The thesis is concerned with clients’ perspective towards large engineering consultancies. Thecore aim of this work is to understand what client evaluates when trying to define how engineering consultancies are different from each other. To understand this area, theories of marketing and branding in professional service industry will be analyzed. Further interviews with both clients and consultants were held and based on empirical findings and theoretical perspective, conclusions are drawn.

Abstract  Title: Social Media Content to Build B2B Relationships – An Exploratory Study of Customers to SMEs on the Californian Business Market for Financial Services  Faculty: School of Business and Economics at Linnaeus University  Program: The Business Administration and Economics Programme  Course: 4FE63E – Degree Project in Marketing, The Business Administration and Economics Programme, 30 credits, spring 2017  Author: Emma Lickhammer  Mentor: Åsa Lindström  Examiner: Professor Bertil Hultén  Research question: How is social media content engaging for customers on the financial services business market while building relationships?  Purpose: This study aims to interpret how social media content is engaging for business-to-business customers on the SME, financial services market, in terms of relationship building. It also intends to assist Xennial BZ Solution with advice to a basis of decision-making while executing their relationship marketing strategy on social media.  Methods: This thesis has been conducted as a qualitative cross-sectional study with an exploratory purpose and an inductive approach. The data has been collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed through a qualitative data analysis.  Result and conclusions: I conclude that social media presence engages customers on the financial services business market in relationship building if right content is created on right platforms to right customers. It appeared in the result that customers use social media in the information-seeking process and in the interaction process and that successful integration and understanding of the platforms contribute to higher response rates, which promotes relationship building.  Delimitations: This study aims to focus on customers on the Californian market for financial services, which delimits the scope of this study. It is also delimited to only cover SMEs and might therefore not be relevant for larger organizations. This thesis is also delimited to just focus on selected social media platforms and might therefore not be applicable to all situations.  Theoretical and practical contributions: The theoretical contribution from this thesis fills the knowledge gap concerning how social media content engages customers on the financial iv  services business market to build relationships. The practical contribution is given by this thesis to provide Xennial BZ Solution with recommendations regarding how they should implement social media content in their relationship marketing strategy.  Key words: business-to-business, financial services, financial services marketing, SMEs, social media, social media marketing, content marketing, customer engagement.

Title: Marketing Research of Customers' Satisfaction with the Services of Specific Bases of a Selected Company Objectives: The aim of the diploma thesis is to conduct a marketing research of customers' satisfaction with the services of specific bases of a selected company. Based on the results of the survey, create incentives to improve services, which will contribute to strengthening customer satisfaction with the services of these bases. Methods: Qualitative and quantitative research was used in the diploma thesis. Quantitative research, which focused on client satisfaction with services, was conducted in the form of written and electronic surveys. Qualitative research, which served to deepen the research, was carried out in the form of several semi-structured interviews with employees of the selected company. Results: For clear processing of results, mainly modified classification crosses are used, as well as tables and graphs. A modified version of the differential analysis is also used in the evaluation. The results show that the customers of specific bases of the selected company are relatively satisfied with the services. They are most satisfied with the opening time, availability of staff, willingness and performance of the staff. The research also found a number of sufficient reserves or...

[pt] O propósito deste trabalho foi analisar as características relevantes de um sistema de distribuição eletrônica para hotéis usando diretrizes baseadas no mercado e explorando variantes para diferentes segmentos de mercado. Neste estudo, foram entrevistados 116 indivíduos, usuários de Internet. Os entrevistados responderam um questionário aplicado pela Internet. Este questionário subsidiou a composição do serviço, utilizando o método de análise conjunta. Posteriormente, os respondentes foram segmentados, a partir de suas utilidades, utilizando a análise de clusters. Os entrevistados também avaliaram afirmativas que buscavam corroborar os resultados obtidos nas análises e levantar informações adicionais. Na segmentação também foram utilizados dados demográficos e psicográficos dos respondentes. Os resultados revelaram os atributos relevantes para a composição do serviço e forneceram subsídios para a segmentação do serviço para diferentes mercados. / [en] The propose of this work was to analyze the optimal combination of attributes for an electronic distribution system for hotels. The study was based on consumer´s interviews and variations for different market segments were explored. In this study, 116 individuals had been interviewed and the questionnaire was applied by the Internet. The questionnaire subsidized the composition of the service using the method of Conjoint Analysis. The utilities obtained in this first part were used to segment the respondents using Clusters Analysis. The respondents had also evaluated some affirmations with the objective to corroborate the previous results and to obtain additional information. Demographics and psychographics data had also been used in the segmentation part. The results had showed the optimal combination of attributes for the composition of the service and allowed the segmentation of service for different markets.

