This Master thesis has been carried out at Scania CV AB in Södertälje, in collaboration withKTH, The Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. The focus of this Master thesis isSetBased Concurrent Engineering(SBCE), with the purpose of answering the questions: what isSBCE, how does it work, and for what purposes is it applied.It was early established thatSBCE is often included as a part of Lean product development,which in its turn is often related to Toyota?s way of working. TheSBCE method includesworking with multiple solutions in parallel, eliminating weak alternatives throughout thewhole process. In opposite to a conventional product development process, where it iscommon one at an early stage tries to identify and choose the most promising alternative.Despite the appearance ofSBCE as a resource consuming method, figures from Toyotaindicates the opposite, thatSBCE is in fact a very effective way of working compared to othermore traditional methods.The process of this Master thesis was divided into three phases.

Problem: Trots att betalkort funnits länge i samhället, så används idag kontanter fortfarande i stor utsträckning. Handhavandet av kontanter innebär höga kostnader, dels på grund av extraarbetet det innebär för butiker att räkna pengar varje dag, dels för bankpersonal som ska sköta insättningar och uttag och dels för kostnader till vaktbolag som sköter penningtransporter. Om man vet varför kontanter fortfarande används till så stor utsträckning och till vad, så kan man rikta in sina insatser på var man ska öka betalkortsanvändningen. Avgränsningar: Fokus i denna uppsats är på samtliga svenska konsumenter som har rättighet att få ha betalkort från en bank. Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka om produktegenskaper såsom pris och kvalité påverkar valet om att betala med kort eller kontant. Metod: Undersökningen är genomförd som en kvantitativ undersökning.

This report is the result of a master thesis carried out by the author, student at the Royal Instituteof Technology(KTH). The task was performed as a product development process at a companycalled Ameibo AB, located in Stockholm. It is the final task of the studies at the Master'sprogramme Design and Product Realization. The report is structured in a chronological order anddescribes the methods used, the implementation of these methods and a presentation of theresults given from these studies.Ameibo is a company located in Stockholm, distributing films on the internet. The aim of thismaster thesis was to investigate the possibilities of entering the market for portable devices.

This paper examines what affects the demand for five Swedish ethical funds between the years 1997-2007. The purpose of this study is to examine if there is a relation between fund value and other values than just financial. This study examines if the number of conflicts in the world and the media?s coverage of the climate change debate could have an impact on the demand for ethical fund. A multiple linear regression shows that we don?t have a significant result from the examined variables except for household wealth.

Purpose  The purpose of this paper is from a consumer perspective analysis whether or not blogs are affecting a customer?s purchase behaviour to a larger extent compared to traditional marketing methods through TV commercials. Additionally, within the scope of this try to identify the type of consumers that are more influenced to a purchase decision by blog contents compared to others.Methods Through a quantitative approach this study will examine the effectiveness of advertising in blogs. A survey was used in order to collect data where the respondents corresponded to the population in Sweden in the ages 15-79. Initially the size of the blog audience was estimated and thereafter it was examined how many of these that were affected towards a purchase decision by blogs.

Målet med detta examensarbete har varit att på bästa möjliga sätt finna ett truckdatorsystem som kan förbättra arbetssituationen och säkerheten i Movex på förrådet hos Pharmacia & Upjohn Consumer Healthcare i Helsingborg.Truckdatasystemets främsta egenskaper skall vara enkelhet, smidighet, lätt utbyggbarhet för framtida behov, samtidigt som det skall fungera med det nuvarande Movex systemet.Riktlinjerna som drogs upp för projektets genomförande:? Materialflödesanalys genomfördes och overheadmaterial skapades? Information inhämtades om tänkbara leverantörer på marknaden? Selektering av leverantörer mot upprättad kravspecifikation? Inhämtning av offerter och besök på referensanläggningar? Demonstration och uppkoppling mot Movex på Pharmacia? Prisförhandling, egenskapsbedömning - ordervinnande faktorer? Val av slutgiltig leverantör? ImplementeringsplanDet slutliga valet som truckdatorsystemleverantör föll på Teklogix. Fördelarna med deras system var bland annat följande:? kompakt, lättplacerad terminal? personalens favorit? stor potential att utveckla ett bra system med inläsning av streckkoder på ett rationellt sätt? kort svarstid mellan terminal och Movex? bakåtkompatibelt samtidigt som systemet har stora framtidsmöjligheter.

The product structure of the fuel tank installation is one of the most complex product areas at Scania. Caused by the number of parameters, which affect the fuel tank installation, a product structure is created which is very difficult to handle. Knowledge exist that the structure in a nearby future will be considerable more complex. The purpose of the study has been to understand in why this complexity exist and find ways to break the trend of a growing product structure. The goal was to achieve a more standardized fuel tank installation.A theoretical study was performed in order to bring knowledge in relevant areas both in general theory but also in documentation at Scania.

