<p>Abstract</p><p>Title: Cheap Monday – A qualitative study of the consumers’ opinions of the brand (Cheap Monday – En kvalitativ studie av konsumenternas åsikter om märket)</p><p>Number of pages: 38 (40 including enclosures)</p><p>Author: Oskar Norlander</p><p>Tutor: Göran Svensson</p><p>Course: Media and Communication Studies C</p><p>Period: Autumn 2007</p><p>University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University</p><p>Purpose/Aim: The purpose of this essay is to examine from the customers’ perspective how the Swedish jeans-brand Cheap Monday in just three years time could become such a prominent brand on the Swedish market. An additional purpose is to examine whether there is some kind of brand community connected to the brand or not.</p><p>Material/Method: The main method used in this essay has been qualitative interviews with ten consumers of the brand. The answers from these interviews has then been analysed using two different theories, Keller’s Customer Based Brand Equity and Muniz and O’Guinnn’s Brand Community.</p><p>Main results: The main results of this essay is that Cheap Monday is a brand that has become successful due to people’s perception of who the users of the brand are. The consumers has already from the start gotten a good impression of the brand, since they’ve seen people who they liked, and people who they thought were cool and well dressed wearing Cheap Monday clothing. This is linked to the fact that Cheap Monday costs so much less than their competitors, since the “cool people” that use Cheap Monday clothing makes the low price acceptable and a good thing from the customers perspective, instead of it being a indicator that the brand is unfashionable and no good. It has also been proved that there is somewhat of a brand community connected to the brand, even though the respondents in this essay did not feel connected to this community. On the other hand, almost all of the respondents did think that other people who wear Cheap Monday in some way felt some kind of connection to each other, and most of them a reed on that the brand on its own more or less has originated a new style.</p><p>Keywords: Cheap Monday, CM, Brand Equity, Brand Community, consumer, associations, Keller, Muniz, O’Guinn</p>

Abstract Title: Cheap Monday – A qualitative study of the consumers’ opinions of the brand (Cheap Monday – En kvalitativ studie av konsumenternas åsikter om märket) Number of pages: 38 (40 including enclosures) Author: Oskar Norlander Tutor: Göran Svensson Course: Media and Communication Studies C Period: Autumn 2007 University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University Purpose/Aim: The purpose of this essay is to examine from the customers’ perspective how the Swedish jeans-brand Cheap Monday in just three years time could become such a prominent brand on the Swedish market. An additional purpose is to examine whether there is some kind of brand community connected to the brand or not. Material/Method: The main method used in this essay has been qualitative interviews with ten consumers of the brand. The answers from these interviews has then been analysed using two different theories, Keller’s Customer Based Brand Equity and Muniz and O’Guinnn’s Brand Community. Main results: The main results of this essay is that Cheap Monday is a brand that has become successful due to people’s perception of who the users of the brand are. The consumers has already from the start gotten a good impression of the brand, since they’ve seen people who they liked, and people who they thought were cool and well dressed wearing Cheap Monday clothing. This is linked to the fact that Cheap Monday costs so much less than their competitors, since the “cool people” that use Cheap Monday clothing makes the low price acceptable and a good thing from the customers perspective, instead of it being a indicator that the brand is unfashionable and no good. It has also been proved that there is somewhat of a brand community connected to the brand, even though the respondents in this essay did not feel connected to this community. On the other hand, almost all of the respondents did think that other people who wear Cheap Monday in some way felt some kind of connection to each other, and most of them a reed on that the brand on its own more or less has originated a new style. Keywords: Cheap Monday, CM, Brand Equity, Brand Community, consumer, associations, Keller, Muniz, O’Guinn

