The evolving perception of the role of marketing at universities is a natural consequence of the expanding higher education market at the turn of the century and the attendant challenges that have arisen. As universities operate in an increasingly dynamic environment, they must adopt deliberate marketing strategies to remain competitive and relevant. Within the education system, universities contribute to societal and economic development by providing education in specific fields of knowledge, conducting scientific research, as well as developing and promoting national culture and technological progress.

Changes in the higher education environment – driven by unfavourable demographic shifts, changes in the ways in which universities are financed, globalisation processes, and rapid technological and informational advancements – have necessitated the adoption of a marketing-oriented approach at universities, modelled on those seen in other industries. These changes entail not only a need to adapt the instruments used to emerging challenges, but also a shift in the perception of the role of marketing in higher education.

Marketing in higher education is a specialized branch of service marketing that has evolved alongside increasing competition and the commercialisation of education. Marketing strategies allow universities to stand out in a competitive market, attract students and build a strong brand, which is essential for their development and survival. Universities, like businesses, must present themselves effectively to their target audience, which primarily consists of students, but also includes employers and the general public.

Marketing in this context includes image and reputation management as well as effective communication, focusing on the intangible aspects of the university’s offerings, such as quality of its teaching, its reputation and the student experience. Much like other service organisations, universities must build relationships with their customers, i.e. students and other stakeholders, and strive to tailor their activities to their expectations. Effective marketing of educational services crucially involves managing the perceptions of service quality, communicating the value of the programmes offered, and maintaining consistency in branding and messaging. Furthermore, universities must continuously monitor and refine their marketing strategies in response to shifting market demands and audience expectations, while taking into account the specific needs and motivations of students and building lasting relationships with graduates.

Modern marketing efforts in higher education are increasingly taking place in the digital sphere, where universities use websites and social media to communicate with potential students. By maintaining an active online presence and utilizing a variety of communication tools, universities strive to build lasting relationships with both current and future students.

The unique nature of marketing in higher education stems from its dual purpose: attracting students while upholding the university’s broader mission of education, research, and human capital development. Marketing strategies must be coherent with the institution’s values and cater to multiple audiences. Effective marketing activities should therefore focus on:

• building a strong university brand that is recognisable and valued in the market,
• market segmentation, with the offerings tailored to the needs of different groups of students,
• using digital tools to communicate and build relationships with students,
• constantly monitoring and adjusting strategies based on market trends and audience expectations,
• striving for student satisfaction and loyalty.

Universities that successfully combine marketing with their educational mission can achieve lasting success in the increasingly competitive environment.

The purpose of this study is to analyse evolving research trends on the role of marketing in higher education. This analysis will be supplemented with insights into the relevance of key publications, authors, and sources within the field. The study will be based on bibliometric analysis of metadata from relevant publications indexed in the Web of Science.

2. Literature review

Different types of reviews of the literature on the marketing issues addressed in higher education, i.e. systematic literature reviews, bibliometric analyses and meta-analyses, typically select one topic/issue from the given research area and qualitatively or quantitatively review the existing publications on that topic. Examples of this approach include review studies on social media use (Pawar, 2024), conceptualising market orientation (Dwyer, 2024), reputation and its management (Amado et al., 2022; Sun & Lim, 2023; Faraoni et al., 2023), service quality and student satisfaction (Weerasinghe & Fernando, 2017; Onditi & Wechuli, 2017; Santini et al., 2017) lecturer satisfaction (Hoang, 2023), university brands (Yaping et al., 2023; Le et al., 2023), digital marketing (Jain & Rao, 2024) and university social responsibility (Fauzi et al., 2023).

In contrast, some scholars adopt a broader approach when defining the scope of their reviews. Notable examples include the works of Hemsley-Brown and Oplatka (2006, 2011) and Rabenu and Shkoler (2022). Hemsley-Brown and Oplatka carried out a systematic literature review of marketing in higher education twice: the first review covered the period 1992–2004, while the second (which can be seen as a supplement/extension/update) covered the period 2005–2018. Their research identified several key phases in the evolution of marketing within higher education. Initially, in the 1980s and 1990s, marketing in education was treated as an adaptation of practices from the business sector, dominated by theoretical-normative approaches and handbooks on marketing techniques. Students were seen as a university’s “product,” employers as its customers. In the 1990s, a narrower view of marketing communications emerged, where the decision-making process of students and the content of print publications were analysed. Over time, it was understood that higher education was better understood as a service rather than a product, which led to the implementation of service marketing theory. During this period, attention began to be paid to building relationships with customers and using business models, especially those developed by Kotler.

After 2006, the increasing commercialisation of higher education worldwide prompted universities to adopt free-market practices and a more professional approach to marketing. At the same time, the importance of marketing communication, including online marketing and social media, increased. Authors began to focus on studying the effectiveness of these tools, their impact on the university’s image and ways of engaging audiences. Branding became a key area of research and universities began to consciously build their brands. In addition, research covered the effectiveness of marketing strategies, recruitment, alumni relations and donations. As a result, five main research topics have been identified: commercialisation, marketing communication, brand building, marketing strategy, and recruitment, alumni and donations. An important measure of an author’s influence within these research areas is the citation frequency of their publications.

Additionally, it is worth noting that certain books – although they are excluded from the bibliometric analyses that follow – have been extensively cited in academic discussions on marketing in higher education. These include Krip (2003), Molesworth et al. (2011), Maringe and Gibbs (2008), and Brown and Carraso (2013). From the Polish market, relevant books on similar topics include Drapińska (2011), Dziewianowska (2018), Hall (2011, 2022) and Leja (2011).

3. Research methodology

The general workflow for scientific mapping analysis involves a number of key steps (Börner et al. 2003; Cobo et al. 2011a): data search, preprocessing, network extraction, normalisation, mapping, analysis and visualisation. The final stage of this process involves interpreting the results obtained and drawing conclusions from them.

The objectives of the present bibliometric study are as follows:

1. to identify which journals, authors and papers are most frequently cited in the research area “marketing in higher education”,
2. to identify the journals, authors that have the greatest impact on research in the research area,
3. to identify key research topics in the area under study and track the changes that have taken place over time (i.e. from the first identified publication on the given topic to the present day).

There are several possible online bibliographic databases for data retrieval. The most important of these are Web of Science, Scopus or Google Scholar. These databases vary in terms of their coverage of specific scientific disciplines and journals, each with its own advantages and limitations, often discipline-specific (Bar-Ilan, 2010; Falagas et al., 2008).

For this study, the Web of Science (WoS) database was selected as the primary source of publications for a scientific mapping analysis. However, scientific map analysis should not be applied directly to data extracted from bibliographic sources, as these may contain errors. Therefore, a pre-processing step should be applied to improve the quality of the data. Various preprocessing methods can be used, including those that detect duplicate and misspelled elements, time-sharing and data reduction. The details of this process are shown in Figure 1.

The metadata of the 494 articles so selected was transferred to Biblioshiny software (Aria, Cuccurullo, 2017) to prepare for analysis. Subsequently, the completeness of the individual fields in the database was assessed to evaluate the quality of the data obtained. In all fields, i.e. author(s), publication title, and keywords, the proportion of missing responses is either zero or negligibly low. The characteristics of the resulting set of publications are shown in Table 1.

Citation analysis was used to achieve the stated objectives¹ and identify research trends through text analysis. Citation analysis was carried out across the entire timeline from the first identified publication on a given topic in the database to October 2024 (when the present analysis was carried out). To track research trends over time, the study divided the dataset into four sub-periods (1999–2009, 2010–2014, 2015–2019, 2020–2024)². The characteristics of the resulting subsets of publications are shown in Table 2.

