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Thesis advisor: Juliet B. Schor / Thesis advisor: Danielle Hedegard / To date, consumption and culture scholars have not considered the impact of occupations that require workers to perform the desire for an elite, moneyed lifestyle through conspicuous consumption. I use participant observation and interviews among a lifestyle brand's producers and consumers to address this fissure. The analysis considers the lifestyle clothing brand Island Outfitters as it is created for and employed by the young male finance community aspiring to the top 1% of wage earners on Wall Street. I document how this brand is both created and consumed cynically by the cultural intermediaries responsible for its formation and the status-savvy consumers who perform loyalty to its goals of affluence. The argument is set in a homogenous high-status American occupational group within which many of the preconditions that motivate conspicuous consumption in a traditionally Veblenian sense still exist. The lived experiences of these workers are far more nuanced than this utilitarian goal suggests, yet informants express their complicity with the profit prescriptive by employing recognizable aesthetic scripts that are read for whiteness, conservatism, and wealth. Because it is too problematic for these young men to embody the goals of global finance in their everyday decisions, they texturize their professional identities with textiles. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

<p>The aim of this thesis is to define the optimal branding strategy for a new product; the InSure FIT Test; into an existing company with a well-known brand; HemoCue AB. This product will be the first in a row of new products that HemoCue will distribute, that has not been developed and manufactured by the company. </p><p>Design management refers to an approach whereby organizations make design-relevant decisions in a market and customer-oriented way as well as optimizing design-relevant processes. The thesis uses a design management approach by analyzing the brand, defining the customer and their wants and needs, and identifying the added values of the product. </p><p>The brand is analyzed first, and three different branding alternatives are presented, namely brand extension, co-branding and distribution only. Face-to-face interviews are performed with both internal and external customers of HemoCue AB to understand their image of the company. The customers’ images are compared to the identity that the company wants to transmit. After this the customers of the InSure products are identified, and Persona for the different customers are created. The creation of persona enables us to understand the users’ wants and needs. Last the InSure product is analyzed, identifying how it fits into the Mission, Vision and other statements that HemoCue makes. </p><p> </p><p>From the information gathered SWOT analyses are performed on each branding alternative. The most important criterion are weighted and the branding alternatives are weighted in regards to the branding alternatives. The conclusion is made that the co-branding alternative is the optimal branding solution for the HemoCue company, as well as providing several benefits for the InSure product. This suggested branding solution may also be useable for the future portfolio extensions in the HemoCue and Quest Diagnostic companies.</p>

The aim of this thesis is to define the optimal branding strategy for a new product; the InSure FIT Test; into an existing company with a well-known brand; HemoCue AB. This product will be the first in a row of new products that HemoCue will distribute, that has not been developed and manufactured by the company. Design management refers to an approach whereby organizations make design-relevant decisions in a market and customer-oriented way as well as optimizing design-relevant processes. The thesis uses a design management approach by analyzing the brand, defining the customer and their wants and needs, and identifying the added values of the product. The brand is analyzed first, and three different branding alternatives are presented, namely brand extension, co-branding and distribution only. Face-to-face interviews are performed with both internal and external customers of HemoCue AB to understand their image of the company. The customers’ images are compared to the identity that the company wants to transmit. After this the customers of the InSure products are identified, and Persona for the different customers are created. The creation of persona enables us to understand the users’ wants and needs. Last the InSure product is analyzed, identifying how it fits into the Mission, Vision and other statements that HemoCue makes. From the information gathered SWOT analyses are performed on each branding alternative. The most important criterion are weighted and the branding alternatives are weighted in regards to the branding alternatives. The conclusion is made that the co-branding alternative is the optimal branding solution for the HemoCue company, as well as providing several benefits for the InSure product. This suggested branding solution may also be useable for the future portfolio extensions in the HemoCue and Quest Diagnostic companies.

Dissertation (MBus) -- AUT University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references. Also held in print (viii, 92 leaves ; 30 cm.) in the Archive at the City Campus (T 658.827 FRA)

Brands can often be highly capable of linking individuals to one another. Many brand admirers feel a psychological connection with one another, a feeling referred to in this dissertation as perceived connectedness to brand users (PCBU). Though this connection has been almost wholly studied among brand consumer engaged in recurrent brand-oriented social interaction (i.e. brand communities), brand consumers need not be engaged in social interaction in order to feel an implicit connection with one another. In this dissertation, a collection of individuals who feel a connection with a brand’s consumers, while engaging in minimal to no recurrent brand-oriented social interaction, is referred to as a brand collectivity. This dissertation provides insight as to how PCBU affects members of brand communities and brand collectivities and has six objectives: 1) to demonstrate the distinctiveness of PCBU as a construct; 2) to examine the consequences of perceived connectedness to brand users; 3) to examine antecedents of perceived connectedness to brand users; 4) to examine antecedents of self-brand connection; 5) to examine antecedents of brand user identification; 6) to investigate the moderating effect of enduring involvement on the relationships between perceived connectedness to brand users and its antecedents; and 7) to compare the hypothesized model of PCBU among members of brand collectivities and brand communities. Data were gathered from owners of the iPod, a subsidiary brand of MP3 players from Apple. Cluster analyses were used to classify respondents as members of either a brand community or a brand collectivity. An empirical examination of PCBU revealed that PCBU influences the perceived influence that their members’ feel they have over the meaning of a brand to others and that self-brand connection and brand user identification are antecedents of PCBU. Self-brand connection is significantly influenced by consumers’ perceived similarity to the brand and their opposition of competing brands; brand user identification is affected only by the latter. Neither group membership nor enduring involvement was found to have a moderating influence on the hypothesized model of PCBU. Overall, PCBU and significant differences between brand communities and brand collectivities are shown to affect consumer behavior.

