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.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Hotel, Restaurant, Institution Management and Dietetics / Ki-Joon Back / This study, based on customer-based brand equity (Keller, 1993), sought to identify key brand associations in brand knowledge and investigated attendees’ behaviors as evidenced in a comparison of a professional association’s major and regional conferences. The points of comparison were brand satisfaction, updated expectation of brand value (UEBV), brand trust, and attitudinal brand loyalty (ABL), especially the mediating effect of UEBV on brand trust-ABL link and the moderating effect of behavioral brand loyalty (BBL) within the brand trust-(UEBV)-brand loyalty link. To identify the proposed paths and differential effect of brand knowledge across I-CHRIE annual conference (IC) and regional CHRIE conferences (RC), this study sampled I-CHRIE members attending IC and/ or RC, using an online survey system. The response rate was 20.1% (213 out of 1,036) for IC and 19.4% (201 out of 1,036) for RC. Confirmatory factor analysis and/or structural equation modeling were used to test construct validity and hypotheses. Findings showed that professional education, staff service, site selection, and social networking are positively related to brand satisfaction, whereas brand awareness is negatively associated with it. Because brand satisfaction is a starting point in affecting UEBV, brand trust, and ABL, these four brand associations are presumed to be major sources of the differential effect of brand knowledge between IC and RC. Also, positive relationships existed on each path for brand satisfaction-UEBV, UEBV-brand trust, brand satisfaction-brand trust, and brand trust-ABL. It is especially important to look at the mediating effect of UEBV on brand satisfaction-brand trust path. UEBV was found to serve as a partial mediator on the brand satisfaction-brand trust path across the two groups. This result suggests that brand trust, the firm expectation that the brand will perform according to its promise, builds up through UEBV as well as through brand satisfaction. This study further extended the proposed theoretical model by dividing it into high and low BBL groups designed to unveil the differential characteristics or mechanisms between two groups. Except for the brand trust-ABL path, BBL was found to moderate the direct path (brand satisfaction to brand trust) and the indirect path (brand satisfaction to brand trust via UEBV). These findings support the notion that since high BBL attendees sustain longer relationships with a particular conference than low BBL attendees, high BBL attendees experience more cumulative satisfaction and update favorable expectations of brand value (through the perception of more [relational] benefits), thereby solidifying expectations about confidence in a brand (brand trust). Brand loyalty holds invaluable benefits for associations when associations in similar disciplines compete for potential attendees. Benefits from brand loyal customers lower marketing costs and increase market share and profitability. Thus, associations should build their conference marketing and management on brand loyalty by carefully designing brand associations attendees consider important. Persistent delivery of high-quality education programs, venue selection, and social networking enables associations to obtain cumulative satisfaction, UEBV, brand trust, and consequently brand loyalty. Retention of brand loyal attendees induces deep commitment to the conferences and great resistance to other conferences’ marketing strategies, thereby contributing to high revenue and market share.

Background: Social media influencers (SMIs) have become an important asset to the constantly changing world of marketing. The impact SMIs have within e-commerce and the influence they have on consumers have been observed. Therefore, the use of SMIs as a marketing tool in improving brand knowledge has been vastly adopted by many companies. However, the extent to which SMIs as co-founders contribute to creation of brand knowledge, remains undiscovered.  Purpose: The purpose of this research is to investigate how SMIs as co-founders in e-commerce companies contribute to creating brand knowledge. It aims to contribute with valuable knowledge in how e-commerce companies can implement modernized marketing and branding strategies by including SMIs as co-founders in a company.  Method: This qualitative study is based on semi-structured interviews with six relevant participants operating in four companies within the same industry. A deductive approach was implemented, and data were analyzed using thematic analysis, enabling interpretations and extractions of important themes and patterns. Conclusion: The research concludes that SMIs as co-founders significantly impact brand knowledge in e-commerce companies. Consumers form associations with the SMIs that are transferred into the companies. Further, SMIs contribute with an already existing engaged consumer base through their established relationships of trust and credibility. However, it is important to refrain from completely relying on the SMIs.

Yes / Consumer brand preference is an essential step towards understanding consumer choice behaviour, and has therefore always received great attention from marketers. However, the study of brand preference has been limited to traditional marketing focusing on functional attributes to maximise utility. But now the shift to experiential marketing broadens the role of the brand from a bundle of attributes to experiences. Technological advancements have helped to increase the similarities between brand attributes and product commoditisation. Consequently, consumers cannot shape their preferences among brands using rational attributes only. They seek out brands that create experiences; that intrigue them in a sensorial, emotional and creative way. This study seeks to develop a model that provides an understanding of how brand knowledge and brand experience determine brand preference and to investigate its impact on brand repurchase intention. Accordingly, exploratory focus group discussions are employed followed by a survey of mobile phone users in Egypt. The findings provide insights into the relative importance of consumer perceptions on different brand knowledge factors in shaping brand preferences. It also demonstrates the significance of consumers’ experiential responses towards brands in developing their brand preferences that in turn influence brand repurchase intention. The model therefore offers managers a new perspective for building strong brands able to gain consumer preferences.

