Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to give a contribution to the studies of what strategies those are of importance for challengers in consumer technological markets aiming for the market leader position. To be able to investigate this phenomenon we have chosen to study Microsoft?s second position in the video game console industry. In addition, we want to illuminate Microsoft?s competitive advantages, how Microsoft can take advantage from Sony?s setbacks and what strategies those are of importance for Microsoft in the battle of becoming the market leader.

Executive SummaryThis final thesis has examined the effects of an increased centralization and better coord­in­ation of the distribution logistics at ABB in Västerås. The company is today strongly decent­ralized and there is a minimum of collaboration between the 20 business units. This is why the questions were raised; how could the business units coordinate outbound logistic activities and what effects would that provide. The obj­ect­ive of this final thesis is to provide basic data for a future decision-making which desc­r­ibe these effects.The report has mapped out the factors that are important to ABB in an evaluation of their logistic activities and how the outbound logistics work today. The four factors are cost efficiency, delivery service, environmental impact and logistics capability.

The buying decision process describes how the consumer makes a purchase decision through a rational process (Markin, 1979) and an understanding for how consumers make a purchase decision can according to Sands et al. (2010) be obtained by increased knowledge for the information search process (the second part of the buying decision process) before a purchase. Today?s society offers great opportunity to obtain information (Rahim & Clemens, 2012; Bawden & Robinson, 2009) and by that there are in other words good opportunities for a rational acting by the consumers. However, there are factors working against that consumers act rationally and seek information prior to their purchases primarily in the form of the concept of information overload (Bawden & Robinson, 2009) which claims that consumers are limited in their information search because there is too much information but also other factors such as lack of time (Wood & Neal, 2009) and ability to find information (Slegers et al.

This diploma work on D-level is made in cooperation with Varnäsföretagen AB in Eskilstuna. The company performs contract manufactured aluminium goods. This work is a continuation on earlier diploma work in Varnäsföretagen AB. Even if the industry process consumes much energy for melting the aluminium goods, they consume a great amount of oil to warm up the building. The purpose of this work is to examine some places in the building and the process to see how much energy it is possible to recycles to the heating system and reduce the costs for heating.

Music streaming services are changing the music industry from the inside. After being struck by the piracy wave in the early 2000's, the industry was characterized by declining sales, layoffs, and a seemingly futile battle on what had become a culture of copyright infringement. After the successful launch of the music streaming service Spotify, the Swedish recording industry took a turn for the better. Music streaming services are creating both new opportunities and challenges to the music industry. This paper aims to study some of the opportunities and challenges concerning the creation of new music.

Making accurate predictions of private consumption expenditures is a difficult task. This thesis examines if consumer confidence can be used to forecast consumption. Using regression analysis, the link between consumer confidence and private consumption expenditures is analyzed for Sweden between the years 1994 and 2005. Two different models are estimated. In the first model consumption is regressed only on consumer confidence, while model two is extended to contain more variables.

En sammanfattning av uppsatsen på maximalt 8000 tecken.The purpose of this study was to analyse if there are in-store consumer behaviour differences between the consumers that use ASF and the consumers that not use ASF in store. More precisely this study had two objectives. The first objective was to create a conceptual model depicting the various behavioural effects that the use of ASF may result in. These variables were tested empirically in order to analyze if the use of ASF influence in-store consumer behaviour. The second objective was to analyze if there are differences in the routes taken by the consumers in store, in relation to whether the consumers use the ASF or not..

The fashion industry is a line of business which is characterised by tough competition. Often the consumer target groups exposed to advertisements identify them as attempts by the fashion industry to persuade them. When this happens, the consumer disregards the information due to selective attention. Faced with these conditions, companies need to find new, creative ways to market their product lines. This essay is about Public Relations, in particular Public Relations that appear in editorial spaces.

The use of subscription services directed towards customers has become a common phenomenon in a vast number of different industries. We have noticed a clear trend of new businesses emerging solely offering subscriptions, and existing companies altering sales of their products to become parts of subscriptions. But research has not caught up with this trend yet, especially regarding why it occurs and how it affects existing businesses internally. The purpose of this study is to examine the driving forces for change and examine how existing businesses have to change parts of their business models to offer subscription services. The premise of this study has been Vargo & Luschs (2004) Service Dominant Logic with their foundational premises and Business Model Canvas by Osterwalder et.

In today's society, consumers get in touch with hundreds of advertising messages a day from companies. It is up to the consumer to choose the messages they want to listen to and ignore the ones they want. Today, there is an advertising saturation and this has implications for both producers and consumer. Companies must be innovative and come with fresh ideas to get us consumers to pay attention to their particular message.  It is through the marketing that companies have an opportunity to spread their message.

Advertisements have become a regular part of our everyday lives. We walk past them on the street; we admire them on the subway and even invite them into our living room in between prime time showings. The reality is that in today's modern times there is no escaping the daily bombardment of advertisement. To distinguish themselves from the continuous noise of the industry, advertisers battle to find unique ways to capture the attention of consumers. But is it possible that some advertisers take their techniques to an extreme in the struggle to be remembered This thesis aims at investigating whether it is possible to offend a consumer through an advertisement due to its extreme simplicity.

This exploratory thesis uses qualitative research to investigate how digital music is beeing packaged. The main study consists of 11 deep interviews with key representatives of the digital music industry in Sweden. These are (record companies) EMI, SonyBMG, Universal, Warner, (DSP) InProdicon, (mobile operators) 3, TeliaSonera and (cell phone producer) SonyEricsson. Packaging is a concept of marketing that has specific implications depending on which good or service that is being packaged. Packaging occurs at different levels in the production chain.

The use of digital devices are widely spread among us. Children have an iPad in their hands before they learn how to talk and we bet you look at your smartphone more times a day then you would like to admit? Interaction through these devices have become so natural in our daily life that we get confused when a retailer does not offer a website or an app. The habit of searching for information in the most accessible channel and buying in the one that offers the benefit of convenience, and of course, saves you money and time, is a common way of shopping these days. This is referred to as multi-channel shopping.

The 1990s were one of the most profitable periods for European airline companies, mainly because of development of world economy and increasing globalisation trends. However, towards the end of the decade, a global economic downturn, high oil prices and new forms of competition turned the industry towards troubled times. The European air-travel industry had to face and accept the new airline business concept, called low-cost or no-frill airlines. In these conditions, traditional airlines had to rethink their strategies and question the old business model. As a response to the competition, European traditional full-service airlines formed alliances or networks to expand the route network and to increase efficiency.

Marketing has been developed and revalued the last years. The consumer today is moreeducated and is therefore able to have higher demands. These requirements together with theincreased competition is forcing brands to find creative ways to reach their target market.Fashion has throughout history contributed to, and been influenced by, changes in society.Through all times, people have used fashion and clothing as a way to demonstrate their socialidentity and to be accepted. Companies in the fashion industry can be successful if theydevelop brands that attract consumers. To achieve this, companies must find newcommunication tools to reach out to the consumer, among these tools, we find the fashioneditorials.Our aim is to investigate whether product placement occurs in Swedish fashion editorials.Through our thesis we want to explore how consumers perceive the editorials and alsowhether if they are used as a marketing channel.The method is qualitative and the study is based on semi structured interviews and a focusgroup interview.