Imagine how you would react if you learned that your favorite singer was recording new music in a style far from that which you have come to love. Perhaps you would disapprove. Then you might react like many Porsche consumers did when they learned that “their” brand would start producing sports utility vehicles. They are not without peers. In fact, how would you respond if a favored brand would launch, say, a chain of coffee shops? Some people would resist such an idea. These scenarios illustrate how strong consumer-brand bonds may complicate attempts to extend brands into new businesses. The research presented in the thesis explores this connection, towards a better understanding of the stakes facing both companies and consumers. It is an inquiry into tensions of extensions. The thesis comprises four published studies. Three explore how consumers with close ties to a brand react to brand extension. They acknowledge that consumers who come close to a brand potentially become stakeholders with opinions on efforts to change the products and marketing of that brand. They suggest that the implications of combining brand extension and strong consumer bonds can be substantial. The fourth study considers how the financial implications in particular can be analyzed and communicated within organizations. The findings show how brand extension can be an important event in a longer relationship with core consumers. This perspective is easily obscured when concentrating only on the perceptions of “the average consumer”. The thesis highlights symbolic and experiential aspects. It offers a closer look at such things as consumer identity, emotional reactions, and expression of criticism, and the findings should inform communication strategies and decision-making related to brand extensions. / <p>Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan i Stockholm, 2008. Sammanfattning jämte 4 uppsatser</p>

Today advertisers face the challenge of securing advertising effectiveness by producing advertisement that gets the consumers’ attention and shape their attitudes and behavior. One suggested way to reach these objectives is creativity. Both advertising industry professionals, awards, effectiveness reports and research support this notion that what makes advertising effective is creative excellence. However, research has shown that advertising professionals seems to have little formalized understanding about how advertising creativity work and how it is defined and measured. Current research need to better understand the response to creative advertisements by documenting how advertising professionals and consumer assess and value creativity. By applying new perspectives and new theories this thesis investigate the effects advertising creativity has on consumers. The thesis reviews the academic research on advertising creativity and contributes with five articles to increase the understanding of advertising creativity and how perceptions of creativity influence advertising effectiveness. In so doing, it plays a part in advertisers understanding and use of advertising creativity. / <p>Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan i Stockholm, 2012. Sammanfattning jämte 5 uppsatser.</p>

Purpose/Aim: To describe likenesses and differences between the personal identity of the common Kalmar nation member and the collective identity of the organization Kalmar nation as described by said members. Material/Method: Collecting data through a quantitative survey, where the members answer questions about themselves and Kalmar nation, and subsequent analysis of said data by means of theories about personal, collective, and brand identity. Main results: After analyzing the data from the survey I conclude that there exists both likenesses and differences between the organization and its members. Some likenesses are more pronounced than others, and the same can be said for the differences. However, within the three areas of study (specific identity traits, politics and music) politics and music showed more similarity between the members and the nation than the specific identity traits did. The most interesting aspect of the analysis show that the members have quite a common view of the organization despite their own widely different descriptions of themselves.

As the title insinuate, this essay illustrate Event Marketing as a marketing instrument, and how it can be used as a tool to facilitate brandbuilding and improve relationships. We have come to the understanding that Event Marketing is in the course of constant development. It seems like Event Marketing as a marketing tool is starting to get its well-merited position in the marketing mix throughout the world, since companies and other organisations have realized that Event Marketing is a powerful tool for differentiation. We have also seen that Event Marketing in the business world lately has come to be more important for building and maintaining relationships, as well as carrying marketing messages. In this essay we discuss Event Marketing in three sections; brand, relationships, and customer experience. Among these topics, inter alia Integrated Marketing Communications, Sensory Marketing, and Service-dominant Logic are presented. The three sections are ultimatley supposed to establish a part of the entirety of Event Marketing. This essay is a commission from the building company Skanska in Sweden, with the purpose of throwing a new light on their customer-oriented event Skanskadagen in the south-east district of the Swedish market. We have performed eleven qualitative interviews; nine with management and personnel within Skanska, and two with event managers from two different bureaus in Sweden. As a complement to these interviews, we have studied literature, documents, and articles – with and without a scientific basis. The conclusions and recommendations are presented in chapter 8.

Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att analysera varumärkeshanteringen i olika ideella organisationer i Sverige.  Metod: I denna uppsats har författarna använts sig av kvalitativa metoder samt utgått från en abduktiv ansats. De primära data är fem intervjuer med fem ideella organisationer i Sverige som arbetar för olika ändamål. Dessa intervjuer har valts utifrån ett bekvämlighetsurval.  Resultat och slutsatser: Av resultatet framgår det att de ideella organisationerna arbetar med sitt varumärke beroende på vilka resurser de har, vilken storlek organisationen har och vilka ändamål de arbetar för. Författarna av studien anser att varumärkeshantering inte är ett högt prioriterat område för samtliga ideella organisationer eftersom de behöver lägga sina resurser på rätt företeelse, vilket är deras ändamål. Om organisationerna skulle lägga mycket tid på varumärkeshantering och marknadsföring skulle detta leda till att allmänheten blir skeptiska och börja undra om organisationerna använder pengarna på rätt sätt. Eftersom det saknas modeller för ideella organisationers varumärkeshantering har uppsatsförfattarna med hjälp av Melin och Aakers modeller, skapat en egen modell som är anpassad för ideella organisationer. / Aim: The aim of this thesis is to analyze brand management in the different non-profit organizations in Sweden.  Method: In this thesis, the authors used qualitative methods and an abductive approach. The primary data consists of five interviews with five non-profit organizations in Sweden that work for different purposes. The choice of non-profit organizations is based on convenience sample.  Results and conclusions: The results showed that the non-profit organizations are working on its brand depending on what resources they have, what size the organization is and what purposes they are working for. The authors of the study, think that brand management is not a high priority for all non-profit organizations because they need to put their resources in the right property, which is their purpose. If non-profit organizations would spend a lot of time on brand management and marketing, it would result in the public being skeptical and start wondering if the organizations use the money properly. Since there are no models for brand management in non-profit organizations, the authors of the study has created a model adjusted for non-profit organizations with the help of the models by Melin and Aaker.

