Purpose:                       The purpose of this study is to identify, define and describe the challenges of sustaining positive brand equity gained as an outcome of Cause-brand alliances. Therefore, this study is conducted from the perspective of companies engaging in Cause-brand alliances, with the aim to provide academic and managerial implications of managing brand equity over time following a Cause-brand alliance. Methodology:              This thesis performs qualitative research and uses a longitudinal research design in order to conduct exploratory research. A case study is conducted on Gina Tricot’s CBA with UNICEF. Data is collected through the use of both primary and secondary data sources. Primary data collection is conducted through semi-structured interviews that are formed and analysed through open coding and grounded theory. The secondary data is collected through an analysis of Gina Tricot’s social media, reports, external media and sustainability reports from the company participating in this case study. Empirical findings: The empirical findings demonstrate that Gina Tricot has issues capitalizing on their CBA with UNICEF. A result of some of the challenges Gina Tricot is facing in sustaining brand equity following a CBA, including difficulty in gaining coverage in the media, unreliability in motives, fear of consumer criticism, ineffective communication strategy, intangible projects and lack of marketing prioritization from top management. Conclusions:                The present study found indications that the benefits of CBA’s are not applicable to all industries. In order to gain brand equity, and sustain it following a CBA, it is of highest importance to overcome fear of public criticism and thus communicate the CBA to consumers by implementing an effective CSR communication strategy. Doing so requires prioritization from top management which can be challenging unless the CBA has proven results.

In the business-to-business sector, the brand owner´s employees are increasingly playing a key role in terms of representing the brand to existing and potential customer. The role of a well-established internal brand equity can give a business-to Business Company the edge it needs in the market today. Internal branding has recently emerged as an important issue in industrial market. This study aims to find out how internal brand equity and its determinants affect the external brand equity of business-to-business companies. This study is based on previous research of internal brand equity in business-to-business setting. In this study four hypothesis were tested. Surveys were conducted among manufacturing and promotional companies in Sweden and Latvia, which resulted in 94 complete and useful response with a response-rate of 28.3%. The findings offer evidence, that internal brand equity with determinants have a great impact on the external brand equity of a firm.

All fashion brands work with PR in some way, its importance is evident. At the same time it is expensive and difficult to say what it provides, consequently one may wonder whether if it is all worth it. Existing literature leaves a gap of missing research in PR and especially in PR events. The purpose of this thesis is to contribute with an increased understanding of PR events in the fashion industry, by an open approach. In more detail, the purpose is to explore the fundamental aspects of PR events in the fashion industry, and how such events contribute to brand equity. The method used was a qualitative case study, including descriptive and exploratory research methods. The data collection consists of participant observations, during an internship at a PR agency, and semi structured interviews with five participants. A cross case synthesis analysis method was used with a comparative approach. The fundamental aspects of PR events and its contribution to brand equity, was found to differ and depend to a great extent. The main dependent variable is the strategy and objective of the brand. The findings show that a PR event is a marketing activity and a communication tool/channel, of which the end goal is to create sales. Important aspects include relationships, reputation/image and experiences. PR events contribute to brand awareness and brand associations, however the contribution to perceived quality and brand loyalty was found to be less evident. PR events may have a positive effect, negative effect, or no effect. It is possible to evaluate events to some extent. Quantitative and qualitative aspects are discussed, both as possible and less usable methods. The results were found to be wide and extensive, opening up for more questions rather than providing answers. Future research could narrow the scope to a less extensive range of PR events, in order to generate answers that may be more useable. The data collection methods could, for the same reason, be more structured. The study adds knowledge to existing theories to the area of PR events. By the open approach, this study draws attention to the rather unexplored and undiscovered topic of PR events, and brings focus to the discussion of its value. The qualitative research method brings attention to considering both quantitative and qualitative perspectives. The findings are of interest to brands that use or consider using PR events, and want to gain a more clear picture of the events and their contributions to brand equity.

Background: The authors tentatively believe they have identified a new trend within branding, where an established brand launches a new and innovative product that is somehow related to the brand’s core values, interactively through a complementary marketing communication video. Support for the relevance to further investigate the identified trend can be found in academic literature. Due to today’s competitive marketplace, several researchers emphasize the importance to further explore and evaluate creative customer-based brand equity-building strategies. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explore the identified trend and whether this identified trend can assist in building customer- based brand equity. The authors of this thesis use the Volvo LifePaint campaign as a case for the study. The research questions concerns what associations consumers make to the launched product when being exposed to its complementary marketing communication video, and whether these associations are transferable to the brand. Method: The method of this research was qualitative and the primary data collection was collected through 10 semi-structured interviews, as well as observations through netnography. Conclusion: Based on the findings from the case study, the authors conclude that the identified trend may serve as a creative branding strategy for an established brand, to assist in building customer-based brand equity. However, the authors noticed that unfavorable associations also may be created and transferred, which potentially can harm the brand.

