1. Introduction

History has shown us that events repeat themselves: feast and famine, boom and crisis, the rise and fall of empires and civilizations. The current Covid-19 pandemic has diminished the development of many industries; according to China Food and Beverage Category and Brand Development Report, 321,000 restaurants were closed in China in 2020 [1]. While despite all these obstacles, many excellent businesses survived successfully from the pandemic. Although problems that represent uncontrollable things outside of businesses seem inevitable, our own decisions within the company are within our control. It makes sense when times are tough for companies to adapt their marketing mix, the following paragraphs will explicitly analysis how excellent businesses using effective strategies to pull through crises.

2. Promotion

Erke is one of the Chinese apparel companies. The company was established in 2000 and is committed to creating comfortable sports apparel made in China. Since the onset of the global pandemic in 2020, the emergence of the community health and public health security agenda has led to more social responsibility-based sponsorships in various activities in society [2].Due to increasing pressure from civil society to take corporate social responsibility, companies worldwide are reforming and expanding their CSR strategies to adapt to a dynamic world [3]. Erke took advantage of the public's interest in corporate social responsibility and the company's spontaneous gratuitous donations during the epidemic, which attracted significant public attention to the brand itself. Attracted the attention of millions of consumers. This can be seen as Public Relationship for a successful offline promotion strategy. A positive brand image helps Erke promote more products through live internet broadcasts and short video platforms. The business strategy of using corporate social responsibility to achieve promotion during the crisis has also been proved to be effective by Erke.

CSR is seen as an excellent tool for achieving sustainable development by offering win-win strategies [4]. During the epidemic on July 23, 2021, a flood broke out in Henan Province, China. Many companies, including Erke, donated money to the flood-stricken areas in Henan Province. Erke has successfully gained attention on the Internet through a large number of donations and also brought an excellent Promotion effect through the embodiment of high CSR. The positive social response has brought a flood of orders from online platforms and brick-and-mortar stores. After obtaining market exposure through Below the line promotion, Erke also achieved successful Above the line promotion through advertising on Internet platforms such as TikTok and Taobao. Erke’s official Taobao Livestream had an average of 11,000 views per day before the donation, but it increased to 20.17 million views two days afterwards. The one-night sales in TikTok live broadcast exceeded 15 million yuan. According to a report by China Business News, the Livestream sales of Erke exceeded 100 million yuan 4 days after donation (2021) [5]. Below the line promotion and the subsequent Above the line promotion alleviated Erke’s strained financial situation during the epidemic crisis.

Within a month after the donation, Erke’s sales volume increased 52 times, with the total sales volume exceeding 220 million yuan, and many products were once out of stock [6]. For Erke, sacrificing part of the interests to bring a good brand image in the long term is beneficial to the development of the business. Erke’s marketing strategy of changing the promotion method can be regarded as a successful case of adaptation to external crises.

3. People

In the marketing mix, ‘people’ include directly or indirectly involved in the product or service trade [8]. Especially for service companies, it is essential to manage how their employees connect to and communicate with their customers to provide service. In dealing with employees’ lack of motivation caused by a decrease in job security during the pandemic and helping them carry on effective communications with customers, Herzberg’s two-factor theory is closely related to most circumstances companies are facing. Herzberg suggests that 'hygiene' needs or the demotivating factors are basic needs that must be met so that employees won’t generate any job dissatisfaction. If 'motivator' needs are met, which gives employees satisfaction in their work, it will motivate them to work harder. M’Crown, a cosmetic hospital developed quickly before the pandemic, adopted Herzberg’s theory to cope with the psychological difficulties of their employees when a sudden closure came to. Although it was forced to close due to the coronavirus disease, and the closure period continued for over three months, the labour turnover rate was meagre and almost maintained at 0, even in the crisis. One of the most crucial reasons was that M' Crown recognised their employees’ ‘hygiene’ needs are salaries, fitness, and job security. So based on their financial situation, M’ Crown kept paying its employees regular salaries, although it’s not a government requirement. Besides, employees’ mental health and well-being have always been important, especially during the pandemic. Considering that it is difficult for employees and managers to purchase cold medicines during the tough time (often requiring many procedures to make sure they are not covid patients), a large number of cold medications were purchased the day before the lockdown and distributed free of charge to employees and managers to ensure their health, which significantly solves the survival problem of employees. Additionally, another primary concern of their employees is afraid of losing their jobs; for instance, a physician assistant, who has worked in M’Crown for over four years, Tongjie Jiang said,

“Although our boss insisted on paying us salaries, I still had an intense fear of losing my job. Because I was afraid that my abilities would become poorer during the lockdown due to the lack of practice, I would lose my competitiveness, thus being eliminated by the company.”

