The thesis provides with the broad overview about the consumer awareness of the gender dimension within brand personalities. The research contributes to branding theory and gender studies and demonstrates that consumer gender influences does not influence the perceived brand personality gender. However, it also shows that consumers prefer brands with a clear gender, but not necessarily the same gendered brands..

The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to a further understanding of the complexity in green consumer behaviour by examining how and why individuals priorities values, personal norms and identity in green consumer behaviour. The thesis employs a qualitative approach with an abductive strategy. The empirical data was produced through in-depth interviews with green consumers. Based upon the empirical findings and theoretical concepts, a conceptual model was introduced to illustrate how consumers prioritise between several values when assessing green products. The prioritisation is dependent on internalised values as well as the product function and the need that the consumer seeks fulfilled.

Facilitated by the breakthrough of the internet, new ways of organizing internet-based projects that harness the power of the crowds are becoming increasingly common. Today there are ways of using the crowd as paid labour, as funders of your new project ventures and even for helping scientists doing science. Staying true to its traditional principles of objectivity and trustworthiness while asking the crowd to contribute, crowd generated ?Citizen Science? does not provide even the slightest amount of pay in exchange for the time and effort put in by their contributors. Surely there can not be many people willing to do such a thing voluntarily? Actually, practice is showing the exact opposite with contributions counted in their millions among the more popular Citizen Science projects.

Identification and analysis of key success factors for an entrepreneurial firm to achieve leverage when establishing on a foreign market with a premium consumer product..

Several studies show that the clinical reality in psychiatric care does not correspond to the demand of consumer participation from a variety of policy documents that has been produced recently. Studies also show that there is a lot to do in improving, patients with sever mental illness, becoming more involved in their own care. The nurse has a central role in this work. The Norwegian nursing theorist Jan-Ka?re Hummelvolls holistic, existentialistic model for psychiatric nursing were used as theoretical ground.The aim of this study was to examine how nurses in psychiatric outpatient units, caring for patients with psychotic disorders, experiences consumer participation.Qualitative phenomenological method was used.

The essay concerns corporation?s usage and consumer?s attitude towards the phenomenon Big Data. The aim is to analyse whether corporation-management and future ambitions concerning consumer data coincide with attitudes and opinions of today's consumer, and how these opinions reflect consumer behaviour online. The essay is limited to focus on how companies use consumer data in order to better understand and improve the efficiency of their marketing. A self-composed analyse-model was created using previous studies concerning Internet-usage in Sweden, previous management analysis of corporations use of Big Data combined with theory of Cognitive Dissonance. A questionnaire was then created with the analyse model as foundation.

The Swedish consumer electronic industry has recently experienced an increasingly intensive price war. The price war has forced some operators in the business to declare bankruptcy, as the only way to compete has been by driving down prices. A challenge that retail chains in the consumer electronics industry is facing is to increase their margins. If store personnel can success with upselling, the companies will increase their profits. The purpose of this paper is to examine if the sales people in the consumer electronic industry can influence the customer to buy a more expensive product and what the effects the upselling has on the customers' attitudes.

Some theorist, like George Ritzer and Max Weber, claim that everything has its optimal process and that all companies therefore will strive towards standardization. Researchers like Paco Underhill and Pine & Gilmore on the other hand, claim that an increasingly global competition forces businesses to focus more on consumer demands, experiences and differentiation. This thesis challenges these statements with empirical data by looking at shopping malls and their strategies as well as consumer preferences. It arrives at the conclusion that output is primarily driven by customer demand, and that consumers value a certain part of predictability..

Consumer generated advertising is a new phenomenon in the landscape of communication. Tools such as the Internet enable the consumer to create and spread messages for brands without the permission or control of the brand owner. We carried out a quantitative experiment to investigate the effects of how companies choose to handle these activities as well as how expectations of these consumer generated ads differ from traditional advertising. The findings show that strong brands may benefit from these activities if handled the right way and the brand owner adapts it?s reaction to the content of the ad.

Research has concluded that meaningless differentiation with trivial attributes sometimes can be a successful strategy. However, the effect varies with respect to certain aspects such as the price of the product and the decision context. How the characteristics of the consumer influence the effect of trivial attributes has until now been unknown. This thesis investigates how the consumer?s level of knowledge and personal involvement influence the effects of trivial attributes on product preferences and product attitudes.

