The pandemic showed that any sector of economic activity should never underestimate the external environment, which in itself is an uncontrollable variable, thus leading companies to demonstrate flexibility and adaptability, without losing sight of the focus of profitability. There are no miracle recipes, but reinventing the business model is a matter of survival for companies. We live in the “age of experience,” where customers continue to be the focus of business strategy. That's why it is imperative to ensure business continuity through preparation, response, and recovery from these incidents. This is the purpose of the ISO 22301 standard in helping organizations to minimize the risk associated with disruptive events, specifying the necessary requirements to plan, implement, monitor, and continuously improve a management system that allows quickly and effectively to respond to the challenges that may affect the organization. Once business continuity is assured, marketing has the path open to exercise its main objective: to create value for the customer of the new normal.
TopConsumer Buying Behavior
The analysis of consumer behavior is not just about the moment of purchase, but with the before and after purchase. The purchase/consumption of a good or service is not normally a spontaneous and volatile act, it is the effect of a psychological process of internal conflicts (Richers, 1984). The literature analyzes two assumptions about consumer behavior. The first, consumer behavior can be influenced by multiple factors related to the environment, individual differences and influences and psychological processes (Engel et al, 1993). The second takes as a starting point the rationality of consumers in decision making and, therefore, they make the optimal choice between several alternatives. Avgouleas (2008) argues that consumers are not always rational in the decisions they make, often using heuristics to facilitate the entire process, understanding consumer behavior is critical to the success of a marketing strategy.
Given the various possible purchase decisions, it is essential for marketing understand what, where and when consumers buy. To this end, the marketers have to figure out what the various stimuli are like transformed into certain reactions. Marketing stimuli are constituted by 4Ps and other stimuli that include economic, technological, buyer's political and cultural profile. According to Kotler and Armstrong (2017), these key elements will be transformed into actions such as: product choice, brand choice, dealer choice, frequency and purchase volume.Other uncontrollable factors that constitute the cultural, social, personal and psychological characteristics of the buyer can influence the consumer's behavior, therefore, they must be considered when offering products and services. In periods of economic downturn Kotler and Caslione (2009), present three possible consumer behaviors:
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Move to lower-priced products and brands
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Reduce or postpone optional purchases
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Decrease travel with purchases closer to home and longer stay at home, purchasing more meals and looking for more entertainment at home, in particular television and the internet
Ang et al. (2000) state that economic crises affect consumers both psychologically and economically, highlighting the following behaviors:
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Less job security
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Greater concern with financial issues
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Change the way they shop, showing greater concern with how they spend their money
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Reduce consumption and waste
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Decision making is more careful
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Look for more information about the products
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Buy to satisfy needs.