<p>The international environment today has been undergoing unprecedented change and many companies are seeking new ways to stand out from the competition by sustaining their competitive advantage. Internationalization and firms’ consolidation increase competition in the dynamic marketplace .Companies are no longer staying competitive simply through focusing on product quality and pricing as customers are becoming more high-demanding related to customer service offer. This issue directs the companies’ main focus today to address the customer needs in the ever-changing environment.In order to be the winners in the marketplace, timing and superior customer service are becoming the keys to attain competitive advantage for a company. Time-based competition is an important issue that many companies are facing currently as customers are becoming more time-sensitive and time-oriented in terms of better services, reliability and delivery. To keep up with the changes in demand from customers, it is important to satisfy customers’ objectives and needs in order to provide superior customer service, thus, establish good relationship with them. In the ever-changing and dynamic business environment company needs to adapt and exploit the changes in order to meet the new challenges in the marketplace. It is crucial for the company to respond to changing needs of existing customers and seeking to serve new customers externally. The ways to renew the customers’ services and how they are delivered are critical capabilities for many companies to acquire nowadays. This leads to increasing interaction between marketing and logistics where logistics is considered a platform for supporting new strategic moves on the market.This master thesis originates from a need to research the links between customer service improvement and Just-in-time distribution in order to sustain competitive advantage. We propose to extend the Just-In-Time concept to incorporate a customer perspective, which results in changes the warehousing, ordering and delivering routines. Subsequently, this creates timing ability as well as coordination of information and material flows through timely decisions, which are difficult for competitors to emulate. Based on our analysis and conclusion, companies are recommended to shift from the traditional production-oriented to market-oriented focuses through incorporation of customers' perspective into the value chain. To deploy this, companies should start from the customer end and understand customers' needs and establish mutual beneficial relationships with customers. Long-lasting business relationships ultimately determine the success of the company. Furthermore, we conclude that successful learning to change the routines requires time for the transformation of traditional delivery practice to perform direct deliveries activities. They are based on the common understanding of the tasks and rules as well as common codes of internal coordination processes.</p>

<p>Titel: Intern Marknadsföring och Kundrelationer</p><p>– hur förhåller sig dessa till varandra?</p><p>Sökord: Intern marknadsföring, kundrelationer, relationsmarknadsföring</p><p>Problem: Hur förhåller sig ett företags interna marknadsföring till dess kundrelationer? samt: Hur förhåller sig företagets kundrelationer till dess interna marknadsföring?</p><p>Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att förstå och förklara hur företaget Leine & Linde AB:s interna marknadsföring samt deras kundrelationer förhåller sig till varandra.</p><p>Metod: Uppsatsen bygger på teori kring intern marknadsföring och kundrelationer samt en kvalitativ fallstudie med undersökning på ett svenskt företag, Leine & Linde AB.</p><p>Slutsats: Slutsatserna från studien visar att den interna marknadsföringen och kundrelationerna förhåller sig till varandra genom påverkan mellan olika faktorer för de olika ämnesområdena. Förhållandet kan även ses börja från kundrelationerna, då fallföretaget Leine & Linde inte gjorde något utan ett kundbehov.</p> / <p>Title: Internal Marketing and Customer Relations</p><p>- How do they relate to each other?</p><p>Words for search: Internal marketing, customer relations, relationship marketing</p><p>Problem: How does a company’s internal marketing relate to their customer relations? and: How does the company’s customer relations relate to their internal marketing?</p><p>Purpose: The purpose with this thesis is to understand and explain how the internal marketing and the customer relations in the company Leine & Linde AB relate to each other.</p><p>Method: This thesis is built on theories about internal marketing and customer relations together with a qualitative casestudy with an examination with interviews at a Swedish company, Leine & Linde AB.</p><p>Findings: The findings from this thesis shows that the internal marketing and the customer relations relate to each other through how the different factors in the subjects effect each other. The relation between internal marketing and customer relations begins from the customer relations, seen to that the case company Leine & Linde did not do anything without a need from the customers.</p>

