A reform of higher education in Sweden in 1993 led to stiffer competitive climate among educational institutions. The reform meant that educational institutions now had the opportunity to plan their curriculum autonomously. Prior to the reform educational planning was restricted to the Swedish government. The new rules spelled a greater opportunity for educational institutions to profile themselves based on their educational offerings. The higher degree of competition means that marketing becomes increasingly important when recruiting new students.

In this paper, we examine the attitudes of 16- to 19-year olds towards stealth viral marketing in the form of videos posted on websites such as Youtube. Apart from their general attitudes towards the phenomenon, we were also concerned with their views on the ethics involved in this marketing method and how this affects their view on the companies behind the advertising. To accomplish this, we administered a survey to a sample chosen by convenience. Using the Persuasion Knowledge Model and prior research on the subject, we then analyzed the gathered data and reached the conclusion that the respondents in our sample were mainly positive towards stealth viral marketing in this particular form, that they generally did not consider it unethical and that even though most considered the companies to be responsible for such videos, teenagers were not likely to take negative actions against them if they found out that a video that they had seen was in fact a stealth viral video..

Background: The increasing number of actors on the market has led to a more intense competition among superstores. With this, marketing has gotten an even more essential meaning. The marketing activities superstores perform are adapted to the context in which the store is located. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to, from different theoretical dimensions, compare superstores? application of marketing strategies in Tokyo with the marketing strategies used by superstores in Stockholm.

The increased competition in e-commerce puts pressure on e-businesses which makes it even more important to influence the visitors on their e-commerce sites. An often overlooked marketing tool is atmospherics. With the increased focus on e-commerce from both traditional and new e-businesses this marketing tool becomes even more relevant. The aim of this thesis is to investigate how the atmosphere on an e-commerce site influences the customers' thoughts, emotions and behaviors. We examine the effects the level of stimulus on a website has on the customer's emotions, attitudes, intentions, behaviors as well as the relationship between these variables.

This study focuses on the internal marketing and how it affects the complaints by companies? communication control. Our purpose with this subject is to increase the understanding of which components affects the relation between internal marketing, communication control and complaints. We have chosen the subject, internal marketing because it caught our interest in an earlier course. On the basis of the literature of costumer complaint there have not been so much research about it and that is why we have chosen this perspective on internal marketing.This study is based on a qualitative approach.

Many companies choose to market their products and brands with help from celebrities. This is not a new phenomenon, though, this strategy is something that we consumers start to get used to and the risk that the consumer unconsciously unselects the message grows. A recently much-disputed theory is the use of incongruent marketing. This means that companies uses a marketing message with the objective to not match the consumer?s expectations.

The aim of this Master thesis is to make a survey of the public library staff-relations at work and discuss relationship marketing as it applies to public libraries. Relationship marketing involves the establishment, maintenance and development of users and other library-related relationships, including the relations among the library staff itself. Good relations among the library staff is a necessary condition for good relations with others. The focus of relationship marketing is at the user?s needs, wants and demands instead of the library collections and services.

Title: Social Media ? And customer interaction in smaller firmsSeminar date: 2011-06-10Course: Information Logistics, D-level.Authors: Marie Stenhammar and Ulrika CarlssonAdvisor: Jaime CamposKey words: Social Media, Web 2.0, Co-creation, Viral marketing, Word of Mouth, smaller firmsPurpose: This paper aims to describe the relevance of social media to smaller firms, the challenges and opportunities they face and what strategies they use, in the interaction with their customers.Methodology: The study is qualitative in nature and has an abductive approach. The empirical material consists of in-depth interviews with chosen companies and Internet observations.Theoretical perspectives: Social Media, Web 2.0, Co-creation, Viral marketing, Word of MouthEmpirical foundation: The study takes its empirical base from in-depth interviews with representatives from the small companies and internet observations connected to these.Conclusions: Smaller companies have great interest in social media. They preferably use Facebook, blogs, YouTube and Twitter. Their strategy is mainly to be very active and update their social media regularly.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate whether a combination of product placement and traditional advertising can enhance the company's marketing. We perform this study because we believe that the consumers consider traditional marketing in many cases obsolete.TheoryThe study?s theory consists of topics and terms of product placement, traditional marketing, branding and communications. Theories used in this study were the basis to answer the study's research question using empirical data gathered during the study.MethodThe study has a deductive approach with a qualitative focus, therefore, the study is based on existing research, which was later to use for the data extracted from the interviews. The approach is going to show differences and similarities between how it looks in reality versus theory.ConclusionThe results of this study show that product placement can increase the efficiency of traditional marketing.