In parallel, we manually merged author keywords of similar relevance. This is a necessary step to improve the quality of the bibliometric and thematic analysis. Next, a science mapping analysis was carried out using Biblioshiny software to analyse the thematic structure and evolution of the research themes.

The themes obtained from the science mapping analysis are represented by a strategy diagram and a thematic network structure. Biblioshiny automatically calculates centrality (x-axis) and density (y-axis) values for each topic, and these are usually presented in a four-field, two-dimensional diagram. In this case, the centrality values reflect the extent of interactions between clusters and the strength of relationships between them. Results are presented in the dieagram as follows (Cobo et al. 2011b):

1. Themes in the upper right quadrant (Motor Themes) are both well developed and important for structuring the research field. These are known as Motor Themes of Specialisation, given that they show strong centrality and high density. The placement of themes in this quadrant suggests that they are externally linked to concepts applicable to other themes that are conceptually closely related.
2. Themes in the upper left quadrant (Niche Themes) have well-developed internal linkages but insignificant external linkages and are therefore only marginally relevant to the field. These themes are highly specialised and peripheral in nature.
3. Themes in the bottom left quadrant (Emerging or Declining Themes) are both underdeveloped and marginal. Themes in this quadrant are low in density and low in centrality, representing mainly emerging or declining themes.
4. Themes in the lower right quadrant (Basic Themes) are important to the research field but are not developed. This quadrant therefore contains cross-cutting and general basic themes.

4. Relevance of publications, authors and marketing publications in higher education

The earliest publication in the generated set of publications containing research results on marketing in university activities dates back to 1999. For the next five years, research in this area received little attention from researchers. However, there was a clear increase in publications since the mid-2000s. For instance, there were 62 publications in 2010, 115 in 2013, and 352 in 2020. This growth likely reflects the cumulative development of new ideas built upon previous scientific achievements.

Figure 2 shows the changes in the number of publications on marketing in higher education activities between 1999 and 2024. An analysis of the average citations per year can complement the resulting picture. The graph with average citations per year identifies several points in time – such as 2007 and 2009 – with a higher number of citations.³

When the results from Figures 1 and 2 are juxtaposed with the data in Tables 1 and 2, several basic conclusions emerge. The number of publications reporting research in the field of marketing in higher education has been steadily increasing across the defined periods. Similarly, the number of citations per publication and the pool of contributing authors are both on the rise.

In addition, relevant publication outlets can be identified by considering both the number of articles published and the corresponding bibliometric indices. For the research area analysed, the three journals publishing the most articles are: Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, International Journal of Educational Management, and Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics. A detailed overview is presented in Table 3.

The author with the largest number of publications in the area under analysis is Chris Chapleo with 6 publications (published independently as author or co-author, which means that his “fractionalized authorship” score is 4.03), followed by Tamer Elsharnouby, who also published 6 articles (albeit with a lower fractionalized authorship score, i.e. 3.5), and Emmanuel Mogaji with 5 publications (fractionalized authorship 2.17). The above list can be supplemented by the bibliometric index values (i.e. h-index, g-index, m-index) determined for each author. Details are provided in Table 4.

A second important measure of a given author’s contribution to the advancement of a particular field of research is the number of citations of his or her publications in that field. Among authors publishing on marketing in higher education, the most frequently cited are Jane Hemsley-Brown (with 48 citations), Adam Peruta, Alison B. Shields (43 citations each) and Shivonne Goonawardana (42 citations).

A ranking of the most cited papers can be constructed based on citations from the entire database (so-called global citations) or based on citations from items in the generated set of documents (so-called local citations). There may be differences between the two lists (i.e. global citations may be more numerous than local citations). Since this study focuses on research trends in higher education marketing, the local citation metric was prioritized. Table 5 summarizes the top 10 most cited publications in this field.

In first place is an article by Hemsley-Brown, J. and Goonawardana, S. from 2007, entitled: Brand harmonisation in the international higher education market. This is followed by an article by Bennett, R and Ali-Choudhury, R. from 2009, entitled Prospective students’ perceptions of university brands: An empirical study. The third place is occupied by an article published by Helgesen, Ø. in 2008 entitled Marketing for higher education: A relationship marketing approach. A summary of the first 10 publications with citation data is provided in Table 5. A closer look at this list reveals that the dominant research themes in the most influential works are branding and social media in higher education marketing. These articles represent key foundational works in the field and could be considered part of a ‘must-read’ list for researchers and authors exploring this topic.

5. Research topics in marketing in higher education, their relevance and variability

Next, the research topics addressed in each publication were identified based on the author-assigned keywords. There are 1,361 author keywords in the generated set of publications, as opposed to 766 keywords assigned by algorithms in the Web of Science database (Keywords Plus). The larger number of author keywords should, we anticipated, ensure a greater diversity of keywords, which should provide the opportunity to identify research topics more precisely.

Once the resulting set of keywords was organized and refined, several research topics in this area could be tentatively identified.⁴ Notably, themes previously identified from publication titles – such as branding and brand image and the use of social media – are reinforced. Additionally, new recurring themes have been identified, including: student satisfaction and loyalty, service quality, marketing orientation. A detailed summary of the 15 most frequently occurring keywords is provided in Table 6.

The research topics presented in Table 6 relate to the full time period from 1999 to 2024. For more granularity in identifying researchers’ interest in particular topics in different periods, the topics were analysed for the four sub-periods (1999–2009, 2010–2014, 2015–2019, 2020–2024). The results are presented in Table 7.

The next step sought to determine the relevance of the identified research themes, based on four-field thematic maps⁵ generated for each time period. The thematic map for the first period, i.e. 1999–2009 (Figure 3), shows a lack of motor themes, but themes in the other three areas can be identified. The individual thematic clusters are rather self-contained groups, not connected to each other.

In the map for 2010–2014, research topics appear in all fields (Figure 4). A greater thematic differentiation of the research carried out is becoming apparent, and links between the different clusters of the network are also beginning to emerge. Some of the themes (e.g. student satisfaction) do not change their position (i.e. they are still core themes), while others change their position (e.g. student loyalty stops being a niche theme and starts being a core theme). New niche themes are emerging, and these include internal marketing and job satisfaction.

The map for the third period (2015–2019) reveals further changes in terms of the relevance of research topics (Figure 5). The themes of brand and image have become driving themes. A similar position as in earlier periods is occupied by student satisfaction. New themes concerning values or curriculum (as a product/service concept) are emerging. A change in relevance can also be observed for topics regarding marketing orientation (shifting from the core topics area to niche topics). Research topics relating to the use of social media are now in the core topics section (in the previous period they were classified as a motor topic).

The final period studied, 2020–2024 (Figure 6), reveals the emergence of further research topics, e.g. related to international students, sustainability issues and e-learning. Research on branding, image and student satisfaction continues, while digital marketing remains a core theme.

6. Disscussion and conclusions

The research objectives outlined in the methodology section led to the use of citation analysis, which focused on publication and author data while omitting aspects such as author affiliations and country of origin. In identifying research topics, only author-assigned keywords were considered, while Keywords Plus was excluded. Despite these limitations, the information gathered (Table 8) successfully addresses the stated research objectives.

In the initial phase, the application of marketing and its principles was often fragmented and poorly coordinated and integrated. Nowadays, however, the discussion is no longer about the validity of applying the concepts of marketing to higher education institutions, but rather about how to properly adapt marketing tools to the specifics of the educational market and what opportunities marketing offers such institutions.

