A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of Witwatersrand in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Strategic Marketing, Wits Business School, Johannesburg 2016 / The proliferation of social platforms in the digital and online space has given voice to millions of social media users and carved careers otherwise unheard of a few years ago, in the form of expert technology reviewers who enjoy mass online following and sponsorship from brands seeking to leverage millions of followers who log in daily. Social media has enabled access to information otherwise previously restricted to user guides and product manuals. Using the theory of planned behaviour, the study examines the effect that online consumer reviews have on product knowledge, social influence, trust, source credibility, brand image and purchase intent among urban South Africans falling in the Generation Y cohort. The methodology involved a self-administered online questionnaire adapted from past studies. A total of 255 questionnaires were collected from the identified sample. The study tested ten hypotheses using Structural Equation Modelling along with SPSS 22 software used for descriptive statistics and IBM Amos 22. Results indicate that all ten hypotheses have significant influence on purchase intent. All hypotheses displayed equally significant relationships per testing as findings revealed that online consumer reviews have a positive effect on product knowledge, trust, social influence, source credibility and brand image. Findings also revealed a significant relationship between product knowledge, trust, social influence, source credibility, brand image, and purchase intent. The study contributes to the literature and theoretical knowledge on online consumer reviews in the local South African context, and can be applied to similar developing markets. The theoretical implications in the study contributes to both limited, and existing research, literature, and knowledge on the effects that online consumer reviews have on the purchase intent of South African consumers. The study broadens knowledge in the ever growing influence of online consumer reviews and the significant theoretical contributions of the study will benefit academia and scholars. Managerial implications highlight that managers cannot afford to ignore the influence of online consumer reviews on intent to purchase, and that even though these reviews are not under the direct influence of organisations, marketers can indirectly influence these by ensuring quality products that meet both the brand and product promises. Recommendations, iii limitations of the study, and future research on the subject of online consumer reviews are also discussed. Keywords: Online consumer reviews, social influence, brand image, product knowledge, purchase intent, source credibility / GR2018

This is a comprehensive study of how Big Data and analytics will be the future of music marketing. There has been a recent trend of being able to turn metrics into quantifiable, real-word predictions. With an increase in online music consumption along with the use of social media there is now a clearer view than ever before about how this will happen. Instead of solely relying on big record companies for an artist to make it to the big time, there is now a plethora of data and analytics available not just to a small number of big companies, but to anyone. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

This thesis provides a novel approach to using data mining for e-commerce. The focus of our work is to apply association rule mining to collaborative recommender systems, which recommend articles to a user on the basis of other users' ratings for these articles as well as the similarities between this user's and other users' tastes. In this work, we propose a new algorithm for association rule mining specially tailored for use in collaborative recommendation. We make recommendations by exploring associations between users, associations between articles, and a combination of the two. We experimentally evaluated our approach on real data for many different parameter settings and compared its performance with that of other approaches under similar experimental conditions. Through our analysis and experiments, we have found that association rules are quite appropriate for collaborative recommendation domains and that they can achieve a performance that is comparable to current state of the art in recommender systems research.

This thesis deals with the marketing strategy of the company HPhobby s.r.o., which is realising its activities only through the online store www.hphobby.cz. The aim is to analyze the company and its competitors and apply this data to marketing strategy focused on Internet marketing tools. The first chapter deals with the analysis of the company and its competitors, for this chapter the SWOT, PEST analysis and BCG matrix are used. The second chapter concerns the segmentation of the consumer, for this MML-TGI ČR data, Czech statistical office data, questionnaire and internal company data are used. The third chapter deals with the marketing strategy, where I define marketing objectives of the company. Another part of this chapter deals with the marketing mix, including budget, monitoring and evaluation of the company.

This thesis focuses on internet marketing and its use in the field of tourism promotion agency CzechTourism. It examines the use of various internet marketing tools and their impact on tourism in the Czech Republic. It also focuses on work detail CzechTourism marketing activities on the Internet in terms of media campaigns in the past two years. An integral part is an analysis of websites, which serve as the main tool to promote the Czech Republic.

