This master thesis focus on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the relation to brand image. The topic was chosen because of the lack of research in this type of field. Previous research has suggested that there might be a bond between CSR and the brand image of a company, however, no confirmations has been done. The case study was done with in-depth interviews with Husqvarna’s CSR manager and marketing manager. The case study was also done with the help of Husqvarna’s sustainability report. Results from this study shows that brand image is affected positively by CSR. For Husqvarna, it is still a bit early to say if CSR will have a positive impact since they have not been engaged in CSR for a long time. However, it is their plan and ambition for CSR to have a positive impact on their brand image. The idea with CSR is not to set oneself side from the competition, instead it is a hygiene factor, something that is expected from companies. However, the way they set themselves apart is to take stakeholders’ expectations in consideration when planning their CSR actions. The consequence of this is that the brand image is positively affected. The process for improving brand image can be portrayed in the following steps: under the pressures derived from the stakeholders, the company have to make an effort to satisfy the stakeholders’ expectations with the help of CSR. The response derived from stakeholders will generate the assessment on the companies. These kinds of evaluations will influence the brand image.

Abstract In recent years, the domestic market has suffered shrinking domestic demands resulting from the long term poor economy. In this year, this is particularly prominent that every segment of the retail industry has rather reserved or pessimistic expectations of the economic growth for the next few years. When the performance of business enterprises and channels can no longer grow with economic growth, only through the research and implementation of successful marketing activities and channel strategies can there be an opportunity for another performance peak. In addition to developing strong capabilities in marketing planning, information application, market development, market analysis and retail management, good channel relationship and research are the most important factors of success. This study investigates the relationships between the series of activities conducted by business enterprises and channel management, and their interrelationship. It aims to provide business enterprises some decision reference in marketing and management strategy. The results of the study indicate that brand image, product, promotion pricing and service strategy have significant and positive relationship with relation marketing of the channel.

With the keen competition of the same product, consumers have many products to choose, so that many promotional activities are held to raise the market share. However, almost consumers are aware of the promotional activities through an advertising, such as a banner on the portal site. Indeed, we all see these kinds of advertisings in our life. Thus, promotional message is an advertising to a consumer, and it is also an advertising which combines promotion and advertising. That why I measure the promotion effects on the Internet according to the advertising effects. First of all, I want to know how the two kinds of promotions which are called price-promotion and non-price-promotion to affect the advertising effects. Secondly, I want to know how the interactivities which only exits on the Internet to affect the advertising effects. Finally, I use product brand image as a moderating variables to know how it affect consumer behavior. Between-subject factorial design, price-promotion and non-price-promotion arrange in pairs content-interactivities and non-content-interactivities arrange in pairs functional brand image and symbolic brand image is employed in my study. I pick up 240 students of NSYSU in convenience, and these students are divided into eight groups, and each group contains 30 students. The results show that: Two kinds of promotions will affect advertising effects. Interactivities will affect advertising effects. Brand image has moderate effect to the relationship between promotion and advertising. Finally, Brand image has no moderate effect to the relationship between interactivities and advertising.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the role of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) on the consumers’ brand perception. It is assumed that if CSR has any effect on the consumers’ brand perception it is supposed to be found as a component of the brand image.  The aim is to get realistic insight into the role of CSR in the consumers’ brand perceptions. Therefore it was needed to overcome essential limitations that previous studies had faced. Past researches have applied similar methods whereby almost no attention was given for the limitations that came along with experiments and quantitative approaches. This study tried to elude such constrains with an approach different to the most that have been conducted previously. Previous researches used to support their respondents either during their studies or beforehand with additional information about CSR in general, companies’ CSR activities or asked right from the beginning, directly and explicit about consumers perception about CSR. This research avoided “feeding” participants with any information on CSR, in the early stages of the in-depth interviews. But in the last stage, interviewers asked directly consumers on how they perceive CSR, in order to be able to compare whether artificial awareness biases or influences consumers’ perception of CSR. By this the topic under study was enlightened from another angle, results could support a holistic overview on the topic from an exceptional perspective.  This thesis applied a qualitative approach as the researchers expected that the results for the complex topic under study would be more meaningful, rich and unveiling than numerical measurements. Therefore, in-depth interviews with German consumers have been conducted. The study illustrates the complexity of the consumers’ perceptual process. The process is influenced by numerous variables and in particular by the individual personality of the consumers. As each human person has its own personality the individual impact is hard to cover. Nevertheless a model was created by using the dimensions “Personal Motives” and “Attitudes toward CSR”. As a result four types of consumers were discovered: “Passivists”, “Cynics”, “Egoists”, “Idealists”. In the model consumers are characterized by their personal motives, their attitudes toward CSR, their general interest in CSR, their attitudes towards perceived motives of the company and their perception of certain causes. It is expected that the model contributes constructively to the research in the field of CSR and that it provides complementary information for decision makers from the economy.

National Sun Yat-Sen University (NSYSU) is one of the research universities in Taiwan. For becoming a world-class university, NSYSU developed a "five-year development plan". The "deepening concern" as one of the main idea. Therefore, The Media Relations of NSYSU published "Hamasen News" in April, 2010 .It used the resources of NSYSU to provide public information about Hamasen area for people, hoping to enhance the good image of NSYSU. In academic view, this study used Keller (1993) dimensions of brand knowledge perspective to verify Hamasen News would make a positive impact on brand image of NSYSU. According to this purpose, this study developed a research framework, and used SPSS17.0 for data analysis to detect the independent variables(brand associations and brand attitude), whether affect dependent variables(the brand image of NSYSU). In addition, this study is hoping to understand the differences in demographic whether cause the differences in the brand image of NSYSU. The results found that in the functional and experiential brand association and brand attitude can predict the brand image of NSYSU significantly. In demographic variables, different levels of education and respondents will be different levels of the brand image of NSYSU.

