Previous research has proven that perceived Brand Authenticity functions as a differentiator, which brands can use to stand out in today’s marketplace. However, few studies have investigated whether it is possible for brands to become more profitable by utilizing their authenticity. This thesis therefore investigates the relationship between the two branding concepts Brand Authenticity and Customer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE). An explanatory survey study is made on the Swedish retail clothing industry, which measures the effect of the Brand Authenticity associations Continuity, Originality, Trustworthiness, Genuineness, Heritage, and Symbolism on the CBBE outcomes (1) consumers’ willingness to pay a price premium, (2) recommend a brand, and (3) buy a brand before other brands. The results show that while some Brand Authenticity associations increase the CBBE outcomes, others seem to give no effect and some even to undermine them. If brand managers of authentic brands wish to increase their value sales through price premiums and increase volume sales through increased purchases, they should focus on communicating Symbolism, Originality and Genuineness. If decreased marketing costs through word of mouth is the goal, brand recommendations can be achieved through communicating Trustworthiness as well. However, Continuity and Heritage should be avoided in all brand communication if increased profits is the primarily goal.

This report examines the role of Latino consumers, specifically looking at Mexican-Americans and their first generation experiences. It looks at how these experiences influence their consumption patterns. While observing the idea that first generation Latinos are much like ‘adolescent consumers’, a concept stemming from the idea that much like teenagers Latino immigrants are in a sense coming of age in this country. They are under a whole different set of social norms, cultural expectations and values different from their country of origin. This report proposes a reconsideration of the heuristics that marketers hold for Latino consumer spending habits. It maintains the idea that Latino consumer behaviors should be attributed and conceptualized as a process of maturation, not just based on culture and class. Lastly it re-examines the Customer Based Brand Equity model and places it in the context of the Latino consumer while keeping in mind the above framework about Latinos as adolescent consumers. / text

Over the past few decades, branding has become a priority for companies. A brand helps companies to differentiate themselves from their competitors, which creates competitive advantages. Most of the research on brands has primarily focused on consumer marketing. However, it has been found that the brand is just as important in business to business (B2B) companies, and that it also plays a big role when it comes to the survival av newly established company like for example startups. Startups differ from established companies through their innovative ideas and problem solving. However, they faces challenges because of lack of capital, time and resources. As the competition in the market grows, startups need to create competitive advantages by working hard with their brand strategies to achieve strong brand equity. This study aims to highlight how B2B startups work with brand equity in order to achieve competitive advantages. The study has used a qualitative research strategy where the primary data has been collected through semi-structured interviews with four different startups based in Stockholm. The study shows that startups need to first position themselves in the market and then work on brand building. The result also shows that B2B startups are aware of the brand's importance and that they in fact work with brand equity to achieve competitive advantages. However, the strategies with the steps in the CBBE model differs depending on the industry and type of corporate activity.

Tourism destinations all over the world increasingly embrace marketing and branding practices traditionally utilized by businesses. However, the literature on customer-based brand equity modelling and measurement for tourism destinations lacks the conceptual understanding of the complex relationships between tourists and the destination brand. Therefore, the thesis at hand addresses the existing gap in tourism literature and aims at contributing to the development of the customer-based brand equity concept in a tourism destination setting (CBDBE) by taking into account the value-co-creation approach. The components of the proposed model consist of the customers’ evaluation of the destination promise in terms of transforming functional, intangible and social destination resources into tourists’ value-in-use. Furthermore, the positive relationship between visitors’ perception of the destination and value-for-money discloses the input of tourists’ own resources into the process of value-co-creation. Moreover, destination brand awareness affects the evaluation of the destination promise, which, in turn, determines tourists’ behavioural intentions towards the destination. By implementing web-based customer surveys and using a linear structural equation modelling approach, the proposed model is empirically validated for the leading Swedish mountain destination Åre. First, the model is repeatedly tested with data regarding the winter seasons 2009/10 and 2012/13.  Second, the proposed CBDBE model has been operationalized and tested also for the summer season. Findings from face-to-face interviews conducted in Åre during summer 2012 uncovered the relationships between destination resources offered in Åre, tourists’ own resources and destination value-in-use and, thus, served as the empirical fundament for the development of a destination-specific scale to measure value-in-use. Subsequently, the proposed CBDBE model has been successfully tested with web-based survey data collected after the summer season 2012, both for the total sample and separately for the main a priori tourist segments, including hiking, mountain biking and village tourists. Results show the significant contribution of destination value-in-use defined as perceived benefits from a destination stay, which, in turn, strongly affect customers’ destination loyalty. In contrast, the relationship between value-for-money and destination loyalty is less strong and even non-significant for the two customer segments hiking and mountain biking tourists. Importantly, as part of the CBDBE model operationalization, the thesis highlights the need to better understand destination-specific consumption patterns across various tourism segments by destination managers. Therefore, results demonstrate that by monitoring unique destination and tourist-specific experience dimensions, destination management can influence and better manage both the value-in-use for customers and customer loyalty. Thus, the proposed CBDBE model provides destination managers with a tool, which enables evaluation and upgrade of destination marketing strategy and, finally, assist in discovering promising innovation potentials for highly experiential tourism products. / Customer-based innovations in tourism / Engineering th Knowledge Destination through Customer-based Competence Development

