In order to demonstrate the knowledge and skills acquired during her tenure in the Arts Administration graduate program, the consultant works four hundred and eighty hours as a Social Media and PR intern at Bond Public Relations and Brand Strategy in New Orleans, Louisiana. The following body of work is a consultant’s report written from the perspective of a professional Arts Administrator, and includes the following items: host company profile; description of internship activities; consultant’s contributions and gains; summation of company and industry best practices; host company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats – both internal and external; and the consultant’s recommendations for improvement.

Brand strategy is one of the key factors influencing the companies' success on the domestic as well as international markets. Brand is a fenomenon, which all consumers, suppliers and companies encounter on daily basis and therefore this topic deserves a proper attention. The main objective of this doctoral thesis is to present a comprehensive overview of the brand strategy in international marketing. There is an intention to provide a definition of brand (trademark) and describe the importance of a brand and make a summary of theoretical and practical knowledge about brands and brand strategy in relation to international marketing and analyze various apects, which represent partial objectives if this thesis. The first part of the thesis provides the definition of a brand, both in the business and the legal sence, and describes the importance of a brand in marketing management; it is emphasized, that the importance goes beyond the 4 P's in the marketing tactics, but it is an integral part of the company's strategy and a centre of interest of the highest management, since the value of the brand often exceeds the value of company's tangible assets. The thesis also proves the increasing importance of a brand from the supply point of view during the single development phases of the marketing concepts. The second part is focused on the value of the brand and it's evaluation and brand equity. It is explained, that a single definition of brand equity doesn't exist and various approaches to this topic are provided. An absolute brand value also doesn't exist, because the value is based upon an estimation of future revenues and profits determined by many factors. The Winning brands methodology from AC Nielsen is introduced as a practical example of a brand equity study. The world's most valuable brands are presented according to Interbrands and MillwardBrown, and it is shown, that the Best Global Brands index (i.e. Top 100 brands according to Interbrands) consistently outperformed the average market's performance given by MSCI and S&P indices; the most successful brands become even more successful. The opinion on transitive economies and the Czech republic from the brands' development point of view is provided, including the available ranking. The third chapter concentrates on building and managing brands. The difference between a product and a brand is provided and put into the context of the product policy as a part of the marketing mix. The link with the brand equity is shown in the sence, that various components of the brand equity represent important areas, where it is necessary to put attention and resources behind in order to build a strong brand. The importance of functional attributes, emotional attributes and attribute of self-expression is highlighted as well as the relation between the brand and the price. Basic objectives when building a brand are reflected in the consumer funnel, which consists of brand awareness, image, trial and loyalty. On the other hand the brand funnel provides a ladder, based on which the level of communication strategy is identified (product attributes, benefits, values, brand essence). Further text concentrates on strategic brand management including various aspects of marketing budget for the brand, internal evaluation of brand achievements compared to pre-defined objectives and institutional aspects of the brand building; different approach of sales and marketing is described, and description of the brand management, marketing management, category management and sales management are provided in detail and key performance indicators are shown in detail from practical point of view. Substantial part is devoted to private labels, which is a segment showing fast growth. Confirmation of one of the hypotheses brings a clear answer, that private labels are not only a tool for price competition, but fulfill also other tasks, like the extension of the consumers' choice, building new categories, providing a promise to consumers supported by the reatiler's reputation etc. In the following part there were identified trends, which can be expected in relation to brand strategy: polarization of brands, further strengthening of strong manufacturers' brands and corporate brands, a trend towards imaginative and creative communication of brands, development towards global brands, rationalization of brands' portfolio, re-branding, growth of private labels, co-branding and prioritization in brand management. In the fifth chapter theoretical approach was applied on the exaples of selected brands, which I worked with in my previous career. Many aspects of the international brand strategy are demonstrated on three brands: Becherovka as a large domestic brand dstributed also on international markets; Red Bull as a relatively young brand, which managed to become a global brand, including the distribution on the Czech market, where I actively participated in the launch; and Seven Crown as one of the world's largest alcohol brands, but which appears rather as a regional brand and a successful adaptation to the local Czech market conditions is shown. I amconvinced, that the main objective of this doctoral thesis, i.e. to present a comprehensive overview of the brand strategy in international marketing, as well as the partial objectives and the pedagogical objective were fulfilled.

