<p>Som människa i dagens samhälle blir man, varje dag, exponerad av ett mycket stort antal marknadsföringsbudskap i form av annonser och reklam, ett antal som är omöjligt för en enskild individ att ta in. Företag har därför svårt att nå ut till sina segment utan att spendera stora resurser på sin marknadsföring. Word-of-mouth (WOM) kan beskrivas som det in-formella rykte vilket förmedlas mellan konsumenter och som innehar en större trovärdighet och genomslagskraft än den traditionella marknadsföringen. Om företag skulle kunna på-verka och kontrollera WOM så skulle detta kunna leda till en viss konkurrensfördel. Kun-der inom servicesektorn, som till exempel hotellindustrin, är speciellt påverkade av denna informella information i deras val av hotell och tjänster. Därför har hotellindustrin fungerat som utgångspunkt för denna studie av fenomenet WOM och hur det kan kontrolleras av företagen. Hotellen som ingår i studien är geografisk belägna inom Jönköpingsområdet.</p><p>Syftet med studien och uppsatsen är att försöka undersöka om och hur WOM är påverkat av de utvalda hotellen i studien och observera de olika metoder som kan har en inverkan på WOM.</p><p>Metoden för insamlandet av primär data är av kvalitativ natur. Där någon från de utvalda hotellens administrativa personal har blivit intervjuad för att svara på frågor som berör denna studie över fenomenet WOM. Sekundär data har samlats in från relevanta artiklar och böcker för att bidra till en så trovärdig analys som möjligt. Teorin behandlar WOM, service och relationsmarknadsföring.</p><p>Författarna avslutar med slutsatsen att det finns en medvetenhet hos respondenterna om WOM och dess betydelse för företaget. Det verkar finnas en större medvetenhet av att ak-tivt försöka minimera negativ WOM än att aktivt försöka influera den positiva WOM. Det fanns indikationer på att hotellen på något sätt använder metoder som man tror generera positiv WOM. Problemet verkar vara svårigheten att utvärdera vad som egentligen är skill-naden mellan relationsmarknadsföring och WOM marknadsföring i några av de metoder som hotellen tror kan genera positive WOM. Hotellets storlek/finansiella resurser verkar också ha en viss betydelse för om hotellen säger sig använda eller vara beroende av WOM. Så även om det fanns vissa åtgärder som kan generera positiv WOM så finns det en passiv attityd hos respondenterna mot att man verkligen kan kontrollera det. Men genom att skaf-fa sig större insikt om hur WOM och de nuvarande marknadsmetoder som används hör samman, tror författarna att hotellen kan bli mer effektiva i sin marknadsföring.</p> / <p>Since a normal person of today is exposed to a vast number of marketing messages from conventional marketing methods like advertising campaigns and commercials, the con-sumer will have to make a choice from all these offers conveyed through promotional ef-forts. Word-of-mouth (WOM) is the informal communication about a service or product between consumers. This can be said to serve as a credibility filter for the consumer be-cause of its perceived independence and trustworthiness. Gaining control of WOM from the company’s point of view could create a competitive advantage over competitors in the market place. Service industries, such as the hotel industry, are highly affected by WOM and therefore hotels were chosen in the Jönköping region in order to study the company awareness and ability to control the WOM phenomenon.</p><p>The purpose of the thesis is to investigate if WOM is a factor which is controlled by the hotel firms and to detect and describe how this is done and what kind of the marketing methods that are being used.</p><p>The method chosen by the authors of the thesis in order to gather primary data was of a qualitative nature were interviews were conducted together with appropriate hotel manag-ers of hotels in the Jönköping region in order to study their view on the WOM phenome-non. Secondary data was collected from relevant theoretical articles and books in order to carry out the analysis of the primary data. The theoretical framework consists of theory concerning WOM, service and relationship marketing.</p><p>The authors of the thesis conclude that there is awareness among the respondents about the power of WOM and its importance for the business. However, there seem to be a greater consciousness of using actions for minimizing negative WOM than consciously in-fluence the spread of positive WOM. Some actions taken by the hotels are indeed believed to generate positive WOM but there appears to be a thin line between creating relationship and actually influencing the spread of positive WOM, this perhaps due to the problem of the WOM evaluation of the actions taken. Size/financial mean also seem to be important factors on the hotels dependence on WOM the action taken to try to generate positive WOM. Even though some methods were detected that were thought to harness WOM, there is still a rather passive attitude among the respondents towards actually being able to influence WOM to its full extent. By gaining more insights of WOM and the marketing methods currently used, the authors of the thesis believe that hotels studied would become more efficient in their marketing efforts.</p>

