Bergslagens Sparbank as well as other independent(fristående) sparbanker have discoveredthat some of their customers can not separate them from Swedbank. Some customers maythus believe that they are the same bank. This study seeks factors that may contribute to thisproblem, and measures that can counteract. We refer to this problem as brand confusion andmainly have our focus on factors derived from brand alliance, but also from the companyitself and the banking industry. We use a qualitative method where we collect empirical datafrom interviews with four sparbanker.

Social media has changed the way that corporations can communicate with their target groups. Instead of using one?way communications that has been significant for traditional massmarketing, social media has given corporations the possibility to truly interact with their clients and through the interaction build strong relationships. The interaction is an ideal process for corporations to create Brand Associations and strengthen their brand equity to position their brands in the minds of the consumers. But social media is also a devious medium because everyone are invited to contribute their opinion and news travel fast in social atmosphere, success and crisis can appear fast and out ofnowhere.

A challenge faced by marketers is to make their products stand out in today's cluttered marketplace. Recently, a new approach to attract attention has been observed - brands communicating their products by making fun of other brands. This way of parodying a competitor, or even an unrelated brand, is a risky but potentially effective way to increase attention. Brand parodies walk a fine line between being humorous and clever, or coming off as offensive. Furthermore, parodying another trademark poses legal considerations.

Background: Literature regarding brand identity within the service industry is relatively under developed. As a result one theory is used for both the service and product brands, even though there is a significant difference between a product and a service. As a result of this, the brand identity within the service industry has consequences. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the brand identity within the service industry. This is done by focusing on how and why this work is done.

Sports associations play a very important role in the Swedish civil society, and since the 1st of July 1987 they have been exempted from the duty to pay VAT. By introducing an sufficiently closely related. When the conflict of law exists, the directive will be accorded priority, which leads to the Swedish Sports Federation must examine and considerexemption for sports associations the income tax field and VAT field correlate and the legislative change resulted in more favorable pre-close solutions for all of Sweden's non- profit organizations.  In June 2008 the European Commission launched a process concerning Swedish infringement against EU-law, and with it the Swedish civil society, where all Swedish sports associations are included, is threatened. The European Commission wants to, among other things, force sports associations into the VAT system for the purpose of the VAT Directive to be achieved.

Today, branding is not a phenomenon but rather a prerequisite for a brand to be able to both survive and grow stronger. During the last couple of years, personal branding has come to be an established term, just like corporate branding. With the growth of the social media and the thousands of ways to interact with each other personal brands face great competition. It is more difficult than ever to maintain a strong brand, partly because of this. There are several growth options for brands.

The purpose of the study is to examine how retailing trough brand owned outlet stores effectsthe fashion brand. The problem that the essay is aimed to solve is how the fashion brand isinfluenced by selling through outlets and what opportunities and risks it has on the brand. Thestudy has been carried out by qualitative methods using interviews to answer the questionformulation. Three empirical perspectives have been chosen; an expert-, business- andconsumer perspective which have been linked up with three applicable theories. The fashionbrand Acne and its two stores; the flagship store and the outlet store have been chosen as acase study.

The main question in this thesis has been to see how the brand strategy of Linköpings Hockey Club has changed during the years in the Swedish elite league. We will also look at the content of the brand, as well as the association as the city of Linköping. This thesis will also see the sponsorship view of the development of the brand, because of the sponsorship power to help the association to build and strengthen the brand.We have been interviewing important persons at the association Linköpings Hockey Club and also done interviews with a few sponsorship partners to get important information to analyze.As an association it is of outmost importance to disseminate the association?s image in the right way, which Linköpings Hockey Club has according to their sponsorship partners. The association has during the last years been working hard to take care of and strengthen the brand, which can be seen among the sponsorship partners.

Event marketing has during the last decade become a wide spread marketing method. This is because the marketing clutter has increased heavily during the past years and brands are looking for new ways to reach their target audience. The previously well accepted marketing measurement "satisfaction" has shown tendencies no longer to be sufficient for success in today's competitive marketplace. Therefore, the research has somewhat moved to the measurement "brand love" to explain differences in strategic consumer behavior. That is the background to why this report examines and answers the question if a brand through event marketing can enhance brand love.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate how a valuation of a company preceding an acquisition can be affected by the fact that a strong brand is attached to the target company. Techniques to value a company and theories of brands are well developed, but the link between them is partially missing even though the needs to value brands have increased. A case study of five Swedish acquisitions is conducted to identify possible complicating and simplifying factors and how these are handled in the context of a valuation of an acquired company with a strong brand. Important findings are that a decreased volatility of future earnings can lead to more accurate prognoses and valuations due to the existence of a strong brand. A strong brand can, on the other hand, also make the valuation of the target company more difficult due to the fact that it is a subjective asset which increases the overall risk of the company.

With the fast development of Internet and the e-commerce during the last decades, retailers are now introducing online stores. This has been adopted as a common strategy within the industry and the phenomenon seems likely to increase over time. Theory based on brand extension is used in this study to explain the effects on brand attitude and the link with willingness to pay when a traditional retailer introduces an online store. We execute an experimental study in order to investigate the effects where we use the offline- and online channel as well as two brands with different strengths as independent variables. Results show that brand attitude and its link to willingness to pay transfers to the online channel.

Social networks have become an important factor in today?s society. Companies as well as individuals are using these platforms to interact with one another on a daily basis. This phenomenon has mostly been acknowledged by companies on B2C markets where these social network sites are being used to communicate their brand. On B2B markets however, the usage of these platforms have not been as optimistically implemented.

Denna uppsats behandlar varumärkesassociationer samt dess påverkan på varumärkeskapital. Uppsatsen är genomförd som en fallstudie och undersöker hur det svenska telekommunikationsföretaget Tre tolkar konsumenters associationer till varumärket Tre. Detta jämförs sedan med de varumärkesassociationer som föreligger kring Tres varumärke på marknaden.Varumärkesassociationer formas primärt hos konsumenter och är således inte enbart en process som företag styr. Detta innebär dock inte att associationerna är opåverkbara från företagets sida. En central faktor som påverkar skapandet av varumärkesassociationer har i denna uppsats påvisats vara konsumenters kontakt med företaget, där framförallt den första kontakten tenderar att forma associationerna.

The purpose of this thesis was to examine how to build a personal brand and how to use this brand. The method used was a case study with personal interviews. The persons who were interviewed was Jan Carlzon and Peter Wallenberg Jr, two of the most important persons in the Swedish business industry. The study has shown that the person as a brand creates benefits and can gain opportunities if used in the right way..

The purpose of this thesis was to examine the relationship between brands and music in TV-commercials. We investigated why companies use music in TV-commercials to affect their brands and how music affects the brand?s image. We also investigated how companies choose music genres for their TV- commercials. A case study based on interviews was conducted with four informants from SAAB, Lowe Brindfors, Riviera and Catt & Co.