Att bygga framgångsrika varumärken är ingen enkel uppgift. Förutom tålamod och uthållighet kräver det ett enormt engagemang och erfarenhet, breda kunskaper och en stor portion mod och kreativitet. Precis som Aaker (2010) förutser, så är de klassiska kommunikationskanalerna idag inte ensamma om konsumenternas uppmärksamhet. Den tekniska utvecklingen innebär att nya, digitala marknadskanaler växer fram och skapar nya sätt för företagen att kommunicera med konsumenterna. Hur ett företag väljer att bygga sitt varumärke, vilka värden man adderar och vilka sätt man kommunicerar blir därför allt viktigare.Syftet med denna studie är att klarlägga i kombination med teori, vilka dimensioner och arbetssätt som skapat framgångsrika varumärken. Studien syftar också till att sammanfatta hur specifika tillvägagångssätt kan tillämpas på andra företag, för att effektivt kunna arbeta med varumärkesbyggande. Det empiriska materialet har hämtats ifrån fem olika kvalitativa intervjuer som genomförts med företag av varierande storlek, mätt i omsättning och antal anställda. Materialet har sedan jämförts med framstående teorier inom marknadskommunikation för att på så sätt ge läsaren möjlighet att också själv på ett enkelt sätt jämföra teori med empiri.Resultaten ifrån studiens analys tyder på att det finns dimensioner som varit särskilt viktiga i ett företags framgång, däribland ledarskap, långsiktighet och företagskultur. Samtidigt ger resultatet av studien en tydlig antydan om vilka områden som i framtiden kommer att betyda mycket för en marknadskommunikatörs arbete med att bygga starka varumärken. / Program: Civilekonomprogrammet

Much previous research has studied high brand equity acquiring high brand equity or high brand equity acquiring low brand equity. However, very little research has been conducted to understand how that low brand equity acquiring high brand equity changes the low brand equity especially in China. This paper is on the case of Geely Group acquiring Volvo Car which was a typical acquisition of a high brand equity company by a low brand equity company. The aim of the paper is to verify whether this type of acquisition could increase the acquirer’s brand equity evaluated by consumers. This paper selects two brand strategies, ‘the house of brands strategy’ and ‘the endorsed brand strategy’, as the study objects of post-acquisition brand integration, and attempts to find the differences on consumers’ expectations and what is better suited for the new joint company. Therefore, a survey research strategy was used in this paper. A conceptual framework which included brand loyalty and perceived quality was developed from a review of the existing literature. Samples of data collected from Chinese consumers have been analyzed for the changes of consumers’ evaluation on the brand equity of Geely after its successful acquisition. Our research result proved that, a low brand equity company could enhance its brand value through acquiring an internationally known brand. After the acquisition, no matter what brand strategy applied, consumers had a more positive attitude towards the brand. The conclusion reached was that firms should be careful to choose an acquisition strategy by considering its strengths. But when faced with a decision of acquisition, the most important thing is to focus on the final success of the acquisition, while the brand integration strategy might be adjusted flexibly.

The today‟s business world deals with an increasing phenomenon of Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A‟s), a process through which companies gain access to some tangible and intangible resources. Within the automotive industry this phenomenon requires even more attention, since it faced many difficulties during time. This can be seen through the numerous mergers/acquisitions failures, among which it can be mentioned the one of Daimler & Chrysler, Volvo & Renault, BMW & Rover, which were also treated in the thesis. However, although fewer, there are also M&A‟s that became successful, such as the acquisition of Skoda or Seat by Volkswagen, or the acquisition of Dacia by Renault. The last example captured the attention of the study in particular.However, although they are mostly defined by similar characteristics, the mergers and acquisitions mean slightly different things. An acquisition occurs when an organization takes over another one and establishes itself clearly as the new owner, while a merger occurs when two companies, of a similar size, create a single new company owned and operated by both of the parties.The very purpose of the thesis was to reveal the possible impact of mergers and acquisitions regarding the brand perspective in the automotive industry, through the eyes of the case studies mentioned above and the case of Dacia & Renault in particularThe study chose to use an inductive approach, meaning that the researcher had first collected data from Dacia and afterwards, according to the information owned, he developed the theoretical framework. The study is furthermore exploratory, since the researcher sought to explore Dacia‟s approach to branding under Renault ownership.The interesting part consists in the paper‟s findings. First it was discovered that the companies that merge, sometimes face difficulties in establishing the corporate identity of their new formed company. In the case of acquisitions however the process of adopting a new corporate identity applies mostly to the acquired company and overall it is a bit more clear what strategy should the acquired company adopt. On the other hand the paper also identified the M&A‟s impact on the new portfolio. When both are eager to keep their own corporate and product brands, the new portfolio becomes too complex and does not allow cost savings synergies in terms of components equalization, production rationalization or marketing. However, due to the investments that the acquiring company usually makes, the new portfolio can also become more competitive.Regarding the case study on which the paper chose to focus, it was revealed the Dacia‟s corporate brand strategy that boosted its sales and revived its identity. Afterwards it emerged Dacia‟s portfolio consisting of brands that complement themselves and therefore address a wide spectrum of customer needs, and the brands‟ dynamics in time.