Studies of human relationships in anthropology, religion, community studies and psychology have determined that willingness to sacrifice plays an important role in reinforcing and strengthening social bonds. It is remarkable that given the increasing prominence of the relationship marketing paradigm, marketers have spent little time investigating willingness to sacrifice as a potential variable of interest. This dissertation extends relationship marketing theory by defining, developing and testing the willingness to sacrifice construct in the context of brand communities. It not only establishes a role for willingness to sacrifice in the nomological network of relationship marketing, but also develops a typology of sacrifices members make in brand communities. Results from two experiments and a field study of two brand communities suggest there are significant relationships between willingness to sacrifice and established constructs in relationship marketing research, such as identification, satisfaction with peers, and norms of reciprocity. Moreover, these findings indicate that willingness to sacrifice is positively associated with beneficial marketing outcomes such as word of mouth, purchase intentions and brand community longevity. By integrating literature from personal psychology, sociology anthropology–all of which discuss sacrifice in terms of how it can benefit and strengthen relationships– this research challenges the conventional marketing assumption that sacrifice is merely “the price one pays.” Taken together, these studies enrich our understanding of willingness to sacrifice in a marketing context, and more specifically, identify a process through which it contributes to brand community success and related marketing outcomes. / Thesis (Ph.D, Management) -- Queen's University, 2014-04-09 10:41:22.156

Studien undersöker olika dimensioner av det omdiskuterade begreppet kundengagemang i ett online brand community på Facebook, i förhållande till tidigare konsumtion och köpintention “offline”. Webbaserade enkäter användes som metod för att undersöka vilka dimensioner av kundengagemang som förekommer i det studerade online brand communityt på Livrustkammarens Facebooksida. Vidare användes en korrelationsanalys för att se om det fanns ett samband mellan de olika dimensionerna av kundengagemang i förhållande till tidigare konsumtion samt köpintention. Slutligen användes logistisk regressionsanalys för att se om någon av engagemangsdimensionerna kunde vara en predikator för tidigare konsumtion respektive köpintention. Resultatet av korrelationsanalysen visade på ett positivt, statistiskt signifikant samband mellan kognitivt engagemang gentemot varumärket i förhållande till tidigare konsumtion. Ett positivt och statistiskt signifikant samband förelåg också mellan alla engagemangsdimensioner i förhållande till köpintention. Regressionsanalyserna visade på endast ett statistiskt signifikant resultat, där kognitivt engagemang gentemot varumärket var en predikator för tidigare konsumtion. Troligtvis berodde avsaknaden av statistiskt signifikanta resultat i regressionsanalyserna på multikollinearitet (korrelation) mellan de oberoende variablerna. Denna korrelation gör det också svårt att undersöka alla tre dimensionerna av engagemang samtidigt i en kvantitativ studie. Framtida forskning kan därför använda sig av en kvalitativ metod, exempelvis netnografi, för att studera de antecedents som lämnats utanför studiens ramar. Resultatet visar också på vikten av att praktiker värdesätter det kognitiva engagemanget gentemot varumärket istället för endast det beteendemässiga, då detta var den enda predikatorn som framkom i förhållande till tidigare konsumtion. Resultatet tyder också på att engagemang i sociala medier har en betydelse för köpintention, då ett samband återfanns mellan alla former av engagemang i communityt ”online” och en intention att besöka museet ”offline”.

