Syfte: Vårt syfte är att analysera och klargöra hur företags bakgrund och historia relateras till varumärkens identitet.   Forskningsfrågor: 1. Vilket inflytande kan företags grundare eller andra ledare personer ha för varumärkets identitet? 2. Vilka orsaker finns till att företag väljer att accentuera den historiska bakgrunden?   Metod: Uppsatsen är skriven med en kvalitativ forskningsmetod som har en abduktiv ansats. Studiens empiriska data utgörs av fem stycken semistrukturerade intervjuer med experter inom området.   Slutsats: Vi drar slutsatsen att företag som har möjlighet att använda sig av historieberättande eller sin bakgrund bör ta tillfället i akt. En historia skapar relationer och associationer och kan på så sätt differentiera varumärket från andra. Vidare framkommer att kultur inom organisationer kan vara den del som har störst möjlighet att påverka identiteten och att synliga och aktiva ledare är en stor del av kulturen. / Purpose: Our aim is to analyse and clarify how companies’ background and history can be related to corporate identity.   Research questions: 1. What influence can founders or other managing people of companies have for the corporate identity? 2. What reasons are there for companies to choose to accentuate the historical background?   Method: The essay is written with a qualitative research method, which has an abductive approach. The study's empirical data consists of five semi-structured interviews with experts in the field.   Conclusion: We conclude that companies that have the opportunity to make use of storytelling or their background should seize the opportunity. A history creates relationships and associations and can therefore differentiate the brand from others. Furthermore, it appears that the culture within organizations can be the part that has the greatest influence on corporate identity, visible and active leaders are a big part of the culture.

Title: Blogs as a new tool of communication and promotion of fashion brands. Research question: How do fashion companies make use of bloggers as a new tool of communication to promote their brands? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to observe and explore how the fashion brands use bloggers and their blogs as a new method to advertise and communicate about them and their products to consumers. The study is conducted from an external point of view. Design/methodology/approach: This study is exploratory and descriptive and uses a qualitative method, with non-randomly method where the sample is composed of six international fashion blogs. To collect data the authors used guideline to conduct the content analysis of these selected blogs. Findings: This study shows that brands use the blogger as human being with the phenomenon of the word-of-mouth and opinion formers/leaders and they also make us of the blog content to incorporate ads to directly communicate to the online communities.

The market for luxury brands has outpaced other consumption categories through its growth, and has been found in continuous development. As there is an increasing amount of luxury categories, the consumption of luxury fashion brands account for the largest proportion of luxury profits, and the marketing costs for such brands has shown to surpass those of other fashion categories. Consumer researchers have throughout decades emphasized how individuals participate in consumption behavior to form their self-concept in relation to brands. However, previous research has disregarded the multidimensional perspective regarding the theory of self-concept when examining the consumption of brands. Hence, the current research paper aims to strengthen the existing self-concept theory by exploring the role in which luxury fashion brands have by focusing on how the consumption of such brands relate, and contribute, to the consumer’s self-concept. By applying a qualitative method to investigate such purpose, and involving the existing theory of self-concept, brand image, and brand personality, it appeared that luxury fashion brands has a function to operate as a confidence booster for young consumers’ perception of their self-concept. In terms of the theoretical contribution of this paper, this research further illustrates how the theoretical explanation of brand image and brand personality relates to two different dimensions of the consumer’s self-concept. The consumption of luxury fashion brands has shown a significant role in individuals’ consumption behavior by emphasizing a striving, and motivating, part in the self-concept of young consumers.

The performance of own-label brands varies enormously across countries, with high penetration in Western countries but limited success in Eastern countries. The common explanations for this state are related to market factors such as the development of big retailer chains or the power balance between retailers and manufacturers. However, the role of culture has been overlooked to explain this situation. This study aims to provide insights into the impact of culture on own-label brands performance. This thesis formulates and tests a conceptual framework linking Hofstede s (1980, 2001) five cultural dimensions (power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance & long-term orientation) to retail market development (size of the retail market) and own-label brands performance, controlling for three socio-economic variables: GDP per capita, Gini index and Government expenditure. Relevant literature is reviewed in order to develop hypotheses. The conceptual model is then tested upon a sample of 65 countries, utilising data collected via secondary sources and the application of structural equation modelling techniques. The results of this study indicate that three out of five Hofstede s cultural dimensions, power distance, individualism and uncertainty avoidance, have a significant impact on retail market development, which in turn, significantly influences own-label brands performance. Moreover, results show that individualism and long-term orientation have a significant direct impact on own-label brands performance. Past studies on this domain are restricted to one or two cultural dimensions and generally involve a limited number of countries. This research therefore pioneers in investigating the five national cultural dimensions across a high number of nations. The findings are important for retailers and may help them to adapt their own-label strategy according to the culture of the nation they are operating in.

