The purpose of the study was to find out how well companies succeed in trying to convey the identity of their trademarks to the consumers. The study was quantitative with a survey design. A sample of 109 respondents participated. Brand identity and brand image was the focus of the study and was measured in three companies; Odd Molly, Filippa K and Björn Borg. These three were selected partly because of their different profiles. One survey was sent to the companies and one survey was distributed to the consumers. The majority of the questions in the surveys were based on a model designed to measure brand identity and brand image and gap in between them. The study presents three central theories; Profile, Image and Identity, Brand Equity and The Corporate Personality Scale. The first two gives a background to the concept of the words. The Corporate Personality Scale was created and designed to assess image and identity and the gaps in between them. The results showed that there were gaps in between the brand identity and the brand image in all three of the selected companies. However there were also signs of coherence between them. The companies succeeded in some part, in their trying to convey the identity of their trademarks to the consumers. There were both clear gaps and clear coherence between Brand Identity and Brand Image. In some cases the image was graded higher than the identity and vice versa.

<p>The cultural differences in the consumers' perspectives are an important factor that affects the image of brands around the world. A brand's image may be affected even though the company gives the same message across different cultures. In order to analyze these effects, the authors have conducted a qualitative study, chosen the chocolate brand Kinder and studying how Kinder's brand image perception varies in four different cultures by conducting 16 in-depth interviews. The data was afterwards categorized, analyzed and compared to each other in order to find differences and similarities of the brand image in the interviewee's perspectives. This work’s focus is on the problem how the cultural differences can affect the perspective of individuals brand image even though this one can try to have a global standardized image.</p>

The cultural differences in the consumers' perspectives are an important factor that affects the image of brands around the world. A brand's image may be affected even though the company gives the same message across different cultures. In order to analyze these effects, the authors have conducted a qualitative study, chosen the chocolate brand Kinder and studying how Kinder's brand image perception varies in four different cultures by conducting 16 in-depth interviews. The data was afterwards categorized, analyzed and compared to each other in order to find differences and similarities of the brand image in the interviewee's perspectives. This work’s focus is on the problem how the cultural differences can affect the perspective of individuals brand image even though this one can try to have a global standardized image.

Introduction: Counterfeiting is considered as the crime of the 21st century. A highly affected market of counterfeits is the market of luxury branded goods. These goods are bought by consumers who want to express their social class and belonging by being admired, recognized and accepted by other people. The counterfeits of luxury brands that flourish on the market makes it possible for anyone to be a luxury brand user which is against the core of luxury brand, which strives for a low distribution to keep the demand high to be able to keep the consumer associations of luxury brands.   Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to create knowledge of how counterfeit products affect the consumer perception of luxury brands. Methodology: The research approach was a deductive, quantitative research and the data was collected through a questionnaire distributed through Facebook and the internal e-mail of the Linnaeus University. The sample frame was generation Y in Sweden. A total of 432 completed questionnaires were collected and was the foundation for the analysis and result.   Conclusion: The consumers' perception of counterfeit products have a negative effect on the consumer perception of luxury brands. Both the consumer's brand associations and how consumers perceive the quality of luxury brands are affected by counterfeit products. However, what the consequences are of this negative relationship cannot be answered by the result of this thesis.

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.

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.

