The role of marketing and marketing communication in hospitals has grown in the last decade. The need for hospitals to make careful decisions about their marketing communication efforts is mandated, given the changes taking place in the hospital industry. The purpose of this dissertation was to conduct empirical research to determine whether for-profit and non-profit hospitals perceive and utilize promotion as a marketing strategy element. The two steps taken included: identifying important factors considered by hospital administrators and marketing staff in the development of communication messages designed for patients, hospital staff and medical staff; and testing the factors developed and studying the attitudes of hospital personnel toward promotion using a national sample of hospitals. In phase 1, focus group interviews were conducted in a surrogate for-profit hospital and a surrogate non-profit hospital. In phase 2, an original mail questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 80 hospitals. A total of 38 hospitals participated, providing 114 usable responses. Test statistics included content analysis, Chi-Square, Pearson correlation coefficient and Analysis of Variance. The results of the focus group study indicated the practice of marketing in hospitals is in its early growth stages and marketing is viewed as nothing more than advertising and public relations. The results of the mail survey indicated that respondents in small for-profit hospitals with 20 to 30 years of experience as professionals, with key decision making authority, are favorably disposed to marketing and marketing communication. It was also found that respondents in large non-profit hospitals are very positive towards marketing. In contrast, respondents in medium and large for-profit hospitals, who are not directly involved in decision making, tend to be less positive towards marketing. The study serves as a basis for future research which may involve, (1) a larger sample frame, (2) hospitals in inner-city and rural areas, (3) investigation of the association between hospital ownership and hospital efficiency, and (4) development of a profile of respondents by title held, in hospitals.

Práce se zabývá marketingovými aktivitami společnosti Telefónica O2 Czech Republic, a.s. v roce 2009. Tyto aktivity analyzuje ze dvou pohledů, z pohledu rezidentního a korporátního. Součástí práce je i konkurenční analýza a porovnání aktivit největších konkurentů společnosti Telefónica O2. The thesis deals with Telefónica O2 marketing activities over the year of 2009. These marketing activites are analysed from residential/consumer and business point of view. Part of the thesis is also competition analysis.

<p>Advertising to children has been a topic of discussion for many years. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission is still researching way to better regulate advertising to children. This thesis investigates the persuasion intent as inferred from video content strategies, themes, and descriptions associated with YouTube videos that target preschool-age children posted on the Ryan ToysReview YouTube channel. With the advancement of technology and children?s growing ability to interact with technology, including social media networks, marketing and advertising professionals are finding new ways to promote toys to children during their unsupervised time on such platforms. From the research presented in the Literature Review, persuasion intent may be presented even if it is not in traditional advertising including YouTube videos. The significance of this study is to help add to the existing research that seeks to identify how YouTube videos may contribute to what scholars understand about the way children learn new skills and behavior and believe is associated with how they are being socialized into consumers. This was done to encourage change in regulatory issues by the Federal Trade Commission as well as suggest appropriate changes or updates to skills presently taught to future advertising professionals in undergraduate advertising curricula.

<p> Social media allows people to communicate and interact with friends and acquaintances around the world. This innovative avenue of advertisement is now helping companies create content and turn information into profit. This study seeks to understand the effects of social network advertisement (focusing on Facebook) on the biggest population of Facebook users. This population between 30&ndash;36 years old is highly engaged in Facebook; spending a critical part of their time on social media channels for several reasons such as: increasing their social life, networking, locating old friends, etc. Through the uses and gratifications theory, this research was able to examine the motivations behind users social media usage and how their levels of engagement in social networking sites can influence their purchase behaviors. The purpose of this study was to show the relationship between motivations for using Facebook in the age group previously mentioned and engagement/interaction with Facebook Advertising. Statistical tests were conducted to determine the relationship between elements of uses and gratifications theory and engagement with Facebook ads.</p><p>

This thesis describes in theory tools of marketing communication and in particular their practical use in influencing the image of MINI brand and its products. It analyzes typical MINI customers. The thesis describes the position of the brand on the Czech automotive market and aims to recommend marketing activities that will lead to higher sales of MINI products in the Czech Republic.

Motrio is a brand of non-original spare parts, that belongs to the Renault Group portfolio and that is successful within few last years which are influenced by the economic crisis. The concept is based on the low price offer of the spare parts. The object is to create an optimal marketing B2B communication for the Motrio brand in the R3 site (independent services) in the region of Middle Europe (Czech republic, Slovakia and Hungary).

