<p>Purpose/Aim: The purpose of this thesis is to study the interaction between seller and buyer in a mobile phone store. The specific research questions under investigation are:Are there any underlying factors behind mobile purchase, and if so, what are they? Are mobile purchases driven by lifestyle factors and do customers try and create identities when purchasing new mobile phones?</p><p>Material/Method: The study employs an ethnographic method when trying to answer the posed research questions. I have under a period of two weeks studied the seller-buyer interaction in a mobile phone store. In order to further increase the accuracy of my findings, I have complemented my observations with a sample of buyer and seller interviews.</p><p>Main results: The observations and interviews were initially studied in isolation, resulting in different themes. These themes were then collapsed into some common themes pertaining to the different methods. Overall, I conclude three major findings from the seller-buyer interaction which I name, (1) context and influence, (2) status, and (3) social accepting.</p>

<p>Purpose/Aim: The purpose of this study is to examine how the advertisements of houses in the newspaper of Dagens Nyheter, have developed in layout, by text and image, during the last fifty years and to examine what part of the home is highlighted, as evident values of lifestyle.</p><p>Material/Method: By examining twenty advertisements from the newspapers every decade during the period of 1958-2008, the layout and lifestyle will be described and analyzed by a quantative and qualitive (discourse) method.</p><p>Main results: The advertisements has changed in many ways. The layout has drastically developed to a more personal layout of the estate agents and the trends of lifestyle have had an impact on how the agents have created the text in the advertisments to entice customers.</p>

<p>Abstract</p><p>Aim: The purpose of this thesis is to research how women think about fashion in relation to their self and to others. Can clothes be an expression of who we are who we want to be and how we look at others? What are the main characteristics in this type of communication and what kind of information can be distributed using this tool?</p><p>Method/Material: Interviews</p><p>Main results: Clothes can work as a tool to show who we are and what we are, mainly on short term. We use clothes for different purposes, sometimes we what to be seen and really show who we are and what we stand for and sometimes we just what to go with the flow and not be seen at all. We will always have a physical need for clothes but it is also a natural and important part of our individual expression and our identity.</p><p>Keywords: Fashion, Clothes, Identity, Lifestyle</p>

<p>ABSTRACT</p><p>Title: FASHIONING THE FEMALE -</p><p>An Analysis of the “Fashionable Woman” in ELLE Magazine - Now and Then</p><p>Number of pages: 57 (including diagrams and figures, excluding enclosures)</p><p>Author: Heidi Marie Nömm</p><p>Tutor: Ylva Ekström</p><p>Course: Media and Communication Studies D Level, Master Thesis</p><p>Period: Spring term 2007</p><p>University: Uppsala University Division of Media and Communication Department of Information Science</p><p>Purpose/Aim: The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate how fashion can function as a communication channel and how the modern Swedish woman is represented in ELLE magazine within two different fashion decades, in 1992 and 2007.</p><p>Material: Swedish ELLE magazines No. 1-4 1992 and No. 1-4 2007.</p><p>Method: A complementary combination of quantitative content analysis, semiotics and critical discourse analysis.</p><p>Main results: A number of differences, as well as similarities can be recognised between the fashions of 1992 and 2007. The latter one is characterised by women looking serious, sometimes even austere while 1992 shows often happy women. The fashion styles are much more casual, colourful and more accessorised by jewellery etc. in 1992, while the clothing in 2007 is often tight, body hugging and reveals more skin. Concerning ethnicity, 2007 only shows white women, often very feminine and wearing mostly dresses and rarely pants, whereas 1992 is characterised by ELLE’s effort to show a more multicultural and diversified picture of the female. The semiotic analysis has lead to the conclusions that women in 1992 were more natural and “real” whereas the female picture ELLE is presenting often has fictional or unnatural elements. The fashion styles often seem un-wearable in 2007, however also rather artistic. The woman of 2007 is living a more expensive and extravagant lifestyle than in 1992 where women were more of en depicted “average”.</p><p>Keywords: Fashion, communication, representation, lifestyle, cultural studies,feminism, ELLE magazine, femininity.</p>

Thesis (M.A. (Human Movement Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Thesis (Ph.D. (Pastoral Studies))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

Thesis (M.Sc. (Human Movement Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

Background: A strong brand is becoming an increasingly important factor when surviving on a competitive market. A strong brand can therefore be considered a strategically important resource. The relationship between a brand's strength and its distribution can decide the future of a brand in the long run. Lifestyle branding is becoming a more popular way of differentiating ones brand from the competition. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to identify factors which according to the lifestyle brand owners are central when measuring the strength of a brand. Furthermore it will also identify functions of the distribution channel over which the brand owner wishes to have control. The goal is to try to capture these dimensions in a measuring model. The model is aimed at being used by lifestyle brand owners in order to identify a position of the relationship of a brands strength and its distribution. Procedure: We chose to conduct a qualitative study and performed five interviews. Our chosen method was one of induction. By combining empirical data with existing theories of brand strength and distribution we have identified factors and functions which according to the brand owner are considered central. Results: When evaluating a brands strength the factors which could be considered are quality, recognition, recall, loyalty, and market share. To evaluate the distribution one can consider the control the brand owner has over the following functions of distribution; assortment, exposure, price, and knowledge of the personnel. We conclude that an increase of brand strength will provoke an increase of control over distribution. This relation also works in the opposite direction.

Abstract Aim: The purpose of this thesis is to research how women think about fashion in relation to their self and to others. Can clothes be an expression of who we are who we want to be and how we look at others? What are the main characteristics in this type of communication and what kind of information can be distributed using this tool? Method/Material: Interviews Main results: Clothes can work as a tool to show who we are and what we are, mainly on short term. We use clothes for different purposes, sometimes we what to be seen and really show who we are and what we stand for and sometimes we just what to go with the flow and not be seen at all. We will always have a physical need for clothes but it is also a natural and important part of our individual expression and our identity. Keywords: Fashion, Clothes, Identity, Lifestyle

<p>Aggressive fiscal and monetary policies by governments of countries and central banks in developed markets could somehow push inflation to some very high level in the long run. Due to the decreasing of pension fund benefits and increasing inflation rate, pension companies are selling inflation-linked products to hedge against inflation risk. Such companies are seriously considering the possible effects of inflation volatility on their investment, and some of them tend to include inflationary allowances in the pension payment plan. In this dissertation we study the management of pension funds of the defined contribution type in the presence of inflation-recession. We study how the fund manager maximizes his fund&rsquo / s wealth when the salaries and stocks are affected by inflation. In this regard, we consider the case of a pension company which invests in a stock, inflation-linked bonds and a money market account, while basing its investment on the contribution of the plan member. We use a benchmarking approach and martingale methods to compute an optimal strategy which maximizes the fund wealth.</p>