The purpose was to investigate how the retailer ICA could transfer its brand equity when rebranding its low price private label product Euroshopper. The study also had the intention to look at the outcome of the rebranding process through examining how customers’ brand perception and their behavior was influenced by the rebranding. What made it interesting to conduct this study was that there has been a lack in research that considers rebranding and the role of brand equity in such a process. Brand equity is a very important asset for companies, since it creates value for the customers that they use as information base when making decisions. A quantitative survey was conducted and the conclusion from it is that strong brand equity can be transferred to a product that once had a negative image and that perception can be replaced by a stronger brand image.

Šio baigiamojo bakalaurinio darbo tikslas – parengti vadybinius sprendimus, kurių pagalba įmonė galėtų suformuoti restorano „Gangster‘s“ įvaizdį. Tai jauna įmonė, turinti didelį potencialą, bet nėra suformuotos kryptingos įvaizdžio formavimo strategijos. Dėl šios priežasties restoranas praranda galimybę pasiekti stabilią ir ilgalaikę verslo sėkmę. Baigiamajame darbe atliekama situacijos analizė, empirinis tyrimas bei jų pagrindu pateikiami vadybiniai sprendimai. Situacijos analizė atlikta remiantis restorano vidine informacija ir viešai prieinamais šaltiniai. Tyrimui atlikti pasirinktas kokybinio tyrimo metodas – pusiau struktūrizuotas interviu, kurio metu buvo apklausiami ne tik restorano lankytojai, bet ir „Gangster‘s“ restorano vadovai. Buvo apklausiami keli segmentai (vartotojai ir vadovai), siekiant išsiaiškinti, ar vartotojų ir restorano vadovų suvokiamas restorano įvaizdis sutampa. Taip pat buvo aktualu sužinoti, kokį restoranų įvaizdį abu segmentai norėtų matyti. Remiantis šiais duomenimis, pasiūlyti priemones, kurių dėka jį galima būtų tinkamai suformuoti. / The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to prepare managerial decisions for creating restaurant’s “Gangster’s” image. This restaurant was opened last year, in September and have big potential in the market, but there is no focused strategy how to create it‘s image. In general, for this reason restaurant looses it‘s positions and meets difficulties to achieve stability and business success in the market. Situation analysis and research was accomplished to identify customers’ opinion towards current restaurant’s image and based on it to propose managerial decisions how to improve it. The analysis of situation was prepared based on restaurant’s internal information and using different public sources. The research was carried out using qualitative research method – semi-structured interview. During this research restaurant’s customers and “Gangster’s” managers were interviewed. The aim to examine two different customers’ segments was to identify if the perceived image by customers and restaurant’s managers matches in between. Also, it was important to find out, what kind of restaurant’s image they would like see. Based on this data, was set vision of image and instruments, how to realize it - managerial decisions were worked out.