Submitted by Nadir Basilio (nadirsb@uninove.br) on 2016-06-06T20:05:55Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Edna de Souza Machado.pdf: 1327243 bytes, checksum: 7c82d441ec8cc32bdcc377b918bff284 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-06T20:05:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Edna de Souza Machado.pdf: 1327243 bytes, checksum: 7c82d441ec8cc32bdcc377b918bff284 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-06-25 / This research, inserted into the marketing area, aims to investigate the influence of self-expanded (ARON et al., 1991) on consumer behavior in the Harley-Davidson brand community, an American brand of motorcycles, worldwide famous, whose owners get together, motivated by the brand for several purposes (SOLOMON, 2011). The problem raised by this research is to understand how is the influence of self-expanded on consumer behavior in the Harley-Davidson brand community. Thus, the rationale for this study lies in the approach taken by the light of the Theory of Planned Behavior (AJZEN, 1985) that consumers are influenced or motivated to participate in collective meetings, taking as a starting point the context in which they live, which is provided by the Harley-Davidson brand and they suffer behavioral changes due to the relationships that establish the self-expanded (ARON et. al., 1991) In addition, the brand has consumers that come together and are formed in a strong community setting out mutual commitments which share the same social identity. (BAGGOZI & DHOLAKIA, 2006; ATKIN, 2007; UNDEWOOD, BOND & BAER, 2001). The relevance of this study points to the fact that brand communities represent the key role study for the area of Marketing in Brazil because they offer conditions for us to investigate and understand, in depth, issues related to consumer behavior, understanding of the influence and the kind of culture that the Brazilian consumer receives in regard to Brand equity (ATKIN, 2007; YOO & DONTHU, 2001; AAKER 1998). The corpus of the research included a survey with 193 participants of brand communities. The methodological approach used was quantitative using the SmartPLS for data analysis. The results show that intergroup relations, with respect to attitudes, wishes and positive emotions are feelings shared and that enhance the desire to participate in the activities of this brand community, which culminates with the expansion of the participant's self Harley-Davidson community for belonging, involvement, social identity and behavior with the brand. / Esta pesquisa, inserida na linha de marketing, tem por objetivo investigar a influência do self-expandido (ARON et al., 1991) sobre o comportamento do consumidor na comunidade de marca Harley-Davidson, marca americana de motocicletas, cujos proprietários se reúnem, motivados pela marca, para finalidades diversas (SOLOMON, 2011). O problema levantado foi compreender como ocorre a influência do self-expandido sobre o comportamento do consumidor na comunidade de marca Harley-Davidson. A relevância deste estudo se dá pelo fato de que as comunidades de marca representam papel fundamental de estudo para a área de Marketing no Brasil, pois oferecem condições para se investigar e compreender, com mais profundidade, aspectos relacionados ao comportamento do consumidor, a compreensão sobre a influência e o tipo de cultura que o consumidor brasileiro recebe no que se refere à brand equity (ATKIN, 2007; YOO & DONTHU, 2001; AAKER, 1998). O corpus da pesquisa contou com uma survey com 193 participantes de comunidades de marca. A abordagem metodológica utilizada foi quantitativa com a utilização do SmartPLS para análise dos dados. Os resultados obtidos demonstram que as relações intergrupais, no que tange às atitudes, desejos e emoções positivas, são sentimentos compartilhados e que ampliam o desejo em participar das atividades dessa comunidade de marca, o que culmina com a expansão do self do participante da comunidade Harley-Davidson, pelo pertencimento, envolvimento, identidade social e comportamento com a marca.

Customer engagement is a relatively new topic in research and due to its importance, it has recently received a lot of attention in both academia and practice. Although the attention, it still lacks knowledge regarding its components and driving factors. While previous research solely has included high involvement product categories, the purpose of this study was to shed light on low involvement product categories, by examining the driving factors of customer engagement within low involvement product categories. A qualitative method was chosen by implementing an inductive approach, and conducting eight in-depth unstructured interviews, with sensitizing concepts as a theoretical background. The reason for the method of choice in this thesis was based on the argument that the authors wanted to contribute new insights into the research field. The findings indicated seven prominent themes that were interpreted as driving factors of customer engagement within low involvement product categories, namely, marketing communication, brand traits, brand activations, brand ambassadors, brand values, brand-self connection, and fellowship. Since the purposive sample only focused on customers, the brand perspective was excluded.

