In times of crisis, our actions rarely make sense. At certain points, it seems that our panic takes over and shapes our actions such as our purchasing decisions.
Humans tend to be at discomfort with ambiguity, and in the time of a pandemic, it’s more than normal for our actions to be misguided.
Whenever consumers feel stressed, they tend to buy their way out of it which results in panic buying – where customers tend to buy unusual huge amounts of goods in anticipation of an upcoming crisis.
Upon making a purchasing decision, fear happens to be a very strong driver. This, in turn, allows panic to take control and to become the reason behind consumers grabbing 10 extra rolls of toilet paper although they do not really need it.
Panic buying occurs for a lot of reasons. As Martin Lindstrom points out, the amygdala or “the brain’s fear centre” is activated whenever we associate fear with occurring events. Whenever consumers are exposed to negative triggers, the amygdala takes control and alters their behaviour.
With the quarantine and most countries being under lock-down, people are likely to spend more time on social media and thus, get more exposed to panic triggers. The more they read about ongoing events, the more fearful they become which results in their irrational actions later on.
Panic buying could also be due to mob mentality. The constant exposure to alarming news and to pictures of people purchasing products more than they need might lead consumers to be influenced by their peers and to adopt their behaviour on an emotional basis.
This is also an implication of availability heuristic whereby people act based on recent news they came across rather than relevant facts.
Additionally, the occurrence of turbulent events causes a shift in the consumer’s needs which could also result in panic buying.
In moments of fear, customers will mostly care about their survival shifting their focus to the lower level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Consumers will tend to care about their essentials constituting of their physiological needs such as food, water, shelter, etc.
This could be a reason for the excessive buying of food and household products we’re currently witnessing nowadays. The more the consumers place emphasis on the notion of their survival, the larger the quantities they will order of these items.
Panic buying could lead to major problems such as chaos or supply shortages. On the other hand, it might lead to many opportunities that could be leveraged by brands.
Although the fear on COVID-19 is causing customers to behave in an anxious manner for a temporary period of time, it’ll certainly affect them on the long term and have consumers adopt new behavioural patterns and habits.
Brands should monitor their consumers precisely to detect certain patterns and adjust their offerings accordingly.
Had the customers shown a sign of impulse buying for a certain item, the business could add some features to the product to increase such opportunity and to transform this act of purchase from merely an impulse into a habit later on.
This will certainly add to the brand’s value on the long run.
On the other hand, had the customers not picked up a brand’s product even though the racks were all empty and it was the only choice left, this is certainly a point of concern that must be looked further into immediately.
Perhaps there could be a problem in the product’s packaging or worse, in the product itself.
The COVID-19 we’re facing today is likely to have consumers adopt new behaviours and perceptions. It will affect the way consumers interact with brands and purchase products.
Businesses should dig deep into their customers behavioural patterns to understand them better and to offer them a higher value.
Instead of reacting and panicking along with the consumers, brands need to respond and deal with this crisis in a much smarter and an efficient manner. This could be done by focusing on different concepts which are becoming of high importance to customers in their campaigns or product designs.
It is up to brands to adjust to the changes which are occurring and to predict certain trends that are likely to shape the consumer’s attitudes in the future. Perhaps while doing so, it might give them an edge over their competitors when this whole crisis is resolved.
BBB- Buyer's Black Box 