Today's consumers are demanding more and more from companies and are no longer as easy to im-press as they used to be. It is now the consumers that hold an increasing amount of power over com-panies and not the other way around. This change in consumer behaviour has caused an identity crisis for traditional advertising, and companies are now searching for new ways of reaching their target audience. The purpose of this combined qualitative and quantitative case study is to examine possible risks and possibilities that a retailing company face when communicating through Facebook. Data has been collected through in-depth interviews with company representatives combined with a quantitative study of the company's Facebook followers in order to answer the questions of (1) which possibilities and risks a retailing company face through the use of a Facebook fanpage and (2) if there is a differ-ence in the attitude and behaviour of active respectively passive followers that may have been caused by a retailing company's marketing communication on Facebook.

Background: Literature regarding brand identity within the service industry is relatively under developed. As a result one theory is used for both the service and product brands, even though there is a significant difference between a product and a service. As a result of this, the brand identity within the service industry has consequences. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the brand identity within the service industry. This is done by focusing on how and why this work is done.

Inspired by the current debate over the effectiveness of Public Relations (PR), the authors of the following thesis have sought to analyze how PR and advertising differ in terms of how they affect consumers. The subject of the thesis was chosen due to the lacking knowledge of how PR shapes consumer attitudes and intentions. The authors wish to upset the institutionalized myths which dominate in the PR-business. One example of such a myth is that the effectiveness of PR can be measured by the number of press releases an activity produces and that PR?s superiority over advertising is due to its higher trustworthiness.

Today, branding is not a phenomenon but rather a prerequisite for a brand to be able to both survive and grow stronger. During the last couple of years, personal branding has come to be an established term, just like corporate branding. With the growth of the social media and the thousands of ways to interact with each other personal brands face great competition. It is more difficult than ever to maintain a strong brand, partly because of this. There are several growth options for brands.

The media landscape has exploded during the last decade, which has lead to a massive advertising clutter. Consumers defend themselves against this intrusive marketing by creating an advertising filter that sorts and blocks. These changing conditions have lead to new and tougher demands on creators and advertisers to create more efficient marketing communication that stands out in the clutter and penetrates the consumers? advertising filter. Many creators and researchers claim that creativity is the most efficient method to stand out in the clutter and generate sought communication effects.

The purpose of the study is to examine how retailing trough brand owned outlet stores effectsthe fashion brand. The problem that the essay is aimed to solve is how the fashion brand isinfluenced by selling through outlets and what opportunities and risks it has on the brand. Thestudy has been carried out by qualitative methods using interviews to answer the questionformulation. Three empirical perspectives have been chosen; an expert-, business- andconsumer perspective which have been linked up with three applicable theories. The fashionbrand Acne and its two stores; the flagship store and the outlet store have been chosen as acase study.

The business cycle of the wood flooring branch is currently high however that situation may not be sustainable. In a possible future weaker business climate, the importance of marketing becomes accentuated for firms that aim to maintain their sales levels. We can see trends that competition among the Swedish and foreign manufactures is already stepping up. The intent of this study is to establish marketing guidelines for floor- and molding manufacturers, so they can establish a clearer brand image in DIY retail outlets. By comparing the approach of sports- and DIY stores to brand and product placement, this study aims to bring new knowledge to the DIY branch for improved consumer and product handling.

The main question in this thesis has been to see how the brand strategy of Linköpings Hockey Club has changed during the years in the Swedish elite league. We will also look at the content of the brand, as well as the association as the city of Linköping. This thesis will also see the sponsorship view of the development of the brand, because of the sponsorship power to help the association to build and strengthen the brand.We have been interviewing important persons at the association Linköpings Hockey Club and also done interviews with a few sponsorship partners to get important information to analyze.As an association it is of outmost importance to disseminate the association?s image in the right way, which Linköpings Hockey Club has according to their sponsorship partners. The association has during the last years been working hard to take care of and strengthen the brand, which can be seen among the sponsorship partners.

