The purpose of this essay was to examine the packaging design´s communications related to the colloquially brand's symbolic capital and how they became meaningful through experience and perceptions that led to the identification processes in the consumer society. There were eight interviews of snuff users who became my main collections materials. My theoretical framework was discourse psychology´s emphasis on language and Bourdieu´s concept provided important tools in the analysis of the material.I could highlight that packaging design and the brand had influenced the informants and given them symbolic beliefs and what it meant to sniff a certain brand. Color, brand awareness and price were crucial in choosing where the informants attributed themselves the cans symbolic values to their identity. It could be inferred high and low status perceptions based on stereotypes in the design itself..

The Swedish real estate market has experienced an intense increase of demand during the last ten years. Thus, people regularly visit real estate websites, as well as home improvement and interior design have become extremely popular. However, the Swedish real estate agencies still have not developed a theoretical framework on how to most effectively market the properties. The main purpose of this study was to investigate how interior in apartment advertising affects the buyer's interest in the apartment, and furthermore to start building a framework for how to effectively use interior as a marketing tool. The study connects theory regarding social identity, advertising effectiveness and product personality in order to investigate consumer behaviour in the real estate market.

Service branding is a subject that has been excluded from the traditional branding theory. Our main purpose with this paper is to distinguish what characterizes service branding. To do this, we have looked in to both service marketing theory as well as branding theory. We have also looked at the existing theory concerning service branding. Six qualitative interviews have been performed to explain what characterizes service branding.

Earlier studies and research on the subject of perception and social media during the working process resulted in a change of the problem. At first the focus of the study was to examine how social media affects the perception of a brand although later on the problem had to be developed to instead examine if social media reflects the perception of a brand. The purpose of this study is to figure out if social media reflects consumer?s perception of a brand. This will contribute to company?s knowledge on how important social media is in their branding and will give pointers on how many resources that is necessary to spend on branding in social media.

The personal brand derives from the marketing brand, and argues that a person can take control over other people?s perceptions about him or her. The personal brand can benefit the person but it can also give advantages to his or her company. The interest in, and the purpose of the personal brand, has increased the last ten years. Leaders of large companies in Sweden consider it to be of utmost importance to have an influence on their co-workers.

This paper examines a popular music song (Heartbeats by Jose Gonzalez) as a sign system in television advertising. The study was conducted through qualitative questionnaires in connection to an audio-visual method of analysis called Masking. The method facilitates the analysis of isolated parts in the audio-visual spectrum by masking/hiding parts of the audio-visual totality.The survey had seven respondents where a hermeneutic epistemological approach was used. For the analysis Cooper's theory of brand identity (Practical and Symbolic Attitudes to Buying Brands) was used together with an interaction model for music in audio-visual advertising called "Modes of music-image interaction?.

Personal branding is a common phenomenon within the Swedish business world, although less applied on the competitive and fast paced music industry. In order to strengthen Swedish artists' personal brands and to ensure congruence between the artists' presented identities and the target audiences' perceived images, we have developed a model, containing of seven essential factors. The seven dimensions authenticity, credibility, certainty, openness, availability, awareness and timeliness help improve strength when communicating brand identity, as well as minimizing potential discrepancy between identity and image. This report examines the brand strategies within the Swedish music industry through a case study of Sweden's largest pop star, Eric Saade, where Team Saade's communicated identity is compared to the targets audience's perceived image of Saade. Overall, Saade's personal brand has a high level of congruence, except from the clarity dimension, where his words are considered differing from his actions.

The purpose of the thesis Masculinities ? Gender and its Impact on the Social conditions of individuals is to perform a critical study of how gendered norms influence the social conditions of individuals. This has been done by a problematization and the attempt to answer the question of how the hegemonical masculinity can be analyzed as a discourse, and how the structural aspects of this discourse inflict on the social conditions of masculinities.The question was divided into the analytical themes: the boarders of the discourse, the institutionalization of the discourse, the actuation of the discourse and the agents of the discourse. The theoretical frame is constituted by the theory of discourse by Michel Foucault, the theory of the hegemonical masculinity by R.W. Connell and a subversive identity theory by Judith Butler.

