Social media networks are increasing in popularity and have been integrated into many aspects of daily life. Analysis of the ways in which individuals use social media is important for understanding social, cultural, and environmental issues. This study examines experiences of farmers’ market customers through their self-expression on social networks. Contributions to the Instagram social network based on the #farmersmarket hashtag were gathered on a single day, yielding 19,398 contributions created by 13,862 users. Six major linked hashtags were identified (#Organic, #Fresh, #Food, #Local, #Vegan, and #Healthy), providing key indicators of the characteristics of farmers’ markets that are valued by customers. Four customer segments were identified: Product Oriented, Emotional Oriented, Social Oriented, and Product-Social Oriented, with strong interconnections identified between these communities. The results of this study provide insights into consumer values and behaviors in the farmers’ market context and will be of practical use for future marketing and management.

The article presents results of research on preference of the regional food in Vysočina Region in the Czech Republic, with main focus on awareness analysis of Vysočina regional labels. Presented findings are a part of longitudinal research that aims to analyse the evolution of Czech regional labels and their impact on regional development. The questionnaire survey was conducted between January and March 2015 on the sample of 819 respondents from the Vysočina Region. The data have been processed with correspondence analysis and showed that half of respondents prefer regional food, but the results differ in each district, the highest preferences were reported in Jihlava and Třebíč districts. Awareness of the regional labels is rising in comparison with results of the research in 2012. To test respondents’ knowledge they were asked to identify regional labels: two existing - VYSOČINA Regional Product®, Regional Food Vysočina Region and also nonexistent label From Our Region Vysočina. The awareness of regional labels was tested according to chosen sociodemographic factors: gender, age, residence in each district of the region and residence in town or village.

Food labels allow producers to promote the unique selling points of their products and help consumers buy products with value-adding qualities. The aim of the present article is hence to explore Czech food producers’ expectations and experience with selected food labels. The selection was narrowed down to enterprises that had succeeded in the certification processes within the food labeling systems of European quality and origin labels (protected designation of origin (PDO), protected geographical indication (PGI), and traditional specialty guaranteed (TSG)), as well as schemes that fall under the remit of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic, such as Klasa (Česká potravina/Czech food, Regionální potravina/regional food, and BIO). The research was made using an online questionnaire in January–February 2018, and was focused on determining possible discrepancies in expectations that the companies had before applying for quality/origin labels and their actual experience with the labelling systems, the benefits they had gained, and their overall experience with the labels. To compare the respondents’ expectations and their actual experience, both the non-parametric Wilcoxon test and t-test were used. The results show that the respondents positively evaluated the effects of marketing communication, but their expectations had been higher than what they experienced.

The aim of this paper is to examine the communication content of Instagram social network users, on the basis of the hashtags they use relating to gamification and to define communities within the network in the context of education. The results are based on the analysis of Instagram's worldwide social network. Primary data were collected using script to capture communication on the social network Instagram. The analysis included Instagram photos selected on the basis of hashtag #gamification (17,994 contributions). The results identify that the most commonly associated expressions with hashtags #gamification are hashtags associated with education and business, especially where startup and innovation are concerned. On the basis of an analysis visually isolated communities with an average modularity of 0.506 were identified, which relate to the communication of the gamification on the social network Instagram: 1) Education, 2) Entrepreneurship, 3) Gamification in general, 4) Social and 5) Enjoyment. The benefit of analysis for the education area is to identify the university's links between Education and Entrepreneurship and the Teacher and Trust between education and enjoyment.

PILAŘ LADISLAV, BALCAROVÁ TEREZA, ROJÍK STANISLAV. 2016. Farmers' Markets: Positive Feelings of Instagram Posts. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 64(6): 2095-2100.With increasing consumer requirements, farmers and vendors see the importance of social media as a marketing tool to engage with consumers. In particular, on a more personal level for reasons of brand management. Instagram is becoming increasingly popular as a marketing communication tool. The aim of this paper is to identify areas that users evaluate in terms of positive feelings in connection with farmers' markets. The results are based on the analysis of the worldwide, and Czech, instagram social network. Instagram posts were identified on the basis of keywords, such as #farmarsketrhy and #farmersmarkets. The results of the study are based on 100,000 contributions on Instagram made by 55,632 users. The analysis contains 1,357,812 'unique' words. The results identified six major areas (1) Healthy (2) Good (3) Great (4) Happy (5) Nice (6) Perfect. An appropriately posted hashtag indicated the positive feelings that were evoked and then assigned to a matching category. The research results are used to identify group characteristics that exert these positive feelings while visiting farmers' markets. These results can be used to build communications campaigns for farmers' markets. They can also be used as a basis for further research in defining the behaviour of farmers' markets visitors, based on cultural differences arising from geographic location.

The amount of European farm acreage devoted to organic foods has been increasing each year over the past three decades, as farmers strive to meet consumer demand for these products. To understand what factors drive this demand, researchers have focused on the end customers' perception of organic food and their motivations to purchase it. The standard research methods are questionnaires and literature review; however, these tend to be expensive, time consuming, or involve work with secondary data. This paper compares 14 studies carried out using standard research methods with the results of a social network analysis based on 344,231 posts by 73,380 Instagram users. The result of the comparison shows that in the case of organic food, the characteristic of "healthy" is the most important one to customers, both based on questionnaire surveys and the social network analysis. Moreover, based on these two analyses, 4 key areas can be identified as factors that are important to customers buying organic food: (1) health consciousness, (2) ecological motives, (3) tasty and (4) hedonism. As the results indicate, social network analysis can be considered a method with a high potential for gaining a greater insight into customers' perceptions.

This article compares attitudes to buying organic food in selected countries in Central Europe. The current research was conducted in 2019 on a total sample of 2800 respondents in the Czech Republic, Slovakia (Central Europe, with a relatively new organic food market), and Germany (a traditional Western Europe country with a mature food market). The study results demonstrate significant differences between the three selected markets. The product quality is the most important for German consumers. Slovak consumers consider organic food to be the least recognizable and least promoted of all the regions surveyed, and they are also the least likely to encounter targeted advertising for organic products. Germany is the country where most respondents regularly or occasionally buy organic food. In Slovakia, an interesting finding is the highest proportion of respondents who do not buy organic food at all. Czech respondents often buy organic products in specialized shops and like to grow organic products themselves. The results also suggest that Slovak consumers slightly more often prefer foreign organic products to the local ones, whereas consumers in Germany select regional organic products more often and prefer to buy regional products at farmers’ markets.

The article analyses the customer attitude towards the qualities and benefits of organic agriculture production for farmers and customers in the Czech Republic, comparing the situation in 2016 and 2019. More than 2500 respondents were subject to the marketing research in the years 2016 and 2019. The data were processed using correspondence analysis and logistic regression. The research study shows that the number of respondents who consider organic food is growing; at the same time, there is a rather large share of consumers who believe organic food to be of better quality. The results show a favourable change in the popularity of organic food. While, in 2016, the main decisive factor in shopping for organic food was its price, in 2019, the main criterion, for the respondents, was quality, with the criterion of price being complemented by the perception of organic food as healthier than conventional food. At the same time, it was established that, the amount spent on organic food in 2019 was higher than that in 2016. This finding was in positive correlation with the increase in respondents’ income. For farmers, organic farming is a promising alternative to conventional agriculture due to a rising demand for organic produce.