The challenge that companies currently face in their attempts to break through the media clutter has resulted in an increased use of provocative advertising worldwide. History shows that this strategy can result in a brand crisis due to negative consumer sentiment. Despite this fact, advertisement generated crisis remain a relatively unexplored field in the academic world of marketing. The objective of this thesis is to further explore crisis creation from provocative advertising, evaluate the affiliated negative consumer consequences, and to examine the effects of two contrasting company strategies to remedy these types of crisis situations. An experiment was conducted on Swedish and Norwegian students in order to examine whether the communication and information sharing between the target consumers and others could explain the development and consequences of provocative advertisement crisis due to its psychological effects.

The purpose of this study has been to examine how customers, by interacting with each other, can communicate and create the image of a brand. We find this topic to be relevant since there are no previous studies conducted concerning the customers influence on the brand image. Our ambition has been to describe in what ways and to what extent the customer can affect and influence the brand image by communicating with other customers. To fulfill our purposed we have targeted three important questions which are:? In which ways can the customer affect the communicated image of a brand?? To what extent can the customer influence the brand image and the perceived value?? Who has control over the brand, the customer or the company?For this study we have used a qualitative approach in which we have conducted eight personal interviews with brand consultants and the editor of the magazine Dagens Media which has given us the foundation for our analysis.

Borglund et al. (2012) argues that today it is becoming increasingly important for companies to work with CSR because stakeholders are more engaged in issues related to social responsibility and the environment. However, much research shows that it does not play a major role how companies work with CSR issues if the information does not reach the final consumer. The focus of this paper is therefore to examine how some of the major clothing companies communicate about their work with CSR issues and if consumers believe that they have the information needed to make an informed purchasing decision that support sustainable development in the garment industry. Our study has among other things found evidence that companies doesn?t reach out with information about their work with CSR.

Syfte: Att identifiera de problem och/eller svårigheter som uppstått efter införandet av IAS 39 och dess krav på att finansiella instrument ska värderas till verkligt värde. Metod: Uppsatsen har genomförts med hjälpa av en induktiv metod. Primärdata har samlats in genom kvalitativa intervjuer. Sekundärdata består av facklitteratur och vetenskapliga artiklar. Teoretiska perspektiv: Teorin om det institutionella tänkandet har använts samt Streek & Schmitters modell.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine whether or not the publiclibraries under review can make use of Frans Melin?s strategicbranding platform to create or strengthen their brands by meansof their programme activities. The study addresses two issues;how are the programme activities relevant to the way librariescan work with their brands, and what potential do these librarieshave to create and/or reinforce their brands through programmeactivities?The empirical material has been obtained through qualitativeinterviews structured around Melin?s platform. This has alsobeen used to discuss and analyse the results.

Title: Brand loyalty and switching behavior ? A case study of the Swedish ketchup market Authors: Marcus Andersson Mattias Hedblad Tutors: Björn Bergenståhl, (Professor) Department of Food Technology, Engineering and nutrition, Division of Food Technology, Lund University Frans Melin (MBA PhD) Department of Business and administration, Lund University Ragnar Sjögren Johansen, (Marketing Manager Sauces) Procordia Food AB Problem: The market for daily groceries is mature and the competition has become tough. For the manufacturers to be able to grow they have to compete for the existing consumers. The problem is for the manufacturer to protect its consumers and still be able to gain consumers from its competitors. Purpose: Our ambition is to study consumers brand loyalty for daily groceries, with the purpose to understand how loyalty starts, how it can be strengthened, and how it can be broken.

The aim of this thesis is to form a theory of the green consumer power and to distinguish whether this phenomenon could indicate a movement toward the ecological citizenship. To do so, scientific theories regarding the responsibility of companies have been used, as well as the public choice theory, to link individuals as citizens to individuals as consumers. The motives of corporate environmental responsibility, along with consumers ability to bring pressure in different dimensions, are later drawn on as indicators applied to empirical information. The largest producer of ecological products in Sweden, Arla Foods, is employed as case study to explore if the green consumer power can and does exist. The ecological citizenship uses the ecological footprint, to define in what ways we can minimize our part of environmental degradation.The study seems to strengthen the theory, consumers do have a power to make companies go green and they tend to use it increasingly.

