This study explores the relationship between two theoretical constructs: brand image and brand equity in the context sports sponsorship. The sporting context for the study was the 2003 Rugby World Cup held in Australia. The research focused on the sponsorship relationship between the New Zealand All Blacks and their major sponsor and co-branding partner, adidas. Keller's (1993, 2003) customer-based brand equity models were the conceptual inspiration for the research, with Faircloth, Capella and Alford's (2001) conceptual model - adapted from the work of Aaker (1991) and Keller (1993) - the primary conceptual model. Data was collected from two independent samples of 200 respondents, utilizing simple random sampling procedures. A bivariate correlation analysis was undertaken to test whether there was any correlation between changes in adidas's brand image and adidas's brand equity as a result of the All Blacks' performance in the 2003 Rugby World Cup. Results support the view postulated by Keller (1993, 2003) that brand image is antecedent to the brand equity construct. Results are also consistent with the findings of Faircloth et al (2001) who found that brand image directly impacted brand equity.

Globalisation and advances in communications technology have greatly expanded the potential marketplace for professional teams, especially for internationally popular sports. Lewis (2001) claimed that fans are now more likely to support a team based less on a shared geographic connection than on personal reasons. As Ben-Porat (2000) claimed, for these fans a foreign-based team is like “an 'overseas sweetheart,' far away but close to the heart” (p. 344). These 'satellite supporters,' (Kerr 2008, in press), or 'satellite fans' (Kerr & Gladden 2008) represent significant revenue, especially for those team brands that seek international expansion. In addition, an individual's decision to purchase the sports product is largely dependent upon their level of identification with a chosen team. Team identification, or “the extent to which a fan feels psychologically connected” (Wann, Melnick, Russell & Pease 2001, p. 3) to a particular team, is critical to the financial viability of a sports organisation. However, despite the increased attention paid to team identification, the reasons why satellite supporters identify with a foreign-based team have been largely unexplored. To address this need this study asks: What are the most important antecedents in the identification of satellite supporters with their chosen sports team? Recent research also suggests that a relationship exists between team identification and brand equity (Carlson, Quazi & Muthaly 2002; Kerr 2008; Underwood, Bond & Baer 2001). Therefore, the study also asks: Can a conceptual brand equity framework predict the determinants of team identification of satellite supporters? The thesis adopts a case study approach using mixed methods; a strategy that can provide “a fuller understanding of the sports fan” (Jones 1997b). Online questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were administered to members of fan organisations dedicated to the English Premier League's Liverpool F.C. Liverpool F.C. was an appropriate subject for the case study as it has a global fan base, a rich history, and is arguably one of the world's premier team brands. This thesis proposes a number of important antecedents in the satellite supporter's identification with a foreign-based team. These are: media coverage; style of play; the presence of particular player(s); team success; history of success; participation in the highest division; stadium; history of ethical behaviour; and the broadcast quality of games. Furthermore, a conceptual brand equity framework is shown to shed light on the possible determinants of their team identification. This study also confirms that social identity theory is an appropriate perspective to examine foreign fandom; satellite supporters might derive positive psychological benefits from their fandom; and the existence of a brand community dedicated to a professional sports organisation.

<p>Background: In the XX Winter Olympics 2006 in Torino the Swedish Olympic Team succeeded by winning 14 medals. The best result that Sweden has ever made during a Winter Olympics. The happiness was shortly after mixed with disputes between the Swedish Olympic Committee and Swedish companies. There were companies who wrongly had used the trademark ‘OS’ in their marketing campaigns. The disputes happened because the use of the protected trademarks concerning the Olympic Games are reserved only to the Swedish Olympic Committee’s sponsors.</p><p>Title: Seeking Opinions Concerning… - the Swedish Olympic Committee and its Trademarks.</p><p>Problem: What attitudes do people hold towards the Swedish Olympic Committee after the XX Winter Olympics 2006?</p><p>Purpose: The study aims to get an understanding about if people’s attitudes towards the SOC and its trademarks have changed after what has been written and said in media after the XX Winter Games 2006. In order to reach this understanding I will look at people’s knowledge about the SOC’s trademark, their prior knowledge and thoughts and finally their prior knowledge about the ‘Olympic pizza’.</p><p>Theory: By going from an initial description of the factors that make up a good brand and the different meanings to the word ‘brand’, the reader is taken through different steps to finally in the end see how attitudes are created.</p><p>Method: The study was done with a quantitative method through questionnaires, looking at the problem from the perspective of the Committee who are the ones affected by the results of the study. The collection of data was done through a non-random convenience selection in the community of Storuman with a total number of 76 respondents. Further, the study has a positivistic view and a deductive approach.</p><p>Result: The results were that the respondents’ first thought about the Swedish Olympic Committee was mostly indifferent, it seems like they did not have an opinion. Digging deeper it seems like after what has happened in the media the respondents’ attitudes have changed. There was not a big difference however in the number of people who had had an attitude change after the ‘Olympic pizza’ story compared to those who had not. The ones who had experienced attitude changes had had them towards the negative side.</p>

