Adaptation of Digital Marketing Communications of International Companies as a Response to the COVID-19 Crisis

Digital marketing communications have been implemented by many international companies to reach their customers and stakeholders. Although, an outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic caused rapid changes in consumer behavior and led to new business and marketing challenges to which companies had to adapt. This paper aims to analyze digital marketing communications responses of international companies to the COVID-19 crisis and assess their consumer perceptions. To serve this purpose, a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods is applied. In content analysis more than 40 responses from multiple industries are selected and analyzed, whereas statistical tools are used to test research hypotheses advanced in the survey of 135 Generation Z consumers. To add, a new theoretical framework is introduced to categorize digital marketing communications. The results obtained reveal five categories of COVID-19 responses that could be adopted. It is confirmed that: 1) digital content and technological responses are perceived better by the Generation Z consumers, in contrast to digital advertising, and 2) perceptions of digital marketing communications positively affect their purchase consideration. The study also discusses implications for marketing practitioners and suggests directions for further research on the topic.