During periods of economic crisis, consumers’ behavior typically changes; however, research on financial crises predominantly focuses on consumers’ spending behavior, often neglecting other personal characteristics. The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of the economic crisis on consumer behavior and explore how personal characteristics such as materialistic values may influence and to which extent consumer response in periods of economic crisis. Using quantitative research on a convenient sample (N = 587) the authors develop a structural equation model to assess the effect of materialism on consumers’ behavior in periods of financial crisis. The findings of the research show that materialism affects some of the consumers’ adjustments to key marketing stimuli (i.e. product, promotions). The results have both theoretical implications as they add to the marketing research in an underexplored field and provide managerial guidelines for marketers who need such information to better understand consumers’ needs and plan marketing strategies and tactics during hazardous times.