Jiang represents the psychology of most employees during the pandemic, which caused a decrease in their motivation to work. Perceiving this ‘hygiene’ need, M’Crown arranged an online training for all the employees to ease their anxieties and enhance their skills, which also helped them carry out a more effective and higher quality service to their customers. Beyond that, M’Crown turned the ‘hygiene’ need into a ‘motivator’ by focusing on cultivating employees’ sense of self-achievement and confidence. They encouraged their doctors and nurses to actively participate in helping organise Covid testing for citizens during the pandemic to contribute to their communities. Hairong Guo, the nursing supervisor of M’Crown, participated in Covid testing during the epidemic; she said in the interview,

“Admittedly, I was scared when I volunteered because I was afraid I would be infected with the virus. Still, after finishing that work, I feel more confident in my expertise, and now I can bring more security to my customers.”

M’ Crown has shown us an excellent way to manage their people during a crisis, so it is highly recommended to implement Herzberg’s two-factor theory for those who attempt to improve the overall motivation within their businesses.

4. Price

Price in the marketing mix refers to the value customers pay in exchange for the product and services offered by a company; generally, having a good pricing strategy can highly enhance the sale of revenue of the product [12]. Fighter branding is a unique pricing strategy, which refers to companies launching low-priced products to accept and ideally eliminate specific competitors attempting to sell them [13].

Lowering the current price of a product is an excellent strategy for companies to retain customers, but because the cost of the product remains the same or higher (for example, as the pandemic shuts down local factories, companies have to accept that the product will also be less profitable. As a result, many high - or mid-price companies will give up trying to maintain sales revenue, and the fighter brand is being created to fight rivals that threaten to take market share from the company's leading brands [14].

Swatch, a famous Swiss watch manufacturer, has seen its traditional sales methods negatively affected by the epidemic. It is resulting in a sharp drop in company sales. But Swatch's lower-priced watch business, which sells its lower-priced competitors and versatility, has not suffered badly. Studies show that customers buy lower-priced products [15]. As a result, in Swatch's financial results announced in January 2022, the company posted an annual loss of $60 million.

In response, Swatch launched its fighter jet brand, offering to partner with its own family business, premium brand Omega. They collaborated to redesign Omega's lunar watch to make it affordable and use unique eco-friendly materials. As soon as the product was launched, it was trendy, arousing great interest among watch lovers worldwide and grabbing a considerable market share.

Swatch and Omega are very different brands. Omega has a very high-end brand positioning and market image. High labour costs in the market to attract consumers with similar needs, Omega’s pricing strategy is cost pricing. On the contrary, by focusing on the affordable youth market through penetration and cost pricing, Swatch has attracted many consumers with low prices. Their co-branded product is a cheap luxury item that doesn't remove omega's high-end watch customers or Swatch's lower-priced customers.

In addition, the alliance between Omega and its brand, Swatch, has produced a significant brand effect, giving young people the opportunity to buy what is widely regarded as a "premium, luxury" brand at a relatively low price. By contrast, trust in Swatch, a famous Swiss watchmaking company, has made many consumers want to buy. Instead of investing heavily, Swatch has used its good brand image to attract customers. Although the omega and Swatch moon watch is priced at a low price, the product is undoubtedly highly profitable due to the high volume of purchases, which can also be matched by "appropriate margins".

In the face of force majeure external factors such as the epidemic, it is strongly recommended that enterprises with brand influence give up trying to maintain sales and turn to the brand strategy of fighter jets.

5. Place

Place refers to providing customer access and considers providing convenience for consumers [17]. The Coronavirus pandemic affected activities worldwide, among which the disruptions of distribution channels are significant. Consumers in environments where Covid-19 is spreading at an increasing rate incur the most disutility of shopping inside the store [18]. And one thing that Covid-19 taught us is that businesses need to be ready with alternative sources of their distribution channels; as a famous furniture manufacturer, IKEA reacted quickly to the pandemic by carrying out a digital channel shift, speeding upbringing their IKEA app to additional countries, promoting their online shopping app in a global scale. The spread of The Coronavirus caused a significant inconvenience for customers to visit offline stores, also accelerated the speed of IKEA’s channel shifting, which is the process of transitioning from one form of communication to another [19].

