MARKETING STRATEGIES IN CONDITIONS OF CRISIS

The research presented in this paper refers to the adjustment of marketing strategy and basic elements of marketing in conditions of crisis with the aim of company repositioning in order of achieving a competitive advantage. Specifically, our epoch is characterized with experiences of a deep crisis. Company crisis are unplanned and unwanted processes; which can conditionally be affected; whose outcome is ambiguous and could mean the destruction or restitution (and metamorphosis). Crisis management offers the possibility of a positive impact on the crisis, i.e. to use the opportunity for a change towards a new positioning, in order to overcome the crisis or even to achieve a competitive advantage. The most important thing in marketing, is predicting the consumers' orientation, whether it's a recession or not. Customer orientation is a key aspect of the strategy of successful companies. Many managers point out that profit making in the long term is a main goal and motivation for the existence of the company. The paper points to the altered modern approach to management, which assumes that profit is not the real aim and purpose of management - it actually means that all the real aims and objectives are to be achieved. It assumes that the real purpose of the company is creating value for its customers and as a result realized profit. Some elements relating to satisfaction and loyalty, customer retention, customer profitability, are important determinants of customer relationship marketing. This can be seen also from the concept of the value chain.