Riassunto analitico
The objective of this thesis project is to investigate whether and how communication strategies have changed at the company level before and after the outbreak of the pandemic.
Coronavirus is the first pandemic of the contemporary era that has had such a massive and widespread impact. Covid-19 first brought into crisis and then redefined several world balances, from the economical, political, social and demographic points of view.
Social media is a growing phenomenon. In recent years they have spread exponentially, becoming an integral part of the daily life of millions of people. Their growth is not exclusively linked to the outbreak of the pandemic, but the last two years have certainly contributed to their spread.
Their relationship is therefore reciprocal.
On the one hand it is interesting to see how the outbreak of the virus, with all the precautionary measures taken on a global scale, have given an additional boost to the use of social media for several reasons: leisure, information, connection, work, study, social relations, and learning.
On the other hand, it can be equally important to understand how these platforms have changed in the last two years: what use has been made of them, if both the professional and private approach to their use has changed, how users have responded to changes, and if their relationship with social media has changed as well.
The economic impact of the Coronavirus was unprecedented. Almost all sectors of the world economy have experienced losses, unemployment rates, falling demand, and difficulties in managing logistics, foreign markets, and international relations.
Among all, the beverage sector was considered among the most interesting to be analyzed. Beverage is a historically solid market, which has grown rapidly over time and has managed to establish itself. In the challenge between rival firms, two companies have managed to stand out and emerge: The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo. Both of them are particularly active on social media: the perfect channel for daily communication of both their products and their values.
Finally, there are many social platforms available nowadays. Also thanks to the technological progress and innovation, in recent years we have seen the launch of many social media. The choice was really wide. Considering its spread and affirmation on a global scale, the number of subscribers, the purpose and ease of use, Instagram has been identified as the best social to take as a model in order to analyze the communication strategies of the two companies.
Starting from these choices, the Instagram profiles of The Coca-Cola Company and Coca-Cola brand on the one hand, and PepsiCo and Pepsi brand on the other have been analyzed for a period of time defined as follows. Anticipating that 11 March 2021 was chosen as the reference date - the day on which the World Health Organization defined Covid-19 as a pandemic - two periods have been defined: the pre-pandemic one relating to the six months preceding the aforementioned date, and the post-pandemic one related to the six months thereafter.
The data collected did not allow to identify radical changes in the communication approach adopted by the two companies on social media. Despite this, there has been an increase in user interactions with health crisis-related content, especially in terms of likes, views and comments.
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