Bakgrund: Digitaliseringen har gett upphov till flertalet sociala medieplattformar för individer samt företag att kommunicera på, vilket kan ifrågasätta den traditionella marknadsföringen. Fintechbranschen är ett exempel på en bransch som tagit tillvara på de möjligheter som kommit med digitaliseringen. Tidigare forskning visar på att få B2B-företag använder sig av sociala medier i sin marknadsföring. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka och skapa förståelse för hur och varför sociala medier kan användas som marknadsföringskanal hos fintechbolag verksamma inom B2B samt undersöka sociala mediers betydelse för relationsmarknadsföring och kundengagemang. Metod: Arbetet har tillämpat en kvalitativ metod där semistrukturerade intervjuer med respondenter från fem olika fallföretag har genomförts. Studien kombinerar en induktiv samt deduktiv ansats. Slutsats: Studien visar att det finns flertalet incitament som talar för en användning av sociala medier inom B2B. En närvaro på sociala medier anses vara viktigt för B2B-företag. Det framgår att sociala medier är en lämplig kanal för företagens arbete med relationsmarknadsföring både gällande etablerandet samt upprätthållandet av kundrelationer. Sociala medier blir även betydelsefullt för företagens arbete med kundengagemang. Dock blir det tydligt att sociala medier ej ersätter den traditionella marknadsföringen utan de anses istället komplettera varandra. / Background: The digitalisation has given rise to multiple social media platforms which implies new ways for individuals as well as businesses to communicate on, which in turn questions the traditional way of marketing. Financial technology is an example of an industry which has taken advantage of the possibilities that are generated out of digitalization. Previous studies show that few B2B-businesses have adapted to the use of social media by incorporating it in their marketing strategies. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate and create an understanding of how and why social media can be used as a marketing channel for fintech companies operating within B2B as well as research the importance of social media for relationship marketing and customer engagement. Methodology: The study has applied a qualitative method. Its data was obtained by semi structured interviews with respondents from five different companies. The study has a combination of an inductive and deductive approach. Conclusion: The study concludes that there are multiple incentives for a use of social media in a B2B-context. Being present on social media is assumed to be important for B2B-companies. Social media is a suitable channel for working with relationship marketing, both regarding maintaining as well as establishing customer relations. Furthermore, social media is shown to be important for businesses to work with customer engagement. However, it becomes clear that social media do not replace traditional marketing. Instead the two are considered to complement each other.

Lors de la gestion d’un conflit entre un client et une entreprise, le recours à un médiateur, c’est à dire à une tierce personne neutre qui porte un jugement sur la manière dont devrait être réglé le conflit, est une pratique de plus en plus répandue, notamment du fait de l’application de la Directive Européenne 2013/11. A l’aide de six études empiriques, ce travail doctoral positionne la médiation comme une démarche conciliante qui s’inscrit au sein du processus de gestion d’une réclamation client. Les clients qui se tournent vers un médiateur recherchent notamment sa neutralité. La décision émise par le médiateur, selon qu’elle est favorable ou défavorable au client, influence ses intentions de comportement envers l’entreprise (fidélité et bouche à oreille positif). La neutralité perçue du médiateur a un effet modérateur sur cette relation. Enfin, le statut du médiateur - externe ou interne à l’entreprise - modère l'impact de la décision du médiateur sur la fidélité post-médiation du client. Ces résultats encouragent les entreprises à exploiter stratégiquement la médiation afin de reconquérir leurs clients sachant que la médiation est la dernière chance que le client donne à l'entreprise pour résoudre positivement la défaillance du service. / The demand for mediation, in which a neutral third party offers advice for resolving a problem, continues to increase steadily, especially in Europe, where European Directive 2013/11 grants consumers the right to access mediation to resolve disputes with sellers. With a series of six studies, this dissertation offers the first empirical demonstration that recourse to a mediator is a form of customer conciliatory behavior in a service recovery context. Customers with recourse to a mediator look specifically for its neutrality. The mediator’s perceived neutrality then has a moderating effect on the relationship between the service recovery response by the mediator and the customer’s behavioral outcomes (loyalty and positive WOM), which is further mediated by the perceived procedural justice of the mediation process. Finally, the mediation status – external or internal – moderates the effect of the outcome on customer post-mediation loyalty. These findings encourage firms to leverage mediation resources strategically to win back customers, because mediation represents the last chance that the customer gives the firm to positively resolve the service failure.

