from crisis to opportunity - Academy of Marketing

Indeed, the environment plays a major role in shaping firms’ business strategies (Teece,
Pisano & Shuen, 1997). While rivals are conserving resources, managers who take strategic
action to improve their firm’s performance achieve more favorable consequences through
amplified marketing efforts. Thus, marketing can be significantly more important to the firm
during a recession than at any other time (O'Malley, Story & O'Sullivan, 2011).
Firms are faced with two dilemmas, retrenchment or investment, or do both at the same time
(Kitching, Blackburn, Smallbone & Dixon, 2009). The retrenchment, especially in marketing
activities, is the instinctive response to the economic crisis in order to focus on conserving
scarce resources with the hope of surviving until the economy recovers. Notwithstanding,
strong evidence support the maintenance of marketing activities (Rodas & Stelter, 2009), as
found in several studies that reflect that strategies focused on investment, innovation and
market diversification, lead to higher levels of performance (Srinivasan et al., 2005; Naidoo,
2010).
O'Malley et al. (2011) show that arguments for invest in marketing during a recession include:
maintaining a firm’s competitive advantage in difficult times, responding to changes in
customer behavior and the need to maintain the firm’s value; consolidating key brand values
such as leadership and innovation, brand equity, convenience and tradition (Nielsen, 2010).
However, whilst some of the studies in the literature emphasize in general company measures
taken in an economic crisis and identify the importance of strategies to improve sales figures,
there is a distinct lack of investigation in respect to marketing strategy changes (Köksal &
Özull, 2007). Therefore, we pursue an academic effort to bridge the gaps in our understanding
of the appropriate choice and relative effectiveness of marketing response in economic crisis,
in order to generate insights that can guide firms in their decision making during the crisis
(Srinivasan et al., 2005).
3. Research Design
3.1. Research questions and methodology
Through this exploratory study, the objective is to determine “why” and “how” Spanish firms
that develop a proactive marketing strategy in actual economic crisis achieve superior
performance levels. The use of qualitative methods is appropriate when studying complex
processes (Eisenhardt, 1989; Yin, 2009). We chose a multiple case study due to the complex
nature of the issue, and the need to take into account a large number of variables. According
to Eisenhardt (1989), we use secondary data and multiple interviews in each case in order to
develop a rich vision and provide the basis for further transfer of results to other contexts.
The questions focused on gaining a descriptive perception of the crisis and the impact on the
organization, particularly in the performance; the role of marketing in the firm, the changes in
strategy and marketing activities, especially in the marketing mix; the mechanisms to adapt to
environmental changes and the behavior of the budgets for this area.
3.2. Sample, field work and analysis process.
The research was conducted with Spanish companies that maintained or increased their
marketing activities and also obtained a similar or better performance during the current
economic crisis. The following were used as selection criteria: diversity of economic sectors
and size, and this in order to eliminate bias in the results regarding the availability of human,
financial and technological resources. The sample firms were identified through specialized
websites on marketing and economics, as well as newspapers and magazines of the same