This study has a focus on brand building and brand identity. The overall idea of the study is to examine the Swedish clothing company WeAretheSuperlativeConspiracys brand building tactics and activities. WeAretheSuperlativeConspiracys, or WeSC, is a company that produces and sells streetfashion in over 20 countries and has over 1600 distributors. The company has in the recent years grown to become one of the largest in its segment. The interesting factor in WeSC´s brand building activities is the use of Weactivists.

Social networks have become an important factor in today?s society. Companies as well as individuals are using these platforms to interact with one another on a daily basis. This phenomenon has mostly been acknowledged by companies on B2C markets where these social network sites are being used to communicate their brand. On B2B markets however, the usage of these platforms have not been as optimistically implemented.

The study investigated pensioners? forming of identity during the ageing process and the correlation between norms and identity. Previous research has shown that there are norms and notions about elderly and what growing old well implies. There is missing research on the level of the individual with norms, ageing and the process of identity formation. There is a large population of pensioners in Sweden and the authors behind this study wish that the results of it will help study counsellors to approach pensioners? in a norm critic way.

This is an interview based qualitative case study on two Women's Migrant Associations in Malmoe, which I interpret as being part of a women's movement, with characteristics of a new social movement. The aim of this study is to get a deeper understanding on how the collective identity is being constructed, in this women's movement where the membership is not based on an exclusive ethnic identity.I make a two dimensional analysis that departs from a social constructivist underpinning, including the theories Transversial Politics, Postcolonial feminism and New Social Movement Theory.First I analyze the construction of collective identity from the external social and cultural context, and get confirmed that the collective identity of the movement is based on a common experience of social exclusion and a plurality of actions that aims to fight the structural injustices based on gender and ethnic discrimination. Secondly I analyze how the collective identity is being constructed and maintained from the interactions between the members of the movement, from an understanding of Transversial Politics. My findings show that the members of the movement interact in a participatory democratic way which generally corresponds to Transversial Politics. According to Transversial Politics this can lead to a construction of an empowered inclusive collective identity for the members and as my empirical study confirms it also means possibilities for deconstruction of boundaries between social groups..

Competition is keen in the fashion industry of today. Homogenous products and prices aredriving competition and most firms are struggling hard to attract customers. Brands havebecome one of the most important assets for success and are often critical for the choices of theconsumers. A strong brand is often considered as a substantial value in the eyes of the consumerand gives the individual firm a competitive advantage in the marketplace. To build a strongbrand it takes that the brand identity not is in conflict with the brand image of a firm or a product.Sometimes one of these conflicts exit and sometimes the firms are not even aware of it.In this thesis we study how two firms, Lindex and Prada, perceive their own image and then wecompare how the images of the firms are perceived by the customers.

The concept of brand equity emerged inthe eightiesto justify the long term value of marketing investments. Brand equity signify the value that a brand adds to a product and is the result of the marketing of a brand. One of the most widely used strategies to enhance brand equity is to do a brand extension, which means that a firm uses an established brand to introduce a new product to the market. At worst, a failed brand extension can damage the brand equity, which Vinjamuri (2008) claims that the brand Axe is currently in danger of doing. This January Axe launched an extention including products for both men and women for the first time and Vinjamuri claims that this can disappoint Axe´s former target group (men between 14 and 27 years old) (Newman, 2012). In this thesis Axe´s brand equity among the extensions target group (men and women, age 14 to 27) in Sweden is studied to find out if the brand extension is likely to affect the brand equity in the target group.

Title: Social Media ? And customer interaction in smaller firmsSeminar date: 2011-06-10Course: Information Logistics, D-level.Authors: Marie Stenhammar and Ulrika CarlssonAdvisor: Jaime CamposKey words: Social Media, Web 2.0, Co-creation, Viral marketing, Word of Mouth, smaller firmsPurpose: This paper aims to describe the relevance of social media to smaller firms, the challenges and opportunities they face and what strategies they use, in the interaction with their customers.Methodology: The study is qualitative in nature and has an abductive approach. The empirical material consists of in-depth interviews with chosen companies and Internet observations.Theoretical perspectives: Social Media, Web 2.0, Co-creation, Viral marketing, Word of MouthEmpirical foundation: The study takes its empirical base from in-depth interviews with representatives from the small companies and internet observations connected to these.Conclusions: Smaller companies have great interest in social media. They preferably use Facebook, blogs, YouTube and Twitter. Their strategy is mainly to be very active and update their social media regularly.