Studies show that product placement is becoming a more and more common method for companies to use when communicating with consumers. The results of this study can?t confirm nor deny that claim, but instead we offered the observation that as a communication method, product placement and TV-commercials are more similar than revealed at first glance.Cars of the brand Ford appeared in seven out of the 50 motion pictures that made up the sample material in this study. In several instances the values that were communicated regarding the brand matched, completely or in large parts, the values communicated about the Ford brand in Ford?s own commercials.This doesn?t hold true for all companies.

At several occasions, an important question has been brought forward within the world of advertising and media. This is the question of whether or not ?good? advertising should be encouraged by the media. The question has an origin in a belief that such advertising can create values not only for the advertiser, but also for the medium. Although this question has arisen in business media, and although many managers work from the assumption that such relationship exists, there are none or little proof that it actually does.

It is a common view that companies should focus on building brands to increase profitability and stabilize cash flows. However, building and keeping brands alive is costly. Many firms spend large sums on branding only because they are supposed to, without knowing if they will actually gain from it. Up to date, there is limited convincing evidence that branding actually contributes to shareholder value creation. This thesis aims to investigate the relationship between brand strength and profitability and shareholder value.

Graphic profiles are a part of companies? brand expressions. The graphical values reflect the brand values the business wants to convey. They consist of different graphic elements such as logo, company sign, colour schemes, templates, rules, fonts, pictograms, formats and references to how different graphic elements should look, for example, business cards, signs and materials for websites. This thesis aims to examine why firms choose to replace their graphic profiles by studying their underlying motivations.

AbstractTitle: The constant change - A comparative study of profit companies and nonprofit organizations' brand management through social mediaAuthor: Agnes Nobel & Matilda VallgrenTutor: Daniel LövgrenPurpose: The purpose of this thesis was to study profit companies and nonprofit organizations? branding and strategic communication on social media. If social media has supported with new interaction with stakeholders and hence affected the branding work. Also if there are any differences between profit companies and nonprofit organizations.Method/Material: The method that is used in the article is a qualitative research. The research is based on conversations interviews conducted with eight organizations, four profit companies and four nonprofit organizations.Main results: The main result showed that all organizations are actively involved with social media in their strategic communication when in order to increase the interaction with stakeholders and thus strengthen their brand identity. It turned out that all organizations have not adapted the brand to social media, but worked with the organizations values ??and only applied the trademark on social media.

Background: Accounting of intangible assets have increased during the last years which have created a debate about if trademarks should be accounted as assets with the uncertainty of the value in mind. Valuation and accounting of trademarks are of interest for accountants and investors. These should be able toget information about the assets that are of importance for the company. A solid brand can be of great value for a company, which should be accounted for. Purpose: The purpose of this master is to examine the function of the brand in the different companies in the study and map the definitions that the different companies have of brands.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att studera företaget ÅF:s employer branding-arbete, närmare bestämt samverkan mellan ledningen, HR-avdelningen och marknadsavdelningen.Uppsatsen är av kvalitativ fallstudiekaraktär ochämnar utveckla teori genom en kombination av en deduktiv och induktiv undersökningsansats. Insamlad data är baserad på intervjuer medrepresentanter på ÅF.Sammanfattningsvis har vi kommit fram till att ÅF:s samverkan inom employer branding-arbetet i stort överensstämmer med den teoretiska modell som presenteras. Det finns en huvudsakligen god samordning av ledningens, HR- och marknadsavdelningens samt employer brandmanagers aktiviteter som syftar till att stärka arbetsgivarvarumärket. Dock finner vi en diskrepans mellan ÅF:s och litteraturens definition av begreppet samt en allt för stor fokus på de externa aktiviteterna som en följd av employer brand managers starka band till marknadsavdelningen..

A debate in finance is whether a random investment gives the same return as carefully choose and valuing an amount of shares to invest in. Stock valuating Stock valuation is often done by fundamental valuation models, based on the company's underlying character, which tries to put a correct price on the stock. Today there are several different valuation models that can be used for this purpose. Since valuation models are only mathematical, equity research is underpinned by more subjective assessments about the company and its future.The purpose with this thesis is to describe which valuation models that are used by professional stock analysts, but also to see if the reliability on the equity research is affected by the used model to valuing the company. Furthermore, we want to see if the job that?s been done to understand the company, measured by the equity research quality, impact the reliability on the equity research.In this thesis, we have, to achieve our purpose, conducted a quantitative content analysis of 164 equity research done by professional analysts at firms listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. With basis in previous research, we have developed a method for determining the valuation model that is used in the equity research, the reliability on the equity research and a framework for assessing the quality of the equity research.In the theoretical framework the valuation models involved in our study are described, previous research on the reliability on the equity research and their practical use.

