An uncountable number of companies are present in foreign markets as a result of what we commonly choose to call globalization. This is especially true for Swedish companies traditionally operating on small markets. A company that is about to establish on a new market is faced not only with possibilities but also with challenges and risks. Researchers have found that companies that establish on foreign markets will have to deal with competitors on the national as well as on the global market, and therefore need consider how they globalize their brands. In addition to this, a brand can only reach international success if its message is coherent within and across every single market.

This thesis is about how the front-staff in two service companies experience empowerment. Competition for business in today's society is becoming increasingly fierce, which means that they must find a way to differentiate themselves from competitors. Service has become a way to compete. Front-staff competence and ability to offer a good service is a crucial factor when the company's success is being measured.Empowerment in business is used as a tool to create motivation and satisfaction of individuals at work. Companies using empowerment can create the freedom and opportunities for employees to act at their own intelligence and discretion.

Swedish consulting companies within the architecture-and engineering business exist on a market that is distinguished by an increasing globalization and internationalization. The companies? commissions are based mostly on long-term, personal clientele. These relations are threatened by a huge number of coming retirements and high employee turnover.Consequently these companies need to improve and strengthen their relationships with existing customers, to create long-term employee and customer loyalty. The purpose of this essay was to analyze and evaluate consulting companies´ internal marketing.

Computer animated faces have found their way into a wide variety of areas. Starting from entertainment like computer games, through television and films to user interfaces using ?talking heads?. Animated faces are also becoming popular in web applications in form of human-like assistants or newsreaders. This thesis presents a few aspects of dealing with human face animations, namely: editing, playing and transmitting such animations.

A growing need to strengthen ones position on the market, even as a city in competition with other cities, has resulted in an increasing number of municipalities developing brand platforms. When the city of Umeå developed their platform, they identified decision makers and investors as one of four important target groups.The aim of this study is to explore the portrayed image of the city of Umeå in two Swedish trade journals which addresses the specific target group decition makers and investors in both public and private sector. The aim is also to compare the image of Umeå in the two papers, to the ambition of the municipality, expressed in the brand platform.In order to make the observations as firmly established as possible, the method of the study is a combination of a quantitative content analysis and a qualitative text analysis. The study draws on the theories of Eli Avraham and Philip Kotler, concerning how to improve city images and how to market a specific city among others. The study shows that the city of Umeå in large extent is portrayed in accordance to the ambition which the municipality expressed in the brand platform.Umeå is displayed as an expanding city.

This essay concerns PR-consultants and their view on their work. The purpose was to find out which type of communication they use in contact with the target. By target, we mean the group of people the employer wants to reach with help of the PR-consultant. For example: Jägarförbundet wants to get help from a PR-consultant to influence someone in the government so that Swedish hunters can shoot more wolves, than the target group is the one in the government. We also wanted to find out if the PR-consultants are aware of the image the public have of them and if they are trying to change it into a more positive one, by using more ethics, openness and to have more focus on the relations aspect.  PR in the future with new social media (like Internet) was also a subject, where we wanted to know how much they involve social media in their work.  Our main questions were:How do PR-consultants relate to openness in communication, ethics and social media?Which one of Grunig?s PR-models is most occuring in the PR-consultants work? We made a qualitative study where we carried out interviews with six PR-consultants.

The purpose of this study has been to examine how the image of the gambler is described by studying a report published by Folkhälsoinstituet [FHI] and a number of chosen articles from the Swedish Evening Press. Discourse theory has been used both as theory, together with social constructionism, and as a research method. The main conclusions of the study are that three different discourses can be identified: the normal gambler, the professional gambler and the problem gambler. The image of the problem gambler is described as a deviant and problematic minority characterized by loss of control, irrational thoughts and dissociative behaviour. The construction of the problem gambler fills three possible purposes for the state: As a solvable problem to handle criticism against negative consequences of gambling, as an argument to avoid competition on the market and as an individual characterized by loss of control in order to legitimize and make the construction of the normal gambler possible..

A growing need to strengthen ones position on the market, even as a city in competition with other cities, has resulted in an increasing number of municipalities developing brand platforms. When the city of Umeå developed their platform, they identified decision makers and investors as one of four important target groups.The aim of this study is to explore the portrayed image of the city of Umeå in two Swedish trade journals which addresses the specific target group decition makers and investors in both public and private sector. The aim is also to compare the image of Umeå in the two papers, to the ambition of the municipality, expressed in the brand platform.In order to make the observations as firmly established as possible, the method of the study is a combination of a quantitative content analysis and a qualitative text analysis. The study draws on the theories of Eli Avraham and Philip Kotler, concerning how to improve city images and how to market a specific city among others. The study shows that the city of Umeå in large extent is portrayed in accordance to the ambition which the municipality expressed in the brand platform.Umeå is displayed as an expanding city.

