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The Impact of Coronavirus (Covid-19) Crisis on Consumer Perception in

Automotive Industry: A Netnography Analysis of Peugeot Social Media

Conference Paper · July 2020

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 19th International Congress on Public and Nonprofit Marketing
Sustainability: new challenges for marketing and
socioeconomic development

The Impact of Coronavirus (Covid-19) Crisis on Consumer Perception in

Automotive Industry: A Netnography Analysis of Peugeot Social Media

Mahyar Moradi
(PSA Peugeot Citroën, France, mahyar.moradi@mpsa.com)
Gelareh Salehi
(Comillas Pontifical University, Spain, gsalehi@comillas.edu)

Abstract:
The business-related impacts of Coronavirus in automotive industry has attracted the interests of both
researchers and marketers. Overcoming the disadvantages of this crisis becomes the priority of many
companies such as PSA Peugeot Citroën (PSA Group). The success in the marketing communication of
different PSA Group brands including Peugeot (e.g., Citroen, DS, Opel, Free2Move) is related on
understanding of consumer perceptions. This paper seeks to explore changes in consumers’ Peugeot brand
perception during the Coronavirus pandemic. Through the qualitative research design of netnography,
visual and textual user generated data of Peugeot’ Instagram, between January and May 2020 observed,
collected and coded by Nvivo. The content analysis results showed the necessity of social distancing after
Covid-19 resulted in higher positive brand perceptions, probably higher demand for personal automobiles
in the near future. Switching from public transport to personal vehicles may cause an ethical dilemma for
the responsible segment of consumers who have environmental sustainability concerns. Accordingly, this
motivational conflict affects both Peugeot and its current and potential consumers. Consequently, launching
and increasing awareness toward electric vehicles, is a proposed solution that addresses both safety and
sustainability considerations of consumers.

Keywords: Covid-19; consumer perceptions; automotive industry, Peugeot, netnography

 2 Moradi & Salehi

1. Introduction
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a pandemic of transmissible coronavirus disease (Covid-
19) on March 11th, 2020 (WHO, 2020). The International Monetary Fund (IMF) have remarked the risk of
worldwide economic depression (Van Barneveld et al., 2020). The severe business-related impacts of
coronavirus in the global automotive industry has attracted the interests of both researchers and marketers.
Overcoming the demand downshift of this health crisis becomes the priority of many European automotive
companies such as PSA Peugeot Citroën (PSA Group). One of the success indicators of crisis recovery and
increasing sales could be the brand-consumer marketing communication. Effective marketing
communication in PSA Group brands including Peugeot (e.g., Citroen, DS, Opel, or Free2Move) is related
to deeper understanding of consumer brand/product perceptions.

Consumer perception is referred to consumers’ thoughts toward a brand/product which could be a function
of previous experiences, attitudes and beliefs, habits, preferences and feelings (Dixit et al., 2020; Mingione
et al., 2020). Perceived brand/product image is consumers’ perceptions about a brand as a reflection of
brand/product attributes in consumers’ mind (Hsieh & Lindridge, 2005) influenced by several factors such
as marketing communication (Dixit et al., 2020). Considering marketing communication as a stimulus that
affects consumers’ perception, this paper explores consumers’ expressed intensions, beliefs, and emotions
drawing on proposed framework of Dixit et al. (2020) which was implemented based on Van der Walt
(1991) perception theory. Specifically, this paper’s framework includes: (1) cognitive element of
knowledge, information and awareness; (2) affective element: preferences, feelings, and sustainability
concerns; (3) behavioral element: reactions and acceptability.

Online social networks especially social media applications such as Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn,
Instagram and Twitter with a large number of users facilitated this brand-consumer communication in the
last decade (Yu & Yuan, 2019). Those consumers engaging in online social networks are more connected
and communicated with marketers than ever before (Coombes & Jones, 2020). This online interactive
engagement became stronger after the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown and increased use of online
networks. Despite the increasing attractiveness of social media as a consumer-brand communication
platform, few researches explored consumers’ brand perception within these platforms (Dolan & Goodman,
2017). Moreover, there is no paper to date that studied European automotive sector’s marketing
communication in Social media. In this context, this paper seeks to explore changes in consumers’ brand
perception before and during the Coronavirus pandemic. Through an online ethnographic, specifically non-
participative netnography method (Kozinets, 2012, 2015), drawn on brand perception framework, 334
Peugeot official Instagram1content in the pre-pandemic and during Covid-19 pandemic duration is
observed, collected and analyzed.