This thesis represents the economic analysis on the role of country brand management and intellectual property towards promoting and protecting Brand Jamaica, the national brand of Jamaica. The role of good country brand management was determined from the comparative analysis of scientific literature as well as the brand index measurement and perceptions of a country across several dimensions. These dimensions include culture, governance, people, exports, tourism, investment and immigration as well as the management and constructing of the country’s reputation positively. Country brand management is integral for the successful development of industry sectors and is also dependent on good country image. For Brand Jamaica one such industry is the creative industries sector. This sector possess great potential for achieving revenue under Brand Jamaica indicia (mark), however enforced intellectual property through patents, industrial property, copyrighting and geographical indications are absent. The administration of intellectual property rights, which is currently governed by the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office, JIPO, is inadequate for controlling Brand Jamaica’s national symbols, emblems, tangible and intangible property because of the current position of the Paris Convention rules. From an economic perspective there is a direct relationship between country brands and intellectual property and for Brand Jamaica this relationship was emphasized for that country brand’s... [to full text] / Šiame magistro baigiamajame darbe pateikiama šalies prekės ženklo valdymo ir intelektinės nuosavybės ekonominė analizė Jamaikos nacionalinio prekės ženklo skatinimo ir apsaugos kontekste. Geros nacionalinio prekės ženklo vadybos vaidmuo šiame darbe nustatomas remiantis lyginamąja mokslinės literatūros analize ir prekės ženklo indekso bei šalies percepcijos įvairiais aspektais skaičiavimu. Į minėtus aspektus įtraukiama kultūra, valdžia, žmonės, eksportas, turizmas, investavimas ir imigracija bei teigiamos valstybės reputacijos kūrimas ir jos vadyba. Nacionalinio prekės ženklo vadyba yra neatsiejama nuo sėkmingo pramonės vystymosi ir priklauso nuo gero šalies įvaizdžio. Jamaikos prekės ženklui svarbus kūrybos pramonės sektorius. Jis potencialus uždirbti pajamas iš Jamaikos nacionalinių pašto ženklų, vis dėlto priverstinės intelektinės nuosavybės per patentus, pramonės turtą, autorines teises ir geografinius parodymus nėra. Intelektinės nuosavybės teisių valdymas, šiuo metu reglamentuojamas Jamaikos intelektinės nuosavybės biuro JIPO, nėra tinkamas Jamaikos nacionalinio prekės ženklo simboliams, emblemoms, materialiajam ir nematerialiajam turtui kontroliuoti dėl dabartinių Paryžiaus konvencijos nuostatų. Žvelgiant iš ekonominio požiūrio taško, nacionalinis prekės ženklas ir intelektinė nuosavybė yra tiesiogiai susiję, o Jamaikos atveju tas ryšys pabrėžtinas nacionalinio prekės ženklo kūrybos pramonės sektoriuje. Pasinaudojant priverstine intelektine nuosavybe, galima ekonominė... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

Abstract Title: External communication and brand strategies in Swedish municipalities
 Author: Philip Hagne & Einar Svensson
 Tutor: Jessica Gustafsson
 Purpose: The aim of this thesis was to study and obtain greater understanding on how Swedish municipalities use external communication and branding strategies to gain and attract more residents. The key questions to be answered in this thesis were: What does the external communication look like in the selected municipalities? Are the selected municipalities trying to establish their own brand? What does the work on creating the brand look like?
 Method/Material: This thesis is based on material collected trough interviews with people working with external communication in eleven swedish municipalities. The selected municipalities where divided into two groups based on their negative or positive population growth between 2005 and 2012. All of the selected municipalities where in the same population range between 20,000 and 40,000 citizens. The theoretical framework used in this thesis consists of David Aaker’s theories on Brand Equity along with Graham Hankinson’s, Gregory Ashworth's and Mihalis Kavaratzis theories on Place Branding.
 Main results: The main results show that the external communication is rather similar in all of the eleven municipalities regardless their population trend. The study could not show any definite correlation between the use of external communication and branding towards gaining new inhabitants. However this thesis sugests that municipal councils have changed their attitudes in prioritizing the external communication. The attitude from municipal councils today are more positive than earlier research has shown. Furthermore this thesis has shown that the financial issues and low communication budgets still are the main reason for limited work on external communication, though this is solved with collaborations with local actors in the public sphere.
 Number of pages: 64
 Course: Media and Communication studies C
 University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University
 Period: Fall 2013
 Keywords: Brand, external communication, municipalities

Introduction  Globalization has opened up for opportunities, as well as challenges, for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to distinguish themselves in a competitive environment. A branding strategy that aims to develop a strong reputation and recognition can be an attempt for Swedish SMEs to create awareness and differentiate themselves in the European market. This thesis is composed of three major bricks; branding, and how the firms exercise it; SMEs resource constraints, in terms of employees and financial assets; and internationalization. All these combined become special challenges for SMEs. Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to examine how Swedish SMEs exercise branding internationally in order to develop a strategic model of how they can continue their brand expansion in the European market. Method In order to fulfill the purpose of the study, a qualitative study based on four Swedish SMEs were included in the sample. Through semi-structured interviews (six face-to-face and one telephone interview). The respondents were the owners, external CEOs, product or marketing managers of the SMEs. The collected data was categorized and each SME was analyzed in order to finally construct a model. Conclusion  The findings in this thesis show that all the investigated SMEs, to different extents, use branding strategies in order to succeed in the international market. Generally the findings conformed to a certain degree to previous findings concerning branding. Further, the importance of international fairs and networking while developing the brands outside the Swedish market was found. The authors came forward with the SME European Brand Expansion-model, which is strongly influenced by the empirical findings in this thesis.

