23 pages, Cotton is the most significant natural fiber in the world and an important part of the global economy. Yet, the cotton industry faces several challenges in securing its place in the global fiber market share, reaching new consumers, and maintaining relationships with current consumers. Furthermore, the cotton industry has a unique opportunity to share evidence-based information with followers through its product marketing on social media. The study described herein used content analysis to explore Instagram content on the @discovercotton profile. Content included categories of promoted products (i.e. women, men, children, or home); comments, posts, and caption stimuli; and most frequently used word, hashtag, and retail partner stimuli. We analyzed 434 Instagram stimuli (244 single photos, 142 carousels, and 48 videos) from March 2, 2021, to March 2, 2023. Across all stimuli, there were 110,143 likes and 5,799 comments with total response (engagement: likes and comments) reaching 115,942. We found that women’s products were promoted most often followed by men, home, and children—only 8.48% of stimuli depicted cotton, a cotton plant, or the seal of cotton. We identified six major themes in caption stimuli on @discovercotton: qualities of cotton, style, sustainability, check the label, women, and cotton production. Cotton was the most frequently used word stimuli in captions, and cotton as a fabric was the most promoted theme.
Via online journal., Creating unique stories through storytelling as a way to stage extraordinary experiences has become increasingly important in the tourism industry, particularly in experience-based activities such as farm tourism. However, limited resources and the lack of knowledge of the experiencescape suggest that many farm tourism operators struggle to integrate the experiencescape as part of storytelling. The research method chosen was an explorative study with the use of semi-structured in-depth interviews with key farm tourism operators in the Inland region in Norway. How stories and concepts are created is dependent on the resources available, the perception of authenticity, the history of the farm as well as the environment. Storytelling can be facilitated through tangible elements in the experiencescape such as the physical environment as well as intangible elements including the interaction and dynamics between the host and guest. The farmer or the person telling the story also need to possess certain skills, engagement, and interest in order to be committed to deliver the story or the concept. Essentially, the farmer becomes a part of the product and the experience.
Pires, Alda F. A. (author), Kukielka, Esther A. (author), Haghani, Viktoria (author), Stover, James K. (author), de Melo Ramos, Thais (author), Van Soelen Kim, Julia (author), and Jay-Russell, Michelle T. (author)
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
2020-10
Published:
United States: Extension Journal, Inc.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 203 Document Number: D12287
14 pages, We conducted a survey to characterize certified California farmers markets (FMs) regarding location, seasonality, size, product, product labeling, advertising methods, postharvest practices, regulations governing vendors, training offered, and training interests. Data obtained from the survey highlight the need for improvement regarding food safety and can serve as a basis for development of collaborative education by Extension educators, regulatory agencies, and FMs. Extension professionals can play a proactive role in such training opportunities, focusing outreach efforts for training according to applicable findings and including online training venues to maximize reach to stakeholders.
Via online., Considering the rapidly changing business environment, staying competitive is a key issue and challenge for companies in the 21st century. The criteria of a company’s success and competitiveness is the changing behavior of the different economic actors and its influence. Through the information society came to the fore, the use of diverse information technology tools and methods has become a significant influence factor in terms of the entrepreneurs or company management and also the customers or other partners. Due to the rapid expansion of new technology developments, the role and importance of social media is continuously increasing. Also statistics show that one of the most regularly used IT tool is the social media and the different web 2.0 applications. The current study is intended to provide a better understanding how social media can emphasize the competitiveness of companies and format the consumer behavior in a special sector – the rapidly developing gastronomy industry. This paper presents an empirical research about the role of social media in the above mentioned industry based on the primary data which are gathered through a survey performed in Hungary. Beyond the empirical results presented, the paper also aims to provide some recommendations for research methodology – based on the international literature review and the Authors’ own experiences – both in gastronomy industry’s and customers’ point of view. Through the analysis the research hypotheses were examined and the most important correlations were identified between the survey results and the Authors’ initial supposition
12 pages, Current food systems fail to directly link urban consumers with rural producers. City-regional strategies need to reconnect consumers with producers through sustainable local food systems. This research developed and distributed a survey questionnaire to 400 consumers in Bangkok. Findings prove that there is a statistically significant association between urban-rural relation and sustainable urban consumer behavior (Pearson’s Chi-square test for independence resulting in a significance level of p < 0.05). Sustainable consumer behavior is influenced by environmental, sociocultural, economic and health drivers, while lack of food traceability, lack of rural experience, lack of access to rural communities and negative social perception disrupt consumer-producer links. Community-based gastrotourism emerges as one of the best practices to link urban consumers with rural producers and plan sustainable food systems in mega-cities like Bangkok.
