Marketing strategies to attract buyers in times of financial crisis Essay

Marketing strategies to attract buyers in times of financial crisis - Essay Example The aim of this paper is to find out how companies in different parts of the world have responded to the global financial crisis in terms of changing their marketing strategies to address the changed needs and preferences of the customers during the financial crisis. Questions that are answered in this paper include; what are the patterns of change in the needs and preferences of the customers during the financial crisis? What are the principles of successful marketing during the times of financial crisis? What should be the companies’ focus during financial crisis to sustain their business and profitability despite the economic pressure? A lot of research has been recently made to study the effects of the recent global financial crisis on the companies as well as the consumers. During any financial crisis, consumers generally become worried about their future psychologically whether or not they have experienced the physical effects of the financial crisis in terms of lack or insufficiency of money themselves. This causes the consumers to become very much concerned about proper use of their money. The preferences of consumers change from luxuries to basic necessities, and they become very critical about the quality of products they purchase. This has many implications on the companies because they need to redesign their marketing strategies to address the changed needs and preferences of the consumers. Findings of this research and the topic of this term paper is of huge significance to the companies that are doing business in the contemporary age when the economy is recovering from the effects of the recent global financial crisis. Also, companies can benefit from these findings in the future during any possible financial crisis. Answers to the aforementioned questions have been found from a review of literature based on the findings of latest researches made to study the effect of the recent global financial crisis on the consumers’ behavior and the market strategies of the companies. 2. Current Research on the Topic 2.1 Effect of Financial Crisis on the Customers’ Behavior and Companies Market Strategies in Romania (Nistorescu and Puiu) conducted a qualitative study to study the way marketing strategies were adapted by the Romanian retailers to the changed buying behavior of the consumers during the global financial crisis. To accomplish this, (Nistorescu and Puiu) collected the empirical data from two companies, namely Carrefour and Real Hypermarket that belong to the Romanian retail sector. The researchers collected the primary data from the information shared on their websites, articles, as well as their annual reports. (Nistorescu and Puiu) observed the implementation of similar changes in the needs and preferences of their consumers during the crisis. Accordingly, both companies adopted similar marketing strategies during the financial crisis e.g. both used loyalty programs and in-store commercial to strengthe n their contact with their respective customers. 2.2 Effect of Financial Crisis on the Customers’ Behavior and Companies Market Strategies in Turkey (Koksal and Ozguk) conducted a quantitative research to examine the effect of financial crisis