With the proliferation of mobile devices and wireless connectivity technologies, mobile social communities offer novel opportunities for targeted marketing by service or product providers. Unfortunately, marketers are still unable to realize the full potential of these markets due to their inability to effectively target right audiences. This thesis presents a novel middleware for identifying spontaneous social communities (SSCs) of mobile users in ad hoc networks in order to facilitate marketers' advertisements. The contributions of the presented work are two fold; the first is a novel model for SSCs that captures their unique dynamic nature, in terms of community structure and interest in different \textit{hot-topics} over time. These time-varying interests are represented through an inferred \textit{community profile prototype} that reflects dominant characteristics of community members. This prototype is then employed to facilitate the identification of new potential members. The selected community prototypes are also used by marketers to identify the right communities for their services or products promotions. The second contribution of this paper is novel distributed techniques for efficient calculation of the community prototypes and identification of potential community links. In contrast to traditional models of detecting fixed and mobile social networks that rely on pre-existing friendships among its members to predict new ones, the proposed model focuses on measuring the degree of similarity between the new user's profile and the profiles of members of each community in order to predict new users' relationships in the community. The adopted model of SSCs can foster many existing and new socially-aware applications such as recommender systems for social events and tools for collaborative work. It is also an ideal target for business-oriented applications such as short-message-service (SMS) advertisement messages, podcasting news feeds in addition to location/context-aware services. The performance of the proposed work was evaluated using the NetLogo platform where obtained experimental results demonstrate the achieved high degree of stability in the resulting communities in addition to the effectiveness of the proposed middleware in terms of the reduction in the number of routing messages required for advertisements.

The diploma thesis deals with the analysis of marketing activities of chosen commercial corporation. The thesis is divided into two parts. The first, theoretical, part covers key concepts for this thesis which are retail and marketing. Retail is presented in context with business, individual retail store formats and retail trends. Then there are described marketing tasks, marketing process including marketing strategy, marketing plan with marketing mix and estimate costing. Components of communication mix are described in a closer detail. The practical part covers introduction of the company, its history and structure. Then analyzes main competitors, customers and includes SWOT analysis. From these analyses deduces company's objectives. Then there are described and analyzed single components of marketing mix, and elaborately communication activities. The communication activities are in context with the communication campaign started at the end of the year 2010. At the end of the practical part there are suggestions and improvement proposals followed from foregoing analysis.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of social media marketing activities on customer equity and how that drive affects purchase intention in the context of the hotel industry with the perspective of Y-Generation. Design/methodology/approach: An explanatory, deductive, quantitative research approach and cross-sectional research design were utilized within this research, where self-completed questionnaires were distributed online with a number of 136 valid responses collected. Findings: The research found that social media marketing activities positively affected customer equity in the context of hotel industry. Brand equity and relationship equity had positive influence on customer’s purchase intention. Finally, information richness negatively moderated the relationship between social media marketing activities and purchase intention. Research implications/limitations: The main implication of this research is social media marketing activities should be utilized as an effective marketing strategy to enhance customer equity. In addition, for hotel managers, creating emotional tie with brands and building bond with customers are supposed to take priority. The main limitation of this research is the language barriers and the research is considered not to be generalized since most respondents are students. Future research: Further research could investigate how social media marketing activities influence other industries and also investigate other different consumer groups such as X-Generation. Sociodemographic variables such as gender, income, backgrounds could be used as moderators in future. Cultural difference is  interesting to go depth regarding to this topic.

