The purpose of this essay is to investigate how four companies in Värmland, Sweden, are working strategically with their brands. This is a qualitative method in which we have used a combination of interviews and literature review in order to investigate the link between brands and the Karlstad region.Even though there is a huge interest in brands, there are only a few companies who can describe clearly what their own brand represents. This probably due to the fact that the brand is still regarded as a tactical tool, rather than as a strategic one. Because of this we find it very interesting to investigate how organizations in Värmland think about this issue. Are brands regarded as a strategic resource, and how strong is the link between their brands and the region?The result indicate that organizations are working strategically with their brands, but they can still get better.

Varför är det viktigt att undersöka på vilka sätt maskulinitetsideal i svensk ishockey har ändrats över tid? Den här frågan har flera svar. I den här uppsatsen har jag haft ambitionen att relatera maskulinitetsideal till svensk ishockeys utveckling åren 1969-1976 i ett vidare perspektiv. Under dessa år genomgick svensk ishockey många förändringar, men den största var förmodligen skiftet från att vara en amatörsport till att bli en professionell. Genom att studera hur förväntningarna på spelare ändrades under den här tiden, kan man bilda en förståelse för hur professionaliseringen av sporten påverkade enskilda spelare.

Our purpose with this research has been to obtain a deeper insight and understanding for the phenomenon and term ?weekday-luxury.?Through our research, we have found a link between value, service, brands and consumer behaviour into a relationship that we termed ?weekday-luxury.? This link of values is particularly interesting to us and we are curious about the underlying motivation to ?weekday-luxury? and the driving forces underlying the phenomenon. We have noticed in society that people need something extra in their daily lives and we attempt to speculate where their perceived value lies through the concept of ?weekday-luxury." Our goal is to determine a deeper understanding and insight into this phenomenon and how it meets our needs through an identifiable pattern. We also analyze the nature of ?weekday-luxury? and its meaning.

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.

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.

For many companies, the Internet has revolutionized the relationship they have with their customers concerning costumer service. The use of Information Technology in regard to Internet as a media has provided companies with the opportunity to build customer databases in order to target their customers individually. The airline industry was one of the first pioneers to use the full potential of Internet to improve customer relations and its profits which we aim to investigate in greater detail in our thesis.Our thesis answers the question on how Scandinavian Airlines' (SAS) Eurobonus department uses their website to create valuable and profitable relationships with SAS loyalty club members through direct marketing. In order to answer our research question, three key informants have been interviewed - each representing different sub departments at Eurobonus; service and support, IT and marketing. Our results were that the Eurobonus department use direct marketing methods by sending customized e-mail offerings to target specific customer, using their customer databases.

Denna studie syftar till att hitta ba?rande besta?ndsdelar och betydelsefulla faktorer i en hejaklacks uttryck som hypotetiskt skulle kunna vara konstruktiva och anva?ndbara i arbetet med en ko?r. Studien a?r baserad pa? intervjuer med medlemmar ur Linko?pings Hockeyklubb, LHC:s, supporterklubb White Lions samt en deltagande observation vid en hockeymatch mellan LHC och HV71 den 30 oktober 2012.I bakgrunden finns litteraturgenomga?ng inneha?llande hejandet i historien, visuella effekter, huliganism, kartla?ggning av hejaramsor samt starka musikupplevelser.Resultatet visar att sta?mningen i en hejaklack a?r mycket viktig. Ofta viktigare a?n sja?lva idrotten.

This case study has been conducted within the Swedish fitness chain World Class to explore the opportunities for knowledge development and transfers within franchise networks. We have interviewed the product manager at the World Class headquarter, the owner of a franchise club and a local product manager from the same facility. Our finding indicates that various forms of knowledge transfer occur within the World Class network, particularly in product development and sales. The transfer occurs within the framework set by World Class with regularly scheduled meetings. In addition informal networks provide other means of knowledge exchange between some units.

Abstract This essay discusses whether or not the technical assistance given by The WTO will effect the reduction of poverty in LDCs. The liberalization of trade is considered to be one of the main forces behind economic growth and the reduction of poverty. Can trade reduce poverty?The WTO formed The Integrated Framework pro to the Doha Round in 2001 to assist the LDCs in aiding them implement the WTO's framework. Has this implementation been effective?The WTO also created The EPRP program to the Doha Round in order to create poverty reducing projects amongst developing countries.

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.

This thesis has been carried out in autumn 2009 at Uppsala University for Boliden Mineral AB. Physical modelling has been used to model a comminution circuit. The model has then been linked to a PLC.When a concentrator is about to become operational Boliden Mineral AB have been looking for a way to test the PLC. The purpose of this report has therefore been to develop models for the subprocess in a concentrator and link these models to the PLC. The subprocess was a comminution circuit in Aitik36.

The authors study the effects of brand salience on how consumers form brand attitudes and how consumers value the importance of various brand attributes. The study was conducted through two separate tests, the one focusing on the link between brand salience and brand attitudes and the other focusing on the link between brand salience and evaluations of attribute importance. Both tests measured brand salience as the ease with which brands are recalled by respondents who have been cued with a specific product category. The results show that brand salience has direct effects on both brand attitudes and the evaluation of attribute importance. As brands are recalled, high brand salience for a brand creates a more positive attitude towards that brand in the mind of the consumer.

The interest for functional strength training in golf has grown the last decade and scientists are always trying to find training stategies to improve the biomechanical aspects of the swing. Kinematic sequence contains a proximal-to-distal sequence order towards impact, and an effective kinematic sequence in the down swing begins with a rotation in the pelvis and follows by an activation in thorax, arms and club in the respective order. The rotational torques in the proximal segments wanders through the body and to the more distal segments to create an effective energy ? and power transfer at impact. The x-factor stretch is the seperation between the rotation in the pelvis and the thorax at the top of the back swing and at the beginning of the down swing.

Internets utveckling har banat väg för nya sätt att kommunicera. Inom den svenskavinindustrin har aktörer länge varit bundna till en icke interaktiv marknadsföring. Socialamedier och användarskapad information har blivit ett kraftfullt verktyg inom nämnda industrii takt med att konsumenter alltmer cyniskt genomskådar illa maskerad relationsretorik.Samtidigt har det svenska monopolet haft en mycket stor roll i hur kulturen ochkonsumtionsmönstren kring vininköp sett ut i Sverige. Men privata aktörer som direktkonkurrerar med Systembolaget har ställt detta i ny dager. Den största av dessa aktörer ärvinklubben Australian Wine Club.

My main purpose for this paper was to find out what the four teachers I interviewed thought about the design of their classroom and how they linked that to pedagogy, pupils learning and policy documents. I also wanted to find out if classroom design were something they discuss and reflects on in the college.My questions for this study were: What do some teachers who work in the early ages in the school think about the classroom design? Do these teachers link the classroom design to policy documents or pedagogy? Do these teachers consider classroom design to be something that should be discussed in the same way as other factors (for example teaching aids, resources etc.) within the college?My method was to make qualitative interviews with four teachers, analyze their answers and link them to my main theories and research in the area of the study. My main theories were multimodal communication, which means that there are several systems of signs in communication, which all have an essential function for the meaning of the communicated. It also means that learning happens both individually and socially and that school is a social construction, and that the system of opportunities and boundaries in which it takes form is mediated within our multimodal systems.