The main drivers of luxury consumption is to obtain prestige and status, therefore the possibility of visible consumption of products is a key dimension of the product. Typical examples of luxury goods include cars, handbags and watches. These are consumed in the public arena where the possibility to show off the product and the brand is the greatest. When examining luxury products and what drives men and women to pay premium prices for a brand and for a logo, a fascinating finding is that there are products that fundamentally lacks these attributes, but which are considered to be classic luxury products. An example of this is perfume.

Electricity production from renewable energy resources such as wind energy and photovoltaics is variable. Integration of these intermittent resources into the electricity system leads to new challenges in how to manage imbalance between supply and demand on the grid.One way to meet these challenges is to develop so-called smart grid solutions. One idea, called demand response, is to adjust the amount or timing of energy consumption, e.g. by control of household appliances, to provide flexibility that could be used to balance the grid. In aggregate, when applied to many units across the system, large volumes of energy could be made available when needed and this grid flexibility can be used as a product on the electricity regulation market.Despite the potential benefits, the number of demand response bids is currently low.

This bachelor thesis argues for consumers' views on origin labeling effect and their willingness to pay for goods with this kind of label. The purpose of this study is to analyze the factors that influence and to measure willingness to pay for a national origin labeled product previously only competeing with a less expensive conventional product, when a further regional product is introduced in the purchasing decisions of consumers. This is achieved by testing whether Simonson's (1989) theory of the compromise effect is applicable to increase consumers' willingness to pay for eco-labeled food products. The factors affecting the willingness to pay; trust in eco- label, opinions about the products of their own nation and the surrounding region. Furthermore presents theory about what underlying the consumer consumption choices.In order to achieve credible results 240 respondents have participated in a questionnaire survey.

AbstractThe aim of my study has been to investigate which expectations students at The Hotel and Restaurant Programme have for their futue working life and labour market. I want to investigate if these expectations are important factors that female dominance is large within the meal service sector. I have chosen to do qualitative interviews to discover these expectations.Some explanations that the respondent give for the gender differences within the restaurant and meal service sectors are the old tradition of male and female work. Furthermore the possibility of becoming well known within the market and the possibility for personal development in this market are described as important factors.The answers to my questions show that all respondents are positive to future work markets; also they all want to work within the restaurant sector and not in the meal service sector. The reasons for their choice cannot give a complete explanation to why female dominance is so big within the meal service sector.Keywords: Gender, status and celebrity-hood..

The basis of the study lies with a newly patented gearbox by cardiologist and inventor Stig Lundbäck. Stig founded CorPower Ocean AB to further develop the gearbox to be used in a wave energy device. The purpose of this project is to develop a concept of a lifting system with CorPower Oceans gearbox that is more energy efficient than a hydraulic lifting system. The goal is to use technology from CorPower Oceans gearbox inversely to perform heavy lifting as an alternative to hydraulics. The project is limited to applying the gearbox and gear rack on a forklift with a lifting capacity of ten tons.The main tool in this project will be the product development process Systems Engineering where only the most relevant parts will be used to develop a concept.

In order to reduce the price for, and improve the performance of automatic control systems for magnetization of synchronus generators, the possibilities of using a PC based software PLC system, Programmable Logic Controller, has been investigated. The result is a system based on the CoDeSys software PLC with runtime environment from 3S-Software, communicating with external units via Modbus fieldbus. System price is reduced from ?5000 to ?2000 and system processing speed is reduced from 10 ms for a Siemens S7 PLC to 4 ms with the CoDeSys PLC system though unsolved problems with runtime seizure caused by improper settings in the PC BIOS..

Examensarbetet undersöker den nya versionen av affärssystemet Microsoft Dynamics AX R2 2012 och dess plattform Commerce Runtime och analyserar dessa ur perspektiven arkitektur och kommunikationsmöjligheter. Examensarbetet undersöker systemets arkitektur och implementerar tre metoder för att visa upp kommunikationen mellan komponenterna i systemet. Undersökningen avgränsar sig dock till de områden av systemet och plattformen som har med butikslösningen att göra. Undersökningen går hand i hand med implementationen. Implementeringen sker löpande under arbetet för att säkerställa att undersökningen stämmer.