For example, in view of the increasing surplus of university places universities in many countries are seeing in relation to the number of applicants, entailing intensified national and international competition, the importance of the university’s brand, currently one of the pillars of university positioning, is certainly on the rise. Thus, having a good brand, becoming synonymous with the prestige of a university, can support market expansion and serve as an indicator of the university’s value and quality.

The growing number of publications studying the use of marketing in higher education suggests that this research area will continue to develop, albeit at a gradual pace. Rather than experiencing rapid expansion, the field is likely to see steady contributions from individual researchers. The journals cited in these publications also indicate a transfer of knowledge from broader marketing research into the field of higher education marketing.

To address the research objectives outlined in the methodology section above, we applied citation analysis, focused solely on publication and author data. Certain aspects, such as author affiliations and information about their country of origin, were omitted. Similarly, in the identification of research topics, author-provided keywords were utilized, with Keywords Plus excluded. Despite these limitations, the information gathered (Table 8) successfully addresses the stated research objectives.

The first stated objective was to identify the most frequently cited journals, authors and papers in the field of “Marketing in Higher Education”. The most cited publication in the given set of publications is Hemsley-Brown and Goonawardana (2007), followed by Bennett and Ali-Choudhury (2009) and Helgesen (2008). The indicated articles form part of a recommended reading list on the use of marketing in higher education. The authors of the publications with the highest number of citations are: Jane Hemsley-Brown (48 citations), Adam Peruta and Alison B. Shields (43 citations each). In contrast, the most cited journals in this area are: Journal of Marketing for Higher Education (1212 citations), Journal of Marketing (956 citations) and Journal of Business Research (800 citations). These journals reflect the main sources of knowledge generation and transfer in higher education marketing research.

The second objective involved identifying the journals and authors with the greatest impact on research in this area. Four such journals were identified: Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, International Journal of Educational Management, Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics and Journal of Business Research. The most influential authors include Chris Chapleo, Tamer Elsharnouby and Emmanuel Mogaji.

The third objective concerted with the identification of the research themes pursued in each time frame. By dividing the dataset into four sub-periods, the study revealed thematic shifts in higher education marketing research. The comparison between early and later periods shows an increasing diversity of topics. The results dovetail with findings from other literature reviews, although differences may arise due to broader search criteria used in systematic reviews. While systematic literature reviews can include multiple databases, bibliometric analyses typically rely on one of the two largest scientific publication databases—Web of Science or Scopus.

The thematic relevance of research topics varies across periods. While student satisfaction remains a core theme, brand-related research has fluctuated in prominence. These findings highlight the evolving priorities in marketing research within higher education.

Overall, the findings of this study provide a comprehensive overview of how marketing research in higher education has evolved, highlighting key publications, influential authors, and dominant research themes. The results suggest that while the field continues to grow, its expansion is steady rather than rapid, with knowledge transfer largely influenced by broader marketing research. As competition among universities increases, branding, student satisfaction, and digital marketing are likely to remain key focal points in future research.

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¹ Citation analysis measures the number of citations a paper has received, so that an overall assessment of the quality of the paper can be made (Andreson, 2006). This approach is based on the premise that frequently cited articles are considered influential within their research field. The underlying assumption is that authors cite papers that they consider important to their own work (Zupic & Cater, 2015). Citations also reflect the degree of knowledge transfer and dissemination, indicating how widely a paper is recognized and referenced by researchers from other institutions and research centres (Ejdys, 2016).

² Dividing research data into periods is a key step in the analysis of thematic evolution (Cobo et al., 2011b). This segmentation serves two purposes: (1) preventing data homogeneity and (2) enabling the identification of research field developments over time (Karakose et al., 2023). Ou dataset was divided into four periods based on two key considerations. The first is the standard timeframe for research in identifying research trends, which is typically five years (Huang & Chang, 2016). Second, graph analyses of annual publication trends revealed that research in this field initially experienced low but steadily increasing publication rates. Therefore, to obtain enough data to be subjected to thematic evolution analysis, we decided to extend the first-time interval. The resulting intervals are characterised by enough publications so that the number of author keywords obtained on this basis can be subjected to analysis.

³ The spikes in citations for these years are likely attributable in part to the appearance of two of the most cited publications in the collection: Hemsley-Brown & Goonawardana (2007) and Bennett & Ali-Choudhury (2009). According to Google Scholar, these articles have been cited 576 and 387 times, respectively (as of 03.11.2024).

⁴ To refine the authoritative keyword dataset, we excluded certain terms from the analysis, such as keywords already used as search criteria, country names, and other non-thematic terms. Additionally, we standardized terminology by replacing plural keywords with singular forms, expanding acronyms into full names, and merging similar expressions to ensure consistency. This process helped create a more structured and accurate identification of research themes in marketing in higher education while reducing redundancy in the dataset.

⁵ The thematic maps are constructed using two axes: the x-axis represents the relevance of the theme, while the y-axis reflects its level of development. Themes are depicted as ovals (bubbles), each representing a network cluster labeled with the most frequently occurring keyword in that cluster. The size of each bubble corresponds to the number of occurrences of the keywords within the cluster, and its position on the map is determined by its relevance and stage of development. To ensure clarity, the analysis was limited to 75 keywords, meaning that only the most frequently occurring research topics are displayed on the maps.

Digital transformation is a critical phenomenon in today’s global economy. Through its activities, it is forcing customer orientation and a focus on customer needs and expectations. Marketing, also undergoing profound transformations, plays a considerable role in the transformation processes (Mazurek, 2019). In the case of marketing medical services, it is essential to point out its social-creative role in the context of the digitalisation of the health sector. Marketing is now more strongly associated with creating value for the general public. The manifestation of this is the change in the approach to value in marketing, which is increasingly associated with the resultant customer experience, thus personalising it (Baran, 2013).

The phenomenon of co-creating value with the customer also manifests itself in the healthcare market in the context of digital innovation. E-health platforms and tools respond to the needs and expectations of the main stakeholders in the healthcare system-patients. The coronavirus pandemic has significantly accelerated the process of digital transformation (Baudier et al., 2022; Li, 2021; Park et al., 2022; Pauzi & Juhari, 2020; Schiliro, 2020, 2021), including the health sector (Marx & Padmanabhan, 2020; Wahab & Saad, 2022), which has translated into an increase in innovative technical and technological solutions in medical records, medical services and preventive health care. In reaching the audience for these solutions, marketing communication is essential. The market for medical services is changing, and the marketing product is evolving. The digital maturity of patient customers is increasing, and the requirements for quality medical services are changing. The synergy of medicine, technology and telecommunications should translate into new medical services available to all. The role of marketing here is vast-from informing patients about new products/services to allowing them to learn about new features to getting feedback on digital solutions.

The article aims to present issues on digital transformation in the health sector with attention to its marketing dimension.

Research Methodology

The author used the desk research method. He reviewed the literature treating digital transformation in health care in terms of marketing. The bibliography includes 82 items, including scientific articles, reports, books, chapters from monographs and electronic sources-mainly from 2020–2022. The following scientific databases were used in the desk research analysis: Google Scholar, ResearchGate, Taylor and Francis Online and ScienceDirect. In searching the literature in the mentioned databases, the author used the following combination of words using Boolean operators (AND, OR): ‘marketing’ AND ‘digital transformation’ AND (‘healthcare’ OR ‘health care’ OR ‘health service’ OR ‘healthcare sector’ OR ‘health sector’ OR ‘healthcare industry’ OR ‘health industry’ OR ‘health industry’ OR ‘medicine’). Searches supplemented the collected literature in the databases above for the following keywords: ‘blockchain’, ‘value’, ‘co-creation’, ‘4P medicine’, ‘artificial intelligence’ and ‘machine learning’. The aforementioned scientific databases were used because of the possibility of collecting literature for this article about its purpose.

