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The outbreak of the COVID-19 global pandemic has strongly affected different issues of everyday life. The pandemic has changed consumer attitudes and behavior. Consequently, during COVID-19, businesses had to decide how to organize the advertising campaigns and what content should be addressed to consumers. Considering the limited number of articles concerning these issues, it seems important to evaluate the impact of the global health crisis on advertising messages in different countries. The main objective of this paper is to assess TV commercial campaigns implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the specific epidemic situation in the selected countries. The research methodology was based on the observation, a qualitative method of collecting data obtained through monitoring the content of TV commercials aired during the afternoon, before or after the main news service. The research was conducted in May 2020 and in May 2021 in five selected European countries affected to varying degrees by the coronavirus pandemic. The research results allowed evaluation of the advertising messages in terms of their content and values exposed. The findings indicate that the number of COVID-related TV commercials is not correlated with the number of patients and deaths from COVID-19. The themes appearing the most often in the TV commercials in the studied period were the #StayAtHome idea, family and friends, the aspect of safety during the crisis, and brands' special offers. The tone of the advertisements was usually uplifting and hopeful, trying to cheer the stressed societies. From a theoretical perspective, the research results show the advertising strategy issues in specific conditions in different European countries. These findings concerning TV commercial strategy during a pandemic crisis could provide references for other countries, especially in Europe. The research results could be useful for marketing managers in developing strategies concerning the successful planning of TV commercials in crisis periods in European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Europe has become a popular destination for Mainland Chinese in recent years and shopping in Europe is essential and very exciting to most of them. While previous research has mostly comprised descriptive marketing studies, and a few have interpreted the shopping behavior of this emerging market from the traditional Chinese culture perspective, this paper presents a dynamic sociological approach to interpret the deeper mindset behind the Chinese buying by applying the theoretical concept of “tourism gaze”. A typical group, 17 white-collar employees and corporate elites in a Sino-foreign joint venture from a developed city in China, was interviewed, and thematic analysis was used. Three categories of mass commodity – functional goods, adornment goods and social gifts – were found to be the major items Chinese mainland tourists like to buy when traveling in Europe, among which functional goods for practical use are the most popular. The paper concludes that the deeper “tourist gaze” of trust and brand admiration upon Western goods is a result of the long Chinese modernization process and is very much influenced by the global consumer culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Commission has identified labelling as a means of encouraging consumers to opt for water-efficient products. A common water label at the European level would help countries achieve water efficiency in a cohesive way. This paper examines some of the water labelling schemes currently implemented in countries around the world in order to draw together a knowledge-base of water labelling best practice. Mandatory labels are shown to be most effective at encouraging consumer uptake, while additional supportive information (such as product performance data and potential financial savings) would help inform consumer purchase decisions. Consideration of national implications, economic impact, regulation and enforcement and establishing impact indicators, are all shown to be vital components of an effective water labelling scheme.Practical application: A Europe-wide water label would help promote the uptake of water-efficient products by providing consumers with information about the water consumption characteristics of products at the point of sale. It is intended that the water labelling best practice presented here is used by policy makers and regulators to help inform future initiatives in introducing a Europe-wide water label. Incorporating lessons from best practice will help ensure that such an initiative will achieve its full water-saving potential by encouraging consumer purchasing, and pushing market development, towards highly water-efficient products and, ultimately, reducing household water consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade the turnover for bottled water has been rising. Moreover, the quality of tap water in most European countries is high, while Ukraine shows an opposite trend. Considering these conditions, it is vital to study the bottled water consumption trends so as to provide its production and purchase. So, the aim of this article is to research and compare bottled water consumers’ behavior in Europe and Ukraine. The information research base were the materials presented by: European Federation of Bottled Waters, State Statistics Service of Ukraine, statistic portals, such as Statista and Euromonitor, and the data from scientists and publishers around the world. It was decided to use the method of bottled water consumers’ markets comparison in leading European countries. Furthermore, the water consumption was processed via descriptive statistical analysis of personal online survey among 600 respondents aged 18 - 60 with higher education and own income source, who live in the most developed regions of Ukraine, Europe and the world. The highest bottled water consumption rate among the European countries is fixed in Italy and Germany, which is the influence of old local traditions. Moreover, its consumption per capita in Western Europe is more than 3 times higher than in Eastern Europe. For example, Croatians are skeptical towards bottled water due to massive anti-plastic campaign and high quality of tap water. As for Ukraine, bottled water is a favorite soft drink for the majority of its population. Today the largest volume of its annual consumption per person (63 L) is recorded in Kyiv. However, this indicator across the whole Ukraine is 15 L on average, while leading European countries show the consumption of nearly 160 L a year per capita. It is explained by the weak bottled water drinking culture, lower income lever compared to Europe and aversion to plastic. On the other hand, a quarter of surveyed Ukrainians drink bottled water for medical purposes, which is not typical of Europeans. Moreover, Ukrainians and Europeans have the common features concerning water selection. Firstly, most males prefer highly carbonated water, while females opt for non-carbonated one. Secondly, bottled water is mostly preferred by people older than 25, and its main brand selection criteria are taste and ability to quench the thirst. Unlike Europe, Ukraine shows the weak level of bottled water consumption behavior. On the other hand, it is the favourite soft beverage among Ukrainians aged 26 and above. In addition to this, Ukraine’s tap water has very low quality, but there are nearly 500 mineral water springs. Furthermore, the tastes and preferences of Ukrainians and Europeans are mostly the same. Due to these factors there are opportunities for bottled water consumption development in Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]