This essay is based on a mission from Anna Schibli, Director of Tourism at Solliden Palace. The thesis aims to investigate the image that Solliden Palace has, and the picture that local and regional tourist offices have of the Sollidens Castle brand and what position Solliden include in these markets. A total of six in-depth interviews with tourist offices, at local and regional level, has been carried out and an initial in-depth interview with Anna Schibli of Solliden Palace. The responses of the respondents have since been interpreted and processed based on an inductive approach, in order to interpret the image that Solliden Palace has. Scientific papers have been studied and analyzed in order to generate an explanation and understanding of the research area.

Products and services have for a long time competed with their brands. For some time now, cities have begun to compete with each other to attract visitors and other stakeholders to come to their town. It is important that the citizens feel as they are a part of the message that the city sends out in its communication.Cities are today working actively with their brands, much like regular companies, in order to create the profile and image in order to be competitive against other cities and places. Cities and places are part of a dynamic process which includes both positive and negative events. These events might have an impact on the brands, and therefore it is a necessity to be able to react on these events to make the most of positive things and deal with the negative in a way that minimizes the effects on the brand.Citybranding as a research field is quite new.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how the research library of Linnæus University is used by students as a meeting place. Building upon Putnam's theory of bonding and bridging social capital and Audunson's conception of high and low intensive meeting places, it aims to explore the research library's potential for creating social capital and thus strengthening both learning and democracy in a university context. Borrowing part of the survey design from a study conducted as part of the Norwegian PLACE project, this study collects responses from 134 students as to their use of the library as a meeting place. The results show that the Linnæus University library is used for a variety of meetings of both high and low intensity, why it should provide a good setting for the creation of social capital. There seems to be a connection between how often one visits the library, as well as to which department one belongs, and how one uses the library as a meeting place.

In these days of globalization, with a higher level of openness and interaction over geographical, cultural and economical borders, the importance of the company?s intangible asset, its brand, is gaining importance as a differentiating factor. Building a strong brand and the emphasis on strategic brand management is something that before was given less attention in firms but today we can see a general increase in awareness and relative emphasis in the strategic work of companies.Countries as brands: Is it possible to consider a nation or a country as a brand the same way you consider a product? Well, looking in to the subject it seems to be a rather complex matter and there are many questions to be asked and answer. Nations around the globe are indeed marketing and positioning themselves for several purposes.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka och analysera hur relationer ser ut mellan musikbolag och fans och hur de olika parterna upplever dem. För att uppfylla detta syfte har vi formulerat två forskningsfrågor:Vad kan fans uppfatta som värdeskapande i en relation med musikbolagen och vilka effekter kan detta få på relationen?Vad karaktäriserar musikbolagens arbete för att skapa och utveckla relationen mellan artist och fans?Uppsatsen är ett resultat av en kvalitativ metod med en induktiv ansats. Vi har genomfört semi-strukturerade intervjuer via telefon, Skype samt chattmeddelanden för att få en djup empiri från relevanta personer inom musikbranschen samt fans.Uppsatsens resultat visar att musikbolagens arbete med att skapa och utveckla relationer till stor del bygger på att identifiera vilka sociala plattformar som olika målgrupper befinner sig på. Utifrån detta skapas strategier för att kommunicera med fans och därmed kan relationer med dessa skapas och utvecklas och värdeskapande processer kan erbjudas till fansen.Vad fans uppfattar som värdeskapande är bland annat erbjudanden om tävlingar och förmåner så som förköp av konsertbiljetter.

The purpose with this thesis was to describe the importance of the creative industries for a town. We thought that towns could design a strategy to attract creative industries and creative people to establish their business in the town. During the study some important topics, such as a town brand, a town image and a town identity has been identified as factors that can influence and attract people and creative industries. Towns can use these topics in their marketing of the town. The method that we used was a case study: we conducted interviews to collect information about the chosen case study, the town of Skellefteå.

Within the subject of retouching there is an ongoing debate about whether fashion retailers should retouch their ads or not. There has been a large amount of criticism to the communication of stereotyped beauty ideals that is used by companies in their marketing. The stereotyped ideals also contribute to negative psychological effects among people. As a response to the criticism, or as a way to differentiate one-self from competitors, retailers are starting to use unretouched models in their advertising. How this affects the consumer's perception of CSR along with the attitudes and behaviors is still unknown.

The objective of this study has been to examine which significant values are of importance in the telecom sector today, and in a continuing perspective yet to be. To ensure the factors of relevance in the study, we have identified three purposes: - Our first purpose is to clarify the eminent values in the competitive market of the mobile phone operators today, and the reason for its importance.- The second purpose is to understand the function of the brand regarding to value creation and loyalty in the sector of mobile phone operators.- The third purpose is to explore the potential approaches for mobile phone operators to increase value.In this study, our approach has been a qualitative methodology by conducting seven interviews with respondents related to the telecommunication sector.As a result of the process, we find the need to divide the concept of value into two dimensions, which we entitle organizational related values and customer related values. We have found the values related to the characteristics of the market in aspects of its infrastructural features but also in regards to the homogenous core service.Our findings in the empirical data with support to our theoretical frame of reference, is the current highly important organizational related value of constant high result quality (well-functional technological aspect), and the value enhancer by a low price; the strategy of bundling also results in higher value. This result in customer related values that perceives as safeness, availableness and convenience. The brands are a significant source of customer related values with identity value, image value and assuredness. A continued advancement in process quality and individualization will imply greater customer related values of closeness, freedom and flexibility. .

