Background and problem: As Internet usage has become increasingly common and important in our society it is crucial for companies to acknowledge the impact of online branding. As differences between products are decreasing it is no longer sufficient to compete solely on price or quality. Thus the importance of brands and branding is increasing. Even though branding is a heavily research topic, almost all research has been performed with consumer markets in mind, more or less ignoring industrial markets. This is done in spite of most markets being predominated by industrial firms. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how printer manufac-turers’ online brand messages can be perceived regarding functional benefits and representational satisfaction, and how this may affect the examined brands. Method: To fulfil our purpose we chose to conduct a qualitative method, since this would provide us with in-depth answers. To structure our study we created a questionnaire to use as an analysical tool for our examination of the selected companies. Conclusions: The conclusions drawn from this study are that printer manufacturers mainly emphasise the functional factors of their products to a large extent. Further, almost all brands of our sample can be perceived to be augmented ones. Of the few companies with highly developed brands, those with separate web sites for business and consumer buyers were in majority. Finally, since most printer manufacturers stress functionality the added-value of their brands is not as sustainable as it could be.

<p>Background and problem: As Internet usage has become increasingly common and important in our society it is crucial for companies to acknowledge the impact of online branding. As differences between products are decreasing it is no longer sufficient to compete solely on price or quality. Thus the importance of brands and branding is increasing. Even though branding is a heavily research topic, almost all research has been performed with consumer markets in mind, more or less ignoring industrial markets. This is done in spite of most markets being predominated by industrial firms.</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how printer manufac-turers’ online brand messages can be perceived regarding functional benefits and representational satisfaction, and how this may affect the examined brands.</p><p>Method: To fulfil our purpose we chose to conduct a qualitative method, since this would provide us with in-depth answers. To structure our study we created a questionnaire to use as an analysical tool for our examination of the selected companies.</p><p>Conclusions: The conclusions drawn from this study are that printer manufacturers mainly emphasise the functional factors of their products to a large extent. Further, almost all brands of our sample can be perceived to be augmented ones. Of the few companies with highly developed brands, those with separate web sites for business and consumer buyers were in majority. Finally, since most printer manufacturers stress functionality the added-value of their brands is not as sustainable as it could be.</p>

This study investigates a debatable subject of branding; building brand equity in industrial service markets, particularly within the logistics service industry. The extant literature provided many brand equity models, the brand resonance pyramid being the most predominant one. However, the literature suggests the model should be amended for the B2B service markets as the industry has numerous different characteristics to consider. Servbrand Framework is one of the undergoing efforts to provide a brand equity framework applicable within the B2B service industry as an amended version of the brand resonance pyramid. Nevertheless, the model is based on a single empirical context. This research assesses the transferability of the model to the logistics service industry and therefore provides a guideline to build a strong brand in the logistics service industry. The research took an interpretivist approach with an exploratory qualitative research design to apply the Servbrand Framework within the logistics industry. Sixteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with the decision-makers in purchasing logistics services within the automotive industry in Germany, who were subject to the non-probability sampling process. The results indicated that the Servbrand Framework is transferable to the logistics service industry with minor changes. Two new subdimensions are proposed as ‘service experience’ and ‘consideration’ to be part of the client-brand opinions block within the framework. Also, the ‘servicescape’ and ‘personableness’ subdimensions were not relevant for the context of the study. Logistics service providers can build strong brands by initially creating salience among the customers by using corporate naming strategies attached to core competencies. Service providers also need to develop good performance and people attributes connected to their brand, which will create positive brand opinions and, therefore, long-term relationships and partnerships. The people aspect was a key element to build strong brands and facilitate the brand's meaning to the customers.

As organisations try to emerge from the recent economic downturn, they attempt to enter different markets to decrease their dependency on their core market. Due to high costs in R&amp;D and the risk of failure, organisations try to sell the core components of their products to business partners who can incorporate these components into their own offering. Using a qualitative research method, we studied the case of TACHI as a player in the construction equipment industry. The purpose of the research was to find factors for maintaining successful business partnerships within this industry and also the role of co- branding in these business partnerships. After analysing the results of our study and reflecting on the theoretical framework, we concluded that operational compatibility, and commitment and trust were considered as the key factors that were most important in making business partnerships work successfully. Interestingly, players in the construction equipment industry do not consider co-branding as a strategy for entering new markets. However, we discovered a new phenomenon, which is informal branding, and we recommend this as a topic for future research.