Impact of The Coronavirus Pandemic

on Marketing
Q&A with Associate Professors of Marketing Melissa Archpru Akaka and Ali
Besharat

Almost overnight, the pandemic changed consumer behavior. How are

marketers responding? How should they respond? And how might marketing
change after the crisis? Melissa Archpru Akaka and Ali Besharat, associate
professors of marketing in the Daniels College of Business, shared their
thoughts with the Daniels newsroom.

Q: How might we see consumers’ behaviors and

perceptions change after the pandemic?

Akaka: In some situations, consumers will be excited

to return to normal but also wary about social
interaction. Leaders will need to assess the broader
situation and understand the perceptions and behaviors Melissa Akaka

of their specific customer segments.

Besharat: Many current behavioral trends could persist

toward touchless payment systems like mobile payment
and tap-to-pay at the payment portals. Consumers have
returned to cable TV, streaming media, online
entertainment, the internet and social media and will Ali Besharat
likely turn to more subscription services like media
services, gyms, healthy eating, delivery services, etc.

Q: Do you believe the pandemic has already changed consumers’ views of

marketing? If so, how?

Akaka: Some consumers are leery about how marketers will target and
promote products as solutions to the many problems consumers currently face.
However, markets are providing needed resources, like toilet paper, through
production, supply chains, promotions and retail, which clearly help consumers
maintain their quality of life.

Besharat: Yes, absolutely! Consumers will monitor, remember and appreciate

brands’ empathy like donating to food banks, providing free products for
medical personnel, or continuing to pay employees, especially those on the
front lines. Americans, particularly millennials and Gen Zers, have increasingly
demanded companies to be moral leaders. They will lose trust in a brand and
sometimes even boycott it if they see the brand favoring profit over people.

Q: What might be the long-term impacts of the pandemic on consumers’

views of marketing? Are there any precedents of consumer behavior after
wars or natural disasters, for example?

Akaka: We can already see many companies adjusting their messaging,

incentives and value propositions. They will certainly adapt to whatever
situation is to come, hopefully in innovative and inspiring ways.

Besharat: I definitely believe so. After the 1918 influenza and the Great
Recession, consumers adopted an anti-materialistic perspective and
subsequently switched to value-priced brands. Loyalty to more upscale and
prestigious brands may diminish and consumers will start appreciating value-
pricing practices.

Q: What are the early lessons from the pandemic for marketers?

Akaka: Companies have to continually seek out ways to engage with

customers and provide multiple avenues, brick and mortar and online, for
example, to do so. Organizations that limit themselves to one type of
engagement will have a harder time adjusting. Another lesson: understand the
perceived value of particular products and services and how it might differ
among consumers, and vary from company views.

Besharat: First, external crisis could negatively impact businesses due to

irrelevant associations–zero locus of control and responsibility. For instance,
Corona beer and Chinese manufacturers have suffered during the pandemic.
Second, corporate messages with emotional framing are more successful as
they appeal to individuals’ emotions by using drama with subjective and
evaluative properties. Finally, marketers should promote how their
organizations are exhibiting shared sacrifice during the pandemic such as CEOs
taking zero pay or Facebook donating $100 million.

Q: You both oversee the Consumer Insights and Business Innovation

Center (CiBiC). How might it be able to help companies now and after the
pandemic?

Akaka: The Center can help companies develop ways to increase brand
engagement and long-term customer relationships. We help companies
understand their underlying business problems and identify research questions
that can provide important answers. Then researchers design instruments,
collect and analyze data and make recommendations for data-driven decisions.

Besharat: CiBiC can help develop timely market intelligence and consumer
insights so companies can quickly recognize and respond to consumers’
shifting wants and gather accurate and timely environmental knowledge to fuel
the right decisions.