全球資訊網(WWW)的出現，其結合有文字、聲音、動畫、影像等多媒體的特性，且具有即時性、互動性、低成本、全天候、無國界、多媒體等特性，使得網際網路成為現有的報章雜誌、廣播、電視之後最具影響力的第四大媒體。這股風潮，民意代表自然也不能置身事外，民意代表的個人網站紛紛成立，但究竟網友要的是什麼樣的民意代表網站，則少有相關研究。 本研究採問卷法蒐集資料，再以多變量方法分析回函資料，期能從網站使用者的角度，給予個案網站----「賴士葆選民服務網」產品策略上的建議，研究結論如下： 一、 產品定位方面： 從網友對11個產品屬性重要性的評估，及網友對個案網站在11個產品屬性的評價，將建議策略分成以下四種： (1)強調策略：立委的形象與專業度佳、網站有線上服務區、網站上有留言版及電子信箱、網站的內容豐富且更新度高。 (2)改善策略、對私人資料的保密性、網站的下載速度及穩定性。 (3)保持策略：網站的親和力高、網站提供會員優質服務、有屬於自己的社群。 (4)放棄策略：有多媒體的應用使網站更生動、網站的娛樂性好。 二、 產品改進策略方面： 區分目標市場（產品強度較高的一群）及非目標市場的網友對產品屬性的要求是否有所不同。結果兩者在網站有留言版及電子信箱、網站的娛樂性好這兩個產品屬性上重視程度有明顯差異，建議要掌握目標市場的心，可從此兩項產品屬性，特別是留言版及電子信箱下手。 / Since the emergence of the WWW, it brings multimedia characteristics, combining text, voice, animation and video. Real time, interaction, low-cost, no time limit, and no border restriction make it become the fourth media subsequently to newspaper, broadcast, and television. This trend makes legislators setup their personal websites; however, there are scant studies about what kind of website users really need. This study adopts questionary method to gather data, and analyzes the data with Multivariable Method, aiming to give the case website----www.sbiai.org.tw----suggestions in product strategy from the users' points. The conclusion is as follows: In product positioning strategy: From users' evaluation about 11 product attributes, and users' evaluation case website performance in 11 product attributes, this research give four strategy as follows: 1. Emphasis strategy: the excellent image and professionalism; online service; message board and email box; content affluence. 2. Improvement strategy: the security about personal data; the download speed & stability. 3. Maintenance strategy: friendliness; good member service; having groups. 4. Abandon strategy: multimedia application; amusement. In product Improvement Strategy: To distinguish target market form the non-target market, and make need comparison between them. The result shows they have apparent difference in message board and email box, and amusement. From these two product attributes, especially message board and email box, you can capture the target market.

本研究為一初探性研究，研究題目為「線上遊戲作為一種廣告形式之效果研究」，研究的構想來自於對網路現況的觀察。目前網路上有許多網站，包括了遊戲網站與企業網站，提供多種結合了廣告訊息之「線上遊戲」，供網路使用者遊玩以達成行銷之實，本研究即以此為主題，對此新興的手法之效果加以探討。 根據現況的發展，本研究發掘了幾個研究問題： 1.線上遊戲與廣告以不同的形式結合，是否會造成不同的廣告效果？目前有兩種非常普遍的運用形式，一為在遊戲的網頁中附加橫幅式廣告，一乃專為產品設計的線上遊戲，稱之為「品牌遊戲」，本研究的第一個研究目的，即探知兩種形式的廣告效果異同，以「結合形式」為自變項之一。 2.第二個問題，即當產品類型不同時，線上遊戲結合廣告是否會造成不同的廣告效果？以「產品類型」為第二個自變項，而以廣告效果為依變項。 3.根據以往的研究，不論是平面的雜誌廣告，或電視廣告，閱聽眾對廣告的態度，都會影響對品牌的態度，而線上遊戲作為一種新的廣告形式，遊戲者對遊戲的態度，是否會同樣的影響品牌的態度？這為本研究的第三個問題。 在廣告效果的操弄上，本研究的廣告效果包括了「回憶與再認」：廣告回憶、廣告再認；「態度與意願」：廣告態度、對遊戲的喜好程度、品牌態度與購買意願。上述第三個研究問題，探討的即是依變項中「廣告態度」、「對遊戲的喜好程度」與「品牌態度」之間的關係。 進行研究設計前，本研究先針對目前的發展現況作深度訪談，以作為研究設計之背景資料。再以實驗室實驗法進行，探討變項之間的因果關係。在結論方面，本研究發現：「結合形式」不同會造成不同的廣告效果，且「品牌遊戲」所造成的廣告效果會大於僅在一般遊戲的網頁中加上橫幅式廣告的效果，尤其對回憶與再認效果影響最大；「產品類型」沒有差異；而「廣告態度」、「對遊戲的喜好程度」與「品牌態度」間則呈正向的關係，亦即愈喜歡遊戲，也會愈喜歡產品。

資訊科技與網際網路的蓬勃發展，網路購物如雨後春筍般的崛起，導致傢俱零售業處於日益激烈的競爭環境中。傢俱零售業市場是瞬息萬變的，因此若沒有妥善的網路行銷策略就可能被淘汰，因此企業界如何應用網際網路與其應用的程度與否，實則扮演極重要的角色。本研究的目的，在探討企業網路行銷經營策略與顧客滿意度。本研究期望能夠藉此研究，能夠對某傢俱零售業更深入做了解，並了解影響企業網路行銷經營策略與顧客滿意度之因素，並進而提出有助於某傢俱零售業的定位以及未來發展問題。個案公司為創立於北歐的家具零售公司，創立之初主要經營文具郵購、雜貨等產品。個案公司在2009成為全球非常有名的家具零售公司。個案公司的經營理念是提供種類繁多、美觀實用、老百姓買得起的家居用品，故本研究探討該個案公司行銷經營策略與顧客滿意的價值，並期望應用到其他產業。本研究之貢獻為：期望給予企業或組織在投入資源分配對於「網際網路行銷」時有更明確的「經營策略」並能提高「顧客滿意度」。 本研究共發放200位該產業內部顧客實施問卷調查，問卷回收後隨即逐份檢查篩選，有效問卷共計172份，有效問卷回收率達86.00%。資料分析的方法主要有信效度分析、獨立樣本t考驗、變異數分析、相關分析。其結果發現： 1. 重視企業網路行銷人才培育，傢俱零售業透過網路行銷進行人與人之間的溝通協調為一重要之活動，故企業網路行銷人才的培養的問題，均應提早作規劃。 2. 傢俱零售業應與顧客維持良好關係。 3. 企業經營策略的積極性的確會影響企業實施網路行銷之進程，在經營策略上以行銷管理策略影響最大，其原因為：行銷管理策略除年齡個人基本變項外，其餘變項皆很顯著。

