När företag ska utveckla produkter och tjänster behöver de informationsunderlag om kunder och användare. Traditionella marknadsundersökningar kräver ett rationellt förhållningssätt och avslöjar åsikter och attityder, men uppvisar brister när det kommer till att upptäcka omedvetna behov hos användare. Lösningen på denna problematik är att observera användare i deras egen kontext, ett tillvägagångssätt som är vanligt bland industridesigners. Syftet med studien var att jämföra hur industridesigners och marknadsförare arbetar för att samla in information om användare i samband med produkt- och tjänsteutveckling. Därefter syftade studien till att ställa dessa likheter och skillnader i kontrast till tre teorier: Marketing Research Process, Design Thinking samt Empathic Design. Tre intervjuer genomfördes med tre olika företag: ett industridesignföretag, ett marknadsundersökningsföretag samt ett tjänstedesignföretag. Studien resulterade i ett antal slutsatser. Den första är att ett rationellt förhållningssätt inte nödvändigtvis är någonting negativt utan snarare något positivt och elementärt. Tillämpningen måste dock ske på rätt sätt parallellt under produktutvecklingsprocessen, för att verifiera att den framtagna produkten eller tjänsten faktiskt fyller ett konsumentbehov på marknaden. Ytterligare en slutsats är att metoder och tekniker som ses som typiska för designers även tillämpas och nyttjas av ett traditionellt marknadsundersökningsföretag. Saknas dessa typer av kompetenser inom företaget hyrs designers in som experter. Alla de undersökta företagen, inklusive det renodlade marknadsundersökningsföretaget, använde sig av observationsmetoder där de observerade användare i deras egen kontext, samtidigt som de interagerade med produkten eller tjänsten. De hade således lyckats ta sig runt problematiken med att upptäcka de dolda omedvetna behoven.  Likheterna mellan de två olika professionerna har varit mer utmärkande än skillnaderna, och den övergripande slutsatsen blir således att verkligheten har kommit ifatt den teoretiska diskussionen. Marknadsförare och industridesigners arbetar mer lika än olika.

The aims of thesis were analyze supply and demand of tourism and to complete the products for selected segment of visitors and to suggest possibilities of communcation and cooperation cultural facilities and sector of tourism in the region of Třebíč. The thesis includes several parts. The first part is a theoretical part, which provides basic theoretical information. Another part contains an analysis of tourism offer in the region of Třebíč. In the next part of thesis was performed marketing research of cultural facilities in the region of Třebíč. Another tree SWOT analyses were performed. This information led to the development process of tourism in the region of Třebíč.

Selecting actors to appear in an advertisement is an important decision which has a crucial impact on the effectiveness of an advertising campaign. The same message, delivered by different actors, produces varying outcomes among consumers. This dilemma concerning the choice of actors occurs particularly in multi-racial societies, such as South Africa, where advertisers have to target different sectors of the community. In multi-racial societies, the choice of actors in advertisements goes beyond the usual commercial reasons. Indeed, two dimensions are generally conferred to multi-racial advertising. Firstly, the use of multi-racial representations allows for the targeting of a wider population that also owns a wider purchasing power. Marketers who want to market their brand use, for example, white and black actors so that white and black consumers can identify with the actors and recognize themselves as the target of the advertisement. Secondly, the multi-racial representations of this type of advertising hold a social role that counteracts the segregated depiction of the society. Consumers who are exposed to a multi-racial advertisement might perceive this social dimension and attribute a social responsibility to the advertisement. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the influence of the above dimensions on the effectiveness of a multi-racial advertisement. On the one hand, this study investigates the Identification Process followed by a consumer exposed to a multi-racial advertisement. On the other hand, it examines how consumers attribute a social responsibility to a specific multiracial advertisement and how this attribution, in turn, influences their responses to the advertisement and brand. Finally, the impacts of both of these dimensions on consumer behaviour are compared and the most persuasive dimension is identified. This thesis draws on Attribution Theory and Identification Theory in arguing that there are strong economic imperatives for adopting a multi-racial advertising approach. The thesis develops a conceptual framework and tests empirically hypotheses regarding the key constructs and moderating variables. The empirical results point out that both dimensions symbiotically influence the effectiveness of a multi-racial advertisement. Specifically, the results highlight that the social responsibility attributed by the viewers to the advertisement influences their behaviour more than the Identification Process.

