Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Hotel, Restaurant, Institution Management and Dietetics / Ki-Joon Back / Carol W. Shanklin / This study was designed to explore the measurement and application of brand personality congruence (BPC), defined as the gap between the customer’s own personality and a restaurant’s brand personality as perceived by the customer. The study involved two phases: Phase I primarily focused on the development of the BPC scale based on the existing Brand Personality Scale (Aaker 1997), while Phase II involved testing the relationship between BPC and brand loyalty and the mediating effects of satisfaction and trust on that relationship. Both Phases used the online survey methodology for data collection. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the dimensionality of brand personality. The five-factor solution was supported with the dimensions of sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness. Exploratory factor analysis showed that brand personality dimensions were not stable for measuring customer personality. Only characteristics most closely associated with the Big Five dimensions of agreeableness, extroversion, and conscientiousness significantly loaded on the customer personality scale. A confirmatory factor analysis of the reduced scale resulted in a 5-factor solution: successful, exciting, unique, sincere, and friendly. Because BPC was operationalized as the gap between the customer’s perceived personality and the restaurant’s brand personality as perceived by the customer, only indicators that were common between the two scales were used to establish the 17-item BPC scale consisting of the following dimensions: exciting, unique, sincere, and leader. In Phase II, second-order structural equation modeling was used to test BPC as an antecedent of the post-purchase evaluations of trust, satisfaction, and brand loyalty. Results indicated strong positive relationships, which suggested that higher congruence with the brand’s personality results in increased trust, satisfaction, and brand loyalty. BPC had the greatest direct effect on trust and also had indirect effects on satisfaction via trust and brand loyalty via trust and satisfaction. Additional analyses showed that trust and satisfaction partially mediated the relationship between BPC and brand loyalty. Trust also mediated the relationship between BPC and satisfaction. Results implied that as the restaurant brand earns a customer’s trust over time, the customer’s evaluation of overall satisfaction with the brand also increases and leads to stronger brand loyalty.

Internet memes have in recent years become a prevalent phenomenon which brands have now started to use in their marketing communication efforts. Previous brand personality research suggested that communication style can change a brand’s perceived personality from a consumer’s perspective. The purpose of the thesis was to investigate if there is a difference in how brands are perceived depending on whether memes or more traditional images are used in marketing communication. The theoretical framework for this thesis was Geuens et al. (2009) A New Measure of Brand Personality. An experimental design was applied by having a total of 98 respondents answer one of two surveys. The respondents were exposed to a meme or a more traditional advert from the dating app, Tinder, and then asked to answerer questions regarding the brand’s personality. Hypothesis testing was conducted to see if any significant differences between the groups could be found. Results showed that respondent did perceive the brand differently on two dimensions of brand personality depending on what image they saw. However, lack of internal reliability in multiple dimensions in A New Measure of Brand Personality, questioned the scales applicability. The thesis contributes to a better understanding of how memes can be used in marketing communication.

Background: Brand personality is based on the notion that brands possess personalities similar to that of human personalities. It is a common measure for describing consumers’ brand perceptions, and brands with loyal customers often have distinctive personalities. Since Aaker (1997) introduced the first brand personality scale, researchers have noticed increasing difficulties in comparing results from different studies. Geuens, Weijters & De Wulf’s (2009) proposed a solution to this problem by developing a brand personality scale that is claimed to be universal. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the extent to which the proposed universal brand personality scale (UBPS) can be validated in a Swedish context. Methodology: This descriptive study is of quantitative nature and applied a cross-sectional design. An online questionnaire was sent out to collect data on 12 brands from 193 respondents. These provided 2205 brand impressions that were processed by conducting a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Parameters such as content validity, fit indices, composite reliability and construct validity were chosen to determine the overall fitness of the model. Conclusion: The results indicated reasonable support for validation of Geuens, Weijters & De Wulf’s (2009) brand personality scale in a Swedish context.