<p>The purpose of this study was to investigate the consumers’ behaviours towards the</p><p>distributors’ brands. The aim was to find out what were the most important criteria of the</p><p>marketing mix for a consumer in his buying process that make him choose between a</p><p>distributor’s brand and a leader’s brand.</p><p>In order to achieve that, a theoretical framework has been established about the distributors’</p><p>brands, their different types, their management compared to the one of the leaders’ brands,</p><p>then about the consumers, their relation towards the distributors’ brands, their personal</p><p>implication in the brand, and their role, and also the theory of the marketing mix has been</p><p>exposed.</p><p>A quantitative research was applied. The questionnaire focused on every customer leaving,</p><p>after purchases, from Carrefour and Casino in Montpellier. All economic and social status and</p><p>lifestyles were interesting to study.</p><p>12 questions were asked to each customer, and 100 of them fully answered.</p><p>The results of the study were that the price still is the most important criterion for the</p><p>consumers in their buying decisions. The attractive price is the reason.</p><p>But it was discovered that the quality became a real significant element for the consumers.</p><p>The principal conclusion was that consumers still didn’t trust enough the products from the</p><p>distributors’ brands, and that the price wasn’t anymore the only criterion to take into account.</p><p>It was suggested that the distributors’ brands could reinforce their performances if they give</p><p>more priority to the quality.</p>

The story of private brands begins in Great Britain in 1928, when Marks &amp; Spencer launched their private brand St Michael. In Sweden, the first private brand was developed during the 1920’s; a coffee named Prinsess Kaffe produced for ICA. Until 1980, private brands were just a cheap alternative to manufacturer owned brands. During the years, it gained more and more market shares. Because of the introduction of private brands, the retailers have gained an increased power over manufacturers and they now also have to handle the competition between manufacturer brands, private brands and customer’s demand. In the Swedish every day commodity trade, private brands represent ap-proximately 15% of the total assortment. A problem that has arose concerning the competition during the latest years, is that the trade constantly increases in the direction of effort on private brands. Private brands are one way for the supermarket chains and the retailers to increase their power over the shelf space, marketing and price setting. Due to the increased competition concerning the shelf space in the stores, the authors found it interesting to investigate how private brands are dealt with. The authors made the research from the retailer’s perspective and their view of private brands and how they compete. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how private brands are regarded and dealt with, according to the retailer. This study is accomplished with a qualitative method. The authors wanted to gain a deeper understanding for how the private brands influence and compete with manufacturer brands. The authors chose to do a descriptive study since it was in line with the qualitative approach that was used. Fur-ther on, the authors used the basic qualitative research which refers to that data is collected through interviews and observations. Eight retailers were interviewed from ICA, Axfood and Coop. The result of this study gives an explanation of how private brands are dealt with. Private brands receive premium shelf space in the store, but in the end it is up to the customer to decide upon the future of private brands. Dem-onstrations are the most common way to promote the private brands in stores. In the future the retailers claim that private brands will be developed into both niche products as well as low price products.

With the increasing professionalism in Swedish sport comes an increasing awareness of the importance of brands. Athletes have become tools in the organizations’ efforts to enhance their brand. Also, the athletes’ personal brands have had increasing attention and the interactions between the organization brand and the athlete as a symbol have become an interesting topic. The thesis aims to examine the implications of having an athlete’s personal brand as a symbol of the sport organization brand. With a qualitative method, we have studied one club from Allsvenskan and one from Elitserien. The empirical data were collected with personal interviews of marketing managers from Elfsborg and HV71 together with the football player Samuel Holmén and hockey player Johan Davidsson. An additional interview was made with the sport journalist Erik Niva. The empirical findings were then analyzed and defined with existing and relevant brand theories and models. By identifying parts of the analysis crucial for answering our research questions, we have come to the following conclusions. The sport organizations actively manage the athlete in favor of enhancing the brand and understand the importance of having a player as a symbol. Furthermore, we have found that it is hard for the organization to implement the brand identity among player and that the organization, by choosing which type of player to sign, can direct the brand identity. We have concluded that the athlete understands the benefits of having a strong personal brand, but lack the strategies to achieve it. Even with this increased awareness of personal brands, we found no evidence that this leads to a conflict between the organization brand and the personal brand. / With the increasing professionalism in Swedish sport comes an increasing awareness of the importance of brands. Athletes have become tools in the organizations’ efforts to enhance their brand. Also, the athletes’ personal brands have had increasing attention and the interactions between the organization brand and the athlete as a symbol have become an interesting topic. The thesis aims to examine the implications of having an athlete’s personal brand as a symbol of the sport organization brand. With a qualitative method, we have studied one club from Allsvenskan and one from Elitserien. The empirical data were collected with personal interviews of marketing managers from Elfsborg and HV71 together with the football player Samuel Holmén and hockey player Johan Davidsson. An additional interview was made with the sport journalist Erik Niva. The empirical findings were then analyzed and defined with existing and relevant brand theories and models. By identifying parts of the analysis crucial for answering our research questions, we have come to the following conclusions. The sport organizations actively manage the athlete in favor of enhancing the brand and understand the importance of having a player as a symbol. Furthermore, we have found that it is hard for the organization to implement the brand identity among player and that the organization, by choosing which type of player to sign, can direct the brand identity. We have concluded that the athlete understands the benefits of having a strong personal brand, but lack the strategies to achieve it. Even with this increased awareness of personal brands, we found no evidence that this leads to a conflict between the organization brand and the personal brand.