In a time of economic turmoil and financial crisis profitability matters rise higher and higher on company agendas. Many companies are pressured to find profitability to avoid layoffs or even bankruptcy. Profitability essentially depends on the margin on the product or service sold and the costs associated with selling these products or services and hence these areas are of vital importance if companies are to improve profitability. Previous research has focused, for the most part, on product profitability while customer profitability has received less attention. This study is based on a case study of a Swedish publishing house and aims to investigate how the company?s Cost-to-Serve varies between its distribution channels.

It gets more and more important for companies to get involved in Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, when stakeholders now are more aware of the responsibility companies should take. Through their communication companies show how they take responsibility. Reflected by their goals by which they want to achieve acceptance and understanding through an open dialogue. The paper examines this issue. CSR is an abbreviation for Corporate Social Responsibility which is engagement in responsibility for companies and organisations.

The purpose of this study is to analyze which communication strategies andinformation- and communication channels that Gällivare municipality should useunder the urban transformation to communicate with the citizens. The studyconcentrates on the age-groups 16 ? 24, 25 ? 44, 45 ? 64 and people that are 65 yearsand older. This selection has been made as a segmentation of the citizens and is oneof the essay questions which refers to study the channels that each age-groups prefer.The study is a quantitative one and is based on a questionnaire survey directed to thecitizens and it?s 85 people who participated.

This study is based on an inductive approach where the collected empirical data has been categorized in themes on which we have based the discussion in this paper. Using a qualitative method, nine appropriately selected respondents were questioned with an unstructured interview guide. The transition to a society characterized by interaction has caused a greater part for bilateral communication between consumer and consumer but also between consumer and company. The increased usage and integration on Internet has resulted in so called social media channels. User generated material is published on these media channels which leads to discussions about companies, products and services.

The process of food production has changed dramatically over the past one hundred years. Industrialization has led to large units of production, manufacturing, distribution, marketing and retail business. The final food product, in this system, is quite often fairly anonymous and the consumer will most likely know very little concerning the origin of the product. In recent years, the market for locally produced food has grown. There is an increasing interest in and demand for locally produced food items.

The purpose of this essay is to analyze theories about positioning that will create an image of the positioning process, which we later on shall benchmark with other companies way to position their brand. By this, we want to obtain a well-documented work on how Luma Metall AB should work with the positioning on its brand in the future. This essay is based on a qualitative method that is characterized by an abductive approach. The empirical materials we have gathered through interviews with 5 selected persons that are well experienced on the subject have given us important information. We have come to a conclusion how a small company in a B2B market can position itself.

A passive house in Norra Djurgårdsstaden drawn by Tengbom Arkitekter is going to be built. A shaft for airing is needed for a few apartments in the house.The airing shaft is designed for a few two room apartments in the house, which are not able to achieve satisfactory airing, as their outer walls are facing a single direction. The other apartments on the same floor are corner apartments. These apartments do not have the same difficulty with airing since they have their outer walls in different directions, with different pressures at the facades. The airflow in the airing shaft is supposed to be driven only by natural forces, by the sun. The purpose of natural driven forces is to achieve low energy consumption for the house.In this thesis, a design of the shaft for airing has been developed.Initially an open shaft for all apartments was analyzed.

China is considered as one of the world?s fastest growing economies and the future of China looks promising. Even though the Chinese market attracts many new foreign companies to enter the market there are entry barriers which companies may encounter as obstacles, which will aggravate the market entry in China. As a result companies loose business opportunities and therefore it is of great importance for Swedish companies, which are planning a Chinese market entry, to identify which entry barriers that are considered to be the most difficult obstacles to overcome.The purpose of the thesis is to examine which entry barriers that are generally considered to be the most difficult obstacles for Swedish companies to overcome when entering Chinese markets and to rank the five most difficult entry barriers to overcome.Information about these entry barriers have been gathered from Swedish companies, which have carried out successful market entries in the Chinese markets, through an e-mail questionnaire.The result generally shows that the most difficult entry barriers to overcome in China were: bureaucracy, property laws, language, cultural differences and difficulties finding local partners. The ranking of the entry barriers? result shows that bureaucracy is the most difficult obstacle to overcome, followed by cultural differences, language, relations and access to distribution channels.We conclude that companies experience different difficulties overcoming these entry barriers, which depends on the companies? size, years in China, markets and if the entry barriers were considered controllable or uncontrollable.