Background: Previously, marketing has focused on audiovisual stimulus but as a result from the information overload of the modern society, companies find it harder to differentiate from the competitors through the traditional marketing channels. Consumers of today tend to take functional attributes for granted and seek for an emotional involvement in the purchasing process. Sensory marketing aims at strengthening the relationship between a brand and its consumers on a deeper level through the involvement of the human senses; sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. Since the phenomenon is relatively new, the amount of studies concerning the eventual benefits on brand perception is limited. Purpose: This study investigates how sensory branding can influence the perception of a brand for the consumer. Method: The use of sensory branding was explored by conducting interviews with specialists within the field. The main basis for this research was an experiment, where the effect of using an ambient scent in the branding process was tested in order to investigate and analyze its effect on brand perception. Conclusion: Sensory marketing changes brand perception positively when the stimulus is congruent with the other brand elements. It can thus be seen as a suitable tool for reinforcing the value of a brand. A congruent stimulus influences the consumer on an unconscious level and can affect preference positively hence triggering impulse buying behavior.Adding a sensory dimension to the marketing strategy can strengthen the brand equity implying a stronger bond between the brand and the consumer. However,the authors argue that a strong brand platform is required to benefit ultimately from an investment in sensory branding. The use of sensory branding is growing rapidly and it is predicted to be the future of strategic branding.

<p><strong>Background</strong>: Previously, marketing has focused on audiovisual stimulus but as a result from the information overload of the modern society, companies find it harder to differentiate from the competitors through the traditional marketing channels. Consumers of today tend to take functional attributes for granted and seek for an emotional involvement in the purchasing process. Sensory marketing aims at strengthening the relationship between a brand and its consumers on a deeper level through the involvement of the human senses; sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. Since the phenomenon is relatively new, the amount of studies concerning the eventual benefits on brand perception is limited.</p><p><strong>Purpose</strong>: This study investigates how sensory branding can influence the perception of a brand for the consumer.</p><p><strong>Method</strong>: The use of sensory branding was explored by conducting interviews with specialists within the field. The main basis for this research was an experiment, where the effect of using an ambient scent in the branding process was tested in order to investigate and analyze its effect on brand perception.</p><p><strong>Conclusion</strong>: Sensory marketing changes brand perception positively when the stimulus is congruent with the other brand elements. It can thus be seen as a suitable tool for reinforcing the value of a brand. A congruent stimulus influences the consumer on an unconscious level and can affect preference positively hence triggering impulse buying behavior.Adding a sensory dimension to the marketing strategy can strengthen the brand equity implying a stronger bond between the brand and the consumer. However,the authors argue that a strong brand platform is required to benefit ultimately from an investment in sensory branding. The use of sensory branding is growing rapidly and it is predicted to be the future of strategic branding.</p>

Today's children are a multi-billion dollar consumer market that not only has the power to spend their own money but directly influences the spending for household consumer purchases. They present an extremely healthy and potentially long term wealthy consumer market for marketers to target and reap the benefits from their loyalty. However, the area of young children's consumer behaviour is significantly under researched. Very little is known about how young children develop preferences, make brand choices, and develop equity towards a brand. This study investigates the brand knowledge elements associated with brand preference and brand equity for young children. An experimental procedure was employed utilising personal interviews and collecting data from five Australian Day Care facilities and four Australian Community Pre-school Centres. The respondents were three and four year old children, who performed a game involving questions about fast food brands. The hypotheses explored various aspects of brand knowledge (e.g., brand awareness) and, their influence on the child's initial preference between fast food choices (brand preference), and their loyalty when tempted by a toy and their second choice (brand equity). The study's analysis was divided into two parts. The first part determined whether there were any significant differences evident between three and four year old children in relation to the effect of brand awareness, affect toward, and brand image in brand preference and brand equity using chi-square analyses. The second part of the analysis employed binary logistic regression analyses to determine which elements of brand knowledge influenced a child's brand preference and brand equity regarding fast foods. 2 The study found there were no major differences between a three year old and a four year old in relation to the influences of brand awareness, affect toward, and brand image in brand preference or brand equity. The binary logistic regression analysis found that brand images provided the greatest effect in explaining and predicting brand preference and provided a contributing influence in brand equity. Brand awareness was found to provide the second greatest effect on brand preference and the greatest effect on brand equity, and affect towards the brand or main menu item provided the least amount of effect in explaining and predicting brand preference and brand equity for 3 and 4 year old children. The research also comments on the use of a toy as a marketing tool to lure children to a brand and provides suggestions for future research. Marketing, managerial and public policy implications are also provided.