<p><strong>Background: </strong>The background shows that since the consumption patterns constantly are changing and the Internet usage is growing it creates more opportunities for the companies to interact through new media. There are two ways to go for companies that intend to use social media as a marketing strategy, to be in the possession of their own information or get help from a third party.</p><p><strong>Problem definition: </strong>What factors are important in the long term survival of the companies when choosing a social media?</p><p><strong>Objective: </strong>The objective of this essay is to analyze and evaluate the personal blog and the company blog as an information technology strategy.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>The essay will have a hermeneutic and quantitative approach in the form of a survey.<strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Theories: </strong>Consumer Behavior, The Buying Decision Process, Involvement Theory, Business Concept, Branding, Total Communication Theory, Word-of-mouth/web and Service Profit Chain.</p><p><strong>Empiric: </strong>The empiric will consist of the results from the survey.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The result shows that the blog is effective as an information technology strategy however the companies should adapt their choice of blog to the products that they sell.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Important factors for companies that seek long-term survival are involvement, communication and loyalty. It is also important to use a relationship marketing approach.<strong></strong></p><p> </p>

<p><strong>Syfte:  </strong>Syftet är att analysera och utvärdera Apoteket Shop och The Body Shop som varumärke</p><p><strong>Metod:  </strong>Denna studie har utgått ifrån ett holistiskt synsätt. Det valda teoretiska förhållningssättet är deduktion och en kvalitativ forskningsmetod i form av djupintervjuer samt kvantitativ forskningsmetod i form av en enkätundersökning.</p><p><strong>Teorier:  </strong>Involvement Theory, Brand, Brand Strategy, Brand Equity, Business Concept, Planning Philosophies, Brand Service Value Chain, Total Communication.</p><p><strong>Empiri:  </strong>Totalt 6 st djupintervjuer med representanter på Apoteket Shop och The Body Shop. Enkätundersökning med 25 stycken kunder på vardera företag.</p><p><strong>Resultat:  </strong>Resultatet visar att Apoteket Shop har ett långsiktigt tänkande men en bit kvar i implementeringsarbetet. The Body Shop har ett långsiktigt tänkande vilket även syns tydligt i deras arbete. </p><p><strong>Slutsats:  </strong>De otillbörliga konkurrensfördelar som Apoteket Shop har är att de redan tillhör ett starkt och väletablerat varumärke. Om Apoteket Shop inte arbetar så att organisationsutformningen är i samklang med den starka affärsidén/varumärket kommer de otillbörliga konkurrensfördelar endast att vara kortsiktiga då förutsättningarna för en långsiktighet inte finns inom organisationen.    </p> / <p><strong>Purpose:  </strong>The purpose is to analyze and evaluate Apoteket Shop and The Body Shop as a brand.  </p><p><strong>Method:  </strong>This essay will have a holistic approach. The chosen theoretical approach is deductive. Qualitative methods will be used in the form of deep interviews as well as quantitative methods in the form a questionnaire survey.  </p><p><strong>Theories:  </strong>Involvement Theory, Brand, Brand Strategy, Business Concept, Planning Philosophies, Brand Service Value Chain, Total Communication</p><p><strong>Empiric:  </strong>A total of six deep interviews with representatives from Apoteket Shop and The Body Shop. Questionnaire survey with 25 customers from each company.</p><p><strong>Result:  </strong>The result shows that Apoteket Shop has a long–term thinking in their work but needs to work more with taking these thoughts into action. The Body Shop has also a long–term thinking which clearly shows in the way they work.     </p><p><strong>Conclusion:  </strong>The undue competitive advantages that Apoteket Shop has are the fact that they already belong to a strong and well established brand. If Apoteket Shop doesn’t work so that the structure of their organization is in tune with the strong business concept/brand, these undue advantages will only be short-term since the conditions for a long-term doesn´t exist in the organization.</p>