Title: Multi channel publishing: a qualitative study on how Norrköpings Tidningen publishes news in multiple channelsAuthor: Roland AlbinssonThesis supervisor: Per-Anders ForstorpBackground: In this day and age, the media is omnipresent and a part of our daily life. The phenomenon of media convergence can be traced back to the birth of the internet, and today all of the major newspapers have a website of their own. As a result of multichannel publishing, consumers have a wide range of tv channels to choose from, but there is still uncertainty as to whether more channels automatically equates to more and better news. There is no doubt about the fact that multi channel publishing is a necessary survival skill for media conglomerates today, but effects such as news recycling and the concentration of ownership are in conflict with the consumers? availability demands.Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to, by means of a case study, describe how NT?s multi channel publishing is an expression of media convergence, as well as to study how the news are affected by multi channel publishing.Research procedure: This study is based on three different research methods, observations, text analyses and qualitative interviews.

This study is about how older people are portrayed in TV- commercials, and what those images are saying about senior citizens as consumers. I?ve chosen two of Sweden?s most popular TV channels that are broadcasting commercials and from those two channels recorded commercials in a period of one week, three times a day (morning, afternoon and evening/night). My purpose with this study was to see when older people stared in commercials, which kind of merchandises they were marketing, in which manor they acted out their roles, and (if possible) say something about the elderly people as consumers..

Background: Competition in the market for non-profit actors has increased significantly. More channels to reach potential donors have been designed, and ways to help has been extended. The industry is scrutinized with critical eyes because of the scandals that have emerged in recent years. It has contributed to making it possible to distinguish a negative trend regarding public trust in the sector. The market has therefore changed and the conditions for obtaining donations are different.Aim: The purpose of this thesis is to create a better understanding of how non-profit actors motivate individuals to donate money to their business.

Problem definition: By what marketing communications do consumers want companies in the jewelry industry to communicate its potential CSR activities?Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate in what kinds of marketing communications consumers want the jewelry industry to communicate its potential CSR work.Method: The study has used a quantitative approach to data collection, focused on a survey to answer the purpose of the study and the problem definitions.Conclusion: The study found that the respondents want a clearer communication of CSR work in the industry and that the most suitable communication channels according to respondents differ depending on gender. The female respondents think that the most appropriate channels are product promotions and direct marketing. In contrast, the male respondents think that the channels social media, newspaper and television advertising as well as web sites are more suitable..

The purpose of this study is to investigate differences of how the Swedishemployees union ?Unionen? communicates with its members, on one hand thosewho are members of local union clubs and on the other non-club members. Thenumber of non-club members has increased due to labour market changes implyingthat workplaces have been fragmented and hence affect the possibility to form localunion clubs.The questions posed in the study are: How does Unionen communicate with itsmembers? How does the communication differ between club members and non-clubmembers? What are the preferences of Unionen´s members as far as communicationwith the central organization? What kind of information do the members seek andhow do they find it? What values does Unionen represent? Are there differencesbetween the messages that Unionen is sends out and how members and non-clubmembers, respectively, perceive them?A case study method has been used applying both quantitative and qualitativeanalyses. Quantitative methods have been used in illustrating the number ofdiscussion subjects at Unionen´s website, the members needs for receivingcommunication and channel usage while qualitative methodologies have been usedin interviews with Unionen´s members, club chairmen and union representatives aswell as semiotic picture analyses and analyses based on methods of Uses andgratifications theory.One conclusion of the study is that two significant differences of communicationhave been found between members and non-club members.

The free choice of upper secondary school?A study of the meaning of the information channels for the choice of upper secondary schoolAuthors: David Fridner & Rikard ZeilonMentor: Ingela WadbringQuestionnaire studyDate: 2008-08-11AbstractThe choice of upper secondary school is a very important choice, both for the school and for the ninth grader. In Göteborg, the free choice of upper secondary school has generated several new information channels apart from the traditional counselor, daily news and the acquaintance. Today it is harder than ever to reach the pupil through the constant media noise and new forms of communication such as events appear. The fight for each pupil gets more and more important every term and it has now become real big business.Today?s youth is imprinted by a growing individuality and everyone knows that equableness is something very important.

This study is about how older people are portrayed in TV- commercials, and what those images are saying about senior citizens as consumers. I?ve chosen two of Sweden?s most popular TV channels that are broadcasting commercials and from those two channels recorded commercials in a period of one week, three times a day (morning, afternoon and evening/night). My purpose with this study was to see when older people stared in commercials, which kind of merchandises they were marketing, in which manor they acted out their roles, and (if possible) say something about the elderly people as consumers..