IKEA used this within their digital transformation strategies. It provides several convenient services to support its customers’ shopping experience, including IKEA App (IKEA Online Store) and Click & Collect (where the furniture and home furnishing accessories can be purchased together). The online shopping app enables customers to have a broader range of choices than they might use to have in the offline stores, which also makes the production of IKEA cost-effective because there is no need for IKEA to carry on an offline store and pay for bills like electric charge and water charge. During the pandemic, this way of purchase and delivery enables customers to get their furniture more conveniently and contactless. At the same time, because of the long period of locking down, customers’ behaviour and media consumption have changed, and IKEA’s online store might remain popular even after the pandemic. According to the financial reports of IKEA, partly due to store closures, there were only 775 million visitors visited IKEA’s offline stores. Its online channels welcomed more than 5 billion visitors this year, and online retail sales increased by 73%. Though most stores have re-opened, this accounts for 26% of total sales (excluding services) [20]. Therefore, for companies whose epidemic has influenced most offline distribution channels, it is an excellent choice to carry out a digital channel shift, and start an online store like IKEA, since it can offer a better customer experience and improve efficiency internally.

6. Product

“Product development is one of those aspects of a company that is extremely important to overall growth. Product development can make a difference whether a company is successful or fails [22].” Product is one of the most important things for a company. A good strategy can help the company make profits even in extraordinary times if a good plan is made.

“In today's fast-paced, fiercely competitive commercial new product development world, speed and flexibility are essential [23].” Automobile manufacturing company BYD started producing new products with great a speed and flexibility as soon as the pandemic began to cover the losses it caused. To combat the adverse effects of the epidemic, BYD decided to make changes to its products. They used their existing factories to make new products, face masks——a strategy they made helped BYD turn its losses around. The product was changed because BYD found that people no longer need vehicles to travel in the current epidemic situation. Most of the time, they work online at home, resulting in a decrease in sales of their cars: in 2020, BYD automobile car sales were 431954, year-on-year decreased 3.62%, and sales of new energy vehicles were 194148, year-on-year dropped 12.52% [24]. There was an increasing urgency for BYD to transform its product strategy during the pandemic to be more relevant to the market, which is also the best way to help them adapt to the adversity.

At the beginning of the epidemic, there was a huge domestic demand for face masks, then BYD decided to use its factories and equipments for cross-border production of face masks to avoid losses caused by the epidemic, it has built more than 300 production line structures, with more than 20 million daily outputs.

BYD's first-quarter financial report shows that BYD Electronics made a profit of 657 million yuan in the first quarter, increasing 69% year-on-year. This is equivalent to BYD making 268 million yuan by selling and covering in the first quarter [25]. BYD has also become the world's largest manufacturer of masks, which shows the enormous benefits of BYD's product changes.

However, the reasons why BYD was able to do this are their huge competitive advantages, for instance, their raw material advantages— at present, some products of automobile companies use polypropylene, a high-specification material that can be used for medical supplies, to produce soundproof cotton, which has a very high similarity with the physical structure raw material composition of the medical cover. In addition, their plant advantages, on grounds that both mask production and automobile production need to be completed in a dust-free environment; BYD has similar manufacturing processes for different products, so employees related to dust-free workshops can also provide technical support in the manufacturing process. Also, their technical resource advantages helped their quickly purchases of the accessories related to mask machines, hence after simple modification, mask devices could be mass-produced. On the grounds of these advantages, BYD can soon invest in the production of masks and complete the conversion of goods faster to make sales and profits.

In the case of the epidemic and the continuous outbreak of the epidemic at home and abroad, through the conversion of production, BYD successfully completed the counterattack. This strategy could be used as a reference for other companies when a certain period leads to a sales decline in the original products, helping them survive the crisis period.

7. Physical Evidence

Physical evidence refers to everything customers see when interacting with the business. This includes the physical environment where companies provide the product or service. Appropriate physical evidence would increase customer satisfaction.

A quiet, joyful place for customers to enjoy their products is imperative for Starbuck, an American company that is the largest coffeehouse chain globally. Because Starbuck is more than just a café serving drinks, it is a place where customers can meet their needs for a 'third space’. The third place is the social surroundings separate from the two usual social environments of home ("first place") and the workplace ("second place"). Which is a social and public space that meets the needs of people for conversation, entertainment, etc. and is usually characterised by freedom, convenience, and comfort. And Starbuck can provide a place for workers who do not want to work in their workspace, be a study room for students, and be a meeting place for any occasion… In other words, the high price of Starbuck essentially does include not only the drink but also the place that Starbuck offers. Therefore, the impact of the pandemic was disruptive for Starbuck because the social restrictions limited the usage of “third place”, and customers have cut back on trips to Starbucks for fear of being infected by people in third space. As a result, the sales revenue of Starbuck decreased by 14% in the first quarterly, and most shops started to close.