Digital Transformation-Essence and Significance

Digital transformation looks and runs differently for every organisation or company. Hence it is not easy to point to a single universal definition. At the same time, it signifies a cultural change manifested in constant questioning of the status quo, frequent experimentation and dealing with failure. The process of digital transformation can sometimes also mean moving away from existing, proven business processes to relatively new, still-developing practices (Nius, 2022). Therefore, digital transformation can be understood as a change in an organisation’s people, processes, technology and data components, creating an organisation’s evolution (McCarthy et al., 2022).

In general, digital transformation refers to a process aimed at improving an entity by inducing significant changes in its operation through the interplay of information, computing, communication and connectivity technologies (Kraus et al., 2021; Vial, 2019). Digital transformation introduces strategy — and customer-focussed changes through innovative information and communication technologies. This process aims to implement improved or new processes in modern organisations (Pihir et al., 2019). Thus, the digital transformation process represents the innovative use of digital technologies to provide better offerings to customers, design efficient operations or create new revenue streams for the business. The technologies used in the transformation process may not be new, but their innovative combination here matters. Hence, strategy, not just technology, is at the core of digital transformation (Chawla & Goyal, 2022; Kane et al., 2015; Vallero, 2019).

The transformation process is aided by digital platforms that create a socio-technical environment that mediates interactions between actors and uses data streams to create value-individual and community value by inducing business users and suppliers to innovate their existing business models (Pietronudo et al., 2022). As mentioned, digital platforms create value. This situation happens in two ways. First, they facilitate transactions and offer technological building blocks to create new products and services (Darius & Maticiuc, 2022; Shan & John, 2022). Transaction facilitation platforms are exchange platforms that create value for at least two different types of users who can benefit from interacting with each other. In contrast, platforms that offer technological building blocks aim to orchestrate industry innovation by co-creating value with external general partners (Hermes et al., 2020).

The importance of digital transformation is immense because it first forces companies to rethink the role and values that guide their business models. Second, it represents a significant change in companies’ fundamental pattern of value creation. Third, the transformation process causes a fundamental change in how an organisation thinks and uses legacy systems and tools to reposition part or all of the organisation in terms of value creation (Mugge et al., 2020). Finally, digital transformation helps organisations engage customers in the conception and product development phases, supporting the co-creation (co-innovation) process, which increases customer centricity (Hauke-Lopes et al., 2022; Imran et al., 2021). As one of the critical elements of digital transformation, customer centricity manifests itself in anticipating and shaping customer expectations, managing the customer journey and creating customer communities that communicate market value. Customer centricity focuses on empathy mapping to gain the benefits of reaching the right stakeholders (Pileggi, 2021; Tomièić-Pupek et al., 2021).

The importance of digital transformation should also be considered in reducing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, as it forced the rapid and unexpected implementation of digital technologies into corporations’ business models and organisational structures. In general, digital transformation has influenced socio-economic recovery, that is to say economic growth, health care and income inequality (Mohamed, 2022), while its nature and pace were determined by artificial intelligence (AI), changing customer preferences and global crises such as the coronavirus pandemic (McCausland, 2021). In summary, digital transformation is a comprehensive, holistic concept that enables an overhaul of core processes and changes culture, organisation, relationships and business models. It enables both the delivery of sustainable results in the long term and the value creation for people and organisations. Undoubtedly, the COVID-19 pandemic has awakened and revolutionised how we understand digitality and demonstrated the strategic importance of its transformation (Gabryelczyk, 2020).

Digitisation of the Health Sector-Security and Stakeholder Benefits

Digital transformation in health care is essential in societies’ transition to a post-industrial, knowledge-based economy (Garcia-Perez et al., 2022). Digital technology is being deployed in health care to support and improve its traditional operations and create new value propositions for end users of health services (Ghosh et al., 2022). For patients, the digitisation of the health sector enables them to operate in a comprehensive multi-channel environment giving broad access to medical information, education and health monitoring through AI and machine learning (ML) (Kraus et al., 2021). AI technologies could address unwarranted disparities in medical care, reduce medical errors, reduce healthcare inequities, and reduce waste and low-quality, low-value care (Hashiguchi et al., 2022). ML, in turn, contributes to observing sick patients, analysing disease patterns, and diagnosing and prescribing medication. ML helps provide patient-centred care, make therapeutic decisions, and detect sepsis and high-risk emergencies in patients (Quazi, 2022). Deployment of AI systems in health care can further optimise healthcare resources, facilitate a better patient experience, reduce per capita costs and increase the satisfaction of medical professionals and patients (Dicuonzo et al., 2022).

The creation and co-creation of value for patients are mediated by digital platforms that manage the public health ecosystem. This process is taking place in collaboration with a much more comprehensive range of partners and stakeholders than was previously the case (Hermes et al., 2020). Therefore, the digitisation of health care should ensure a seamless but, at the same time, secure and protected exchange of data, such as medical data, interoperability and patient-generated data. According to Jahankhani & Kendzierskyj (2019), blockchain is a mechanism that can ensure data security and privacy in the health sector’s digitisation. Blockchain is a computerised, distributed database of records, transactions and digital events made and shared among connected users (Rejeb & Rejeb, 2020). Another definition states that blockchain is a digital, decentralised, distributed ledger that records and adds transactions chronologically to create permanent and tamper-proof records (Jain & Jain, 2022; Treiblmaier, 2018). Blockchain is shared by a network of computers, allowing customers to securely exchange financial information with suppliers without needing a third party, such as a bank (Peres et al., 2022; Swan, 2015; Yli-Huumo et al., 2016; Zheng & Yu, 2016).

In health care, a blockchain is an effective tool in preventing data breaches, improving the accuracy of medical records, reducing costs (Reddy, 2022), biomedical research, health data analytics, education, health insurance claims, remote patient monitoring or finally in pharmaceutical supply chains (Elangovan et al., 2022). Blockchain technology represents the potential for value creation in health care through compliance achievements, reduction of errors and fraud, better governance, collaborative value creation among entities, intelligent contracts, technology to support charity, greater trust, and integrity. The elements above suggest that blockchain fosters multiple tangible and intangible value creation in the study area for individuals and organisations across the health ecosystem (Spano et al., 2021). Finally, blockchain technology is crucial to developing a platform to manage the COVID-19 pandemic effectively-now and in the future. Currently, the most significant difficulty facing most nations is the lack of a precise mechanism for detecting new infections and predicting their risk. Moreover, such features of blockchain technology as decentralisation, transparency and immutability can help manage a pandemic by detecting infection outbreaks early, speeding up drug distribution and protecting users’ privacy throughout the treatment process (Jafri & Singh, 2022).

Technological advances in medicine and, consequently, the digital transformation of the health sector must be accompanied by parallel advances in promoting patient and public participation throughout the process. To this end, perceptions of personalised medicine (4P) and assessments of its value and risks must be better understood. The 4Ps of personalised, preventive (preemptive), predictive and participatory medicine help refocus health services from a focus on treating established diseases to maintaining health and well-being (George et al., 2022; Horne, 2017). It represents a new paradigm of holistic and integrative patient management practices with equal participation of the patient and physician in holistic health care, combining precision medicine and medical experience across the patient’s lifetime (Bartold & Ivanovski, 2022). Personalised medicine is otherwise known in the literature as precision medicine (Duffy, 2016; Hussain et al., 2021; Sharma et al., 2022; Verma et al., 2022), stratified medicine (Jorgensen, 2019; Olechno, 2016; Ruppert et al., 2016), individualised medicine (Rahimi, 2016), customised medicine (Miller & Tucker, 2017; Sarvan & Nori, 2021), molecular medicine (Ziv et al., 2016) or genomic medicine (Roden & Tyndale, 2013), which corresponds to the 4P elements listed above (Slim et al., 2021).

