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. The research, that is mainly based on theory by Keller et al. (2008), is made through a comperative study of two groups, where one group is given information about the brand extension. The results of the research indicate that Axe's brand equity is neutral or negative among the target group and that the brand extension has no noticable impact on Axe´s brand equity. / Under 80-talet uppkom konceptet varumärkesvärde för att motivera det långsiktiga värdet av marknadsföringsinvesteringar. Varumärkesvärdet betecknar det mervärde varumärket tillför en produkt och är ett resultat av marknadsföring av varumärket. En av de mest använda strategierna för att stärka varumärkesvärdet är att genomföra varumärkesutvidgningar, vilket innebär att ett befintligt varumärke används för ett nytt marknadserbjudande. Om en varumärkesutvidgning misslyckas kan den i värsta fall skada varumärkesvärdet, något som Vinjamuri (2008) menar att varumärket Axe riskerar att göra i dagsläget. I januari i år lanserade Axe för första gången en varumärkesutvidgning som innehåller produkter för både kvinnor och män, vilket enligt Vinjamuri kan göra Axe:s tidigare målgrupp (män i åldern 14-27) besvikna (Newman, 2012). I denna uppsats undersöks Axe:s varumärkesvärde hos målgruppen (kvinnor och män i åldern 14-27 år) för utvidgningen i Sverige för att ta reda på om varumärkesutvidgningen kan tänkas påverka varumärkesvärdet hos målgruppen. Undersökningen som huvudsakligen utformats enligt teori ur Keller et al. (2008) görs genom en jämförande studie av två grupper varav den ena gruppen får information om varumärkesutvidningen. Undersökningens resultat tyder på att Axe:s varumärkevärde är neutralt eller negativt hos målgruppen och att Axe Anarchy inte har någon märkbar påverkan på varumärkesvärdet. / Linn Gustafsson, Emma Engqvist

With rapid change in social and economic surroundings in Taiwan, consumption behavior of Taiwanese changes gradually. College students maybe are the group that changes their behaviors significantly in this environment. They start to emphasize their ¡§personal style.¡¨ For most young people, purchasing is not only related to their needs, but also related to brands, design, and package. Therefore, how to combine ¡§arts¡¨ and ¡§brand¡¨ in order to attract young people¡¦s attention and satisfy their tastes is a key factor for enterprises in the future. After all, what interesting results will be generated if a product is included both ¡§art work¡¨ and ¡§a terrific brand¡¨? Will young people become the major consumers for those commodities? Are their consumer behaviors different from other groups? And what factors motive them to buy those products? These questions are discussed in this study. The purposes of this research are as follows: to understand young people¡¦s consumer behavior on commodities which are combination of art work and a brand; to understand what factors encourage young people to buy the product; and to make sure the acceptance of these communities in the market. Survey research was chosen as methodology in this research. The target population was college and graduate students in Taipei. Drop-off survey was major method for collecting data. Three hundred ninety-seven samples were sent out, 302 samples were returned, and 291 were valid. The valid response rate was 96.36%. According to the result, the acceptable degree in the market for these commodities was high. Clothing/Accessory, 3C, and sport products were the primary choices of young people. When college students purchased these commodities, they thought uniqueness and artistry were most important, and prices as well as quality were second important. Regarding to sales promotion, young people preferred discount and limit edition. Reasons for buying these commodities were to please themselves and enjoy the design. Most young people would buy these commodities because of their brands; however they also cared about the impression and style of artists.Generally speaking, young people showed positive attitudes and sound impressions for the corporation between artists and brands.

