Research in the FMCG sector shows that in-store atmosphere has a great impact on customer attitude and behavior. Despite this, there is a lack of knowledge regarding how the atmosphere influences the customer in a fashion store setting. The purpose with this paper is to investigate if and how visible in-store atmospherics influence customer attitude and behavior in a fashion store setting. We also investigate if behavior and attitude is affected by the customer's expertise and the purpose of the visit. The study takes place in two different fashion stores within the same fashion chain.

Through interaction with customers, companies can acquire knowledge about- and satisfy the needs of customers. In retailing, the ranges of products are standardized and staffing numbers are scarce. How do companies in retailing deal with adaptation towards their customers given the small staffing numbers? The purpose of this study is to examine if and if so, how companies in the Swedish retailing industry are making adaptations towards their customers and also why these adaptations are being made. To answer this purpose, observations in the retailing industry are conducted and the results show that companies adapt to customers? needs.

The competitive environment forces companies to find new ways to meet their customers? needs and satisfy their wants. Companies have to get to know their customers and therefore they collect more and more information about them. The purpose of this study was to examine how convenience stores use customer information. To meet this case study?s purpose two interviews were carried out at both a central level as well as a local level at the studied company.

Our purpose with this study was to look at the pawnbrokers role in the Swedish welfare state from the customers perspective. Our purpose was also to see how the customers used the loan. We wondered why people used the pawnbroker's and how the pawnbroker's could be understood as a providing alternative related to the three spheres state, market and family? Above looking at previous science we also did three interviews with people who worked at a pawnshop, a budgetadvisor and a smaller investigation with customers of a pawnshop.We came to the conclusion that the customer needed the money from the loan to buy food in many cases, according to the investigation we did with the customers. According to the employees the customers needed the money for different things, such as paying the bills or unexpected expenses.

Studies have shown that user participation is a good method when improving or developing a product. The method gives a company insight in what the customer wants and needs. It has also been shown that user participation benefits all parts included. For example, it creates a greater relationship with customers than most other methods do. Webportals is one of the most interactive systems online and it gives companies a unique chance to improve and maintain their relationship with customers.

What is customer satisfaction and when does it occur? Microsoft?s customers and partners state that product quality is the strongest driver for customer satisfaction. To be able to increase customer satisfaction Microsoft must know how their partners and customers define product quality. This study investigates product quality in general terms but also in the context of the product Microsoft Dynamics CRM in addition to experience from some of Microsoft?s customers and partners.

AbstractThe purpose and vision for the municipality of Torsby are to connect with a younger population in the municipality by the year of 2012.This study is a qualitative survey of the target group ?the young ones? within the municipality of Torsby, which is the population between 17?35 years old.Because of the size and the different intrests between the individuals in this group it has been divided into three smaller groups.? High school students, 17-19 years old.? Returning seasonal workers, 20-26 years old.? People who has moved to Torsby and are now living in the municipality, 27-35 years old.The results of the study show that all the respondents believes that with the right communication channels a positive and strong communication between the municipality and the target groups can be reached. The message and the significance of the message are as important as the communication channels and all the target groups together would like to see a wider range of leisure pursuits that will suit the respective target group.The analysis and the results also show that the communication with the target groups should come about in different ways to be successful, both when it comes to fundemental reasons and choices of communication channels.The two youngest target groups has an adjacent and a similar need of well-founded and entertaining communication and information to rach a long-term result.The older group needs communication that will give them opportunity to reflect and concider the message, which means that the municipality of Torsby needs to adjust both the message and the communication channel for a quicker respons. This target group is also in need of further studies so the municipality of Torsby succesfully can plan a more detailed communication, this because the target group is a less homogeneous group than the two other target groups..

