Consumer generated advertising is a new phenomenon in the landscape of communication. Tools such as the Internet enable the consumer to create and spread messages for brands without the permission or control of the brand owner. We carried out a quantitative experiment to investigate the effects of how companies choose to handle these activities as well as how expectations of these consumer generated ads differ from traditional advertising. The findings show that strong brands may benefit from these activities if handled the right way and the brand owner adapts it?s reaction to the content of the ad.

Research has concluded that meaningless differentiation with trivial attributes sometimes can be a successful strategy. However, the effect varies with respect to certain aspects such as the price of the product and the decision context. How the characteristics of the consumer influence the effect of trivial attributes has until now been unknown. This thesis investigates how the consumer?s level of knowledge and personal involvement influence the effects of trivial attributes on product preferences and product attitudes.

The process of gift-giving is something that occurs all around the world, and most people are both givers and receivers of gifts. While receiving a gift is often associated with joyous feelings, purchasing and giving a gift may not generate the same feelings. The worries of giving a gift may include anguish of finding the right gift for the right person, and not to mention it shall be appropriate given the situation. This paper aims to describe consumer attitudes in various gift-giving occasions. To give another perspective the paper also discusses and describes the term of self-gifting, when the giver and receiver is the same person - you.

From a time where employees often remained at one company until retirement, globalization and changed employment patterns have created a more mobile labor market in the last years. In an effort to expand the connection between organization and employee a rising interest in corporate alumni networks has emerged. Previous research has shown that conditions for such networks are formed through employees social identification, perceived organizational support and organizational citizenship and can be shaped by company's HR practices.This paper aims to examine two case companies' perceived benefits through alumni relations as well as their HR prac-tices, in order to increase understanding surrounding the relationship between the two areas. Further the study intends to draw conclusions about the role of corporate alumni networks in the creation of the received benefits.The study indicates that HR practices, through the creation of an organizational citizenship behavior, can influence the conditions for beneficial alumni relations. Results show that some expected benefits of alumni relations can be re-ceived through strong citizenship.

Abstract -                     Much better sauce! - A study of brand loyalty for Lohmanders Date:                             5th June 2013Level:                           Bachelor thesis in marketing, 15 ECTSInstitution:                   School of Economy, Society and Technology, EST                                      Mälardalen University Authors:                       Sara Meijer                               Julia Åberg                                      20th February 1990                   26th April 1990Title:                             Much better sauce! ? A study of brand loyalty for LohmandersTutor:                           Finn Wiedersheim-PaulKeywords:                   Brand, loyalty, consumer behaviorResearch questions:    Which significance has the brand for the consumer when buying fresh sauce?                                       How loyal are the consumers to the brand Lohmanders?                                      How does brand loyalty arise among Lohmanders customers?Purpose:                            The purpose with this thesis is to research consumer?s brand loyalty to fresh sauce and to analyze how brand loyalty arises regarding the brand Lohmanders.Method:                       The theoretical framework used in the study is based on theories of consumer behavior, brands and loyalty. The quantitative study consists of a poll. To complement the study a focus group interview and a company interview have been held.  Conclusion:                        The study showed that the brand has significance for the consumer to a certain extent. The brand can though have an unconscious effect on the consumers since most of the purchases are made by habit.

I studien studeras hur komplexiteten kring sociala medier kan studeras, samt pa? vilket sa?tt sociala na?tverk a?r relaterade till na?tverken i sociala medier och hur det pa?verkar konsumenterna. Syftet med studien a?r att underso?ka de sociala medierna i fo?rha?llande till de sociala na?tverken med fokus pa? konsumentbeteende och da?rigenom skapa en generell modell som fo?rklarar problematiken. Studien bygger pa? en litteraturstudie som i fo?rsta hand sammansta?llts av artiklar med fokus pa? a?mnesomra?dena sociala na?tverk, elektroniska sociala na?tverk och sociala medier. En enka?tunderso?kning gjordes fo?r att sammansta?lla konsumenters a?sikter om a?mnesomra?dena, i syfte att tillslut utmynna i en analys och diskussion. Det ga?r att konstatera att sociala medier har vidgat det sociala na?tverket fo?r den enskilde konsumenten. Detta resulterar i att den enskilde konsumenten nu kan komma i kontakt med fler akto?rer och andra konsumenter som i ma?nga fall kan vara oka?nda.

