The aim of this thesis is to recommend communication practices drawn from the analysis of the ICT organization and its marketing communication activities. The subsequent objective is to examine ICT market since 90's and to identify its future growth. The thesis studies the specifics of marketing communication whiten the B2B field. The first part appraises B2B market as such which is then compared with B2C market. Additionally, the work introduces communication activities employed to the Czech market place. It mostly considers the advertising, sales support, promotion, direct marketing, sponsorship and event marketing, personal sale, trade shows, exhibitions and digital media. The practical part assesses the given ICT organization and its leading competition. This part also evaluates the characteristics of ICT market in Czech Republic. The mapping and analysis of ICT market in Czech Republic was underpinned by the primary qualitative research. The final part evaluates the communication activities of chosen company. It then concludes with the potential practical recommendations drawn from the analysis results.

Företag har ett ökat intresse att förstå kundens köpbeteende inom business-to-business (B2B) och vilka faktorer som kan påverka köpbeslutsprocessen. Det ökade intresset beror på att kunders köpbeteende förändras över tid. I takt med detta tar kunder andra typer av köpbeslut och bland annat har innovationer fått mer uppmärksamhet på marknaden. Innovationer handlar om nya och komplexa produkter. Utifrån tidigare forskning framgår det att köpbeslutsprocessen inom B2B är komplex och specifikt vid köp av innovativa produkter. Köpbeslutsprocessen är komplex av många olika anledningar, därmed finns det tydliga indikationer att det kan föreligga utmaningar för säljare att förstå kundens köpbeteende. För att uppfylla studiens syfte har vi genomfört fem kvalitativa intervjuer med anställda som ansvarar för försäljning i ett IT-företag. Den teoretiska bakgrunden om kundens olika steg i köpbeslutsprocessen har ställts i förhållande till det insamlade materialet från intervjuerna. Därefter har studiens problemformulering kunnat besvarats: Hur arbetar ett B2B-företag som säljer innovativa och komplexa produkter med att förstå kundens köpbeteende? Vi har identifierat att det finns fem viktiga steg som kunder går igenom i en köpbeslutsprocess vid köp av innovativa och komplexa produkter. Studiens resultat visar att det föreligger flera utmaningar för säljare att förstå kundens köpbeteende i de olika stegen. En utmaning som säljare bör ta hänsyn till är att kunder sällan självständigt identifierar behov av innovativa och komplexa produkter. En annan utmaning är att det kan vara svårt för säljare att vara synliga på marknaden på grund av att deras produkter är komplexa och att kunden har brist på kunskap om produkten. Det leder vidare till utmaningen att det kan vara svårt att presentera lättförståelig information om produkterna, och ha en tydlig struktur för det. Vi har även identifierat utmaningen att det kan vara svårt att avgöra vem av säljaren eller kunden som bäst vet vilka specifikationer som är nödvändiga i utvecklingen av produkten. Ytterligare är det en utmaning för säljare att övertala alla involverade i köpbeslutsprocessen om kundens företag består av många anställda som har olika roller. Sammanfattningsvis handlar studiens identifierade utmaningar om att kunden behöver vara i fokus och det bör föreligga ett ömsesidigt engagemang, för att den säljande parten ska förstå kundens köpbeteende.

The concept of Green Brand Equity is based on the assumption that customers will be more favorable towards a firm's brand when the firm provides products and services that satisfy the customers' environmental needs. While environmental and brand management have been researched thoroughly in business-to-consumer (B2C) markets, similar research inbusiness-to-business (B2B) contexts is still scarce. This study aims to contribute to environmental management and B2B brand research through an empirical study of customers' perceptions of Green Brand Equity in industrial B2B markets. A qualitative study was conducted analyzing customers who purchase products from a brand of a Swedish high-tech and global industrial engineering company. The findings suggest that although traditional aspects like price, quality and delivery performance are of high importance, customers in B2B markets also take environmental impact into consideration in their purchase decisions. The customers' consideration of environmental impact mainly stemmed from the customer firms' Green Policies, as well as the individual buyer's Green Concerns. The findings further showed that supplier firms can strengthen Green Brand Equity through sustainability initiatives. By supporting the applicability of Green Brand Equity in a B2B context, this study contributes to the theoretical discussion as well as to practitioners in the field.

This study explores the association between the Customer Relationship Orientation of a company, their Social Media Use through Social Customer Relationship Management Capabilities, with Customer Relationship Performance in order to determine if Social Media can be used as an effective Customer Relationship Management tool in a business-to-business context. In addition, the research will explain if the company’s expectations conform to the customer’s experience. Four digital managers within Swedish small and medium sized enterprises were interviewed and 34 of their corresponding customers took part in an online survey. The findings indicated due to companies limited Social Customer Relationship Management Capabilities the positive impact on Customer Relationship Performance was not achieved through Social Media Use. Furthermore the online surveys revealed that Social Media is not the most effective Customer Relationship Management tool, nevertheless a weak relationship was found and thus Social Media can be used in addition to the companies’ already established Customer Relationship Management activities. Future research will focus on increasing the sample size, revisiting the study in a few years, and why certain intermediaries were significant.

