<p>This study intends to find out how Swedish stock photography agencies use the Internet and specifically their websites as tools for building their brands.</p><p>Lately more and more specialized stock agencies are emerging and due to the digital revolution these agencies are almost solely Internet based. Thus online-branding tools and strategies are especially important in order to survive in this competitive market. Even though there are plenty of dot-com companies out there running an Internet-only stock agency is a rather new way of conducting business. Thus the author is of the opinion that there is a limited research on the subject.</p><p>A qualitative research method was chosen as the research problem demanded in-depth information in order to reveal the studied area. Three stock agencies, Folio, Miro and Picturo, were sampled and in order to obtain the necessary information telephone interviews were conducted.</p><p>According to existing marketing literature the theory section is built up of the three basic foundations: Brand building, the Internet and One-to-one marketing.</p><p>Moreover the theory chapter in this study intends to function as a framework in the process of gaining new information about this business area. That is also the reason why the study is built up on an inductive scientific approach without testing an already existing theory model.</p><p>The analysis concludes that none of the examined companies utilizes the power of the Internet and its features to a satisfying extent. Partly they do not even provide standard tools and thus creating a strong bond between the company and the customer is made difficult. The author argues that in order to become an innovative and dynamic company it is crucial to have an effective, well-designed and easy to use website. Hence it is not only important to have an esthetical appealing site but also one that provides a high level of service and one-to-one tools. To be ahead of time as well as to be sensitive for technologies on the rise is especially important for stock agencies, as they now almost solely are web-based. To sum up existing technology should be used to it’s fullest extend in order to create a professional website and strong online-brand building tools.</p>

This study intends to find out how Swedish stock photography agencies use the Internet and specifically their websites as tools for building their brands. Lately more and more specialized stock agencies are emerging and due to the digital revolution these agencies are almost solely Internet based. Thus online-branding tools and strategies are especially important in order to survive in this competitive market. Even though there are plenty of dot-com companies out there running an Internet-only stock agency is a rather new way of conducting business. Thus the author is of the opinion that there is a limited research on the subject. A qualitative research method was chosen as the research problem demanded in-depth information in order to reveal the studied area. Three stock agencies, Folio, Miro and Picturo, were sampled and in order to obtain the necessary information telephone interviews were conducted. According to existing marketing literature the theory section is built up of the three basic foundations: Brand building, the Internet and One-to-one marketing. Moreover the theory chapter in this study intends to function as a framework in the process of gaining new information about this business area. That is also the reason why the study is built up on an inductive scientific approach without testing an already existing theory model. The analysis concludes that none of the examined companies utilizes the power of the Internet and its features to a satisfying extent. Partly they do not even provide standard tools and thus creating a strong bond between the company and the customer is made difficult. The author argues that in order to become an innovative and dynamic company it is crucial to have an effective, well-designed and easy to use website. Hence it is not only important to have an esthetical appealing site but also one that provides a high level of service and one-to-one tools. To be ahead of time as well as to be sensitive for technologies on the rise is especially important for stock agencies, as they now almost solely are web-based. To sum up existing technology should be used to it’s fullest extend in order to create a professional website and strong online-brand building tools.

Made available in DSpace on 2009-11-18T19:00:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ACF155.pdf: 526538 bytes, checksum: be4ca3ee68364433f3fecaac30bb476d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / The general objective of this research is to verify which attributes are most relevant to a stock photography agency that represent the purchaser's standards of choice. For this objective to be accomplished, qualitative interviews with the customers of stock photography agencies had been made in order to raise the attributes considered with relevance in the process of choice for the Brazilian stock photography agency market. The levels of each attribute to be tested had arisen through the mapping of the products and services offered by the competition and the relative weight assigned to each one of the attributes related to the research in the choices for a stock photography agency. A transversal study was made with a sample of stock photography agencies customers from Brazil¿s Southeastern region. For the analysis of this data, a survey method was used, that, according to MALHOTRA (2006: 182), involves a structuralized questionnaire to be answered by an interview that elucidates specific information, in which the questions had a predetermined order. This questionnaire was presented through interviews on the Internet. The method adopted for this analysis was a joint analysis. A sampling of 1000 customer stock photography agencies were selected, which were represented by a didactic book editor, advertising agencies, editorial companies, etc., in the states of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Espírito Santo and Minas Gerais. They had been obtained by 16 stimulations, or cards, for the application of the companies. Of the sample of 1000 customers of stock photography agencies, 7,8% responded to the research. The attribute most relevant in accordance with the presented results is the availability of images in high resolution for layout. Its relative importance was 40,78%. At the end of the study, the management implications were propitiated to the stock photography agencies managers inabling them to be more competitive. / O objetivo geral desta pesquisa é verificar quais são os atributos mais relevantes de um banco de imagens que representem os padrões de escolha dos compradores deste mercado. Para que tal objetivo fosse alcançado, foram realizadas entrevistas qualitativas com os clientes de banco de imagens a fim de levantar os atributos considerados relevantes no processo de escolha do mesmo dentre os bancos de imagens existentes no mercado brasileiro. Levantaram-se os níveis de cada atributo a ser testado, através do mapeamento dos produtos e serviços ofertados pela concorrência, e estimou-se o peso relativo a cada um dos atributos relacionados na pesquisa na escolha de um banco de imagem. Realizou-se uma pesquisa descritiva, um estudo transversal único de onde foi extraída de uma população de clientes de bancos de imagem no Brasil uma amostra de clientes de banco de imagem da região Sudeste. Para a análise destes dados, utilizou-se o método de levantamento, que, segundo MALHOTRA (2006:182), envolve um questionário estruturado a ser respondido pelos entrevistados que elucida informações específicas, no qual as perguntas possuíam uma ordem predeterminada. Este questionário foi apresentado através de entrevistas pela Internet. O método adotado para a análise dos dados foi análise conjunta. Para este estudo foi selecionada uma amostra de 1000 clientes de bancos de imagens, que são representados por agências de publicidade, editoras de livros didáticos, empresas de editoriais etc, nos estados do Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Espírito Santo e Minas Gerais, e foram obtidos 16 estímulos ou cartões para a aplicação junto às empresas. Da amostra de 1000 clientes de bancos de imagem, 7,8% responderam à pesquisa. Através desta pesquisa verificou-se que o atributo mais relevante foi a disponibilidade de imagens em alta resolução para layout. Sua importância relativa foi de 40,78%. No final do estudo, as implicações gerenciais propiciaram aos tomadores de decisão de bancos de imagens fatores que poderão torná-los mais competitivos.