<p>Introduction: The evening tabloids in Sweden have been going through a change towards moving into alternative media channels during the last decades. It is essential to capitalize on the evening tabloids strong brands in order to enhance growth and to stay in the top of the tough competition. Advertising has become of larger importance for Aftonbladet and Expressen since the move into alternative media channels. People tend to be increasingly interested in free news media and one of the most essential issues that Aftonbladet and Expressen are facing is how to increase its brand equity through entering alternative media channels.</p><p>Purpose: To research and analyze the development of Aftonbladet’s and Expressen’s brand equity in terms of brand extensions and establishments in alternative media channels.</p><p>Method: To fulfill the purpose the authors have conducted a quantitative study with a standardized questionnaire. The sample consists of 100 respondents between 19-24 years of age who have been contacted at Jönköping University, A6 shopping mall in Jönköping and at the city centre of Jönköping.</p><p>Results: The study revealed that this group has an extremely low purchasing rate of the actual hard copy. Although the awareness of the brands Aftonbladet and Expressen are solid in their mind set. Instead it is of greater importance for this group what type of extra services and activities that is provided online. The researched target group is attracted by customized and accessible information which are of high quality and is distributed without any additional cost. Aftonbladet has developed a more efficient strategy in terms of brand extensions than Expressen in order to enhance its brand equity.</p>

The purpose of this research was to investigate the country of origin effect on consumers’ perception regarding consumer products from India. Indian consumer products are not well known in Europe and other Western countries. Therefore this research is focusing on the expectations consumers have about a certain product from a certain country and not on the experience. In order to understand those expectations, four interviews were conducted on potential Western European consumers. Those interviews were analysed using a framework which consists of a combination between a country of origin effect model and the brand equity model. The combination of the two models helped to understand the expectations which Western consumers can have regarding foreign products, in the case of this study, consumer products from India. It can be seen that three country of origin mechanisms were existent but not very strongly developed. As an example the cognitive country of origin mechanism had almost no direct influence on the brand awareness, as the interviewees were not able to recall or recognize any Indian brand logo which was shown during the interview. This means that the consumers interviewed in this paper are not extremely negatively nor positively influenced by the country of origin effect of India.

Begreppet sponsring har förändrats över tid från det som tidigare mer betraktades somvälgörenhet. Utvecklingen inom området har medfört att sponsring idag kan ses som ett viktigt marknadsföringsinstrument där företagen har en väl bearbetad plan för hur verktyget ska användas. Kravet på motprestationer har ökat och idag uppfattas begreppet mer som ett affärsmässigt samarbete. Syftet med studien är att, utifrån en kvalitativ undersökning, undersöka hur företag i Umeå med omnejd behandlar området sponsring. Närmare bestämt hur sponsring som verktyg påverkar varumärkeskapitalet samt om mindre och större företag uppvisar några skillnader i deras sätt att arbeta med sponsring. Vår förhoppning är att studiens resultat ska generera värdefull information inom området samt bidra med underlag till framtida studier. Vi hoppas också kunna vara till hjälp för Idrottshögskolan på Umeå Universitet i deras konstruktion av ett elitidrottsstipendium. Inom varumärkesbyggande finns omfattande studier med olika inriktningar. En central del är däremot varumärkeskapitalet vilket det också finns många studier om. I dessa appliceras och vidareutvecklas flertalet modeller, dock förhåller de sig till stor del till de ursprungliga tolkningarna av varumärkeskapitalet. Litteratursökningen visar också att flertalet studier inom sponsring tidigare genomförts. Däremot menar vi att i förhållande till sponsringens framfart är utbudet av forskningsområdet relativt tunt. Vad vi anser saknas är en tydlig förståelse för hur sponsring som verktyg kan kopplas samman med varumärkesbyggande. Vår forskningsfråga och det vi ämnar undersöka är därmed hur företag använder sponsring som verktyg för att påverka sitt varumärkeskapital, och om synen på- och arbetet med sponsring skiljer sig mellan större och mindre företag. Utifrån vårt syfte och för att besvara forskningsfrågan tillämpar vi vår interpretativistiska kunskapssyn tillsammans med ett abduktivt angreppssätt. Vidare utgår vi från en jämförande multipel fallstudie där vi valt att intervjua sju mindre och större företag i Umeå med omnejd. Den teoretiska referensramen består av tre huvudsakliga områden; strategiskt varumärkesbyggande, varumärkeskapital och sponsring. Dessa täcker olika områden men kan kopplas till varandra för att skapa en helhetsbild och effektivt användas för analys och diskussion. Våra empiriska observationer analyseras sedan med hjälp av den teoretiska referensramen. Resultat från studien visar att företag i stor utsträckning använder sponsring som ett verktyg för att påverka varumärkeskapitalet. De viktigaste faktorerna är exponering och associering med vilka företagen syftar att öka sin varumärkeskännedom och skapa känslor associerade till varumärket.

