Genetically modified products (GM) have been sensitive topic in different societies. This paper looks at (GM) from one consumer group's perspective; specifically, from the Ajara region of Georgia in February 2014. A survey of 603 consumers revealed that these respondents knew very little about genetic engineering but held a negative attitude towards GM products, expected the government to regulate both their import and production, and wanted GM to be identified as such. Even if priced lower than comparable foodstuffs, most consumers would not buy them. An empirical investigation based on analysis of variance and Pearson's correlation coefficient demonstrated that education, income and social class were significant determinants of genetic engineering awareness among consumers, while age had no impact.
At current stage business development cannot be imagined without social networks. The customers spend more and more time in social networks and get most part of the information from them. Therefore, for the companies, the social media is a powerful tool for attraction of clients and for competition. Usingthe social media marketing is particularly popular in tourism industry. Technological changes in mass media allow immediate distribution of information in the sphere of tourism. Reasonable using of social networks in tourism requires creative marketing approaches ensuring coverage of the target audience to maximal possible extent. Sites of social media became the primary source of information for the destination management organizations. Usually the tourists trust online information and before commencement of travel they visit the forums and online reviews, as well as specialized blogs. Hence, there is a close relationship between involvement of tourists’ social network sites and change in their behavior. Technological development and globalization of media creates new opportunities providing sharing the information between tourist consumers through blogs, web sites or destination sites. The destinations need creative and powerful social media marketing strategies to attract potential visitors. Social media helps the destinations to communicate with the visitors at relatively low costs and higher effectiveness than traditional communication methods. Social media, as an instrument for stimulation is used for the purposes of interactive marketing. Though, it is notable that there is a growing number of visitors, who use social media applications, creating new challenges in entire tourism industry. As social media plays a significant role in the activities of travel agencies, we found reasonable to find out the level of satisfaction of the foreign tourists with the activities of Georgian tourist companies in social media. Market research showed that of social media platforms, among the foreign tourists the most widespread is Facebook. 85.1% of the respondents use it. It is followed by YouTube (54.7%), Instagram (32.4%), Google+ (31.1%), Linkedin (29.9%), Twitter (27.2%) and MySpace (15.5%). 14% of the respondents use the other social networks (Pinterest, Tumblr, Flickr, Reddit, Ask.fin, Vkontakte, Odnoklassniki). Study demonstrated interest of the respondents to the information provided by the sites related to tourism, their trust and satisfaction. Analysis shows that the respondents are satisfied with the social media marketing offered by Georgian travel agencies to certain extent. As a result of our market study we can conclude that Georgia is an attractive destination for the foreign tourists. Therefore, the number of repeated visits to Georgia increases from year to year. In making choice of Georgian travel agencies, the foreign tourists basically rely on the information in social networks and word-of-mouth marketing. Though, interest, trust and satisfaction of the foreign customers to social media marketing offered by Georgian travel companies are at the average level. Therefore, foreign tourists evaluate media marketing activities conducted by Georgian tourist companies as average and this underlines insufficient activity of Georgian tourist companies in social networks. With the help of marketing research obtained levels of interest, reliability and satisfaction of foreign tourists in relationto social media marketing provided by Georgian destinations.On the basis of analysis of the research results statistically significant values were obtained that show influence of the activity, interest and reliability regarding to social media marketing provided by Georgian destinations on the foreign tourists’ satisfaction.In the work statistically significant value is also received reflecting the influence of the social media activity provided by Georgian destinations on buying behavior of foreign tourists’.
The article shows that the global network, Internet, is socializing at a very high speed, and this is one of the main trends in the modern online system. The audience of social mеdia growing rapidly both in the world and in Georgia. This growth was facilitated by the fact that social media went beyond teen entertainment. Social media today is a platform for communication, study and work where people of different generations began to join. This article explores the importance of social media for marketing. It is noted that nowadays social media marketing has become an important component of online marketing, which has shown its effectiveness for companies targeted at the target audience. Social media marketing applications and platforms drive customer engagement, collaboration, and content sharing. The role of social media marketing in personal sales is also analyzed and the main problems associated with it are identified. With social media technology, sellers have a unique opportunity to build, influence and manage individual relationships with customers. Social media technologies help sellers engage customers through information sharing, interactivity, and problem-solving. Social media is an essential tool for salespeople to use to build customer relationships. However, there are not enough criteria for determining the effectiveness of the use of social networks by sales personnel. In this regard, studying the role of social media marketing in personal sales is one of the most pressing issues. Although some work has been done recently in the area of consumer behavior in Georgia, the issues of consumer behavior concerning personal sales in the Georgian market are still poorly understood and requires proper scientific development. Based on the above, the purpose of this work was to determine the attitude of Georgian consumers to social media marketing activities carried out by personal sellers, for which marketing research was conducted. The research was carried out in two stages based on qualitative and quantitative research methods. At the first stage, a qualitative study was carried out, which included a focus group and in-depth interview methods. At this stage, hypotheses were formulated and priorities were set for further research. In the second stage, we used the customer survey method, and as a research tool, we chose a questionnaire consisting of several structured questions. The survey was conducted using electronic and personal interview methods. A systematic random sampling method was used. The confidence interval is 95% and the margin of errors is set to be equal to 4%. The survey was carried out with 1022 respondents aged 18 years and more, which represent 0.03% of the total population of Georgia. The study area was different cities of Georgia: Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Batumi, Rustavi, Sachkhere, Ambrolauri, Gori, Zugdidi, Senaki, Poti, and Kvareli. Based on this the survey results were analyzed using statistical software SPSS (version 21.0) for windows. Marketing survey showed that the majority of respondents (70%) actively use social media for personal sales. In this regard, Facebook is the leader among the most used social media platforms. The survey showed interest, reliability, and satisfaction of the respondents from the information provided by the websites related to personal sales. Marketing research has shown that the social media activity of salespeople is a very important factor for consumers when making a purchasing decision. Based on the analysis of variance, statistically significant values were obtained, which reflect the influence of consumer interest, awareness, trust and satisfaction on social networks associated with personal sales on their purchasing decisions.
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