Abstract In 1974 - 81 Björn Borg conquered the tennis courts and his opponents around the world (International Tennis Hall of Fame, 2006). Today Jonas Björkman, Robin Söderling and Joachim "Pim-Pim" Johansson are the most successful Swedish tennis players according to the ATP ranking (2007). Svenska Tennisförbundet (2007) has a vision, that through the engagement of tennis clubs around Sweden secure the position as a world leading tennis nation. Bankeryd Tennisklubb is one of those engaged tennis clubs and is situated in Bankeryd, a smaller village in the outskirts of Jönköping. The organization was established in 1958 and has 230 members. They are striving to achieve a feeling of “we” among its members (Bankeryds Tennisklubb, 2007). Bankeryd’s Tennisklubb wants to find out what their core activity is and if this is clear to their members. Therefore the purpose of this thesis is to examine the core activity of Bankeryd’s Tennisklubb to improve and strengthen the organization’s brand. Core activity within business and organizations is the inner core of importance, the main thing about a service or a product according to Eagan and Harker (2005). This is in turn dependent on the core competencies discovered within the organization (Beech &amp; Chadwick, 2004). The theoretical framework also includes brand management and since the core activity of BTK is interrelated with the brand BTK the two concepts are not separated. To answer the purpose a questionnaire was distributed among the members of Bankeryd’s Tennisklubb. To get a deeper understanding about the feelings of the members, four focus groups were carried out. The data collected was then analyzed with the support of the theoretical framework. From the analysis it was found that the members thought the core activity of BTK should be the tennis practice and that the feeling of “we” at the club and that surrounding activities are less important. The deciding factor of whether or not to stay as members within the club was the quality level of the tennis practice. Conclusions drawn are that BTK should focus more on tennis practice but not be a professionalized club striving to reach the elite by themselves. With the “we” feeling and the corporate culture combined with knowledge about customer expectations on high-quality tennis practice they can build a stronger brand. / Sammanfattning Björn Borg, svensk tennis spelare som blev en av världens främsta tennis spelare, erövrade tennisbanor världen över 1974 -81 (International Tennis Hall of Fame, 2006). Idag är Jonas Björkman, Robin Söderling och Joachim ”Pim-Pim” Johansson de mest framgångsrika svenska tennisspelarna enligt ATP rankingen (2007). Svenska Tennisförbundet (2007) har en vision att genom engagemang från tennisklubbar runt om i Sverige kunna säkra positionen som världsledande tennisnation inom en snar framtid. Bankeryds Tennisklubb är en av de klubbarna och finns i Bankeryd, en ort strax utanför Jönköping. Organisationen grundades 1958 och har idag 230 medlemmar. De strävar efter en ”vi” känsla bland medlemmarna och inom klubben (Bankeryds Tennisklubb, 2007). Bankeryds Tennisklubb vill gärna ta reda på vad deras kärnverksamhet är och om den är tydlig för deras medlemmar. Syftet med uppsatsen är därför att undersöka och förtydliga Bankeryds Tennisklubbs kärnverksamhet för att stärka organisationens varumärke. Kärnverksamheten inom företag och organisationer är den innersta kärnan; den huvudsakliga servicen eller produkten enligt Eagan och Harker (2005), som i sin tur är beroende av kärnkompetens som finns inom organisationen (Beech &amp; Chadwick, 2004). Den teoretiska referensramen förklarar även konceptet brand management och eftersom kärnverksamheten på Bankeryds Tennisklubb står i så pass nära relation till varumärket BTK separeras inte de två koncepten. För att kunna besvara syftet med uppsatsen gjordes en datainsamling genom en enkätundersökning bland medlemmarna på Bankeryds Tennisklubb. Fyra fokusgrupper genomfördes sedan för att få en djupare förståelse för medlemmarnas tankar och känslor. Den insamlade informationen analyserades sedan utifrån och med stöd av den teoretiska referensramen. Analysen visade att medlemmarna ansåg att kärnverksamheten inom BTK skulle vara tennisträning och att “vi”-känslan framstod som mindre viktig. Faktorn som avgör om medlemmarna stannar inom klubben eller ej är nivån på tennisträningen. Slutsatserna blev att BTK ska fokusera mer på tennisträning som främsta aktivitet, men inte bli en klubb som satsar på professionell tennis på egen hand. ”Vi”-känslan och den interna kulturen i kombination med kännedom om medlemars förväntningar på tennisträningens kvalité kan bygga ett starkt varumärke.

Aim: This study deals with Brand Management after acquisitions. Since this subject is still quite unexplored, a case study backed the theoretical review in order to answer the two research questions. Furthermore, the work educes a model which shows the ascendancies that are involved in the field of Brand Management after acquisitions. It is the aim to reveal the necessity of strong branding for acquired companies and the importance of the continuity of their presenting brand values. I hope this paper adds new knowledge in the Brand Management sector in connection with acquisitions and gives the reader a proper understanding about the issue. Method: The study occupies a theoretical and an empirical study. The theory part presents a selection of theories and models developed by scholars in the field of business administration. While the first research question concerning brand equity after acquisitions is addressed in the theoretical review in chapter 3, the second question regarding brand image is mainly discussed during the empirical part. The data for the latter was primarily obtained by a case study which is a qualitative method and occupies interviews and discussions. Result: Brand Management has become a key issue for companies and is a sensitive subject in the context of Merger and Acquisition. Hence, it is a challenge for the acquirer and the acquired company to manage control and adapt to the new situation. Brand equity as a key asset of Brand Management is the amount of loyalty a customer has towards a brand and it is certainly influenced by such transactions as M&amp;A. In the real-life comparison of the specific case it proved to be successful for the acquirer to maintain the autonomy of the acquired brand and continue the meaning of the brand. In addition, the loyalty of the customers is of great importance to assure a smooth process of the business operations. Suggestions for future research: Due to the current situation and constant changes it would be interesting to repeat the study some time in the future for a final conclusion. Furthermore, since the findings for the empirical part of this study are based on a strong acquired brand, it would be interesting to investigate the case of another company of weaker nature, and maybe of a different branch. The high profile of the target firm and its strong brand values had a remarkable influence on the revelations of this study. Contribution of the thesis: The result of this study helps companies to maintain their brand values during an acquisition. The research adds new knowledge in the brand management sector in connection with acquisitions, and it is useful for companies which are involved in M&amp;A activities.

