<p><strong>Purpose:</strong> To investigate how automation companies within Mälardalen region are aware of the value of brand building in a business-to-business context. The primary interest in this chapter concerns the complexity of business-to-business buyer behaviour and the perceived value of brand related attributes from industrial suppliers perspective.</p><p><strong>Design/Methodology/Approach:</strong> Primary research material was gathered through a structured data collection in the form of direct-questioner consisting of pre-arranged fixed alternative questions. 257 mailings were distributed to top level management with marketing responsibility.</p><p><strong>Findings:</strong> The management of automation companies perceives both product-related and non-product related brand attributes important to communicate in business relations with their customers, highlighting personal capability and trust as key in brand communication.</p> / Automation Region

<p>Asian companies have turned to be multinationals. Many factors could be the reasons of this phenomenon, these days, cooperation strategies, especially, co-branding is an issue. Therefore, this study pursues to study which contexts Asian companies face and how Asian firms use co-branding. This study will study three cases: LG-PRADA, Sony-Ericsson, and Lenovo-IBM of co-branding. This research will analyze each case company’s portfolio with regional matrix and study how company use co-branding with co-branding typology. After reading this paper, readers can have an integrative view over Asian companies’ contexts and its co-branding strategy as its growth strategies.</p>

<p>The purpose of this study is to ascertain how present methods in branding, used in private sector companies, are or could be transferred to the public sector organizations.</p><p>It is done by means of a case study of Micasa Fastigheter done through participating observation. It also includes a survey of key decision makers included in the branding process, on different political and administrative levels.</p><p>Swedish municipalities’ and county councils spend over 50 percent of the Swedish gross national product, their operations affect most individuals just about every day and information and advertising from and about the operations of public sector organizations (PSOs) is vital for the existence of the citizens. How the PSOs communicate what they spend the tax payers’ money on has its own set of rules. The operations of PSOs are controlled by quite a number of laws and regulations. None of the laws apply directly to the methods of communication, yet PSOs have historically been very strict with most types of marketing. The results show that in the last couple of years this has changed and municipalities in particular have started to actively work on and communicate its brands. Stockholm is no exception. The reason for the change is the development of marketing in non-profit organizations, the occurrence of social marketing and image marketing and possibly the globalization and Internet.</p><p>Micasa Fastigheter is a municipal company that has gone through a branding process during the past 2.5 years. The company has step by step passed through the same stages in its branding process as a private company, the only exception being the very little advertising. It is thus possible for a municipal company to brand itself without clashing with the laws and regulations that govern the public sector. A result that, according to my survey, is due to a maturity in marketing issues amongst decision makers in the City of Stockholm, a general focus in the Swedish society on branding and, the people in charge of the branding process.</p><p>A look at the municipality of Stockholm is a good start since most trends start in the capital but a more thorough look at a substantial number of Swedish municipalities would be interesting for future study.</p>

Bakgrund: De flesta personer känner väl till namn som Madonna, Britney Spears eller Michael Jordan. Deras offentliga yrkesutövning och det faktum att de ofta syns i media, gör att dessa personer många gånger betraktas som kommersiella produkter. De är personer vars namn marknadsförs intensivt. De har skapat sig ett personligt varumärke. Denna förekomst förenat med varumärkesstrategi, föder tanken om varumärkesuppbyggnad i ett annat sammanhang, där vi istället för produkter pratar om individer. En individ som utgör ett varumärke kan tänkas befinna sig i en annan situation än en produkt som består av dött materia. Det faktum att en individ har förmågan att kommunicera, kanske är något som skulle kunna innebära andra förutsättningarna för ett personligt varumärke jämfört med en produkt. Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att skapa förståelse för hur ett personligt varumärke byggs upp i ett kommersiellt syfte. Vi har gjort detta med hjälp av varumärkesteorier. Genomförande: Vi har genomfört en kvalitativ studie. Den empiriska studien är baserad på personliga intervjuer med experter inom varumärkesuppbyggnad och med erfarenhet av att bygga upp kommersiella personliga varumärken. Resultat: Vi har funnit att de faktorer som krävs för att bygga upp ett personligt varumärke, är äkthet, kvalitet och kontinuitet. För att ett kommersiellt personligt varumärke ska var unikt så är det viktigt att utgå från individen, men varumärket måste dock ha en målgruppför att överleva. Ett personligt varumärkes största tillgång är att individenbakom varumärket har förmågan att kommunicera.

Purpose: To investigate how automation companies within Mälardalen region are aware of the value of brand building in a business-to-business context. The primary interest in this chapter concerns the complexity of business-to-business buyer behaviour and the perceived value of brand related attributes from industrial suppliers perspective. Design/Methodology/Approach: Primary research material was gathered through a structured data collection in the form of direct-questioner consisting of pre-arranged fixed alternative questions. 257 mailings were distributed to top level management with marketing responsibility. Findings: The management of automation companies perceives both product-related and non-product related brand attributes important to communicate in business relations with their customers, highlighting personal capability and trust as key in brand communication. / Automation Region

Nowadays global market is quite attractive for high competition environment.  First is to reduce risks and uncertainties of the business in their home countries. Second is to exploit the growing global market for goods and services which can lead to economies of scale and the increasing of market share. In order to be visible in global market, brands can be used to play an important role. From marketing point of view, brands are the means that consumers use to distinguish products and services based on essential and non-essential attributes and they are a source of business’s differential advantage. Furthermore, brands communicate tangible and intangible advantages and are attractive to a range of feeling. In order to make decisions for brand strategy, branding plays an important role. Critical advantage of branding is for product identification, and it is also the key element for marketers to differentiate a product from its rivals. However, branding provides many benefits apart from identification and differentiation of products

