<p>In these days of globalization, with a higher level of openness and interaction over geographical, cultural and economical borders, the importance of the company’s intangible asset, its brand, is gaining importance as a differentiating factor. </p><p>Building a strong brand and the emphasis on strategic brand management is something that before was given less attention in firms but today we can see a general increase in awareness and relative emphasis in the strategic work of companies.</p><p>Countries as brands: Is it possible to consider a nation or a country as a brand the same way you consider a product? Well, looking in to the subject it seems to be a rather complex matter and there are many questions to be asked and answer. Nations around the globe are indeed marketing and positioning themselves for several purposes. It can be for example to attract tourists, investments and venture capital, qualified labour and business in general. So nations as brands do exist and it is of importance for the individual country to handle this valuable asset consciously. </p><p>There are many factors contributing to the image of a nation and how others consider a nation image to be. It is also different according to whom and where you ask.</p><p>The contributors to the image may be different channels of the mass media, famous persons and events, tourists visiting the country, national promotion agencies and also the main character in this study, the companies.</p><p>The nature of nation branding is inert and complex so there is of importance that the contributors mentioned above have a mutual and homogeneous vision for the nations image and are working together. </p><p>Companies tend to both contribute to and take advantage of the set of values that are more easily connected to a nation than others. Some companies do this more than others. The company should have: </p><p>The awareness of the individual company of what they want its brand to be and stand for.</p><p>The awareness of what the nation brand of Sweden stands for.</p><p>The ability to choose between weather to consciously connect their brand to Swedish values or not. </p><p>Accordingly, the main factor here is the awareness of the company in its strategic brand management. A nations image consists of a complex set of values and it is hard or maybe impossible to avoid some connection with this image but to a large extend the company can choose its positioned brand values. </p><p>And the final question to be asked here is weather there can be found factors that indicates that some business or products can have a greater use or advantage of its connections with its nations brand image than others. </p><p>The study</p><p>My first intention was to carry out this study by including large and well-known Swedish companies like IKEA and Volvo, investigating their strategical brand management concerning my core-questions. </p><p>This was not possible so the empirical part of this study was carried out by conducting interviews at two midsized companies in Arvika, Sweden. The first participating company is Klässbols Linneväveri, (Klässbols´ Linen mill), a recognized, successful textile company and the second one is Thermia AB a manufacturer of high quality, energy efficient heat pumps. I consider this inclusion of smaller companies to be even more interesting and rewarding when there is less to explore considering the big Swedish profile-companies. </p><p>The main criteria’s was that the respondent companies should belong to different fields of business and that they should have presence abroad through export. </p><p>For this particular study the most appropriate method and the one giving the richest and most valid image of the core question is the semi-structured interview. The actual interview took place at the locality of the two respondent companies. The persons chosen for the interviews at each company were picked by their position within the companies and were the ones most suitable and able to make the best possible contribution to this study.</p><p> </p><p>The main results found in this study are: </p><p>It is natural that companies connect their brand to the image of country, being the nation of origin or a nation of choice. Having a country name included in a brand name helps customers to evaluate the product and make purchase decisions.</p><p>The product or business of the company matters in the decision whether or not you should associate to the nations values or not. Sweden is associated with a set of values that you more easily can connect with certain businesses and products than others. </p><p>It is of importance that the product is designed in Sweden and that this origin is emphasized in the market communication. In comparison, the country were the product is produced is on a relatively lower level of importance, although this level depends on which business it considers. </p><p>Knowledge is power! To be able to make a conscious choice whether to connect to Swedish values or not, the individual company has to be aware of its own values and how they want to be seen as a brand.</p><p>As long as the choice to include Swedish values is strategical, and conscious and the company can live up to these values, it is right. But it is also evenly right to choose not to include the same values.</p>

<p>In the beginning of the twenty-first century it became clear what consequences companies’pursuit of economical growth had created on our environment and our social lives. Now theworld is standing in front of a challenge and that is to find a sustainable way to produce,consume and live in order to help our environment and social lives. An example of anorganization that is working towards a sustainable way of living is Fair trade LabelingOrganizations International. They set up international fair trade standards in order to supportthe sustainable development of small producers in poor countries, such as ensuring that theproducers receive prices that cover their costs.Research results indicate that the fair trade label could lower the value of the brand that it isattached to, as well as decrease the original brand’s customer loyalty. While there is also thebelief that fair trade is a positive thing for a brand. Therefore our aim with this dissertation isto look at how the consumer behavior changes when the product is co branded with the fairtrade label. We will therefore look at how co branding with the fair trade label affect differentaspects of consumer behavior. The different aspects that we have used are need recognition,information search, evaluation of alternatives, post purchase behavior and perceived brandpersonality.The study is performed on Dutch consumers by doing a quantitative research. The studyshowed that there are four variables that affect consumer behavior when co branding with fairtrade these are price sensitivity, reason for buying, expected quality and perceived brandpersonality.This study contributes to the lack of research concerning the connection between co brandingwith fair trade and consumer behavior. The conclusions drawn from this study could be usedas guidelines for company managers that are thinking of adding a fair trade label to theproduct, but it could also be used as guidelines for managers that already use fair trade.</p>

