Research report presented to the Unisa School of Business Leadership / This research focused on the current model and practices of communication and relationship management between the ATIO Interactive Divsion Customer Service Managers and the customers of ATIO Interactive Division. The expected results of the research project will be to design a new, pro-active communication strategy between ATIO and its customers.

The development of relationship marketing, which is oriented towards developing lasting relationships with clients, emerged in the 1990's. The concept suggests that by better understanding customers on an individual level and by delivering to them information, products and services targeted to their specific needs, marketers can develop a long-term relationship with them that translates into worthwhile profits. Thus, relationship marketing focuses on customer orientation, with high service emphasis and high customer contact. Relationship marketing uses improved information technology to regularly communicate with firm customers and to base product/service offerings on the customer's buying behaviour. Computer linkages, advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, sponsorships, publicity, special events and exhibitions aid communication among channel members and also create a relationship between buyer and seller. Whilst research has been conducted on a general aspect of relationship marketing, there appears to be no significant study on how communication efforts can promote relationship marketing in the cellular industry. It is the intention of this study to examine the way in which relationship marketing is currently being employed in the cellular industry and to assess how improved communication can result in the effective application thereof. The objectives of this study are to investigate whether the communication efforts of the cellular operating companies are satisfying customers, to establish if the communication tools used by the companies are effective in promoting relationship marketing and to explore whether existing customers will become advocates of the company. Ethical clearance was obtained from the Research Administration at the University of KwaZulu -Natal. All subjects were aware of the purpose of the study and the aims and objectives. All subjects signed and consented to be part of the study. The target population consists of existing cellular phone users from whom the researcher attempted to draw conclusions and make generalizations. In KwaZulu-Natal, 251 cellular phone users volunteered and participated in this study. Informed consent was required of each of the respondents. 53% were contract customers and 38% were prepaid customers. There were 94 males (38%) and 141 females (56%) in the sample. The overall response rate was 83.7%. The main results yielded from this study indicated that cellular phone users were satisfied with the communication efforts of their service providers. Therefore, the communication tools used by their service providers were effective in creating, maintaining and enhancing relationships with their customers. Also it was very evident that existing customers are advocates of their service provider and will continue to be so into the future. This study recommends that customers must understand and be informed of the future direction that their service provider will take. They must be informed of long and medium term plans, new developments and any fundamental changes that are going to take place. Since service is the nerve centre of any organization, service providers must improve on their service to customers. Service providers should conduct regular satisfaction surveys to get feedback from customers and monitor their attitudes towards them and assess the performance on their accounts. The fulfilment of these recommendations will promote and enhance relationship marketing in the cellular industry. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2006.

This master´s thesis focuses on the proposal of new communication mix for the Microbrewery Jesenik company. The goal is to improve the promotional behaviour of the company throught critical analysis of existing marketing communication. Effort has been taken to quickly remove existing shortcomings of the current communication mix.

<p>Att ha en fungerande kommunikation mellan kund och bolag är viktigt för att en verksamhet ska kunna fungera. Genom kommunikation byggs även lojalitet där kunderna återkommer i framtiden och blir därigenom mer lönsamma för ett bolag. De förändringar inom IT som ägt rum i samhället har förändrat den kommunikation som finns mellan kund och bolag, inte minst inom banksektorn där kunder numera kan utföra nästintill alla ärenden online. Då den personliga relationen mellan personal och kund minskar är det svårt att upprätthålla nivån av lojala kunder. De flesta större aktörer inom bank- och försäkringsbranschen har, för att skapa lojala kunder, i olika utsträckning infört så kallade helkundskoncept där målet är att få en kund att samla alla sina tjänster i samma bolag.</p><p>De två övergripande frågorna som behandlas i denna uppsats är dels hur arbetet med helkundskoncept har förändrats i och med ökat IT-användande och dels om helkundskonceptet kan bidra till att öka kundernas lojalitet gentemot det undersökta bolaget och dess varumärke.</p><p>Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur den ökade användandet av IT påverkat det valda företaget samt hur arbete med helkundskonceptet utvecklats över tid och vad det har inneburit för såväl kunder som företag.</p><p>Den teoretiska bakgrunden behandlar ämnen som varumärkens funktioner, marknads- och kundkommunikation, återkoppling från kunder samt lojalitetsbegreppet. Undersökningen gjordes som en fallstudie av ett bolag som verkar inom områdena bank, försäkring, pension och fastighetsförmedling. Data samlades in dels genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med ett antal ledande befattningshavare och dels genom en marknadsundersökning gjord av företaget PFM Reserch.</p><p>Resultaten visar att det blivit svårare att nå och kommunicera med kunderna efter den ökning av digital kommunikation som ägt rum. Detta beror till stor del på att fler ärenden uträttas online vilket gör att de personliga relationerna blir lidande och att lojaliteten minskar. Helkundskoncept är ett sätt att motverka den minskande lojaliteten genom att det blir för arbetsamt för kunden att byta bolag när den väl samlat allt hos en aktör. Kunden får även lägre priser när den endast använder sig av en leverantör vilket tillsammans med den enkelhet som kan upplevas när allt är samlat på samma ställe talar för att kunder ska samla alla sina tjänster hos samma bolag. För bolagets del har det visat sig att helkunder stannar längre och är mer lojala, de har färre skador än andra kunder samt att de över lag har en större tolerans mot bolaget vid missnöje.</p> / <p>It is important that communication between a customer and a company works properly. Loyalty is in many ways based on the communication and the bonds that exits between a customer and the personnel of a company. IT has made it possible to execute many seines online which also have affected the communication and customer loyalty. One possibility to keep the customers loyal is to apply the total customer concept which means that the customer gather all his services to only one company in order to receive more beneficial offerings. In this study I have investigated how IT has affected a bank- and insurance company and if the total customer concept is approved to bring more loyalty to the company and the trademark. The result shows that it is harder to get in touch with the customer today than before and that customers is less loyal than before the IT revolution. The total customer concept is one possibility to gain more loyal customer who also becomes more profitable to the company.</p>