This is a thesis on how established brands can enhance their strength, interestingness, and vitality. A threat to contemporary established brands is that they may in fact be too well established to be interesting and stimulate curiosity among consumers. A managerial fixation in maintaining consistency in brand communications may have put a straitjacket onto advertising executions for established brands. Therefore, managers for established brands facing communication objectives of enhanced salience in memory, better top-of-mind awareness, and greater consumer interest in the brand, may need to devise communication strategies in ways which are different – and even considerably different – from what they used to execute in the past. This thesis examines one such way – communications which are incongruent with consumers' established brand associations. In this thesis, I seek to challenge the popular adage in maintaining consistency in brand communications, by examining effects of brand incongruent communications for established brands from a schema congruity theory perspective. I do this in a series of six articles, each highlighting different types of brand-incongruent communication elements and effects on consumer memory and evaluations. Whereas conventional advertising wisdom, as well as traditional literature on brand management, would discourage a conduct which goes against established brand associations, this thesis argues that – for established brands – the employment of communication executions which challenge existing brand associations may actually improve marketing communication effectiveness. The aim of this thesis is to spur insight among academics and practitioners into the advancement of established brands. I argue that methods, which are successful to build brand equity for new brands, may be less effective when the objective is to enhance brand equity and consumer interest in already well established brands. The results of the studies presented in this thesis imply that the popular tendency of embracing consistency in brand communications may have to be revisited since brand-incongruent communications can generate more attention, better memory of ads and brands, improve evaluations and purchase intentions, as well as enhance brand associations and brand interest. / <p>Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2009 Sammanfattning jämte 6 uppsatser</p>

Background: When it comes to brand communication, gaps can arise. These occur when the brand management’s view of the brand does not match the customers’ Brand image. In order to prevent reputation crises brand managements need to monitor the Brand identity and Brand image and identify possible gaps. Purpose: To identify and analyse what communication gaps that can occur between a company’s Brand identity and customers’ Brand image. Research question: What communication gaps can occur between a company’s Brand identity and the customers’ Brand image? Theory: Marketing Communication, Sender-Receiver model, Brand image and Brand identity focusing on Personality, Positioning, Vision &amp; Culture and Relationship. Method: A case study of the Swedish food company Coop was conducted to investigate the relationship between their Brand identity and the customers’ Brand image. The case study was conducted in two steps; firstly, information concerning Coop’s Brand identity was gathered through in-depth interviews. Secondly, a questionnaire was handed out to Coop’s customers to see whether their Brand image was consistent with Coop’s Brand identity. The aim was to find similarities and dissimilarities between data and thereby identify communication gaps. Results: Several communication gaps were identified between Coop’s Brand identity and the customers’ Brand image when it came to the concepts of Personality, Positioning, Vision &amp; Culture and Relationship. Coop experiences most communication gaps in Relationship, they has not managed to create close relationships with their customers.

During the last decades the importance of sustainability has steadily increased and nowadays, sustainability is not only a governmental responsibility any more. Besides the concept of sus- tainability, the field of brand management has gained more relevance in the last decades as well. Today, companies invest large amounts of money in the development of their brands. Considering the increasing importance of both concepts, the question for a combination of these two concepts arises. As the potential of sustainability in the brand management research field is not exploited to date and the focus of such a combination is mainly on the operative part, this study developed the concept of Sustainable Strategic Brand Management. With a focus on the automobile industry a first step of a practical-based research is done. The analy- sis of the integration of sustainability in the strategic brand management through a multiple case study of the three automobile manufacturing companies Daimler AG, Volvo Group and Volkswagen AG, is the most suitable and effective method to answer the research question of this study: How do automobile manufacturing companies integrate sustainability in their strategic brand management process? The main finding of this study is that automobile manufacturing companies integrate sustainability to different extents and manners in the seven steps of the strategic brand management process. Moreover, there are different levels and potentials for the integration of sustainability in the strategic brand management process. However, there is still potential and demand to improve the integration of sustainability in the strategic brand management process.