Studiens syfte har varit att experimentellt undersöka om det finns en varumärkesbyggande påverkan vid varumärkesanpassad distributionsförpackning. Teoretiskt har studien utgått från teorier inom kundbaserat varumärkeskapital med utgångspunkt från teorin om Brand EquityDimensions och Brand Value Chain-modellen. Hypotes: Varumärkesanpassad distributionsförpackning har en positiv påverkan på kundbaserat varumärkeskapital, kontra en generiskdistributionsförpackning vid e-handel. Studien har genomförts med en kvantitativ metod där förhållandet mellan varumärkesanpassad och generisk distributionsförpackning jämfördes i förhållande till kundbaserat varumärkeskapital. Insamling av data skedde genom experimentell design, för att kunna acceptera eller förkasta hypotesen, vilken sedan ligger till grund för resultat och analys för studien. Studien visar på att en varumärkesanpassad distributionsförpackning har större positiv påverkan på kundbaserat varumärkeskapital i alla komponenter som används i studien förutom Prispremium. Slutsatsen är således att konsumenters attityder till en varumärkesanpassad distributionsförpackning bidrar till att stärka kundbaserat varumärkeskapital, med undantag för prispremium.

Background: The global video game industry is today bigger than both the film- and music industry and is subject to a lot of competition. Companies are always looking for alternative ways to reach consumers and buzz is identified as a crucial success factor by many scholars. From real life examples, buzz is shown to have both positive and negative effects. There is however little knowledge about the phenomenon and what role buzz can play in the customer-based brand equity (CBBE) of video game companies. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding about buzz and examine what role it plays in customer-based brand equity for companies within the video game industry. Method: A deductive approach was adopted and in order to fulfil the purpose of the study, a qualitative study (i.e. a case study) was deemed suitable. Interviews were held with five companies within the video game industry. Also, observations were made of how the companies work with their promotion and creation of buzz during the pre-release period. Theoretical framework: The theoretical framework consists of theories regarding the buzz phenomenon and CBBE. These were combined in order to examine the potential role buzz plays in the context of CBBE. Findings: Buzz is shown to play a big role in the video game industry but is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain. It is also found that buzz can have a “life of its own” and become unmanageable through speculations. Speculations can lead to higher expectations and pseudo-promises[1], making buzz even more difficult to manage. Regarding CBBE, buzz plays a role in all aspects. However, it is shown to play a different role in the CBBE of video game companies depending on how high the brand loyalty is within that company. The study also results in a conceptual model, illustrating buzz and what role it plays in the CBBE of video game companies both pre-release and post-release.

