Question

Many consumers are shopping in bulk to stock enough supplies for “stay at home” period and many stores has faced difficulties in providing necessary products. Many services are suspended till the further notice, and many online/offline sellers have taken advantage of this historical moment by limiting the supply and increasing the price dramatically.

As a marketer, how do you interpret consumer behavior and the opportunistic behavior of marketers?

What do you suggest to the government and policymakers?    

Answer 1

Consumers' behaviour during emergency situations is a function of their previous experiences during such situations, inputs from the rumours, unconfirmed and fake news and the fear of uncertainty among others. Since everyone these days is connected with internet, it is not difficult to create panic and drive the customers into frantic buying for the sake of fulfilling vested interests of various political groups, members of trade unions, anti national elements and anyone who might benefit by the chaos and instability. Many customers believe on rumours while rest fear shortage of essential items, particularly in the developing nations where a good part of population don't have belief on the administration whose record is not always clean. The marketers, many of whom see it as opportunity to clear the inventory lying in their warehouses at the maximum price possible ( which otherwise will have to be sold at a discount or under various offers). It is also an opportunity to get rid of low selling and unpopular items which will also find buyers these days. Many small marketers are forced to raise prices of the items, as they need to meet the fixed costs of the business in the times where the sales has dropped to minimum.

The government and policymakers must have a proactive approach to ensure that the marketers should be helped to reach their goods to the prospective customers who can't venture out to buy them, with help of supportive policies and every possible logistical or communication help. This being said, they must also ensure that the no overcharging is ever done by any marketer to take advantage of situation and only the good quality items are supplied to the consumers. For this, a suggestive price list of different commodities ( which often don't have any fixed price) must be prepared, pasted at the shops and released on popular media to ensure that the customers don't end up paying more. The violations must be dealt with strictly and a proper grievance channel must be active and running to facilitate this.