Companies of today are facing a development where it is more significant to focus on existing customers since the approach constitute a more cost reducing way, compared to finding new customers. During the last decades the marketing has therefore moved towards a relationship based marketing. Companies emphasize creating long-term relationships with customers, instead of consider the sale as a non-recurrent phenomenon. To engender customer loyalty has been an essential objective in the creation of long-term relationships.In this essay the authors have chosen to do a study which enlighten how companies in the ready-made apparel business produce added value to their brand and through this generate customer loyalty. Through a case study we analyze how Filippa K, Tiger of Sweden and Gant do to maintain value in their brand, in both a business- and customer perspective.

When the competition is getting stronger and companies must work harder to find new markets, new products and create new needs to reach growth, it appears strange that they overlook an obvious target segment right in front of their eyes. For some years ago, marketers of fashion brands feared that older women would wear their clothes, because it gave bad promotion for the young economically viable target group. Today, older women have difficulties finding clothes with right fit, style and personal taste. They would gratefully accept a brand, they felt were aimed for them. The purpose of this study is to give new ideas to companies in the fashion industry, how to reach this target group, but also be a contributing reason for older women to see the market opening for them.

För att överleva på dagens konkurrensutsatta marknad måste företag tillägna betydande resurser till produktutveckling. Det gäller för företagen att tillverka produkter som marknaden efterfrågar till rätt pris och rätt kvalitet. Beslut som fattas under produktutvecklingen påverkar de framtida tillverkningskostnaderna för produkten och blir på så vis väldigt betydelsefulla. Target Costing är en metod för att bearbeta kostnader vid utveckling av produkter i enlighet med marknadens preferenser. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka huruvida Target Costing kan leda till minskad osäkerhet vad gäller beslutsfattande vid produktutvecklingar.

The purpose of this thesis is to test whether firms have target capital structure, and if so with what speed they adjust toward this target. Findings that support this purpose are also in line with the trade off theory. One of the key elements of this thesis is the method used, which successfully enables fulfilling the purpose. The panel data method captures the data characteristics of the cross sectional and time series dimension. By using this approach the dynamic effects of capital structure can be studied, thus if there actually is an adjustment towards a target the speed can be estimated.

We acknowledge the lack of empirical studies of the performance of analyst target prices in the Swedish stock market by examining the profitability of target prices for stocks publicly traded on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. We use consensus target prices issued between 2006-2010 and create two different strategies to observe the abnormal returns generated during this period. Going long in the top decile stocks with the best target prices and going short in the bottom decile stocks with the worst target prices generates a statistically significant abnormal buy-and-hold return of 8.9%. An active strategy with daily portfolio rebalancing and a timely response to target price changes generates a less significant monthly alpha of 1.4% against CAPM. The results show to be robust against the size effect discovered by Fama and French.

This thesis aims to investigate the positioning concept of industrial services. We chose to identify the reasons why positioning is used as well as to describe the positioning process. The research strategy chosen for this thesis was a case study of a consultancy firm Benima AB. This firm was chosen due to the fact that a new positioning concept during the latest year hade been implemented and therefore seemed like a good choice for our study. Of the six available theoretical reasons for positioning, we found that Benima AB had two of them: namely change in target market or their needs and demands and renewed company identity/personality.

Sustainability is today a current topic and companies are more or less forced to work with it even though it contradicts the historical role of companies, which is to generate a profit for shareholders. In recent years there has been a rising interest from banks to work with sustainability but research has shown a growing dissatisfaction among customers even though banks are spending a lot of money and time working with sustainability. This shows that there is an asymmetry between how the banks act and what their customers demand. The purpose of this paper is to create an understanding of how business customers perceive banks´ CSR-reports by investigating customers? interest in these reports.

This thesis addresses online marketing within gaming industry. Some customer identifying methods and website development were introduced as well as examined over the Internet. An empirical study focusing on two gaming companies has been carried out. The purpose has been to describe the use of internet by online gaming companies for online marketing. The thesis will focus on finding out how online gaming companies identify their target groups on internet and how they use internet to reach out to their consumers.