品牌，對現今的行銷及組織經營而言早已成為相當重要的課題，因為它不僅是一個圖像或名稱，而是讓組織與商品得以在眾多的競爭者間脫穎而出的策略；而品牌必須要不斷的擴大顧客對於品牌的終生貢獻價值，即顧客權益（customer equity）的擴張，因此當忠誠度能夠幫助顧客權益的擴張時，組織如何建立忠誠度即成為廣受關注的議題，而能幫助忠誠度發展的「品牌社群」便漸漸吸引許多學者的研究。 本研究以McAlexander、Schouten與Koenign（2002）三位學者提出的「品牌社群關係模型（brand community relationship model）」為基礎，希冀以品牌社群成員的觀點研究「品牌社群經營」、「品牌社群關係」與「品牌忠誠度」間關係，並進一步探討品牌的「理性傾向」對於上述「品牌社群經營」、「品牌社群關係」以及「品牌忠誠度」關係的影響。 本研究以多個不同品牌的品牌家族為研究對象，透過Swatch、Samsung以及Sony三個品牌家族的經營者進行深入訪談後，以Swatch、Seiko、Samsung三個不同品牌的品牌家族為問卷調查對象，經由一系列的量化分析後得出以下研究結論： 一、品牌社群關係與品牌忠誠度 品牌社群內的社群成員與品牌的關係好壞對品牌忠誠度是有正向驅動關係；而透過比較不同品牌社群的品牌社群關係構面對品牌忠誠度的作用，發現不同品牌會呈現不同的強弱影響關係。 二、品牌社群經營與品牌社群關係 社群成員在品牌社群中，對於「人際相關的社群活動（communal community program）」的參與較能幫助成員與品牌的關係，而「實質利益相關的社群活動（non-communal community program）」的經營與品牌社群關係的好壞並無顯著的關係，因此品牌社群若能提供社群成員良好的「人際互動經驗」較能明顯幫助品牌社群關係的建立。 三、社群成員對品牌的理性傾向與品牌社群經營 理性傾向將會降低品牌社群成員對於人際相關活動的參與情形，連帶的降低社群活動期望的正向差距，因此消費者對品牌的態度越理性，對於品牌社群的經營就有較不利的影響。 四、品牌理性傾向與品牌忠誠度 雖然「理性傾向」對於品牌社群的經營有不利的效果，不過在研究中發現到當品牌給社群成員越多理性的資訊時，社群成員會藉由增強對經營公司的好感以幫助品牌忠誠度的建立。 / Brand has become an important issue to marketing and organization management nowadays, for it is not only a logo or a name but a strategy that distinguishes an organization and its products from numerous competitors. A brand must continuously expand its customers’ lifetime contribution value, namely the increase of customer equity. Therefore, when loyalty helps increase customer equity, how an organization establish loyalty becomes a critical issue, while “brand community” that assists developing loyalty gradually arise many scholars interest in research. The research adopts “brand community relationship model” by McAlexander, Schouten and Koenign (2002), attempting to study relationship among “brand community management”, “brand community relationship” and “brand loyalty” via perspective of brand community members, and further discussing influence of brand “rational inclination” on the aforementioned “brand community management”, “brand community relationship” and “brand loyalty”. The research uses multiple-brand family as research subject, conducting in-depth interview with managers of three brand families of Swatch, Samsung and Sony, and choosing brand families of Swatch, Seiko and Samsung as questionnaire targets. The following conclusions are derived after a series of quantitative analysis: 1. Brand community relationship and brand loyalty Relationship between members of brand community and brand has positive correlation to brand loyalty. By comparing different brand community’s effect of brand community relationship dimension on brand loyalty, the research found different brands generate different level of influence relationship. 2. Brand community management and brand community relationship Participation in “communal community program” by members of brand community reinforces relationship between members and brand, yet no significant relationship is found between management of “non-communal community program” and brand community relationship. Thus, it is more obvious in establishing brand community relationship if brand community provide members with satisfactory “interrelationship experience” 3. Community members’ rational inclination toward brand and brand community management Rational inclination will reduce brand community members’ participation in interrelationship activities, which reduces positive gap in social activity anticipation. Hence, the more rational attitude consumers hold toward a brand, the less favorable effect it has on management of brand community. 4. Brand rational inclination and brand loyalty Although “rational inclination” has less favorable effects on management of brand community, the research found that when more rational information is provided to community members, they will enhance establishment of brand loyalty by increasing goodwill toward the company.