Digital innovations in health care provide solutions to unmet health needs. Hence they can take the form of new processes, therapies, tools, medical procedures or innovative approaches to education, training, management and procurement. Digital transformation emphasises the patient experience in delivering and improving health services to discover and identify the needs. Accordingly, healthcare users should be actively engaged in innovation to manage their health consciously. Patients are now co-producers of health services, and thanks to digital technologies, they can play a more active role in decision-making and innovation activities. Healthcare providers who continuously monitor, digitise and analyse patient data can better understand the desires and needs of healthcare users and tailor offerings and care to provide quality services (Santarsiero et al., 2022).

Practical Aspects of Implementing Digital Technologies in Health Care

The digitisation process in the health sector involves using innovative digital tools. They could improve the level of service to stakeholders and streamline the patient registration process. In addition, these IT solutions can direct patients’ movement and monitor their health inwards. Using the latest digital technology to monitor such patients helps improve their quality of life and enables attending physicians to intervene immediately in life-threatening conditions.

A critical application of AI in medicine is using algorithms to aid diagnosis in various fields-such as radiology and cardiology. The advantage of AI is that the sensitivity and specificity of the diagnosis are more significant by up to several percent than the diagnosis made by a doctor or team of medical professionals. In addition, the vast potential lies in solutions that support diagnosis at the early stages of the disease, such as cancer or cardiovascular disease (Żochowska, 2022). AI-based technology can reduce preparation times for head, neck and prostate cancers, for example, by as much as 90%, meaning that waiting times for potentially life-saving radiation therapy treatment to begin can be drastically reduced. Critical future AI applications include immunomics, synthetic biology and drug discovery. These will find revolutionary use in cancer, neurological and rare disease space, personalising the patient’s care experience (Bajwa et al., 2021). Studies further indicate that AI-based systems can outperform dermatologists in correctly classifying suspicious skin lesions. The advantage of AI systems stems from learning (more and faster) from successive cases and exposure to multiple cases per minute, which is far superior to cases evaluated by a clinician. AI-based decision-making approaches also bring applications in situations of disagreement between experts-for example, the identification of pulmonary tuberculosis on chest radiographs (Amisha et al., 2019).

Further practical applications of AI in the medical industry are support for telemedicine, body composition analysis, prediction of patient response to treatment, and democratisation of prevention (Żochowska, 2022). A key element in the development of e-health is telemonitoring of implantable devices. This situation is necessary to guarantee continuous, safe, highquality health care for patients with implantable devices. These devices are new-generation devices that, through Bluetooth technology, allow direct transmission of data from the implantable device to the patient’s configured smartphone, from which, with the dedicated application, data are transmitted to the provider through a server provided by the device manufacturer. In this case, it is not necessary to use additional transmission devices (Telemedyczna Grupa Robocza, 2021).

It is important to note that advances in wireless technology have created opportunities to provide on-demand healthcare services through healthtracking applications. Such innovative solutions have enabled a new form of healthcare delivery through remote interactions, available anywhere, anytime. Such services are essential for regions with underdeveloped infrastructure and places that lack specialists. They help reduce costs and prevent unnecessary exposure to infectious diseases at the clinic. Telehealth technology is also essential in developing countries (Bohr & Memarzadeh, 2020). In addition, it passes the test in monitoring and observing elderly and disabled patients who live far from healthcare centres (Finco et al., 2023).

In conclusion, the practical aspects of implementing innovative digital solutions into the day-to-day operations of healthcare entities can be an essential source of building a healthcare entity’s competitive advantage in the healthcare market. On the global scale, meanwhile, AI can become a vital tool for improving health equality around the world.

Generations X and Y in the Digitisation of Health Care and the Dimension of Marketing

Today’s medical market requires a change in approach to the services offered, which should be personalised and accessible on the patient’s mobile devices. The marketing dimension is critical here-namely, the design and communication of relevant medical content and digital applications that meet the expectations of demanding patient-clients. Appropriate patientcentred (patient-centric) activities should be carried out to achieve a positive patient experience. Patient experience management is now a sine qua non and a considerable challenge for the digitisation of health care.

Patient experience is the interaction between the patient and the healthcare provider, integral to healthcare quality. In general, the quality of health care services is determined by easy access to health information, timely appointments and good communication with providers, among other factors. In order to provide patient-centred care, healthcare providers need to understand the patient experience. Evaluation of the patient experience and other elements, such as the safety and effectiveness of care, constitute the only means for the creation of a complete picture of healthcare quality. (Daffodil Software, n.d.). A precise understanding of the patient experience will benefit the healthcare industry and society in many ways, including, among other things, the establishment of tailored and personalised health care (Oben, 2020).

By 2025, generations X and Y will make up about 75% of Polish society (Kozak et al., 2022); hence, there is a need to align with these generations suitable activities and marketing messages that are related to the new digital health services resulting from the ongoing digital transformation of the health sector.

Generation X consists of those born between 1961 and 1983, the communist generation, the Nothing for Real generation, the White Collar generation, the Blue Collar generation (Czerska, 2016), MTV Generation and Gen-Xers (Berk, 2013). People of this generation value work and are even attached to one employer-loyal to it. They often prioritise work responsibilities over leisure despite rejecting the ‘rat race’. On the other hand, Generation X are unstable, insecure people, full of doubts-including about themselves. They are searching for the meaning of their existence and are characterised by colourlessness. When handling new technologies, this is not a problem for them (Czerska, 2016). Generation Y, or the Millennium generation, the next generation, the digital generation, the generation of flip-flops and iPods (Bilińska-Reformat & Stefańska, 2016), tech-savvy consumers (Dewalska-Opitek, 2017), generation me (Spinney, 2012), generation WHY, gaming generation, net generation, Facebook generation or iGeneration (Kelan & Lehnert, 2009), are people between 1984 and 1995. They are shrewd, overconfident and even brash at times. They are characterised by believing in their uniqueness and are intensely narcissistic.

On the other hand, generation Y cannot make decisions independently. They expect constant attention, and are also impatient as well as welleducated, with excessive expectations. Compared to Generation X, they prefer flexible employment and freedom of action, which translates into an average working time with one employer of 2 years. Millennials do not respect their bosses, treating work as an avenue for personal development. They are eager to work in teams and are open to new challenges. When it comes to new technologies, they actively use them (Czerska, 2016).

Given the above characteristics of both generations X and Y, which are open to new technological solutions, patients should be included in constructing complex health ecosystems designed to meet their needs.

One of the biggest challenges of digital transformation in the healthcare field is the final measurement of the effectiveness of the personalisation of healthcare services and the impact of patient involvement in the treatment process. Given the attitude of generations X and Y towards work and employer, it is necessary to be flexible in the design of health services and focus, on the one hand, on brand loyalty and attachment, and the other hand, on freedom of choice and frequent change of decisions. Undoubtedly, patients now actively using health services are informed and engaged. They play an active role in the decision-making process in the context of innovative health tools and services: they search for information on preventive health care, health monitoring, specialist doctors, clinics and outpatient clinics, and appointment enrolment, after which they actively use these services and consume the previously searched health services. Thus, such patients can be considered prosumers of e-health services and tools (Wolny, 2013).

