Purpose: The purpose is to explain what factors affect brand equity for SBOs. Hypotheses: These hypotheses were derived from a literature review. H1 - Perceived Quality has a positive effect on SBO brand equity H2 - Brand Association has a positive effect on SBO brand equity H3 - Brand Awareness has a positive effect on SBO brand equity Method: The researcher conducted an quantitative research where the empirical data was collected through a questionnaire. Conclusion: This research show that perceived quality, brand association and brand awareness positively affects SBO brand equity.

The purpose of this thesis is to find if the Swedish Generation Y is more brand loyal to cell phones compared to other consumerelectronic, and to find out if some set factors of loyalty affects Generation Y's loyalty more than other.  The conclusion of this thesis is that Generation Y is more loyal to their cell phone brand compared to other consumer electronics, and that the set factors presented are affecting their brand loyalty to different extent.

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the status of brand loyalty to art festivals with reference to Klein Karoo national Arts Festival (KKNK). This was achieved by firstly analysing and discussing the role of branding in tourism marketing. Secondly, a literature study was conducted to analyse the concept brand loyalty. Thirdly, the results of the empirical research were discussed and finally the conclusions were drawn from the research and recommendations were made with regard to visitors’ loyalty to the KKNK. Literature indicated that when marketing a tourism product or service it involves a complex bundle of value, which is intangible, inseparable, variable and perishable. Therefore the tourist’s experience with the product is important to keep in mind. Every tourist counts in the tourism industry therefore knowledge related to the needs and wants of the tourists. This can be determined by market research that is designed to collect, analyse, interpret and report information. The marketer can use this information to create a marketing mix, however, in the tourism and hospitality industry the four P’s (price, promotion, product, place) are extended with more P’s, namely people, physical environment, processes, packaging, participation, productservice mix, presentation mix and communication mix. The tourism product or festival should be positioned in the minds of the tourists and this cannot be achieved without branding the product. The brand name is used to identify and differentiate the product from its competitors. It also creates meaning for the tourist and establishes a competitive position in the minds of the tourist. Brand loyalty should be an important marketing goal of the tourism product because it reduces a brand’s vulnerability to competitors’ action and create a committed relationship with the tourists that insure lifelong visiting behaviour among tourists or positive word-of-mouth recommendations. Brand loyalty is build on six levels which can also be utilised to determine the visitors loyalty towards the brand and to assist the marketer on focussing on areas which should be improved to achieve a higher level of loyalty. The aim of the marketer should be to achieve the highest level of brand loyalty namely Resonance. For the purpose of this study the visitors’ profile and the current status of brand loyalty, were measured by means of a questionnaire and the objective of the questionnaire was to determine how loyal the visitors were to the KKNK. The questionnaires were distributed among the visitors at the KKNK in Oudtshoorn, in April 2009. Availability sampling was used to collect the data based on the fact that the respondents were conveniently available on the festival grounds and at show venues and willing to complete the questionnaires. A total of 422 questionnaires were completed during the festival. The factor analysis determined that Brand Feelings were the loyalty level that was rated the highest by the respondents to the KKNK. Therefore it was determined that the visitors’ loyalty to KKNK is currently at the fifth loyalty level and will have the most influence on the visitors when deciding to visit or recommend the KKNK. This is expected for a festival that is 15 years old however, the organisers of the KKNK can continue to improve the visitors loyalty until they reach the sixth and highest, loyalty level. This study contributes to the limited available literature on brand loyalty to arts festivals. / Thesis (M.Com. (Tourism))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

Today's children are a multi-billion dollar consumer market that not only has the power to spend their own money but directly influences the spending for household consumer purchases. They present an extremely healthy and potentially long term wealthy consumer market for marketers to target and reap the benefits from their loyalty. However, the area of young children's consumer behaviour is significantly under researched. Very little is known about how young children develop preferences, make brand choices, and develop equity towards a brand. This study investigates the brand knowledge elements associated with brand preference and brand equity for young children. An experimental procedure was employed utilising personal interviews and collecting data from five Australian Day Care facilities and four Australian Community Pre-school Centres. The respondents were three and four year old children, who performed a game involving questions about fast food brands. The hypotheses explored various aspects of brand knowledge (e.g., brand awareness) and, their influence on the child's initial preference between fast food choices (brand preference), and their loyalty when tempted by a toy and their second choice (brand equity). The study's analysis was divided into two parts. The first part determined whether there were any significant differences evident between three and four year old children in relation to the effect of brand awareness, affect toward, and brand image in brand preference and brand equity using chi-square analyses. The second part of the analysis employed binary logistic regression analyses to determine which elements of brand knowledge influenced a child's brand preference and brand equity regarding fast foods. 2 The study found there were no major differences between a three year old and a four year old in relation to the influences of brand awareness, affect toward, and brand image in brand preference or brand equity. The binary logistic regression analysis found that brand images provided the greatest effect in explaining and predicting brand preference and provided a contributing influence in brand equity. Brand awareness was found to provide the second greatest effect on brand preference and the greatest effect on brand equity, and affect towards the brand or main menu item provided the least amount of effect in explaining and predicting brand preference and brand equity for 3 and 4 year old children. The research also comments on the use of a toy as a marketing tool to lure children to a brand and provides suggestions for future research. Marketing, managerial and public policy implications are also provided.