<p>Abstract:</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to learn how brand heritage and retro brands can help HQM strengthen their brand identity.</p><p>Background: Companies with a long history have a strategic choice to make re-garding the use of their heritage in marketing communications. Such companies also enjoy a history of interesting products, for which some may exist the possibility for a retro relaunch. Husqvarna is such a company, which made it interesting to find out how these two strategic tools can or cannot strengthen the studied company‘s brand identity.</p><p>Method: Through an inductive and exploratory case study with interviews of the personnel at Husqvarna Motorcycles, Italy, three theoretical areas emerged to be researched, brand identity, brand heritage and retro brands. The latter two required the help of real life examples for better understanding. The analysis had a deductive approach where the studied theory was applied to the companies, and conclu-sions were drawn from the accumulated knowledge to help streng-then the brand identity of Husqvarna Motorcycles.</p><p>Conclusions: HQM is a brand with heritage in the process of taking a strategic de-cision to use its heritage as a tool to strengthen the brand identity, hence on the way to become a heritage brand in the true meaning of the definition. As the oldest brand on the market, HQM can use its heritage to differentiate itself from the competition, creating uni-queness impossible to copy. A retro product can be a useful vehicle to carry the newly uncovered heritage to surface. With the help of theory and a real life example, a contender within the historical company product portfolio was recognized. Finally, the band identi-ty as stated by HQM was redefined according to the findings.</p>

藉由部落格來經營線上社群的情形已久，但這幾年在部落格上出現一種新的敘事呈現方式，亦即藉由圖文形式，透過詼諧手法來分享生活瑣事或人生觀念，同時以版主(即部落格經營者與圖文創作者)所發起之創意、話題接龍來不斷擴展並豐富部落格上的內容。而藉由圖文角色的創造與自由免費下載，這些圖文流通在部分即時通訊軟體當中，提高了這些圖文角色的曝光度，同時也為版主帶來商機。版主透過哪些方式來經營線上社群，並將之導入商業運作，為本研究之動機。 因此本研究透過文獻整理，建立了線上品牌社群經營之探討層面，此層面包含了「部落格行銷特性」、「社群活動參與程度」、「活動實際認知與期待落差」等三個構面，同時納入「個人涉入度」與「購買意願」等構面，來探討這些構面之間的關係。然後針對回應於個案部落格上的各個成員進行問卷調查，再以因素分析進行構面修整等前測，之後正式發放問卷，回收有效問卷為364份，以SPSS套裝統計軟體進行典型相關分析，來探討構面之間的影響關係。 研究結果發現「部落格行銷特性」構面當中的「讀者針對性」為首要關鍵因素，而經由質化訪談資料分析指出，在此種類型部落格經營取向裡，「讀者針對性」為「資訊豐富性」、「互動性」的基礎。而「社群活動參與程度」亦為關鍵因素之一，尤其是活動的發起與舉辦手法，應透過詼諧趣味與簡單易懂的遊戲規則來進行，同時非實質商業性目的的活動佔大部分，此類活動的功能在於提高社群的參與感、認同與信任感；而商業性質的活動則應在部落格內容中佔較小篇幅，以避免社群成員的厭惡，畢竟此種圖文創作類型的部落格，是以非商業性質的圖文免費自由下載使用為基礎來經營的。而藉由上述的「部落格行銷特性」與「社群活動參與程度」來提升社群成員對於部落格的「個人涉入度」，進而提升社群成員對此品牌的產品之購買意願。 最後，社群成員的「活動實際認知與期待落差」沒有對於「個人涉入度」及「購買意願」造成影響。經由觀察個案部落格當中得知，因為目前所舉辦的活動相對來說較單純，並沒有營造出複雜且嚴謹的階級關係或制度，同時版主會以詼諧自嘲手法來降低社群成員對活動的期待，從而減少成員對於活動實際認知與期待之落差。 / There has been a new type of narration based on blog. That is, sharing trivial or thoughts of lives via interesting pictures with words, enriching content on the certain blog through sharing activities on gossips or ideas. The created characters expose through being used in certain instant message tool, which brought creator business. Based on literature review, the study built up an aspect to discuss managing on-line brand community, including blog marketing features, how much the community join activities. And we included personal involvement and purchase intention to discuss the relationships among these aspects. After processing questionnaires by factor analysis for pilot testing, then we retrieved 364 questionnaires for canonical correlation analysis to discuss the relationships among the aspects. In the outcome, it’s found that the relevancy on the blog for members is the most important one of the key success factors. Quantities’ data analysis indicated that the relevancy on the blog for members is the basis of information richness and interactivity. How much members join the activity is the key factor also, the way to announce the activity should be via interesting and easy rules; meanwhile, non-commercial determination activity takes major part. This kind of activity supposedly focuses on enhancing sense of joining, identification, and trust among members. By contrast, commercial determination activity should take minor part in content on the blog for fear of being excluded by given members since this kind of blog has been managed on the basis of non-commercially free downloading created characters. blogger could enhance the involvement by means of blog marketing features and how much members join the activity, then lift purchase intention of members toward the brand products. No effect has been made by gap of the awareness toward activity on personal involvement and purchase intention. Through observing the blog, it indicates that the activities held so far are relatively pure and easy, which means no complex and solid hierarchy has been set up in the activities; furthermore, blogger scales down members’ expectation of activities by using interesting and self-sarcastic approaches.