Background: The study explores the impact of brand equity on brand loyalty intention within the accounting services sector in Finland. The study uses four dimensions of brand equity, which include perceived brand quality, perceived brand value, perceived brand uniqueness and perceived corporate credibility. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explore the applicability and the impact of customer-based brand equity and its dimensions in the field of accounting. Method: The current research applies known conceptual frameworks and theories on the dimensions of customer-based brand equity in business-to-business context and investigates causal relationships between the CBBE dimensions and brand loyalty intention. A self-administered survey was conducted and a total of 93 responses was collected from businesses that use external accounting services. Conclusion: All hypotheses have been supported and the findings conclude that brand quality, brand value, brand uniqueness and corporate credibility have positive correlation with brand loyalty intention. Findings of the study are relevant for marketers and researchers, as well as for managerial implications in the building of brand equity. The paper provides valuable insights into the dimensions of customer-based brand equity in the business-to-business context and offers a solid foundation for future research on brand loyalty and brand equity and offers practical help for businesses to enhance their customers’ loyalty.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to gain further understanding of how social mediamarketing activities can affect a firm's brand loyalty and brand image. The study was conductedwithin the sportswear industry. Design/Methodology/approach: This study was of explanatory nature and had a quantitativeapproach where it gathered its data through questionnaires that was posted in communitygroups on Facebook for the brands Oner Active, Gymshark and Better Bodies. These chosenbrands are an active part of the chosen industry to investigate, the sportswear industry. Findings: The findings of this study showed that social media marketing activities have apositive effect on brand image as well as brand loyalty. The social media marketing activitiesthat had the overall highest impact were entertainment and word of mouth. Furthermore, thefindings of this study concluded that increased brand image has a positive effect on brandloyalty. Implications: The findings of this study contributes to the growing knowledge of social mediamarketing activities and how they effect brand image and brand loyalty of sportswear brands.The findings of this study contributes to practitioners as well, it showcases the importance of social media marketing activities but also provides insight of what activities might be of mostimportance to develop in regards to brand image and brand loyalty (based on the circumstancesand limitations to this study).

網際網路普及背後孕育著龐大商機，但電子商務仍然面臨商業競爭與來自消費者的挑戰。研究者認為引進品牌權益的概念，協助電子商務經營者建立強勢網路品牌，是一可行辦法。回顧文獻，發現過去顧客基礎品牌權益研究多半為行銷者導向，較少重視消費者個別差異。為了更進一步區分消費者的差異，研究者欲藉由使用與滿足理論對媒體使用動機的研究成果，來瞭解消費者在不同的使用動機下其重視的網路品牌權益構面。本研究以Aaker(1996)提出的品牌權益為基礎，並使用網路消費者為研究對象，建構顧客基礎的網路品牌權益構面。也一併瞭解消費者個別差異，作為電子商務經營者在發展電子商務時的重要參考依據。 本研究分四階段進行。第一階段為定義何謂網路品牌；第二階段透過焦點團體，發展出顧客基礎的網路品牌權益內涵；第三，透過第一、二階段的成果，進行網路品牌權益問卷編製與大樣本施測，確立顧客基礎的網路品牌權益構面。第四階段使用典型相關分析，以瞭解不同使用動機下的消費者，是否重視不同網路品牌權益概念。網路品牌權益量表透過線上調查，收集358份有效問卷。研究結果指出，網路品牌權益可分作五大構面，分別為網站管理（包含營運方式與互動關係）、品牌忠誠（包含使用偏好與使用習慣組成）、品牌聯想、自我表達及知覺品質，因素負荷量達52.77%；量表共33題，信度.905(p<0.01)，效標關連效度達.512(p<0.01)。本研究亦發現在不同網路使用動機之下，消費者重視的網路品牌權益不同；在資訊蒐集與娛樂動機下，消費者重視網路品牌的網站管理與知覺品質；在人際與娛樂動機下，則重視知覺品質與自我表達。 最後則對電子商務業者提出品牌經營參考，及未來學術發展方向。 關鍵字：品牌、網路品牌權益、顧客基礎、使用與滿足。 / Despite the universal availability of the Internet and the immense business opportunities generated e-commerce, e-commerce itself is confronted by endless business competition and consumer mistrust. How should e-commerce managers react to these competition and challenges? This research proposes that the introduction of the brand equity concept is viable in helping e-commerce managers establish strong online brands, yet existing literature on customer-based brand equity are mostly marketer oriented rather than customer oriented, thus not much weight is given to individual consumer differences. We use mass media theory “uses and gratification” theory to understand if customer have different internet use motivation will cause them prefer different online brand equity. We use online consumer as research participant, and build customer-based online brand equity construct, describe individual differences as our results. E-commerce managers can utilize as important reference when developing their business affairs. This research is conducted in four stages: the first stage is intended for understanding consumers’ definition of online brands; the second stage develops preliminary customer-based online brand equity constructs via focus groups; the third stage develops customer-based brand equity constructs by designing and testing a survey based on the results of the first two stages using large samples; and the fourth stage uses canonical analysis to find out whether customer have different internet use motivation will cause them prefer different online brand equity. We collected 358 validate questionnaires. Findings indicate that online brand equity can be divided into five dimensions: web site management, brand loyalty, brand associations, self expressions, and perceived quality. Totaling 33 items, factor loading 52.77%, with 0.905 in reliability and 0.512 (p<0.01) in criteria-related validity. When conusumer’s internet use motivation is search information and entertainment, the online brand equity construct they will prefer is web site managemet and perceived quality. But when conusumer’s internet use motivation is interpersonal and entertainment, the online brand equity construct they will prefer is perceived quality and self expressions. According results above, we propsed some recommdations for e-commerce managers and scholars. Keywords: Brand, Online brand equity, Customer-based, Uses and gratification