A revisão teórica apontou uma visão geral dos temas de marketing e educação por meio da cronologia histórica, da discussão conceitual, da relevância teórica e prática de cada assunto, dos principais desafios para pesquisa e o desenvolvimento do tema marketing educacional. Identificou-se e discutiu-se as atividades de marketing desenvolvidas nas instituições de ensino superior à luz dos fundamentos teóricos. A metodologia abordou os aspectos relacionados ao protocolo do estudo de caso e uma pesquisa exploratória qualitativa sobre as atividades de marketing foi realizada no trabalho empírico. Executou-se estudo de caso múltiplo, com IES privadas da cidade de São Paulo, por meio de entrevistas com os gestores responsáveis pelo composto de marketing. Concluiu-se que devido a competitividade no setor, as atividades de marketing ganharam importância, todavia ainda são elaboradas de forma desestruturada. O departamento de marketing das instituições educacionais atua principalmente no P de promoção, exercendo pouca influência nas decisões relativas aos outros elementos do composto de marketing. / The literature review pointed to an overview of marketing issues and education through the historical chronology of the conceptual discussion of the theoretical and practical relevance of each subject, the main challenges for research and development of the theme of educational marketing. It identified and discussed marketing activities in higher education institutions in light of the theoretical foundations. The methodology addressed the aspects related to case study protocol and a qualitative exploratory research on marketing activities took place in the empirical work. It executed multiple case studies with private higher education institutions in São Paulo, through interviews with the managers responsible for the marketing mix. It concluded that due to competitiveness in the sector, marketing activities have gained importance, however they are still prepared in unstructured form. The marketing departments of educational institutions operate mainly in P - promotion, exerting little influence in decisions relative to other elements of the marketing mix

A tese tem como objetivo verificar se existem técnicas de marketing nas atividades das organizações criminosas do narcotráfico e analisar como elas são utilizadas. A profissionalização das organizações criminosas desenvolveu estruturas empresariais globalizadas com noções de Administração, Logística e Contabilidade. Identificou-se e discutiu-se as atividades de marketing desenvolvidas nas organizações criminosas do narcotráfico à luz dos fundamentos teóricos apresentados. A abordagem metodológica utilizada foi uma pesquisa exploratória qualitativa e o método para a coleta de dados foram entrevistas em profundidade. Os entrevistados selecionados foram profissionais que atuam ou já atuaram diretamente no combate e repressão do crime organizado do narcotráfico no Brasil. Conclui-se a existência da utilização do marketing nessas organizações, mesmo que de forma intuitiva e não-estruturada. Existe concorrência entre as organizações criminosas do narcotráfico e, apesar de elas não fazerem um trabalho formal de segmentação do público, elas sempre buscam atingir as pessoas mais vulneráveis, como os jovens, e as classes mais abastadas. As organizações criminosas procuram oferecer produtos de acordo com as demandas e necessidades dos consumidores. As definições dos produtos oferecidos diferem entre cada organização criminosa e a produção das drogas varia conforme o tipo dela. A determinação do preço dos narcóticos é feita pelas lideranças dessas organizações e vários fatores impactam no seu valor final. A escolha da praça no narcotráfico é uma conjunção de fatores e busca tornar o produto acessível para o consumidor e facilitar a atividade ilícita. Para as organizações criminosas do tráfico de drogas que atuam no microtráfico, que acontece dentro das cidades, o P de praça é o mais importante para a sua existência porque lhes garante o mercado consumidor da região. Já no caso das organizações que atuam no macrotráfico e vendem para os compradores intermediários dentro dessa cadeia escalonada do crime, o P de produto é o fator fundamental relativo aos outros elementos do composto de marketing. De todas as ferramentas de promoção de marketing, o boca-a-boca é a mais poderosa para divulgar, promover e ampliar a rede de consumidores desse mercado ilícito. / The thesis aims at verifying if there is marketing techniques in activities of the criminal drug trafficking organizations and analyzing how they are used. The professionalization of criminal organizations has developed globalized corporate structures with Administration, Logistics and Accounting notions. Marketing activities developed in the criminal drug trafficking organizations have been identified and discussed in light of the theoretical grounds presented. The methodological approach used was a qualitative exploratory research and the method to collect data was in-depth interviews. The selected interviewees were professionals that work or have already worked directly in the fight and repression against the organized drug trafficking crime in Brazil. It was concluded that there is use of marketing in those organizations, even if in an intuitive and unstructured manner. There is competition among the criminal drug trafficking organizations and, although they do not do a formal work of public segmentation, they always seek to reach the most vulnerable people, such as the youth, and the upper classes. Criminal organizations try to offer products according to the consumer\'s demands and needs. Definitions of the offered products differ among each criminal organization and drug production varies according to its type. Drug pricing is done by the leaderships of those organizations and several factors impact its final value. The selection of the place in the drug trafficking is a combination of factors and seeks to make the product accessible to the consumer and facilitate the illegal activity. For the criminal drug trafficking organizations that work in the micro trafficking, which happens inside the cities, the P of place is the most important for its existence because it ensures the consumer market of the region. As for the organizations that work in the macro traffic and sell to intermediary buyers inside this staggered crime chain, the P of product is the fundamental factor related to other elements composing the marketing. From all marketing advertising tools, word-of-mouth is the most powerful one to disclose, advertise and extend the consumer network of this illegal market.