[pt] Esta tese tem como tema a relação entre o ensino e a indústria de moda, no Brasil. Parte do pressuposto que existe uma distância entre eles impactando o setor da moda brasileira como um todo. O trabalho se apresenta como um desdobramento da dissertação de mestrado cujo enfoque se dava sobre a moda praia no contexto das relações entre design e corpo, na cultura de praia carioca. Na tese, o recorte no segmento de moda praia é mantido, mas o estudo se volta para o âmbito do ensino de moda. A moda praia é considerada um exemplo de sucesso da indústria nacional, por seu diferencial em termos de qualidade e design atrelados à cultura local. Verificou-se, entretanto, que o conhecimento relacionado à moda praia brasileira, embora ela seja reconhecida internacionalmente como referência, se encontra fragmentado e disperso. Há dificuldade na busca por profissionais bem preparados para este segmento, evidenciando a distância entre a sala de aula e o chão de fábrica. Uma distância que tem impactado o fortalecimento da percepção de valor conquistada nas últimas décadas em diversos aspectos para o setor da moda brasileira. Para entender como ocorrem as articulações entre o ensino e a indústria, buscou-se ouvir os atores envolvidos - representantes da indústria, do ensino de moda, designers, estudantes e empresários – a fim de propor, a partir da pesquisa de campo e de experimentos, recomendações para a elaboração de iniciativas estratégicas, utilizando processos de design, que aproximem a indústria e o ensino, impulsionando o setor e consequentemente o mercado de trabalho. / [en] This thesis aims to deepen understanding about the relationship between teaching and the fashion industry in Brazil. It begins with the assumption that it does exist a gap in between both that consequently impact negatively in the whole sector. This theses presents itself as a deployment of a master degree dissertation, in which the focus was on the beach fashion in the context of the relations between design and body, in the Carioca beach culture. The standards of beachwear design is maintained, but the study turns to the scope of fashion learning processes. The beachwear segment is considered a successful case study for the national industry mainly for its innovation in design, quality blended with the local beach culture. Even though it is rooted as a strong reference both nationally and internationally, it has been found that the knowledge and intelectual content it is still well fragmented. There are several issues finding skilled professionals, showcasing the distance still to be narrowed between the classroom and to become hands-on in the factory floor and production. This gap has not contributed to the strength of the added value perception that the segment acquired in the last decades. In order to understand how the articulations between teaching and industry occur, we sought to listen to the actors involved: representatives of industry, fashion teachers, designers, students and entrepreneurs. The goal is to propose field researches and experiments, recommendations to prepare strategy initiatives utilizing design processes that could have real impact to shorten the relations of the learning centers and the market, creating incentives to accelerate the sector and ultimately contributing to the skilled job market.

Despite the fact that Internal Marketing (IM) has emerged to capture the interest of academic researchers and management practitioners, there is a surprising absence of empirical study investigating how IM is experienced in the world of practice. This constitutes an impediment to bridging the gap in the holistic understanding of the IM concept. The big question that remains is how to articulate precisely those activities that can be taken to constitute the structure of IM and those that do not. This study aims to bridge this gap by exploring whether the experiences of managers who are implementing IM in their organisations could provide clarity as to the meaning and the constituents structure of IM. This study first undertakes scrutiny of the extant IM literature in an attempt to clarify the multiplicity of terms often associated with IM. The meaning and the constituents structure of IM was investigated via an in-depth qualitative study guided by the principles of phenomenology. This qualitative study is based around open-ended interviews with participants sampled from the UK private and public sector firms. Data was collected and analysed in line with Giorgi’s descriptive phenomenological research praxis. The phenomenological findings indicate nine overlapping elements, namely, internal communication, employee training, reward, empowerment, employee motivation, interdepartmental co-ordination, understanding the organisation, commitment, and top management support that emerged to constitute the experiential structure of IM. Drawing upon these elements, the study offers a conceptual framework of the IM structure. Systematic analytical steps were utilised to ensure the validity of findings.