Frågeställning: Vilka egenskaper i digitalt innehåll engagerar konsumenter i varumärkesrelationer online? Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur konsumenter upplever innehåll på digitala plattformar och analysera hur egenskaper i innehållet påverkar deras engagemang gentemot varumärkesrelationer. Egenskaperna som analyseras är personaliserat, underhållande och informativt innehåll. Studien syftar även att kunna tilldela företag väsentlig information om hur de ska agera kring innehållet på digitala plattformar när de interagerar med konsumenter. Metod: För att kunna besvara forskningsfrågan denna studie ämnade undersöka användes en deduktiv forskningsansats med en kvantitativ datainsamlingsmetod. Detta utfördes genom en digital enkätundersökning där kvantitativ primärdata samlades in från totalt 314 respondenter. Slutsats: Studiens resultat visade att det personaliserade innehållet har den största och mest signifikanta effekten för konsumentens engagemang i varumärkesrelationer. Denna oberoende variabel var den enda av totalt tre variabler som hade en signifikant effekt på både det kalkulativa och affektiva engagemanget. Vidare visade sig det underhållande innehållet endast ha en effekt på det affektiva engagemanget medan det informativa innehållet endast hade en signifikant effekt på det kalkulativa engagemanget. Detta leder till en slutsats om att alla studiens oberoende variabler blir viktiga i sig för att uppnå ett varierat innehåll som engagerar på både det affektiva och det kalkulativa planet. En kombination av dessa innehållsegenskaper bör presenteras för att optimera innehållets effekt. / Research question: Which characteristics of digital content make consumers committed in brand relationships online? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate how consumers experience content on digital platforms and to analyze how characteristics of said content affect their commitment in relationships to a brand. The study includes an analysis of personalized, entertaining, and informative content. The result aims to provide companies with practical implications on how to work with content on digital platforms when interacting with consumers. Method: In order to answer the research question this study intended to investigate, a deductive research approach was used, with a quantitative data collection method. This was done through a digital survey where quantitative primary data were collected from a total of 314 respondents. Conclusion: The results of the study showed that the personalized content has the largest and most significant effect on consumer commitment in brand relationships. This independent variable was the only one of a total of three variables that had a significant effect on both the calculative and affective commitment. Furthermore, the entertaining content only proved to have an effect on the affective commitment while the informative content only had a significant effect on the calculative commitment. This leads to the conclusion that all the study's independent variables become important in themselves in order to achieve a varied content that commits on both the affective and the calculative level. A combination of these content features should be presented to optimize the effect of the content.

The outbreak and global spread of the coronavirus took the world by storm and beyond the evident threat it is to the human well-being, it is also impacting the health of businesses. In Finland it was only a matter of weeks after the government the 16th of March started to implement efforts to limit the spread, that a large marketing agency, among other firms, was forced to file for bankruptcy. The seemingly sudden crisis gave rise to a curiosity and interest in how Finnish marketing agencies are handling the situation and what implications it has for the way they do business and subsequently also marketing. Reviewing the academic literature on crisis management, the lack of integration fields between became evident; crisis management has gained most attention within management studies, meanwhile studies with an integrated marketing perspective is lacking. The realisation that the breakdown of relationships is a major threat in a crisis, meanwhile marketing agencies’ business model essentially is built upon agency-client relationships, their particular view on and approach to maintaining and strengthening client relationships during the crisis became a key interest for this thesis. The purpose of this thesis is therefore to gain insight into how Finnish marketing agencies approach crisis management and nurture client relationships in the current covid-19 crisis. A qualitative research approach was taken as the interest and purpose of the study lies in gaining rich insight into the situation and its context, rather than statistically proving a point. Eight semi-structured interviews with professionals from different marketing agencies in Finland was consequently conducted, after which the data was organised and interpreted through a thematic analysis. The results from the study implicates that marketing agencies are relatively unprepared for crises of any type and have adopted a reactive approach when dealing with the covid-19 crisis. Further, the situation is characterised by feelings of support and solidarity both within and among the marketing agencies, their clients, consumers and society at large, which has been expressed to be one of the upsides to the otherwise very dark and serious situation. From marketing agencies’ side, it has also given rise to a more attentive and sensitive tone in communication towards both clients and consumers.

