Application of Cluster Analysis in Marketing Communications in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: An Empirical Study in the Slovak Republic

Potential of Marketing Communication as a Sustainability Tool in the Context of Castle Museums

Based on the OECD research from 2020, tourism is one of the biggest and fast-growing sectors of the world economy. Tourism plays a key role in job creation as well as in added value creation. In 2018, the revenue from tourism in Slovakia totaled EUR 2.7 billion, which is EUR 4.7% more than the year before, where the mentioned refers to 3% GDP and 27.6% of the services-related exports. The authors drew their attention to identifying some marketing communication tools’ impact on the castle museum attendance in Slovakia and analyzed the degree and dynamics of the communication structure implementation in the context of cultural heritage. In general, 5840 cultural tourists were interviewed during three restricted cycles: 2006–2009, 2011–2014, and 2016–2019; the interviewing was held through the questionnaires only during the summer seasons. The study herein shows that the quality perception of the carried out offline marketing communication activities and the visit intention itself have significant influence on the interest of customers in repeated visits to castle museums.

Economic Efficiency of Forest Enterprises—Empirical Study Based on Data Envelopment Analysis

Countries are forced to develop bio-based economic strategies to promote efficient use of renewable natural resources. The transition towards a sustainable forest bio-based economy is associated with resource efficiency optimization, adoption of innovative bio-based approaches in terms of technological improvements and cost effectiveness, and an opportunity to reach multiple societal challenges. This paper is focused on a comparative analysis of the forestry sector in the Republic of Bulgaria and the Slovak Republic by estimating the economic efficiency of four Bulgarian state-owned forest enterprises and four Slovak forest enterprises. The evaluation of economic efficiency was carried out using selected indicators of the studied enterprises over a period of five years. A data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach was used as a non-parametric linear technique for measuring the relative efficiency of a set of production decision-making units (DMUs). The Malmquist productivity index (MPI) was used to assess the pure efficiency changes (PEC) and technological changes (TCs) of the studied forest enterprises. Data for 2014–2018 were processed. The results obtained for the economic efficiency study outlined the major factors affecting the differences in efficiency scores. The long-term sustainability and increased economic efficiency of forest enterprises in both countries can be achieved by improvements in forest management and investments in research and development activities.

Green Marketing as a Part of the Socially Responsible Brand’s Communication from the Aspect of Generational Stratification

Green marketing is focused on a responsible approach to the environment, which is integrated into various areas of society. In order to build a successful and socially responsible brand, it strives to apply environmental principles that attract new customers or strengthen the loyalty of existing ones. To ensure success, it is necessary to focus on green marketing as a part of socially responsible brands’ communication to individual target groups, which can be divided according to the age of the consumer generations, which have similar requirements for product characteristics. The main aim of the paper is to determine the differences between generational cohorts of Slovak consumers in perception of green marketing as part of socially responsible brands’ communication. The most important sources for secondary data were scientific research, statistical databases, and published professional publications. In order to find out the perception of green marketing as a part of socially responsible brands’ communication from the aspect of generational stratification, a questionnaire survey was conducted among Slovak consumers. Based on the analysis and results of the questionnaire survey, benefits of green marketing as part of socially responsible brands’ communication focused on individual consumers’ generations are highlighted, such as gaining competitive advantage, increasing the brand value, improving brand loyalty, and increasing the attractiveness for investors.

An analysis of the use of marketing 4.0 principles for managing customers retionships in microbreweries in the capital city of Prague

Technological progress also affects the development of marketing, currently known as Marketing 4.0, which is characterized by digitization and indicates a connection with Industry 4.0. With digitization, companies can use a variety of tools and methods to collect useful customer data and then use it. Marketing 4.0 is mainly characterized by the fact that the customer wants to be part of the product development and wants to share her information and opinions on the product. Thanks to the Internet, customers can get all the information from other customers. The aim of this analysis was to verify that microbreweries in Prague use Marketing 4.0, use digitization and adapt to the latest trends in marketing and define what methods they use to manage customer relations. Corresponding conclusions and recommendations for the future were drawn from the research findings.

Rational and irrational behavior of Slovak consumers in the private label market

Rational and irrational consumer behavior has already been the subject of several studies. Although their attention was mostly focused on traditional brands, these studies and their conclusions may also serve as a model for private label research, which is now increasingly coming to the forefront. Private labels are gradually becoming an adequate purchase alternative to traditional brands. The aim of the paper was to find out the influence of packaging and chosen marketing communication tools, on consumer purchasing decisions in the dairy segment. An anonymous questionnaire survey was chosen as the main research method, where participated 1,116 respondents from all over Slovakia; which was subsequently supplemented by the blind test involving 20 respondents under the age of up to 25 years. Seven chocolate-flavored yogurt samples were examined in the blind test; while the samples were such traditional brands by traditional producers as well as private labels. Interestingly, identical products were investigated - products from the traditional producer, both under its brand and under the retailer's private label. The results of our research proved some interesting findings - more than 28% of respondents buy private label products regularly and more than 53% buy them sporadically; whereas respondents do not buy private labels, mainly because of their lack of interest to try something new, assuming poor product quality and inadequate price; they buy them mainly because of lower prices compared to traditional product brands, comparable quality to traditional brands and good experience; respondents perceive private labels as good products of adequate quality and private labels evoke that products are adequate quality at a reasonable price. Although most respondents have no opinion on the packaging of private label products, more than 31% of them consider their packaging as unattractive and almost 36% think that their packaging does not affect them, but the results of the blind test partially refused this opinion.