<p>In the present developing and modern day world, consumerism has dominated all the aspects of life. The life in the society follows the pattern of the capitalist culture where the human values have a different measure, ‘you are known by what you have not by what you are’.</p><p>This naturally leads to the life in a society where everyone wants to have a unique place in the society, by possessing the things which sets them apart from the rest of people in the society.</p><p>In present society and living way, the Brands not only represent the symbol of the company or product but to a larger extent define the general life of a person. What the person uses can reflect his taste of life, his status in the society, his economic background and many other things. This makes a deep connection between the company and its brand, with the consumer. In this two way relation both are dependent on each other for various different reasons.</p><p>In today’s time customers are very deeply connected to the brands. When they purchase any product like a car, mobile, items of daily need, brand name influence the consumer’s choice.</p><p>Some customers purchase the specific branded things just due to the brand name. Customers believe that brand name is a symbol of quality.</p><p>I found this interesting and wanted to find out whether brand name influences the consumer choice when they go for purchasing any product. I chose to for the specific product because</p><p>this is one of the products which got my attention because of many reasons.</p><p>Initially the car production was dominated by few companies and one or two countries. With the time, the market started to grow and once considered to be luxurious commodity, cars became a need</p><p>rather than a choice. This increased the demand and with that many more companies entered the arena to have their share of profit and exploit the growing market. This made the companies to put more efforts and money to creating brand awareness of their product.</p><p>With the Huge sum of money and effort invested by the companies to create the awareness of their brand in the market, many questions arise; does this really affect the purchasing decision</p><p>of the customer? Does the brand awareness somehow influence the sale of the product? Etc.</p><p>On the basis of these questions, I formulated my problem as follows:</p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to create deeper consideration of what influence a brand name can have, when people go for purchasing, choose the products between different brands in automobile industry. Further I want to identify, if there is a connection between brands and the consumer decision making process.</p><p>I conducted this study based on theories and surveys. I analyzed the result of the survey in order to be able to draw conclusions and find answers to my problem.</p><p>I came to the conclusion that when consumer purchases a car, brand names influence his choice. Customers choose the well known branded car among other brands which are new or not so known.</p><p>The study shows that branded cars have a great place in consumer mind, when customers go for purchasing a car, they prefer to purchase a well known branded car. Customers do not want to try new or unknown branded cars because they have no much information about the</p><p>lesser known brand. Usually, people purchase well known branded cars because they might have heard before about brands or they have some information about them from other sources.</p><p>This makes customer feel more comfortable during the time of decision making as they are not so confident about the knowledge they have gathered about the other brands.</p><p>The consumers are very conscious about branded and unbranded cars because they have the view that branded cars are more reliable than unbranded car. This study also explains that customers trust the branded cars’ quality. Before purchasing a car people do not consider the lesser known brand car, as people are very attached to some specific brands. Some people are loyal to specific brands, over time they want to purchase the same branded car because the specific brand has satisfied the customer’s needs and in turn has gained the trust in the brand name.</p><p>I feel that the purpose of this study has been fulfilled to some extant. The theory describe that brand name has a power, which attracts the customers towards branded products. The reason</p><p>is that customer gets special connection with specific brands product and become the loyal with brand.</p>