<p>Purpose/Topic: The proposed research explores impact of the direct marketing actions by component suppliers on (a) sales (objective measure) and (b) industrial customer‟s perception (subjective measures) of the final product (c) and the market development. The proposed research will focus on the bicycle industry. Research Question: "To what extent Shimano‟s component brands important to Shimano customer, and which actions can Shimano undertake to facilitate its brand‟s further market penetration?" Design/Methodology: Two approaches were used to answer the main research question. First, existing literature on ingredient and co-branding was analyzed. Second, we conducted an experiment on a new direct marketing initiative by Shimano-Europe BV. The initiative is "Reliability" campaign that introduces a service logbook across 8 European countries. Originality/Value: There is no research to this date, which empirically examines the influence of component supplier on sales and perception of ingredient brand, especially in the bicycle industry. Role of service and service network is also examined as one of the crucial influences on ingredient brand management. This research provides the base for further exploration in the area of ingredient branding and give guidelines for Ingredient Brand Management. So far, ingredient branding has been studied in contexts of food, chemical and computer industries. This research examines market leader in bicycle industry on 8 different national markets in Europe. Products supplied by Shimano require service and those products differ from ingredients which are consumed in form of food or apparel (that does not requires any service).</p><p> </p>

<p>The tourism industry is constantly growing and is one of the most expansive industries today. The tourism industry generates many jobs which in they turn generate revenue for the destinations. But in order to take part of this revenue, destinations must first attract the tourists. This is done with destination imaging and destination branding which means that the image and the brand of a destination are playing a significant role. The purpose of this thesis is to examine different aspects of imaging and branding of a destination. In what way they are affecting a country, what impact they have and how they can be manipulated. Terms imaging and branding are of great importance especially for post war countries that have a negative past. Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country that until recently was associated with war. To change their image Bosnia and Herzegovina should first distance themselves from their negative past. This thesis has a deductive approach which means that the research is based on different forms of literature and interviews. The conclusion of this thesis is that a destination can change their past, from something negative to something positive. But in order to this, a lot of hard work is required.</p>

<p>The purpose with this thesis is to clarify how estate agents working with their marketing and marketing strategies. Our study has occured in Kalmar and we have used five different estate agents for our collection of empiric’s data. We have worked with a qualitative methodology to achieve deeper knowledge about these five company’s which have been chosen for the study.</p><p>We have selected theories that suit our subject and together with the empiric data these two parts will be compared which concludes in an analysis. The analysis will generate a conclusion in which we will answer our purpose. Central parts of this study have been relationship, marketing communication, image, branding and service management.</p>

<p>This thesis discusses how adidas differentiate their communication to reach women and make the adidas brand more appealing to females. The adidas brand has always had their main focus on sportswear for men. This has led to the brand being perceived as masculine and it makes it hard for the female consumer to identify with adidas. We have analysed six adidas adverts from the last five years to see what adidas have communicated to women. The main purpose of this thesis is to understand why adidas have not succeeded in communicating with women in the last five years.</p><p>The theoretical chapter is divided into three parts; Brands, Communication and Consumer Behaviour. The first part describes what a brand is, how it is built and continues with how a brand can be gendered. A brand is not very likely to keep a strong position if the values connected with the brand are not reinforced through communication. When forming a communication strategy, companies have to understand how consumers behave. When selling a gendered product, companies have to understand the distinction between men and women and how they differ in consumption.</p><p>Our discussion is based on the qualitative method of collecting data. The qualitative method was carried out through two panel interviews and one personal interview, and we also performed picture analysis on adidas’ advertisements. Ten open-individual interviews with ten different women were conducted; to get their opinions on the six adverts.</p><p>Adidas have presented five different identities over five years, each with diverse focus and with different brand associations. This has led to a lack of consistency and therein lies a part of the reason why adidas have not been successful in appealing to women.</p><p>Since 2005 adidas have a collaboration with Stella McCartney. This is an attempt to add design to adidas functional clothes and to make their brand more appealing to women. This collaboration will continue until 2010 and this could provide adidas with the uniformity they need.</p>

