Aim: The aim of this study is to explore the factors that influence the brand building in startup companies. Method: This study implements a qualitative approach and consists of twelve startup companies located in Sweden. Results and Conclusion: The findings suggest that the design of a brand (name and visual aspects), the use of social media, event participation and establishing partnerships is important parts of brand building. In addition, startups frequently make use of employees’ and entrepreneurs’ individual personality for branding purposes. Not only do all participants view branding as an important part of their business but a few respondents even feel it is crucial for the survival of their business. Suggestions for further research: The participants of this study reside in separate industries. This, combined with the sample size is not evidence enough to draw conclusion upon similarities and differences between startups branding practices in terms of industry. Thus, this could be interesting undertaking in the future due to the limited research on this topic. Contribution of the study: This study adds to the existing body of knowledge by uncovering factors such as brand design and social media, to name a few, that is used by startups to build their brand. As a result of this study insights has been given on the importance of branding and the strategies used to increase the brand equity of startups.

Title: Consistency in Constant Change: A Sensemaking Perspective to Uncover How Marketers Justify Budget for Branding Activities. Background: Branding activities are part of marketers’ everyday work life and have increased in organisational importance of how marketing is conducted. However, due to the lack of a direct linkage to conversion, branding activities are challenging to know the output of. Despite this, marketers continue to spend part of the marketing budget on branding activities. To understand how marketers justify decisions for branding activities, this Thesis views justifying branding activities as a wicked problem. It uses decision-making theory with a sensemaking lens to uncover patterns of decision input and output. Purpose: Taking the organisational perspective, this study seeks to clarify and bring insights into how branding decisions are justified by surfacing underlying patterns when marketers justify decisions for branding activities. Methodology: This Thesis uses an abductive qualitative study approach. To uncover the problem and guide the study direction, 12 pre-interviews were conducted. Then, a literature review and 12 in-depth, exploratory and semi-structured interviews with marketing professionals were conducted to understand directly from the budget owners regarding how budget is justified for branding activities. Findings: The introduced conceptual framework shows that justifying branding activities is an ongoing process that faces constant change. Three main patterns are found for how marketers justify budget for branding decisions. First, marketers clarify what identity and preference to use by identifying ‘what matters’ during the decision-making process and they either claim or share the right of deciding. Second, a general understanding is that branding activities are immeasurable in nature and marketers tell a plausible story of their effectiveness by measuring what can be measured, measure changes, or use financial results as a final judge. Third, internal and external constraints exist throughout the process of justifying branding activities, including technology limitations, loss of other’s branding sense, and limited budget and resources.