Previous works on organizational attractiveness always focused only on organizational-level factors, such like organizational or work characteristics. However, there are only limited researches discussing the influence of individual-level issues. Therefore, the multi-level theory will be applied to this paper to discuss the relationship among organizational characteristics, employer knowledge and job seeker¡¦s intention to apply. Moreover, this paper draws on marketing concepts of consumer-based brand equity to the recruitment context to identify the dimensions of employer knowledge. Based on data collected from 43 companies and 329 job seekers in the job fair, the finding suggests that organizational size is significant and positively related to both job seekers¡¦ employer knowledge and their intention to apply. Furthermore, all of the dimensions of employer knowledge are significant predictors of job seekers¡¦ intention to apply. Specially, the result also shows that organizational size is significant related to job seekers¡¦ intention to apply through employer knowledge. While taking employer knowledge into consideration, organizational size¡¦s initial influence on job seekers¡¦ intention to apply is completely disappearing. This finding confirms the mediate effect of employer knowledge between organizational characteristics and job seekers¡¦ intention to apply.

Establishing the network of urban public transportation is not only an efficient way to solve the problem of traffic jam, but also to improve the efficiency of transportation between two distination ; The most importantly, it also create many commercial activities along the public transportation network. Kaosiung Rapid Transit System has started to build since 2001, and scheduled to open by the end of 2007. It¡¦s the first urban public transportation system in Kaosiung. The citizens who live in Kaosiung are all have high expectation to it. However, during 2004 to 2005, there are so many bad news about Kaosiung Rapid Transit Company(KRTC) , including public security accident and frauds, and seriously impact to the image of KRTC. For efficiently improving corporate image and awareness, upgrading the future intention of Kaosiung citizens to Kaosiung rapid transit system, KRTC cooperate with National Sun Yat San University to organize an educational activity. According to statistic, there are ten universities and over two hundred students involve this program. The main purpose of this study is to research by sponsoring an educational activities, the change of students¡¦ attitude, image and awareness to sponsor. Researcher combines theories of brand equity and Involvement Theory for research structure. This thesis obtained research datum by questionnaires, and the datum was analyzed with descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, and regression. The principal findings of this research are as follows: The corporate sponsored educational activities can bring positive effect on brand equity, including raise to brand awareness, establish, strengthen, or change brand and corporate image and to upgrade service intention. For corporate, sponsorship is a new effective promotion tools. However, the corporate sponsorship behavior must to express their sincere, but not on the basis of business benefits.

Today, sport managers view their teams, leagues and properties as brands to be managed. Researchers revealed that positive brand image generates additional revenue, increased merchandise sales, national media exposure, corporate supports, and increased ticket sales (Gladden et al., 1998). Consequently, understanding consumers perspective and how to enhance stronger brand equity are important for Turkish soccer clubs. From this point / the purpose of this study was to examine consumers&rsquo / perception on brand associations and affects of some factors on brand equity of soccer teams. In order to measure the consumer-based brand associations of Turkish soccer teams, the Turkish version of Team Association Scale was distributed to 156 undergraduate university students at Middle East Technical University and Gazi University.Results of this study indicated that tradition, product, affect and coach and nostalgia were perceived as the most important factors associated to the brand image of soccer teams. The findings of this study also revealed that, while males, heavy users and merchandise buyers associate tradition, product features, affect and coach and nostalgia with their team&rsquo / s brand, females, light users and fans who have not bought merchandise give more importance to star players in regards their contribution to brand image of soccer teams. Therefore, Turkish soccer teams should use marketing strategies to emphasize brand associations to create and enhance stronger brand equity and to gain additional revenues.

Firms invested numerous resources in enhancing brand equity. The overall efforts in enhancing design, researching, manufacturing, marketing mix, quality, customer satisfaction, etc are all necessary conditions needed for a firm to enhance its brand equity. Among them, enhancing product identity is one of the ways available. Firms have been developing corporate identity systems (CIS) for years, yet beyond distinctive shop signs, trademarks and layouts, they could spend efforts on products. Firms could develop products with high identity, and use them on enhancing their own brand popularity. If combined with other advantages possessed by a firm, the brand equity must thus be further enhanced. This is the key issue when Taiwan¡¦s industries are trying to transform into OBM. This thesis served ³¯°ê²»¡¦s (1995) six dimensions on product styles as the basis, and tried to verify the hypothesis that Apple¡¦s series products possess high identity. This research also examined the relation between customer satisfaction and product identity. In addition, this study added the marketing mix, user and using conditions as variables in order to understand the comments of Apple¡¦s users (consumers) on Apple¡¦s series products. This study also conducted questionnaire surveys with aforementioned dimensions, participated in Apple users¡¦ gatherings and interviewed employees in Apple¡¦s channels in Tainan and Kaohsiung. The outcomes indicate that high identity is found on the exterior of Apple¡¦s products, and high satisfactions are found regardless of user and using condition. On marketing mix, however, results are indicating that the satisfactions of Apple¡¦s marketing mix are generally low, yet high scores are still documented on dimensions of Apple¡¦s brand equity. This research discovered that product identity dimension and marketing mix dimension bear positive relations with brand equity, and the customer satisfaction was performed as a mediating factor. Insignificant loadings are found on the user and using condition factors.

