Marketing strategies used in crisis - study case

The economic and financial crisis affected all the economic sectors, spreading all over the world. The retail sector had to adapt to their customers ´preferences and needs. The purpose of this paper was to examine how Romanian retailers adapt their marketing strategies to the changing consumer buying behavior during the financial crisis.A qualitative method was chosen for this research, and the empirical data was gathered from two companies in the Romanian retail sector: Real Hypermarket and Carrefour. Primary data was collected through annual information from their websites, annual reports and different articles. Both companies observed some changes in the behavior and preferences of their customers, so they implemented some marketing strategies during the crisis. The research is useful for companies being in a similar situation, in order to see how the crisis can be managed.