Consumers in Crisis – Emerging Marketing Challenges

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant disruptions in the life of consumers. Consumers have started to learn and live a “new normal” lifestyle, shifting to spending only on essentials, consuming home food as compared to eating out or ordering in, increased use of technologies for shopping, education, and entertainment, and focusing on health and family. This change in the behaviour of average consumers has redefined the basics of marketing. Businesses are struggling due to lockdowns, lack of labour, tightened spending by consumers, and lack of raw materials for their operations. Working from home, consumers have started using digital technologies to search, identify, and order their bare minimum essentials. The purpose of this research paper is to evaluate how marketers should redefine their marketing strategies to adapt to changing consumer behaviour. As consumer behaviour is changing because of COVID-19, marketers need to rethink their fundamental marketing campaigns, moving away from traditional in-store marketing techniques to using digital technologies to reach consumers at their homes. This research was conducted using a structured questionnaire sent out to marketing executives. The responses received were analysed using SmartPLS. The present study provides valuable insights to the marketers on the emerging strategies that need to be adopted. Marketers should comprehend the social and economic impact of the pandemic, invest in digital technologies to reach out to customers virtually, streamline their supply chain to take advantage of localisation, offer family-oriented products, adopt short-term pricing policies, and develop alliances with competition for economies of scale.