The globalization become a current tendency, and China as one of the biggest parts in the international market, plays the important role. Considering the SMEs in China occupy the main amount, Chinese SMEs are the key factors in Chinese economy. At the same time, they are also faced with fierce competition from global company that compared with other developed countries’ SMEs, Chinese SMEs are not competitive enough. One of the reasons is that their brands are lack of competitiveness. It is known to all, brand is a key strategic asset to long-term performance and it should be managed. Therefore this study is focused on how Chinese SMEs perceive brand as crucial factor for establishing competitiveness. This study is based on qualitative research, and case study research design is chosen. The semi-structured interview is conducted in the Chinese SME called CSC, and two managers and three employees were interviewed. In conclusion, it can be found that the CSC pays attention to the brand, but their brand still need to be improved to be more powerful, unique and positiveness then to reach the loyalty of consumers, and the media channels should be paid more attention

Aim: The aim of this study is to explore the factors that influence the brand building in startup companies. Method: This study implements a qualitative approach and consists of twelve startup companies located in Sweden. Results and Conclusion: The findings suggest that the design of a brand (name and visual aspects), the use of social media, event participation and establishing partnerships is important parts of brand building. In addition, startups frequently make use of employees’ and entrepreneurs’ individual personality for branding purposes. Not only do all participants view branding as an important part of their business but a few respondents even feel it is crucial for the survival of their business. Suggestions for further research: The participants of this study reside in separate industries. This, combined with the sample size is not evidence enough to draw conclusion upon similarities and differences between startups branding practices in terms of industry. Thus, this could be interesting undertaking in the future due to the limited research on this topic. Contribution of the study: This study adds to the existing body of knowledge by uncovering factors such as brand design and social media, to name a few, that is used by startups to build their brand. As a result of this study insights has been given on the importance of branding and the strategies used to increase the brand equity of startups.

Thesis (M.M. (Strategic Marketing))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Business Administration, 2014. / In the last two decades, South Africa has witnessed a series of reforms in the telecommunications industry, including the corporate rebranding efforts undertaken by major telecommunications corporates. In April 2011, Vodacom, following the increase in ownership in 2009 by Vodafone, launched its new image. With the corporate rebranding, Vodacom kept its name, but effected changes to the logo, slogan and colour scheme. The rationale for keeping the name is the fact that Vodafone’s presence in Africa is far smaller than Vodacom’s. Vodacom holds power and position in the marketplace in South Africa and Africa. In addition to changing its brand colours from the familiar green and blue to red, the brand colour of UK-based Vodafone, which owns 65 percent of Vodacom, it has also assimilated Vodafone’s teardrop logo. The purpose of this research was to investigate the drivers of corporate rebranding and the impact of corporate rebranding on brand equity of South African brands. The research used quantitative data. There were 134 respondents, with 109 completed questionnaires, from a convenience sample who were all employees of Vodacom. The survey was administered through an online portal and analysed using descriptive statistics and principal component analysis. The main findings confirmed 9 of the 10 drivers of corporate rebranding identified in previous literature. The outcome of the research also summarised these drivers into 2 fundamental factors, namely corporate structure and strategy, and macroeconomic factors. The brand equity of the Vodacom brand has been adversely impacted following a rebranding exercise. The old brand is represented by three factors that corresponded with Aaker’s model (Aaker, 1991). These factors are brand awareness, perceived quality and brand loyalty. The new brand was represented by a factor labelled ‘infant brand’. Macroeconomic factors were perceived to the most significant drivers of corporate rebranding.