隨著網路時代的來臨，人際互動與溝通模式產生新的轉變，世界各地的網友可以藉由網路平台，表達自己的想法並且結交志同道合的朋友。喜歡特定品牌的網友們也會自行集結成立品牌社群，社群中的成員會以各種型式的創作與眾人分享其對於該品牌之愛好。有鑑於台灣寬頻網路普及率在世界名列前茅，品牌社群如雨後春筍般相繼成立，網友們也紛紛透過發表與瀏覽使用者創作與品牌社群成員互動，因此本研究目的在於找出影響網友加入品牌社群動機，及影響社群成員創作與消費使用者創作的因素，最後探討參與使用者創作對於品牌認同和社群認同的影響。 本研究以結構方程式來驗證Clary, Snyder, Ridge, Copeland, Stukas, Haugen, and Miene (1998) 功能性動機架構應用於品牌社群使用者創作之動機與態度，Eccles and Wigfield (1995) 的期望─價值理論對於使用者創作認知價值與態度間關係，以及Bagozzi and Dholakia (2005) 的品牌社群成員對於使用者創作態度及其使用者創作參與意圖的關聯，參與意圖對品牌與社群產生認同感之差異。 本研究有以下重要發現： 1. 社群導向加入動機會正面影響社群成員創作與消費使用者創作之態度，品牌導向加入動機則無顯著影響。 2. 品牌社群成員認為在社群中發表或瀏覽使用者創作越有價值，會更願意參與使用者創作的活動。 3. 對於創作使用者創作具有正面態度的社群成員，其參與使用者創作的意願越強，消費使用者創作態度較無顯著影響。 4. 社群成員參與使用者創作意願會強化品牌認同與社群認同，亦即越有意願參與使用者創作的成員對於品牌與社群之認同感越高。 / With the coming of the Internet age, people begin to change the way they communicate. People around the world can share their opinions on the Internet platform. Brand fanatics gather together and establish brand communities, and create different kinds of user-generated content to express their affections on the particular brand. In Taiwan, the assessiblity rate of Internet is occupied the leading position in the world. Moreover, brand community members interact with other members via publishing and consuming user-generated content. Thus, the purpose of the research is to find out the factors that influence brand community participation motivation, creating and consuming user-generated content, and the relation between user-generated content participation intention and brand identification and community identification. The Research is based on the conceptual framework of Functional Motivation proposed by Clary, Snyder, Ridge, Copeland, Stukas, Haugen, and Miene (1998) to investigate the relation between motivation and attitude toward user-generated content. With the Expectation – Value Theory proposed by Eccles and Wigfield (1995) to find out the influence of perceived value on attitude. Finally, the research will follow Bagozzi and Dholakia (2005) conceptual framework to discuss difference between the brand identification and community identification from the user-generated content participation intention. The research induces the following findings: 1. Community Oriented Participation Motivations will positively influence the brand community members’ user-generated contetent creation and consumpation attitude. Brand Oriented Participation Motivation will have no influence on the user-generated contetent creation and consumpation attitude. 2. The brand community members will base on the perceived value of creating and consuming user-generated content to engage user-generated content activity. 3. The attitude toward creating user-generated content will positively influence on the user-generated content participation intention. There is no significant influence from the attitude toward consuming user-generated content. 4. The user-generated content participation intention will reinforce the brand identification and community identification.