Since the financial crisis of 2007, the global financial market has been characterized by instability. At the same time the banks? lending rates and its link to the reporänta have been in the spotlight in various debates in the media. The government with Anders Borg leading the charge has criticized the banks for not lowering their lending rates when the reporänta has been lowered. The banks defend themselves by saying that the reporänta does not have a direct link to their lending rates anymore.

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 market for management consulting services is changing with an increased level of competition and more specialized service providers. At the same time there is a high level of companies that fail in their efforts to establish themselves on the market. This thesis sets out to give the reader an increased understanding of the complex characteristics of the market for these services, focusing more specifically on which factors that have an effect on the strategy development for companies within the industry. The thesis is also aimed at providing the reader with a deeper understanding of how developing consulting companies can tackle the specific challenges facing them. In order to meet the purpose of the thesis, we have applied relevant theories to a generic strategy model in order to develop a model that is applicable for the management consulting industry.

This market study was written on behalf of Uni4 Marketing (U4M) and investigates the Egyptian softwood market. The objective was to identify what characterises a good softwood supplier according to Egyptian importers. In addition to this U4M?s competitiveness compared to their competitors was evaluated. The study also identified possible sources of competitive advantage possessed by U4M.

Hinder för marknadstillträde är viktigt i många avseenden. För ett företag som slår sig in på en ny marknad är det viktigt att veta vilka hinder det möter. För konkurrensrättsliga myndigheter är det nödvändigt att veta vilka hinder som existerar för att exempelvis kunna avgöra om ett företag har en dominerande ställning. Det är också nödvändigt att känna till hindren för att säkerställa en fri tillgång till marknaden. Det saknas dock en generellt accepterad definition av hinder för marknadstillträde.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to analyze and evaluate essentialprerequisites for companies and corporations aiming at marketingglobal brands in a restricted market.Method:The investigation strategy used for this essay was to perform a casestudy on the Islamic Republic of Iran. Both primary data ? such as asurvey, interviews and participating observation ? and secondarydata ? found in books, scientific articles and the internet ? have beenused to achieve the results. The gathering of empirical data wasperformed inside the Islamic Republic of Iran during two weeks inNovember 2007 in three different cities: Tehran, Ispahân and Bâbol.This was carried out by considering several theories: globalbranding strategies, brand equity, involvement theory andcommunication models.Results: The outcome of this essay show several factors that should be takenin consideration in relation to marketing global brands in Iran. Manycompanies have chosen adaptation as their promotion? and productstrategy because of countless rules and restrictions hindering globalmarketing.

The report aims to examine how property owners position themselves to reach their targetmarket, and which strategies they use when positioning their product. The investigation has beencarried out mainly in the form of a case study in which a number of interviews with Stockholmreal estate companies has been conducted, focusing on commercial property market segment.The interviews have resulted in identification of common and specific strategies among thecompanies. These strategies have been analyzed in the light of the theory by Philip Kotler andKevin Lane Keller, focusing on how an offer should be designed to reach a competitive position.It can be concluded that positioning is a key activity for successfully addressing the targetmarket. Successful positioning mandates three key requirements to be met; determining thecategory to which the offer belongs, identifying similarities and differences compared to thecompetitors and developing a brand mantra. The result of the case study concludes that theproperty companies work similar in many ways.

Background: Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, MiFID, was implemented in Swedish law in 2007 and aimed to increase competition of the securities market in order to achieve efficiency and lower transaction costs and to enhance investor protection. Another aim was to increase confidence in the market. After the implementation of MiFID some doubts had been highlighted regarding its intentional effects. This evoked the authors? interest to examine the directive?s effects and its impact on investors? trust.Aim: To examine how various participants in the Swedish securities market experienced changes since the implementation of MiFID in 2007, and its impact on the securities market and minor investors' trust.Method: The study applied a qualitative method with a deductive approach to describe, interpret and understand the problem area.

With recent technical development computer aided design and manufacturing has taken amore important role in the product life cycle. New business segments such as Product/ServiceSystems and remanufacturing is emerging. This development demands better control of theproduct data throughout the entire product life cycle. Computer aided design is widelyrecognized and used within the manufacturing industries and in recent years the importance ofDigital manufacturing has increased. One part of Digital manufacturing is paperlessproduction which involves all orders and working instruction shown for example on a screenrather than on a piece of paper.

The aim of this thesis is, from a business perspective, to examine how the pharmacy chain Medstop is working with their positioning in order to achieve competitiveness in the re-regulated pharmacy market. This is studied through a theoretical framework that demonstrates five forces that affects the competitiveness in an industry, the five-force model by Michael Porter.The thesis is a qualitative case study where data collection was done through interviews, literature, articles, websites and internal information from Medstop. The data was then complied into the theoretical perspective the authors have chosen for this paper, the five-force model by Michael Porter. This model was chosen because it gives a broad description of the competition a company faces by describing five different forces that affect the competition within a branch. The fact was collected on the basis of the marketing strategy positioning, and the essay is written from a business perspective.Our cunclusions are that the pharmacy chain Medstop are in their initial positioning and has chosen to position itself on the basis of their core values; credibility, safety and security.

The decision of the European Commission to block the merger between Volvo and Scania in the late 90?s became the starting point to the debate of the possible discriminating effects of the European merger regulation. Especially since the Commission a few years earlier had approved of the merger between Mercedes-Benz and Kässbohrer on the German bus market, where the conditions for competition had been similar to those at hand in the Swedish case. The issue that was and still is in focus is whether the European merger regulation is more difficult to pass for large companies situated on a smaller domestic market than is the case for their competitors of corresponding size but situated on a larger domestic market.This thesis aims at examining what the judgement of the geographical relevant market means for the application of the Merger act. This is being done from two perspectives.

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.

The travel agencies exist on a market that is distinguished by increasing competition. A majority of the travel agencies offer different services that all satisfie the same customer need. However,one major difference in the market aspect is the service quality, this making it an important mean of competition. There are several acknowledged methods of measurement when it comes to service quality and it is important to use an instrument that takes into consideration the fact that charter tours is a complex merger of several services. The purpose of this essay is to establish if the SERVQUAL method is a suitable instrument for measuring service quality in the travelindustry.

Health and convenience trends dominate the food industry and retailing business of today. The health consciousness is spreading while appealing product attributes concerning taste and packaging also are increasingly important. At the same time, the competition is growing fierce in the Swedish market with hard discount formats and niche concepts who also are trying to provide the market with perishables. Therefore, the pressure to lower prices is increasing making economies of scale and rationalization progressively more important. In 2004, ICA launched private label meat packaged in a modified atmosphere. Consequently, many stores went from in-store cutting-up and packaging to selling centrally packaged and distributed meat. ICA is now developing a concept with fresh fish in modified atmosphere packages and needs to increase the knowledge about the market and the consumer.