The thesis deals with development of social networks, their characteristics and characteristics of users from global and regional point of view. The main part of the thesis is concerning social media marketing. It describes and analyzes current situation in social media marketing between firms and the most important aspects of brand strategies within social media. Finally, the thesis shows the aspects on examples of the most successful brands in social media marketing.

Les entreprises investissent de larges sommes dans la fidélisation de leur clientèle. La raison en est simple : les clients fidèles font partie des plus profitables pour les entreprises. Il est donc essentiel de comprendre ce qui amène les consommateurs à être fidèles. La recherche a ainsi considérablement étudié les antécédents de la fidélité à la marque. Ceux-ci peuvent être divisés en trois classes : les antécédents liés à la catégorie de produit, ceux liés au marketing mix du produit et ceux liés au consommateur. Cependant, et malgré l’intérêt des chercheurs pour ces questions, une étude plus approfondie est nécessaire du fait de la mutation des marchés ces dernières décennies. Un des changements les plus marquants est le développement des marques de niche. Le but de cette thèse est ainsi de mieux comprendre ce qui amène les consommateurs à être fidèle à la lumière de ces marques de niche. Nous étudions plus particulièrement les marques bio et de distributeur. Cette thèse comporte quatre études, chacune s’intéressant à une classe particulière d’antécédents. Nos résultats nous permettent, tout d’abord, de réexaminer l’effet de certains antécédents grâce à des données de panel récentes. Ils nous donnent ensuite des indications sur les effets des marques de niche sur la fidélité à la marque. Plus précisément, ils démontrent que le développement des marques de niche a un effet sur la fidélité à un niveau agrégé. De la même façon, on observe un effet modérateur du type de marques de niche sur l’effet de certains antécédents. Nous discutons les implications théoriques, méthodologiques et managériales de ces résultats. / Firms invest heavily in building and maintaining relationships with their customers. This is due to loyal customers being among the most profitable ones for firms. It is thus essential for managers and researchers to understand what drives customers to become loyal. Researchers have investigated brand loyalty antecedents at great length. These antecedents can be divided in three classes: product category, marketing mix and customer-related ones. Despite the large body of research on these antecedents, an update is necessary as markets have been changing in the last decades. One of the major changes has been the apparition and proliferation of niche brands (such as organic and private label brands) that are positioned to serve segments of consumers with specific needs. The aim of this Ph.D. research is to fill these gaps and get a better understanding of what influences brand loyalty in the light of niche brands’ development. We specifically focus on two types of niche brands: organic and private label brands. This Ph.D. research is comprised of four studies, each one investigating one class of antecedents. Our results first enable us to reassess the effect of certain antecedents of brand loyalty using recent panel purchase data. It also gives us some insights on the role of niche brands. It shows that the proliferation of niche brands and more specifically the proliferation of private label brands has an effect on brand loyalty at an aggregate level. In the same way, niche brands have a moderating effect on the impact of some antecedents of brand loyalty. Theoretical, methodological and managerial implications of these findings are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to establish whether co-branding could be adopted as a strategy for leveraging the favourable perceptions and attitudes of the strong constituent brand onto the co-brand, and, onto the weaker constituent brand. The study used a quantitative research methodology where the data is founded on the results from 369 surveys conducted in Johannesburg. The data was analysed using the independent t-test to accept or reject the proposed hypothesis. Using the Trust Based Commitment Model, the findings of this study show that customers’ commitment to the brand influences them to engage in more loyalty behaviours than those customers in mere functional or personal relationships with the brand. The implication of the results in this study is that the consumer’s commitment to the brand leads them to exhibit loyalty behaviours towards the brand, with the adoption of co-branded products being a possible outcome. As the study is limited to the impact of leveraging a strong sporting brand amongst the adult black male consumer segment in Johannesburg, the study cannot be used to make any inferences on the viability of adopting co-branding to leverage the strength of sporting brands amongst other consumer segments in South Africa.