<p>In today’s world, consumerism is dominating all the aspects of our life. In society, life follows the pattern of the capitalist culture where the human values have a different measure. We do live in a branded world. There is no doubt about it. We all make product decisions every day. We probably all have certain types of products of which we like only one or two brands, while we buy other things based on what is on sale on a given day. This inclination to buy branded products is rooted in two basic things: recollection and satisfaction. We remember which one we like by brand name.</p><p>A survey by the Henley Centre revealed that the public trust brand names such as Kellogg’s, Heinz and Marks & Spencer more than Parliament, the police and the legal system (Sunday Times, “A can of worms is a bad diet”, 5 April 1998). This research highlights the importance of the relationship between consumers and key brands; and shows that it has strengthened to such an extent that it is now healthier than the relationship with our social structures. This is evidence of the power of consumer culture and the liberal free market economics of the westernized world. The Brands not just represent the symbol of the company but also to a greater extant defines lives people in the society. What a person uses can reflect his taste, his or her status in the society, his / her economic background as well. This makes a deep connection between the company and its brand, with the consumer. In this two way relation both the company and consumers are dependent on each other.</p><p>The salient of purpose of our study was to find out to what extent brand names influence the consumers’ purchase decisions with regard to high-involvement products. We conducted this study based on theories and survey. We reviewed a good number of relevant theories of brand and consumer decision making process. We also conducted a survey among the students. The respondents of our survey were those students who own a notebook PC, a high involvement product. We used convenience sampling for our survey. We analyzed the data of the survey in order to be able to draw conclusions and find answers to our questions.</p><p>On analysis of the collected data, we came to a conclusion that brand names have an influence on the consumer decision not only in case of notebook PC, but also in other product categories. The overall means of brand equity for male and female student are 3.64 and 3.66 respectively. Both the means are considerably higher than the average of 2.5 on the Likert Scale. So, it is reasonable to say that both male and female students’ purchase decisions are influenced by the brand equity to an extent. The consumers are very conscious about branded products because they have the view that well-known brands are more reliable. This study also explains that customers trust the branded products. Before purchasing a notebook PC people do not consider the lesser known brands. Our survey results show that the respondents previously automatically knew which brand of Notebook PC to buy. The mean of the statement “I automatically knew which brands of this product to buy” was much higher than average indicating that respondents had only a few brands in their evoked set and they ended up buying their top-of-the-mind brand. Consumers opined that well-known brand companies maintain quality of their product. Which is why, brand name affects the customer choice while making a purchase decision. Moreover, consumers also tend to trust well-known branded products. The mean of the statement “When I see an advertisement of this brand I believe the information in it is accurate” was much higher than the average which testifies to the fact that consumers usually trust the brands.</p>

<p>This study concerns retail brands in the food retail industry and focuses on premium products. The research is investigating how ICA can best use premium products to increase their profitability. The study is thus based on their brand ICA Selection and investigates three sub purposes concerning the customers’ perception of the products, their purchase behavior and their willingness to pay a price premium.</p><p> </p><p>To investigate, theory concerning brand resources was utilized, involving both brand equity and brand management. To measure brand equity, the authors adapted a customer mind set and utilized Aaker’s framework and the specific industry developments made by Anselmsson, Johansson and Persson. Accordingly, this theory is based on five brand equity attributes: perceived quality, brand associations, loyalty, awareness and uniqueness. These attributes were thereafter developed to explain food premium products. The brand management theory used was Kapferer’s brand management strategies, in order to assess ICA’s strategic advantages and disadvantages.</p><p> </p><p>The research was quantitative and the authors utilized a visit self completion questionnaire, in order to describe and investigate the purpose. The questionnaire was handed out according to a systematic sampling method, to customers at the 4 different concept ICA stores in Umeå.</p><p> </p><p>Based on the findings, the authors concluded that in order to increase the profitability of ICAs food premium products, the following strategies should be considered. First, the customer awareness of ICA Selection must be increased and the customers must be educated about the benefits of the product. Moreover, the premium brand should aim to provide value for money, high intrinsic product quality (i.e. taste, ingredients etc) and an improved store image. These factors will help defend the price premium.  Furthermore, to attract buyers, the brand has to have a high enough brand status and a sufficiently attractive and functional packaging. This research has therefore concluded how to efficiently allocate the resources and obtain an increased customer satisfaction. This may in turn increase the profitability of ICA Selection. However, it is of course important to also take into account the external environment, such as the recession and competition, when deciding on the brand strategy.</p>

<p>Problem: How do Barilla position and communicate its brand in the Swedish market and how do Swedish consumers recognize the Company’s positioning? Do they perceive the Brand in line with the intended positioning?</p><p>Purpose: Investigating in which way and to which extents Barilla achieves and communicates a suitable positioning in the Swedish market. On the other hand, assessing how consumers and potential customers perceive the brand Barilla, evaluating if they perceive it in line with its intended positioning.</p><p>Method: The research is mainly based on primary data: the Company´s perspective through a personal interview with Barilla´s brand manager; the consumers´ perspectives through 300 questionnaires distributed outside ICA Maxi in Hälla (Västerås).</p><p>Theories: Brand equity; Brand positioning; Promotional mix.</p><p>Conclusions: Barilla pursues a suitable positioning in Sweden, positioning itself on attributes which are valuable, and sought by customers. Consumers´ perception of the intended positioning is generally correct, since the main aspects which the Company focused on are commonly identified and considered familiar by the public</p>

