Today's consumers are demanding more and more from companies and are no longer as easy to im-press as they used to be. It is now the consumers that hold an increasing amount of power over com-panies and not the other way around. This change in consumer behaviour has caused an identity crisis for traditional advertising, and companies are now searching for new ways of reaching their target audience. The purpose of this combined qualitative and quantitative case study is to examine possible risks and possibilities that a retailing company face when communicating through Facebook. Data has been collected through in-depth interviews with company representatives combined with a quantitative study of the company's Facebook followers in order to answer the questions of (1) which possibilities and risks a retailing company face through the use of a Facebook fanpage and (2) if there is a differ-ence in the attitude and behaviour of active respectively passive followers that may have been caused by a retailing company's marketing communication on Facebook.

Problem-definition: How companies work with social media to strengthen their brand equity and what other purposes might lay behind this usage.Purpose: How Volkswagen Sweden use social media in order to strengthen their brand equity.Method: Qualitative case- study of Volkswagen Sweden where a number of respondents will be interviewed with the help of a semi structured interview guide.Theories: A number of theories in the field of brand equity and communication theory will be used in this paper, some of these theories are, Post-model, Social technographics ladder, brand equity and word of mouth.Empiric: A semi-structured interview guide will be shaped from theory and answered through interviews with people who have knowledge within the field.Conclusions: Extracted from the results the research members has identified a number of important factors that business should consider when they work with social media or planning to. They have also answered how business can strengthen their brand equity with social media..

Uppsatsen söker förståelse för det nystartade svenska jeansmärket Cheap Mondays snabba och stora framgångar med sitt koncept. Kvalitativa intervjuer med nyckelpersoner på företaget genomfördes. Denna empiri analyserades sedan utifrån modern marknadsföringsteori, till att börja med med hjälp av 4 P-modellen. Denna ledde sedan vidare till fördjupning inom word-of-mouth och varumärkesidentitet. Med hjälp av dessa teorier drogs intressanta slutsatser och vi pekar ut ett antal framgångsfaktorer som haft stor betydelse för märkets popularitet..

This thesis treats the topic of user-generated comments connected with news stories on news sites, meaning electronic word-of-mouth combined with PR. The writers have examined how different types of comments affect consumers' perception of the article and also what communication effects these comments generate in terms of attitudes, purchase intent and word-of-mouth intent. The results interesting to the news site owners, is that lots of comments and negative comments generate a negative effect by making the actual article less credible, attractive and worth reading (relative to the subsequent comments). On the positive side, serious comments imply that the news story is perceived as more interesting, than a news story followed by non-serious comments. From a brand equity perspective, the interesting results show that few comments compared to lots of comments, generate a better attitude to the brand, even though there is no difference in how positive or negative the comments are.

Sammanfattning Uppsatsens titel: Kunden som marknadsförare: en ny modell Ämne/Kurs: Magisteruppsats, FEKP01, 15 ECT Seminariedatum: 2008-01-24 Författare: Alexandra Wahlqvist, Caroline Wallin och Niclas Wejrot Handledare: Gösta Wijk Nyckelord: traditionell marknadsföring, marknadskommunikation, medier, word-of-mouth Syfte: Givet de nya teknologiska utvecklingarna i media ämnar vi undersöka hur marknadsföring och marknadskommunikation har förändrats. Vi åsyftar att utveckla begrepp/modeller som gör det möjligt att bättre förstå fenomenet kunden som marknadsförare samt att relatera detta till traditionella marknadsföringsteorier. Metod: Vår uppsats är av explorativ art baserad på kvalitativa samt kvantitativa empiriska data hämtade från intervjuer och enkätundersökningar. Teoretisk referensram: Denna uppsats är baserad på teorier om marknadsföring, marknadskommunikation samt media. Slutsats: Företagen är medvetna om att word-of-mouth är ett effektivt sätt att marknadsföra men det är inte många som använder det som en uttalad strategi, vilket vi i vår uppsats kommer fram till är möjligt.

Framväxten av en ny kundlogik, orsakad av teknikens framfart, har tvingat företag och organisationer att hitta nya tillvägagångssätt för att nå potentiella medlemmar eller kunder. Sociala medier är ett fenomen som har utvecklats från att vara ett kommunikationsverktyg för privatpersoner, till att bli ?ett nödvändigt ont? och en viktig del av marknadskommunikationen för många företag.Med denna uppsats vill vi utforska hur en ideell förening använder sociala medier för sin marknadsföring, vilka risker detta medför och vad som kan göras för att undvika dessa. Uppsatsen är en fallstudie som bygger på metodtriangulering och karaktäriseras av en abduktiv ansats. Studien baseras på två kvalitativa personliga intervjuer och en kvantitativ undersökning i form av enkät.

Syftet med denna kandidatuppsats har varit att, genom en studie av interaktionen mellan mäklare och dess kunder samt interaktionen mäklare emellan, försöka svara på hur fastighetsmäklaren agerar i sitt dagliga arbete. Metoden som använts har varit en kvalitativ studie vilken genomförts genom en deltagande observation. Mäklarna på en fastighetsbyrå har studerats utifrån ett dramaturgiskt och ett markandsföringsperspektiv. Mäklarens arbete med att skapa legitimitet för tjänsten och en god image illustreras i form av termerna roller, kundrelationer, kundnöjdhet och word-of-mouth. Uppsatsen utmynnar i en diskussion där mäklarens påstådda oumbärlighet som mellanhand vid fastighetsaffärer ifrågasätts..