<p>Den senaste tiden har en mängd samarbeten, eller så kallade co-brandings, mellan olika företags varumärken vuxit fram. Avsikten är att förstärka sitt eller sina varumärken med hjälp av ett annat varumärke som är förknippat med någonting unikt. Hur bedömer man resultatet av denna co-branding? Har det egna varumärket förstärkts eller har det försvagats? För att klargöra detta resultat måste varumärkets Brand Equity mätas. Med brand equity menas det kapital som varumärket representerar. I denna kvantitativa studie består respondenterna av ett kvoturval om 50 studenter. Vi har skapat ett mätinstrument för denna fallstudie utifrån Aakers modell för brand equity och dess fyra dimensioner; brand awareness, perceived quality, differentiation samt brand loyalty. Genom att undersöka hur Acers brand equity påverkas av co-branding med Ferrari genomför vi ett första preliminärt test av vårt mätinstrument.</p><p>Resultatet av vår undersökning visar på ett tydligt samband mellan Acers brand equity och cobranding. Vårt resultat visar tydligt att alla fyra dimensioner inom Acers brand equity har påverkats i positiv riktning i och med co-branding med Ferrari. Avslutningsvis ger vi även förslag till intressanta framtida studier inom detta område.</p>

Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how branding is exercised in a SME and to develop a model for how SMEs can implement branding. This means that we will especially focus on aspects that are important for a SME when building and strengthening a brand.   Background When looking at the concept of brand management, the wide range of literature gives examples of corporations such as Nike, Coca-Cola, and Apple who have been successful in the field. It rarely talks about how SMEs deal with branding, if at all. Brand management in SMEs has been widely overlooked, despite that a vast majority of the companies are SMEs. There are as mentioned obstacles when working with brand management in SMEs, but the existing literature is mainly focusing on how larger organizations should implement brand management and the benefits of doing so. We argue that there is lack of existing literature on how SMEs should implement branding.   Method To fulfill the purpose, a qualitative method was chosen. The study was done within a SME, Triumf Glass, where eight people were interviewed in a semi-structured way. This was done to investigate how branding is excercised in a SME. Conclusion The outcome of the study is a model that describes the process we believe to be necessary for a SME to go through when building and strengthening its brand. The model consists of the phases brand essence, brand reflection and brand strategy which result in brand equity.

This paper looks at the perceptions of people within and outside of Jönköping, regard-ing the main attractions/attributes within the Jönköping region and how they are being branded by the municipality. A model was formed to explain how consumer expecta-tions affect demand, and based on that a survey was handed out to find out consumers travelling habits, general perceptions about Jönköping and its branding. The results show that promotion has not been as successful as hoped and that Jönköping is still seen as a religious city among the respondents. A Las Vegas Entertainment Concept was formed to find out whether people would be willing to visit Jönköping more often if something „new‟ was presented. In conclusion, for consumers to visit more often new experiences have to be provided. It is all about the way Jönköping city is marketed in the future and what it will be able to offer to the different consumer segments visiting.

In the beginning of the twenty-first century it became clear what consequences companies’pursuit of economical growth had created on our environment and our social lives. Now theworld is standing in front of a challenge and that is to find a sustainable way to produce,consume and live in order to help our environment and social lives. An example of anorganization that is working towards a sustainable way of living is Fair trade LabelingOrganizations International. They set up international fair trade standards in order to supportthe sustainable development of small producers in poor countries, such as ensuring that theproducers receive prices that cover their costs.Research results indicate that the fair trade label could lower the value of the brand that it isattached to, as well as decrease the original brand’s customer loyalty. While there is also thebelief that fair trade is a positive thing for a brand. Therefore our aim with this dissertation isto look at how the consumer behavior changes when the product is co branded with the fairtrade label. We will therefore look at how co branding with the fair trade label affect differentaspects of consumer behavior. The different aspects that we have used are need recognition,information search, evaluation of alternatives, post purchase behavior and perceived brandpersonality.The study is performed on Dutch consumers by doing a quantitative research. The studyshowed that there are four variables that affect consumer behavior when co branding with fairtrade these are price sensitivity, reason for buying, expected quality and perceived brandpersonality.This study contributes to the lack of research concerning the connection between co brandingwith fair trade and consumer behavior. The conclusions drawn from this study could be usedas guidelines for company managers that are thinking of adding a fair trade label to theproduct, but it could also be used as guidelines for managers that already use fair trade.