This thesis investigates consumer perceptions of a Chinese luxury fashion brand in Sweden. The impact of nation brand image in terms of consumer buying behaviour and perception is examined by performing a case study of Shanghai Tang, comparing it to the American luxury fashion brand Ralph Lauren through the brands’ country of origin and brand history. Then a questionnaire is developed to analyse the luxury consumers’ perception of the Chinese brand Shanghai Tang and calculate the probability of customers purchasing luxury goods by Shanghai Tang. Finally, the future of Chinese luxury in Sweden will be discussed through an in-depth interview.

Main goals of thesis are: - to map steps and elements in building Activia brand - to consider coherence of these elements and contribution to brand value, - to validate elements according to criterion of building brand - to work out own research among target group of customers. Main points in my own research are: - to find out spontaneous level of knowledge of a brand, top of mind yoghurt brand, top of mind advertisements, mostly bought Activia products, criterions considered during shopping yoghurts, brand personality and brand image - to create BAV (Brand Asset Valuator) based on knowledge, differentiation, esteem and relevance.

There are several approaches to brand image measurement. The main aim of this thesis is to understand which of the two most common approaches, namely the personification and the direct approach, should be preferred. The personification approach adopts the brand = person metaphor (if the brand came to life as a person would s/he be trustworthy?), while the direct approach simply asks 'Do you think this brand is trustworthy?'. The main method used is to compare their explanations of typical outcomes (dependent variables) in a series of online surveys. Two different dimensions of brand image (warmth and competence) are considered for different types of brand (product, employer and corporate). The thesis uses the 'journal ready format' where a series of related papers form the main part of the work. This thesis adopts a quantitative approach and presents the results from four empirical studies. To compare the two approaches to brand image measurement, Study I (Journal Article I) compared two types of brands (product and corporate) and the two types of brand image measurement approach. In Study II and Study III (Journal Article II), the context was shifted to employer branding, when comparing the two approaches. The analysis of the first and the second studies showed no consistent pattern and no systematic advantage for the personified approach. Indeed the two types of measure appeared quite similar in many respects. When trying to explain the results, task difficulty emerged as a possible explanation and was investigated via Study III and Study IV (Journal Article III). Task difficulty was not lower for the personified approach as expected. While there is a rich body of brand image literature using either personification or direct measurement approaches, there is no research comparing them in the same context/setting to understand any differences between these approaches. Two main conclusions emerged from this research to contribute to the market research literature. This research shows that there is no systematic statistical benefit from adopting the personification approach. Task difficulty varied with age and education, but not as expected from the literature, a finding that might be considered in all survey research, not just that involving brand image.

Background:  Making customers loyal to the brand have become a key issue for marketers to achieve since it acts as a major contributor to competitive advantage. The brand image is argued to be the main source for brand loyalty and organizations continuously seeks for ways to achieve brand loyalty through enhancing their image. Employee branding makes it possible for organizations to consistently deliver a desired brand image to the customers, through its employees, and it could therefore be of importance to explore the relationship between employee branding and brand loyalty.  Research questions: RQ1: How does the organization’s management communicate its desired brand image to the employees? RQ2: How do the various sources of messages contribute to employees’ knowledge of the desired brand image? RQ3: How do the various sources of messages contribute to the upholding of the psychological contract between the employees and the organization? RQ4: How does the image projected by employees influence brand loyal customers? Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explore the relationship between an organization’s employee branding and brand loyalty. Methodology: Conducted as a single embedded case study, semi-structured interviews Conclusion: The empirical investigation revealed that employee branding activities could strengthen customers’ loyalty towards the brand. Employee branding therefore influence customers’ satisfaction, commitment, trust, and identification to the brand.

<p>Date: June 5, 2008</p><p>Course: Master Thesis (International Marketing)</p><p>Course Code: EF0705</p><p>Authors: Bingchao Zhu 840501-P613 bzu07001@student.mdh.se</p><p>Songxue Jiang 840506-P386 sjg07001@student.mdh.se</p><p>Tutor: Tobias Eltebrandt</p><p>Title: A study of brand image of ANTA Company in China’s sportswear market</p><p>Problem statement: What are the mismatches between ANTA Company’s wanted brand image and the perceived brand image by the target consumer group?</p><p>Purpose: The aim of this study is to find out the mismatches between ANTA Company’s wanted brand image and consumer’s perception about ANTA’s brand image in China’s sportswear market in order to suggest how ANTN Company should deal with those mismatches.</p><p>Methodology: The method of this case study is mainly based on the primary and secondary information. The primary information mainly comes from the interview with the manager and questionnaires from the respondents. The books, articles and internet are used as the secondary information.</p><p>Conceptual Framework: The theoretical framework includes three aspects which consist of marketing mix, brand image and attitude.</p><p>Conclusion: The conclusion arises from the analysis and research based on the methods, theoretical framework, finding. And there are 5 mismatches which ANTA Company need to deal with. In order to deal with the mismatches, it is very necessary for ANTA to adjust the current marketing strategy and analyze systematically the mismatches for improving the brand image.</p>