Univ., Diss.--Basel, 2005.

<p> For over four decades, the outdoor clothing company Patagonia has promoted environmentalist ideologies though essays and photographs published in their print media. This strategy offers an eco-friendly narrative that resonates with many brand consumers, but the art of constructing and publicizing a corporate narrative with social purpose (i.e. <i>corporate social narrative</i>) has yet to be explored. In this thesis, Patagonia's corporate social narrative is reviewed in light of Fisher's narrative paradigm theory, the principals of corporate social marketing, social exchange theories, and the idea that visual imagery holds significant power in consumer markets. Major themes in Patagonia's environmental narrative are identified and explored via narrative analysis of promotional material published by the company between the years of 1972-2013, with a focus on product catalogs published after 1991. The narrative research delves into how the themes of journey, calculated risk, minimalist struggle, and a connectedness to nature help Patagonia create a self-proclaimed <i> uncommon culture</i> and explores how this culture is used to promote behavioral change in outdoor enthusiasts who purchase from the company. Lastly, lessons from Patagonia's social narrative are detailed along with recommendations on how corporate social narrative can be used effectively in other consumer markets.</p>

<p>This study examines the relevance of an established public relations theory, relationship management, to investor relations. Having emerged during the 1950s, investor relations is a relatively new field that integrates the disciplines of communication, marketing, finance, and securities laws compliance. Through qualitative interviews focused on six publicly traded companies on the West Coast, the study provides insight into the relationship management function of investor relations from the perspectives of those whom investors ultimately hold accountable for a public company&rsquo;s performance&mdash;CEOs. The dominant theme emerging from the study is the constant challenge CEOs of public companies face as they engage in relationships with investors, primarily due to the constraining effects of regulatory requirements. While the study confirmed that the interviewees value L. C. Hon and J. E. Grunig&rsquo;s qualities of trust, satisfaction, control mutuality and commitment in relationships with investors, CEOs&rsquo; most frequently discussed relationship quality that they work to achieve is trust. </p>

Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-87). Also available online.

The diploma thesis focuses on marketing communication of Craft Beer & Food pub U Vašinů. The first part is focused on theoretical knowledge of marketing and marketing mix. The second part contains an analysis of the environment and the current marketing communication. In the last part suggestions are presented to improve the current situation, which are based on analyzes.

The diploma thesis focuses on a proposal of suitable marketing and communication tools for a newly emerging company. The first chapter contains the theoretical basis of the thesis. The next chapter contains an analysis of a newly emerging company and a part of this analysis is marketing research. The last chapter suggests a solution for possible problems.

This thesis is oriented on communication strategy of a french hotel Saint Eloi. The goal of this thesis is to provide a reader with a complex view of the Saint Eloi's products and to show him the positive and negative points of communication strategy. The results of this thesis is a creation of a new communication strategy that could help the hotel to restrain in the competitive area and become more popular by using the new communication possibilities.

Texte remanié de: Habilitationsschrift--Halle--Martin-Luther-Universität, 2007. / Bibliogr. p. 460-483.

<p> Problem: Servant leadership scholars have claimed that servant-led business organizations are more financially viable, but these claims are based on anecdotal evidence. This quantitative study examines the relationship of servant leadership to revenue generation in business organizations by analyzing the predictability of servant leadership attributes on sales performance. This was accomplished by studying salespersons in the healthcare industry. </p><p> Method: One hundred ninety-four study participants completed questionnaires providing quantitative measurements of the seven factors of servant leadership: (a) developing and empowering others, (b) humility, (c) authentic leadership, (d) open participatory leadership, (e) inspiring leadership, (f) visionary leadership, and (g) courageous leadership, utilizing the Servant Leadership Profile&mdash;Revised (SLPR). Sales performance was measured by sales ranking within each respective salesperson's company, and broken down into three categories; (a) Top 20%, (b) 21%&ndash;40% and (c) 41% and below. </p><p> Results: Discriminant function analysis generated two discriminant functions that were significant. The first discriminant function was labeled <i> Voice</i> and had the strongest relationship with the following factors of servant leadership: developing and empowering others, authentic leadership, and visionary leadership. The first discriminant function was a good predictor of sales performance. The second discriminant function was labeled <i> Human Resource Management</i> and had the strongest relationship with the following factors of servant leadership: open participatory leadership, courageous leadership, and inspiring leadership. The second discriminant function predicted membership in the 21%&ndash;40% sales-ranking group, mediocre sales performance. One factor of servant leadership, humility, was eliminated as a predictor of sales performance. </p><p> Conclusions: Developing and empowering others, authentic leadership, and visionary leadership are good predictors of sales performance. Open participatory leadership, courageous leadership, and inspiring leadership predict mediocre sales performance. Humility was eliminated as a predictor of sales performance. Business leaders with high mean scores for developing and empowering others, authentic leadership, and visionary leadership are likely to have a positive impact on the financial viability of a business organization.</p>

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.