Engineers are a group of individuals who are attractive when companies are in need for competence in technology. Today it is a shortage of these competences in the labor market. Because of this there has grown a competition among companies when they strive to recruit the best engineers. Therefore companies spend more resources on marketing themselves as an attractive employer. This study was set out to find what engineers think is an attractive employer through a demographic perspective. Another objective was to understand what Employer Brand (EB) is and understand what a successful EB consists of. The study was based on a survey where 147 engineers from Umeå University participated. The study showed that age, years at work and number of terms studied plays an important role to explain how an engineer student rate as a good employer. Further on can we conclude from a theoretic perspective that EB is a complex concept when creating a brand. Although, the study shows that by interacting with the target group is a god indicator to seen as a future employer for engineer students and as a good brand.

Abstract Title: Brand Building – Differences between how business-to-business companies and business-to-consumer companies build their brands. Authors: Louise Lönnqvist and Sofia Stierna Supervisor: Svante Andersson Level: Master thesis, Independent project in business administration (30 credits), Spring 2014 Keywords: Brand, Brand Building, Brand Equity, Business-to-business, Business-to- consumer. Research questions: Q1: How can the brand building process differ between business-to- business companies and business-to-consumer companies? Q2: How can brand equity differ between business-to-business companies and business-to-consumer companies? Purpose: The purpose with this study is to investigate the differences between how business- to-business and business-to-consumer companies build their brands. First the differences in the brand building process are going to be investigated. Furthermore, this leads to an investigation in how brand equity differs between business-to-business companies and business-to-consumer companies. Theoretical framework: The theoretical framework starts with an explanation about what a brand is and an explanation of the differences between business-to-business companies and business-to-consumer companies. Furthermore, relevant theories about the brand building process and brand equity are discussed. Methodology: A qualitative method and abductive approach were used in order to answer the research questions. Personal interviews were conducted with three business-to-business companies and three business-to-consumer companies in order to get a view over the brand building. Empirical data: The empirical findings from the six interviews based on the theory are presented. Analysis: The analysis is based on the theoretical framework together with the empirical data. Conclusion: We have come up with the conclusion that all companies have their own brand building process and it does not matter if it is a business-to-business company or a business- to-consumer company, no major difference have been found. It is not important exactly how the brand building process looks like and which stages that are included, the key is that companies work with brand building in some way, although more studies are required in order to confirm the results. Furthermore, the two brand equity factors external brand loyalty and perceived quality are more important for business-to-business companies and the business-to-consumer prefer a combination of all the factors.