Magister Commercii - MCom / A brand extension strategy is one of the marketing tools that firms utilise to introduce new products in the market. One of the advantages of adopting this strategy is that firms are able to leverage on the positive image, reputation, and equity of a recognised and established brand,thereby reducing risk associated with launching new products.This study examines how consumers perceive the overall quality and similarity/fit of the brand extensions (Nike camera, Nike socks, and Nike golf balls) in relation to the original brand (Nike athletic shoes) and how these perceptions influence their attitudes towards the extensions. The researcher proposes that the perceived overall quality of the brand extensions will be congruent to that of the original brand and that the attitude towards the brand extensions will be favourable only when there is a perceived similarity/fit between the brand extensions and the original brand.In order to get these insights, the study surveyed 147 undergraduate and postgraduate students from the University of the Western Cape across all faculties. A non-probability convenience sampling method was used to access respondents. To collect data, qualitative and quantitative methods were employed using a questionnaire which consisted of open-ended and closed-ended questions in the form of free associations technique and 5-point Likert scales. The data gathered was analysed by means of descriptive statistics and Spearman correlation coefficient. The findings indicate two things.(1) respondents only perceived Nike socks’ overall quality to be congruent to the original brand, Nike athletic shoes. (2) respondents only perceived Nike socks to be strongly similar to the original brand, Nike athletic shoes. Despite this, respondents had a favourable attitude towards all the brand extensions irrespective of whether they perceived the overall quality of the extensions to be congruent to the original brand or not, and whether they perceived the extensions to be similar to the original brand or not. These factors did not influence respondents’ attitudes towards the extensions negatively.

The master´s thesis is focused on strengthening the competitiveness of the bank through the development of its brands. The current situation of the company is analyzed according to the theoretical knowledge and methodology Ko Floor. Subsequently, the company compared to selected competitors. Based on the comparison and further analysis for the firm set of measures involving their own proposals to support brand development.

Brand loyalty has been studied extensively in consumer-brand relationship literature. However, the negative side of these relationships has not been studied to the same degree. This paper starts with Court et al.’s (2009) loyalty loop as part of the consumer decision journey and proposes that consumers may stop being loyal to a brand due to various circumstances.The authors propose a negative view of the loyalty loop, the disloyalty loop, exist, in which consumers become disloyal. Furthermore, the authors conducted this study in order to find out if this relationship exists, the disloyalty loop, within the framework of social media platforms, i.e. applications who allow communication among users over the Internet. These platforms should not solely be seen as online communication tools, but as brands themselves.Semi-structured interviews with social media users were conducted showing that consumers can navigate between the loyalty and disloyalty loops, and even exit the brand relationship completely. These findings indicate that consumers’ brand loyalty should not be taken for granted, and service failures may cause them to reduce their patronage, abandon the brand, and even influence other consumers negatively through word-of-mouth.

Background: The study explores the impact of brand equity on brand loyalty intention within the accounting services sector in Finland. The study uses four dimensions of brand equity, which include perceived brand quality, perceived brand value, perceived brand uniqueness and perceived corporate credibility. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explore the applicability and the impact of customer-based brand equity and its dimensions in the field of accounting. Method: The current research applies known conceptual frameworks and theories on the dimensions of customer-based brand equity in business-to-business context and investigates causal relationships between the CBBE dimensions and brand loyalty intention. A self-administered survey was conducted and a total of 93 responses was collected from businesses that use external accounting services. Conclusion: All hypotheses have been supported and the findings conclude that brand quality, brand value, brand uniqueness and corporate credibility have positive correlation with brand loyalty intention. Findings of the study are relevant for marketers and researchers, as well as for managerial implications in the building of brand equity. The paper provides valuable insights into the dimensions of customer-based brand equity in the business-to-business context and offers a solid foundation for future research on brand loyalty and brand equity and offers practical help for businesses to enhance their customers’ loyalty.

