Knowing consumer's behaviour, his/her preferences and reactions provides company with better chance to establish itself in trade. While doing research, it is very important to analyse and search for answers to questions why customers do the shopping, what they buy, when, where and how often they do the shopping. The decision to buy a product or service is influenced by many factors, including not only cultural, social, psychological but also personal factors. Sensory marketing itself is coming to the foreground and more and more people are realising its position. This document is dedicated to issue which is useful not only for companies but also for consumer himself. It deals with involvement of sensory and tries to clarify their importance in business communication. The aim of research document was evaluation of senses and their influence on consumer's behaviour in shopping area. The comparison of generations and their buying habits during shopping behaviour was also important. Primary data were gained through a questionnaire which was realised on sample of 312 respondents. The impact of sensory marketing was generally aimed on factors which influence consumers while doing shopping. In questionnaire, respondents were divided into three groups/generations according to their age (young, middle aged and elder). The questionnaire research confirmed that sight was the most influenced sense when doing shopping (62%). Irrational consumer's behaviour was also confirmed. There were some differences shown among generation groups. Research confirmed that the sensory perception of these generations is different. More assumptions were formulated for a deeper analysis and their relations were verified by means of statistical test (Pearson Chi-kvadrat goodness-to-fit test). On the basis of required results was confirmed that most of customers do not realise the impact of individual senses on shopping behaviour.

Eating food is one of the most important needs of every person, so their safety and quality should be crucial for everyone. People expect, that food they eat is hygienically and health safe. Unfortunately, people usually start to focus on food safety only when various food scandals are exposed and it is too late. Mass consumption of food is the cause of a high risk to human health, but only in the case of harmful food. Food-borne diseases are a common and widespread phenomenon in all parts of the world, regardless of the economic development of the country. Protection of human, animal and plant health is one of the main economic priorities of each country. The political objective of the European Union is therefore to ensure that European Union citizens have access to safe and nutritious foods, so it must meet strict safety standards. In ensuring food safety, it is necessary to take into account all aspects of the food production chain as a whole, because each subject can have a potential impact on food safety. This paper deals with the issues of food safety and food quality. The main objective was to find out how consumers perceive higher quality food and whether they read information included on the food packaging. Primary data were obtained from a survey that was conducted on the sample of 478 respondents living in Slovakia. For a deeper analysis, several assumptions, which were verified by Friedman Test, Chi-Square Test of Independence, Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test, were formulated. The survey has found out that 84% of respondents buy higher quality food and 60% purchase them because of health-related reasons. More than half of respondents search for the information about food safety on the Internet and the same percentage considere government as the most reliable source of information about food safety. Unfortunately, just more than one quarter of them read the information on food label and for 34% is this information unsufficient.

Food safety is a topic that is currently very much and often discussed. This may be a debate among political representatives, representatives of the food industry, but also among consumers, ie. general public. The issue of food safety and quality is very important in view of the growing globalization of economy, whose mission is to encourage food businesses to improve the production process as a whole and competitiveness. As in every sector, the food market faces many problems arising from market opening, business environment diversity or non-compliance with legislative requirements. The effects of these market imperfections are ultimately borne by the consumer. It is, therefore, appropriate to ensure that consumers are adequately informed about the food they consume. Food production is carried out according to European and world standards. A Slovak customer purchases food imported from abroad. This fact can be caused by the pricing of individual foods but also by the lack of Slovak producers. Foreign competition liquidates the quality Slovak producers. The principle of customers should be to support the economy of the state and to buy domestic food. The submitted document deals with issues of food safety, control and quality of food. The aim of the work was to examine the attitudes of consumers to food safety based on the acquired knowledge and research results, to identify their interest in food safety. It also involved identifying global food safety issues and analyzing consumers' views on the problem under consideration and its impact on their purchasing behavior. Primary data was obtained from a survey that was performed on a sample of 478 respondents. Based on the survey, it was confirmed that 85% of respondents perceive the different quality of the food sold on the Slovak market. Nearly two-thirds of the respondents said they were paying attention to the quality of the groceries. More than half of respondents expressed satisfaction with hygienic sales conditions. Almost 80% think that high-quality food is commonly available. Statistical testing has confirmed the significantly lower quality of food produced abroad. Other assumptions were formulated for more detailed analysis and their relationships were verified by using the statistical methods (Friedman Test, Chi-Square Test of Independence, Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test).

We live in an era when all circumstances on the market are changing rapidly, which leads consumers (even, if they are not aware of it) to certain behaviour that affects their daily activities. Lifestyle can be described as someone's way of living or the things that a person or a particular group of people usually do. It is included among the modern elements of consumer behaviour and also affects an individual´s decision-making process. The concerns over obesity and dangerous food ingredients have prompted a “healthy lifestyle” to become the latest trend in marketing. Therefore, the regular exercising, the reduction of stress, drinking enough water, and eating nutritious food takes on its importance. The main objective of the paper is to assess the consumer behaviour on the market of a selected food commodity. For this purpose, protein bars, which are part of diet not only of athletes but also of ordinary consumers, have been chosen. To achieve this main goal, a questionnaire was designed and data were collected from the respondents of the different age groups in the Slovak Republic. Based on the primary results, the authors of the paper can claim that more than 60% of the respondents try intentionally to choose better options of food as they want to live healthy. For a deeper analysis, the assumptions were formulated and subsequently verified by the Pearson Chi-square test of independence and Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. The paper provides useful information on consumer behaviour that can help not only producers and retailers but also to consumers themselves.

Seniors are usually perceived as an unattractive segment, mostly due to their limited spending power. In Slovakia, the number of seniors has continuously been increasing. The population has been growing older. In Europe, more than a quarter of the population is expected to be aged 65 years or older by 2050. That is the main reason why we have to understand the consumer behaviour and decision-making processes of senior consumers. The presented paper deals with the consumer behaviour of seniors on the Slovak market of cow’s milk since it is the most commonly consumed type of milk in Slovakia. Opinions of nutrition specialists differ on whether it is beneficial or not for humans to consume milk. However, in general, milk is considered to be an essential component of the diet not only for children but also for adults and especially for seniors because of its high nutrition value. Milk and dairy products should be a daily part of the seniors’ diet. Since older people no longer have the necessary enzyme (lactase) to break down milk sugar (lactose), it is recommended to consume milk products that no longer contain milk sugar, but that lactic acid is produced by fermentation. Sour milk products such as curd, yoghurt or kefir have a beneficial effect on stomach, intestines and also the immune system. Long-term insufficiency of calcium intake causes osteoporosis – a disease that manifests itself in bone loss and structural disorders. It leads to increased fracturing of the bones and thus an increased risk of health complications resulting from there. This study explores senior consumers’ preferences for milk and their decision-making strategies on the market of cow’s milk. The study is oriented primarily on visual cues catching the attention of consumers. Anonymous survey was conducted on a sample of 470 senior respondents (210 males and 260 females) aged 61 – 84. Using selected psychological tools and a short questionnaire it was found out that Slovak seniors prefer traditional motives and bright colours on the milk packaging, they highly prioritise price over quality of milk products and in comparison with young adults, they are loyal to chosen products or brands. Seniors who score higher on the scale of neuroticism personality trait state that the packaging of milk products is significant for their decisions. Seniors with higher emotional stability tend to experiment more on the market of milk. Keywords cow’s milk, seniors, consumer behaviour, packaging, persuading techniques.