In recent years, changes in government policies, supply and demand fundamentals and price patterns in the cotton market have led to several shifts in how producers market their cotton. This thesis examined producer cash marketing choices, including direct and indirect hedging, in four different periods since 2001. Special emphasis was placed on the 2010 season - a season characterized by historically high prices and volatility. Producer marketing behavior was modeled as a discrete choice between four different cash market outlets: forward contracting with a merchant, post-harvest cash contracting, contracting with a merchant pool and contracting with a cooperative pool. Hedging was characterized as a tool that was used in conjunction with one of the four discrete choices. This thesis employed multinomial logit estimation to determine the influence of factors on producers' choice of primary cash marketing decisions. Data were collected from a mail survey of the population of cotton growers in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. The most important determinants of cotton cash marketing choices were 1) prior participation in cooperative pools, beliefs about the value of pre-harvest pricing, beliefs about the performance of merchant pools, willingness to accept lower prices to reduce risk, and several socio-economic variables.

Denna studie behandlar ideella organisationer inom den svenska ideella sektorn samt deras prioriteringar av val i marknadsföring i form av marknadsföringskanaler och marknadsföringsmetoder. Ideella organisationer bedriver verksamhet utan vinstsyfte och har ofta som mål att sprida ett budskap, en vision, ett uppdrag eller att hjälpa till i olika sammanhang. På detta vis skiljer de sig ofta ganska mycket från mer kommersiella organisationerna. Utan att lägga resurser på insamlingskostnader, däribland marknadsföring, så når ideella organisationer inte ut till givare, vilket innebär mindre likvida medel till ändamålet. Det finns därför en avvägning att göra i hur mycket som ska fördelas åt marknadsföringen inom en ideell organisation eftersom målet är att kostnaderna ska hållas till ett minimum och att merparten av insamlade medel ska nå ändamålet. Teorierna som behandlas i denna studie är NPO Marketing mix, som är en variant av den klassiska Marketing mix modellen, anpassad för ideella verksamheter. SOEP-modellen som är en variant av den klassiska PESO-modellen samt ICT: capacity and barriers, som behandlar olika typer av barriärer som ofta förekommer hos ideella verksamheter. Dessa teorier ligger till grund för hur empirin har analyserats och har hjälpt till att besvara frågeställningen. Metoden är av en kvantitativ ansats med en tvärsnittsdesign där enkäter samlats in från 112 ideella organisationer av totalt 431 aktiva organisationer, alla med en 90-konto stämpel.  Slutsatsen som denna studie kommit fram till är att delad media är det primära kanalvalet bland ideella organisationer på den svenska ideella marknaden. Anledningen till detta beror främst på att resurser i form av pengar och personal anses som den största barriären för ideella verksamheter. Det var även tydligt att syftet med organisationen var den primära faktorn till varför ideella organisationer upplever att givare fortsätter att donera. Trots detta kunde det konstateras att relationen med givarna också är en essentiell faktor som bidrar till donationer. Denna studie visar således på att 25 %-taket som Svensk Insamlingskontroll satt upp inte upplevs som ett hinder för de flesta ideella verksamheter då dessa lär sig att anpassa sig utefter de restriktioner som finns. Slutligen kan denna studie bekräfta, likt tidigare studier kring detta ämne, att marknadsföringsmetoderna SNS och WOM är de mest populära bland ideella organisationer. / This thesis sets out to analyse non-profit organizations, operating within the Swedish non-profit sector, whom are prioritizing various forms of marketing channels and marketing methods to capitalize on monetary, as well as profitable gains. Non-profit entities are ultimately driven, without a definitive end goal, to maximise financial yield for their own economic progression. Instead, non-profits presently serve purposes of spreading an often positive message, a revolutionary vision or simply that they aim to achieve a goal in which areas of need are attended to, nurtured and re-fulfilled. Without allocating resources to the objective of monetary collection, such as differing marketing avenues, non-profit organisations cannot expect to reach and affect their supporters to act on their behalf (donation or volunteering). This creates a demand within the non-profit sector to balance face value costs and assemble trade-offs when choosing to engage in marketing activities, seeing as their final goal, as established, is to provide as much financial support to aid selected areas of need. The theories used in this thesis include the NPO Marketing mix, which is a variant of the classical Marketing mix model, customized specifically to fit non-profit organizations. In addition to this is the SOEP-model, which originates from the PESO-model, and is a rearranged order of how one prioritizes media types and content to suit the non-profit sector. Finally there is ICT; capacity and barriers, which includes different kinds of barriers and obstacles that occur in the non-profit sector. These theories are fundamental for how the empirical data has been analysed and how the issue, in this thesis, has been addressed. The method in which this thesis has been conducted is that of a quantitative survey design, in which 112 surveys were collected from a total of 431 non-profit organizations within the Swedish non-profit sector, all with the “90-konto” label.  The conclusion that this thesis came to was that shared media is the primary channel choice among non-profit organizations within the Swedish non-profit market. The reasoning behind this is mainly due to the fact that resources, in the form of capital and manpower, are considered as the biggest barrier for Swedish non-profits when pursuing marketing activities. It was also clear that the organization's sole purpose was the primary factor for why non-profit organizations feel that donors continue to donate. Despite this, it could be stated that the relationship with such donors is also an essential factor which contributes to donations, since it is the initial step in building trust and constructive recognition. This study thus shows that the 25%-ceiling set by the Swedish fundraising control is not perceived as an obstacle for most non-profit activities as they have learnt to adapt to the existing restrictions. Finally, this study can confirm, like previous studies on this topic, that the SNS and WOM marketing methods are the most popular among non-profit organizations.