2. Methods
2.1 Netnography technique
This qualitative study stems from interpretive philosophical belief, adopts an inductive approach to
determine significant patterns. Among different qualitative methods, netnography is chosen for this
research’ design. Netnography or online ethnography established by Kozinets (1997) and became more
popular with the rise of online interactive networks. While most of previous papers explored TripAdvisor
(e.g., Bertoli et al., 2016; Paraskevaidis & Weidenfeld, 2019) reviews under netnography design, analyzing
other interactive networks such as Instagram (e.g., McFarlane & Samsioe, 2020) still remains scarce. As
this paper sought to explore the impacts of coronavirus pandemic on Peugeot (potential) consumers’ brand
perception. Given the increased use of online media (including Instagram), and facilitated and availability
of large amounts of consumer-generated online secondary data, netnography technique was selected for
pursuing this research aims. The choice of netnography for this research was made because the online data
will be collected in (1) more affordable manners; (2) with spending less time, and (3) with higher
researchers’ control on the data collection process (Jimura & Lee, 2020).

1
https://www.instagram.com/peugeot/?hl=en

19th IAPNM International Congress. Sustainability: new challenges for marketing and socioeconomic development
 The Impact of Coronavirus (Covid-19) Crisis on Consumer Perception in Automotive Industry:
A Netnography Analysis of Peugeot Social Media
3

2.2 Netnographic process

As it is shown in Figure 1, in this paper, Kozinets (2002) and Moarais and Santos (2020) guidelines of
conducting internet-based ethnographic research were followed: (1) research planning: choosing consumer
perception framework; (2) entree: choosing Instagram for netnographic environment to observe textual and
visual online data from Peugeot official Instagram in the window of January 3rd 2020 until May 28th 2020;
(3) data collection: The collected data extracted as: posted photo; posted date; post caption; number of
likes; number of comments, and comments’ texts (including emojis2.); (4) interpretation: coding and
thematic content analysis under Dixit et al. (2020) brand perception framework; (5) ensuring ethical
considerations: by using publicly available online content accessible for everyone and keeping followers’
identities anonymous; and (6) representation of research findings: in academic conference and peer-
reviewed journal in Business category of JCR.

Figure 1. Netnographic process of consumers’ brand/product perception toward Peugeot

1. Research 2. Entree: 3. Data collection:

Planning: Netnographic Visual and textual
Theme & context: environment and Nonparticipative content posted be
Observation
Consumer perception data: brand and followers
Instagram

5. Ethical 4. Interpretation
6. Research considerations Content analysis
Followers
representation Utilizing publicly Anonymity
Drawing on Dixit et
avalaible content al. (2020) framewrok

Source: adapted from Kozinets (2002) and Moarais & Santos (2020)

In order to understand consumer online communications in the domain of brand perceptions, this paper
studied the official Instagram account of Peugeot. The target of study is all 632000 Instagram users who
followed @Peugeot in Instagram, mainly focusing on those online users who wrote comments below posted
content. There was no language limitation in the collection and coding of written comments. The authors
have been following Peugeot Instagram account since January 2020. The focus of data collection narrowed
to the threads posted from January 3rd, 2020 to May 28th.

There was no interaction with followers’ comments, nor liking or sharing the posted content. Instead, the
authors immersed themselves with Instagram online data publicly available. A total of 6064 comments
were screened and extracted to attain specific themes in compliance with the research aims (Figure 2). The
highest number of comments was related to January 10th, 2020 and the lowest number of comments was
on February 15th, 2020. Also, a significant drop was explored on March 12th, 2020, the first date of
pandemic lockdown in many European countries. More than half of the comments were written by emojis

2
Standardized set of small ideograms depicting smiling faces, food, sport or international flags and used in electronic messages,
social media applications and web pages (Eisner et al., 2016).

19th IAPNM International Congress. Sustainability: new challenges for marketing and socioeconomic development
 4 Moradi & Salehi

(vs. texts). The extracted comments underwent content analysis (See Lombard et al., 2002), an analytical
method which is considered suitable for the aim of exploring impressions, perceptions and general
consumer responses (Bertoli et al., 2016).

Figure 2. Number of Peugeot Instagram comments from January 3rd, 2020 to May 28th, 2020

Pre-pandemic Pandemic
Source: Authors.

2.3 Content analysis

Following McKeown and Shearer (2019) analytical approach, a three-stage analytical approach were
applied. First, both brand and the online user-generated data of were collected from 334 archival Instagram
posts’ content were categorized based on visual (posted photo and emojis) and textual data (number of
comments, post content and comments’ content). Second, a thematic analysis of comments covering five
months: from January 3rd to May 28th of 2020 was conducted. The generated themes classified based on
three cognitive, affective and behavioral elements of brand perception framework. The most noticeable
theme to arise was the use of emojis for expressing feelings. Third, the utilized emojis, the generated texts
in comments were coded as: (1) information seeking/sharing; (2) feelings; (3) preferences; (4) environment
sustainability concerns; and (5) acceptability in Nvivo software. Some subcategories’ coding was
recognized and agreed by both authors.

