Background: The design industry is relatively immature in Sweden but large on the international market, where companies have used services from industrial design firms for a long time. Companies incresignly realise that design is an efficient mean to gain competitive advantages on the market. Several design companies fancy growth and to receive a wider market share to expand on the international market. One of them is Design Communicaton who has made a couple of acquisitions, to receive wider comptences and to cover different segments. That has lead to an increased brand portfolio with different subbrands, which can be complicated to handle efficiently in the internal and external communication.

This study aims to disclose how an asymmetric planogram structure of the brand with the highest actual variety may come to affect the brand itself and its category as a whole. The authors of the study feel that there is a gap still unfilled amongst previous extensive research examining how differences in either space or price vary between categories, products or brands. An in-store experiment was conducted by collecting quantitative data from daily sales, observations of customers and questionnaires. The results show that an asymmetric structure leads to customers being more attentive towards the brand, and perceives it to be more dominant over its surrounding competitors. Furthermore, results indicate that the customer perceived variety increases and we see tendencies to changes in sales..

The Swedish population is today exposed to more ads than ever. The number of advertising channels is growing, as well as the number of companies and their advertising expenses. As the products are becoming more alike, the harder it gets for the companies to convince the consumers their product is better than their competitors?. In order to succeed they need to understand what they communicate to the consumers through their different marketing activities, and how that affects the consumers? view of the brand and the product.

AbstractAuthor: Markus Ekström and Albin OlssonAdvisor & examinator: Petter Boye, Thomas KarlssonTitle: Brand Valuation of companiesKeywords: Brand Valuation and Kalmar CountyIntroduction & Problem: The term trademark is originated from the Old Scandinavianbrandr and means stigmatize. A new standard for brand valuation ISO 10668 was adopted in2010, which has created a more reliable valuation method. It used several different methodsbefore, which meant different values but now they have agreed to this standard, which shouldmean that more companies make brand valuation. But that?s not the case, and you can wonderwhy? We also want to see the benefits created for companies, and the benefits companies canget with a valuation of the brand.Purpose: With this essay we want to examine how companies in Kalmar County looks atbrand valuation, if they have made it or not.

In the media world today it is important for TV-companies to differentiate since the number  of competitors has increased. The competition is more complex today because of the  possibility to broadcast throughout satellite and cable. As a company you need a strong brand  in order to differentiate the company from the competitors. The brand of media companies are  set by the content of the offer, which means that the program and the people connected to the  television program has an importance for the sake of how people experience the company. For  a commercial TV channel the content is also important because it attracts the viewers and as a  consequence, also attracts the advertisers.

Problem-definition: How companies work with social media to strengthen their brand equity and what other purposes might lay behind this usage.Purpose: How Volkswagen Sweden use social media in order to strengthen their brand equity.Method: Qualitative case- study of Volkswagen Sweden where a number of respondents will be interviewed with the help of a semi structured interview guide.Theories: A number of theories in the field of brand equity and communication theory will be used in this paper, some of these theories are, Post-model, Social technographics ladder, brand equity and word of mouth.Empiric: A semi-structured interview guide will be shaped from theory and answered through interviews with people who have knowledge within the field.Conclusions: Extracted from the results the research members has identified a number of important factors that business should consider when they work with social media or planning to. They have also answered how business can strengthen their brand equity with social media..

AbstractTitle: Brand exposure in television. A comparison between SVT and TV4 2003 and 2006.Number of pages: 57 including appendixAuthor: Axel VictorinPeriod: Spring 2008Course: Media and Communication studies CUniversity: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala UniversityPurpose/aim: The aim of this study is to evaluate the prevalance of brand exposure in Swedish public service television, SVT and TV4. The Swedish public service TV broadcasting company, Sveriges Television (SVT) advertises itself as purveyor of free television, without commercial or political interference. A B-level essay, written some years ago, showed that the SVT policies were not always observed throughout the entire organisation. The aim of this essay is, by using quantitative research, to study whether SVT is letting commercial interests have their say in the programmes by exposing brand names and logotypes.Material/method: The study is performed through examining 40 hours of television from SVT and 40 hours from TV4, as reference.