<p>The aim of this essay is to examine how the Internet functions as a communication channel to Event Marketing. We have investigated what makes the Internet unique as a communication channel for events and how Internet has been used for event marketing. We have mapped fundamental theories within marketing, media, communications and human-computer interaction, which together describe event marketing. We have carried out case studies on two event-marketing projects where the Internet has played a major role. The first project was XCT which is a project developed by the company Eventum AB. The second project we used as a case study was TelecomCity-Live developed by the company Wildell Intergrerad Kommunikation. Information has mainly been gathered through qualitative interviews. In conclusion we found that the Internet is used as a complementary communication channel to Event Marketing. The Internet can in a unique way extend the event. Furthermore it is easier to communicate and interact with the target group. Internet is also a more cost effective communication channel than traditional communication channels such as mail outs. We also found that the capabilities of the Internet are not fully used since companies have not yet got the knowledge of its technical value and possibilities.</p>

<p><!--StartFragment--><p>Det har inom området marknadsföring skett en förskjutning av fokus, från enbart aktioner i syfte att öka försäljningen till att företag i dag vill skapa en relation med sin kund. Tanken bygger på att företagen ur ett långsiktigt perspektiv ska vinna på att delta i relationen, även om relationen ibland medför ökade kostnader, andra uppoffringar och utbyten av bland annat känslig information.</p><p> </p><p>Vi har undersökt fenomenet genom att läsa litteratur inom området samt utfört en egen undersökning av Roupéz kunder där vi fått fram vilka faktorer som är viktiga för att en långsiktig relation ska existera. Vi har också haft tillgång till tidigare undersökningar som gjorts åt Roupéz.</p><p> </p><p>Roupéz är verksamma inom profil och presentreklambranschen. Deras mål är att på ett enkelt och rationellt sätt stärka kundens varumärke genom att fördjupa kundrelationen och öka teamkänslan hos personalen. Roupéz startades år 1989 och har kontor i Värnamo, Jönköping och Växjö.</p><p> </p><p>De faktorer som är viktiga vid skapandet och bibehållandet av en relation av affärskaraktär är enligt litteraturen, vår egen studie och de tidigare undersökningarna att företagen arbetar i interaktion där det sker utbyte socialt, utbyte av information men även utbyte i processer så som produktion. Andra viktiga faktorer för att en relation ska kunna existera är tillit företagen emellan och att parterna är engagerade och kommunicerar i de processer som hör relationen till. Vi vill slutligen peka på att i ett föränderligt affärsklimat är det viktigt att underhålla relationen genom att arbeta kreativt och innovativt i de processer där företagen interagerar.</p><!--EndFragment--></p>

<p> </p><p>Bloggen har under senare år vuxit i popularitet, både bland privatpersoner och företag. En mängd praktiker har hyllat bloggen som det nya kommunikationsmediet inom marknadsföring, främst på grund av bloggens potential att skapa förtroende och bygga dialog med företagets kunder.</p><p>Marknadsföringen har idag blivit mer utmanande och företagen får allt svårare att vinna kundernas uppmärksamhet i dagens informationstäta samhälle. Kraven på företagens kommunikation förändras: kunderna vill bli talade med istället för till och det finns ett tilltagande behov av att kommunikationen ska bygga förtroende med externa publiker. En trend som kan uppfattas är att alltfler företag går mot ett relationsorienterat synsätt av marknadsföring för att knyta kunderna närmare sig.</p><p>Trots företagsbloggens ökande populäritet är de många företag som väljer att inte blogga. Orsakerna menas vara rädsla för exponering. Forskningsområdet är tämligen outforskat.</p><p>Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka om bloggen som marknadskommunikationskanal kan användas för att skapa förtroende och dialog. Fokus ligger i att hitta indikationer på att bloggar används för att skapa förtroende och dialog, samt företagens upplevda nytta av det eventuella förtroende- och dialogskapandet genom bloggen. För att svara på syftet undersöks tre svenska kommunikationsföretag: Åkestam Holst, Henrik Skotth Konsult AB och Kompago. Analysen sker med utgångspunkt från relevanta teorier. Intervjuer med de ansvariga bloggförfattarna och insamling av bloggtexter har genomförts för att svara på syftet. Undersökningen sker ur ett företagsperspektiv.</p><p>Resultaten indikerar starkt på att bloggen har stora möjligheter att skapa förtroende och bygga dialog, samt att de undersökta kommunikationsföretagen använder bloggen för de ändamålen. Den bloggrelaterade nyttan som företagen upplevt är stärkande av det egna varumärket, mervärde i befintliga relationer och initierande av nya.</p><p>Undersökningens resultat ämnar sprida ljus över bloggen som marknadskommunikationskanal. Då uppsatsen endast belyser företagens perspektiv och därigenom inte kan fastställa att förtroende och dialog verkligen skapas, är rekommendationer för framtida forskning att undersöka kundens perspektiv.</p><p> </p>