Since the emergence of branding as an approach to marketing, the concept has been received with a great deal of interest and has stimulated ever increasing research in the area. Businesses have realized the importance of retaining existing customers and have begun to identify and apply ways to build long-term relationships with customers. These relationships with customers require an understanding of customer needs, business requirements and the influences that create a long-term relation which is more commonly known as brand loyalty. Several research studies including this one present the results of brand loyalty research in the form of a conceptual framework. From an academic viewpoint, the identification and application of all the relevant influences are essential in the construction of a framework that can guide the promotion of brand loyalty. The aim of this study was to identify the influences that are most important in creating and measuring brand loyalty in the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector. The study builds a conceptual framework using the identified influences and also presents the interrelationships between the influences. The primary theoretical background and concepts in brand loyalty for this study ranged from the history of branding to the results of brand loyalty studies conducted over the past five years. The extensive review of literature and previously tested brand loyalty models resulted in the identification of 12 influences that impact directly on brand loyalty. Reducing the identified set of influences into a manageable set for this thesis involved selecting the most commonly used reliable and valid brand loyalty influences. The empirical study which followed was conducted among a sample of 550 customers who had access to a wide range of FMCG. The empirical study based on the selected 12 brand loyalty influences yielded results that measured the strength of each influence and the interrelationship of influences. The results were analysed by the process of factor analysis, and were presented in the form of a conceptual framework that could be applied in the FMCG segment to measure the strength of brand loyalty influences and determine if the same influences apply to all FMCG. The results of the study confirmed that different influences have different effects on brand loyalty in the FMCG segment. The study revealed that the psychological influences such as brand commitment, brand affect, perceived value and relationship proneness had a far stronger effect on brand loyalty than the brand performance influences such as customer satisfaction or brand performance. Furthermore, the study found an extremely close relationship between influences as far as the specific products were concerned. This study confirmed that FMCG could all be treated as a single entity when evaluating the influences of brand loyalty. The uniqueness and value of the study lies in the evaluation of each brand loyalty influence that is collectively assembled in one framework. The most important contribution of the study is therefore the construction of this conceptual framework through which brand loyalty could be measured and strategically managed. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Business Administration))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Since the emergence of branding as an approach to marketing, the concept has been received with a great deal of interest and has stimulated ever increasing research in the area. Businesses have realized the importance of retaining existing customers and have begun to identify and apply ways to build long-term relationships with customers. These relationships with customers require an understanding of customer needs, business requirements and the influences that create a long-term relation which is more commonly known as brand loyalty. Several research studies including this one present the results of brand loyalty research in the form of a conceptual framework. From an academic viewpoint, the identification and application of all the relevant influences are essential in the construction of a framework that can guide the promotion of brand loyalty. The aim of this study was to identify the influences that are most important in creating and measuring brand loyalty in the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector. The study builds a conceptual framework using the identified influences and also presents the interrelationships between the influences. The primary theoretical background and concepts in brand loyalty for this study ranged from the history of branding to the results of brand loyalty studies conducted over the past five years. The extensive review of literature and previously tested brand loyalty models resulted in the identification of 12 influences that impact directly on brand loyalty. Reducing the identified set of influences into a manageable set for this thesis involved selecting the most commonly used reliable and valid brand loyalty influences. The empirical study which followed was conducted among a sample of 550 customers who had access to a wide range of FMCG. The empirical study based on the selected 12 brand loyalty influences yielded results that measured the strength of each influence and the interrelationship of influences. The results were analysed by the process of factor analysis, and were presented in the form of a conceptual framework that could be applied in the FMCG segment to measure the strength of brand loyalty influences and determine if the same influences apply to all FMCG. The results of the study confirmed that different influences have different effects on brand loyalty in the FMCG segment. The study revealed that the psychological influences such as brand commitment, brand affect, perceived value and relationship proneness had a far stronger effect on brand loyalty than the brand performance influences such as customer satisfaction or brand performance. Furthermore, the study found an extremely close relationship between influences as far as the specific products were concerned. This study confirmed that FMCG could all be treated as a single entity when evaluating the influences of brand loyalty. The uniqueness and value of the study lies in the evaluation of each brand loyalty influence that is collectively assembled in one framework. The most important contribution of the study is therefore the construction of this conceptual framework through which brand loyalty could be measured and strategically managed. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Business Administration))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Teknikutvecklingen har möjliggjort stor spridning av budskap och med kommunikation över Internet skapas nya möjligheter för interaktion mellan företag och konsumenter. Framväxten av smartphones har också gjort att många idag alltid har tillgång till både kamera,internetuppkoppling och bildskärm. Detta är också de förutsättningar som gjort Instagram till ett av de största och snabbast växande sociala medierna. På Instagram kan företag dela bilder med innehåll som de vill förknippas med och dra nytta av den virala spridning som kan uppstå.Möjligheten till spridning kan även utgöra en risk då företagen är rädda för negativ publicitet.Denna uppsats har därför som huvudsyfte att undersöka vad företag har att tillföra i värde respektive riskerar i sitt varumärkesbyggande genom att vara aktiva på Instagram. Teoribildningen som används för att analysera och utvärdera varumärkens närvaro på Instagram är kopplade till Brand Equity, Word-of-mouth, Integrerad och Viral marknadsföring. Metoden som använts i studien är en innehållsanalys av det material som publiceras på Instagram av både företag och privata användare. Inlägg från fyra svenska företag har studerats närmare och tillsammans med de privata användarnas inlägg har totalt 480 bilder och 1742 bildkommentarer utvärderats och innehållet kvantifierats. Resultatet av studien visar att de aktuella företagen inte utstår någon större risk med att vara aktiva på Instagram samt att möjligheterna med detta sociala medie är stora. Den stora möjligheten är framförallt den mängd individer som ett budskap kan uppnå genom viral spridning.