The process of gift-giving is something that occurs all around the world, and most people are both givers and receivers of gifts. While receiving a gift is often associated with joyous feelings, purchasing and giving a gift may not generate the same feelings. The worries of giving a gift may include anguish of finding the right gift for the right person, and not to mention it shall be appropriate given the situation. This paper aims to describe consumer attitudes in various gift-giving occasions. To give another perspective the paper also discusses and describes the term of self-gifting, when the giver and receiver is the same person - you.

Abstract -                     Much better sauce! - A study of brand loyalty for Lohmanders Date:                             5th June 2013Level:                           Bachelor thesis in marketing, 15 ECTSInstitution:                   School of Economy, Society and Technology, EST                                      Mälardalen University Authors:                       Sara Meijer                               Julia Åberg                                      20th February 1990                   26th April 1990Title:                             Much better sauce! ? A study of brand loyalty for LohmandersTutor:                           Finn Wiedersheim-PaulKeywords:                   Brand, loyalty, consumer behaviorResearch questions:    Which significance has the brand for the consumer when buying fresh sauce?                                       How loyal are the consumers to the brand Lohmanders?                                      How does brand loyalty arise among Lohmanders customers?Purpose:                            The purpose with this thesis is to research consumer?s brand loyalty to fresh sauce and to analyze how brand loyalty arises regarding the brand Lohmanders.Method:                       The theoretical framework used in the study is based on theories of consumer behavior, brands and loyalty. The quantitative study consists of a poll. To complement the study a focus group interview and a company interview have been held.  Conclusion:                        The study showed that the brand has significance for the consumer to a certain extent. The brand can though have an unconscious effect on the consumers since most of the purchases are made by habit.

What role should science play in democracy? Political scientists often assume that it is possible to demarcate between ?instrumental? and ?moral? knowledge, and argue that citizens and/or politicians should use their moral knowledge to agree upon political goals and then apply the instrumental knowledge of scientists to achieve them. This straightforward view is challenged by writers in science studies, who identify three major problems in the use of science in democracy: uncertainty, risk and hidden values. They suggest that these problems could be solved through citizen participation.In this essay I perform an analysis of the internal logic of their suggestion. Is it likely that citizen participation enhances the democratic decision making process so as to reduce the problems? The internal analysis shows that it is rational to advocate citizen participation by reasons of legitimacy.

It seems like Swedish municipalities are dominated by beliefs that all citizen participation is good for the development of local democracy. A critic of this certainty is rising among Swedish scholars of political science. However, a critic with an ambition of such generalization is harsh. Different democratic projects contents different qualities and thereby diverse problems in the democratic process. If these democratic problems within the process can be recognized, a deeper understanding can be found and in the prolongation a strengthening of the democracy.This essay examines the democratic process of Lomma municipality's democratic project of citizen participation.

Title: Journalism 2.0: About the journalist's perspective on citizen participation and its influenceon the news content.Purpose: The aim with this study was to examine whether, and if so how, professional journalists experience that the production of news has changed as the media development has progressed and the citizens opportunities for active participation in this process has potentially expanded.Research questions:Does professional journalists experience that the opportunities for citizen participation in the news making-process has changed with the spread and accessibility of new media- if so, in what ways?Wheatear professional journalists experience that the relationship between themselves and their news sources has changes with the spread and accessibility of new media?What consequences can an empowerment from citizens have on the production of news and on the professional role of the journalist?Theory: This essay is based on theories about convergence, gatekeeping, agenda building, participatory journalism, news sources and the journalistic profession.Method: The survey is based on ten qualitative interviews with ten professional journalists, eight reporters and two web editors from the newspapers NWT and VF.Results: The results of this survey shows that the citizens? opportunities in influencing the production of news has partly changed. The journalists do not experience that citizen participation affects their professional role. Citizens have always had an impact on the production of news but new technology offers citizens and journalists new channels that facilitate the communication and interaction. The gatekeeping process is protecting the decision-making role of the journalist, which restrains citizen participation.