Background: In the past, the majority of products were sold in the retail industry through physical stores, making it possible for customers to interact and be personal with the retailers. The development of technology has made retailers move their operations to an online environment.    Problem: The problem of this paper is how companies that operate in an online environment can create relationships with their customers in the context of value creation. There exists limited research on how online retailers can create value creation and co-creation through e-commerce and m-commerce.   Purpose: This research aims to investigate what actions that are influencing value creation and value co-creation between firm and customer in the online sector of e-commerce and m-commerce. The thesis will examine if there exists a difference between e-commerce and m-commerce in terms of value creation and co-creation.    Method: This thesis is based on a qualitative research approach, the empirical findings were collected through an interview with the CEO of Please the Swede (PTS), followed up with six semi-structured interviews with the company's customers.   Results: It is evident that PTS carries out two different value-creating actions that enable the company to co-create value with its customers in e-commerce and m-commerce. Customer service and social media were identified as the two services that co-create value. It was also concluded that it did not exist any differences in terms of how value co-creation was created through PTS e-commerce and m-commerce.

Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur digitala nischbanker i Sverige använder relationsmarknadsföring.  Metod: Studien är genomförd med hjälp av en kvalitativ multipel fallstudie med en deduktiv ansats. Empirin är insamlad genom semistrukturerade intervjuer utförda via Zoom hos fyra svenska digitala nischbanker. Intervjuerna har sedan transkriberats för att möjliggöra en tematisk analys.  Resultat och slutsats: De digitala nischbankerna satsar i helhet på att skapa en plattform som är användarvänlig och tillförlitlig för de befintliga kunderna vilket är deras främsta målgrupp med relationsmarknadsföringen. En digital plattform som främjar användarupplevelsen samt efterlevnad av lagkrav möjliggör skapandet förtroende. Genom att uppdatera och ständigt modernisera gränssnittet samt erbjuda nya tjänster hålls kunderna engagerade vilket över tid leder till lojalitet och gör dem immuna mot konkurrenter.  Examensarbetets bidrag: Studien bidrar till en ökad förståelse gällande hur digitala nischbanker använder relationsmarknadsföring för att skapa förtroende och lojalitet.  Förslag till fortsatt forskning: En kvantitativ studie med kundperspektivet för att få en annan synvinkel på vad som är viktigt för bankernas relationsskapande. Även en kvalitativ studie likt denna fast med större urval för att få en ökad generaliserbarhet. / Aim: The aim with this study is to investigate how digital niche banks in Sweden use relationship marketing.  Method: The study was conducted using a qualitative multiple case study with a deductive approach. The empirical data is collected through semi-structured interviews conducted via Zoom at four Swedish digital niche banks. The interviews have since been transcribed to enable a thematic analysis.  Results and conclusions: The digital niche banks invest in creating a platform that is user-friendly and reliable for the existing customers, which is their main target group with relationship marketing. A digital platform that promotes the user experience and compliance with legal requirements enables the creation of trust. By updating and constantly modernizing the interface and offering new services, customers are kept engaged, which over time leads to loyalty and makes them immune to competitors.  Contribution of the thesis: The thesis contributes to a greater understanding in how relationship marketing is used by digital niche banks to create trust and loyalty.  Suggestions for future research: A quantitative study with the customer perspective to get a different point of view on what is important for relationship building in the banking sector. Also, a qualitative study, similar to this one, but with a larger sample to increase the generalizability.

Business relationships are crucial for succeeding in the market for companies. Therefore, start-ups must focus on establishing business relationships early on, since these naturally do not exist for new players. The purpose of this thesis is to understand how start-ups work in order to establish business relationships. This will be analysed through six key elements from literature that are necessary for start-ups to consider in relationship marketing for surviving in the market, namely trust, commitment, communication, mutual benefits, long-term perspective, and customer service. The thesis uses a case study design, focused on a start-up in the sustainable materials industry, hereafter named “The Case Company”. Semi-structured deep interviews were conducted with representatives at the company. Results show that The Case Company does actions that can fit into all of the six elements to some degree. One extra finding was identified which is prioritization. While the importance of communication was stressed by all interviewees, a lack of strategy in the medium of communication was evident. We argue that this could be due to prioritization. Moreover, a lack of customer service strategy was the other consequence of having to prioritize other areas of the business as our findings suggests. Further research could validate these findings.