The aim of this Master thesis is to describe why and how public librariesuse the social networks Facebook and Twitter. The focus is to study whatbrought about their use, how the work is carried out, ideas and objectivesbehind the use and what libraries actually convey on the networks. Themethodology is twofold: semi-structured interviews with responsiblepersonnel at four Swedish public libraries, and an ethnographic contentanalysis of four months of the libraries' status updates and tweets onFacebook and Twitter. The theoretical framework consists of a model forthe roles of the public library in society, and of discourses about thepublic library in media.Results indicate that social networks are used to market, make accessibleand inform of the library's resources and services. Furthermore, networksare used to communicate/interact with followers and to inspire people toread.

Social competence is an effective weapon at all costs on today?s market. In many job ads we can see the words to be socially competent. In our report we have studied the subject?s social competence, relations, relationship marketing and personal networks and looked to the connection these subjects have to one another.

Public WiFi networks is one of the dominant technologies for users to get public internet access. The problem is that the networks are designed for accessability rather than security ? a problem users seldom are aware of. Users who carelessly access WiFi networks may reveal sensitive information which, among other things, can lead to an identity theft. Previous research suggests that users must be educated and informed about the risks they incur, but not how this should be done.

Concern about personal privacy continues to grow among online users along with the fact that new technologies help online companies to share user's private information. Still the usage of online entities such as social networks and e-commerce sites continue to increase. This raises the question of why online users act in such a contradictory and irrational way.Our study examines what impact one recently developed application called social login, which is provided by several social networks and used by millions of online companies, has on consumer's evaluation of online brands when they are primed for various types of information concerning privacy issues. Our assumptions are built up on the theory of cognitive, dissonance and suggest that there will be no differences in evaluation of the brands due to the human need to rationalize their existing behavior and attitudes when they receive new or contradicting information. The potential effects are measured by a manipulation presented in a survey distributed in an online environment to a sample of users (n=,154).

Research about social support and social networks has mostly concerned the impact on a person?s wellbeing and health. However an aspect largely neglected is how social support within the social networks can affect the process of giving up a drug abuse. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of what role the social support within different relationships can have on the process of giving up drug abuse. Furthermore the aim is to examine how a self-help group can provide social support in the transitional period after leaving a drug abuse.

A common assumption in marketing is the wider variety of product a corporation has, the better for the consumer: more product - more choices. Companies often develop a line extension to broaden consumer range through product attributes including quality, function and design. These developed attributes within the product are not always optimal for the consumer. As a result, companies often become entangled in having a price higher than the cost and benefit of the products. This essay aims to analyze the consumer value of line extension products and how these evaluations relate to extended line product pricing.

The research done in the field of product completeness/incompleteness is limited. The lack of research causes a knowledge gap in the retailing industry, concerning the actual effects on consumer choice, as well as on the overall store evaluation. This report tests the current theories of the subject, and also further aim to explore the effects of completeness/incompleteness on consumer's product choice. The results display an inconsistent effect on consumer's product choice when the completeness/incompleteness in a grocery store is tested. Some products benefit by being incomplete, while others show no such effect.

Today's consumer society has led to never-ending choices in terms of brands, products and prices in an endless variety of shops. The retail industry is a very complex industry that includes many different types of sales channels and many different types of products. A consequence of this trend is that brand owners today face difficulties in understanding how their products are being evaluated and difficulties in knowing which final cause that make a consumer willing to by their product is hard to figure out. The industry is very diversified, which means that for a company to really understand their position and their role on the market it requires that the company put a lot of effort and also a lot of money in the process of trying to figure it out. We will with this paper try to explain a small piece of that understanding and we hope to get results, which contribute to the further research in this area.

It is important to Ockelbogårdar to have knowledge about different needs by the segments on a market, while they can bring a product into line with consumer needs by marketing. To survey the needs of consumers, demographic segmentation could be in use. It is about to survey the most importent factors or advantages the consumers have in their living environment.The purpose of the essay is to investigate how Ockelbogårdar could make their marketing better against several target groups, in the existing building population, by distribute the consumers into segments. On the basis of the investigation and the segments that will introduces, Ockelbogårdar can offer the consumer a living which fits the indivdual consumer.A poll have been done by the conusmers of Ockelbogårdar. The poll have been delivered by post and a quantity data about the needs of the consumer have been evaluated.