The diploma thesis deals with the proposal of marketing strategy for foreign markets. As a particular company the author have chosen company Hakr Trade, Ltd., which was renamed to KRETZ, Ltd. on the beginning of 2014. The thesis analyses problems of marketing and marketing planning. The goal is, besides processing literature review on the issue, apply theoretical knowledge in the field of marketing on marketing processes in the foreign trade at company KRETZ, evaluate the current state of marketing activities with regard to the principles of B2B and propose relevant recommendations to communicate the change of company name, increase awareness of customers about products and increase abroad sales. An essential part of the recommendation is costing of the proposed changes.

The scope of this diploma thesis is the creation of a marketing strategy for the BT servis company, which is about to open a new branch office in the South Moravian Region. The First part introduces the theoretical bases, which relates to the issue. The Next is the analysis of the current state of the business and its surroundings. Information collected are evaluated and then the marketing strategy is created for the period of one year.

The diploma thesis is focused on analysis of sales channels in the ABB company with is focused on high voltage division, which is situated in Brno in the street Videňská. In the first part of this thesis are set major and minor targets with theoretic methods to achieve them. Second part is practis and there are processed theoretic knowledges which are needed to understand issues and set own improvement. In the end there are reviewed outputs and shown proposals for development sales chanels and better customer communication.

The digital revolution has led to a drastic transformation of electronics manufacturing industries globally. A growing number of companies are continually investing in digital technologies to remain competitive. Artificial Intelligence (AI), Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Big data, Robotics, etc. and smart devices have been widely adopted to improve efficiency, connectivity, and productivity of businesses. To cope with increased competition and customer demands, electronics manufacturing companies have broadened their interest in service innovation. However, companies pursuing a servitization strategy often lack an established framework i.e. method and tools to design new services. Besides, research indicates that existing frameworks with the potential to support this development are not contextualized to the electronics manufacturing industry. This design study, therefore, evaluates and proposes how the Integrative PSS approach can be adapted to suit the electronics manufacturing context to support services. The findings suggest that some models used in this approach were found to be unfavorable in the development of services. In such cases, the study contributes by providing suggestions on what models to adapt and how in the integrative PSS approach to support electronic manufacturing companies in their servitization process. The artifact is an exaptation since a known solution is extended to solve a problem in a new context and of the type instantiation.

Vi har i denna uppsats analyserat hur marknaden ser ut för Thnx Innovations nya produkt DEMA som har som syfte att förenkla ÄTA-hanteringen. Vi har gjort detta genom en kvalitativ marknadsundersökning där vi formulerat och utfört djupintervjuer med personer inom byggindustrin. Fokus i vår undersökning har legat på kunduppfattning kring Marknad, Behov, Värde samt Konkurrenter och Substitut. Syftet med denna uppsats är att använda och bygga vidare på befintlig teori inom området av marknadsanalys i R&D-fasen av ny teknologi inom B2B i industri. Vi har under uppsatsens gång använt oss utav utvald befintlig teori inom området för att kunna besvara vår centrala frågeställning ”Hur ser marknaden ut för DEMA?” på bästa sätt. Den snabba teknologiska utvecklingen har lett till att en stor mängd system och applikationer har ersatt och effektiviserat gamla arbetssätt i många branscher. Byggbranschen har länge legat efter andra branscher i denna utveckling men branschen har på senare år börjat integrera mer och mer teknologi. Vi har i uppsatsen analyserat bland annat: synsätt kring teknologisk utveckling både generellt och inom byggbranschen, åsikter och erfarenheter kring hantering och administrering av ÄTA-arbeten, kostnader och förbättringsområden kring ÄTA-arbeten samt inköps- och implementeringsprocessen av produkter/system inom byggindustrin. Vi har från våra djupintervjuer funnit att en försiktigt positiv inställning till teknologisk utveckling finns, men en bakgrund av tidigare misslyckande innovationer inom branschen har lett till krav om kvalitetsförsäkran innan implementering av innovationer. Vi identifierar i uppsatsen en underliggande konflikt mellan entreprenörsleden rörande ÄTA-hantering. Grundorsaken till denna konflikt härstammar från en avsaknad av tillit följt av otillräcklig kommunikation och dokumentation. De övre entreprenörerna här anser sig betala för mycket för ÄTA-arbeten medan underentreprenörerna ofta känner sig underkompenserade. Konkurrensverket (2014) benämner 80/20-regeln när det kommer till ÄTA-hantering; att 20% av den slutgiltiga entreprenadsumman består av ÄTA-arbeten. Detta visar på kostnaderna relaterade till ÄTA-arbeten och vidare även varför dess korrekta hantering är viktig. Via våra djupintervjuer kan vi konstatera att administreringen av ÄTA:or sker via allt från inköpta system, eget uppbyggda system, och inuti ekonomisystem till manuellt via exempelvis mejl/Excel. I uppsatsen identifieras vidare en efterfrågan på teknologiska hjälpmedel inom byggbranschen. Flera förbättringsområden kring ÄTA-hantering samt de viktigaste egenskaperna kring ÄTA-hantering identifieras från våra djupintervjuer och presenteras i uppsatsen. Dessa inkluderar en önskan om snabbhet, enkelhet, tydlighet, spårbarhet, korrekthet, och kontinuitet.

As the use of the internet increases, so does the use of social media channels. These channels have become a part of everyday life and are changing the way of communication and information exchange. Today, more and more business-to-business (B2B) companies are adopting social media marketing (SMM) to communicate with their customers. Although small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have also started adopting SMM to increase their brand awareness, the existing literature is very limited on this subject. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to identify and describe challenges SMEs face adopting social media marketing in order to increase their brand awareness. In order to achieve the purpose of this thesis a qualitative research method was selected and four semi-structured interviews with marketing directors and coordinators at three SMEs were conducted. The result of this thesis shows that SMEs face some common challenges like financial and human resources, lack of time and expertise in SMM, customer satisfaction, channel selection, global crisis and bad reviews. Further, this thesis found that SMEs also face some individual challenges like cultural issues, measuring brand awareness, language, influential content, communication issues, promotion costs and outsourcing.

