STATISTICAL MODELING OF CONSUMER PROFILES IN ADAPTATION OF MARKETING STRATEGY IN CONDITIONS OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

Business activity and the production portfolio of business systems are directed to the consumers’ requirements by marketing activities, therefore, there are situations in which these activities create and stimulate certain needs and requirements. Market creation is a complex activity that affects a large number of disciplines and synergistically creates satisfaction with the product and / or service, which, in a pandemic, is a special challenge for the creators of the product portfolio, especially for distribution channels. Distribution of products and / or services is a key factor of business success in the conditions of social distance and insufficiently developed technical - technological support for the transition to the virtual sphere of business and communication. A useful base of business activity includes adequate modeling of consumer profiles in order to adapt the marketing strategy to them, which ultimately provides guidelines for market positioning as a precondition for business efficiency. Creating consumer profiles requires a model analysis of habits, preferences, talents, personal and socio - psychological characteristics that allow the creation of similar groups, and thus the adaptation of marketing strategies in line with the created consumer profiles. The empirical basis of the proposed solutions enables a confidence in the modeled information, and thus reliability in their objectivness, which enables business flexibility conditioned by external stimuli, such as the COVID - 19, but it can also be used in other business conditions. The aim of the research is to establish a correlation and find answers on how to fit consumer profiles and their purchase under pandemic conditions. Consumer purchase depends on numerous factors, both internal and external, which are valid in regular conditions as well. Considering the current conditions, it is necessary to evaluate consumers’ behaviour during the purchase. Consumer profiling is not universal and cannot be generalized for the global market, especially if it is programmed for providers within a selected geographic unit. The research assumption is that different results would be obtained in another territorial unit and a different consumer typology would be profiled, but this assumption needs to be checked, which opens up the possibilities of new research projects. The research marked off another group of factors, known as factor II, which includes: marital status, number of children, respondent’s age, children’s age, ownership of a residential building and employment status. Consumers’ reaction to consumption is mostly within these factors. Data analysis and generation of management information that profiles consumers can be performed in other territorial units and in other time frames, and they are based on the knowledge of tools for data collection and processing, and then consulting service management - marketing adjustment of strategic commitments and business policy in accordance with the generated results.