<p>Problem: The growth of the service industry has led to increased competition, and branding has become a tool for gaining competitive advantages. Because services are essentially intangible, the branding of services is important and different from the branding of products. A strong brand offers many advantages in the service industry and when evaluating the strength of the brand, the concept of brand equity is used. As no in-depth research has been conducted to explore how small service firms operate to create brand equity, we have set out to investigate how this is done in the everyday work. Previous research also falls short of relating the area of service branding to small service firms.</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine how small service firms operate to build brand equity in relation to the service branding model.</p><p>Method: We have chosen to use a qualitative approach and conduct a collective, instrumental case study consisting of four companies. The data have been collected through interviews.</p><p>Conclusion: The influences of external brand communications are greater in small service firms than in large ones while the impact of the presented brand is less significant. We have therefore adjusted the service branding model in accordance to these differences.</p>

<p>As technology continues to affect the business sector, many companies have been faced with the nesessity of transformation. Adapting to a new, more Internet based society im-plies that companies are venturing into new market channels to get their products or ser-vices out to the consumers. Simultaneously as many companies are digitalizing, they are also launching or planning to launch brand extensions. Combining the two phenomenon’s we get a corporate situation that is vaguely explored, namely how a brand extension be-tween market channels work. Further more, how can value be transferred in this process?</p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to further investigate the phenomenon described above and to gain more understanding about the new situation. Therefore, the authors have chosen to conduct an empirical investigation exploring how a company can transfer brand value to a new online product or service. This was done in cooperation with the company Eniro that recently have focused their efforts from their traditional printed market channel into a digital brand extension. During the study 15 in-depth interviews with small to medium sized companies were performed, and backed up with complementary communication with managers at Eniro. Four research questions were formulated to serve as a read thread throughout the work. The main aim was to evaluate brand equity of the traditional product to then compare if this brand equity had been transferred to the new online extension.</p><p>After having performed the in depth interviews with representatives from the various companies, the authors could conclude that the original product of the printed directory with the company/person Gula Sidorna held stronger brand equity than the online exten-sion despite the company’s effort to promote the extension. The authors believe the rea-sons for this could be that during the process of extending the brand, some strategic deci-sions were made that did not enable the parent brand value to be transferred to the new extension. There were however value in the new extension in terms of simplicity and speed. Being able to quickly respond to the new and dynamic market where speed to market can be an important advantage was part of the positive associations for eniro.se. In the discussion regarding the main issue of transferring brand value to a digital platform the authors found that one of the most vital aspects is having clear communication within the organisation, sending out a clear message in marketing activities, not forgetting to emphasize reliability and stability to ensure that people in all ages feel inclined to use the digital product.</p>

Problem: How do Barilla position and communicate its brand in the Swedish market and how do Swedish consumers recognize the Company’s positioning? Do they perceive the Brand in line with the intended positioning? Purpose: Investigating in which way and to which extents Barilla achieves and communicates a suitable positioning in the Swedish market. On the other hand, assessing how consumers and potential customers perceive the brand Barilla, evaluating if they perceive it in line with its intended positioning. Method: The research is mainly based on primary data: the Company´s perspective through a personal interview with Barilla´s brand manager; the consumers´ perspectives through 300 questionnaires distributed outside ICA Maxi in Hälla (Västerås). Theories: Brand equity; Brand positioning; Promotional mix. Conclusions: Barilla pursues a suitable positioning in Sweden, positioning itself on attributes which are valuable, and sought by customers. Consumers´ perception of the intended positioning is generally correct, since the main aspects which the Company focused on are commonly identified and considered familiar by the public