The last thirty years there has been a dramatic change in relationship marketing. The use of computers connected to the Internet at work places has increased over time and social media is widely used in marketing strategies. Social media is a new phenomenon to communicate with each other, it enables market information based on individual consumer’s experiences. Therefore managers are seeking a way to incorporate social media into their strategies, but this is more common within B2C than B2B. The purpose is to investigate the potential for industrial corporations, within the warehousing industry, to use social media for maintaining established relationships within B2B, as a part of their marketing strategy. The primary data is collected by qualitative interviews with relevant corporations. The study includes four corporations within the industrial industry, an illustrative corporation that have issues regarding using social media or not, and one expert interview.  The secondary data is collected from previous research, articles and journals. From the theoretical framework and empirical research, it seems to be more useful for corporations acting in the market of B2C rather than in B2B to use social media. Major of the interviewed corporations were thinking of using social media as a part of their marketing strategy, but almost no one were using it as a tool today. The younger generation, raised in a technological society, seem to generally have a broader knowledge of social media and what advantages and disadvantages the use can lead to. From this thesis it does not seem that one social media is better than another since different social media platforms are used in different ways. Therefore, it is not possible to say that one specific social media suits all corporations. However, if a corporation decides to use social media as a marketing tool, they need to be aware of the time required for it and be prepared for negative effects since they are open platforms, free for everyone to express their feelings. Within B2B, the trend of having a personal relation with customer and supplier is very strong and social media can never replace this personal relationship. The conclusions and recommendations is instead to use social media as an integrated marketing tool within their strategy.

Ekologiska livsmedelsföretag kan anses ha extra stora krav på sig gällande transparens och hållbar produktion av sina produkter. Det har därmed blivit viktigt för dessa företag att utveckla tillitsfulla relationer med högt engagemang till sina leverantörer för att säkerställa att produkterna är ekologiska ur alla aspekter. Relationer som präglas av tillit och engagemang har visat sig resultera i gynnsamma utfall för parterna. Forskning inom området har framförallt gjorts på företag som arbetar med konventionella produkter. Därför är syftet med denna uppsats att studera hur ett företag som arbetar med ekologiska produkter skapar goda relationer till sina utländska leverantörer. Det empiriska materialet samlas in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer på en inköpsavdelning hos ett ekologiskt livsmedelsföretag och analyseras med hjälp av en modell. Resultaten pekar på att kommunikation och lika värderingar är betydelsefulla för relationsskapandet men att nationell kultur inte påverkar relationen. När tillit och engagemang existerar ger de utfall i form av medgörlighet och samarbete. En förutsättning för en stark relation är att relationen får utvecklas över tid.

The aspect of relationships has been underlined to be of substantial significant within B2B contexts, particularly within consultancy, all alongside the importance of trust within the clientsupplier interaction. An element that has been claimed to derive directly from the client-supplier experience and voiced to be of key in order to reach success. It has been stated that the behaviour of consultants can be generalized to the corporate brand, individual demeanours and actions declared to be of essential influence of affecting customer perception of the company and its brand. It has been remarked that, “employees are the public face of the organization, and their performance affects customers' interpretation of the brand”. Public procurement has been described as a process for the purchase of goods and services made by the public sector, procurements regulated by LOU, i.e. special laws and regulations. All member states of the European Union are subjective to procurement directives, injunctions regulating each procurement. In service marketing, traditionally, clients have relied on long-term relationships or been guided by recommendations from external parties when selecting supplier. Public procurement regulations have enclosed such use of informal selection bases, whereas instead requirements for supplier are obliged to be based on objective criteria and non-personal sources. The restriction of non personal-relationships between client and supplier derived the problem question of potential consequences the regulation might bear. Thereupon, the purpose of this study was to examine the corporate brand image of a knowledge- intensive service firm operating within the public sector. The empirical findings for this study were collected through semi-structured interviews with 5 Swedish customers of Ecenea Väst, a consultancy firm operating within the public sector. The role of the theory were of abductive view, were theory was developed, refined and adjusted throughout the process. The findings of the interviews where analysed using a content analysis approach. The empirical investigation of this study confirms previous studies arguing for the importance of relationship and trust within service marketing, particularly consultancy. It also concluded that it is the behavior of the consultants that influence the client's perception of the company’s image and brand.