Abstract Humanizing brands is an essential domain of current branding as it enhances the visibility of a brand by connecting consumers to the brand, thus contributing to strong brand equity. The term humanize used in this dissertation is not limited to brands with anthropomorphic characters, such as the M&#38;M’s characters. Used in this context, the term also includes the ways in which consumers attribute a brand to be “close to me,” “like me,” and a “partner.” Although the research of customer-based brand equity has been well-documented over the past twenty-five years, limited attention has been given to examining the differential effect of brand favorability in forming a self-brand connection. Even more scarce are studies on the antecedents and indicators of brand betrayal. Further, up-to-date research is mostly silent as to whether temporal focus and temporal distance influence a brand’s ability to serve as a means of reflecting the consumer’s selves. To fill up these research gaps, this dissertation reports four research articles. More than two thousand samples were collected from Finland, India, and the US to examine the conceptual frameworks. First, this dissertation contributes to the literature on self-brand connection by articulating the effect of self-presentation by brand on self-brand connection. Second, it contributes to the literature of self-congruence, seen from the temporal perspective. Third, it adds to the brand betrayal literature by examining consumer anthropomorphize tendency and actual high-arousal positive states as the antecedents. It further explains the indicators of brand betrayal, consisting of failure severity and inferred negative motive. In term of managerial implications, the findings contribute to (1) the one-on-one marketing approach to branding, (2) incorporating consumer’s selves into branding considerations, and (3) assessing brand betrayal in a negative brand relationship. / Tiivistelmä Brändien inhimillistäminen on keskeinen alue vallitsevassa brändien tutkimuksessa, sillä inhimillistämällä lisätään brändin näkyvyyttä kytkemällä kuluttajat brändiin, mikä osaltaan vahvistaa brändipääomaa. Tässä väitöskirjassa käytetty termi inhimillistäminen ei rajoitu vain brändeihin, jotka käyttävät antropomorfisia hahmoja kuten M&#38;M:n hahmot. Tässä yhteydessä termiin sisältyy myös keinoja, joita hyödyntämällä kuluttajat tuntevat brändin olevan ”lähellä minua”, ”kuten minä” ja ”kumppani”. Vaikka asiakaslähtöisen brändipääoman tutkimusta on tehty paljon viimeisen 25 vuoden aikana, vain vähän huomiota on saanut brändien suosimisen vaikutus kuluttajan minän ja brändin välisen yhteyden muodostukseen. Vielä vähemmän tutkimusta on tehty brändien pettämisen syistä ja indikaattoreista. Lisäksi olemassa oleva tutkimus ei ota juurikaan kantaa siihen, vaikuttavatko ajallinen fokus ja ajallinen etäisyys brändin kykyyn heijastaa kuluttajien minää. Näiden tutkimusaukkojen täyttämiseksi väitöskirja esittelee neljän tutkimusartikkelin tuloksia. Käsitteellisten viitekehysten testaamista varten kerättiin yli 2 000 vastaajan aineisto kolmesta eri maasta. Ensinnäkin, tämä väitöskirja edistää kuluttajan minä-brändisuhteeseen liittyvää tutkimusta kuvaamalla brändin itse-presentaation vaikutusta minä-brändisuhteeseen. Toiseksi, tämä väitöskirja kontribuoi minä-kongruenssiin liittyvään kirjallisuuteen ajallisesta näkökulmasta tarkasteltuna. Kolmanneksi, tämä väitöskirja edistää brändien pettämiseen liittyvää kirjallisuutta tutkimalla kuluttajan taipumusta antropomorfisointiin ja toteutuneita korkean innostuneisuuden tiloja. Tutkimus myös selittää brändien pettämisen indikaattoreita, jotka koostuvat epäonnistumisen vakavuudesta ja brändin negatiivisesta motiivista. Liikkeenjohdollisina päätelminä tulokset ehdottavat (1) yhdeltä yhdelle markkinointia brändäykseen, (2) kuluttajan minän sisällyttämistä brändäyskysymyksiin, ja (3) brändin pettämisen arviointia negatiivisessa brändisuhteessa.

