M30 - Marketing and Advertising: GeneralReturn

Reading reviews is a common activity for many potential customers when deciding to buy a product from a particular retailer. It is such a common activity that many of them may be unaware that they are influenced not only by the content of the review itself, but also by its style, display, length, and distinctiveness, with a particular cognitive bias behind each of these elements. This has an impact on their decision-making, which may ultimately be illogical. In reality, however, we are affected by hundreds of confirmed distortions that force us to think and act irrationally. If people are not always able to make rational decisions, then many of the economic assumptions need to be reviewed. The aim of this paper is therefore to uncover the cognitive biases that attack potential customers in user reviews and to determine their influence on e-shop popularity ratings. In order to accomplish the objective, a survey was conducted among the TOP 100 e-shops on the Czech market, from which were selected 70 e-shops to identify the most frequently occurring cognitive biases. In the first step, the heuristic method of observing e-shop websites was used. In the second step, a chi-square two-sample test was used to obtain results due to the nominal nature of the data under study. It was found that in terms of the user interface, the most emerging biases are bandwagon effect, apophenia, authority bias and social proof. Then, in the case of examining the reviews themselves, it was found that availability bias, story bias, processing difficulty effect, negativity effect and authority bias were determined to be the most likely to influence potential customers. Some of these biases were also found to affect the popularity ratings of the e-shop, which marketing managers should pay attention to because of the link between popularity and loyalty.

There has been a significant acceleration in the online grocery market due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. This situational factor has accelerated the acceptance of grocery purchases in this way, but the question remains whether it also had an impact on the structure of customers buying grocery online. For a long time, online grocery shopping (OGS) has been the privilege of millennials, who like to shop online in all product categories. However, this paper also focuses on other generations and their development in consumer behaviour. The aim of the paper is to find out how Covid-19 influenced the proportion of selected generations of customers purchasing grocery online and whether it also affected their purchasing frequency. The findings from three surveys focused on online grocery purchases in the Czech Republic are used to find relevant results. Therefore, the research has the character of longitudinal research, but of tendency carried out on various respondents. Individual surveys were conducted in 2017, 2020 and June 2020 (after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic). The results of the research can be useful for detecting changes in consumer behaviour and predicting the development of OGS within individual generations, usable for the strategic management of companies in this market.

The paper focuses on the theatre market in the Czech Republic and examines the influence of reference groups within this market. It specifically focuses on the information influence, the utilitarian influence and the influence expressing value. The aim of the paper is to identify factors that would reflect the influence of reference groups. The correlation analysis and factor analysis were used for this purpose. Respondents who participated in the online survey expressed their agreement with fourteen statements concerning the three influences of the reference groups which were mentioned. They were evaluated using a seven-point Likert scale. The data were collected from 154 respondents who have visited theatre performances at least once in the last 2 years.  The collected data were weighted at first as they did not correspond to the relative distribution of the population of the Czech Republic by gender. The data then entered a factor analysis. The result of this analysis was the emergence of four factors influencing the reference groups. They were named as: social influence, influence of relatives, professional influence and media influence. The paper describes the theoretical basis of the influence of reference groups, followed by methodology and analytical procedure. The conclusion contains an evaluation of the fulfilment of goals and possible use of the results.

Current trends in marketing communication present influencer marketing as a new tactic in marketing strategy solutions. The article is focused on the impact of influencer marketing on consumer behavior. The aim of the article is to find out, based on questionnaire survey´s results, whether selected segment of consumers considers influencer marketing to be important factors affecting their consumer behavior. Given the results of a questionnaire survey conducted by ourselves, a group of women who follow the influencers was defined for the Y generations, i. e. age range from 19 to 25 years. The basic feature of this generation is technical prowess, so the results corresponds to the interest of respondents.

The new technologies are offering new opportunities and challenges to the companies in marketing communication. Blogs are powerful tools of marketing communication and their proliferation has attracted substantial attention from marketing practitioners (academics as well as marketing managers). The companies have been encouraged to turn their attention from traditional marketing tools to social media, particularly blogs, because they can reach a large audience of existing and potential clients. The aim of this article is to find out if blog could be effective tool of marketing communication. For the purpose of the survey, method of questioning (questionnaire research) was utilised. The subject of the research was a sample of young people from 18 to 30 years old because the previous results of research demonstrate that the relevance of blogging in the buying process is particularly evident among buyers under 35.

Almost 80% of households in the Czech Republic have Internet access, which is three times higher than in 2005. This rapid development of the Internet has provided space for the development of e-tail, and online shopping has become a new form of sales. Interestingly, the development of online sales is even higher over the same period, and in 2016, 43.6% of the Czech population shop online. These facts declare the importance of examining factors that can influence the purchase of consumers online, for the sake of e-tail strategic decision making. This article explores the relationship between demographic factors and online purchase using the IBM SPSS software. Secondary data from the Czech Statistical Office, which since 2005 has been monitoring online purchase in the Czech Republic, has been used to investigate. The aim of this article is to find out if demographic factors affect the online purchase. The findings reveal a statistically significant impact of age, education and economic activity on online shopping. This significance was not proven in the gender factor. The findings have practical implications in the proposed optimal demographic segmentation of online customers based on data from 2016, helping to tailor marketing e-tail activities.

The paper investigated stereotypical images of consumer preferences among listeners of various musical genres. Undergraduate students (N = 132) were asked to rate food and beverage preferences of fans of classical music, jazz, pop, metal, techno, or rap. The results indicated the existence of clearly defined stereotypes of musical fans' consumer behavior. According to these stereotypical images there are large differences in food and beverage preferences among 'elite' music listeners (classical, jazz) and other music preference groups. Typically, the 'elite' music listeners prefer unusual and luxurious foods. Further, they have higher demands in the selection of beverages. In contrast, the listeners of 'heavy' music have quite different preferences. They prefer the traditional Czech cuisine, fast food, beer and common soft drinks. The consumer stereotype of pop listeners is between these two groups. They prefer specialties and fast food, preferences of beverages are in some respect close to listeners of 'elite' and 'heavy' music. The stereotypes in consumer behavior are consistent with other findings about stereotypical images of personal qualities and characteristics of listeners various music genres. The results of the research can be applied in marketing domain.

Universities, as the centres of knowledge play an important role to be a leader of corporate social responsibility. They're no longer just institutions of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees, but rather they are turning into institutions which train responsible humans, create cutting-edge knowledge to solve the issues and problems at a global scale and share the knowledge so that it can benefit the community. This article wanted to pay attention to aspects of corporate social activities which could be implemented on universities themselves. Universities then can own experiences utilize for creating good practice and also increase a level of education in this field. It is also important to debate how can universities help to raise awareness and commitment in our society to develop a sustainable socio-economic model for the future.