Defining and measuring the quality of customer service has been a major challenge for business-to-business marketers. This research addresses the question whether an established instrument for consumer markets (SERVQUAL) can be used for understanding the role of customer service in the European nylon intermediates industry. To accomplish this objective, an in-depth literature review is accomplished followed by several expert panels adopting the instrument slightly. Based on a survey sample of 110 industry members collected with the 'drop and collect technique' the appropriateness of the tool to verify the anticipated structure is examined using reliability tests as well as exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The findings suggest that even though various criteria for reliability and validity are met, the five-dimensional structure of the instrument cannot be recovered. The research questions the usefulness of the instrument for the European nylon intermediates industry despite it being originally anticipated to be applicable. However, the research emphasises that the instrument is a useful indicator for understanding the role of customer service based on individual items rather than on the instrument's dimensionality. It is demonstrated how the implementation in the nylon intermediates industry enables an organization to develop a greater awareness of customer service quality and how an enterprise gains an initial instrument to comprehend and improve this element of the offering. The thesis concludes by linking the results of the research with the discussion on service-dominant logic.

In the past years the competition in the restaurant trade in Umeå is increasing. There is more choice for the customers and thereby the restaurants have to work harder to attract customers. One way is to Market themselves differently. In this research we are studying one way of diversifying Service Marketing, namely through people. Especially in the restaurant sector the frontline employee is an essential part of the service. We argue that by improving the Internal Marketing a business can ensure, through Human Resource Management, to have a service-minded and customer-oriented workforce, motivated to deliver Service Quality. Further, by strengthening the Internal Branding the workforce will work in unity with the internal and external brand, being more willing and committed to deliver high quality services. We aim to find that through having well trained frontline employees the customer will know a difference and have a better experience when visiting the restaurant. Three restaurants in the Umeå market have been chosen for our study. To collect data from these restaurants we have conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews. The contributions of this study were that training, and especially learning by doing and experience, is crucial in learning ones job according to the respondents. Also that having a good balance between having standard procedures and employee empowerment could improve the Service Quality through reliability in the service delivery. Last but not least, a concept of Reciprocal Commitment was developed showing the importance of a business investing in the employee, training being part of that investment, to get the employee to invest his/her time and commitment in the business. Through this study we have developed a model showing the influence and benefits of training in the selected restaurants. We have realised that training is not the only way, but plays an important role in Marketing through people.

Advertisement is something that surrounds us in our everyday life. The two terms marketing and advertising are closely linked together and often considered as the same thing, although they are not. To be able to analyse the term advertisement it is crucial to separate it from the term marketing and observe advertising as a part of the complete marketing. We have two main focuses with this qualitative research and the first one of these is to analyse the changes in advertising when considering style, message and characteristics. The advertiser has a wide range of tools that he or she can use to make commercials follow the trends and changes in society. These tools can vary from the style and message of the advertisement to the actual channel that it is transmitted through. The second focus is to explore and describe the advertisements role, function and importance in the complete marketing. Advertising is one of the main parts in the Marketing Mix and we are in this research interested in describe advertising in relation to partly the other parts of the Marketing Mix but also to describe advertising in relation to other marketing perspectives such as Service Marketing and Management, Relationship Management and CRM. Also we aim to explore the different fields within Internet related marketing such as communities and describe advertising in relation to that. We aim to see if the role, function and the importance of advertising has changes because of the development of the other marketing perspectives or if advertising still have a significant role. It is important for advertisers to consider the advertisements role in their full marketing.

