The effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Brand Importance attributed to Essential Products, and the implications of Consumer Personality

This thesis aimed to investigate the impact of crises such as pandemics on the importance of brands when consumers purchase essential products. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, we conducted a retrospective study to determine whether the brand was an important factor that influenced buying behaviour and to what extent a consumer’s personality traits moderated this relationship. To test our hypotheses, we conducted a quantitative study to test our hypotheses and administered a questionnaire to 228 respondents. Based on the results, our main findings suggest that consumers with higher levels of coronavirus fear placed more importance on brands when buying health and safety items. Simultaneously, the analysis of demographic factors suggested that brand importance for health and safety items differed among age groups. Where Gen-Z did not place importance on brands, we did find that for older generations; brands played a role in purchasing products related to health and safety. These findings could aid marketers, and brand managers of essential goods, in considering the appeal of their branding and communication strategies and better tailor them to different generation segments in times of crisis.