The purpose of the thesis was to investigate how generation Z values ​​the customer-based brand equity of a consumer product. Generation Z is an interesting generation to study since they have shown to differ in a variety of aspects from previous generations. To answer the purpose, a model has been constructed, which is based on previous research. The model consists of the components; brand awareness, brand associations/image, perceived quality and brand loyalty. Together the components form the cornerstones of the customer-based brand equity. Eight hypotheses were tested with the purpose of measuring the interrelationship between the components, and the relationship between the various components and the customer-based brand equity. Six of these eight hypotheses could be accepted. The result showed that the components brand association/image and brand loyalty have a positive impact on the customer-based brand equity, while brand awareness and perceived quality showed a non-significant result. The non-significant results were then further examined through t-test, with the purpose of trying to find possible reasons for the outcome. Moreover, the results showed that brand awareness has a positive correlation with both brand associations/image and perceived quality. Finally, the result showed that brand loyalty was positively correlated to both brand associations/image and perceived quality. For further research, it is proposed that a more comprehensive study consisting of more respondents from generation Z should be conducted. In addition, further research could be based on other consumer products and also examine whether there could be more or other components that should be considered when measuring customer-based brand equity. / Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur generation Z värderar det kundbaserade varumärkeskapitalet hos en konsumentprodukt. Det är intressant att undersöka generation Z då de på många sätt visat skilja sig från tidigare generationer. För att besvara syftet har en modell utformats som är baserad på tidigare forskning. Modellen består av komponenterna; varumärkeskännedom, varumärkesassociationer/image uppfattad kvalitet, och varumärkeslojalitet. Komponenterna utgör tillsammans grundstenarna för det kundbaserade varumärkeskapitalet. Åtta hypoteser utformades för samband inbördes mellan komponenterna samt även de olika komponenternas påverkan på det kundbaserade varumärkeskapitalet. Av dessa åtta hypoteser kunde sex av dem accepteras. Resultatet visade att komponenterna varumärkesassociation/image och varumärkeslojalitet har positiv påverkan på det kundbaserade varumärkeskapitalet, medan komponenterna varumärkeskännedom och uppfattad kvalitet visade ett icke signifikant resultat. De icke signifikanta resultaten som erhölls undersöktes vidare genom t-tester i ett försök att hitta en förklaring till resultaten. Inbördes bland komponenterna visade resultatet att varumärkeskännedom har ett positivt samband till både varumärkesassociationer/image och uppfattad kvalitet. Slutligen visade studien på att varumärkeslojalitet har ett positivt samband till både varumärkesassociationer/image och uppfattad kvalitet. För fortsatt forskning föreslås bland annat att en mer omfattande studie bestående av fler respondenter från generation Z genomförs. Utöver det hade det för fortsatt forskning varit intressant att basera studier på andra konsumentprodukter, och även undersöka om det finns fler eller andra komponenter som bör tas hänsyn till vid mätningen av det kundbaserade varumärkeskapitalet.