During the last few years, awareness of environmental- and health related problems have grown dramatically. An area that has a contributed to these concerns are the food industry. It has affected the demand of greener products such as organic food, which aims to be healthier and better for the environment. Although there are different views on the exact benefits of organic food, it is considered to have a general positive effect on its surroundings. However, organic food has been costly, both for farmers and consumers, which has created an imbalance in supply and demand for organic products. Even if the sales of organic food has increased, the consumption is not enough for prices to decrease. It has also been found that people claim to buy that they buy organic to a higher extent than they actually do. Therefore this thesis focus on understanding how sales of organic food can be increased further, by identifying existing customer values and brand knowledge about organic products, in order to use the findings to improve problem areas and change buying behavior. The result is based on several research methods, although the greatest part comes from empirical tests examine the research questions derived from earlier research and interviews. The tests main focus was to investigate perceptions about price sensitivity, the effect of place and promotion, and finally the effect of clarifying the concept of organic food through arguments on the packages. The main conclusion is that the greatest opportunity to change consumer behavior towards buying more organic products is held by the retailers. The majority of all decisions are made in store, which is why the greatest change to influence consumer behavior is located there. Down- and upstream activities are recommended depending on the customer’s readiness to change purchase behaviors into new once. However, further studies of the arguments actual impact on sales are proposed to be further studied, and has been left out due to the limited scope of the tests and the possibility to measure it. Also, further research on to what extent the customer is willing to let the retail chains take decisions for them is proposed. / Under de senaste åren har medvetenheten om miljö- och hälsorelaterade problem ökat dramatiskt. Ett område som har bidragit till denna oro är livsmedelsindustrin. Detta har påverkat efterfrågan på miljövänliga produkter som ekologiska livsmedel, vars syfte är att främja hälsa och miljö. Även om det finns olika uppfattningar om de exakta fördelarna med ekologisk anses det i allmänhet ha positiva effekter på omgivningen. Ekologiska livsmedel är dock kostsamt, både för jordbrukare och konsumenter, vilket har skapat en obalans i utbud och efterfrågan. Även om försäljningen har ökat, är konsumtionen inte tillräcklig för att priset ska minska. Det har också visat sig att människor ofta utger sig för att köpa ekologiska produkter i högre grad än vad de faktiskt gör. Därför avser denna studie att analysera hur försäljningen av ekologiska livsmedel kan öka ytterligare genom att identifiera befintliga kundvärderingar och varumärkes kunskap om ekologiska produkter för sedan använda resultaten till att förbättra problemområden och förändra köpbeteendet. Resultatet bygger på flera forskningsmetoder, även om den största delen kommer från empiriska tester som undersöker forskningsfrågor skapade utifrån tidigare litteraturen på området samt intervjuer. Testernas huvudfokus var att pröva uppfattningar om priskänslighet, effekten av produktplacering och uppmärkning, samt effekten av förtydligande argument av ekologiska produkters innebörd. Den viktigaste slutsatsen av denna studie är att den största möjligheten att ändra konsumenternas beteende till att köpa mer ekologiska produkter innehas av återförsäljarna. Majoriteten av alla beslut fattas i butiken, vilket gör att de har störst möjlighet att påverka. Ned- och uppströms aktiviteter rekommenderas beroende på kundens benägenhet att ändra beteende. Det krävs dock ytterligare studier på argumentens inverkan på försäljningen Ytterligare forskning om hur villig kunden är att låta butikskedjorna fatta beslut åt dem rekommenderas.

Brand awareness and its establishment among consumers has been a central theme in previous research on marketing as it is proven to indirectly induce purchase. It is thus seen as crucial for marketers to establish brand awareness. However, a research gap is apparent in regard to creating brand awareness among Generation Z. More specifically, this study focuses on which communication channel that is best suited for establishing brand awareness for this generational cohort. Hence, the purpose of this study is to explicitly analyse the linkage between these variables and provide a guideline for companies targeting Generation Z. To obtain a deeper understanding, previous research has been reviewed and an extensive data collection has been conducted including two methods; interviews and a survey to obtain empirical evidence and valuable insights. The qualitative data was of main focus with the quantitative data gave more of an overview. By combining and evaluating the empirical findings in relation to previous research and theory we could identify patterns and relationships that eventually led to the conclusion and final results of this thesis. The initial results concluded from this study underlined the importance of brand awareness since it was the first step for the purpose of inducing purchases. In addition, the results also highlight the importance of building upon brand awareness to establish brand liking as it will provide for the increase of purchase intention. For establishing brand awareness when targeting Generation Z, Instagram is a means of preference and should be considered as part of a mix of various communication channels in using integrated marketing communications.