What Coronavirus Means for Businesses in 2023?

Since the World Health Organization has declared the Coronavirus (COVID-19) a pandemic, different countries of the world have made concerted efforts to promulgate laws and decrees to control the spread of the disease. These laws have brought about restrictions in the movement of people. Virtually all businesses have been forced to close down worldwide. All these efforts are just for one aim. That is to control the infection and death rate of people worldwide. However, just as these restrictions may have been of immense health benefit to the people, it has a lot of effect on the world economy. With the apparent halt on the manufacturing supply chain , stock markets all over the world have suffered a loss of trillions of dollars thereby leading to its crash. Other businesses that have been affected by the Coronavirus outbreak include airline, tourism, and hospitality . With these sad realities, the world is gradually going into a recession. Hence, there are many challenges ahead for marketers to deal with in the coming days. Most marketers are already exploiting the fears and concerns of people. The market has experienced an increase in requests for consumables that could be used to prevent the spread of Coronavirus. Most of these materials include the nose mask, hand sanitizers, and toiletries. Marketers have stormed online marketing platforms like eBay and AIiExpress to buy these materials and resell them in multiple folds of the price they were purchased. These activities have led to a hike in the price and shortage of these products. This is happening because marketers don't understand what Coronavirus means to them and their economic dealings most especially in this period. Today, I will be discussing the challenges and what marketers should do to help others manage the present current economic realities.

What Coronavirus Means for Businesses in 2023?

The challenges of marketers in the Coronavirus outbreak period:

1. Most businesses will struggle to stand firm

With the current economic challenges facing the whole world due to the continued spread of Coronavirus, most businesses will continue to struggle. It is worthy of note that most manufacturing industries have shut down their services to prevent the continued spread of the disease. The February COVID-19 data showed that over 6.2% of the working population of China lost their jobs with sales dropping by 20.5% . This is because companies like Apple in China stopped all its business activity which result in little or no profit for the company. However, airline operators are the worst-hit because of restrictions that have been placed on the movement of people. The report shows that they have lost about $820 billion since the outbreak of Coronavirus. This has led to the retrenchment of their staff as they could not afford to pay them. 

Also, the workers at the port are not left out of the current economic woes. Most workers in the port have been disengaged to cope with the current economic downfall. In the United States, a traveling ban has been placed on Europeans from entering the country for business purposes all because of the deadly Coronavirus disease. India has also shut all its business edifice so that the spread of the disease will be curbed. In the United Kingdom, business transactions have been put on hold indefinitely. This has also resulted in the fall of the country's stock exchange by 25% . The same decline in the stock exchange is been experienced in other countries where complete lockdown has been enforced. With all these in mind, marketers are expected to assist individuals to cope in these harsh economic conditions.

2. The oil price war

With the stay and work from home orders of various governments of the world, there has been a major crisis that has led to a fallout among countries that are involved in the oil-exporting business. For example, Russia which is one of the major oil-producing countries opposed the proposed cut in the supply of oil. In a sharp response, the Saudia Arabia government announced a fall in the price of crude oil per barrel to $30. Hence, the disagreement has led to a major oil price war which has become a challenge to other oil-exporting countries whose economy is driven by revenue by the oil sector. It will be recalled that the oil price per barrel was $69 . A month later, the price dropped to $60 and now $30 because of the pandemic ravaging the countries of the world. With all the current economic realities in the oil sector, much is needed to be done by marketers to assist individuals that wish to access any of the essential needs they sell at a cheap and affordable price.

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3. The bad publicity approach

Some of the countries that are currently ravaged by an exponential increase in the spread of Coronavirus cases had bad publicity about the impact of the disease on their economy. For example, in the United States, the various report had suggested the warnings issued to president Trump on the upcoming economic effect the disease will have on the entire working population of the country. This effect is fast becoming a reality with the hope that an end will be put to it in the coming days. This bad publicity leads to growing concern and fear in the heart of all business owners and other stakeholders in the business world. Also, the airline business is currently in a terrible mess since most flight schedules for business trips, tourism , and form of travel have been canceled indefinitely. For example, British airports have cut jobs of the workers leaving the workers unemployed. This is because the citizens have been ordered by the government to stay at home thereby leaving the airlines with no passenger. This is also applicable to all airports and airline operators in the world as they cannot afford to pay workers with any service and profit.

4. Other Business affected

It is with doubt that you will agree that the football industry is one of the major thriving businesses in the world today. However, the spread and effect of Coronavirus have not left this industry untouched. With gathering more than two people banned in Germany and other European countries, all football activities have been completely shut down indefinitely. This has resulted in a drastic loss in profit by the football clubs and club owners. The most football club has proposed a pay cut for their players and back room staffs. For example, the Barcelona FC in Spain offered its players a 70% pay cut to cope with the current economic challenges. Also, the food industries are not left out in the economic hardship of the Coronavirus disease. The demand for fast food has reduced drastically thereby forcing some of the workers in food restaurants to be disengaged from their place of work.

5. Liquidity

With the sharp fall in the activity in the foreign and stock exchange market , there has been a lack of liquidity. This is because there is little or no business activity, and very low demand for foreign exchange since the government has told most traders to work from home. Therefore, reduction in asset flow which has weakened some currencies . For example, the Pound loss about 8% of its market value to the Euro in which a pound can only buy in February €1.11 . Also, the market value of the pound to dollar dropped by 6% in February which results in a pound been bought at $1.23 . However, there is hope that when there is a stop to the spread of the deadly Coronavirus disease, businesses will rise again but only time will tell how long it will take for a change to happen.

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What Marketers must do to help the current economic downturn

1. Marketing commodities at affordable price

When the economic activities of the world are experiencing downturn just like it is today, marketers are expected to be available to assist in helping the economy to stay strong and not pulling it down. It should be noted that hiking the price of commodities at this time will not help the economy. Instead, the marketers will also have their share of the world economic recession that may happen if the diseases continue to spread.

2. Marketers must shun greediness

while the economic downturn persists, marketers are expected to shun greediness . They should make the essential commodities needed particularly the masks, hand sanitizers, and other needs available at the usual price. They should note that any economic hardship placed on these products will also affect their needs. Therefore, they can propose bette r pricing or payment holiday deal for their customers to ease their economic burdens. By this, the economy will be able to cope with the harsh economic condition. Also, the intervention of the government will be enough to revive and make the economy recover in the shortest possible time.

3. Educate their customers

Marketers must endeavor to educate their customers at this pandemic period. The must let them know the reason why they need their product for continued survival and prevention against the Coronavirus disease.

Conclusion

As the index cases of the deadly Coronavirus continue to increase, marketers are expected to help the economy withstand this current economic condition and not make it worst. The information given here is concise enough to orientate the marketers on the current economic hardship the Coronavirus has placed on the world economy. Hence, they must do their best to improve the economy for the benefit of the world populace.