According to Deloitte Digital’s 2022 report, two post-pandemic patient archetypes in Poland represent their health and digital behaviour. The first group is the so-called Traditional Patients-rarely using digital channels, using up to four apps. This group represents nearly 43% of the population. The second one is the so-called Phygital Patients-frequent users of digital channels but also interested in traditional channels. They make up more than 17% of the population. The Phygital Patient of the future expects the same level of service in all available channels, which complement each other (Deloitte Digital, 2022). This cross-channel model challenges marketing and managers to make each communication channel work smoothly and meet patient expectations, as the new standard of medical care is becoming an offering that spans multiple touchpoints across traditional and digital channels. Concerning Generation Y, Phygital patients are mainly women of the millennial generation working in large and medium-sized companies. Moreover, it is primarily to this target group that marketing messages about innovative digital solutions should be personalised, as these people are more likely to actively take care of their health when encouraged to do so by digital solutions. Besides, they need convenient access to specialists and multiple functionalities within a single application, such as automatic appointment reminders or the ability to share information about their health with a doctor (Okoniewska, 2022).

Limitations

The article is characterised by several limitations. Firstly, only articles indexed in databases were used in the analysis: Google Scholar, ResearchGate, Taylor and Francis Online and ScienceDirect, which may have resulted in the omission of valuable items on the issues under consideration. Secondly, the literature search in the databases above used a given combination of words using Boolean operators, which could have narrowed the search for relevant items. Selected industry reports and electronic sources were used for the issues under consideration to complete the analysis.

Conclusions and Practical Implications

The goal of the article, which was to present issues on digital transformation in health care and its marketing dimension, has been achieved.

The author’s findings, through a review of the literature on the subject, indicate that digital transformation in health care creates new business opportunities to solve various problems in medical practice and enables the creation of values that determine the quality of medical services. Marketing activities become helpful and even indispensable in this process.

The coronavirus pandemic has become a gas pedal, so to speak, of digital health solutions. In the health industry, which until recently was considered traditional or even conservative, the Internet is now the critical tool for learning about products and services, using them, and building opinions about healthcare providers and medical professionals. In parallel with the transformation process of the health industry, a marketing transformation process is taking place. The most critical activities in this process are patient relationship management, patient experience management, patient engagement management, patient-centred marketing, hyper-personalisation of the message/message, business to human (B2H) approach, ML and AI. In addition to the activities above, blockchain technology in the medical sector is also a new and growing phenomenon.

Several practical implications have been developed based on the analysed content of scientific and industry items. First, the transition to remote health care, if only in prevention or preventive care, requires patients to change their mentality and be open to change. Second, the availability of digital tools is impossible without marketing-through promotional campaigns for new e-solutions and presentations of mobile health products. Third, introducing innovative digital tools requires building and using new, complementary communication channels (crosschannel model) between stakeholders in the health market. Finally, blockchain technology could transform existing healthcare management into a more efficient, secure one, potentially creating value across the health ecosystem.

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In these times of universal access to media and instant information circulation, maintaining a good reputation or image has become one of the most important issues in many aspects of life. The success of a project hinges to a large extent on how it is perceived by the environment — be it introducing a new product to the market, waging a political campaign or attempting to establish cooperation. This is the main reason why so many company resources are currently being allocated to departments responsible for image management. This is fully justified, given the risk that such a crisis can entail.

These days crisis situations are much worse for representatives of given industries than just a few years ago, because the news about troubles travels very quickly, and public trust or a good reputation, once lost, are much more difficult to regain. Today, having a “plan B” as a limited strategy in the event of unforeseen situations is not enough — rather, one needs to know how to quickly and effectively avert the danger and be able to actually do so. This means having a good command of all channels that can almost instantly allow for the maximum reduction of negative consequences and complications. Public Relations specialists make use of various methods in crisis situations, but the fastest and immediate effect can nowadays be achieved with Internet communication. Tools such as programs, portals and applications give entities a chance to emerge virtually unscathed even from the most difficult moments, and often bring them even more benefits than losses. The Internet, however, should be treated as a double-edged sword — what yields a positive effect today may lead to a tragic end tomorrow. A strategy that works excellently for small businesses might be disastrous for large corporations. The powerful marketing weapon of virtual communication should be treated with due caution, because if used in an inconsistent way, it may be counterproductive (Helman, 2014).

The present paper, after first reviewing the literature on company image management, crisis management, and public relations, examines the case of the Polish computer game studio CD Projekt, which has been on quite a whirlwind ride in terms of PR over the last 2 years. We analyze the actions taken by CD Projekt in 2020–2021 and its approach to various crisis situations, especially examining the organization’s Internet messaging. We describe the solutions and strategies the company undertook to minimize the effects of the crisis, mainly losses of reputation. The most significant events in the company’s media environment are analyzed, selected on the basis of the greatest total number of reactions, comments and articles related to the given events. These examples are juxtaposed against the corresponding strategies and concepts from the literature. Attention is also paid to factors such as stock prices and prestigious rankings, which sometimes offer evidence in support of the claims made in the analysis. Next, we report the results of a survey carried out on a sample of 354 individuals among the broader environment of the company’s stakeholders, in order to gauge people’s opinions about changes in the company’s perception, and then present some conclusions.

Theoretical aspects and literature review

Before considering specific events, let us first review some of the theoretical fundamentals of crisis management. The word “crisis” in its original meaning has been defined as “a period of breakdown, a turning point, or a potential breakthrough in the functioning of a given social or political system” (Kaczmarek-Śliwińska, 2015). This statement is quite broad and general, whereas the “crises” described by the literature on specific industries are much narrower and more detailed. A crisis at an organization, which is the subject of research in this article, has been described by Barton as “a major unpredictable event that has potentially negative results. The event and its aftermath may significantly damage an organization and its employees, products, services, financial condition and reputation” (Barton, 1993). Lesly, on the other hand, highlights the role of crisis as a determinant of future actions and decisions. In his opinion, a crisis is “a major turning point resulting in permanent drastic change. If is far more critical than most issues or emergencies. Crises are of great importance, but they are rare” (cited after Coombs, 2011). In terms of frequency, situations of “crisis” status occur quite rarely and rather irregularly. Considering the crisis phenomenon from the aspect of an organization’s image, it brings about consequences that are magnified by the degree of interest it attracts from the company’s environment — such conditions may constitute a potential risk factor in the future (Falecki, 2013). Summarizing the various accounts cited above, we can identify certain features and fragments that generally characterize the crisis process in an organization, which include:

• Disruption in the normal course of business;
• Financial or reputational risk;
• Involuntarily arousing interest from the environment;
• Changes in the organization;
• Need for a quick response;
• Suddenness of occurrence.

The various phases that a crisis may proceed through are summed up in Table 1.

Crisis management is considered an element of strategic management in enterprises, which embraces actions and decisions not only during a crisis situation, but also before and after the event (Surowicz, 2011). Crisis management efforts strive to maximally reduce risk and uncertainty, as well as to control of the course of a crisis situation. In practice, this includes all operations undertaken by the team that are aimed at maintaining a favorable image of the company despite negative events related to it in some way. It should be noted that it is not uncommon to for negative effects to affect an entire industry, triggered by a crisis on the part of one of its participants. Crisis management is also included in socalled “business continuity planning”, which is designed to prepare comprehensive operational activities that must be performed for the company to function properly (as in the pre-crisis state) (Fulmer, 2007).

The most important task in this concept is to maintain the critical functions of the organization so that it is able to keep running continuously.

The various sources of crisis situations are summed up in Table 2. The sources listed there may of course be interrelated — almost never is a crisis composed of only one factor. It sometimes happens that a given crisis factor is only the source of further problems that begin to accumulate in an uncontrolled way (Michalik, 2004).