Aktualumas. Per pastarąjį dešimtmetį turizmo sektoriuje įvyko daug pokyčių. Pasaulinės Turizmo Organizacijos (PTO) turizmo vystymosi prognozės įvairiuose pasaulio regionuose taip pat leidžia numatyti Lietuvos turizmo paslaugų tendencijas. Daug ką rinkoje, ir paslaugų marketingo realizavime, pakeitė neseniai atsiradusi elektroninė prekyba per internetą. Interneto vartotojų skaičius pastoviai auga, kompiuteris atsirado beveik kiekvienuose namuose, dėl to vartotojai, taupydami laiką ir pinigus, informacijos ieško interneto svetainėse. Tai tapo nauju iššūkiu turizmo verslo organizatoriams, kelionių agentūroms, oro transporto bendrovėms, vežėjams (Valstybinis turizmo departamentas, 1999; Pasaulinė turizmo organizacija, 2006). Šiuolaikiniame etape Europos ir Lietuvos turizmo įmonės ir organizacijos didelę reikšmę teikia daugelio paslaugų marketingo priemonių panaudojimui. Išeities tašku tampa klausimas – ką potencialūs vartotojai norėtų pirkti, o ne ką verslininkai nori parduoti? Čia svarbus turizmo rinkos vartotojų poreikių tyrimas, naudojantis rinkos tyrimų metodais. Nepelnytai pamirštama apie savo vartotojo poreikių tyrimą, bei marketingo priemones, skirtos vartotojų paklausai formuoti. Darbe remiantis moksline literatūra ir straipsniais tyrinėjamos turizmo paslaugų marketingo priemonės plėtojant turizmo paslaugų verslą internetu Lietuvoje. Esant didelei konkurencijai turizmo srityje, būtina labai gerai reikia žinoti vartotojų poreikius, turizmo rinką, valstybės požiūrį. Darbo... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / In the last decades, a lot of changes have occured in a tourism sector. World Tourism Organization (WTO) tourism development forecast in the various regions of the World also let us foresee the tendencies of Lithuanian tourism service. Resent use of E-commerce have made significant changes in the market and services. The number of internet users are continuously increasing, computers become essential part almost in every household. Therefore, consumers who want to save their time and money are looking for the information on the internet sites. This has became a new challenge for tourism organizations, travel agencies, airlines, drivers (State Departament of Tourism, 1999; World Tourism Organization, 2006). In nowdays, European and Lithuanian tourism companies place a significant meaning on the service marketing tools usage. The main point becomes, what the potential customers would like to buy, not what the businesmen want to sell. It is important to perform market research and to understand the customers , while using various market research methods. The importance of the customer needs research, tools of marketing to form the needs of the customer is often underestimated. This work is based on a science literature and articles, the tourism marketing tools are studied, while developing tourism business on the internet in Lithuania. It is essential to understand the needs of customers, tourism market, the attitude of the State , especially when facing the big... [to full text]

The tourism industry is a young industry in Sweden but important for the economy and a large part of the field is mountain tourism. Marketing a place is called destination marketing, which has become a huge phenomenon and an important part of efforts for promotion in the tourism industry. The entrepreneurs in the tourism industry are an important part, as these are a big part of the destination. Their marketing and communication becomes a force to reckon with in order to attract tourists to the area. The purpose of this study is to examine how entrepreneurs through destination marketing reach their target market and with the intention to identify marketing channels that the entrepreneur uses. To achieve this, two questions will be answered: How can entrepreneurs attract customers through destination marketing? Which marketing channels do business owners use to reach out to their target market in the tourism industry? The theories used in this study are destination marketing, internet marketing, services marketing, and entrepreneurs as business owners. This study’s methodology consists of four semi-structured interviews with companies operating in Åre, which is a destination where tourists can visit the mountain all year out. Also a content analysis has been done where an observation was made looking at the company’s internet marketing. The conclusion is that the entrepreneurs through collaboration can increase the demand on the destination and reach out to more tourists. The marketing channels that was used the most is digital communication, more specifically, social media like Facebook and Instagram. Also search engine optimization to get higher traffic to the corporate website is used.

<p>Advertisement is something that surrounds us in our everyday life. The two terms marketing and advertising are closely linked together and often considered as the same thing, although they are not. To be able to analyse the term advertisement it is crucial to separate it from the term marketing and observe advertising as a part of the complete marketing. We have two main focuses with this qualitative research and the first one of these is to analyse the changes in advertising when considering style, message and characteristics. The advertiser has a wide range of tools that he or she can use to make commercials follow the trends and changes in society. These tools can vary from the style and message of the advertisement to the actual channel that it is transmitted through. The second focus is to explore and describe the advertisements role, function and importance in the complete marketing. Advertising is one of the main parts in the Marketing Mix and we are in this research interested in describe advertising in relation to partly the other parts of the Marketing Mix but also to describe advertising in relation to other marketing perspectives such as Service Marketing and Management, Relationship Management and CRM. Also we aim to explore the different fields within Internet related marketing such as communities and describe advertising in relation to that. We aim to see if the role, function and the importance of advertising has changes because of the development of the other marketing perspectives or if advertising still have a significant role. It is important for advertisers to consider the advertisements role in their full marketing.</p>

