The Global Business Crisis and Consumer Behavior

The Global Business Crisis and Consumer Behavior: Kingdom of Bahrain as a Case Study Durra Mansoor & Akram Jalal January 2011 Summary: This research aims to learn how Bahrain consumers affected by global financial crisis since 2007. Additionally, it focuses on changes in consumer behavior after global crisis. The result of this research is based on questioner analysis which tries to measure knowledge about global crises to randomly selected consumers in Bahrain. The World is facing with economic challenges. America, powerful Europe and Asia affected by financial crises in some different levels.
The global financial crisis affected all consumers in the World not only economically but also psychologically. This new financial situation increased panic and uncertainty on consumers in globe. In hard and stressful times such as economic crises, consumer behavior changes have occurred. Because of FC, consumers changed their behaviors by reducing their consumption. People became money-minded and they don’t want to spend money for premium products anymore, and they prefer cheapest products. They redefine “necessities” and “luxuries”.
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So, they only buy the things which are taking place on their shopping list. They’re comparing products and making their choices by compromising quality. Some of them started to manage their income by searching on e-commerce websites to catch best price. They are planning their purchasing by postponing expenditures like discretionary expenditure to make savings. Thus, their total expenditure amount decreased because of global crisis. According to Mansoor and Jalal (2011), the role that consumers play in these days is very crucial to business’ survival.
It is driving force behind the success of many businesses, because most of the contemporary consumers spend major time on buying decisions. Consumers buying decision is changing person to person. However, after economic crises, consumer started to spend much time for information and decision making. By predicting consumer’s behavior, a business can understand consumer’s needs, and can work on fulfilling the needs and meeting the expectations of their customers (Mansoor and Jalal, 2011). Businesses should work hard for success of their businesses and try to strengthen their long-term strategies.
They should personalize their products to earn consumers’ loyalty. Making investment to their brand and differentiating themselves against to their competitors are also crucial. Businesses should add new and irreplaceable products to their portfolios and build tight relations with their consumers to survive in financial crisis. Consumers in Bahrain adapted to new trends after financial crisis. They preferred to purchase less priced and substitute products compared by expensive products. They though that expensive products are not that much worthy by considering their high prices.