Da Gama Textiles, based in the Eastern Cape has seen its sales of Jacquard products being affected in recent years by cheaper imported products. A study was required to enable its senior management to develop a branding strategy for its Jacquard products. In addition, senior managers required information about how to take advantage of the 2010 World Cup. Data collection was conducted in July to September 2009, using two population groups. The first one was bed and breakfast managers in KwaZulu-Natal, with the second one being top ten Jacquard customers by volume in South Africa. Results showed that awareness levels for Da Gama’s Jacquard products are low, although more than half of respondents would be willing to receive literature from Da Gama in the future relating to Jacquard products. Among the top ten customers, loyalty levels were found to be high, however customers were not satisfied with Da Gama’s price levels and felt that designs and delivery lead times could be improved. A suggested branding strategy was drafted, targeting both population groups. A strategy to build brand awareness and brand loyalty levels was suggested for bed and breakfast managers, while a strategy to improve brand loyalty levels was suggested for the top ten customers. / Business Administration / M. Tech. (Business Administration)

Den här uppsatsen försöker kartlägga vilka produkt- och varumärkesegenskaper som driverkonsumenternas val av premiumöl på restaurang och redovisar en konsumentstudie gjord irestaurangmiljö. Tidigare forskning menar att det finns en outnyttjad potential förrestauranger som vill utnyttja det snabbt ökande intresset för hantverksöl genom co-brandingmed attraktiva premiumvarumärken. Studien visar att konsumenter av premiumöl pårestaurang värderar både produktegenskaper men också funktionella, sociala och emotionellavarumärkesegenskaper signifikant annorlunda mellan premiumöl och mainstreamöl. Studienvisar också att restaurangens utbud av premiumöl påverkar konsumentens val av restaurangoch att ökade kunskaper om öl kan vara en nyckel till ökad försäljning av hantverksöl. / This paper employs a sample of restaurant customers to explain consumer preferences forpremium beer brands. Previous research has pointed to the underexplored niche marketpotential of craft beer related to Food & Beverage operators and suggest increasing cobrandingwith premium beer brands in order to gain competitive advantage. This studyexplains a significant percentage of variance in premium consumer preferences for premiumbeer to mainstream beer comparing product attribute utitlity to brand equity dimensions(functional, social and emotional dimensions). This study also shows that the beer menu ofthe restaurant is likely to effect premium consumers choice of restaurant and that efforts toincrease consumer knowledge of beer can be the key to increased sales of craft beers. Thispaper is published in Swedish.

The diploma thesis deals with the niche market strategy as one of the marketing strategies used mainly among small and medium-sized companies. The aim of the thesis is to analyze successful Czech firms that indicate the occurrence of characteristics of the studied direction, and to determine the key factors that influenced their success. In the research, primary data obtained through on-line questionnaires and interviews with company representatives as well as secondary data downloaded from the Internet were used.

The apparent ‘invisibility’, or lack of representation of black men in contemporary mainstream gay visual cultures is the primary critical issue that the study engages with. The study presupposes that the frequency with which white men appear in popular representations of ‘gayness’ prevails over that of black men. In order to substantiate this assumption, this study analyses selected issues of the South African queer men’s lifestyle magazine Gay Pages. Gay visual cultures appear to simultaneously conflate ‘whiteness’ and normative homosexuality, while marginalising black gay men by means of positioning ‘blackness’ and ‘gayness’ as irreconcilable identity constructs. Images of the gay male ‘community’ disseminated by queer and mainstream media constantly offer stereotypical, distorted and race-biased notions of gay men, which ingrain the exclusive cultural equation of white men and ideal homomasculinity. The disclosure of racist and selectively homophobic ideologies, which seem to inform gay visual representation, is therefore the chief concern of the dissertation. By investigating selected images that ostensibly embody the complex cultural relationship between race and homomasculinity, the study addresses the following forms of visual representation: colonial representations of ‘blackness’; so-called gay ‘colonial’ representations; black self-representation; gay black self-representation; and contemporary representations of homomasculinity in advertisements and queer men’s lifestyle magazines such as Gay Pages. A genealogy of images is explored in order to illustrate the ways in which ‘blackness’ and ‘whiteness’ are respectively positioned as contradictory to and synonymous with dominant visual representations of homomasculinity in gay visual cultures. The hegemony of ‘whiteness’ in images sourced from colonial systems of representation, queer male art and commercial publicity, for example, are thus critiqued in order to address the various race-based prejudices that appear to be symptomatic of contemporary gay visual cultures. Copyright / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Visual Arts / unrestricted