A quantitative study was conducted with the aim to investigate whether individuals use a specific conflict strategy when they are in a task conflict or a relationship conflict in their workplace. The study also examined whether individuals experience positive or negative effects of a task conflict or a relationship conflict when a specific conflict strategy have been used. Previous research explains the effects of task conflicts and relationship conflicts at the workplace (De Dreu, 2008) Likewise lifts the effects of the conflict strategies interaction, avoidance, and power and coercion (Hoerr, 2005; Meyer, 2004; Trudel & Reio Jr., 2011). However it does not tie together what the conflicts and conflict strategies have for effects together. This also means that it is impossible to discern if there is a strategy that is frequently used in a specific conflict type.

The purpose of this research aims investigate whether front line personell are brand carriers who can affect the customers brand experience. This present study focuses on commercial fitness centers in Kalmar. Like brands, training is taking part in people?s everyday lives; fitness centers are offering the customer a wider range of group training.This thesis is based on a qualitative approach whereby eight interviews have been carried out with two members of the board and six employees of the front line. Additionally, this thesis is also based on three focus groups with four customers, representing the majority of each fitness centers.The research findings highlight that the front line employees are very important as they are seen as the brand; therefore the front line employee?s personality and behaviour will influence the customer?s view of the brand.

Pairs trading is a relatively new trading strategy, the strategy has only been used during a couple of decades. A study made on the American stock market has shown that the strat-egy has generated a positive result. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate if pairs trad-ing has been able to create a positive result on the Swedish stock market during the time period of 1995-2004.The data required for this thesis was collected from Stockholm stock exchange and is ad-justed for splits and issues.The pairs trading strategy involves two stages ? identification of pairs and trading signals. The pairs were identified during a period of 12 months.

Product development is essential for all companies that want to survive in competitive markets regardless of the characteristics of the product that the company sells. Companies that sell products within product categories which can be seen as bad, also need to develop their products in order to remain competitive. If these bad products add a positive attribute, for example that they get organic, a contradiction within the product arises and they get incongruent. This thesis investigates which effects that follow a launch of an incongruent product. The thesis also examines if these effects are affected by the strength of the brand under which the product is launched.A total of 240 respondents participated in an experimental study where product incongruity was manipulated for two different product categories, where one well known brand and one unknown brand were examined in each category.

The purpose of this thesis is to through brand communication and Red Bull?simage examine how they position themselves as leaders on the Swedish energydrink market. We chose relevant theories within buzz marketing, word ofmouth, sampling and events. Our method of preference was quantitativequestionnaires which we spred through email to students at the LinneausUniversity and other social networks such as Facebook and blogs. Our empiricalstudy is based on our questionnaires and information about Red Bull.

Cause-Related Marketing (CRM) is a marketing activity that has grown popular in the USA and studies have been carried out that explore how American consumers perceive and react to CRM. In Sweden, however, CRM has not yet found ground to any greater extent, and therefore there is limited research on how Swedish consumers react to CRM and how they perceive it. In this study, eight Swedish consumers are interviewed regarding their perception of CRM. The main findings of the investigation are that Swedish consumers fit well into a model that is based on American consumers? responses to CRM.

AbstractBackground: Countries can be seen as brands (nation brands) with brand values that transmitto the country?s products. Country-of-origin (COO), the brands nationality, links the productto an associative network of cultural shared national stereotypes. Through associating thebrand with a country or a region, the credibility of the brand can increase and strengthen thebrand. Therefore COO is used in marketing to position a brand.Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how luxury fashion brands communicatetheir national identity through analyzing their advertising.

A quantitative study was conducted with the aim to investigate whether individuals use a specific conflict strategy when they are in a task conflict or a relationship conflict in their workplace. The study also examined whether individuals experience positive or negative effects of a task conflict or a relationship conflict when a specific conflict strategy have been used. Previous research explains the effects of task conflicts and relationship conflicts at the workplace (De Dreu, 2008) Likewise lifts the effects of the conflict strategies interaction, avoidance, and power and coercion (Hoerr, 2005; Meyer, 2004; Trudel & Reio Jr., 2011). However it does not tie together what the conflicts and conflict strategies have for effects together. This also means that it is impossible to discern if there is a strategy that is frequently used in a specific conflict type. The study group consisted of 62 participants from different workplaces that responded to a survey.