Men commit more suicide than women all over the world. They commit more violent crimes and are more inclined to alcohol abuse. There are studies that relate this behaviour to the hegemonic image of masculinity.My work focuses on Switzerland. The suicide rate in Switzerland is worrying, for men between 15 and 44 years suicide is the most common cause of death. There is no national suicide prevention and no information or prevention that highlights the connection bet- ween the hegemonic image of masculinity and the suicide rates.

AbstractTitle: Brand identity vs. Brand image ? a study of Löfbergs Lila, ZOÉGAS and Classic.Number of pages: 38Author: Jessika Löwling HelmerskogTutor: Peder Hård af SegerstadCourse: Media and communication sciencePeriod: Spring semester 2010University: Informatics and media, media and communication science, Uppsala University.Aim: The aim is to study the brand identity as well as the brand image for each of the brands:Löfbergs Lila, ZOÉGAS and Classic. Furthermore the aim is to determine whether the brandsidentity comport with the brands image. Ultimately the study will establish whether or not thebrands can be considered as strong brands.Method/Material: This thesis will first and foremost explain a number of theories related tothe subject which will give a deeper understanding in the subject as well as providing thereader with necessary knowledge to fully understand the study.To create a broad and correct picture of each brand interviews have been made with both thepeople behind the brand as well as with the consumers.The interviews with the brand makers have been made by a questionnaire with questionsabout the brand and its identity.The interviews with the consumers have been made through focus group interviews; twogroups with four people in each group.

The background to this paper is the fact that many products are demonstrated to show the consumer value of the product. This is generally the fact when it comes to agricultural products, such as tractors. The growing number of models makes this even more import for the retailer to perform a demonstration that really catches the interest of a prospect customer. One problem is that these demonstrations are expensive and many small retailers have difficulties to afford demonstrations of every model. Together with Åhmans Traktorcentrum AB a market investigation was conducted. The company has its primary sales area in the region of Östergötland and north part of Småland. Åhmans Traktorcentrum AB is a John Deere dealer.

Due to political decisions regarding the Swedish school, public and independent schools booth face the need topromote themselves in the quest for new pupils. This study aims to, from a communications perspective, examine how four selected upper secondary schools address their target audience; the pupils?to?be, on their homepages. Additionally, I intend to investigate whether, and if so, how, said addressing can be connected to the different target groups applying to the schools in question.The questions asked in this study regard the way in which the selected schools describe themselves on their homepage; how do they use the textual and visual content to address their audience, and can there be disagreement between the meaning of the text and that of the image? To answer these questions, I use a theoretical base made out of visual communication and semiotic as well as rhetorical analyses.The methodological procedure is a qualitative approach on the matter, allowing me to understand the ?what? of the content on the homepages, as well as the ?how? it?s being communicated.

This paper describes the evolutionary development of an information system for a small company. The company performs overhaul of forklifts and cleaning machines. The company has already an information system that handles the reports from these overhauls but it needs a supplementary tool that assist the chief planner to plan forthcoming overhauls.It should be able to display coming overhauls in a timetable and eventually print them, either to a PDF file or to a document. The timetables this function produces will help the chief planner and the assemblers to get a good overview of their day-to-day work.The tool needs to be intelligent in that way that it takes into consideration were in the country different assignments will be performed. So that time consuming travels over great distances can be avoided.

The thesis work was conducted with the company Free2Move AB. The company is located in Halmstad and is an acting provider of wireless communications for industrial customers, mainly focused on Bluetooth? technology.In today's society most people have their music on their computer, MP3 player or mobile phone. What if you could avoid the cable between your sound system and sound source and transfer music wirelessly instead? Together with the company's engineers, I have developed a new comprehensive product for wireless music transmission.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze and identify a selected number of key factors in successfully implementing open innovation. More precisely, it looks at how value is maximized using open innovation practices. The scientific approach taken is based largely on the network perspective, which puts relations to other companies in focus. An extended view of the resource based view (RBV), different from the traditional one by taking also external resources into account, is in addition central to understanding the use of external resources to create internal value. The two main research questions strive to look at how the company locates relevant partners and what the relations that are established with these partners should look like to get the most of open innovation.