Crisis Marketing and Bank Runs

The issue of crisis marketing is insufficiently explored and described in the literature, although in practice it has an important role in diffusing a crisis.Depending on crisis size, customer structure, the level of clients trust in a bank and other factors – a banking panic may occur. This is the most severe symptom of a crisis and many banks could not survive a bank run. Publications on this topic are rare and researchers focus on liquidity models in bank run conditions, however, this implies knowledge of the deposit insurance system – which is not a realistic assumption – as well as estimating the probability of a panic.The research on bank run management models seems to be important. At the same time every panic has a different scale, character and susceptibility to various marketing instruments, hence the generalization of the conclusions of the study should be very cautious.The purpose of this publication is to analyze the potential of marketing instruments for use in the context of crises in banks and enterprises and to investigate the reactions of customers in crisis conditions. The publication will include such aspects as:•internal marketing functions in crisis conditions,•the role of marketing in gaining financial leverage for the company for the repair process,•potential customer reaction to the crisis of the bank – own research,•changes in trust in banks,•condition of customers economic education,•crisis public relations,•bank run and the special instruments of the marketing.Used research methods included a survey among customers of cooperative banks; research survey was repeated from the years 2008, 2010 and 2013 in order to ensure comparability. Research literature and desk research were also used.The results of the study in 2014 showed potential changes in customer behaviour in relation to the results in previous years in the context of the changes in the level of confidence and knowledge of deposit insurance systems.