In nature settings people often experience positive emotions. Litterature and theories about the positive effect of nature on humans are largely based upon visual impressions and aesthetic preference. The purpose of the present study is to examine how visually impaired individuals that lack visual impressions experience nature. The background is about what it means to be visually impaired and what it is like to be visually impaired in a nature setting, followed by a presentation of the five human senses and about stimulation of senses in healing gardens. That is followed by theories about the health promoting effect of nature, about why nature and therapeutic gardens make people feel good. After that theories about experiences and relations with settings are presented.

The purpose of this thesis is to gain a deeper understanding of Swedish companies? use of corporate sponsorships as a tool for communication. The research describes motives and goals of corporate sponsorships, the selecting process and methods used in evaluating its effects. The empirical data has been colleted through interviews with two companies sponsoring athletics at a top level in Sweden. The study shows that the principal objectives and motives companies have with sponsorships are related to brand exposure, image improvement and relationships.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the educational opportunities that exist within hip hop music, i.e. to highlight the possible strengths and opportunities in informal learning. The aim was to answer the following questions:In what way do young people acquire knowledge through music?How can hip hop music affect language learning / vocabulary?How can hip hop motivate and support young people in school?The study was based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with six youths, three hip hop directors and a well-known researcher who has investigated that Hip Hop pedagogy.The results show that there are many benefits of learning that takes place in the context of hip hop music; from my informants? statements one can accordingly see the role of hip hop music plays in the absorption of knowledge. The conclusion is that hip hop music can lead to alternative learning about politics and society, as the music often deals with various social conditions and policy issues.

Ett varumärke är bra för kunden på många olika sätt, först och främst så talar varumärket om ursprunget eller tillverkaren av produkten eller tjänsten, men det allra viktigaste som varumärket gör för kunden är att det ger kunden särskild mening och någonting som kunden förhoppningsvis kan identifiera sig med. Om kunden har information om varumärket så behöver han/hon inte leta så mycketefter information om varumärket vilket är bra ur ett ekonomiskt perspektiv då sökkostnaden blir låg.Vårt syfte med den här uppsatsen är att få en inblick i hur ett företag arbetar med att minska luckan mellan Brand Promise och Brand Delivery. Vi ville jobba mot ett lokalt företag eftersom vi är från området båda två och eftersom GavleNet har en aktuell och intressant produkt så valde vi arbeta mot dem. Vi har utfört muntliga och skriftliga intervjuer för att samla in data och även använt oss av relevant litteratur samt sökt i databaser och även på andra sätt utnyttjat Internet. Vi valde att arbeta utifrån en modell som heter ?Brand Relation Management Model?, den består av åtta faser: vision, kultur, identifiering, fastställa, arkitektur, engagera, kapitalisera och mätning.

Many design agencies and designers like to see design as a longtime strategic investment for any company. However, knowledge of design as a strategic resource depends on ones professional background and ones knowledge of design as such. It is common today that clients meet design agencies and therefore design with a certain skepticism concerning its role in the company. Within the prodctdevelopment-process the company?s different functions meet.

Varumärkeskapital är det mervärde som ett varumärke ger en produkt i förhållande till om varumärket inte funnits på produkten. Konsumentbaserat varumärkeskapital innebär vidare att det är i konsumentens medvetande som varumärkeskapitalet existerar. Snabbrörliga konsumentvaror kännetecknas av att de köps ofta och att deras kontakt med konsumenten är begränsad, vidare är de ofta lätta att byta ut.Den här studien undersöker genom kvalitativa intervjuer hur företag bygger varumärkeskapital inom en marknad för snabbrörliga konsumentvaror. Åtta varumärkesansvariga på företag verksamma inom en marknad för snabbrörliga konsumentvaror har intervjuats för att få reda på deras syn på byggande av varumärkeskapital inom nämnda kontexten.Hela studien utgår i grunden från fem dimensioner av varumärkeskapital nämligen varumärkesassociationer, varumärkeskännedom, varumärkeslojalitet, upplevt värde samt andra varumärkestillgångar. Intervjuerna har sedan analyserats utifrån dessa dimensioner stött av andra relevanta teorier inom ämnet, analysen har också sin grund i det valda syftet.Resultaten av denna studie påvisar hur varumärkeskapital skapas för snabbrörliga konsumentvaror inom de fem dimensionerna av varumärkeskapital.

Öland?s Business Office is on the verge of developing a strategy for the island?s future tourism. Before any work with developing Öland can be carried out, it is essential to gain an understanding of how the place is perceived today.The purpose of this essay is to study the island?s current image and make recommendations for how the place brand could be developed.The methods used are literature studies and qualitative group interviews. The participants have been inhabitants of Öland and returning visitors from the Kalmar region.