to medical staff and establishing a good brand image for Yili Cheese. The Cheese Business Unit is a young business unit of Yili, and during this pandemic, it fully leveraged its product advantages, forming good brand communication, not inferior to other sister business units. Whisper: During the pandemic, the issue of female medical staff's menstrual periods quickly fermented and became a hot topic. It proved that in emergencies, some significant needs are overlooked; only sanitary product brands understand women's pain. Whisper, upon learning of medical staff needs on February 1, expressed willingness to donate adult diapers if any Hubei hospital was willing to accept them, and subsequently donated multiple batches of panty-type products, solving the inconvenience for female medical staff during their periods. In addition, in response to incorrect values such as ignoring female physiological needs and menstrual shame, Whisper, together with brands like Space 7 and Kotex, launched the public welfare topic "I'm a girl, I have my period," calling on society to正视 female physiological needs and guide women to be brave and confident in themselves. Second: Meet ordinary users' needs, solve current life difficulties, and increase users' trust in the brand During the pandemic, what psychological changes do users have, and what needs arise? First, fear and anxiety. The sudden outbreak, soaring confirmed cases, and transmission and death rates far exceeding SARS caused widespread fear. Knowing what to eat to boost immunity and what to use for sterilization became urgent needs. Second, the need for positive energy. The oppressive feeling of the pandemic urgently requires positive information to enhance anti-epidemic confidence and reduce psychological pressure. Third, a bit of boredom. Isolated at home, people need activities to entertain and relieve tension. Brand marketing needs to effectively solve user problems, soothe fear, and build a trustworthy brand image in users' minds. The best way to soothe users' fear is to provide official, professional knowledge output. This is especially evident in dairy products. Taking the milk powder category as an example, brands like Feihe, Yili, and Mengniu Arla have launched 24-hour support work, providing delivery services to ensure baby formula is not interrupted. In addition, the professionalism of milk powder brands requires effective integration of resources to provide professional guidance during the pandemic. Feihe not only provides free expert online protection courses through "Feihe Star Mom Club" but also cooperates with WeDoctor and Ping An Good Doctor to open a 24-hour online consultation green channel for Chinese mothers, providing comprehensive scientific protection support for Chinese families during this special period. Yili Jinlingguan, in cooperation with JD.com, launched live streaming activities, inviting 10 authoritative domestic expert doctors and national senior infant nurses to share professional knowledge on infant protection and feeding during the pandemic, helping parents do better infant care. The introduction of these experts reduces users' confusion when facing massive information and helps them quickly obtain the information they want. Nongfu Spring adjusted its business to address two urgent user needs: home delivery and contactless service. Combining contactless needs, Nongfu Spring deployed over 5,000 unmanned vending points during the pandemic to provide beverages, reducing user contact; and through official WeChat groups and the "Water Delivery to Home" APP, it provided free delivery services for essential products like drinking water and rice. When consumers are surrounded by huge fear every day, the first thing they do when waking up is check epidemic data. If brands can provide positive actions, they can also give people confidence and warmth. Bright Dairy proposed not to reject or reduce prices for raw milk recovery; Lao Xiang Ji's chairman tore up employees' joint letter, promising not to delay wages, which spread widely online. These actions soothe the anxiety of partners and employees, protect their interests, and spread positive energy. To divert consumers' boredom, brands can launch creative, dark-cuisine-style marketing activities to stimulate consumer participation. Qiaqia and Xiangpiaopiao used their product features to carry out fun activities. Qiaqia guided consumers to use sunflower seeds to拼出 various shapes for competition. Among the works, there were pieces echoing the pandemic like "Wuhan Come On" and "Safe Return," which not only increased user fun but also combined with the current anti-epidemic theme. Xiangpiaopiao launched the topic #Home Hardcore Xiangpiaopiao Milk Tea# on Weibo, encouraging everyone to use its products and packaging for creative play, generating over 25 million reads and inspiring many creative products, like using paper cups as phone stands and spelling words with red beans, having fun. For brands, since consumers cannot go out, information acquisition and entertainment rely on online solutions. Building online advantages in a short time is not only conducive to sales improvement but also better creates brand goodwill. Actively use tools like Douyin and live streaming to communicate with consumers in diverse ways. Third: Leverage their own advantages to help businesses severely hit by the pandemic, alleviating industry pressure. Adopt supportive strategies for businesses significantly affected by the pandemic to reduce losses. Brands that bravely assume social responsibility better win consumer respect. During the pandemic, the catering business suffered heavy losses, with offline stores closed and relying only on online delivery, sales dropped by over 90%. The owner of Xibei even said cash flow could not sustain three months. In this situation, companies like Hema and JD Daojia launched shared employee activities, solving some labor problems and providing more support for their own business development. Throughout the anti-epidemic process, Hema gained a wave of fans. Agricultural products were unsalable, and e-commerce platforms like Taobao and Pinduoduo set up agricultural assistance sections to help farmers sell products. Platform intervention helped farmers reduce losses, better survive the pandemic, and also won trust for the brands. **-03-**Pandemic marketing must have limits During the pandemic, it is very important to grasp the scale of marketing. If you cannot find a suitable fit, then just sell steadily, ensure product supply, and do a good job of employee epidemic prevention. Do not use vulgar means to grab attention or seek attention for novelty. Otherwise, it is easy to backfire and trigger negative consumer emotions. The following operations need attention. Do not trigger sensitive points of public emotion or make false advertisements. Combined with the pandemic, you can propose some targeted tips. But you cannot use consumers' fear and anxiety in communication materials to imply that your product has antiviral effects and promote your product. For example, a Dalian C-Store advertised that washing powder "defeats the novel coronavirus," which deceived consumers into buying and violated the advertising law. Do not ride the pandemic trend for personal gain. Some apps, to attract traffic, use small batches of masks as a gimmick to attract users to download and register; or bundle scarce goods and sell gift packages at high prices. Although users may reluctantly buy related products, it is easy to damage brand reputation and affect long-term brand development after the pandemic. Do not trigger controversial points or cause negative topic discussions. Take a shampoo brand's poster "Short-haired you are more beautiful" as an example. The incident of female medical staff shaving their heads during the pandemic itself caused strong public controversy. Some believe this violates personal will and is a forced show. Dove's slogan emphasized that short hair is more beautiful. Although it intended to express respect for medical staff's actions, because the event itself was controversial, this operation not only seemed to ride the trend but also could be understood as supporting the show, which is not conducive to brand image building. **-04-**Conclusion Donating money and supplies is the most direct way to fight the pandemic. And combining subtle emotional points and needs in the pandemic, finding the brand's fit, forming clear brand communication, can stand out from similar brands and form unique memory points. As long as brands can combine their own positioning and output content beneficial to the anti-epidemic effort, marketing is acceptable. Having grief for the national calamity, deep respect for medical staff, thinking of the people's needs, and being anxious about their anxieties—these actions are more about responsibility than marketing!