Summary

Social media today represent a global community of different nationalities - the size of China in terms of population, and social networking sites are online venues where users can create and post content. Social networks have also become one of the most popular ways for people to socialize, connect with friends and family, purchase items and gather relevant information about current and political topics and views. The most popular and biggest social network is Facebook and its influence in every pore of our society is evident, e.g. potential misuse of its user’s data in different purpose including manipulation in political purposes. This paper will also cover the findings of a survey conducted in Croatia and Serbia about the perception of social media and social networks as a source of gathering relevant information.

The paper analyses behaviour of Generation Z (GenZ) in the region of Balkans (Serbia, Croatia and Republika Srpska). It presents the survey that was conducted among young people of age between 12 and 25, during December 2019 and January 2020. Total of 523 persons participated: 309 respondents from Serbia, 102 from Croatia and 112 from Republika Srpska. The analyzed topics were: Generation Z and communication, the role of Internet in life of Generation Z, attitudes of GenZ towards shopping and consumption habits. Besides many similarities of the results between global surveys and this one aiming region of Balkans, some specifics of the region were found and analyzed. The aim of the paper was to present insights that can help researcher (preferably in the field of marketing) to better understand the behavior of GenZ. The conclusion provides an analysis-comparison of similarities and differences of Generation Z in the Balkans comparing to global experiences.

The characteristics of a given target market are one of the main factors that need to be considered when selecting media to transmit a promotional message and achieve successful advertising. The authors of this paper will present the effectiveness of direct marketing media for different age groups of consumers in Serbia, with the aim of proposing a promotional-media mix of direct marketing media for consumers in different age categories. The aim of the research is to find out which direct marketing media are the most effective and which media are most suitable to respondents as members of a particular target group depending on their age and in relation to consumer habits. Effectiveness was observed on the basis of the frequency of reading promotional advertisents via direct marketing media in relation to the age of respondents.

IntroductionThe adoption of Internet media by consumers in the Republic of Serbia as marketing innovations was performed firstly through a literature review and a research on this subject, and then through the presentation of the obtained results and conclusions. The subject of the conducted research is testing consumer habits and preferences in Serbia regarding the use of online direct marketing media for obtaining information on products/services, companies and ordering/purchasing via the Internet. The aim of the research is to learn about the current attitudes in Serbia regarding the adoption of knowledge and technologies related to modern forms of company advertising, communication with their target group and sales, from the consumers' point of view. The research questions are to what extent the consumers in Serbia use innovative forms of communication (via the Internet) with companies for obtaining information about products/services, companies and to what extent they buy online. In the search for answers to these questions, some existing data about using Internet for informing and purchasing without considering the social networks (SORS -Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, 2016c; Market Research Agency MASMI, 2016a, 2016b) were used and the following hypotheses of the research were formulated.Research Question: The adoption of Internet media of direct marketing by consumers in the Republic of Serbia as marketing innovations, both in terms of communication between advertisers and consumers as well as contemporary purchasing methods, has been presented in this paper. Motivation: The research in the field of marketing innovations mainly relates to their application by the organizations, and if there is any research on this topic from the perspective of consumers, it is not sufficiently detailed and useful to be of importance for the formulation of marketing strategies in the field of internet marketing. Idea: The methodological approach to studying this topic involves the application of a descriptive-analytical method in order to explain marketing innovations and diffusion of knowledge and technologies in internet marketing. Data: Empirical research has been performed in the period June-July 2017 on the territory of the Republic of Serbia by using the questionnaire survey method. The target group are consumers aged 15 to 64, in order to examine what their habits and preferences regarding the use of the Internet as direct marketing media are, including the frequency of using the Internet as direct marketing media, and especially social networks, for obtaining information on products/services, companies and ordering/purchasing via the Internet. The sample is stratified and it consists of 1,532 respondents. Tools: When processing data and interpreting the results, SPSS was used. Findings: It has been concluded that there is a statistically significant correlation between the consumer's age and the frequency of visiting social networks and following pages that users of these networks like. The number of ...