[pt] O propósito deste trabalho é analisar as características relevantes dos cursos de mestrado em administração e em que grau elas são avaliadas por seus alunos e ex-alunos, com o objetivo de fornecer subsídios para as instituições acadêmicas desenvolverem ou aprimorarem tais cursos. Nesta pesquisa, aplicou-se a teoria de análise conjunta, a fim de se apontar o conjunto de características consideradas relevantes pelos estudantes de cursos de mestrado em administração de empresas. O desenvolvimento da dissertação foi composto de duas etapas: escolha dos atributos e níveis a serem avaliados pelos respondentes e análise dessa avaliação. Para escolher o conjunto de atributos e níveis a serem julgados, foram analisadas as informações existentes na literatura e conduzido um grupo de foco. Em seguida, foi escolhido o conjunto de estímulos a ser submetido aos estudantes de mestrado, desenvolvido com base no projeto ortogonal calculado pelo software estatístico SPSS. Realizou-se, então, a coleta de dados por meio de questionários, os quais foram entregues pessoalmente aos entrevistados ou enviados, em alguns casos, via correio eletrônico. Na última etapa, analisaram-se, com o auxílio do software SPSS, as importâncias relativas dos atributos e utilidades dos níveis propostos na pesquisa de campo, o que propiciou que o objetivo geral de se identificarem as características relevantes para conceito de um curso de mestrado fosse alcançado. / [en] The purpose of this work is to identify the main features of the Master in Business Administration programs and how these programs are evaluated by students and former students, aiming at helping academic institutions develop or improve their Master degree courses in the area. In this research, the conjoint analysis method was used to determine the set of features considered relevant by Master in Business Administration students. The thesis was developed in two stages: choosing the attributes and levels to be evaluated by respondents and analyzing such evaluation. The attributes and levels to be assessed were chosen only after the existing information was analyzed and a focus group was conducted. The set of stimulis to be given to the Master in Business Administration students was then chosen based on the orthogonal project calculated by the statistical software SPSS. The next stage involved data collection using questionnaires, which were personally delivered to the respondents or, in some cases, sent by e- mail. Finally, the statistical software SPSS was used to analyze the relative importance of the attributes and the partial utilities of the levels proposed in the field research, achieving the general goal of identifying the relevant features for the concept of a Master´s degree course.

[pt] O correto posicionamento de produtos e serviços no mercado competitivo é fator fundamental para que as escolhas estratégicas sejam feitas a fim de proporcionar à empresa uma vantagem competitiva. A qualidade da decisão está intrinsecamente ligada à qualidade das informações que a suportam. Modelos de marketing melhoram a qualidade dessas e proporcionam rapidez na tomada de decisões. O ponto central desta pesquisa foi compreender como os indivíduos visualizam produtos e serviços e em vista disso encontrar um procedimento capaz de representar a imagem que os consumidores formam, de modo que se pudesse desenvolver um modelo que auxiliasse os gestores na tomada de decisões. Para atingir os objetivos traçados, foram pesquisados que tipos de modelos seriam capazes de representar estas percepções. Estes são chamados de mapas de percepção. Entre as diferentes metodologias encontradas, optou-se por escolher a análise de fatores como técnica para geração desses mapas. Utilizando os cursos de mestrado em administração da cidade do Rio de Janeiro como objeto de pesquisa e como amostra os candidatos a esses cursos, foi possível avaliar o modelo proposto chegando-se à conclusão de que ele é capaz de atingir os objetivos traçados. Apesar do modelo, após a redução de fatores, ter explicado apenas 58,7% de variância, os resultados obtidos foram relevantes a ponto de fornecer informações importantes para compreensão deste tipo de serviço. Além do mais, se mostrou adequado, podendo ser utilizado como uma ferramenta robusta para auxiliar os gestores no processo decisório em outros tipos de bens e serviços. / [en] The correct positioning of products and services in the competitive market is crucial to the firm to define its strategic choices in order to provide a competitive advantage. The quality of the decision is linked to the quality of the information that supports it. Marketing models improve this quality and speed up the decision process. The main stream of this research was to comprehend how consumers visualize products and services and finding a procedure able to represent this image in a model capable to assist the decision maker. To accomplish the proposed objectives, many models that represent consumer perceptions were studied. They are called perception maps. Among the different methodologies, factor analysis was chose to generate them. Using Rio de Janeiros MBAs courses as object of study and a sample of candidates to these schools, the model was evaluated and the conclusion was that it was good to accomplish the goals set previously. Despite the model, after the factor reduction, have explained only 58,7% of the variance, the results were relevant to provide significant information to understand how the segment studied saw these courses. Besides that, the methodology seemed to be a powerful tool to be applied in other services and products in order to support managers in their decision process, diminishing the environment uncertain.