The smallholder livestock farmer in South Africa is in a difficult position, not only grappling with a changing global environment, but at the local front, without access to domestic markets. This is due to very limited knowledge of buyer requirements emanating from lack of marketing information. This limits adequate access to livestock markets by smallholder farmers in South Africa and more specifically in the Moretele area of the North West Province, resulting in limited growth and less disposable income. Some of the problems facing the smallholder livestock farmer are a lack of understanding of buyer requirements regarding livestock product characteristics, industry price determination processes, alternative marketing channels and how to promote livestock. Empowerment and equitable access to markets by these farmers can only be realised when knowledge is disseminated and training and capacity building is enhanced. It is especially an understanding of what the market requires, how price determination occurs and how marketing channels and promotional tools are used in the livestock industry that is lacking. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

The objective of this study is to establish the media usage and preference of consumers in the Transkei. The results are of special significance to media planners and advertisers in so far as they will assist in the media selection process. This in turn will form the basis of improved marketing communication between media planners and advertisers on the one hand and Transkeian consumers on the other. The media types investigated were newspapers, magazines, television and radio. The results indicated that three newspapers (Daily Dispatch, Intsimbi and Imvo), three magazines (!bona, Pace and Orum), one television channel {TV 2 - now CCV-TV) and one radio station (Radio Transkei) are extremely popular among the majority of Transkeians. The research results also indicated that the following topics are very popular in all the media types: local news, sport, education and arts/cultural articles. The results further indicated that Transkeians are generally favourably inclined towards advertisements. / Economics / M.Com (Business Economics)

Communication is an essential element of any retail business as it is a means of informing the customer about the retailer and the products and services that they offer. The internet and the rapid advancements in technology have provided retailers with various methods of communicating with the customer such as real-time marketing. Real-time marketing, which allows retailers to interact with customers through various means in real time, has already been widely used in businesses around the world. Although many South African businesses are starting to adapt real-time marketing as a marketing tool in their businesses, the perception of consumers regarding real-time marketing has not been investigated in South Africa. The primary purpose of this study was therefore to determine consumers perceptions of real-time marketing used as a marketing tool by retailers in Gauteng, South Africa. A broad and in-depth literature review was conducted on the advent of real-time marketing as a marketing tool and the various tools used by retailers to execute real-time marketing campaigns of retailers. An empirical study was conducted, in which data was collected from consumers of retail stores in the Gauteng province of South Africa by means of a web-based (computer-assisted), self-administered questionnaire. A quantitative approach was followed in order to satisfy the research objectives of the study. The results of this research study indicated that consumers perceived real-time marketing campaigns as clutter. Customers only considered the real-time marketing campaigns that consisted of immediate discounts and that were personalised for the individual customer as valuable to them. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

A retail enterprise is a business organisation that sells goods or services directly to consumers for personal use. Retail enterprises such as supermarkets enable customers to go around the shop picking items from the shelves and placing them into their baskets. The basket of each customer is captured into transactional systems. In this research study, retail enterprises were classified into two main categories: centralised and distributed retail enterprises. A distributed retail enterprise is one that issues the decision rights to the branches or groups nearest to the data collection, while in centralised retail enterprises the decision rights of the branches are concentrated in a single authority. It is difficult for retail enterprises to ascertain customer preferences by merely observing transactions. This has led to quantifiable losses. Although some enterprises implemented classical business models to address these challenging issues, they still lacked analytics-based marketing programs to gain competitive advantage. This research study develops an intelligent analytics-based (ARANN) model for both distributed and centralised retail enterprises in the cross-demographics of a developing country. The ARANN model is built on association rules (AR), complemented by artificial neural networks (ANN) to strengthen the results of these two individual models. The ARANN model was tested using real-life and publicly available transactional datasets for the generation of product arrangement sets. In centralised retail enterprises, the data from different branches was integrated and pre-processed to remove data impurities. The cleaned data was then fed into the ARANN model. On the other hand, in distributed retail enterprises data was collected branch per branch and cleaned. The cleaned data was fed into the ARANN model. According to experimental analytics, the ARANN model can generate improved product arrangement sets, thereby improving the confidence of retail enterprise decision-makers in competitive environments. It was also observed that the ARANN model performed faster in distributed than in centralised retail enterprises. This research is beneficial for sustainable businesses and consideration of the results is therefore recommended to retail enterprises. / Computing / M Sc. (Computing)

The aim of the thesis were to analyze supply and demand of tourism in Písek region, to complete the product for selected segment of visitors based on research of motivation, expectation and image of chosen cultural facilities and to purpose possibilities of communication and cooperation of cultural facilities and tourism industry in Písek region.

The main objective of diploma work was to determine consumers' awareness of their rights in the field of catering services in the Central Region in the Czech Republic. Another task was to detect the critical areas which have the greatest difficulty to respondents. As part of the questionnaire survey, which took place in November 2008 in the Central Region were asked 97 respondents.

In my dissertation, I attend to the Marketing plan of the Training center Oaza. This is a concrete real company Oaza Ricany, which in its current premises built and opened in 2009 a new Training center Oaza. The main objective of this thesis is to create a marketing plan for the Training center Oaza. The aim is to consolidate existing activities and plans of the company Oaza Ricany a complete marketing plan for a newly built training center, which will help improve the economy of the company and will focus on finding other ways to increase the occupancy of training center. The operational objective is to evaluate the current situation of the company Oaza Ricany and of the Training center Oaza and use this information to elaborate a complete marketing plan of the Training center Oaza.