The purpose of this study is to ascertain how present methods in branding, used in private sector companies, are or could be transferred to the public sector organizations. It is done by means of a case study of Micasa Fastigheter done through participating observation. It also includes a survey of key decision makers included in the branding process, on different political and administrative levels. Swedish municipalities’ and county councils spend over 50 percent of the Swedish gross national product, their operations affect most individuals just about every day and information and advertising from and about the operations of public sector organizations (PSOs) is vital for the existence of the citizens. How the PSOs communicate what they spend the tax payers’ money on has its own set of rules. The operations of PSOs are controlled by quite a number of laws and regulations. None of the laws apply directly to the methods of communication, yet PSOs have historically been very strict with most types of marketing. The results show that in the last couple of years this has changed and municipalities in particular have started to actively work on and communicate its brands. Stockholm is no exception. The reason for the change is the development of marketing in non-profit organizations, the occurrence of social marketing and image marketing and possibly the globalization and Internet. Micasa Fastigheter is a municipal company that has gone through a branding process during the past 2.5 years. The company has step by step passed through the same stages in its branding process as a private company, the only exception being the very little advertising. It is thus possible for a municipal company to brand itself without clashing with the laws and regulations that govern the public sector. A result that, according to my survey, is due to a maturity in marketing issues amongst decision makers in the City of Stockholm, a general focus in the Swedish society on branding and, the people in charge of the branding process. A look at the municipality of Stockholm is a good start since most trends start in the capital but a more thorough look at a substantial number of Swedish municipalities would be interesting for future study.

Asian companies have turned to be multinationals. Many factors could be the reasons of this phenomenon, these days, cooperation strategies, especially, co-branding is an issue. Therefore, this study pursues to study which contexts Asian companies face and how Asian firms use co-branding. This study will study three cases: LG-PRADA, Sony-Ericsson, and Lenovo-IBM of co-branding. This research will analyze each case company’s portfolio with regional matrix and study how company use co-branding with co-branding typology. After reading this paper, readers can have an integrative view over Asian companies’ contexts and its co-branding strategy as its growth strategies.

Titel: Stadsdelen som varumärke - Invånares uppfattningar om Gävles stadsdelar   Nivå: Kandidatuppsats i ämnet företagsekonomi   Författare: Martina Engebretzen Jonsson &amp; Josefin Lundström   Handledare: Jonas Kågström   Datum: 2013 - Augusti Syfte: Syftet med detta examensarbete är att analysera hur varumärket för en stadsdel uppfattas i en medelstor stad och om undersökningar som tidigare gjorts på länder och städer kan appliceras och tas ned till stadsdelsnivå. Metod: I den här studien kommer en kvantitativ metod med en deduktiv ansats att användas. Vidare kommer det positivistiska synsättet att ligga till grund för utformandet av studien. En enkät har utformats, utifrån en modifiering av City Brands Index, anpassad för stadsdelar. Resultatet på enkäten har sedan sammanställts och analyserat i statistikprogrammet Minitab samt Excel där ett nytt index tagits fram. Resultat och slutsats: Vi kan se att det föreligger uppfattningar som gör stadsdelarna till ett varumärke. Det finns tydliga indikationer på vad som utgör en populär stadsdel och till en önskvärd plats att bo på. Ryktet har stor påverkan för såväl den positiva som negativa uppfattningen om stadsdelar som varumärken. Detta är något som både allmännyttan, fastighetsmäkleri, privata fastighetsbolag samt kommunens stadsplanering kan ha intresse av vid utvecklande av områden. Förslag till fortsatt forskning:Studien kan göras om efter ett par år för att se förändringen av uppfattningen kring stadsdelarna, och sedan jämföra med hur lång tid som krävs för stadsdelar gentemot den tid det tar för länder och huvudstäder att ändra sin brand image internationellt. Uppsatsens bidrag: Studien bidrar till den forskning som finns inom områdena för place branding och city branding. Detta då det testas om tidigare forskning kring länder och/eller städer som varumärken även går att applicera på dimensionen stadsdelsnivå, samt att fokus läggs på invånarnas perspektiv.

Place branding has in previous research been studied mostly from the perspective of an individual stakeholder, for example the tourism sector or the state authority. Furthermore, there is a limited amount of prior studies concerning the potential effect infrastructure improvements have on place branding. This thesis aims to address these research gaps and make a theoretical contribution to research on place branding. The purpose of this thesis is to develop a deeper understanding about how different stakeholders perceive the place brand identity of Nyköping as well as how they collaborate within the place branding process. This understanding will be viewed in the context of future improvements of infrastructure, more specifically the construction of Ostlänken. The findings of this thesis are based upon a theoretical framework consisting of four foundations, place branding and its conceptualisations, place brand identity, multiple stakeholders, and place brand management and infrastructure. The theoretical framework includes general theories as well as more elaborate models specific to research on place branding. In order to fulfil the purpose of this thesis, organisations belonging to different stakeholder groups with interests within a specific place have been interviewed. By adopting an inductive approach of the study, the interviews have been held using a semi-structured interview technique with the intention to gain elaborated data. A thematic network analysis has been applied for analysing the collected data.  The data have been coded resulting in four global themes: place brand identity, multiple stakeholders, infrastructure and place brand management. By applying these themes to the empirical data and previous research, the findings of the study have been developed.