3. Results and discussion

Given the research aims of this paper, the key findings achieved through the exploratory research directed
on the consumers’ Peugeot brand/product perception. The thematic coded observational results that are
presented in this section are classified according under the brand perception framework. In order to compare
online generated data, based on the coronavirus pandemic, the results are divided into two groups: (1)
January 3rd -March 11th: pre-pandemic and (2) March 12th-May 28th: pandemic duration (Figure 2). It should
be noted that the comments in other languages are translated in English. Results are generated as (1)
cognitive, (2) affective, and (3) behavioural elements of Dixit et (2020) brand perception framework. The
willingness to buy is also added to the behavioural elements of brand perception.

19th IAPNM International Congress. Sustainability: new challenges for marketing and socioeconomic development
 The Impact of Coronavirus (Covid-19) Crisis on Consumer Perception in Automotive Industry:
A Netnography Analysis of Peugeot Social Media
5

3.1 Cognitive element: Information and seeking/sharing

An increased prevalence in information seeking comments explored after prevalence of pandemic:

o “Is the upper grill bar in the body color new? It's not the e-2008 grill and the it was black on ice
versions. is it a Photoshop mistake?” … “when you buy a new 2008 2020 model, why is the
paper manual not available for delivery? Unable to get answers!”

Both goal-driven or random information seeker consumers, implicitly show (1) brand engagement or (2)
involvement with a product or (3) issue involvement (Balabanis & Chatzopoulou, 2019). The latter group
could show involvement the notion of electric cars as a sustainable solution.

3.2 Affective elements: Preferences, feelings and sustainability concerns

Consumers’ reactions, preferences and feeling such as brand/product acceptability such as were noticed in
both before and after prevalence of pandemic. Consumer preferences varied according the products that
were posted in Instagram. However, comments representing consumers’ feelings and reactions toward the
product “Put it in production”; the color “Green is the new Black”; the product design “I would dream
of this machine...the lines! “; and the brand “Always look best”. Positive expressed emotions and feelings
toward the brand observed in both durations. Conversely, positive reactions toward the products were more
than negative comments. However, this could be a result of deleted negative comments by the page admin.

In addition to consumers’ feelings and preferences, their environment sustainability concerns, especially
below electric car posts were captured as below. Despite the negative perceptions, engaging with
sustainability issues and attitude development toward sustainable products is the initial steps of purchasing
novel products in the future.

o “Electricals car have not to be commercialized yet because it still has much problems, I mean
most brand of car.” … “Hybrids is much better than electrical.”
o
3.3 Behavioral elemenst: acceptability and willingness to buy
The product/brand acceptability were explored in both durations. Captions expressing willingness to buy
were observed significantly more after March 12th: “I will buy it” or “Can’t wait for mine to arrive”. These
positive electronic word of mouth (Ewom) could be one of the determinants of consumers’ willingness to
buy and also influencing other consumers’ future purchase decisions varying in different consumers’
personality traits (Kamalinasab, 2017).

In sum followers’ comments about the Instagram posts imitate (1) automotive product in general; (2)
Peugeot automobile product; (3) Peugeot brand; and (4) the related issues such as sustainability. Analyzing
results also revealed the fact that user-generated data in Instagram as a photo sharing application, is more
useful for obtaining consumers’ preference toward the visual aspects of products such as color and design.
Moreover, the coded data from emojis and number of likes a comparison tool could be provided that is
more useful for launching new and novel products.

4. Conclusion
The results revealed how external factors such as health-related crisis of Covid-19 will affect consumers’
brand/product perception. The necessity of social distancing after Covid-19 resulted in higher positive
brand/product perceptions. The increase of positive feelings and higher acceptability could be interpreted
as a consequence of changed consumer preferences. It could be reasonable to conclude that consumers’
safety reasons will affect their personal car demand and the purchase rates in the near future will be
increased. On the other hand, the pandemic caused an ethical dilemma for the responsible segment of
consumers who chose public transport rather than vehicle ownership for the sustainability benefits.

19th IAPNM International Congress. Sustainability: new challenges for marketing and socioeconomic development
 6 Moradi & Salehi

According, this paper proposes the higher demand of electric vehicles (e.g., Peugeot E2008) that address
both safety and sustainability motivations of consumers’ seeking for the best solution.

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