Vartotojų elgsenos aktualumas verslo praktikoje ir teorijoje neabejotinas – vartotojų elgsenos, ypač pirkimo sprendimo priėmimo stimulų, kylančių iš vartotojų asmenybės bei aplinkoje esančių ir skatinančių pirkti stimulų išskyrimas. Impulsyvaus pirkimo fenomenas mokslinėje marketingo literatūroje analizuojamas jau daugiau kaip penkias dešimtis. Todėl stimulai, sąlygojantys impulsyvaus pirkimo sprendimą ypač svarbūs – tokių stimulų sukūrimas skatintų vartotojus priimti pirkimo sprendimą per sąlyginai trumpą laiko tarpą, o pastaroji tendencija generuotų pelną organizacijai. Dar vienas itin plačiai mokslinėje literatūroje analizuojamas konceptas – prekės ženklo vertė. Prekės ženklo vertė pagrįsta vartotojo sąmonėje susiformavusiomis teigiamos asociacijos su prekės ženklu, prekės ženklo vertės vartotojui sukūrimu bei vartotojų lojalumu prekės ženklui. Visi pastarieji veiksniai mokslinėje literatūroje traktuojami, kaip skatinantys vartotojo sprendimo pirkti priėmimą. Prekės ženklas įvardijamas, kaip vienas iš impulsyvaus pirkimo stimulų. Darbo objektas – impulsyvaus pirkimo stimulai ir prekės ženklo vertė. Darbo tikslas – teoriškai pagrįsti ir empiriškai patikrinti impulsyvaus pirkimo ir prekės ženklo vertės sąsajas „Nivea“ prekės ženklo pavyzdžiu. Darbo struktūra. Magistro darbą sudaro trys dalys. Pirmojoje darbo dalyje pateikta ir nagrinėta impulsyvaus pirkimo koncepcija, vidiniai ir išoriniai impulsyvaus pirkimo stimulai. Taip pat analizuojami prekės ženklo vertę kuriantys... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The aim of this master work – theoretically support and empirically examine the relationship between impulsive buying and brand equity. The structure of thesis. The Master work thesis consists of three parts. The first part of thesis represents and examines the conception of impulsive buying, its internal and external impulsive buying stimulus. It also analyzes the creating factors of the brand value. The analysis of impulsive buying models is also presented. The second part of the thesis represents the structural interface pattern of impulsive buying and the brand equity. The research methodology, aims and tasks are also given. A previous analysis of impulsive buying research results is done. The third part of Master work thesis does the empirical research of the relationship between impulsive buying and the brand equity; the results are generalized. Empirically checked structural model relationshiop between impulsive buying and the brand equity by the example of Nivea brand is done. At the end of the Master work the conclusions are made and suggestions are given. In order to make it more transparent, the work contains of 14 pictures and 17 tables. The theoretical analysis has been prepared using 117 English and Lithuanian literature sources.

Many companies have exploited the power of brand equity in B2C markets as a source of competitive advantage. The trend in B2B, however, seems to be slightly different where many decision makers still believe that branding is not relevant to their business as it is to B2C. This paper investigates the role of brand equity in B2B businesses and shows how long-term investment in brand equity can change the rules of the game radically in favor of those B2B companies who have invested in their brand with a "holistic" approach which conform the overall strategy of the company. Caterpillar Inc. has been chosen as the case study and the role of its brand equity in its superior performance over its competitor, Komatsu Ltd, is investigated. The qualitative part of the research analyses the brand associations and the roles that these associations together with other brand elements play for Caterpillar and its customers. The quantitative part investigates two particular areas of recovery from market difficulties and efficiency in market communications and proves the role of higher brand equity in superior performance in recovery from market difficulties and marketing communications efficiency. The results are then tested further on the second case study which compares Intel to AMD. The results also open up new lines for further research on the subject both in depth and breadth where suggestions are made for generalizability of the research as well as determining the role of brand equity in companies' performances more precisely.

<p>In recent years, the successful expansions of Swedish fashion companies have mainly relied on their ability to turn fashion into brands. However, when companies grow it seems to be difficult to maintain the original brand identity as well as to establish a unique brand image in the minds of the consumers. With regard to this matter the purpose of our thesis was to investigate the brand image of Acne Jeans. Our ambition was to examine to what extent the brand image coincided with the brand identity and if brand associations differed between different consumer segments. In order to fulfil our purpose, we have conducted a questionnaire study of a sample of 130 students at Stockholm University. The findings of our study show that the brand image of Acne Jeans did not coincide with the brand identity regarding the aspects of individuality and innovativeness. We further concluded that there were several differences between the associations of those in possession of Acne apparel and those who did not own any Acne items. Finally, the associations of early adopters were investigated. The result indicated that the brand associations in this group did not deviate from the general opinion of the total sample.</p>

In recent years, the successful expansions of Swedish fashion companies have mainly relied on their ability to turn fashion into brands. However, when companies grow it seems to be difficult to maintain the original brand identity as well as to establish a unique brand image in the minds of the consumers. With regard to this matter the purpose of our thesis was to investigate the brand image of Acne Jeans. Our ambition was to examine to what extent the brand image coincided with the brand identity and if brand associations differed between different consumer segments. In order to fulfil our purpose, we have conducted a questionnaire study of a sample of 130 students at Stockholm University. The findings of our study show that the brand image of Acne Jeans did not coincide with the brand identity regarding the aspects of individuality and innovativeness. We further concluded that there were several differences between the associations of those in possession of Acne apparel and those who did not own any Acne items. Finally, the associations of early adopters were investigated. The result indicated that the brand associations in this group did not deviate from the general opinion of the total sample.