Advertising, CSR and Sustainability Change During the Pandemic Period: An Analysis of the Cleaning Sector in Turkey

Abstract

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which started in China in November 2019 and spread rapidly all over the world, daily and business life are experiencing a great change. It is not yet predicted which of these changes will be temporary and which will be permanent. Companies and brands are also among those who have had to experience great changes due to the pandemic. Companies had to undergo a rapid transformation in all marketing activities planned in this period, from communication and media strategies to sales and product development. Especially due to the epidemic, hygiene has become a sensitive issue and there has been a growth in the cleaning sector by 50% according to data provided by Skala Media. This study aims to analyze the transformations caused by the pandemic through examining the advertisements, corporate social responsibility campaigns, and sustainability projects of the cleaning sector, which experienced a sudden growth. By a case study design as a part of qualitative research, this article is based on the analysis of three companies and nine brands were determined by the criterion sampling method, which is one of the purposeful sampling methods. The pre-pandemic advertisements of these brands, corporate social responsibility projects, sustainability studies, and post-pandemic studies were compared and interpreted with the descriptive analysis method. In light of the data obtained, it was determined that the COVID-19 pandemics led cleaning companies to a short-term and product-based change and that radical corporate social responsibility and sustainability changes were not experienced.