Att ha en fungerande kommunikation mellan kund och bolag är viktigt för att en verksamhet ska kunna fungera. Genom kommunikation byggs även lojalitet där kunderna återkommer i framtiden och blir därigenom mer lönsamma för ett bolag. De förändringar inom IT som ägt rum i samhället har förändrat den kommunikation som finns mellan kund och bolag, inte minst inom banksektorn där kunder numera kan utföra nästintill alla ärenden online. Då den personliga relationen mellan personal och kund minskar är det svårt att upprätthålla nivån av lojala kunder. De flesta större aktörer inom bank- och försäkringsbranschen har, för att skapa lojala kunder, i olika utsträckning infört så kallade helkundskoncept där målet är att få en kund att samla alla sina tjänster i samma bolag. De två övergripande frågorna som behandlas i denna uppsats är dels hur arbetet med helkundskoncept har förändrats i och med ökat IT-användande och dels om helkundskonceptet kan bidra till att öka kundernas lojalitet gentemot det undersökta bolaget och dess varumärke. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur den ökade användandet av IT påverkat det valda företaget samt hur arbete med helkundskonceptet utvecklats över tid och vad det har inneburit för såväl kunder som företag. Den teoretiska bakgrunden behandlar ämnen som varumärkens funktioner, marknads- och kundkommunikation, återkoppling från kunder samt lojalitetsbegreppet. Undersökningen gjordes som en fallstudie av ett bolag som verkar inom områdena bank, försäkring, pension och fastighetsförmedling. Data samlades in dels genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med ett antal ledande befattningshavare och dels genom en marknadsundersökning gjord av företaget PFM Reserch. Resultaten visar att det blivit svårare att nå och kommunicera med kunderna efter den ökning av digital kommunikation som ägt rum. Detta beror till stor del på att fler ärenden uträttas online vilket gör att de personliga relationerna blir lidande och att lojaliteten minskar. Helkundskoncept är ett sätt att motverka den minskande lojaliteten genom att det blir för arbetsamt för kunden att byta bolag när den väl samlat allt hos en aktör. Kunden får även lägre priser när den endast använder sig av en leverantör vilket tillsammans med den enkelhet som kan upplevas när allt är samlat på samma ställe talar för att kunder ska samla alla sina tjänster hos samma bolag. För bolagets del har det visat sig att helkunder stannar längre och är mer lojala, de har färre skador än andra kunder samt att de över lag har en större tolerans mot bolaget vid missnöje. / It is important that communication between a customer and a company works properly. Loyalty is in many ways based on the communication and the bonds that exits between a customer and the personnel of a company. IT has made it possible to execute many seines online which also have affected the communication and customer loyalty. One possibility to keep the customers loyal is to apply the total customer concept which means that the customer gather all his services to only one company in order to receive more beneficial offerings. In this study I have investigated how IT has affected a bank- and insurance company and if the total customer concept is approved to bring more loyalty to the company and the trademark. The result shows that it is harder to get in touch with the customer today than before and that customers is less loyal than before the IT revolution. The total customer concept is one possibility to gain more loyal customer who also becomes more profitable to the company.

Master's thesis contains proposals for improvement of communication mix by entrepreneurial subject Mgr. Lumír Bednařík that is engaged in selling woodworking tools, wooden derivatives, plastics and light alloys. Thesis is supposed to be a basis for implementation of effective communication mix which contains proposals and recommendations whose objective is to strengthen relations with current customers and finding new ones. Execution of these proposals should lead to growth of businessman’s profit.

The diploma thesis deals with the proposal of marketing communication mix of Restaurant U Panských. The first part contains theoretical knowledge from the literature, the second part is focused on the analysis of the business environment, the marketing and communication mix. The third part of this diploma thesis includes a proposal of marketing communication mix and risk analysis related to the introduction of new communication mix.

