The Relationship between the Elements of Marketing Mix and Consumer Behavior during Environmental Uncertainty

The Case of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Many companies are facing difficulties such as sales reduction due to the changing of consuming behavior during the period of crises. However, this research aims to understand consumer behavior, and identify influences on consumer behavior during environmental uncertainty, as well as, providing a conclusion for companies to handle the issues related to consumer needs during environmental uncertainty and crisis like COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, managers are getting confused during the process of making marketing decisions. In addition, COVID-19 as a result of being a global pandemic, the global economy greatly affected and led to a financial crisis caused by the occurred lockdown, where the impact is not due to the disparity between supply and demand as the previous financial crisis. The researchers distributed questionnaires electronically during COVID-19 lockdown to analyze the consumer behavior in two cities of Iraq by using SPSS software, Cronbach’s Alpha, and Person Correlation were used to test the four hypotheses of research. The researchers concluded that environmental uncertainty clearly effects on the principles of consumer behavior. Moreover, during crises and pandemics such as COVID-19, the behavior of consumers is going to be changed. Additionally, the main findings were the positive relation of consumers' behavior with the price, quality, and the availability of product. While, there is a negative relation with advertisements.