Törőcsik Mária (2023): Fogyasztói magatartásváltozás válságokban. In: Révész Balázs – Gyulai Zsófia (eds.): Reziliens Marketing - Válaszok változó kihívásokra. Szegedi Tudományegyetem Gazdaságtudományi Kar: Szeged. ISBN: 978-963-306-960-8 DOI:10.62561/EMOK-2023 pp. 336–339.

Authors

• Mária, Törőcsik. Pécsi Tudományegyetem.

Abstract

According to our assessment, Hungarian consumers have faced three crises since the regime change, as shown in Figure 1. It is important to highlight that our representation includes the regime change itself, which brought about a crisis, although this is often forgotten. The concept of the illustration is that within each period, the proportion of emotional and rational factors influencing purchasing decisions changes within each period, while the explanations for these shifts receive different backgrounds over time. The more challenging economic situation naturally brings forth thoughtful purchases, as it is necessary to cover similar or nearly identical consumption from a tighter budget. The vertical dashed lines indicate the periods of crises. A brief description of these is provided below.

Figure 1.
Consumer crises 1989-2023

Source: edited by the author

The first crisis was triggered by the change of regime. The crisis caused by the change of regime is rarely included in the analysis, even though a large part of families lost their stability. With high unemployment and uncertain prospects, the population is becoming familiar with attractive new brands, new ways of shopping, and new categories. It is an impossible situation in which suddenly the world of goods is expanding, and desirable brands are becoming available, while the consumer is faced with a lack of money. It is true that this is the golden age of advertising, a time of apparently free choices, but everything is changing, and a gap is emerging between prices and incomes. In this period, we cannot talk about the conscious consumer in the modern sense, since the emergence of rational choice was a means of survival, there was no extra content in brand choice or saving. The new social relations slowly emerged, and the groups of upstarts and downstarts stabilised by the time we emerged from the crisis.
In the second crisis, after 2008, the drastically increased loan repayments and job losses forced 70-80% of the population to adopt new strategies. For the vast majority of society, the proportion of emotional decisions in their purchases has been markedly reduced, and rational considerations are once again come to the fore. Consumers were not only confronted with financial difficulties and deprivation but also with the risk of sliding downward. Thus, it was not necessarily the fewer financial possibilities, but the perceived "otherness" and the stigma of "poverty" in the social environment that made people's lives bitter. During this period, several behavioural patterns emerged that are associated with conscious consumption which partly persisted in the future. Firstly, we can highlight bargain hunting and the purchase of private-labeled brands. While these previously had negative connotations, they became accepted during this time, eliminating the negative undertones and being associated more with the smart shopper. The representation of green thinking became a means of emotional coping with the crisis, often overshadowing choices based on limited finances. Voluntary renunciation also appeared among those who could afford to buy new things but refrained from doing so out of a sense of solidarity.
The third period of crisis is currently unfolding in a rather complex manner. We experience uncertainty and a high degree of dependency on external factors due to the global pandemic, climate crisis, war, and inflation. Waves of fear emerge, often compounded together. The consequence of uncertainty is the contemplation of scenarios resulting from situations influenced by external factors, such as "If this happens, then I will decide this way, but if that happens, then differently..." This new situation is unfamiliar to the majority of consumers, as the future seemed predictable before, and the outcome of a decision could be foreseen. Undoubtedly, inflation has the most pronounced impact on the crises, forcing consumers towards rational decision-making once again. This crisis brings forth a new dimension of uncertainty, where not only the solutions but even the goals themselves are uncertain. The number of consumers incorporating sustainability considerations into their decisions has significantly increased, as well as the proportion of those leveraging the advantageous opportunities of digitization for more favourable purchases.
Consumers make their decisions as a combination of rational and emotional influencing factors, sometimes demonstrating a value between the two extremes. It can be seen that the difficult economic situation forces the majority to increase their ratio of rational decision-making. The increasing disparity between prices, wages, and incomes foreshadows the emergence and depth of the crisis. Since the regime change, we have identified three crises, each with different causes and characteristics, but a common thread is the mass emergence of consumers' thoughtful decisions and the distinctly growing proportion of rationality. Naturally, when examining different product categories, variations arise, as there is a need for some indulgence and pleasure even in difficult circumstances, although these purchases are presumed to be of low unit price. In each of the three crises, people learned different things. In the first one, they discovered a new system, categories, brands, and the enticing world of temptation. In the second one, they learned about discounts, "disloyalty" and exploiting opportunities. In the third one, they considered sustainability aspects and leveraged the benefits of digitization. In the inter-crisis periods, consumers enjoyed the fulfilment of emotional decision-making factors. This may suggest that people did not learn anything from the difficulties, but upon closer examination of the processes, they did learn, and they incorporated decision-making factors that somehow strengthened consciousness in their choices. In this discussion, we followed the movement of the majority, being aware that various groups may exhibit different characteristics due to the influence of new and different impulses.

Language

hungarian

Details of publishing collection

Révész Balázs – Gyulai Zsófia (eds.) (2023): Reziliens Marketing - Válaszok változó kihívásokra. Szegedi Tudományegyetem Gazdaságtudományi Kar: Szeged. ISBN: 978-963-306-960-8 DOI:10.62561/EMOK-2023

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