Communicating data-driven and personalized marketing content is today common among large B2C businesses with loyalty programs. Email has become the standard digital channel for this type of communication as it offers high cost-efficiency among digital channels and great possibilities for creating appealing content customized to the customer. This thesis aims to identify what effects personalized communication through email can lead to within loyalty programs and whether businesses should invest in personalized email communication. The methodology consisted of two quantitative case studies in the form of data analysis on eleven personalized  newsletters and one activation email for a business in the fuel and convenience industry. A series of qualitative interviews with individuals that work in the field of personalized communication was also conducted. The results show that the loyalty members to a large extent accept the communication and are exposed to the personalized content. The emails in the form of monthly newsletters did not show any consistent positive effects on increased sales, store visits or in upsell. The activation email, which was part of the activation phase in the customer lifecycle, showed greater promise as it increased number of visits and led to a positive overall upsell. Additional effects in the form of switching costs and brand awareness were also identified, as long as the content reaches the customers personalization is deemed relevant. Otherwise it risks alienating them as customers today expects digital marketing to be personalized. In summary, the effects of personalized email justifies investing in it, but one should be aware of what effects to expect. / Kommunikation av data driven och individanpassad marknadsföring är idag vanligt bland stora kundbaserade företag med lojalitetsprogram. E-post har blivit standard som digital kanal för sådan typ av kommunikation främst för att den erbjuder hög kostnadseffektivitet och goda möjligheter att skapa attraktivt innehåll anpassat efter kund. Den här uppsatsen har som syfte att identifiera vilka effekter individanpassad kommunikation genom e-post kan leda till inom lojalitetsprogram, samt om företag bör investera i individanpassad e-post kommunikation. Metoden bestod av två kvantitativa fallstudier i form av analys av elva individanpassade nyhetsbrev och ett aktiveringsbrev av ett företag verksam inom bränsle och närbutik. En serie kvalitativa intervjuer hölls också med individer verksamma inom individanpassad kommunikation. Resultaten visar att lojalitetsmedlemmarna i hög grad accepterar kommunikationen och nås av innehållet. De individanpassade nyhetsbreven visade inga tydliga positiva effekter inom försäljning, butiksbesök eller merförsäljning. Aktiveringsmailet, som var en del av aktiveringsfasen i kundlivscykeln visade på mer lovande resultat genom att leda till fler butiksbesök och ledde till en positiv merförsäljning. Ytterligare effekter inom byteskostnad och varumärkesmedvetenhet identifierades även, såvida innehållet når kunderna och uppfattas som relevant. Om inte riskerar innehållet att stöta bort kunderna eftersom det idag förväntas att digital marknadsföring är individanpassad. Sammanfattningsvis så rättfärdigar de identifierade effekterna investering i individanpassad kommunikation, men man bör vara medveten om vilka effekterna är.

Online shopping is growing and its turnover increases each year. Internet hastherefore become an important retail location for companies. Web shops lack thephysical room for marketing as well as face-to-face interaction between customer andsalesperson. Therefore there is a need to develop marketing and customercommunication methods for this way of shopping. In physical shops the customer hasthe ability to try on the garments and be pampered by the staff. All in all, the wholevisit can be seen as an experience. For the fashion web shops, this is not possible andhence, they have to find other ways.Our purpose with this study is to describe how web shops replace the physical roomfor communication. We will do that by identify and describe the different functionsoffered to the fashion web shops&apos; customers. Further we aim to find out whichfunctions can be regarded as standard, and which are extra and hence could be seen ascompetitive advantages. Based on these descriptions we will be able to present anormative model for best practice for the fashion web shop industry.Our literature review begins with a general introduction to marketing, marketcommunication and how Internet has affected these two areas. This is followed by amore focused review on the literature of web shops and the various functions relatedto them, for example product presentation and different kinds of services. Theprimary aim of our literature review was to formulate our research questions but it hasalso provided us with concepts and models for the structuring of our findings.We started our study by mapping the field of web shops by making observations onthe Internet. Then we divided our material in categories so that we could limit ourfurther part of the study. We chose H&amp;M, Nelly and Acne as study cases for our indepthstudy, and we chose another seven web shops for comparisons. The functionsthat were observed more thorough were product presentation, purchase related andrelation oriented functions. Our empirical material was then analysed according toKotler’s levels of product. By doing this we also present the normative model for bestpractice.We have found that web shops use several different methods to replace the physicalfunctions. Both virtual dressing rooms and video clips of catwalks will probably be apart of best practice in the future. The loss of the physical functions makes it difficultII Ifor web shops to fully compete with physical shops. There are however severalbenefits of web shops that customers can’t get from a physical shop, for example thelarge range of products, and the 24-hours availability. In conclusion, physical andvirtual shops convey different kinds of experiences for the customer. Web shops canbe a complement to physical shops, but they will probably not be able to fully replacethem.This Bachelor thesis will follow in Swedish. / Program: Textilekonomutbildningen

This master’s thesis deals with the issue of the communication mix of the selected company. The author explains the terms that this issue involves and the specific company focused on its communication mix is analyzed. The thesis contains concrete suggestions and recommendations that should be a suitable supplement of the existing communication mix, and which will be also contribute to a increase awareness of the company, and due to this for increase marketability of the offered vehicles.