The influence of brands on consumer behaviour in conditions of COVID-19 pandemic: Bibliometric and visualization analysis

Abstract

The topic of branding is part of the marketing concept and is actively researched. This study presents a trend analysis, bibliometric overview, and visualization of the current state within the research problem of branding. A review of 1,014 publications from the Scopus database (1996–2020) was conducted. Two combinations of words with a logical operator (“brand” and “consumer behaviour, crisis”) were used. VOSviewer was used to visualize the results and graphically display the material. The analysis helped to draw some valuable conclusions. As a result of the analysis, it is determined that: 1) using filters, the total number of publications in the research field of branding is 984; 2) the growth of the publication activity occurred after 2009. 3) the largest number of studies is conducted by scientists from Europe, North America, Asia and Australia; 4) until 2014, scientists focused on researching the essence of the brand and branding, its benefits, features, etc., then scientists were more focused on the issues of sustainable development, the role and significance of crisis factors, including the impact of the pandemic; 5) the relationships among keywords within the research topic form the following clusters: marketing, corporate social responsibility, brand equity, consumer behaviour, and consumption behaviour. The obtained results are applicable and can be a guidance for further research in the field of branding.