O elevado nível de competição e a turbulência também passaram a ser a realidade em mercados que tradicionalmente eram mais tranquilos no Brasil. É o caso de mercados como o de farmácias e drogarias, o de petshops e cuidados animais, o da beleza e estética, assim como o do turismo e hospitalidade. Este último tem apresentado considerável expressividade na economia do país; em 2016, o setor foi responsável por 3,2% do PIB (equivalente a R$ 175 milhões) e gerou 2,5 milhões de empregos (aproximadamente 3% das vagas formais no país). No Brasil, em 2015, segundo o Ministério do Turismo, mais de 18 mil agências estavam registradas - juntas empregavam mais do que a indústria automobilística: 35 mil empregos diretos e mais de 100 mil empregos indiretos. Contudo, apesar de seu crescimento e do acirramento da concorrência causada por fatores como a globalização e a internet, a profissionalização do setor não ocorreu na mesma velocidade, levando agências tradicionais a encerrarem suas atividades. Recentemente, a internet alterou consideravelmente a forma de distribuição de produtos turísticos. A rede mundial de computadores também potencializou a criação de novos destinos, aumentou o conhecimento e o poder do consumidor e deixou muitas empresas de turismo perdidas. Diversos autores destacam ainda que o comportamento do consumidor mudou. Não apenas em função de seu conhecimento e acesso a informações e fornecedores, mas em termos de exigência de atendimento, planejamento prévio, sensibilidade a preços e expectativa quanto ao padrão de qualidade dos serviços entregues pelos fornecedores. Neste contexto, definiu-se o problema de pesquisa do presente estudo: quais são as atividades de marketing praticadas pelas agências de viagens (operadoras ou não) no Brasil e como elas são desenvolvidas e aplicadas à luz da teoria? Por meio de uma pesquisa exploratória, de cunho qualitativa, foram identificados os principais players do setor (agências de luxo, de massa, online e de menor porte). Após 2 pré-testes, foram desenvolvidas 15 entrevistas: 13 com agências e 2 com profissionais especialistas no setor. O conteúdo das entrevistas foi então transcrito e analisado por meio de uma abordagem mais flexível, mas com categorias pré-determinadas. As categorias são justamente os itens explorados no referencial teórico, destacando-se as atividades de marketing: o mercado de turismo no Brasil e as entidades, as atividades relativas à segmentação e ao posicionamento, ao planejamento, a decisões de produto, de preço, de praça e de promoção, bem como sobre a captação e retenção de clientes, ao papel das pessoas, dos processos e das evidências físicas, e à utilização da tecnologia. Identificou-se que o setor tem passado por um processo de profissionalização, mas ainda há margem para o aprimoramento da maior parte das atividades de marketing. De modo geral, as agências sentem muita dificuldade em precificar seus produtos, ainda não desenvolveram estratégias para lidar com a realidade de multicanais, utilizam pouco o potencial da comunicação de marketing e não possuem programas de relacionamento com seus clientes. Com isso, parte do setor funciona com base em uma concorrência de preços, motivo pelo qual a internet tem crescido como canal de distribuição (seja por meio da venda direta ou pelo crescimento das OTAs). / The high level of competition recently became reality in markets that traditionally were less turbulent in Brazil. This is the case of markets such as drugstores, petshops and animal care, beauty and aesthetics, as well as tourism and hospitality. The latter has shown considerable expressiveness in the country\'s economy; in 2016, the sector accounted for 3.2% of the GDP (equivalent to R$ 175 million) and generated 2.5 million jobs (approximately 3% of the formal vacancies in the country). In Brazil, in 2015, according to the Ministry of Tourism, more than 18,000 travel agencies were registered - together they employed more than the automobile industry: 35,000 direct jobs and more than 100,000 indirect jobs. However, despite its growth and increased competition caused by factors such as globalization and the internet, the professionalization of the sector did not occur at the same speed, leading traditional agencies to end their activities. Recently, the internet has changed considerably the form of distribution of tourism products. It has also potentiated the creation of new destinations, increased consumer knowledge and bargaining power, and left many tourism companies lost. Several authors also point out that consumer behavior has changed. Not only due to their knowledge and access to information and suppliers, but in terms of service requirement, prior planning, price sensitivity and expectation regarding the quality standard of services delivered by suppliers. In this context, the research problem of the present study was defined: what are the marketing activities practiced by travel agencies (operators or not) in Brazil and how are they developed and applied in the light of the theory? Through an exploratory research, with a