I en värld som präglas av ny teknik, ökad konkurrens och skiftande behov är det viktigt att kunna attrahera sina kunder. Relationsmarknadsföringen fick sitt genomslag på 1970-talet och är idag ett mer frekvent använt begrepp än tidigare. Vår studie har undersökt hur ett företag inom den svenska träindustrin arbetar med relationsmarknadsföring och kundrelationer på sin B2B-marknad. Studien önskar bredda kunskapen inom ämnet och bidra med ny forskning till branschen. Syfte Syftet är att öka förståelsen för de faktorer som påverkar hur kundrelationer utvecklas och vad som kännetecknar dem. Metod Vi har använt oss av en kvalitativ metod i form av en fallstudie där vi genom fyra semistrukturerade intervjuer erhållit empiri från AB Plankan. Slutsats Studien visar att AB Plankan likt tidigare forskning i ämnet, värdesätter kundrelationer och processen runt dem. AB Plankan har genom sin medverkan visat att de aktivt arbetar med att starta och utveckla kundrelationer med vad som för dem är rätt kunder. Kundrelationerna utvecklas genom ett samspel mellan företag och kund, och kännetecknas av samarbete, fokus på lönsamhet och kommunikation. / Background In a world characterized by new technology, increased competition and changing needs, it is important to be able to attract its customers. Relationship marketing had its impact in the 1970s and is today a more frequently used term than before. Our study has examined how a company in the Swedish wood industry works with relationship marketing and customer relationships in its B2B market. The study wishes to broaden the knowledge in the subject and contribute new research to the industry. Purpose The purpose is to increase the understanding of the factors that affect how customer relationships develop and what characterizes them. Method We have used a qualitative method in the form of a case study where obtained/collected/received empirical data from the selected company through four semi-structured interviews. Conclusion The study shows that AB Plankan, like previous research in the subject, values customer relationships and the process around them. Through their participation, AB Plankan has shown that they actively work to start and develop customer relationships with what are the right customers for them. Customer relationships are developed through an interaction between company and customer, and are characterized by cooperation, focus on profitability and communication.

There is little doubt that crises have a major impact on both companies and humanity. However, the picture is less clear when it comes to what challenges small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have to overcome when facing the crisis. Regulations and recommendations of the government are influencing the challenges to conduct business for SMEs. Social media marketing and the associated communication seems to form a great opportunity to overcome the challenges of the crisis. Additionally, the formation of groups in social media and the associated communication among users can be another beneficial factor during a pandemic crisis. The purpose of this paper is to examine how companies may use social media marketing as a strategy to acquire new customers during a pandemic crisis and comply with challenges arising due to the crisis. Interview data has been gathered from eight owner-managers of SMEs in Sweden; the focus was on Restaurants in Sundsvall. They have been interviewed on aspects of their approach to the COVID-19 crisis, their usage of social media marketing as well as customer acquisition during these times. A thematic analysis was used in order to connect the findings with the theory as well as detecting themes. Themes are: Challenges of a crisis for SMEs, social media marketing, and customer acquisition. The overall picture did show that all the informants suffered from the challenges due to the crisis at some point. Nevertheless, social media is a very useful tool for SMEs like restaurants to market their activities and offers, especially during times of crisis when budgets and income are lower.

The following report discusses the design, development, and evaluation of an online training on customer acquisition of telephone customers for a telecommunications company called ACN. The report includes a description of the following elements of the project: (a) the need and purpose for the instruction, (b) the target audience of the instruction, (c) the methodology and rationale for the design of the instruction based on relevant literature, (d) an existing materials search, (e) the instructional materials, (f) the evaluation, (g) the critique, (h) the schedule, and (i) the final budget report. The instruction was found to effectively teach learners the intended objectives which related to understanding the ACN approach to customer acquisition and how to answer common customer questions. Learners in the small group test gained an average of 58.8% on the posttest following completion of the instruction. In addition, qualitative feedback from learners was positive, with all of the learners suggesting that the instruction was helpful, well organized, and accessible. Content experts indicated that the instruction complemented the current ACN training system and that the essential content was covered in a logical manner, and design experts indicated that proper instructional design and web-based training principles were implemented.