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.

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.

The aim of this study is to map the consumption patterns of the poor. We also examine if loyalty can be created in this segment, and try to discover different types of poverty. This study is of great importance since the poor segment has been slightly overlooked in marketing research. Therefore we have also turned to other academic disciplines such as sociology, ethnography and consumer culture in order to analyze our empirical input. The study is abductive and we have in a qualitative and ethnographical manner conducted interviews in order to obtain information and reveal categories.

The Swedish sports retail industry has experienced extensive growth during the last decade, and this has attracted new entrants to the market, both start-ups and international followers. This has inevitably put more pressure on incumbents, which are now confronted with major challenges as how to retain their customers and market shares. Customer loyalty has been proved to be an important factor for customer retention and proposed to constitute inertia of switching behavior. In light of this problematization, the purpose of this study is to describe the underlying factors of loyalty and whether purchase habits could further explain customer loyalty. The aim is also to understand the strategic implications of the factors involved.

Purpose                           The purpose of this study is to create an understanding of how e-commerce companies use loyalty programs in order to retain their customers and to increase its consumption, and compare this with customer perceptions of loyalty and learn what makes them loyal. Theoretical framework      The theoretical framework starts with definitions of loyalty and customer loyalty. Further, it discusses what a loyalty program is, how rewards today and in the future affect the consumers, and other promotion offers that are commonly used. The theory also discusses how previous points work in e-commerce. Method                                                    To take advantage of the companies? point of view and at the same the customers? perspective, the survey is based on a combination of a qualitative and quantitative study. In the study, two companies in the fashion industry were interviewed and 391 respondents participated. Empirical study                 In the empirical study the interviews with the two e-commerce companies are first presented, which revolves around their use of loyalty program.

During the last few decades a new kind of business operation have developed and this hasforced organisations to adapt themselves to a new competitive environment characterized byincreased customer demands as well as a larger amount of competitors. Therefore companieshave had a shift in their strategies from focusing on sales numbers to focusing on thecustomer. To build lasting customer relationships, in order to create customer loyalty, havebecome an important part of the organisational strategy and the collection of consumer datais essential in achieving this loyalty. Customer relationship management systems assistorganisations in managing information about individual customers as well as managing allaspects of customer contact, with the purpose of increasing customer loyalty towards thecompany. The collection of consumer data also enables for companies to design personalizedoffers to individual customers in the form of direct marketing.

Our purpose is to display the meaning of fan clubs and further reveal the potential value of fans. This study has an abductive approach with a qualitative data collection, where empirical material has been collected through a micro netnographic study along with qualitative interviews. IKEA and IKEA Family have been applied together with virtual fan clubs to study the fan club phenomenon. The study is based on prior literature concerning loyalty, customer clubs and brand relations. This theoretical framework was chosen to fulfil the purpose of unveiling the meaning of fan clubs and the potential value of fans.

Problem formulation: What factors influence the customer?s choice of bank? How is the customer loyalty towards the customer?s current bank?Purpose: The main purpose is to see what factors are definitive to the customer?s choice of bank and how strong the customer loyalty is towards the bank. It is also interesting to see whether customers who are satisfied with their current bank may still consider switching to something else.Method: The method is both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection, with main focus on a quantitative survey. The qualitative part consists of interviews with a smaller focus group to receive a deeper insight of the consumer?s thoughts regarding the main purpose and problem formulations.Conclusion: The main factor when choosing a bank is recommendations from family or friends.

Relationship Marketing - will banks be able to handle higher consumer mobility in the private market?The purpose of this paper is to gain an understanding of the factors that affect customer loyalty to the bank. Consumer mobility will probably increase as a result of political changes and pressures on the private banking market to become more competitive. This study was carried out using semi-structured interviews and were transcribed and analyzed with the help of models and theories centered on relationship marketing. The theories describe loyalty, the customer lifecycle and relationships between customers and organizations.

For a company to survive it has to make a profit. To make a profit transactions are necessary and to achieve this a company can choose to focus on creating loyal customers. Loyal customers can contribute to secured revenues, increased market shares and reduced marketing costs. Research within customer loyalty has mainly focused on different types of loyalty and the impact it has on customers behavior. However, there is a lack of research concerning which factors that create loyal customers.

Att ha lojala kunder är något att sträva efter. Men vad gör en kund lojal? Den har studien försöker att ta reda på det genom att intervjua tio olika svenska personer för att få deras syn på lojalitet som fenomen och vad det innebär att vara en lojalkund för dem. Slutsatsen är att kundlojalitet är en relevant term men när det kom till att vara lojal visade det sig att de flesta av respondenterna inte var lojala, även om de hade ett lojalt beteende. En av de viktigaste faktorerna för deras köpbeteende var den geografiska platsen affären låg på i förhållande till deras eget boende.

Companies in the western world can no longer compete by using traditional means such as product and price since the commerce of services continually grows. To avoid similarity and increase competitive advantages modern companies have to be more specified. The competition between companies has increased and customers are harder to reach. Customers of today can afford luxury but trend indicates that originality, identity, and status are more important than factual needs. Products created and consumed at the same time within the service market are often very homogenous (similar).

Marketing in a business-to-business environment differs from its counterpart in the business-to-consumer market. Where the latter focuses on customer satisfaction, the former is all about value. This value creates loyalty between seller and buyer. Creating loyalty is becoming more and more important in the media planning industry as fierce competition reduces profit margins. Value is created through selling what a client wants at an acceptable price.

In Sweden today almost all people are connected to a bank in some way. It can range from loans, savings, shares, etc. They have a current account where salaries, student aid etc. is paid. Due to the large selection of banks, it has become more important for banks to be competitive in their services to their customers so they don?t change bank.

Consumer involvement in the product development process, co-creation, is being practiced by numerous companies. Previous research has investigated how consumer participation in co-creation affects consumer attitude. However, little is known about how co-creation affects the attitudes of the observervers of co-creation. The effect of observed co-creation on consumer attitude should be important when deciding whether to apply co-creation or not, as the observing consumers make up a larger part of the consumer collective than the participating consumers do. The paper at hand aims to investigate how observed co-creation affects consumer attitude and purchase intentions.