qualitative approach, the main players of the sector (luxury, mass, online and smaller agencies) were identified. After 2 pre-tests, 15 interviews were developed: 13 with agencies and 2 with professionals specialized in the sector. The content of the interviews was then transcribed and analyzed through a more flexible approach, with pre-determined categories. The categories are precisely the items explored in the theoretical referential, highlighting the marketing activities: the tourism market in Brazil and its entities, activities related to segmentation and positioning, planning, product decisions, price, place and promotion, as well as on the acquisition and retention of customers, the role of people, processes and physical evidence, and the use of technology. It was identified that the sector has undergone a process of professionalization, but there is still room for improvement of most marketing activities. Agencies generally find it difficult to price their products, have not yet developed strategies to deal with a multichannel reality, use little of the potential of marketing communication, and do not have customer relationship programs. As a result, part of the industry operates on the basis of price competition, which is why the internet has grown as a distribution channel (whether through direct sales or the growth of OTAs).

O elevado nível de competição e a turbulência também passaram a ser a realidade em mercados que tradicionalmente eram mais tranquilos no Brasil. É o caso de mercados como o de farmácias e drogarias, o de petshops e cuidados animais, o da beleza e estética, assim como o do turismo e hospitalidade. Este último tem apresentado considerável expressividade na economia do país; em 2016, o setor foi responsável por 3,2% do PIB (equivalente a R$ 175 milhões) e gerou 2,5 milhões de empregos (aproximadamente 3% das vagas formais no país). No Brasil, em 2015, segundo o Ministério do Turismo, mais de 18 mil agências estavam registradas - juntas empregavam mais do que a indústria automobilística: 35 mil empregos diretos e mais de 100 mil empregos indiretos. Contudo, apesar de seu crescimento e do acirramento da concorrência causada por fatores como a globalização e a internet, a profissionalização do setor não ocorreu na mesma velocidade, levando agências tradicionais a encerrarem suas atividades. Recentemente, a internet alterou consideravelmente a forma de distribuição de produtos turísticos. A rede mundial de computadores também potencializou a criação de novos destinos, aumentou o conhecimento e o poder do consumidor e deixou muitas empresas de turismo perdidas. Diversos autores destacam ainda que o comportamento do consumidor mudou. Não apenas em função de seu conhecimento e acesso a informações e fornecedores, mas em termos de exigência de atendimento, planejamento prévio, sensibilidade a preços e expectativa quanto ao padrão de qualidade dos serviços entregues pelos fornecedores. Neste contexto, definiu-se o problema de pesquisa do presente estudo: quais são as atividades de marketing praticadas pelas agências de viagens (operadoras ou não) no Brasil e como elas são desenvolvidas e aplicadas à luz da teoria? Por meio de uma pesquisa exploratória, de cunho qualitativa, foram identificados os principais players do setor (agências de luxo, de massa, online e de menor porte). Após 2 pré-testes, foram desenvolvidas 15 entrevistas: 13 com agências e 2 com profissionais especialistas no setor. O conteúdo das entrevistas foi então transcrito e analisado por meio de uma abordagem mais flexível, mas com categorias pré-determinadas. As categorias são justamente os itens explorados no referencial teórico, destacando-se as atividades de marketing: o mercado de turismo no Brasil e as entidades, as atividades relativas à segmentação e ao posicionamento, ao planejamento, a decisões de produto, de preço, de praça e de promoção, bem como sobre a captação e retenção de clientes, ao papel das pessoas, dos processos e das evidências físicas, e à utilização da tecnologia. Identificou-se que o setor tem passado por um processo de profissionalização, mas ainda há margem para o aprimoramento da maior parte das atividades de marketing. De modo geral, as agências sentem muita dificuldade em precificar seus produtos, ainda não desenvolveram estratégias para lidar com a realidade de multicanais, utilizam pouco o potencial da comunicação de marketing e não possuem programas de relacionamento com seus clientes. Com isso, parte do setor funciona com base em uma concorrência de preços, motivo pelo qual a internet tem crescido como canal de distribuição (seja por meio da venda direta ou pelo crescimento das OTAs). / The high level of competition recently became reality in markets that traditionally were less turbulent in Brazil. This is the case of markets such as drugstores, petshops and animal care, beauty and aesthetics, as well as tourism and hospitality. The latter has shown considerable expressiveness in the country\'s economy; in 2016, the sector accounted for 3.2% of the GDP (equivalent to R$ 175 million) and