I takt med upplevelseindustrins tillväxt, ökar även konkurrensen inom branschen. Evenemang som nöjesplattform konkurrerar direkt och indirekt med andra upplevelseinriktade verksamheter och behöver hitta nya sätt att få kundernas uppmärksamhet. Forskning visar hur kunder tenderar att agera mer emotionellt vid sina köp, något som många företag försöker bemöta. Produktproducerade företag har sedan långt tillbaka anammat varumärkespersonlighet som en del i marknadsstrategin för att kommunisera och personlighetsanknyta med kunder. Tidigare studier har visat att företag som väljer att personifiera sitt varumärke nått stor framgång på dess marknad. Ett evenemangs varumärke är desto svårare att kontrollera då många intressenter är involverade, vilket försvårar arbetet med att skapa tydliga kärnvärden som kommuniceras ut till kunden.Studies syfte är att bidra med förstålse samt utforska om Aakers Brand Personality Scale som skapats för att synliggöra produkters personligheter även går att tillämpa för evenemang. Den kvalitativa undersökningen utgår ifrån Aakers Brand Personality Scales variabler och genomförande datainsamling i form av en fokusgrupp med åtta deltagare. Under fokusgruppen diskuterades tre svenska musikrelaterade evenemang, som deltagarna fick välja personlighetsegenskaper för. Utifrån vår studie kom vi fram till att man kan identifiera evenemangs personligheter med karaktäristiska egenskaper som gör varje evenemang unikt. Valet av egenskaper baserades på 1) sina egna upplevelser eller via media och andras upplevelser, 2) associationen till helheten eller olika delar av evenemanget, så som scen, ljud/ljus, staden, platsen, miljön såväl som besökaren. Med förståelse om varför man väljer egenskaper som man gör, upptäcktes en viss problematik med att applicera Aakers Brand Personality Scale på evenemang. Med instinkt om varumärkespersonlighet kan man sammanföra de delar av evenemanget som arrangören har kontroll över, så att de kommunicerar en tydligare image. Exempelvis kan varumärkespersonlighet användas i marknadsföring vilket kan bidra till skapandet av starkare personlighetsanknytning med besökare. Problematiken uppstår kring de okontrollerbara komponenterna som påverkar besökarna och som arrangören inte har möjlighet att styra i samma utsträckning. Med sin varumärkespersonlighet synlig blir arrangören däremot medveten om hur de uppfattas. Man kan således ta ställning till om de kontrollerbara såväl som de okontrollerbara delarna har egenskaper man vill bygga vidare på eller arbeta med att förminska. För användning av modellen krävs viss modifiering samt en förståelse för att evenemangs varumärkespersonlighet inte är fullt kontrollerbar.

Overweight people claim to be mistreated by the fashion industry. If they were, it would be in line with branding theory supporting the idea of rejecting fat consumers to improve user imagery for fashion brands. However, fashion companies do not confess to such practices. To shed some light on the subject, I have conducted two studies. The first attempts to illustrate what effect, if any, user imagery has on fashion brands. It is an experiment designed to show how the weight of users affects consumers’ perceptions of mass market fashion brands. The findings show that consumers’ impressions of mass market fashion brands are significantly affected by the weight of its users. The effect of male user imagery is ambiguous. For women’s fashion on the other hand, slender users are to be preferred. In the second study I examine what effects these effects have on assortments. I compare the sizes of mass market clothes to the body sizes of the population. No evidence of discrimination of overweight or obese consumers was found -quite the contrary. The reasons for these unexpected findings may be explained by the requirements a brand must fulfil to make management of the customer base for user imagery purposes viable. The brand must be sensitive to user imagery; a requirement that mass market fashion fulfils. However, it must also be feasible for a company to exclude customers, and while garment sizes can be restricted to achieve this, the high volume sales strategy of mass market fashion apparently cannot.

Aim: The aim of this study is to identify how a professional ice hockey club with fans nationwide can position its brand successfully and to discover if this is in line with what the consumers think is important in the branding of the club. Method: A mixed method has been used for this case study, in the forms of interviews and a questionnaire. The interviews have been written out in essay form for presentation and analysis of the qualitative data. The quantitative data has been collected and processed with a questionnaire using APSIS and analysed with Microsoft Excel. Results / conclusions: This research has identified a framework containing all factors that influence the perception of the brand by consumers. Evidence was found for all these factors in this research. Furthermore, the most important factors of the branding of a professional ice hockey club with fans nationwide have been highlighted. Consequently, this research shows that the marketers of such an ice hockey club can position their brand by developing clear points-of-difference that stand out from the competition. Suggestions future research: Research into the perception of the sports branding by the younger target group is suggested, as well from people outside Gävle. Furthermore, the research could be conducted in other (ice hockey) clubs. Finally, the research could be conducted again in a few years. Contribution of thesis: This research fills the gap in the literature about the development of a successful brand of a professional ice hockey club with fans nationwide. The main contribution for managers is that brands can only be used to maintain fans, not to attract them.