The purpose of this study is to highlight the opportunities of using social media as a communicative tool to attract and engage customers on different social media platforms. In recent years social media has become an important way for business to communicate with people both national and global. The idea behind this thesis was found when we saw different approaches of how companies used social media as a marketing tool. Through a qualitative approach we did eight interviews with six different companies and two social media consults which have given us a basis of what companies really want to achieve with social media. With these interviews we were able to analyze and discuss the abilities to interact with people and how companies distribute content that engage users and increase their credibility to the company..

Word-of-mouth marketing (WOM) has been considered as one of the most effective marketing tools, yet the least understood. While its lucrative effects have been well proven in academic studies worldwide, little is yet known of why consumers engage in WOM, and what factors actually drive this sought-after behavior, particularly in an online context. While today's research lacks holistic views on the simultaneous effects of multiple WOM-drivers, this paper takes on a meta-analytic approach by building on the pertinent literature to construct an aggregated model, including several previously acknowledged drivers divided into two categories: (1) Brand related drivers and (2) Personal and situational drivers. The authors then empirically examine what drivers are the most influential on WOM in an online social media context. By doing so, this thesis does not only contribute to marketing managers' better understanding of online communications management, it also sheds light on the theoretical knowledge of the behavioral drivers of WOM.

This study aims to describe how a company behind a well-established brand in the fashion industry has strategically chosen to communicate with their target market. Interviews with four individuals in different positions within the company have generated qualitative data, which is presented and analyzed in relation to the theoretical frame of reference in this study. The results show that the company does not use conventional marketing, but relies rather on marketing based word-of-mouth generated by its customer base due to its unique store concepts. Previous research has shown that this type of marketing strategy is effective and beneficial to the brand equity, a conclusion that is demonstrated to also apply to the survey object of this study. Furthermore, it is also shown that this is largely due to the distinct and coordinated image that the company maintains through strict standardization..

This bachelor thesis in tourism studies focuses on people's use of social media related to travel. The paper aims to provide a wider knowledge of tourist?s propensity to display destinations through social media and how they perceive others that display travelling. This is put in relation to the term of social status in order to find out if there is a possible link. The intention was to provide an insight into the phenomenon to contribute new awareness that destinations can exploit in their marketing.

I kollektivtrafiken är socialt oacceptabla beteenden vanligt förekommande och många anställda blir utsatta för kränkningar såsom utskällningar, förolämpningar och/eller svordomar (Strandberg et al. 2008). Branschstatistik visar att ungefär hälften av samtliga arbetsskadeanmälningar till Arbetsmiljöverket mellan åren 2005-2007 kunnat kopplas till våld, hot eller rån (Strandberg 2008). Både polis och socialsekreterare har en lägre anmälningar andel än kollektivtrafiken, medan endast yrkesgrupperna kriminalvårdare och väktare har en högre andel.För att ha en möjlighet till att reducera dessa oacceptabla beteenden är det viktigt att studera kundbeteenden och hitta orsaken till att kunder blir missnöjda. Företag och organisationers kunskap om kundbeteenden är en viktig framgångsfaktor.

Sociala mediers uppkomst har inneburit nya möjligheter för marknadskommunikation men de har också vänt upp och ner på traditionella marknadsföringsmetoder. Det finns därför en osäkerhet kring hur mediernas fulla potential för dialog, interaktivitet, relationsbyggande och viral spridning ska utnyttjas. Syftet med denna studie är därför att skapa ökad kunskap och förståelse för hur ideella organisationer använder sociala medier för att kommunicera samt skapa och underhålla relationer till sina supportrar. En flerfallstudie genomfördes av tre väletablerade ideella organisationer i Sverige, Djurens Rätt, Greenpeace Sverige och Amnesty Sverige. Empirin samlades in med hjälp av intervjuer med ansvariga för kommunikationen i sociala medier inom respektive organisation.

Social media provides, as many points out, new possibilities for marketing. Marketing in social media requires a two way communication, rather than the traditional marketing where the communication model is typically sender ? receiver.To create a marketing campaign that is suitable for a two way communication model has its difficulties and risks as well as its opportunities. Opportunities in the sense that the campaign can become a viral, a Word of mouth and create a Buzz, which will reach potential customers, to a bigger quantity for lower costs, with a message that will make a different impact from the types of commercial messages we are used to. Risks in the sense that the message, if not properly aimed and phrased, can be turned overnight into something that humiliates the company and possibly harm its brand.The difficulties in creating such a campaign is to create something that will catch people?s attention, discuss and forward it, while at the same time avoid getting hurt.We aim to describe the internet from a cultural context, and from that point of view explore the types of misunderstandings which often seem to happen when a corporate message is created and sent out in social media, how to avoid putting the image of a company in danger when doing this, and examine if there is ways to know how the message will be received.

abstract buzz marketing, the phenomena Have you ever thought about why the small French pastries called macarons suddenly became so extremely popular? Soon they were seen everywhere in the media, on every celebrity party and shortly after of course on every Swedish person?s cake dish. Could it be that a trendy it-girl happened to mention these lovely creations in her blog?What (or who) is it really that decides and controls what is popular and what is going to sell? If one individual can influence a whole group of followers it is definitely something marketers should take advantage of. One cannot any longer rely on traditional advertising, one needs to be more creative and rethink the possibilities to get through the media noise.