Multi-brand portfolios are characterized by comprising many brands in the same product category. Companies that have chosen to organize their products according to this strategy are facing both possibilities, such as expanding the accessible market size, and challenges such as how to organize the brands, their individual roles and their relation and position to the other brands in the category to maximize revenues. To address these aspects of multi-brand portfolios, I have investigated four product categories where multiple brands are represented at Mölnlycke Health Care, Unilever, Fagerhult and L’Oréal; how the multi-brand portfolios are organized, how the segmentation, positioning and product differentiation are done and what advantages and disadvantages that are associated with this strategy. My conclusions are that multi-brand portfolios can be organized in many different ways and to become successful, they have to be set in relation to the company’s whole brand architecture. Segmentation, positioning and product differentiation are important tools to differentiate the brands and to match them against distinct and specific customer needs. However, the importance and the function of each of them may depend on the overall brand and product organization. The main benefits of having many brands in the same product category are the opportunity to offer a complete solution for the customer and to reach a larger market by meeting diverse customer needs and preferences. The drawbacks are the risks for cannibalization, high marketing and administration costs and confusion among customers if they cannot distinguish between the multiple brands.

The last decades sport sponsorship has grown into a massive industry. This has given marketers unique opportunities and challenges to develop their brand strategy in order to stay competitive. Although the increasing research made within sport sponsorship, marketing researchers is just in the beginning of understanding the full effects of it. There is still a gap within this research field in Sweden and the rest of Europe. Though, researchers have found common desired brand objectives for using sport sponsorships which are called the sponsorship portfolio. The purpose of this study is to investigate companies’ perception and use of sport sponsorship. The purpose will also be to investigate how well companies’ use of sport sponsorship match with their customers perceptions of it. This study is based on a qualitative multiple case study using a semi-structured interview technique. Two companies, Craft and Team Sportia, were interviewed with five different managers to investigate their perception of sport sponsorship. Two focus groups, one on each company, where conducted in order to compare the results of the interviews. The study will be limited to the Swedish sport sponsorship market. In the case of Craft, findings indicate that Crafts sport sponsorship strategy is in overall congruence with the most important brand objectives using sponsorship in the theory. Though are the focus group perception of Crafts sport sponsorship and their brand not quite as consistent as company want to reflect. Results from the case of Team Sportia reveal that they could be seen as a company with a positive brand image. The brand itself is perceived as less strong than their competitors by the focus group due to weak perceived brand awareness. New findings in this study are Crafts product development through sport sponsorship as well as the message of brand familiarity through Team Sportias sport sponsorship.

The purpose of the study is to discuss the effect of three kinds of diversification strategies in the smart phone industry: self-brand strategy, upward integration strategy and brand extension strategy. Based on the moderate effect of evaluation of firm and product involvement, the influence of these three strategies will be evaluated by consumer¡¦s view when firms who are smart phone-related consider entering smart phone industry. Hon Hai, Canon and CHT were selected as cell phone equipment manufacturer, digital camera firm and internet service provider through pre-test 2. A 3(diversification strategy: self-brand strategy, upward integration strategy, brand extension strategy)x 2 (brand evaluation: high, low) experimental design collected data from white color workers and master students in NSYSU through 6 color printed advertisements. First of all, the result of search suggests that the willingness to buy is effected by different evaluations on cell phone equipment manufacturer and digital camera firm. Willingness to buy will be high if the evaluation of cell phone equipment manufacturer and digital camera firm is high too. However, for consumer, willingness to buy is not different whether the evaluation of internet service provider is high or low. Second, consumer involvement influences the behavior of buying smart phone. Consumer who is high-involvement has higher willingness to buy than low-involvement under three different strategies. Finally, willingness to buy is not different under these three strategies no matter what strategies firms adapt when they try to enter smart phone Industry.

Taiwan¡¦s high-tech multinational corporations have two main brand strategies. One is OEM/ODM, and other one is OBM. Different brand strategy will influence the consideration of global arrangement governing the organization network and the global knowledge transfer model. There are five roles building in different meaning in global organization network. And in the knowledge transfer model, there are three different dimensions named knowledge transfer fountain-heading, knowledge transfer interface and knowledge accumulate meaning. According to the administrative department of Hsinchu Science-Based Industrial Park¡¦s meeting for defining the classification of high-tech industries. This research chose four multinational corporations which nationality is Taiwan. These are the computer-related manufacturing industries and the communication-related manufacturing industries. This research concludes some propositions through the interview with top managers of these sample corporations. Positions are as follows: Proposition 1: Different brand strategies will influence the classification of tendency in exploiting advance technology. Proposition 2: Headquarter will play the different roles in global research network according to the different brand strategy. Proposition 3: The subsidiaries of high-tech corporations will have diversity of role playing and different frequency of knowledge transferring according to brand strategies. Proposition 4: The brand strategies will influence types and frequency of knowledge transferring. Proposition 5: Brand strategies will influence the market knowledge¡¦s flowing direction. Proposition 6: In technology knowledge transfer, the low-end and manufacturing skill will duplicate to the manufacture-based plant, and the high-level and advance knowledge will keep in the headquarter. Proposition 7: human being is the most important interface in the knowledge transfer process.

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.