The intense competition in the tourism sector increasingly pushes tourism destination marketers to seek more effective promotional practices, so that they remain competitive and attract more visitors. The fast expansion of the Internet and social media provides the opportunity for destination marketers to approach potential tourists in a simple and cost-effective way. While managing the official pages of destinations on social media, the basic question that arises is the configuration of the content, and how attractive this content could be for potential tourists. The purpose of this study is to investigate what elements of a destination, when displayed on social media, could be attractive factors for tourists. Through the analysis of push and pull tourism motivation factors in particular, this study focuses on the segmentation of the Greek market for those traveling abroad and the emergence of the basic elements that could attract each segment through social media. The respondents have been classified into four segments, according to the motives that more greatly influence their desire to travel. This analysis also shows the important relationships between these segments and the pull motivation factors on social media. The study concludes with findings and suggestions that can contribute to the planning of an effective social media marketing plan.

Today, consumers consider food packaging to be as equally important as a product brand. In addition, the increase in smartphone usage by consumers has led marketers to design new forms of packaging. Among the latest marketing trends, smart packaging with the use of QR Codes is emerging as one of the most promising technologies to enhance the information provided to consumers and influence their buying behavior. This study evaluates the use of a QR Code on bottled milk and more specifically on milk produced by one of the most well-known “boutique” Greek dairy producers. It consists of two phases. In the first one, data was gathered from 537 consumers of the product to capture and analyze their (i) buying behavior, (ii) perception of the product’s package, and (iii) knowledge about the product. In the second phase, a Quick Response (QR) Code was placed on the bottle’s label. Consumers who scanned it were linked to a web page containing information on the product. A total of 308 from the 537 initial respondents scanned the code, accessed the site, and answered the second questionnaire. Similar to the first stage, (i) the consumers’ buying behavior, (ii) their perception of the product’s package, and (iii) their knowledge about the product were examined, following their visit to the above-mentioned website through the QR Code. The objective was to evaluate the use of web applications using enriched text information. The results show that a QR Code on the packaging of food products, which directs consumers to entertaining and enriched content, results in an increased level of usage intention. Moreover, they proved that comprehension and self-confidence are higher with the adoption of the QR Code. In addition, the use of QR Codes enables businesses to provide timely and accurate information and positively influence consumers′ buying behavior.

Purpose – The present study aims to discuss the role of Hofstede's cultural dimensions, uncertainty avoidance and individualism/collectivism, on the use of various humor types in print advertising, across culturally diverse countries. Design/methodology/approach – A sample of 12,351 ads (3,828 humorous) from the largest circulated UK and Greek magazines was content-analyzed in light of Speck's humorous message taxonomy, emphasizing humor types and intentional relatedness. Findings – The results indicate that cultural diversity is reflected in the types of humorous devices that tend to be used in the UK and Greece. British advertisements incorporate not only sentimental but also disparaging humor types such as sentimental humor and full comedy, providing a great deal of pure entertainment. On the contrary, Greek print ads emphasize cognitive humorous appeals, in an attempt to provide credible information to the uncertainty-avoiding Greek audience. Practical implications – The findings of this study highlight some key aspects of UK and Greek print advertising that can be extended in other homogeneous cultures. In individualistic countries with low uncertainty avoidance, it seems that consumers prefer humor-dominant messages. On the contrary, in collectivistic countries with high uncertainty-aversion attitudes, humor can be used as a Trojan horse to convey the required information to the target group. Originality/value – The present study points out how advertisers' intentions to entertain or to inform the target audience are expressed in the use of various humor types in advertising, underlining, also, the effect of cultural values on these communication decisions.

Recent advancements in research on green marketing indicate that green marketing strategies have a notable impact on consumers’ attitudes, intentions, and behavior. However, despite consumers expressing environmental concerns and holding positive attitudes toward green initiatives, their enthusiasm is not consistently translated into actual purchase intentions and green purchases, revealing a noticeable gap between attitudes, intentions, and behaviors. To date, the drivers contributing to this gap have been narrowly investigated, particularly focusing on consumers’ growing apprehensions about greenwashing. Based on an integrated framework of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and green purchase behavior (GPB), the present study probes the conditional indirect effect of consumers’ attitudes toward green purchases on green purchase behavior through their purchase intentions that are moderated by greenwashing concerns. An online survey with 364 participants indicates that purchase intentions mediate the relationship between attitudes and green product purchase behavior. Attitude toward green products in high (compared to low) levels of greenwashing concerns seems to have a significantly less positive effect on green purchase intention and in turn on green purchase behavior.

Consumer interest in environmental protection has grown in recent decades, alongside a shift in companies’ strategies to embrace a greener way of doing business. Green advertising is rapidly expanding and gaining popularity. With more and more consumers being actively involved in social media searching and purchasing products, social media advertising is transformed into a principal way of communication. Although prior research has addressed green marketing and advertising, their presence in social media has been largely neglected. Based on a systematic review approach, the present study addresses recent trends and developments in green advertising on social media. We used PRISMA for the systematic review of eighty-one articles published between 2011 and 2022. Green advertising content, and greenwashing in particular have attracted significant research interest. Green skepticism and the role of generations are gaining popularity. The descriptive analysis provides article, author, and journal-related information (i.e., citations, year of publications, journals, etc.). This systematic literature review reports the trends in the topic, highlights existing research gaps, and suggests future research avenues. Research and managerial implications are discussed.

Given that the current media condition provides numerous channels that create interaction between news media brands and consumers, the concept of consumer brand engagement (CBE), referred as being the interactive relationships between consumers and brands is more crucial than ever in the media sector. The purpose of this study is to examine the direct and indirect effects of three motives, utility, entertainment, and pass time, on consumer brand engagement for online news media brands. A causal model that illustrates both the direct and indirect effects of the three motives on CBE reveals the critical role of entertainment as a mediator. Utility and entertainment positively impact CBE, whereas pass time is negatively associated with CBE for online news media brands. Entertainment positively mediates the relationship between utility and CBE as well as influencing the negative relationship between pass time and CBE.