Title of thesis: BUILDING OF SUCCESSFUL BRAND AND ITS PERSONALITY ON THE EXAMPLE OF NIKE Objectives: The first objective of this work is to chart the process of building sports brand Nike since its inception to the present and to identify factors of its success. The second objective is to use brand personality research to get a picture of Nike brand personality from public view. Methods: In thesis was used the method of descriptive analysis and the questionnaire survey method. Descriptive method of analysis was applied to the analysis of documents in order to identify success factors in building the Nike brand and the survey method was used in the Nike brand personality research. Results: Was found that the success of the company Nike led some general and some very specific factors that make Nike missed its competitors. As the results of the Nike brand personality research was obtained her picture from the perspective of the public and was revealed several factors acting negatively on the quality of personality Nike brand. Keywords: brand building, brand personality, Nike

This study explores the credibility criteria and brand personality of celebrities' Instagram accounts within the context of Kuwait. In order to explore this issue, this study adopts Ohanian's (1990) model and Aakar's (1997) model for studying credibility criteria and brand personality; respectively. Regarding methodology, primary data were collected through focus groups and interviews with fans and Small Medium Enterprises' managers who follow celebrities' accounts. Furthermore, secondary data were carried out by approaching different corporate websites specialising in social media celebrities. The findings of this study indicate that there are distinctive taxonomies for the celebrities' accounts (i.e. sincerity, competence, sophisticated, excitement, and ruggedness). This is compatible with the Aaker's Model. Moreover, the findings indicate that followers of the Instagram accounts (i.e. SMEs and fans) are motivated by the attitudes and behaviour of the account holders who reflects Ohanian criteria of credibility (i.e. expertise, attractiveness, and trustworthiness). Regarding practical contribution, this study has developed a new model to investigate the potential relationships between ads produced by different celebrity accounts and the audience motivations to purchase. The main limitation of this study relates to the inability to generalise the findings without undermining their trustworthiness.

Title: Who are they: a study about Communication of brand personality by business schools inan online environmentCourse: 4FE02E, Master Programme Degree Thesis, 15 ECTSAuthors: Arber TahiriSamira YoukhannaTutor: Dr. Rana MostaghelExaminer: Dr. Sarah PhilipsonIntroduction: MBA programs have increased from having 3200 awarded degrees during the50‟s to 1695 business schools offering different types of MBA. Researchers claim that thegrowth of MBA programs may have changed human perception of the offered program, thatMBAs have gone from being a first class ticket to a successful career to a more accommodatedservice. Brand and brand personality is another discussed aspect. Researchers suggest thatorganizations should implement more strategic communication based on brand personality, ontheir websites to attract a large audience and clearly communicate what and who they are as anorganization.Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the brand personality communication ofEuropean business schools MBA Programs in an online environment.Methodology: The study includes a comparative study were a correspondence analysis wasconducted. Aakers (1997) model of brand personality dimension was used as an inspirationaltool and randomly selected two samples; Cluster one, consisting of five Top European businessschools according to Financial Times, and Cluster two, five general European schools.Conclusion: According to findings, there are some areas such as the usage of Aaker‟s brandpersonality dimensions and their synonyms that are different between top ranked Europeanbusiness schools and other business schools in Europe. Also, top European business schoolsappear not to be closely associated to Aaker‟s brand personality traits whilst other Europeanschools are closely knitted and communicated clear brand personality dimensions.

Taiwan development started from agriculture and gradually moves to manufacturing to finally transform the economy into a high-tech industry. The economic miracle was based on Taiwanese diligence, perseverance, and dependability; but the process does not finish there. Since we have come to a knowledge economy era, lots of enterprises in Taiwan have developed from OEM, ODM to OBM to speed up internationalization and upgrade competitive advantages. The best answer from companies is to response quickly and become more creative, vivid and diversified enhancing clients¡¦ involvement. Consequently, the ¡§Storytelling¡¨ era has begun. Enterprises nowadays use ¡§Brand Story¡¨ to draw customers¡¦ attention. Based on this perspective, the study examines how brand stories affect the brand image and brand personality. By using qualitative research, the managers of these four interviewed companies shared experiences of developing brand stories, allowing us to understand the brand spirit and brand position through the use of touching true stories that express the unique image and personality of the brand. The study shows how brand stories influence consumers, employees and other stakeholders bringing the benefits and increasing recognitions, brand image and word-of-mouth. The influencing power of brand stories is truly beyond imagination.