The aim of this study is to analyze how problems are represented within SOU 2008:27. Further more, the aim is to analyze how the new subject plan for history can bee seen as a product of this document. The method used, and the theoretical frame of the study, is based on Carol Lee Bacchi?s ?what´s the problem represented to be?? approach, which basic principle is that policies are filled with representations of problems and that these representations need to be examined. These problem representations are then themselves subject for scrutiny, the second step being an analysis of the texts presumptions and assumptions concerning view of man and perception of knowledge. The results show, among other things, that a problem representations can be found in the SOU; the school system is too vague and unclear.

This report covers the product development of a new type of extendable table for the company Karl Andersson och Söner. The company wants to expand their product collection with a new product. Karl Andersson och Söner is a well-known family company that has been located in Huskvarna since 1898, and they are producing furniture for private- and the public environment.The aim with this project is that the product should lead to increased sales, as well as expand their collection to appeal a wider audience. The work is permeated by two issues, to achieve as good results as possible. The issues will bring up how to make a table better, in terms of the competitor?s options, and how to apply a design process to develop a table that meets the markets needs and requirements.The design process of the work consists of strategically picked parts from three separate design processes.

Al Gore may have helped put global warming on the agenda. However, it is not a new subject. Neither is so called green marketing a new phenomenon within branding and communication. As more and more companies establish environmental strategies there exist beliefs that the environmental focus is becoming a triviality, which is the reason for this study. Implementation of words such as ?environmentally friendly?, ?green? and ?global warming? is becoming more and more widespread and frequently used within marketing communication.

Our surroundings are currently vulnerable. People can not know when or how to expect nor prepare for a disaster or an accident. The purpose of this essay was to perform a study of the organization and accessibility of psychological and social support in a crisis situation within the community of Lund.To be able to carry out this study we put up a couple of questions that we hoped would guide us, for example; how do the community prepare and set up the service for people in need of support in connection to a crisis situation? As a method we have used qualitative interviews and literature.The results of our study have shown a discrepancy between the ways the community organizes their service for people in a crisis situation caused either by a catastrophe or an untimely death. In case of an untimely death, ordinary resources are estimated to be sufficient while in case of a catastrophe, extraordinary resources are required.

High brand equity is a great asset for companies that operate their business in a free and competitive market. Brand equity can arise from both product-related and non-product related attributes and may be viewed from many different perspectives. This study examines which different attributes that contribute to enhance brand equity from customers point of view at the Swedish market for agricultural machinery. The study have been developed using a comprehensive literature search in order to investigate the field regarding brand equity and brand image. The literature review results in one product specific and one non-product specific approach in order to examine factors that contribute to enhanced brand equity. This takes the form as one survey-based approach regarding the non-product related attributes which is examined by interpreting the extra value added by different attributes.

This is a master degree thesis at Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) betweenÅngpanneföreningen and Programma. KTH is the examiner, Programma is the client andÅngpanneföreningen is mentor for this project.Programma has a product called TM1800 that has problems with EMC; the problem is thatthis product does only pass the CE-check with a small safety margin. This problem can besolved by reducing the radiation from the electric components in the product or by reducing offix base frame. In this degree thesis the focus is only on mechanical redesign.The main problems right now depends on the long distance between the screws, there is anisolating layer on most of the parts and the forces between the joints are too small. The mainfocus is to solve these three problems.The best solutions are when the whole base frame is more or less redesigned instead of onlyredesigning some of the connection points.

The Swedish population is today exposed to more ads than ever. The number of advertising channels is growing, as well as the number of companies and their advertising expenses. As the products are becoming more alike, the harder it gets for the companies to convince the consumers their product is better than their competitors?. In order to succeed they need to understand what they communicate to the consumers through their different marketing activities, and how that affects the consumers? view of the brand and the product.

This Master Thesis has been carried out in cooperation with Silva Sweden AB. A companywhich manufactures products like compasses, pedometers, headlamps, hiking poles and otherequipment for the out door life and navigation. The purpose of the project has been toassemble methods and models which support user involvement in Silva?s design process.Thus, to increase the number of products with purchasing power, enhance product quality aswell as increase foundation for new product ideas.The focus through out the project has been to assemble a pallet with methods for userinvolvement and from this select a few methods that will fit the company. The purpose of thepallet is to be accessible for the company during their work of change with the design processthat has been going on and will be in the future.