台灣中小企業的發展歷程，從創造台灣經濟奇蹟的原始動力到1980年代後期起，因國內外環境改變而面對嚴重的挑戰並歷經重大的改變。直至今天更因全球化的衝擊，正面臨嚴苛的考驗。其中能成長為跨國大企業者，實在寥寥可數，而大部份均歷經生存與滅亡的不斷輪迴。加上台灣企業逐漸大型化，大型企業開始獲得台灣經濟的主導權，中小企業在台灣經濟的比重逐漸降低。然而，在全球供應鏈上，台灣不論是大型企業或中小企業大部份均只是扮演中段生產與代工的角色，供應鏈上的上游原料與材料技術卻無法占有一席之地。這樣的現況我們似乎只歸因於市場機制的優勝劣敗而鮮有進一步的具體解決方案與實際創新商業模式之深入探討。然而，從一些成功的案例我們發現其實有一些具特異性與價值性資源及能耐的中小企業在面對常態資源不足，市場生態丕變、與組織對應不良的困境中，善用自己的核心能力，從理論與應用科學的發展、核心能力的延伸與擴張，競爭策略的預應彈性與組織能力的強化做為變革的基礎，逐步發展其成功的創新商業模式。 本研究以”台灣中小型科技公司之競爭策略與競爭優勢”為架構，以” 噴墨列印產業 ”之利基創造為導入實例，進行對台灣中小企業科技核心能力的認知，應用策略、經營模式、與變革創新的階段性探討與分析。期能從競爭策略的面向，提出問題與理論驗證，並提出一成功營運模式的研擬。此外，再以其在高競爭障礙市場的成功實績，進一步探討台灣中小企業如何善用獨持資源與策略轉折，創新創造利基市場，由小做大，建立跨國的成功創新商業模式，甚至建立自有品牌。最後，期望本研究的理論參據與實績驗證的內容和建議對台灣中小企業在困境中的力爭上游能有所助益。 / Since the time of creating the original driving force of Taiwan's economic miracle to late 1980s, the development of Taiwanese SMEs has been facing serious challenges and experiencing major changes due to rapid changes in domestic and international environment. Even today they are facing a more severe test because of the impact of globalization, and very few of them are able to grow to large multinational companies while most of them have been going through the continuous cycle of survival and extinction. Furthermore, Taiwanese enterprises have become larger in scale gradually, and large companies have begun to gain dominance of Taiwanese economy. The proportion of SMEs in Taiwanese economy has gradually reduced. However, in the global supply chain, most of the enterprises in Taiwan, no matter SMEs or MNCs, play the role of “ production and OEM/ODM” and rarely place the upstream of the supply chain as suppliers of raw materials and technology. This current situation seems to be attributed to the market mechanism fitness and few further specific and practical solutions have been discussed and conducted earnestly into the innovative business model in depth. However, from a number of successful cases, we discover that there are some SMEs, who are capable of core competencies and special advantages yet inadequate resources and capabilities, the changing market ecology, and the plight of organization corresponding ability, have successfully developed their own business models by their core competencies and the development of theoretical and applied science, the precise implementation of extension and expansion of core competencies and the strengthen of pro- action flexibility of competitive strategies as well as the capability of organizing, and gradually achieved the innovation and progressive development of the unique successful business model. In this research, the technical core competences, application strategies, innovative transformation and new business model of Taiwan's SMEs will be carried into analysis and discussion based on the framework of " competitive strategy and competitive advantage of High-Tech SMEs in Taiwan " setting the foundation of "The ink jet printing industries" as an illustration. For each stage of competitive strategies, the questions will be presented with theories to verify, and the simulation of successfully-operated models will be brought out. In addition, from the successful examples in high competitive barrier market, this research will further explore how good Taiwanese SMEs are by using the core capabilities and strategy transition to gradually innovate the global niche market with successful innovative business models, and even establish their own brands. Finally, I hope the theoretical reference, content and recommendations of performance verification can be helpful to get through the plight of the striving SMEs in Taiwan.