Sociala nätverk, eller så kallade communityn är ett fenomen som fått större betydelse idag och snabbt spridit sig runt om i världen. Communityn Facebook har blivit känd för att den samlar många användare och har en god målgruppskännedom, vilket gör Facebook till en attraktiv marknadsföringsplats som har uppmärksammats av en rad olika företag och organisationer. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka vilka möjligheter och begränsningar Facebook har som marknadsföringskanal, samt undersöka svenska företag och organisationers användning av Facebook i sin marknadsföring. Vi har använt oss av en kvalitativ metod och vår uppsats bygger på en empirisk studie, med material från ett antal informant-, samt respondentintervjuer. Frågorna har kretsat kring vad våra informanter och respondenter anser kännetecknar Facebook, deras erfarenheter av Facebook som marknadsföringskanal, samt deras åsikter om Facebook som marknadsföringskanal i framtiden. För att få bästa möjliga svar på våra frågor ansåg vi att vi behövde intervjua personer med kunskaper om Facebook från både ett utifrån och ett inifrånperspektiv. Resultatet från vår undersökning visar att marknadsföring på Facebook inbjuder till stor kreativitet hos företagen och organisationerna. Frågan är dock hur medvetna företagen och organisationerna är om de olika metoderna. Många företag eller organisationer har inte haft ett särskilt syfte med sin marknadsföring på Facebook, mer än att de vill gynna det egna varumärket. Många arbetar inte aktivt med Facebook, utan använder det som en marknadsföringskanal för att de känner att de inte har något att förlora, samt på grund av att många av metoderna ofta är gratis. De företag eller organisationer som har utnyttjat Facebooks marknadsföringsmetoder har många gånger gjort det då de själva först har varit medlemmar i Facebook. Detta tillsammans med Facebooks medieexponering, de ständigt ökande medlemmarna och den något äldre målgruppen har gjort att många har valt att använda Facebook i sin marknadsföring. Det har framkommit att det är betydligt enklare för marknadsförarna att nå den rätta målgruppen tack vare Facebooks tydliga demografi. Dock står integritetsfrågan i fokus i vår uppsats, då vissa av Facebooks marknadsföringsmetoder har en tendens att inkräkta allt för mycket på användarnas personliga sfär för att företagen ska få mesta möjliga effektivitet av sin marknadsföring. Den ökade kommersialiseringen skulle kunna hota Facebooks framtid. Emellertid är marknadsföring via communityn något som med stor säkerhet kommer att utvecklas mycket mer i framtiden, då det har kommit att bli viktigare för företag och organisationer att arbeta som privatpersoner och inte endast som ett företag. / Social networks, or so called communities, have become more and more important and has rapidly spread around the world. The community Facebook has become well-known for the fact that it has drawn many users and has a great knowledge about them. This makes Facebook an attractive place for marketing, which has appealed to many different companies and organizations. The aim of this study is to examine what possibilities and limitations Facebook has as an arena for marketing, and also examine how Swedish companies and organizations use Facebook in their marketing. We have done a qualitative study in the form of interviews. The questions have revolved around what the interviewees think distinguish Facebook, their experiences of Facebook as an arena for marketing, and their opinions about Facebook’s future as an arena for marketing. To get the best possible answers to our questions, we decided to interview people with knowledge of Facebook, both from an outside and an inside perspective. The result of our study shows that the marketing methods on Facebook encourage companies and organizations to be creative. It is indefinite how aware the companies and organizations are about the different methods of marketing on Facebook. Many companies have not had a specific aim with their Facebook marketing, more than the aim to promote their trademark. Many don’t actively work with Facebook, but use it as an arena for marketing because they feel that they don’t have anything to loose, and because many of the methods are free of charge. The companies and organizations that have used Facebook’s marketing methods have in many cases started as members of the community. This, together with Facebook’s media exposure, the increasing amount of members and the somewhat older target group, has lead to many companies using Facebook in their marketing. Our study shows that it is easier for the marketers to reach the right target audience due to the clear demographics of Facebook. The integrity issue is a focus of interest in our study, due to the fact that some of Facebook’s marketing methods have a tendency to trespass the users’ personal life, when the companies and organizations strive to get the best possible efficiency of their marketing. The increased commercialization is a possible threat to the future of Facebook. However, marketing via communities is something that most likely will develop more in the future, as it is becoming increasingly important to companies and organizations to work as private persons and not only as companies.

University of Macau / Faculty of Science and Technology / Department of Computer and Information Science