Marketing digital em tempos de pandemia: desafios do segmento de concessionárias automotivas em Maceió/AL

Abstract

The objective of this research was to understand how the market of automotive drivers in Maceió - AL behaved in the midst of the new Coronavirus pandemic. This research is classified as descriptive and explanatory. The quali-quantitative approach method was used. Regarding the qualitative approach, an interview script was applied in order to gather information about the use of digital marketing in vehicle sales strategies by automotive carriers. Regarding the quantitative approach, a statistical analysis was carried out on the number of vehicle sales in three different periods, namely: pre-pandemic period (months of January, February and March 2020, during the peak of the pandemic (month of April according to data from the Ministry of Health) and post-pandemic peak period (January, February, March, April and May 2021) through data collected by the National Federation of Motor Vehicle Distribution (FENABRAVE). Starting with the literature review regarding the context of the study, for this purpose, the following databases were used: Scientific Electronic Library Online (SCieLO) and Scopus, in addition to the FENABRAVE digital platform. 2020 was the period in which most automotive companies gained sales, adding only 396 cars during the peak of the pandemic, a drop of 71.7% compared to the previous month, in the prepandemic period, which was 1048 cars sold. However, it can be seen that during the pandemic, many companies sought alternative solutions in order not to let sales reach the 0.0% level, and for that, digital marketing was the main tool for promoting products through vehicle sales distribution to communicate with customers. In addition, it was evident that Instagram was the social network most used by companies for publicizing and attracting customers, therefore, the work can demonstrate that digital marketing is a fundamental tool for achieving the objectives of an organization, especially in the face of profound transformations in the automobile trade.