Social Media Marketing in Comparison With Other Forms of Marketing in the Slovak Banking Sector

Purpose – Social media have become an important marketing tool in recent years, used for marketing purposes by Slovak banks besides other forms of communication. A comparison of social media marketing perception by banks’ customers on the Slovak market with other forms of marketing, examined across age groups, will be the main aim of this paper. Design/Methodology/Approach – This investigation was conducted using a questionnaire survey with self-assessment statements, rated on a five-point Likert scale to compare the perception of items influencing the decision whether to use a bank or its services. The results were presented using descriptive statistics, z-scores, top two box scores, the Kruskal-Wallis test, the Mann-Whitney test, and Pearson’s correlation. Findings and implications – A relatively low level of perceived influence of social media marketing compared to those in other forms of marketing was detected in the process of decision-making about the adoption of a bank and its services. Higher levels of perceived influence were detected mainly in younger groups of respondents. Limitations – These results give only a basic overview of the customer perception of social media marketing in comparison with other forms used in the Slovak banking market. Deeper relations between various forms of marketing and their perceptions might be investigated. The results have low explanatory power because of the limited sample size. Originality – The investigation of the clients’ social media marketing perception and its comparison with the perception of other marketing forms used in the Slovak banking market, including age-related differences, has not been conducted before.