Problem: Even though many types of research were conducted on generic brands, literature about Swedish and Lithuanian students on this perspective is almost nonexistent. Research questions: Which essential factors that shape the intention to purchase or not to purchase generic store brands differ between Lithuanian and Swedish students? What are the differences in the shopping behavior and perceptions of Swedish and Lithuanian students as consumers of generic brands? Does the packaging design highlight any differences between Lithuanian and Swedish students as consumers of generic brands? Methodology: We conducted an anonymous quantitative study. Lithuanian and Swedish students were the only respondents who were applicable for this research. All other respondents were filtered out. Conclusions: Lithuanians and Swedish students are somewhat similar in their intention to purchase generics. We noticed minor differences in their preferences for packaging. Furthermore, students differ in some aspects of shopping behavior and generic products preferences.

Title: Luxury Brands’ Storytelling on Social Media Date of Submission: 29th of May 2019 Authors: Klara Ekebring, Catarina Mellqvist Supervisor: Leon Caesarius Course: 2FE840, Master Thesis, 30 ECTS Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explore how luxury brands are communicating through brand storytelling on social media. Hence, this study is conducted from the perspective of luxury brands with the aim to provide academic and managerial indications of how luxury brands perceive storytelling of luxury value on social media platforms. Methodology: This thesis performs qualitative research and utilises an abductive research strategy in order to conduct exploratory research. Data is collected through the use of both primary and secondary data sources. The primary data collection is made by the implementation of semistructured interviews that are formed and analysed through a thematic method of analysis and the satisfying principle. The secondary data is collected through observation of social media accounts of the brands taking part in this study. Empirical findings: The data collected present features on social media that the brands are recognising when communicating through storytelling on the platforms. By informing followers about the brand by telling stories, emotions, mental connections and meaning are established. Further, the interaction that is supported on social media platforms is considered by the luxury brands and influences the role followers to have in the communication process. Conclusions: The present study has found indications that the luxury values’ brands communicate through storytelling remains unchanged and how luxury values are told through stories are adjusted to the context of social media platforms. This suggests that luxury brands communicate their luxury value through storytelling on social media platforms by recognising the features of the context and the interaction, which is argued to be fundamentally supported on the platforms. Hence, elevating the role followers have in the communication process.

Background  Along with an impressive increase of individual incomes and expansion of middle class populations (Lee & Nguyen, 2017), Vietnam is an attractive market where the fashion category receives the high interest among young consumers. Noticeably, while Western fast fashion is considered as a cheap product in most developed countries, it is kind of an expensive item in the Vietnam context. Although previous studies show that Vietnamese millennials are fond of the products from the West, Vietnam is a challenging market that requires Western fast fashion brands to have an insight into local consumer preferences since the local consumer’ values, attitudes, and behaviors are changing dramatically. Purpose  The purpose of this study is to explore attitudes of Vietnamese millennials towards Western fast fashion brands related to country of origin (COO) as well as the symbolic values of these brands in the mind of Vietnamese millennials. It thereby helps the Western companies to understand the Vietnamese market in terms of fast fashion, discovering potential investment opportunities and propose suitable marketing strategies to enter this market.  Method  Following the purpose of this study, an exploratory qualitative research with an abductive approach was utilised. Specifically, in-depth interviews with open-ended questions were employed to have an insight into the participants’ attitude towards Western fast fashion brands. Additionally, after the interviews, the participant's opinions were captured for a visualization of attributes of Western fast fashion brands. Conclusion The research results show that Vietnamese millennials generally have positive attitudes towards Western fast fashion brands related to COO. Nevertheless, in this particular study, the emerging symbolic values include sense of beauty,  educational background, social status as well as self-identity. The study also points out its delimitations and limitations, offers various possibilities for managerial implications, as well as provides some suggestions for future research.