It has become increasingly important for businesses today to create a strong customer loyalty tie between their brand and their customers. In most markets today a lot of companies fight for market share and loyal customers. The increased uses of Internet and Internet commerce have made it possible for companies to create relationships with their customers through their websites. The Internet has also opened up new ways for customers to quickly and easily price compare products on price comparison websites. This means that customers have become more price conscious which has lead firms to fall into a price war with the competitors. The purpose of this paper is to examine brand loyalty in the consumer electronics market and go into detail on how web shop role affects the creation of loyalty to companies that are either a shop or do not have an online store. To examine this, a survey was made online and an interview was made with the President on Salesoogle Niklas Rasmusson. The questions and the interview of the questionnaire focused on confidence in online commerce and physical stores.

Competition is keen in the fashion industry of today. Homogenous products and prices aredriving competition and most firms are struggling hard to attract customers. Brands havebecome one of the most important assets for success and are often critical for the choices of theconsumers. A strong brand is often considered as a substantial value in the eyes of the consumerand gives the individual firm a competitive advantage in the marketplace. To build a strongbrand it takes that the brand identity not is in conflict with the brand image of a firm or a product.Sometimes one of these conflicts exit and sometimes the firms are not even aware of it.In this thesis we study how two firms, Lindex and Prada, perceive their own image and then wecompare how the images of the firms are perceived by the customers.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate how a valuation of a company preceding an acquisition can be affected by the fact that a strong brand is attached to the target company. Techniques to value a company and theories of brands are well developed, but the link between them is partially missing even though the needs to value brands have increased. A case study of five Swedish acquisitions is conducted to identify possible complicating and simplifying factors and how these are handled in the context of a valuation of an acquired company with a strong brand. Important findings are that a decreased volatility of future earnings can lead to more accurate prognoses and valuations due to the existence of a strong brand. A strong brand can, on the other hand, also make the valuation of the target company more difficult due to the fact that it is a subjective asset which increases the overall risk of the company.

With the fast development of Internet and the e-commerce during the last decades, retailers are now introducing online stores. This has been adopted as a common strategy within the industry and the phenomenon seems likely to increase over time. Theory based on brand extension is used in this study to explain the effects on brand attitude and the link with willingness to pay when a traditional retailer introduces an online store. We execute an experimental study in order to investigate the effects where we use the offline- and online channel as well as two brands with different strengths as independent variables. Results show that brand attitude and its link to willingness to pay transfers to the online channel.

Den svenska telekommarknaden präglas av en oligopolsituation, där de fyra största företagen utgör 97,5 procent av marknaden, och den främsta konkurrensen sker om befintliga kunder. TeliaSonera är marknadens största företag och de saluför de två operatörerna Telia och Halebop, medan Tele2 är det näst största företaget och de saluför operatörerna Tele2 och Comviq. Inom den svenska telekombranschen har operatörerna förhållandevis liknande tjänsteerbjudanden och det är därför viktigt att skapa sig ett starkt varumärke som differentierar sig ur mängden samt bidrar till att skapa synergieffekter för företag som har två varumärken. Ett varumärke kan användas för att skapa värde för både konsumenten och företaget samt etablera en relation mellan dessa parter. Det värde som företaget skapar med varumärket benämns som brand equity, vilket kan ses ur ett kundvärdebaserat respektive finansiellt perspektiv.

Social networks have become an important factor in today?s society. Companies as well as individuals are using these platforms to interact with one another on a daily basis. This phenomenon has mostly been acknowledged by companies on B2C markets where these social network sites are being used to communicate their brand. On B2B markets however, the usage of these platforms have not been as optimistically implemented.

Many companies today are investing in various computer-based tools to support their planning, decision making or communication processes. However, end users are often reluctant to accept the available information systems, which mean that these investments are extremely risky. Understanding why users choose to accept or reject an information system has proved to be one of the most challenging problems in this research area. Previous studies have focused on users' beliefs and attitudes regarding use intentions, but the results have, however, been both mixed and incomplete. In this study, I have used the Swedish youth? s use intention of mobile banking and a quantitative study was performed based on five different hypotheses derived from previous studies.