<p>Bakgrund: Många konkurrerande produkter liknar idag varandra och därför krävs ofta andra egenskaper än bra produkter för att övertala konsumenterna till köp. Ett sätt att förstärka associationskraften i ett varumärke kan vara att samarbeta med ytterligare ett varumärke. Detta kallas för co-branding och handlar om att man genom samarbete drar nytta av ett annat varumärke för att på så vis skapa fördelar som kan stärka det egna varumärket. Det tilläggsvärde som ett varumärke ger den märkta produkten betecknas av begreppet brand equity. Co- branding skulle kunna öka brand equity men det kan även innebära stora problem som skulle kunna minska brand equity.</p><p>Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att definiera och beskriva begreppet ”co- branding” ur ett svenskt marknadsperspektiv. Vidare vill vi undersöka om och hur co-branding som varumärkesstrategi genom konsumenterna kan påverka ett företags brand equity.</p><p>Genomförande: Uppsatsen bygger på tre små n-studier av de co-brandade produkterna Daimglass, klädkollektionen ”Lagerfeld for H&M” och Vodafonemärkta Sony Ericssontelefoner. Primärdata har samlats in genom två stycken e- mailintervjuer med representanter på Sony Ericsson och H&M. Därtill har 90 stycken intervjuer gjorts med konsumenter.</p><p>Resultat: Vi har i vår uppsats kommit fram till en egen definition av begreppet co-branding. Vi kan även konstatera att brand equity kan påverkas på många olika sätt genom de fyra varumärkestillgångarna märkeskännedom, upplevd kvalitet, associationer till varumärket och märkeslojalitet. Slutligen har vi kunnat bidra med några goda råd riktade till de företag som står inför ett co- brandingsamarbete.</p>

<p>Syftet med denna studie är att identifiera styrkor och svagheter i byggandet av varumärket Asea Brown Boveri, ABB i Storvik. Det ska vidare påvisa om varumärket bör ompositioneras i kundernas sinne, och i så fall hur denna ompositionering skulle kunna åstadkommas. Studien baseras på litteraturstudier samt intervjuer med sju externa kunder och två interna medarbetare på ABB. Resultaten visar på tydliga brister i varumärket inom projektarbeten medan de inom ramen för service och reparationer har en relativt stark position på marknaden. En ompositionering av varumärket är därför nödvändig, vilket kan åstadkommas bland annat via utökade resurser och åtgärder inom marknadsföringen.</p> / <p>The purpose of this study is to identify the strenghts and weaknesses in brand building of Asea Brown Boveri, ABB in Storvik. It shall point out if the brand should be repositioned in the minds of the customers, and if so how this repositioning could be managed. The study is based upon litterature studies and interviews with seven external customers as well as two internal employees at ABB. The result clearly shows faults in the brand within projects, while as in the fields of service and maintenance they posess a relatively strong position on the market. A repositioning of the brand is thereby necessary, which can be done among other things by increased resourches and measures in marketing.</p>

<p>PURPOSEThe main purpose of this research is to determine the consumer level approach of brand equity in Citibank N.A using empirical information based on its brand awareness. The awareness of a brand would show the level of the brand recognition. A telephone interview was conducted to explain the different aspects that constitute the recognition of brand equity and brand awareness of Citibank N.A-Cameroon in addition to its ads.</p><p>RESEARCH QUESTIONHow can Citibank N.A, Cameroon subsidiary, measure the level of its brand equity from its brand awareness?</p><p>RESEARCH APPROACH/METHODOLOGYIn order to answer the research question and achieve the research objective established for this research, a structured research method was required. In this research a qualitative research approach was applied to suit the content of the research. A telephone interview was conducted to give a qualitative view of this research.</p><p>FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONSAwareness (aided, unaided), contributes to the recognition of brand equity. In the empirical part of the thesis brand recognition and awareness can be facilitated by Citibank-Cameroon subsidiary being participative in its social corporate responsibility plan to develop the community by planting trees and organizing football competition every summer holidays. This brand strategy has been used for several years to keep a positive brand image of the bank.</p>