generated 2.5 million jobs (approximately 3% of the formal vacancies in the country). In Brazil, in 2015, according to the Ministry of Tourism, more than 18,000 travel agencies were registered - together they employed more than the automobile industry: 35,000 direct jobs and more than 100,000 indirect jobs. However, despite its growth and increased competition caused by factors such as globalization and the internet, the professionalization of the sector did not occur at the same speed, leading traditional agencies to end their activities. Recently, the internet has changed considerably the form of distribution of tourism products. It has also potentiated the creation of new destinations, increased consumer knowledge and bargaining power, and left many tourism companies lost. Several authors also point out that consumer behavior has changed. Not only due to their knowledge and access to information and suppliers, but in terms of service requirement, prior planning, price sensitivity and expectation regarding the quality standard of services delivered by suppliers. In this context, the research problem of the present study was defined: what are the marketing activities practiced by travel agencies (operators or not) in Brazil and how are they developed and applied in the light of the theory? Through an exploratory research, with a qualitative approach, the main players of the sector (luxury, mass, online and smaller agencies) were identified. After 2 pre-tests, 15 interviews were developed: 13 with agencies and 2 with professionals specialized in the sector. The content of the interviews was then transcribed and analyzed through a more flexible approach, with pre-determined categories. The categories are precisely the items explored in the theoretical referential, highlighting the marketing activities: the tourism market in Brazil and its entities, activities related to segmentation and positioning, planning, product decisions, price, place and promotion, as well as on the acquisition and retention of customers, the role of people, processes and physical evidence, and the use of technology. It was identified that the sector has undergone a process of professionalization, but there is still room for improvement of most marketing activities. Agencies generally find it difficult to price their products, have not yet developed strategies to deal with a multichannel reality, use little of the potential of marketing communication, and do not have customer relationship programs. As a result, part of the industry operates on the basis of price competition, which is why the internet has grown as a distribution channel (whether through direct sales or the growth of OTAs).

With the proliferation of mobile devices and wireless connectivity technologies, mobile social communities offer novel opportunities for targeted marketing by service or product providers. Unfortunately, marketers are still unable to realize the full potential of these markets due to their inability to effectively target right audiences. This thesis presents a novel middleware for identifying spontaneous social communities (SSCs) of mobile users in ad hoc networks in order to facilitate marketers' advertisements. The contributions of the presented work are two fold; the first is a novel model for SSCs that captures their unique dynamic nature, in terms of community structure and interest in different \textit{hot-topics} over time. These time-varying interests are represented through an inferred \textit{community profile prototype} that reflects dominant characteristics of community members. This prototype is then employed to facilitate the identification of new potential members. The selected community prototypes are also used by marketers to identify the right communities for their services or products promotions. The second contribution of this paper is novel distributed techniques for efficient calculation of the community prototypes and identification of potential community links. In contrast to traditional models of detecting fixed and mobile social networks that rely on pre-existing friendships among its members to predict new ones, the proposed model focuses on measuring the degree of similarity between the new user's profile and the profiles of members of each community in order to predict new users' relationships in the community. The adopted model of SSCs can foster many existing and new socially-aware applications such as recommender systems for social events and tools for collaborative work. It is also an ideal target for business-oriented applications such as short-message-service (SMS) advertisement messages, podcasting news feeds in addition to location/context-aware services. The performance of the proposed work was evaluated using the NetLogo platform where obtained experimental results demonstrate the achieved high degree of stability in the resulting communities in addition to the effectiveness of the proposed middleware in terms of the reduction in the number of routing messages required for advertisements.

No description available.