Sustainable Brand Management of Alimentary Goods

Sustainability of food production and consumption has become one of the most discussed topics of sustainable development in global context. Thus, traditional managerial patterns have to be revised according to the social request. The revisions that have been done so far are based on relevant specifics of production and have mostly general character. Moreover, traditional managerial postulates do not change; only their way of implementation is modified. These two facts are possible reason of the practical fails in sustainable management of alimentary goods. One of these traditional managerial concepts is brand. Within this context, it has been considered as a facilitator of CSR (corporate social responsibility) activities. But the situation has changed, and the suspicion that brand loyalty is not a facilitator but an obstacle to the sustainable management is high. Thus, the importance of research of brand loyalty in scope of sustainable management of alimentary goods is indisputable. According to the above mentioned, the main goal of the contribution is to identify relevant brand value sources of loyalty in scope of sustainable brand management of alimentary goods. To achieve this, the factor analysis has been applied to provide statistical evaluation of data obtained from our own questionnaire survey. We have found out that components of brand value sources do not vary when comparing brands and those without loyal consumers. Based on this, appropriate recommendations for the theory and practice of sustainable brand management of alimentary goods have been formulated.

The Effectiveness of Marketing Communication and Importance of Its Evaluation in an Online Environment

Online marketing communication covers a wide area and thus promotes an extensive reach of advertising to a broad audience. Hotels can achieve certain goals through online communication, mainly an increase of hotel awareness; an improvement of their image; and an increase in the level of customer satisfaction and trust, or brand loyalty. Measurement of the effectiveness of communication tools in the online environment is still a challenge, whether in the academic world or in the business world, mainly due to the complexity of this process. The main objective of this paper is to propose a methodology for implementing an indicator suitable for the evaluation of the effectiveness of online communication activities in the Slovak hotel industry. It uses analysis of the current usage of online marketing communication activities from the perspective of hotel service providers. The methodology should be applicable to support decision-making and actively support the sustainable development of hotels. In order to achieve the objective of the paper, the authors conducted a marketing survey focused on online marketing communication by Slovakian hotels to determine their use and to map the current state or methods of evaluating their effectiveness. Results of the research suggest that hotels in Slovakia perceive evaluating marketing communications online as being important, regardless of the size, length of operation, budget, and class of the hotel. They prefer financial metrics because they are a de facto manifestation of the traditional approach towards investment evaluation. The results also showed that return on investment is the most common metric for evaluating the investments of online communication activities, and that respondents expressed the highest level of confidence in this metric as well. In line with the results, we have proposed return on investment (ROI) as the most appropriate metric applicable in evaluation of the effectiveness of online communication tools.

The Motivation of Students at Universities as a Prerequisite of the Education’s Sustainability within the Business Value Generation Context

The aim of this article is to identify substantial factors affecting the motivation of universities’ students to be actively engaged in the education process and define recommendations for the increase of this motivation. As a result, the sustainability of education at universities will be supported, contributing to the increase of the value of human capital of students and, subsequently, to the generation of value for the stakeholder groups in those enterprises where the graduates will be employed. The research hypothesis is focused on the presence of differences in students’ motivation in relation to their gender, study program, and the year of study. To effectively achieve this aim, the analysis, comparison, and the synthesis of the theoretical background was performed, using available sources of secondary data found in the pieces of domestic and foreign professional literature. The pieces of knowledge obtained were supplemented and combined with pieces of information acquired from the questionnaire survey conducted, focusing on the motivation of students of informatics and management at a university in the Slovak Republic. As tools of statistical analysis, tests of independence suitable for nominal categorical data were applied. It was revealed that young people are motivated to study at a university, specifically at the Faculty of Management Science and Informatics, mainly by the prospect of better chances in the labor market, the possibility of getting a higher salary, and higher qualification. The motivation to study at a university in order to improve the opportunity of getting employed in the labor market was more frequently perceived by women. Despite the fact that the level of teaching is considered to be high by almost 50% of the students regardless of their gender, study program, or the year of study, their motivation also stems from their expectations related to their future jobs. The students of informatics expect to have a team of friendly colleagues, delightful and stimulating working conditions, and the opportunity to do meaningful work. Among the students of management, meaningful work was replaced by the opportunity for self-fulfillment. When focusing on other factors, the differences based on the gender, study program, or the year of study were not statistically significant. Based on these findings, specific measures for the faculty’s management were proposed.