Contemporarily, the hosting of mega-events (MEs) is one of several strategies used by cities and governments to bring about improvements in a place s image and recognition. While London, host of the 2012 Olympic Games, is already considered to be a leading global city (e.g. Anholt & GfK Roper, 2011), the potential image benefits to be accrued from hosting the Games may in fact impact more upon internal, domestic perceptions rather than on external, international perceptions (Anholt, Oon, Masure et al., 2008). A key objective, therefore, for those involved in the development and delivery of the 2012 Olympic Games is to further enhance the image of the city (both domestically and internationally) and to minimise the risk of negative image formation (DCMS, 2008). However, image, in the context of MEs, is not an easy component to control, as previous Olympic Games have demonstrated (Shoval, 2002; Smith, 2005). The main purpose of this critical-realism-informed project, underpinned by theoretical-methodological social representation theory (SRT) (Moscovici, 1961, 1984), was to evaluate the domestic image impact of hosting the 2012 Olympics, pre- and post- Games, for the city of London. Based then on social representation theory, and a combination of abductive and retroductive research strategies, a survey was carried out among British citizens to identify their opinions concerning London as a city (or place brand), the Olympics as a ME, and the 2012 Games as a one-off event. Exponential non-discriminative snowball sampling was used to recruit participants (UK citizens, pre-event, n=561, post-event n=215) who completed a mixed-methods questionnaire both before and after the 2012 Olympics were held. The main part of this questionnaire was comprised of randomised free word-association tasks (qualitative) using London, the Olympics and 2012 London Olympics as inductor terms; i.e., Please give the first 10 words that come to mind when you hear the term . Data analysis involved collating the responses of the free word-association tasks into semantic word clusters, with one word (or phrase) representing each theme be that an object, emotion, an opinion, etc. Only words or phrases cited by 15% of participants were used to construct the image of each entity. The next level of analysis involved producing a similarity index and subsequent dendrogram, based on Kendal s correlation coefficient, that established the strength of the connections between the various elements of each social representation. The content and the structure of these pre- and post-event social representations were analysed and then compared to determine whether a.) hosting the 2012 Olympic Games represents an appropriate strategy to develop the city s domestic brand; b.) a co-branding process occurred, expressed by an image transfer, from the event to the place, or vice-versa; and c.) the major differences between the images generated by those living closest to London, compared to those living elsewhere in the UK. While London s overall image does not go through any significant changes pre-to-post event, the results of this study corroborate the value of sporting events in place branding strategies from a domestic perspective, but highlights some limitations, such as the exacerbation of London s pre-existing negative associations. In terms of co-branding, the results do not reveal a co-branding process to have occurred between London and the overall image of the Olympics, but there is some movement of elements from London to the 2012 event (related mainly to pre-Games anticipation) and between the 2012 event and the overall Olympics (related to the latter s unique defining associations). Finally, in terms of the differences between the images generated by those living closest to London, compared to those living elsewhere in the UK, there is a difference which appears to have been facilitated, at least in part, by a 2012-effect, with the event seemingly contributing to London being perceived as generally busier, more expensive and more congested by those living closest to the city, but more vibrant and more multicultural by those living elsewhere in the UK.

Problemformulering: E-handeln har vuxit sig allt starkare på den svenska marknaden, vilket lägger ett större fokus på den fysiska detaljhandeln inom modebranschen. Vi undersöker ur ett företagsperspektiv hur den fysiska modebranschen hanterar denna förändring. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka vilka verktyg fysiska handeln inom modebranschen kan nyttja för att skapa konkurrensfördelar mot e-handeln. Forskningsfrågor: 1. Hur skapar fysiska butiker inom modebranschen kundrelationer?2. Hur kan fysiska butiker inom modebranschen skapa lojala kunder av befintliga kundrelationer?3. Hur använder fysiska butiker omnikanaler för att skapa kundrelationer inom modebranschen?4. Hur kan fysiska butiker inom modebranschen arbeta med varumärke och image för att skapa kundrelationer? Metod: Studien är baserad på en kvalitativ forskningsmetod med en induktiv ansats. Vidare vid insamling av det empiriska materialet har semistrukturerade intervjuer genomförts med elva respondenter som har en ledande befattning, av den orsak att individerna anses besitta relevant information för den här undersökningen. Slutsats: Studien resulterade i att det inte finns en tydlig mall för hur kundrelationer skapas i den fysiska handeln inom modebranschen. Vidare visade resultatet att företagen tillämpar olika tillvägagångssätt inom ramen för nyckelbegreppen för att slutligen skapa kundrelationer. Avslutningsvis framför undersökningen att kundrelationer är en viktig beståndsdel som detaljhandeln inom modebranschen anser utgöra konkurrensfördelar mot e-handeln. Nyckelord: Kundrelationer, lojala kunder, omnikanaler, varumärke och image, modebranschen, konkurrensfördelar. / Problem definition: The presence of E-commerce on the Swedish market has evolved, which sheds a larger focus on the physical retail trade within the fashion industry. We study how the fashion industry handles this shift from a business perspective. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine which tools physical commerce within the fashion industry can utilize in order to create competitive advantage against e-commerce. Research questions: 1. How can physical stores within the fashion industry create customer relationships?2. How can physical stores within the fashion industry create loyal customers out of existing customer relationships?3. How does physical stores utilize omnichannels as a means to create customer relationships within the fashion industry?4. How can physical stores within the fashion industry labor branding and image as a means to create customer relationships? Method: The study is based on a qualitative method with an inductive research approach. Furthermore, the gathering of empirical data consisted of eleven semi-structured interviews with respondents within a leading business position. Conclusion: The result of this study indicated that there is no clear template on how customer relationships are created in physical commerce within the fashion industry. Furthermore, the results revealed that the interviewees practice different approaches within the frame of the mentioned keywords to create customer relationships. Lastly, the study argues that customer relationships are an essential element as a means for the retail trade within the fashion industry to establish competitive advantages against e-commerce. Keywords: Customer relationship, customer loyalty, omnichannel, branding and image, fashion industry, competitive advantage.

Competition for talent is heating up and will probably intensify, since demographic trends make it increasingly difficult for companies to replace valued employees when they retire. In response, many companies are trying to sharpen the way they market themselves to recruits, by applying branding techniques to recruitment. For a company to exploit its brand effectively when it fishes for talent, it must think of recruits as customers, determine which corporate attributes matter most to specific types of recruits, and understand how best to reach them. This diploma thesis analyzes Belgian business graduates' aspirations in terms of first employment and their perception of our company as potential employer and brings constructive and creative recommendations on how to improve its position as employer of choice.

This paper studies two former treaty ports, Kobe in Japan and Incheon (Chemulpo) in South Korea following the scholarship of Jennifer Robinson (2006) in building social scientific knowledge upon case studies of the so-called "ordinary cities". Using a "bricolage" of sub-fields of social anthropology and research techniques, the study focuses on the built remnants from the colonial period in the two cities and their perceived image to further develop on ethnographies of sensescapes and post-colonialism. The present study is an addition to the scholarship of urban anthropology through tracing out the formations of personal images of a city among their inhabitants, emic perceptions of "danger" and "oldness" in relation to built environments in Japan and South Korea and discussing the relevance of post-colonial sensibilities for place image creation. Keywords: urban anthropology, socio-cultural anthropology, collective memory, city branding, city image, post-colonialism, settler urban heritage, Japan, South Korea