The thesis work focuses on marketing and its point of departure centers on mapping the utilization of social media as a form of marketing. The choice of this thesis subject has been deemed by the authors as one of particular interest due to the current popularity of social media in the Internet connected society and their use as marketing tools. Specifically, this thesis sets out to explore how companies exploit social media tools in marketing and how their use affects retail operations and customer relations in an effective and creative way.The report concentrates on qualitative data collection, the interview answers of four respondents, of which, two are considered experts within the field of social media. The choice of suitable respondents was strategic with the goal of covering as large a portion of the social media field as possible; one social media educator that works with companies and one who assists companies with social media applications. The remaining two respondents work in marketing and communications and employ, as part of their job, social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter.

The purpose of this study is to provide a longitudinal examination, within grocery retailing, of four marketing tools and their impact on enhancing customer loyalty. The study examines whether the relationship between the four marketing tools and customer satisfaction has a positive effect on attitude and behavior loyalty. The findings from this study show that the marketing tools have not helped enhancing loyalty between 2004 and 2007. Between these years, service quality has the most affect on loyalty. Self-scanning as an effective marketing tool could be questioned, the relation in this study is not supported.

Background                      European football has during the past decades seen a fast development towards a more professionalized and commercialized climate. This had led to the fact that a lot of clubs are run like any other company, and the focus on marketing and market shares has increased. To be able to create a strong brand clubs have to put a lot of work into marketing, not only of their own brand, but of their sponsors and partners as well.Purpose                              The purpose of this study is to (in step 1) analyze how two smaller Swedish football clubs build their brand and work with their marketing communication. In step 2, the purpose is to create a model of how these clubs may work to develop their brand and marketing communication.Method                              With a qualitative approach, the authors of this paper have analyzed text and documents as well as performed two in-depth interviews.Findings                             Both clubs lack a well-developed strategy regarding their work with their brand and marketing communication. However, there are in both cases factors that, if developed correctly, could help build a stronger brand and better the marketing communication.

In this thesis the marketing strategies of two public libraries have been explored and studied.The public library of Kalmar participates in the project GÖK which partly is a marketing project. The public library of Kalmar thereby differs from the public library of Trollhättan which is not involved in the project.The main aim of this thesis was to focus on their marketing strategies and see if there were any differences. The thesis was also concerned with the customers and their experiences of the quality of the services offered by the public libraries of Kalmar and Trollhättan, including the customers' perceptions of the operative marketing, and finally if there was a connection between marketing and customer-centered quality. Qualitative methods as well as quantitative methods were used for the collection of information .The preliminary assumption that Kalmar had a more explicit marketing strategy has been confirmed in the study. However, the customers at the public library of Trollhättan were more satisfied with the total quality of the services offered.

The purpose of this thesis was to describe how service producing IT- companies handles their internal marketing. We wanted to understand how management deal with internal marketing activities and how different companies create a working environment to encourage employees to motivation and well-being. To be able to find out we did a case study on a service producing IT-company. Two personal interviews were done with two of the managers. Our empirical research showed that the company used internal marketing on a daily basis.

Viral marketing is a marketing tool that is becoming more common in the marketing industry. As people spend more time on the internet via their smartphones, tablets and computers marketers try to find new ways to reach out and connect with consumers. Succeeding with a viral spread is not easy; it's several factors that are important. Viral marketing encourages consumers to recommend and talk about product-related information with each other. So, what should a viral campaign or message contain in order to create this interest among us consumers? There are few empirical studies done in this subject which makes this kind of uncharted territory.