Certamente, uma palavra de destaque em gestão é inovação. Entretanto, sua compreensão ainda se dá predominantemente sob uma perspectiva tecnológica, portanto com um produto manufaturado como elemento central. Dessa forma, setores relevantes da economia de um país, como os serviços, muitas vezes apresentam dificuldades em compreender e aplicar a inovação em seu ambiente de negócios. Estudar o ambiente de negócios em serviços é estudar os sistemas de serviços nele existentes. Nesta tese, o autor desenvolve uma melhor compreensão sobre o tema inovação em serviços e propõe um modelo a partir da perspectiva do marketing de serviços. O trabalho de pesquisa tem início com uma revisão teórica em cinco grandes temas: (i) inovação, (ii) inovação em serviços, (iii) inovação sob a perspectiva do marketing, (iv) marketing de serviços e (v) inovação a partir da perspectiva do marketing de serviços. Por intermédio da revisão teórica, dez categorias de análise foram identificadas, sendo utilizadas na composição de um roteiro de pesquisa semiestruturado, posteriormente aplicado em campo. A metodologia de pesquisa selecionada é do tipo exploratória, com abordagem qualitativa, e a organização estudada foi o Costão do Santinho - Resort, Golf e Spa, localizado em Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, caracterizando assim um Estudo de Caso Único Integrado. As fontes de evidência utilizadas foram de entrevistador observador, entrevistas em profundidade com os gestores, documentação e evidência física. No desenvolvimento do estudo, dez categorias de análise detalham o caso e, por meio delas, há a proposição de um modelo de inovação em serviços a partir da perspectiva do marketing de serviços. Nas conclusões, o autor apresenta as contribuições do estudo, assim como identifica as limitações de campo e faz sugestões para estudos futuros. / Certainly, the word \"innovation\" is highlighted in management. However, one´s understanding about it has come predominantly from a technological perspective and, therefore, having a manufactured product as the central element. Thus, managers from industries that are relevant to the economy of countries, such as services, often have difficulties in understanding and applying innovation to their businesses\' environments. And studying the business environments in the service industry is to study the service systems within them. In this thesis, the author develops a better comprehension on the subject of service innovation and proposes a framework from the perspective of service marketing. It starts with a theoretical review of five large topics: (i) innovation; (ii) service innovation; (iii) innovation from a marketing perspective; (iv) service marketing and (v) innovation from a perspective of service marketing. As a result of the theoretical review, ten categories for analysis were identified, which were then used for creating a semi-structured interview guide that latter was applied into field research. The methodology used was that of an exploratory research and a qualitative approach. The organization studied was Costao do Santinho - Resort, Golf and Spa, located in Florianopolis, in the State of Santa Catarina, what categorizes the research as a Single Integrated Case Study. The sources of evidence used were in-depth interviews with managers, observing interviews, documentation and physical evidence. Along the thesis, the case is detailed into ten categories of analysis and, through them, the author proposes a framework for service innovation from a service marketing perspective. The author concludes by presenting the contributions of the study as well as by identifying its field limitations and suggestions for further studies.

The problem of this investigation was to make an exploratory examination of attorney attitudes concerning legal service marketing. The study was confined to attorneys licensed to practice law in the State of Texas. Items of specific interest were the implicit and explicit marketing management philosophies of attorneys, attitudes toward various promotional and media issues with respect to legal marketing, and attitudes toward serving the interest of various publics in the practice of law.

The master thesis explores consumer behaviour of young women on the hairdressing services market. It focuses on purchase motivation, perceived risks associated with this type of service and determines factors that influence the choice of a hairdressing salon. It also examines satisfaction of the research target group with hairdressing services. The first part of the thesis covers the specifics of service marketing and consumer behaviour in service context. That is followed by chapter summarizing the results of research on the topic from secondary sources. Practical part of the thesis is introduced with a chapter dedicated to the conducted individual interviews. Hypotheses are defined based on secondary data and the individual interviews. The last part of the thesis analyses the results of the questionnaire survey, verifies hypotheses defined in the previous chapter and summarizes the findings to make recommendations that can primarily serve hairdressers and hairdressing salons.