Coronavirus Pandemic and Disruptive Impact on Marketing and Consumers

Abstract

A year full of exciting expectations, technological innovations and business opportunities, this is how 2020 was predicted to be by many business analysts and experts. However, some unexpected events followed since the identification of COVID-19 in China. This later escalated to a pandemic spreading across the grids of global human mobility sent shock waves around the world and quickly brought life to a halt in many countries. Not only the anxiety and fear of a deadly virus spreading around but also the measures taken against it perhaps changed our lives as consumers, marketers, and researchers. The new norm is in progress as the old is troubled. The new reality or realities will define marketing in the aftermath of the pandemic and there are already some signs of major disruptive changes. This special issue offers a selection of studies looking into the impact of COVID-19 pandemic with a particular focus on consumer behaviours during the lockdown in early 2020. These studies are drawing on fresh evidence collected via online and offline methods to help strategists understand the scale and depth of the disruption.