Background: The business-to-business (B2B) industry stands for a significant portion of the environmental issue, yet the customer is still having price, quality, and service as major determinants for the choice of suppliers. The difficulty on how to evaluate environmental factors is hence increasingly demanding. One common and simple way for businesses to present their efforts towards sustainability is to certify their Environmental Management System with an ISO 14001 certification. Nonetheless, the question remains of the value of this premise in Sweden in our contemporary world. This study thereby investigates the value of working with environmentally sustainable business partners in the B2B market in Sweden. Purpose: This paper aims to explore the cost and benefits of working with environmentally sustainable business partners, using ISO 14001 as a reference point, within the Swedish B2B market.  Method: This study adheres to the interpretivist paradigm, with a qualitative approach. Nine semi-structured interviews with six B2B companies in Sweden were conducted and analysed via thematic analysis, using codes and emerging themes.  Conclusion: There are severe gaps in the ISO 14001 framework, and that one cannot trust it as much regarding the environment as intended or as much as firms do today. The real value for environmental sustainability is created when sustainable B2B firms start selecting suppliers based on their own sustainable values, not on time efficiency or costs. For a shared responsibility, firms have to evaluate suppliers based on actual and not perceived environmentally sustainable efforts.

Value is fundamental in business-to-business marketing, where marketing revolves around the term value. Understanding the value of offering through customers' eyes is important for business success. Due to the subjective nature of value, it's imperative to understand the value based on the customer's individual interpretation. In this context, perceived value plays a central theme for this study, and analyzed in the terms of benefits and sacrifices. But to capture the broader picture of customers' value functional, social, and emotional perceived values were considered. The research questions were formed to investigate the kind of values that customers perceive, and another question was framed to investigate the multidimensionality of values. In order to answer the research questions, a qualitative descriptive approach was applied and through judgmental sampling, respondents were chosen. The five potential customers were interviewed through semi-structured technique. The authors applied the model “value hierarchy” to investigate the customer's perceived value which consists of three layers: attributes, consequences and objects; it shows correlation among the three layers. The laddering technique was used in connection with hierarchy, through this technique authors understood how consumers were able to perceive value in each layer. The tangibilization strategy was used to provide cues that helped build mental construct of services in customer’s minds. Customers assess the services by evaluating its value. The value from the consequences were perceived multidimensionally by customers depending on the attributes. Customers perceived functional value in aspects of saving time and ease of workload. They were able to perceive value socially, when some features helped manage stress among the employees and through provision of these services to end customers saw an increase in firm awareness in the market. Customers also felt a feeling of happiness when using certain attributes especially among the end customers thereby bringing emotional value into the picture. All the different values perceived helped reach their respective end-goals.  The model found useful to investigate the customer value sequentially, also evaluating current customer’s needs. The study revealed that the attributes aren't chosen without a purpose. Customers perceive some benefits from the attributes that help achieve their specific needs. The study was confirmation about integrating the model with different value dimensions helped determine the connection of these dimensions with customer value. The study ends with presenting managerial, theoretical and practical implications and provides ground for future research in exploring other framework of values, followed by limitations of the study.

A large number of changes in the world of business has led to increased attention directed towards business-to-business (B2B) branding. Companies have gradually shifted their marketing efforts to the Internet and social media in order to create brand awareness when entering new international markets. Existing research and literature on how content creation can be used when entering a new market is, however, scarce. This thesis therefore identifies and describes how digital content creation has been, and can be, used when entering a new foreign market in order to create brand awareness. To achieve this, interviews with marketing directors in internationally operating companies were conducted in a qualitative manner. The results reveal that all the companies use digital content marketing when entering a new market, confirming pre-existing theories. It was also revealed that creating brand awareness is the most challenging part when entering a foreign market. It became evident that engaging the target audience and encouraging user generated content using DCM is both beneficial and effective when entering new foreign markets.

In an ever-evolving digital landscape, the way we do business changes rapidly.  In this landscape, B2B companies are confronted with challenges that demand adaptation and reevaluation of their business models, such as exploring innovative approaches to resource utilization and streamlining workflows. The topic of interfunctional coordination is of utmost relevance today as it serves as a prerequisite for optimizing work processes, sustaining resources, and nurturing a customer focused collaboration across the entire organization. The primary objective of this study is to enhance our understanding of the practices and trends that certain B2B companies see around the go-to-market strategy. Furthermore, it seeks to examine the potential impact of interfunctional coordination on improving go-to-market strategies and fostering enhanced customer experiences. The study also explores the role of digital tools as strategic drivers for facilitating interfunctional coordination within these companies. By addressing these objectives, the research aims to provide valuable insights on go-to-market trends and on digital tools that can drive successful interfunctional coordination and enhance customer satisfaction. The study was done through a qualitative deductive approach, which involved initially exploring the researched theories, collecting empirical data through interviews and finally analyzing the results. The study shows that there is a correlation between interfunctional coordination and a successful go-to-market strategy. The study also presents which digital tools are best suited to facilitate cross-functional work within a complex B2B organization. The study shows that achieving interfunctional coordination within an organization requires a significant degree of commitment and a strong driving force towards a common vision. For the most part, the empirical evidence strengthens the theoretical discussion, but there are some deviations. The deviations could be due to the gap between academia and the marketing industry.