In the face of this situation, Starbucks made two strategies; firstly, to reassure the public, Starbucks has banned customers from using their cups and has instituted a strict cleaning regime, requiring staff to wash their hands every half hour and disinfect 'high-touch' surfaces, making it mandatory for staff to wear gloves and masks, and removing tables and chairs. Secondly, Starbucks accelerated its transformation, dismantling traditional shops fatly and establishing “Starbucks now”. The "Starbucks now" mobile ordering service, which means "order online, pick up in shop", was first launched last year in representative shops in Beijing and Shanghai. The "Starbucks now" shop has mobile ordering capabilities and can also act as a guarantee of supply for takeaway orders within a specific range. These two strategies directly change Starbucks' PHYSICAL EVIDENCE, even if they undermine their original PHYSICAL EVIDENCE.

However, Starbucks has seen a good upturn in performance. Taken from the manager of a Starbucks shop in Shanghai: "More customers are willing to come to Starbucks to enjoy their coffee after stricter preventive measures have been implemented, and our customer numbers are awe-inspiring compared to coffee shops in the same period due to the strong brand effect of Starbucks.”

In the face of force majeure, such as the epidemic, Starbucks had to abandon its original physical evidence to a certain extent but still achieved good results. This shows that physical evidence needs to be changed according to the actual situation to a certain extent.

8. Process

A business’s processes to satisfy customers’ wants reliably and consistently form an essential part of marketing services [12]. Jingdong is a leading self-operated e-commerce enterprise in China, providing customers with the best online consumption experience. Affected by the epidemic, online shopping at home has become most people's first choice, forming users' online consumption habits to a certain extent and speeding up the development of online fresh food e-commerce. In adversity, some strategy gurus stress the importance of industry factors, while others stress firm-specific competencies [30]. Jingdong’s changes in Process mainly focus on highlighting Delivery systems and After-sales service. Systematic processes from suppliers to consumers and after-sales service attracted consumers. It brought high sales and market share to Jingdong and adapted to the impact of external crises.

Jingdong has developed rapid supply chain service capabilities, improved cold chain logistics, and established strategic partnerships with many suppliers by entering Zhoushan Aquatic Mall [31]. The strategic transformation of Jingdong to expand its logistics advantages makes the source of suppliers more stable and closer to each other. The use of ultra-low temperature storage and transportation to directly deliver goods from the origin reduces the intermediate process and improves the logistics speed. Nearly 100 cities across the country received fresh aquatic products for the first time within 24 hours [32].

Differentiation of after-sales service to customers is a corporate philosophy. Good after-sales service can expand the brand image, thus making the company's products more readily accepted by the market and increasing the possibility of market dominance [33]. During the epidemic, Jingdong paid more attention to the process of after-sales service. Jingdong provides consumers with 100 per cent cash compensation and free delivery compensation for the same products. Jingdong relies on many manuals after-sales Windows and controls the whole after-sales process within 100 minutes. Complete compensation strategy to protect the rights and interests of consumers in the process of consumption. During the epidemic, Jingdong emphasised efficient and effective after-sales service to give consumers a stronger sense of trust than other platforms before and after consumption.

Jingdong's change of process marketing mix during the crisis led to and promoted the online sales trend of the whole fresh market and aquatic product market and partially replaced the traditional new procurement mode with online order distribution when it was unable to go out during the epidemic period [34]. Jd's cryogenic refrigerated transportation technology and cooperation with suppliers ensure quality and logistics speed. The enhanced after-sales service during the pandemic has also provided consumers with a more secure consumption process. Jd.com has also stabilised its market position and sales during the crisis by emphasising logistics and after-sales service.

In 2020 and 2021, the market size of fresh aquatic products increased by 48.9% year-on-year to 247.57 billion yuan [34]. Jingdong's subsidiary "Jingdong Fresh" has a Market share of 25.8%, ranking first in the fresh food Market [5].

9. Conclusion

The sudden breaking out of pandemic seems inevitable for each business, and it has hit the global economy and produced a massive crisis for them. However, ‘Crisis’ is ‘Wei Ji’ in Chinese, which ‘Wei’ means the danger, while ‘Ji’ represents opportunities. In the time of crisis, we saw many talented business leaders and marketers continuously reinvent business models and marketing strategies during such a chaotic time; they demonstrated their value; instead of waiting for the natural disruption to beat them down, that business chose to fight over it and adapt quickly as circumstances in the marketplace chance, which even led their businesses to a more vigorous development.