Crisis management, apart from knowledge, strategies and a background of theoretical information, also requires tools to apply them in a practical way. Currently, these primarily include the organization’s own media channels, through which it can reach out to its recipients. Such media support is not only useful at the time of intervention in the face of an active crisis, but also after its end or even as part of preventive actions (Rydzak, 2007). In order to be able to harness the potential of such media channels to the maximum, specific tasks may be assigned to each channel (in the context of crisis situations), the performance of which in the specific conditions of a given medium will bring the best results. Crisis management processes offer some real reflection of how a brand builds its image. This is especially true in the Internet environment, where any attempts to change or turn back from the paths chosen by the company are immediately verified by observers, journalists or customers. A company’s image reflects how it is perceived by its surroundings — it can be described as the result of subjective assessments by other market entities (Chmielewski, Tworzydło, Ochmański, 2012). Therefore, the basis for maintaining a coherent and beneficial “portrait” of an organization lies in preparing a crisis management procedure in line with the company’s long-term policy. When preparing such a procedure, attention should be paid to the aforementioned stages (pre-crisis, crisis, post-crisis), which will determine the measures and actions taken (Tworzydło, 2017). The more prepared the crisis management team is before a crisis occurs, the less serious its consequences will be. Preparation is also the stage that requires the most “abstract” work. The team is prepared under certain specific assumptions that do not necessarily have to actually occur, but some mechanisms will remain the same for most problems, which allows for shorter reaction times (Tworzydło, 2019).

CD Projekt — A Profile

The computer game studio CD Projekt was set up by Marcin Iwiński and Michał Kiciński in 2002, although these two founders of Poland’s computer games industry had already been active a decade earlier. The market activity of CD Projekt has truly followed a “from rags to a riches” path, from selling games imported from abroad at outdoor computer fairs in Warsaw all the way to launching a new development team in Canada. Favorable economic conditions (the political changes in 1989, economic development, high market demand) and many innovative decisions on a national scale have allowed the company to become one of the leaders in the Polish video game market. This success was largely due to the series of computer games from the “The Witcher” series, based on the motifs of Andrzej Sapkowski’s fantasy books. The last part of the trilogy, with the subtitle “Wild Hunt”, brought the studio over 300 awards and sold over 30 million copies worldwide, bringing the overall total of copies of the series of games about the valiant Geralt’s adventures to 50 million (Gram.pl, 22/04/2021).

The studio’s continued successes resulted in the appearance of the CD Projekt capital group on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. However, the company was not initially sought after by investors, with fluctuations in the prices around 21.22 PLN per share remaining minimal — until the release of the 2nd expansion pack for the game “The Witcher 3”, when the shares began to gradually rise. The financial success of the studio’s first independent production allowed for the commencement of work on another game, set on a futuristic Earth. “Cyberpunk 2077” (CP2077) was officially announced at the 2018 trade fair. This production became a turning point for the company’s stock quotations. Several aspects have contributed to strong interest among the community:

1. CD Projekt created a highly recognizable brand in the gaming world as well as in culture. Modern solutions, player orientation, a strong emphasis on storytelling in its games and interesting references to pop culture — these are just a few factors behind the studio’s success.

2. A comprehensive and global marketing strategy — the company put a lot of emphasis on diverse and engaging forms of advertising and promoting ira games, which translated into a strong interest in their latest production. The studio cooperated with such companies as Coca Cola, Sony, Adidas and Porsche.

3. Precise target groups and accurate demand research — the series of The Witcher games was very well received in Poland and other Slavic countries due to numerous references to the Slavic culture. Cyberpunk 2077, in turn, was a response to the growing interest in science fiction and to the ambiance of the 1980s returning to fashion.

Regular fresh news about the game and the development of the studio, promotional campaigns and cooperation with many partners contributed to a significant increase in the value of the company’s shares, which culminated in December 2020, reaching 464.20 PLN per share. Prior to then, any significant price drops were mainly dictated by shifts in release dates, but starting in the fall of 2020, the mood gradually began to decline, despite the game’s successes even before its release (Gry-online.pl, 2020a). A serious crisis began for the CD Projekt group in December, during the time of its major premiere of Cyberpunk 2077.

Crisis situations and remedial actions by CD Projekt in 2020–2021

A. Continually receding release date

The vast majority of the studio’s image problems were generated by internal bad organizational decisions. Initially, the product was slated to be released in April 2020, but in January it was postponed for the first time to 17 September 2020. The vast majority of the community received this information with understanding, counting on a better gaming experience at the cost of waiting a few more months. However, the situation became worrying when in June, amidst a very “hot” period from the marketing point of view, the company announced another pushback of the release date to 19 November 2020. Among the community of players and journalists, uncomfortable questions and comments began to appear, the common denominator of which was doubt about whether the actual state of production complied with the assurances of the creators. However, the real “straw that broke the camel’s back” came in October, when there was a third postponement, this time by a further 21 days. Thousands of players once again felt led town by the company. There was anger, irritation and mockery, which were expressed in comments on the manufacturer’s website and on industry press websites. Memes (pictures intended to comment on reality in a funny way) dealing with Cyberpunk began to circulate on the web — in a normal situation this could be a useful phenomenon, but at the time of a marketing “fire” they came as additional “fuel” for it. The post, in Polish, contains the announcement of the 21-day postponement as well as some attempts at justification and offering reassurances about the state of the game’s development. Large numbers of Facebook users reacted to the letter with sarcasm and ridicule, as is evident on the image shown here in the numbers of “thumbs-up” “tear-shedding” and “laughter” reactions that the letter signed by representatives of the CD Projekt management board received. In the comments section, the community was divided, and a hate-fest and attacks against those responsible for this state of affairs intensified. While postponing the deadlines by practically 9 months, the studio continually had to adopt defensive strategies. Its messages published primarily on the Internet bore the characteristics of a “genuine apology” strategy. This type of strategy is adopted in a situation where the fault is entirely on the side of the organization, the crisis being solely the result of its incorrect decisions. Similar phrases appeared in subsequent statements, which somewhat softened the dispute between the players and the studio. PR specialists tried to distract the audience with engaging materials that appeared on the developer’s channels.

Announcements about elements of the soundtrack, technical innovations or high-profile collaborations, apart from promoting the game, could be treated as attempts to cover up unfavorable comments and negative attitude. In all, these efforts contributed to the sale of 8 million pre-orders of the game prior to its release — a result that should be treated as a great success for the company, and therefore for the team responsible for projecting its image (CD-Action.pl, December 2020).

B. 6-day working week

In corporate language, a “crunch” is a time of very hard work, forced overtime, usually shortly before the deadline for completing an important task. Three months prior to the Cyberpunk premiere, official information appeared on the web about compulsory crunch at the company — about the working week at CD Projekt being extended to 6 working days for the majority of employees. Disgust in the gaming environment was all the greater that a year earlier, in one of the interviews, the CEO of the studio declared that he’d take action to avoid such a crunch time. Thus yet another promise was broken in a short time, despite quite attractive financial conditions being promised to employees in exchange (additional earnings + bonus from the company’s profit in 2020).

This time, the CD Projekt executives in their statement adopted a justification strategy, the application of which is associated with relatively small losses caused by the crisis. Strengthening the message of the issue of financial benefits for the “victims” of the decision and drawing attention to the desire to ensure fulfillment of another promise (meeting the premiere on time) contributed to the justification, which was accepted by some of the community, although it continued to cast a bad light on the working culture at the company (Spidersweb.pl, 2020).