Personal branding is a common phenomenon within the Swedish business world, although less applied on the competitive and fast paced music industry. In order to strengthen Swedish artists' personal brands and to ensure congruence between the artists' presented identities and the target audiences' perceived images, we have developed a model, containing of seven essential factors. The seven dimensions authenticity, credibility, certainty, openness, availability, awareness and timeliness help improve strength when communicating brand identity, as well as minimizing potential discrepancy between identity and image. This report examines the brand strategies within the Swedish music industry through a case study of Sweden's largest pop star, Eric Saade, where Team Saade's communicated identity is compared to the targets audience's perceived image of Saade. Overall, Saade's personal brand has a high level of congruence, except from the clarity dimension, where his words are considered differing from his actions.

There are many eco-brands on food products. It can be confusing for the consumer to know which one to trust or choose and since July 2012, there is an EU law and a mandatory EU organic label that must be displayed on all food products marketed as organic, eco or bio.Organic brands from a consumer perspective have previously been studied in England. This is a similar study in the form of focus groups, to explore and examine how consumers perceive and trust organic brand or labels in Sweden. It also explores which knowledge consumers have regarding why a product has an organic brand and what it means.The study shows that consumers perceive organic brands by brand recognition rather than knowledge regarding what each label means. It also shows that the consumer is confused by and skeptical to the wide range of markings and symbols on organic food products.

There are many views in the concept of corporate reputation and the massive research in the area tends to result in many new definitions. Research has shown that a good corporate reputation has a positive relation to Sustainable Competitive Advantage, financial performance and attraction to competent employees. The many views in the concept make it especially interesting to examine the view on corporate reputation in a perspective of big Swedish corporations. Another interesting area to examine is whether the companies manage their reputation or not. The empirical findings of this essay are based on qualitative interviews to get a deeper understanding in the area of reputation.

Syfte:  Syftet är att analysera och utvärdera Apoteket Shop och The Body Shop som varumärkeMetod:  Denna studie har utgått ifrån ett holistiskt synsätt. Det valda teoretiska förhållningssättet är deduktion och en kvalitativ forskningsmetod i form av djupintervjuer samt kvantitativ forskningsmetod i form av en enkätundersökning.Teorier:  Involvement Theory, Brand, Brand Strategy, Brand Equity, Business Concept, Planning Philosophies, Brand Service Value Chain, Total Communication.Empiri:  Totalt 6 st djupintervjuer med representanter på Apoteket Shop och The Body Shop. Enkätundersökning med 25 stycken kunder på vardera företag.Resultat:  Resultatet visar att Apoteket Shop har ett långsiktigt tänkande men en bit kvar i implementeringsarbetet. The Body Shop har ett långsiktigt tänkande vilket även syns tydligt i deras arbete. Slutsats:  De otillbörliga konkurrensfördelar som Apoteket Shop har är att de redan tillhör ett starkt och väletablerat varumärke. Om Apoteket Shop inte arbetar så att organisationsutformningen är i samklang med den starka affärsidén/varumärket kommer de otillbörliga konkurrensfördelar endast att vara kortsiktiga då förutsättningarna för en långsiktighet inte finns inom organisationen.    .

The retailing landscape has become even more competitive with an increasing number of store formats. One result of this can be seen within different retail-chains as they launch different formats that operate under the same name. Thus, consumers now have many alternatives and substitutes when it comes to choosing which format to shop from. This phenomenon has led consumes to shop across stores for the same brand. The objective of this study is to explain how consumers respond to various offers in different store formats and to determine whether the results differ if we compare a familiar brand with an unfamiliar brand.

Companies of today are facing a development where it is more significant to focus on existing customers since the approach constitute a more cost reducing way, compared to finding new customers. During the last decades the marketing has therefore moved towards a relationship based marketing. Companies emphasize creating long-term relationships with customers, instead of consider the sale as a non-recurrent phenomenon. To engender customer loyalty has been an essential objective in the creation of long-term relationships.In this essay the authors have chosen to do a study which enlighten how companies in the ready-made apparel business produce added value to their brand and through this generate customer loyalty. Through a case study we analyze how Filippa K, Tiger of Sweden and Gant do to maintain value in their brand, in both a business- and customer perspective.

The aim of this Master's thesis is to study the public library identity from a brand perspective, how the public library brand identitity is communicated through blogs and what is communicated in them.The authors analyse the public library identity through selected concepts and a model within Aaker´s and Kapferer´s branding theories. These theories have been applied on literature and blogs as a method. The authors have examined literature about the public library identity in different works within Library and Information Science and political documents that applied to public libraries. An empirical study has been carried out on blogs published by public libraries in Sweden.The result of this study has lead to the identification of different core and extended identities for the public library brand. The core identities have been identified as democracy, adult education (the swedish word ?folkbildning? has no correct translation in english, adult education is the recommended related term) and lifelong learning.