It is important for a selling company to have a motivated sales force. The motivation and what employees is motivated by have occupied the interest of human resource researchers for decades. There has been a large amount of research within motivational psychology, which has produced several theories regarding human needs and motivation factors. This study focused on sales professionals within business-to-business (B2B) with the purpose to explore and describe sales professionals’ perceptions regarding financial incentives and their motivation. The study also answers the questions of how sales professionals perceive that financial incentive affects their motivation and how the financial incentives relate to sales professional motivation. This study utilizes a qualitative approach, where the empirical data was gathered by six semi-structured interviews. By analyzing the findings, the researchers have concluded that financial incentive can both work as a motivator and a demotivator. Financial incentives can increase stress and pressure for the sales professional especially for individuals new to the profession. The study has found that this is something that the individual have to cope with since the organization is not providing support for this. If the sales professionals can cope with the stress, it will work as a motivator. Lastly, the study presents practical and managerial implications for sales organizations. They need to be aware of the business environment to ensure that financial incentive achieves the desired effect.

Rapportens namn: Vilka är egentligen våra kunder?- en kvalitativ studie om segmentering i B2B företag Frågeställning: Hur utarbetas och genomförs segmentering av företag verksamma på B2B marknaden? Syfte: Syftet med arbetet är att undersöka hur företag utarbetar och genomför segmentering på B2B marknaden. Vidare undersöka vilka faktorer som är viktiga att ta i beaktning för företag vid utförandet av segmentering på B2B marknaden.Vi ämnar även att presentera både teoretiska och praktiska förslag på hur B2B företag bör arbeta med segmenteringsstrategier. Metod: Uppsatsen är en kvalitativ fallstudie som antagit en abduktiv forskningsansats. Datainsamlingen har skett vi semistrukturerade djupintervjuer med sju olika B2B företag. Resultat och slutsatser: Resultatet visar hur företag idag utarbetar och genomför segmentering. Vidare vilka kunskaper och vilken förståelse de besitter utifrån de segmenteringsvariabler som framkommit i studiens teoretiska referensram. Slutsatser kunde dras kring att företag i dagsläget inte i många fall arbetar aktivt och iterativt med att segmentera sin marknad och har inte följt en specifik och tydlig process vid utförandet. De besitter kunskaper som hade kommit till användning vid en vidare utveckling av de segment de arbetar utifrån idag. Teoretiskt och praktiskt bidrag: Uppsatsen presenterar en reviderad segmenteringsmodell utifrån den teoretiska referensramen i kombination med den insamlade empirin. Behov och potential framkommer som kompletterande faktorer att ta i beaktning. Det praktiska bidraget ger förslag på hur företag bör utarbeta och genomföra segmentering. Vidare presenteras förslag till segmenteringsstrategi till uppsatsens uppdragsgivare. / Name of report: - a qualitative study of segmenting the B2B market Research question: Who are actually our customers?- a qualitative study concerning segmentation in B2B companies Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine how companies active in the B2B market prepare and implement segmentation. Furthermore to examine which different factors to take into consideration when segmenting the B2B market. We also intend to provide theoretical as well as practical implications of how B2B companies should work with segmentation. Method: This thesis is of qualitative character and follows an abductive research approach. The empirical data of this study have been gathered through semi-structured interviews with seven different B2B companies. Results and conclusions: The results shows how companies work with segmentation today, furthermore which knowledge they possess concerning the presented segmentation variables from the study’s theoretical framework. Conlusions have been made that in many cases companies do not actively and ongoing work with segmenting their market. Furthermore they have not followed an specific and clear process when segmenting. Companies do however possess knowledge which can come to use in order to develop the segment for which they work with today. Theoretical and practical contribution: The thesis presents a revised segmentation model based on the theoretical framework in combination with the collected empirical results. Customers needs and potential emerged as complementary factors to take into account. The practical contribution provides suggestions on how companies should develop and implement segmentation. Furthermore, proposals for segmentation strategy are presented to the principal of this thesis.

The sharing economy has become a widely known phenomena, however, the main focus has always been on sharing between consumers, with firms like Airbnb and Uber at the center of the conversation. There is plenty of material written on the sharing economy in a consumer context, however, there is a glaring gap in current literature when it comes to sharing between businesses. There is a need for an analysis of what drives sharing between businesses, in order to identify potential differences between the consumer and the business environment. This study aims to answer the following research question: Why and to what extent do the factors convenience, financial, sustainable and uncertainty entice or deter management participation in the B2B sharing economy? The factors investigated in the study is derived from current literature. From the literature a conceptual model was developed. To complement the secondary data interviews were held to get a better grasp of sharing in a business context. The results suggests that there is an importance hierarchy in between the factors from most to least important as follows; financial, uncertainty, convenience and sustainability. Finally, the study contributes with a revised conceptual model where data from the results are used to modify the model derived from previous literature. The revised conceptual model can guide business to business sharing platforms when developing marketing strategies for their platforms. In addition, the insights gained from the study can be used when developing a platform or business model by prioritizing the more important factors.