Effect of COVID-19 on Marketing of Consumer Goods in Ado Ekiti
Chapter One
Objective of the study
The objectives of the study are;
- To ascertain the relationship between COVID19 and marketing of consumer goods
- To ascertain the effect of COVID19 on Nigeria economy
- To ascertain the major goods affected by COVID19
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Coronavirus
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus.
Most people infected with the COVID-19 virus will experience mild to moderate respiratory illness and recover without requiring special treatment. Older people, and those with underlying medical problems like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, and cancer are more likely to develop serious illness.
The best way to prevent and slow down transmission is being well informed about the COVID-19 virus, the disease it causes and how it spreads. Protect yourself and others from infection by washing your hands or using an alcohol based rub frequently and not touching your face.
The COVID-19 virus spreads primarily through droplets of saliva or discharge from the nose when an infected person coughs or sneezes, so it’s important that you also practice respiratory etiquette (for example, by coughing into a flexed elbow).
At this time, there are no specific vaccines or treatments for COVID-19. However, there are many ongoing clinical trials evaluating potential treatments. WHO will continue to provide updated information as soon as clinical findings become available
Marketing in post COVID-19 era: A guide for marketing managers
The recent coronavirus (COVID-19) has forced immediate, far-reaching lifestyle shifts for consumers around the world, and these changes are likely to stay beyond the period of pandemic itself. The global retail industry is experiencing an unprecedented crisis in the wake of the COVID-19 lockdown and its economic recession (ER). France’s economy, together with several other countries, is expected to experience an ER as it may shrink by 8 percent in 2020 due to COVID-19 (Statistica 2020). U.S. retail sales also dropped by a historic 8.7% in March, and are expected to drop by (at least) 20% moving forward, according to the National Retail Federation. Faced with uncertainty about the future, many firms are responding to recession by adapting their marketing strategy to changing consumer behavior (The Nielsen 2020). Google, among many other firms, has recently announced a cut in marketing budgets by as much as half, while before the pandemic, they expected to increase marketing spending from the previous year (CNBC 2020), as they did after the ER of 2008. Marketing researchers over the last few years have studied the impact of ERs on consumer behavior and firms’ responses to ERs. Drawing on the existing empirical knowledge, the current review intends to offer a guide to marketing managers on how to respond to the predicted ER in the post-COVID-19 period. This paper addresses the issues regarding the management of marketing-mix spending during an ER in particular. It is worth mentioning that the main focus of this paper is on the consumer (offline) retailing sector, although some of these insights can also be generalized to other sectors.
Consumer ethic
Classic frameworks of ethical decision making stress the joint im-pact of personal and situational/contextual factors (Ford & Richardson,1994; Treviño, 1986). Personal factors can include consumer personality traits, moral values, moral identity, implicit morality beliefs, and so on. Situational/contextual factors can be issue characteristics, social influences, group and intergroup dynamics, and so on. The Covid-19pandemic, as an unprecedented situational and contextual factor, has significant implications for the understanding on consumer ethical decision making during the pandemic as well as potentially post-pandemic in the long run. During the pandemic, numerous consumers are grounded to their homes with limited external access except the internet, due to lockdown and other social distancing measures. Consumer decision making can be irrational during crises like current pandemic, as evidenced by stockpiling of food, medicines, hygiene and sanitation products, and even toilet papers all over the world. Some might argue that, panic buying (incl. stockpiling) is the perfectly rational consumer behaviour during crises like this with a significantly high level of uncertainty (Lufkin, 2020). Nevertheless, it seems that consumer decision making is currently driven purely by self interest and emotions, such as fear, anger, and anxiety. This has forced the supermarkets to take measures such as rationing and designating opening hours for key workers and seniors. On the other hand, consumers have exhibited many altruistic behaviours during the pandemic, including resisting panic buying and buying groceries for vulnerable residents (e.g., over 70s) (Guardian, 2020). Therefore this crisis pro-vides an excellent opportunity to examine the interplay between personal and situational/contextual factors in influencing consumer ethical decision, including the factors relating to the nature and ongoing situations of the pandemic at the contextual level, and personal factors, such as consumer personality differences, rationality, and consumer emotions such as fear, anxiety, animosity, and positive emotions such as hope.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study as the study sought effect of covid 19 on marketing of consumers goods in ADO EKITI
Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
(i)Primary source and
(ii)Secondary source
Primary source:
These are materials of statistical investigation which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment; the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary source:
These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.Population of the study
Population of a study is a group of persons or aggregate items, things the researcher is interested in getting information effect of covid 19 on marketing of consumers goods in ADO EKITI. 200 staff of selected SMEs in ADO EKITI was selected randomly by the researcher as the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present, analyze and interpret the data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in tabular forms for easy references and analysis. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study. The researcher employed simple percentage in the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was to ascertain effect of covid 19 on marketing of consumers goods. In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenges of effect of covid 19 on marketing of consumers goods
Summary
This study was on effect of covid 19 on marketing of consumers goods in ADO EKITI. Three objectives were raised which included: To ascertain the relationship between COVID19 and marketing of consumer goods, to ascertain the effect of COVID19 on Nigeria economy and to ascertain the major goods affected by COVID19. In line with these objectives, two research hypotheses were formulated and two null hypotheses were posited. The total population for the study is 200 staffs of selected SMEs Ado Ekiti. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made administrative staffs, economists, senior staffs and junior staffs were used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies
Conclusion
We conclude this article by asking our academic communities to engage in rigorous research on the following research questions. Although the immediate impact of Covid-19 pandemic seems to be evident, what could be the long-term impact on CSR and consumer ethical decision making? What are the opportunities and challenges for CSR in the long run post-coronavirus? Will the short-term change in consumer habit leads to long-term sustained shift of consumer ethical behaviour, if yes how? How will Covid-19 change our marketing philosophy? Will an outcome of this pandemic be an increased in-corporation of social and societal issues into our driving philosophies? In terms of customer behaviour there is an urgent need to explore how citizens, customers, and consumers responded (both positively and negatively) to varying lockdown restrictions. Changes to behaviours may well be evident (such as in tourist choices and the move to online shopping and entertainment) but alterations to attitudes, values, beliefs are likely to be subtle
Recommendation
Fighting against COVID-19 spreading, including sharing the information of the disease transmission and epidemiological knowledge, sharing the experiences on case management and treatment approaches both for severe cases or light symptoms, and sharing new technologies or strategies to contain the transmission
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