C. Bad PR of the company’s own making: criticism of the company after the release of CP2077

Cyberpunk was a project that the studio had worked on for 8 years until its premiere. In the end, this proved to be too short a period, because after the game’s release, it turned out to be full of technological flaws, known as bugs or glitches in programming jargon. No wonder, then, that the disappointment felt by thousands of players was almost in proportion to the time that had been spent creating the game. All the bad decisions that were made at the company (especially in 2020) found their consequences in the first few weeks. The most unfavorable phenomena for CD Projekt at that time are described in the Table 3.

The company’s negligence made successive problems an almost natural process. At times, the atmosphere was close to that of a scandal, which is why the period of late 2020 and early 2021 was not much easier for the group than in the previous months. CD Projekt executives had to look for new solutions so that long years of work would not go to waste. At the beginning of probably the greatest crisis in the company’s history, the management board had to apologize once again and admit to having made mistakes. The first step in regaining the trust of its customers was for the studio to allow product returns directly through their platform. This approach did not diminish customer anger, but it did somewhat suppress their anguish and demonstrated the company’s good intentions despite its failure. Some players expressed their approval for this approach, claiming that despite exercising their right of return, they would support developers in repairing the product. Being in a losing position, CD Projekt decided to focus on honesty: customers would not be lied to once again, so this approach definitely had a positive impact on contact with contractors. The satisfied portion of customers showed special support, which in turn allowed the studio to base its rhetoric on the “coaxing” strategy. This concept is effective in situations where the organization has a good reputation and a crisis of this scale is very rare for them.

Another statement made by Adam Badowski, who referred to the alleged “employee rebellion” regarding the management’s lies about the state of the game on the day of the premiere, helped a lot in cleaning up the situation. The head of the studio firmly denied some of the allegations, which is a good tactic in the case of information based on gossip or slander. People following the development of the situation pointed out Badowski’s failure to addresss the remaining accusations, concerning unrealistic deadlines and other issues. Nevertheless, the post received 6,000 positive reactions.

Unfortunately, no statements or announcements were able to definitively end the crisis. With problems on such a large scale, it was necessary to undertake a strategy of remedial action. In practice, this meant changing not only communication plans, but also operational ones. The announcement of that the game would be fixed was made a few days after the premiere, but the subsequent effects in the form of a sharp drop in the stock listing, agitation among investors and the generally negative image of the Polish company forced the studio to take additional measures.

The response came in the form of a statement by Marcin Iwiński on 14 January 2021. The CD Projekt co-founder once again asked the players to accept an apology, revealing the behind-the-scenes story of pre-release work on the game. More positive news emerged later in the statement. The most important element of the video published on the web was the presentation of the Cyberpunk recovery plan. This time, the producers opted not to give specific dates, but instead named approximate periods for subsequent updates. Iwiński presented on the timeline the assumed schedule of hotfixes and announced the release of free DLCs to the game. Owners of new generation consoles could be pleased with this, as they would receive an update patch for free, which is not a standard in the gaming industry. In his statement, the company’s co-founder also referred to similar situations with previous productions, which may have somehow reassured players. Ultimately, Iwiński’s film received 270,000 positive reactions on YouTube.

To date, CD Projekt has not finally rid itself of its problems, but the change in management approach, taking a very effective and honest approach to marketing and image building, has created a certain chance for a positive conclusion to this story.

Opinion of the environment on image changes

To gain further insight into the impact of CD Projekt’s efforts to salvage or improve its image, we carried out a questionnaire survey among individuals in the gaming community or broader environment of stakeholders. The survey was made available on various thematic groups from the computer game industry, and in industry and investor media. Over 354 people voluntarily participated in the study. Of these, over 60% were aged up to 24 years old, about 22% were aged 25-30, and less than 15% were over 30. About 80% of respondents said they were interested in the Polish company’s fate because they identified as a member of the gaming community. The remaining 20% of the respondents were divided into persons interested in the company due to the profile of their work or from the standpoint of stock exchange investments. On a 5-point scale, the vast majority (almost 70% of responses) of the respondents assessed the company’s image before the premiere of Cyberpunk 2077 at a rating of 5. Another 23% gave a rating of 4, which in total means over 93% of votes positively evaluating the brand’s earlier image.

The sample was much more divided on the question regarding the evaluation of the efforts to fix the game. The dominant rating was 3 (over 40%), meaning the view that “correct action” was taken, while the remaining answers were divided almost symmetrically — over 24% of
respondents gave a rating of 2 or 4, the lowest rating of 1 was chosen by approx. 8%, while less than 4% gave 5, or “very good”.

The questionnaire also included a question addressed strictly to investors, asking for opinions on the credibility of CD Projekt as a partner or investment target in the stock market. Among respondents who answered this question, less than 17% said that they had lost confidence in the studio, 24% felt that the brand was still trustworthy, while more than half said this still depended on the developers’ subsequent actions. It can therefore be concluded that this exploratory test of the investor community seems to indicate that people have become more cautious in contact with the company.

Such a partial loss of trust may also be evidenced by the responses to the penultimate question. As many as 63% of respondents admitted that after such a situation they would not decide to pre-order a game ever in the future, 22% would continue to do so in the case of AAA games, while others were not sure of their decision. This is a good example that a crisis a one company in an industry may cause ripple effects to the business of other market entities.

As of 1 July 2021, CD Projekt started to emerge from the crisis of the previous winter. A new quality in the approach to the customer, less aggressive marketing and attempts at displaying the company’s best side have yielded tangible results. The promised updates were released as scheduled, and the game returned to the Playstation Store on June 21. Players appreciated the efforts of the developers, because within 9 days of CP2077’s return to the store for people with a console, it gained the status of the “game of the month”, ahead of other very popular productions. FandomSpot research has shown that Cyberpunk has the 6th largest community on the web. Moderate optimism is also confirmed by the distribution of responses to the final question on the questionnaire, concerning the opinions of the respondents on the current image of CD Projekt.

The results show that the current perception of the studio by the environment is not as exemplary as it seems to have been back in 2020.

Nevertheless, executive efforts focused on fighting for the client and appropriate targeting of marketing activities have allowed the company to maintain a certain level of trust, which is still quite high given the number of crises the company underwent in the period in question.

Summary

Investing in crisis management is often likened to buying an insurance policy — certain resources are allocated to it, without knowing if it will ever prove useful. However, as shown by the example of the CD Projekt group, it is better to future plans to make contingencies for strategies in the event of failure, both external and internal. The lack of any concept for how to rescue the company’s image in the face of potential threats may in just a short time cause the company to lose everything it has worked for, for so long. The example of the gaming industry demonstrates the great importance of marketing based on long-term prospects and including virtual communication in it. Dialogue between an organization and its broader community on the Internet can quickly bring great popularity, but also huge losses. The examples cited in the empirical part prove that it is enough, however, to take care of a few important elements in the message that will allow you to build a healthy relationship with the environment and maintain a good image. First, the speed of reaction and taking action are important — the more swift the response to a crisis, the lower the risk of its further development. Another issue is taking an honest and truthful approach to recipients — an exposed lie or fraud will plunge the company into an even deeper crisis. The messages that are communicated should be official from the outset, and their language should be simple and understandable, so that there is no room for misunderstandings or distortions. In the moment of a crisis, the actions taken by the company should be coordinated and consistent, so that in the event of subsequent problems it doesn’t turn out that there are different versions of this event (recipients in such a moment very quickly and often lose their trust irretrievably). The last element, which was also noticeable in CD Projekt’s messages, was the selection of appropriate people for the statements made. If criticism falls on any element of the company, the board member or appointed representative should speak first. Following these few rules is a good starting point to end the crisis and defend your image to some extent. The examples described in the work show that mutual respect and an honest approach to the client will always defend themselves, if only you don’t make big mistakes along the way and use the appropriate techniques.

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