Background: Increasing globalization has changed the business environment and also resulted in increased awareness of the consumers and demand for higher standards of social responsibility. The companies brand strategies has gain in importance in order to strengthen their brands. A part of a company's CSR, CRM, cause-related marketing, which is a relatively new marketing strategy and created when companies choose to partner with charities and market it. Garment/clothing industry has as many others come to be shaped by the effects of globalization, but has also endured heavy criticism over the years. This criticism is largely because of the outside world's reaction to the exploitation of developing countries.

Purpose: To contribute to the understanding of the relationship between private labels and the retailer brand in grocery retailing. Methodology: We use structured interviews as a cross-sectional method for quantitative data collection. The existence of the relationship is tested through correlation analysis and regression analysis. Theoretical perspective: Perceived quality of private labels and of retailers are the main theoretical concepts for this thesis. Additionally, we introduce the concept of loyalty to show the benefits of a positive consumer image.

The relationship to professionals has proved to be a helping factor for personswith severe mental illness, but it is also a relationship characterised by anunbalanced power relation. The aim of this study was to compile and analyze theknowledge of what persons with severe mental illness themselves consider to behelping in the relationship to professionals, and to specifically analyse this from apower perspective. The analysis was conducted using Foucault?s ideas of powerand knowledge, and an empowerment perspective. The method used was anarrative review.

The purpose of this master thesis is to understand how busy moms experience their grocery shopping trips and the in-store environment. In gaining this knowledge, we aim at being able to suggest ways to improve the grocery shopping experience of busy moms; and present insights that can help food retailers in targeting this consumer group in-store. Methodology: We use an iterative approach, and work with photo elicitation interviews. We let our respondents capture their experiences in photographs, which then aid in recalling their memories in follow up interviews. Theoretical perspective: We base our theoretical perspective on environmental psychology where we use the original M-R model, and include personal and situational variables suggested by Bäckström and Johansson (2006); where the latter variable includes the views by Turley and Milliman (2000).

In today?s competitive market, design is an important element for the companies. They must succeed with delivering an increased value and an experience for the consumer to be able to survive. The Swedish company?s have become better in the design area, the higher standards the consumer?s demands forces the company to invest more in design.

The process of value creation is rapidly shifting from a product- and firm-centric view to personalized consumer experience today. Informed, networked, empowered and active consumers are increasingly co-creating value with the firm. The interaction between the firm and the consumer as well as the experience factor plays an increasingly important role in determining the success of a company?s offering. In this study, a special type of co-creating experience is investigated - ?omstartspex? - where the audience is interacting with actors during the play.

Along with the development of technology, the cross-border trade is increasing and therefore there is a need for greater consumer protection. A good consumer protection creates a feeling of safety for the consumer and that by itself may help to increase cross-border trade. This is one of the reasons for why the EU has established regulatory framework for electronic commerce, for example the Directive2000/31/EC. The direc-tive strives to create a similar law for electronic commerce within the European Union. This paper?s main purpose is to ensure that the directive is implemented properly in Swedish law, and if there are other possible ways to achieve the objective, other than the ones that the Swedish legislator has chosen.

Background: Pesticides in conventional food may be related to morbidity and mortality. Furthermore pesticides have a negative impact on the whole ecosystem. Organic food can presume better health as they contain less chemicals and toxins and contribute to sustainable development efforts.Objective: The aim was to examine what attitudes consumers have regarding to purchase organic fruit, vegetables and root vegetables.Methods: The association between consumers? views on conventional food and organic food was investigated using questionnaire given to a population sample of men and women aged by 23-65 (N=60) in grocery stores and in a fitness center. The study was based on a cross-sectional study in a municipality in central Sweden.Results: Consumers were interested to buy organic food.