Denna uppsats behandlar varumärkesassociationer samt dess påverkan på varumärkeskapital. Uppsatsen är genomförd som en fallstudie och undersöker hur det svenska telekommunikationsföretaget Tre tolkar konsumenters associationer till varumärket Tre. Detta jämförs sedan med de varumärkesassociationer som föreligger kring Tres varumärke på marknaden. Varumärkesassociationer formas primärt hos konsumenter och är således inte enbart en process som företag styr. Detta innebär dock inte att associationerna är opåverkbara från företagets sida. En central faktor som påverkar skapandet av varumärkesassociationer har i denna uppsats påvisats vara konsumenters kontakt med företaget, där framförallt den första kontakten tenderar att forma associationerna. Konsumenter behöver inte ha en personlig relation till varumärket för att forma sina associationer då word-of-mouth har visat sig ha en stor påverkan på skapandet och spridandet av varumärkesassociationer. Företags varumärkeskapital gynnas av många samt positivt betingade varumärkesassociationer. För det i uppsatsen studerade företaget tenderar dock en majoritet av de kartlagda associationerna att vara negativa, vilket i sin tur har tenderat att skada det totala varumärkeskapitalet. En annan intressant aspekt av detta är att många bärare av dessa negativa associationer inte själva har en personlig erfarenhet av företaget. Detta understryker kraften av word-of-mouth samtidigt som det betonar vikten av att som företag ha en välarbetad kundstrategi då den har en direkt påverkan på företagets varumärkeskapital. I många framträdande teorier beskrivs det att förmedling av varumärkesassociationer gynnas av att framhäva emotionella faktorer, då dessa sägs ha en djupare påverkan på människors värderingar än vad funktionella faktorer har. Vad uppsatsens empiri dock har kunnat påvisa är att detta är svårt i en teknikorienterad bransch då konsumenter värderar funktionella faktorer högre än emotionella. De funktionella faktorerna tenderar även att ha en stor betydelse för varumärkesassociationer. Uppsatsen presenterar avslutningsvis en nyskapad figur vilken sammanfattar strategiskt betydelsefulla områden som Tre fördelaktigt kan använda sig av för att skapa ett starkt varumärkeskapital. / In this paper brand associations are examined, along with its impact on brand equity. The thesis is completed as a case study and examines what the Swedish telecommunication company Tre believes are the markets associations of their brand.  This is later compared with the consumers actual associations with the brand Tre. Brand associations are primarily formed by consumers and are thus not only a process of corporate governance. This does not mean that the associations are impossible to influence by the company. The result of this study has shown that a key factor influencing the creation of brand associations is consumers’ contact with the company, where especially the first contact tends to form associations. Consumers do not need to have a personal relationship with the brand to form their associations as word-of-mouth has been shown to have a major impact on the creation and distribution of brand associations. Brand equity grows stronger by many and positively charged brand associations. However, for the company Tre, the majority of the identified associations are seen as negative, which in turn tend to harm the overall brand equity. Another interesting aspect of this is that many carriers of these negative associations do not have a personal experience with the company. This underlines the power of word-of-mouth, while emphasizing the importance to have a well-made customer strategy as it has a direct impact on the company's brand equity. Mediation of brand associations is in many prominent theories described favored by highlighting emotional factors as they are said to have a deeper impact on human values ​​than functional factors. This has, by this study´s empirical thesis, shown to be difficult in a technology-oriented industry where consumers value the functional factors higher than the emotional factors. The functional factors also tend to have a important influence on brand associations. The conclusion of this paper presents a new figure that summarizes strategically important areas for the company Tre to create stronger brand equity.