The impact of marketing signals on the performance of foreign subsidiaries in the COVID-19 pandemic

An interesting research issue that has not yet been satisfactorily explored is the investigation of business strategic responses in periods of crisis and their performance effects. To shed light on this issue, we take the COVID-19 pandemic as a paradigm and explore the impact of marketing signals such as brand name, advertising, warranties, and pricing on the perceived performance of 165 subsidiaries of multinational enterprises located in Greece. We find differentiated performance effects of the four signals under examination. In particular, brand name and advertising have positive performance effects, whereas pricing negatively affects performance and warranties have a statistically insignificant influence. Further, the perceived performance impact of the specific signals varies across diverse industries. In addition, our research reveals the enhancing performance effect of e-commerce as a means of distribution during the pandemic. The findings suggest that an entrenched marketing policy in the COVID-19 pandemic should be applied selectively and targeted in terms of marketing tools and industry types. Our results are robust for various performance indicators and have marketing, performance, and crisis management implications.