Bokakademin i Östergötland AB möter framtiden – En studie av studenters köpbeteende vad gäller kurslitteratur och ett förslag på marknadsföringsstrategi för Bokakademin (Bokakademin i Östergötland AB meets the future – A study of students’ purchasing behaviour regarding textbooks and a proposal for a marketing strategy for Bokakademin) Authors: Fabian Hamnqvist and Emma Svensson Bachelor’s thesis in business administration Linköping University, Department of Management and Engineering, 2013 Supervisor: Mehran Noghabai Abstract This paper examines the competition arising from online textbook retailers met by physical college bookstores. The paper examines the implications of college students' purchasing behaviour when buying textbooks, how a specific corporate clientele is composed and the purchasing habits of these customers to the specific company in question. The company used as a practical example is a bookstore located on a university campus of Linköping University in Sweden. Data have been collected using a paper and pen survey of 200 students from Linköping University as well as conducting interviews with eight students and the Managing Director of the company in question. Empirical findings about the students’ purchasing behaviour are presented and these are accompanied by several theories about consumers and companies’ marketing activities. This paper presents a proposal for a marketing strategy for the company in question and considers how this particular bookstore should deal with the new market environment where online sales have increased rapidly. / Bakgrund Denna kandidatuppsats presenterar en marknadsundersökning genomförd vid Linköpings universitet. Fokus har legat på en specifik butik på Campus Valla och dess konkurrenssituation samt kundkrets, nämligen en butik tillhörande företaget Bokakademin i Östergötland AB, Bokakademin fortsättningsvis. Denna marknadsundersökning har genomförts våren år 2013 under författarnas sista termin på sin kandidatutbildning inom ämnesområdet företagsekonomi. Företagets VD har uppfattningen om att företaget står inför en hård konkurrens och vill därför informera sig om marknaden. Författarnas avsikt med denna undersökning har varit att kunna ge företaget en ökad förståelse för sin konkurrenssituation och ny kunskap om sina kunder. Bokakademin bedriver försäljning av kurslitteratur till studenter och på grund av internets utbredning råder idag mer transparens på marknaden än tidigare. Forskning har visat att kunder har blivit mer krävande och att de inte uppvisar en hög grad av lojalitet till återförsäljare, det råder alltså ökad konkurrens och en minskad kundlojalitet på den marknad som Bokakademins är verksam på. Av dessa skäl menar författarna att det är av relevans och intresse att undersöka och studera detta ämne, detta styrks av att tidigare forskning har bedrivits inom området. Syfte Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka studenters köpbeteende vid köp av kurslitteratur samt att utifrån denna information föreslå en lämplig marknadsföringsstrategi för Bokakademin att möta den nya marknadssituationen. Metod Den metodansats som uppsatsen har utgått ifrån är av induktiv karaktär då den har haft sin utgångspunkt i empiri, den empiriska data som har samlats in har legat till grund för den marknadsföringsstrategi som presenteras i uppsatsen. Det underlag som uppsatsen har baserats på har i första hand utgjorts av en enkätundersökning omfattande 200 respondenter ur Bokakademins potentiella kundkrets och målgrupp. Dessa respondenter har fått besvara frågor rörande deras köpvanor och köppreferenser vid köp av kurslitteratur, en kvantitativ undersökning har med andra ord genomförts. Utöver detta har en intervju med bokhandelns VD samt åtta stycken uppföljningsintervjuer med utvalda respondenter genomförts. Samtliga intervjuer har varit av mer samtalsliknande karaktär och kan anses utgöra kvalitativa informationskällor. Genom intervjuerna har författarna erhållit ytterligare data angående Bokakademin och dess kundkrets. För att uppnå ett mer kvalitativt djup i denna undersökning har författarna valt ut en respondent för att sedan jämföra denna persons uppfattning om hur mycket pengar denne spenderar på kurslitteratur per termin mot vad denne, enligt inhämtad kurs- och prisinformation, borde spendera på kurslitteratur per termin. Vad gäller den teori som presenteras i denna uppsats utgörs den främst av grundläggande teorier presenterade i Jobber och Fahy (2009) samt Blackwell et al. (2006). Denna litteratur har kompletterats med teoriavsnitt som återger teorier samt forskning av exempelvis Kotler (1999), Kotler et al. (2013), Wilson et al. (2012), Foucault och Scheufele (2002) samt Parment (2013).