Journal of Marketing and Market Studies 07/2025

The aim of this study is to identify similarities and differences in how parents of primary and vocational school students perceive the promotion and image of vocational schools, as well as to determine the main areas of divergence. It is assumed that in educational marketing, image represents a set of beliefs, emotions, and perceptions associated with an institution, formed through stakeholders’ experiences. Promotion, in turn, is understood as a multidimensional process that combines informational, persuasive, and image-building functions. The analytical framework assumes that the stakeholder group under study possesses its own set of preferred attributes that determine the identification of an educational service as optimal. They may be identified and evaluated both in relation to the service as a whole and its individual components. Cluster analysis, a statistical tool of exploratory data analysis encompassing various techniques for categorizing collected observations into more homogeneous groups, was employed for inference purposes. The study included 553 parents of final-year primary school students and 502 parents of vocational school students from the Podlaskie region. The findings confirm the unfavorable image of vocational education in the perception of parents.

The main aim of the article is to present examples of governmental public campaigns that are directed at helping refugees from Ukraine and to compare them with each other. The article attempts to generalise academic approaches to the content, tasks and functions of social campaigns, and then, on this basis, seeks to identify similarities and differences in the approaches of the countries studied to promotional activities aimed at helping refugees from Ukraine. It was decided to conduct the research in the form of a case study, comparing government social campaigns from Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic. Not only their content was analysed, but also the reactions appearing on the inaugural social media posts. The article identifies specific approaches related to campaigning aimed at helping refugees. Based on a literature review and practical examples of campaigns, it draws conclusions and recommendations for the conduct of such activities. The suggestions made can be useful not only to better meet the needs of migrants but may also be helpful in reducing possible tensions among citizens, which, as previous experience with refugee crises has shown, sometimes arise in the long term.

Głównym celem artykułu jest przedstawienie przykładów rządowych kampanii publicznych ukierunkowanych na pomoc uchodźcom z Ukrainy oraz ich wzajemne porównanie. W artykule podjęto próbę uogólnienia akademickiego podejścia do treści, zadań i funkcji kampanii publicznych, a następnie na tej podstawie starano się zidentyfikować podobieństwa i różnice w podejściu badanych państw do działań promocyjnych zorientowanych na pomoc uchodźcom z Ukrainy. Badania postanowiono przeprowadzić w formie studium przypadku, porównując rządowe kampanie publiczne z Polski, Niemiec i Czech. Analizie poddano nie tylko ich treść, ale również reakcje pojawiające się pod inauguracyjnymi postami w mediach społecznościowych. Artykuł identyfikuje konkretne podejścia związane z kampaniami mającymi na celu pomoc uchodźcom. Na podstawie przeglądu literatury i praktycznych przykładów kampanii wyciągnięto wnioski i zalecenia dotyczące prowadzenia takich działań. Przedstawione sugestie mogą nie tylko pomagać w lepszym zaspokojeniu potrzeb migrantów, ale również być przydatne w zmniejszaniu ewentualnych napięć wśród obywateli, które, jak pokazują wcześniejsze doświadczenia z kryzysami uchodźczymi, czasami pojawiają się w dłuższej perspektywie.

The expansive, rapid changes driven by digital technologies and consumer resistance to advertising result in the implementation of new strategies in marketing communications. Brand ambassador programs represent an important emerging trend in marketing practice, yet they remain underexplored in academic research. This study clarifies the differences between different WOM marketing practices and illustrates three case studies of brand ambassador programs in which ordinary individuals are encouraged to spread positive eWOM as examples of recombinant innovations. By showing their structure and effects, this research provides marketers with concrete guidelines on how to incorporate brand ambassador programs in innovative marketing communications.

One of the devices used on a daily basis by almost every consumer is the smartphone. Over the past several years, it has undergone significant functional evolution, gaining increasing importance in everyday life. For many consumers, it has become an indispensable element, the absence of which would hinder the performance of daily activities. In a sense, it functions as an “organizer” and “assistant”, enabling contact with relatives, the completion of professional duties, the use of applications that facilitate administrative tasks, online shopping, or leisure activities. With constant access to a mobile network or Wi-Fi, it also serves as a source of information, offering a wide range of possibilities. However, attitudes toward the smartphone, the ways it is used, and the level of proficiency in its operation differ depending on the consumer’s age. The aim of this article is to identify differences in smartphone use between younger and older consumers. The paper addresses issues related to usage patterns, dependence on this device, and the proficiency with which it is handled. The discussion is based on national and international literature as well as on the author’s own research. The conducted study highlights the experiences of both younger and older consumers in the context of smartphone use, which made it possible to capture generational differences in the perception and utilization of this device.

This study investigates how structural features of housing systems – mortgage leverage, tenure composition, and rental market depth – affect volatility and persistence in housing price indicators across six European countries (1975Q1–2024Q4). Using quarterly data on real house prices (RHPI), price-to-rent (PTR), and price-to-income (PTI) ratios, I combine visual diagnostics with formal statistical tests to assess the role of institutional factors. My results show that valuation indicators perform differently across housing regimes. PTI proves more reliable in tenant-oriented systems such as Austria and Germany, and also in France despite its sizable share of leveraged owners, whereas PTR is better suited to market-driven, ownership-heavy contexts like Ireland, Spain, and the UK. Overall, I show that housing market volatility is not merely cyclical but structurally embedded. Policy frameworks for valuation diagnostics and credit risk assessment should account for institutional diversity rather than rely on uniform thresholds.