The use of online brand communities and its effect on brand loyalty has been heavily researched in previous studies. However, online brand communities in the context of motorsport, which is inherently different from other sports, has not been thoroughly researched previously and currently remains unknown. The study aims to understand how motorsport followers become brand loyal within their brand communities and if their identification with the brand has an influence on the process. The following research questions were developed to find these answers: RQ1: "How does involvement in online brand communities affect brand loyalty among motorsport fans?" RQ2: "How do online brand communities influence brand identification for motorsport enthusiasts?" RQ3: "How does member participation in online brand communities contribute to the connection between online brand communities and brand loyalty in motorsport?" A quantitative research design was followed, using a survey with questions developed based on previous research. The final sample size was 403 after the data was cleaned. The findings from the survey suggest that concepts such as brand community engagement had a direct effect on the development of brand loyalty. Other findings also showed that brand identification had a mediating role between certain brand community belonging characteristics and brand loyalty. Additionally, the study found that brand community participation had no moderating effect between brand community belonging characteristics and brand loyalty, however did have a direct link between brand identification and brand loyalty. Further research includes testing the study’s model in other brand communities within the motorsport context to provide more information into this unknown field of sport and its members. / Användningen av online varumärkesgemenskaper och dess effekt på varumärkeslojalitet har undersökts noggrant i tidigare studier. Online varumärkesgemenskaper inom motorsport, som är fundamentalt annorlunda från andra sporter, har dock inte tidigare undersökts ingående och är för närvarande okända. Studien syftar till att förstå hur motorsportföljare blir varumärkeslojala inom sina varumärkesgemenskaper och om deras identifiering med varumärket har inflytande i processen. Följande forskningsfrågor utvecklades för att hitta dessa svar: FF1: "Hur påverkar deltagande i online varumärkesgemenskaper varumärkeslojalitet bland motorsportfans?" FF2: "Hur påverkar online varumärkesgemenskaper varumärkesidentifiering för motorsportentusiaster?" FF3: "Hur bidrar medlemsdeltagande i online varumärkesgemenskaper till kopplingen mellan online varumärkesgemenskaper och varumärkeslojalitet inom motorsport?" En kvantitativ forskningsdesign följdes med hjälp av en enkät med frågor utvecklade utifrån tidigare forskning. Den slutliga provstorleken efter att data rengjorts var 403. Resultaten från undersökningen tyder på att begrepp som engagemang i varumärkesgemenskap hade en direkt effekt på utvecklingen av varumärkeslojalitet. Andra resultat visade också att varumärkesidentifiering hade en medierande roll mellan vissa egenskaper för varumärkesgemenskap och varumärkeslojalitet. Dessutom visade studien att deltagande i varumärkesgemenskap inte hade en modererande effekt mellan egenskaper för varumärkesgemenskap och varumärkeslojalitet, men hade en direkt länk mellan varumärkesidentifiering och varumärkeslojalitet. Vidare forskning inkluderar att testa studiemodellen i andra varumärkesgemenskaper inom motorsportkontexten för att tillhandahålla mer information om denna okända sport och dess medlemmar.

Online brand communityn (OBC) innebar ett kraftfullt, och potentiellt värdeskapande, verktyg för företag. Det har dock visat sig att företag hade svårt att bemöta sina OBC:er. Det resulterade i att företag gick miste om de potentiella värden OBC:n hade. För att öka kunskapen kring värdeskapande och bemötande av OBC:er har Minecraft och Netflix respektive OBC:er undersökts med hjälp av netnografi. Studien undersökte hur interaktioner och aktiviteter bidrog till värdeskapande i form av ökat varumärkeskapital och ny innovation. Den belyste även hur OBC:er skiljde sig åt beroende på om OBC:erna var fokuserade på områden kring innovation kontra varumärkeskapital. Studien fann sju interaktionsmönster att analysera. Interaktionsmönstren visade på skillnader mellan OBC:erna utifrån deras fokus och förutsättningar. Studien kunde även beskriva hur sex av de sju interaktionerna var värdeskapande för företaget. / Online brand community (OBC) is intended to be a powerful, and potentially valuable, tool for businesses. However, the outcome has shown that companies have had difficulties responding to their OBC:s. It has resulted in companies missing the potential values that OBC offered. In order to increase knowledge about value creation and reception of the OBC:s a netnography of Minecraft and Netflix, respectively OBC has been conducted. The study examined how interactions and activities contributed to the creation of value by an increased brand equity and new innovation. It also highlighted how the OBC:s differed depending on whether the OBC:s were focused on the topics of innovation versus brand equity. The study found seven interaction patterns to analyse. The interaction patterns showed differences between the OBC:s ,based on their focus and conditions. The study could also describe how six of the seven interactions created value for the company.