Marketing Under Turmoil - A Study Based on Lebanon

Marketing under tough security conditions - such was my master's final dissertation - and what better place than Lebanon to study this?

 Lebanon was a top economic performer in 2008; it was even said to be "immune" to the global financial crisis. Analysts relate this “immunity” to its past experience with security turmoil.  Economic and political unrest have identical effect on marketing operations; they translate into budget cuts.

My study estimates the marketing effectiveness of companies operating in Lebanon under different stages: Level 1, environmental stability, Level 2, environmental instability (constant explosion threats) and Level 3, high environmental instability (war). ***

Findings:

• Marketing investment is most often cut down under security turmoil conditions; as demonstrated by the market analysis of the Lebanese media scene. 

• There's a possibility to turn crisis into opportunity through successful marketing campaigns conducted during periods of unrest.

• The study derives a relatively more inelastic approach to turmoil for commodity products as opposed to luxury goods.  

There's a different economic response to different levels of turmoil. 

Under security stability (Level 1):

• In the situation where explosions abound (level 2): the marketing budget cuts and sales figures drop are minimal yet spread over a long period of time.

• Under war (level3), we experience uncertainty, following which we face a budgets short-lived steep decline in marketing and sales alike. 

...So, does cutting down on marketing investment have any major impact on consumer response?  

“It is not the strong, nor the intelligent who survive, but
those who are quickest to adapt.”
 

Charles Darwin

***The study revolves primarily on the amount of units sold versus the monitored marketing amounts. A case study is based on the automobile industry as a sample of the luxury market; a special focus is then conducted on the Mazda case, followed by a brief comparison with the food industry as a sample of the commodity market.