Company-customer communication in times of crisis

ENAR

If we add to the current economic conditions consumers’ ‘panicky’, erratic behaviors and the spread of rumors triggered by such reactions, then we might better understand the worsening of the crisis and the gloomy outlook of years to come. The truth is that people’s behaviors are largely driven by the need to be safe, because, like Mark Twain described it back in his day, “the average man does not like trouble and danger.” Driven by the natural inclination to run towards safety and ‘follow the herd,’ consumers at the early stages of the financial crisis seemed to have found refuge in safe deposit boxes, convinced that their money would be safer inside the box, a story that made the cover of Time Magazine. The tendency to overreact in the face of uncertainty is also likely to drive the behavior of many companies in times like these, causing them to slash