[pt] O desenvolvimento de produtos e a correta distribuição aos segmentos de mercado são fatores fundamentais no processo de elaboração da estratégia de marketing das empresas a fim de proporcionar uma vantagem competitiva. Para isso, é essencial o perfeito entendimento das necessidades e desejos dos consumidores. Nessa dissertação, aplica-se a teoria de análise conjunta, com o objetivo de apontar o conjunto de características consideradas desejáveis pelos consumidores para a aquisição de cartões de crédito. O desenvolvimento do trabalho é composto de duas etapas: escolha dos atributos a serem avaliados pelos respondentes e análise dessa avaliação. Para escolher o conjunto de atributos a serem julgados foram realizadas entrevistas em profundidade e grupo de foco. A formação desse conjunto de estímulos foi desenvolvida utilizando-se o software SPSS 11.0 versão Windows. Em seguida, realizou-se a coleta de dados por meio de questionários, os quais foram enviados por correio eletrônico, sendo que alguns foram entregues pessoalmente. Por fim, também com o auxílio do software SPSS 11.0 versão Windows, o estudo atingiu seu objetivo, identificando o conceito de produto considerado mais adequado, fruto da combinação de estímulos que gerou maior nível de utilidade. / [en] The new product development and correct market segmentation are fundamental to define marketing strategy in order to provide a competitive advantage. To do this, the perfect understanding of customer needs is essential, too. In this research, the conjoint analysis theory is used with the objective of showing the group of characteristics understood as desirable by consumers to buy credit cards. This work is composed of two main basic steps: the choice of the attributes to be evaluated by the respondents and the analysis of this evaluation. The group of stimuli to be evaluated was chosen based on in-depth interviews and one focus group. The group of stimuli was developed using SPSS 11.0 software for Windows. Data collection was implemented with questionnaires sent by email. Some of them were handled personally. In the last step, also using the SPSS 11.0 software for Windows, this study reached its objective, identifying the concept of product considered the most adequate, as a result of the stimuli combination, which generated the highest utility level.

[pt] A medição da percepção da qualidade de serviços de marcenaria é um tema muito pouco estudado pelos pesquisadores, embora essa seja uma área de negócios com grande potencial de crescimento e muitas vezes administrada de maneira intuitiva pelos próprios artesãos. Como a análise da literatura concernente ao desenvolvimento de modelos medindo a percepção da qualidade de serviços demonstra a existência de controvérsia entre os principais autores e a conseqüente dificuldade em obter um modelo global e consensual, optamos por desenvolver um modelo específico para o contexto em questão. Assim, definimos os atributos -confiabilidade, tangibilidade, atendimento e preço- e seus respectivos níveis -três-, e os utilizamos em uma pesquisa sobre percepção da qualidade de serviços de marcenaria. Por meio da análise conjunta revelamos a importância relativa dos atributos, com destaque para a confiabilidade e para o atendimento; bem como a utilidade de cada atributo em seus respectivos níveis. Relatórios de análise da evolução da importância relativa e da utilidade com relação às características socioeconômicas dos participantes da pesquisa revelaram tendências de diferenças relacionadas a tais variáveis, que podem funcionar como indicadores da existência de possíveis segmentos de mercado. Obtivemos altos valores de correlação linear e significância da análise conjunta, o que indica que o modelo tem um alto poder preditivo da preferência entre opções de serviços compostos por diferentes níveis dos atributos em questão e é estatisticamente significativo. Já a análise de clusters não permitiu a definição clara de segmentos de consumidores, muito melhor demonstrados pelos relatórios anteriormente citados. Os resultados deste trabalho podem orientar os administradores de marcenarias a estabelecer combinações ótimas de atributos e seus níveis a serem oferecidos ao consumidor; gerenciar de maneira efetiva esses atributos; estabelecer níveis de preços; segmentar mercados e posicionar seus serviços, desenvolvendo programas de marketing adequados; e ainda fazer análises competitivas e avaliar como os consumidores atribuem valor ao serviço; sem perder de vista a viabilidade de execução e prestação lucrativa do serviço. Sugerimos ainda a aplicação do modelo aqui desenvolvido em outros contextos de serviços, de maneira a testar sua aplicabilidade e adequação a outras áreas de negócios. / [en] The measurement of quality perception in joinery services is an area that has, so far, inspired very few marketing research studies, although it is a business with a great growth potential, which has been often managed in an intuitive manner by the artisans themselves. The models for analysing services quality perceptions, as developed by the main authors in the field, have not been easily accepted and, consequently, there has been some difficulty in building a more global and consensual model. For this reason, we have chosen to develop a specific model, that would fit the context studied, which includes attributes - trustfulness, tangibility, consumer servicing and price- and their levels -three-. Using such attributes we studied the perception of quality in joinery services. Performing conjoint analysis we found the relative importance given to each attribute, emphasizing trustfulness and consumer service as well as the utility of each attribute in its respective level. Reports comparing the relative evolution of the importance and utility according to respondents` social and economic features revealed different trends related to such variables that may indicate potential market segments. We obtained high values of linear correlation and observed conjoint analysis significance, indicating that the model itself has a high predictive power of showing preference for options of services composed of different attribute levels, and is statistically significant. On the other hand, the clusters analysis did not provide a clear identification of consumer segments, which were better shown in the reports previously mentioned. The results of this study may guide joinery managers to develop ideal attribute level combinations to be offered to the consumer; as well as effective ways to manage these attributes; settle price levels; identify market segmentation and target their services, developing adequate marketing programs; and in addition, perform competitive analysis and also estimate how consumers assess services; at the same time keeping in mind the feasibility of execution and maintaining desirable profit levels. We suggest the application of this new developed model in different service business areas, so as to test its applicability and adequacy.