Studien är utförd på Hammarplast Consumer AB med syftet att skapa djupare förståelse i hur producerande verksamheter arbetar med sina ständiga förbättringar och hur de kan på ett strukturerat sätt utföra förbättringar i den dagliga styrningen för att nå konkurrenskraftig och hållbar utveckling.För att detta skulle uppnås dokumenterades företagets vision och utmaning, som sedan bröts ned till ett detaljrikt måltillstånd med hjälp av att nuläget analyserades i den valda processen. Därefter gjordes små, snabba steg och korrigeringar mot måltillståndet, vilket genomfördes med planering, genomföring, reflektering och uppföljning. Det gav förbättringar som var värdehöjande för företaget och som resulterade i ett steg närmare visionen. Det strukturerade tillvägagångssättet, kata, bidrog till att medarbetarna blev engagerade och involverade.I de avslutande kapitlen fördes en diskussion om hur företaget kan på ett strukturerat sätt utföra deras ständiga förbättringar i den dagliga styrningen som kommer att föra dem emot en konkurrenskraftig och hållbar utveckling..

The society of today is overflowed with information and commercials. There is a thick media noise that the marketers finds hard to penetrate. Bearing this in mind, we can see that Event Marketing, witch is marketing through events, has grown to be a popular form of communication as it has an ability to work its way through the existing media noise. Through events a company can strengthen its brand and image as well as form a lasting relationship with its consumers. What other functions does Event Marketing possess? In what context is Event Marketing an appropriate marketing strategy to use? These are two questions that we aim to answer through this essay.To be able to answer these questions we interviewed the marketing manager of two different companies, L´oréal and TeliaSonera.

There are many researching studies to be found that describes how media relates to men and women differently. Even if it?s a newspaper research or a magazine research they all display the same information. That there are differences in the way that women and men are described or portrayed in articles and pictures. Most of these gender studies are made on a basis of magazines that are mainly intended to men or to women.

Thesis purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to make a contribution, by connecting the transfer of meaning within the context of TV series. The meaning is transferred from the brand to the character in a TV series and then further to the viewer. To look at different role functions that are used in dramaturgy and narrative techniques, we will be able to see how the brand will have a specific role and thereby make the transfer of meaning more successful and effective. This role will have an important impact on product placement according to the meaning that will be transferred from the brand to the viewer, through the character. Methodology: By looking at the transfer of meaning process that is created from the brand, an unstructured observation is applied where we observed the placement and usage of different within a specific TV series. Qualitative strategy is conducted by using a case study.

This study examines the eWOM effect, more specifically: how customer reviews effects consumers. The study is based on a modified version of the Regulatory Focus Theory which describes consumer behavior using consumer consumption goals. The purpose of this study was to examine how positive and negative customer review's influence consumers when analyzing products that are equally characterized by two consumption goals: promotion and prevention goals. The authors combined quantitative (questionnaire) and qualitative (focus groups) research methods with the sample selection for both research methods being based on students of Södertörns University. Results indicate that negative customer reviews have a stronger influence on consumers than positive customer reviews when analyzing products that are equally characterized by the promotion goals and prevention goals.

This thesis is concerning private brands on special display. ICA Gott Liv! was used as a study object and a latin square design was employed, using 2 ICA Kvantum stores. Two displays were built in order to compare which created the most awareness and interest, one with the best selling Gott Liv! product and one with four randomly chosen Gott Liv! products. The data was collected using triangulation, questionnaires, sales data and observations were conducted in the two stores. The results indicated that private brands works as well as manufacturer brands on special display and a display with four randomly chosen products creates more interest and higher sales than the display with the best selling product..

Produktnedläggning är ett sätt för företag att få bort produkter som inte presterar tillfredsställande. Tidigare studier har visat att företag med ordentliga rutiner kring produktavveckling har kunnat tillgodogöra sig flera fördelar i form av bland annat bättre lönsamhet och försäljning. Ändå har forskning visat att de flesta företag inte har några formella rutiner för nedläggning av produkter och att produktnedläggning inte ses som lika viktigt som andra produktaktiviteter. Av den anledningen studeras i denna uppsats hur väl utvecklade rutiner två utvalda företag har för avveckling av produkter.Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur två utvalda företags rutiner för produktnedläggning ser ut. Resultaten jämförs sedan med den teoretiska referensramen samt mellan företagen i fråga för att urskilja likheter och olikheter.Till denna uppsats har en kvalitativ metod använts för att klargöra hur företag går tillväga vid nedläggning av produkter. Genom intervjuer med AB Karl Hedin och Spendrups Bryggeri AB har empirisk data samlats in för att möjliggöra jämförelser företagen emellan samt med den teori som sammanställts.    De två studerade företagen har helt skilda förfaranden kring produktavvecklingar.

Many companies choose to market their products and brands with help from celebrities. This is not a new phenomenon, though, this strategy is something that we consumers start to get used to and the risk that the consumer unconsciously unselects the message grows. A recently much-disputed theory is the use of incongruent marketing. This means that companies uses a marketing message with the objective to not match the consumer?s expectations.