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senses. The signs around the shops point to directions that can be summarized as look but don’t touch, obviously don’t smell and once you taste it consider it sold. Depending on what you want to purchase, going to a store requires more patience and more time. Buying items such as perfumes, clothes and jewelry is much easier online. One needs to do a little more research and reading of reviews, but this approach may offer a better customer experience than walking into a store. A phone call to the store may also be a better idea when you cannot engage and interact with the product. Speaking to the store attendant can also help you make a purchase decision based on something you have seen online. As already determined, the online shoppers experience needs to be enhanced. Customers can make better purchase decisions from interactive media than from static media. Real estate seems to be taking strides towards this direction using channels such as periscope or YouTube videos for virtual home tours, but this opportunity remains largely unexploited by most brands. A clothing store for example can have characters with different body shapes and types Customer expectations are growing as they expect more and more innovative stunts on social media and are attracted to unique marketing ideas given that they are now spending much more time online. Their expectations of brands are much higher, and they tend to be drawn to brands that show a sense of responsibility towards supporting the current crisis. Local brands need to get their voice heard because customers are making more conscious decisions to purchase local products and support local businesses. International brands can also localize their marketing campaigns to align with the patriotic feeling that customers have developed during the crisis. alongside the dresses they are selling that can be fitted on the characters like a 3D animation video game. Most smartphones can support this feature and will reduce customer disappointment when they get to the store and realize they cannot fit dresses. Manufacturers of paint are already using these integrations on their website which can be tweaked for mobile. Electronic stores can take advantage of 3D interactive to give customers virtual tours of their stores or allow customers to experience gadgets via their phones. The power of 3D interactive marketing is its ability to make shopping fun, engaging and real for customers. It also allows marketers to collect data in the same way they would during market research beyond likes, shares and comments. The selections that customers make for example in the case of the clothing store, can give the insights into the most preferred color of an outfit, the body types of their customers, the most preferred design of clothing, even the most purchased material. Local designers can benefit from these insights to improve and inform future collections. The tough economic times seem to have strengthened patriotism and relationships between customers and local brands. The customer in our scenario said she was only shopping at the store because it was locally owned, and she wanted to support her fellow country man. This stood out for me because on any given day, this is a statement that would not matter to many shoppers. I, for example was in the store because they had nice dresses and I was just looking around for a dress. I was not in that store because it was locally owned. Looking back in retrospect, the livid customer had all good intentions to support growth of local business but needed a little more convincing or assurance. The takeaway for me from that single statement was that local brands need to get their voice heard because customers are making more conscious decisions to purchase local products and support local businesses. International brands can also localize their marketing campaigns to align with the patriotic feeling that customers have developed during the crisis. Customers may also now prefer local businesses because of restrictions on imports which has slowed down influx of high street fashion and other products. None the less, it is an insight that any business can take advantage of and cleverly tweak to suit their business needs. Are brands taking advantage of the pandemic to sell more products? Is it a good thing or a bad thing? Do customers take positive notice of it or do they feel used and cheated? Several questions went through my mind about why the lady felt the store was taking advantage of the situation. To the best of my understanding, many brands have seized the opportunity to make sales on essential products such as sanitizers, masks and wet tissues to increase market supply and accessibility to these products, while diversifying their portfolios to keep their businesses afloat and play their role in social responsibility. Some customers however may have a different view and feel that brands are taking advantage of the pandemic to sell more products. This can only point to two things: that customers are more sensitive to brand messaging at this time and they are drawn to brands that are empathetic of the situation. The customer seemed to be aware that the store was now making masks as a new product line and may have thought it was taking advantage of the situation because of the way they communicated about the masks being available at the 14 MAL37/20 ISSUE