Marketing 0

FIGURE 5.1
 Digitalization Amid COVID-19
Businesses would never be the same again. Industries that used to
rely heavily on physical interactions were forced to rethink their
strategies. The food services industry adapted to the pandemic by
boosting food delivery to compensate for the loss in dine-in revenue.
Some restaurants switched to the cloud or ghost kitchens, serving
only delivery orders. The travel industries turned to robot cleaners to
sanitize rooms and trains. Airports, such as in the one in Bangalore,
introduced “parking-to-boarding” contactless experiences.
As public transit ridership plummeted, transit authorities launched
the micro-transit services. The on-demand buses and shuttles
allowed passengers to order rides via mobile apps. Passengers could
track not only the locations of buses but also the current capacity. It
is useful to ensure physical tools and enable contact tracing.
Automakers and dealers invested heavily in online sales platforms to
serve the growing demand for digital interactions. Above all, every
brand across different industries raised its digital content marketing
game, aiming to engage customers via social media.
Companies could no longer procrastinate on digitalization when
their sustainability depended on it. The crisis indeed exposed the
readiness—or rather the unreadiness—of specific market segments
and industry players to go digital. Particular demographics known to
be digital immigrants and laggards will be the hardest-hit segments
as social distancing significantly alters their face-to-face routines. On

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the other hand, digital natives might thrive under these same
conditions.
FIGURE 5.2
How COVID-19 Has Affected Different Customer
Segments and Industry Players
Likewise, the outbreak seems to cause more significant problems for
some industries, although no business is immune to its effect. The
sectors that require more direct physical interactions and are labor-
intensive might suffer more. On the other hand, industries with
highly digital business processes and lean organizations might be in
a much better position (see 
Figure 5.2
).