<p>Date: 2008 June 08</p><p>Course: Master thesis</p><p>Authors: Haiyan Wang, Teewin Wongrattanavichit</p><p>Tutor: Jan Löwstedt</p><p>Title: The study of marketing communication effectiveness and</p><p>customer perception of Tuna Park shopping centre</p><p>Introduction: The research about the effectiveness of marketing</p><p>communication tool and customer perception was studied in</p><p>Tuna Park shopping center, Eskilstuna. The marketing strategy</p><p>and objective was to compare with the results from the</p><p>questionnaire in order to measure the effect of each</p><p>advertising and marketing communication tools.</p><p>Problem: “How should the company invest in the marketing</p><p>communication tool in the years to come”.</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of the study is to measure the effectiveness of</p><p>marketing communication tools used in Shopping center</p><p>through the focal company ‘Tuna Park Eskilstuna’ using the</p><p>framework of Hierarchy-of-effects model and its variation and</p><p>FCB grid.</p><p>Method: The primary data was collected by the interview and the</p><p>questionnaire was conducted with respondents that were</p><p>randomly invited to answer the questionnaire on the webpage.</p><p>Analysis and conclusion: The television media has the highest reach and high effect on</p><p>respondents, The radio media is lesser in effect. Newspaper is</p><p>another high reach media while the outdoor advertising</p><p>considered effective but has the least reach</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>

Date: 2008 June 08 Course: Master thesis Authors: Haiyan Wang, Teewin Wongrattanavichit Tutor: Jan Löwstedt Title: The study of marketing communication effectiveness and customer perception of Tuna Park shopping centre Introduction: The research about the effectiveness of marketing communication tool and customer perception was studied in Tuna Park shopping center, Eskilstuna. The marketing strategy and objective was to compare with the results from the questionnaire in order to measure the effect of each advertising and marketing communication tools. Problem: “How should the company invest in the marketing communication tool in the years to come”. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to measure the effectiveness of marketing communication tools used in Shopping center through the focal company ‘Tuna Park Eskilstuna’ using the framework of Hierarchy-of-effects model and its variation and FCB grid. Method: The primary data was collected by the interview and the questionnaire was conducted with respondents that were randomly invited to answer the questionnaire on the webpage. Analysis and conclusion: The television media has the highest reach and high effect on respondents, The radio media is lesser in effect. Newspaper is another high reach media while the outdoor advertising considered effective but has the least reach

The phenomenon of blogs is growing rapidly and is expected to increase even in a more rapid pace (Technorati, 2006, November 6). As Wright (2006) discuss; blogs provides a new way of communicating with customers, as customers want to be talked with, not to. Companies have newly started to pay attention to this and as a result, the concept of blog marketing has been born. The little research that has been done on blog marketing has been done from a company perspective. However, no or little research has yet considered how consumers use blogs. In order to use blogs as a communication tool, it is of huge importance for companies to understand how consumers use blogs in their decision making. Hence the purpose is; “To explore how and why consumers use blogs in their decision making process“ In order to answer this purpose we conducted nine interviews on young adults, as previous research suggests that this population use blogs the most (Tremayne, 2007). From the collected data a qualitative analyze was made in which the empirical findings was analyzed with support of the theoretical framework. From the analysis we found that consumers use blogs throughout their decision making. Within the consumers’ decision making, collaborative blogs was mostly used as the consumers could get more input from a larger audience and because this type of blog tended to cover a specific topic of interest for the consumers. Consumers were found mainly writing in the blogs when they had knowledge to contribute with or when they needed information that they could not otherwise find in the blogs. We also noticed that consumers turned to groups they belonged to, so called normative group, or they turned to groups that they did not belong to, so called comparative groups. These groups influenced the consumer by providing them with knowledge and by giving them positive and negative confirmation on their choice of purchase. However normative groups also persuaded the consumer to buy products in order to belong to the group. Besides this, a pattern of characteristics of the individuals that the consumer blogged with were noticed. Consumers wanted user experiences and thus the vast majority of these individuals they turned to, seemed to be consumers themselves, with relevant product experiences. The consumers also seem to blog more with certain individuals, whose opinions were valued more. These individuals often shared the latest information on products. Lastly we found that consumers seemed to be selective when reading blog posts. The blog posts needed to contain detailed- and up-to-date information. Moreover, consumers wanted blog post to be written by other consumers because they saw them as more credible then companies. The consumers also chose to read blog posts that show similarities be-tween the consumer and the blogger in terms of either usage pattern of product or preference for product choices.