<p>Den här uppsatsen behandlar mobilmarknadsföring och ämnar svara på frågan om hur lämplig mobiltelefonen egentligen är som relationsmarknadsföringskanal. Vi har funnit de metoder som är vanligast förekommande för att sprida reklambudskap och jämför hur bra de uppfyller kraven för att vara relationsskapande. För att utröna detta har vi intervjuat branschkunniga personer från två av landets största mobiloperatörer samt personer som arbetar på nordiska mobilmarknadsföringsbyråer. För att mäta styrkan hos mobilmarknadsföring som relationsfrämjande marknadskanal har vi genom modeller från relationsmarknadsföringen skapat ett eget ramverk vilket vi applicerat på olika marknadsföringsmetoder via mobiltelefonen. Resultatet av vår studie visar på att mobilmarknadsföring kan användas för att bygga långsiktiga, ömsesidiga och vinstgivande relationer, vid rätt användning. Den metod som uppfyllde kriterierna bäst var applikationer. Övriga metoder som vi undersökte kan till viss del användas som komplement inom ramen för relationsmarknadsföring. Vi belyser även att mobilmarknadsföring verkar på en omogen marknad där tekniska aspekter, kunskapsöverföring och standardiseringar måste byggas ut för att genomslagskraften av mobiltelefonen som hjälpmedel inom relationsmarknadsföring ska bli så stor som möjligt.</p> / <p>This thesis is dealing with mobile marketing and the aim is to answer the question: how suitable is the mobile phone as a relationship marketing channel. We have located the methods that are most common to deliver the marketing message and we are comparing them with the criteria’s that we found necessary for creating relationships. In order to determine these methods and criteria’s we’ve been conducting interviews with people working in this business, both Swedish mobile network operators and employees from Nordic mobile marketing firms. We have been using existing models from relationship marketing to create our own framework in order to determine the strength of mobile marketing as a relationship creating market channel. Our study shows that mobile marketing if used in the right way can be used in order to establish long-lasting, mutual and profitable relations. The method that fulfilled most of the criteria’s was application. The other methods that we investigated are more suitable to be used as complement to other tools. Our investigation also shows that the mobile marketing market is immature and technical issues, knowledge transfer and standards have to be established in order to create a breakthrough for the mobile phone as a tool for relationship marketing.</p>

Loyalty programs have become an important element of the modern company and its existence can be noticed in every kind of businesses. The aim with loyalty programs is to win customers loyalty in order to keep them away from the competitors. However, there are some issues existing in creating and maintaining long-term relationships, for instance when consumers choose to decline participation in loyalty programs. A qualitative research method with an inductive approach has been used, by using the interview method CIT to collect the empirical data. 82 open-ended interviews were made with respondents from Sweden and Hungary in order to identify possible differences in loyalty program avoidance between the two countries. Based on the answers, a model with factors that indicates loyalty program avoidance was created, which represent the foundation of the literature review. The result of the study has shown that both similarities and dissimilarities between the nationalities exist, where the major difference is preference of convenience and personal issues. The study indicates that the Swedish consumers tend to reject loyalty program offers for the convenience reasons, in terms of store distance and bad service, while the Hungarian consumers are more concerned about their personal integrity, such as trust and privacy. However, similarities that could be clearly observed were issues with commitment, gaining benefits and struggling with time pressure.

Background In Sweden almost 90% of businesses are micro in nature which plays a pivotal role in the economy by generating employment opportunities as well as serving a source of instilling entrepreneurial spirit and innovation. Due to their invaluable contributions to the economy, their survival through revenue generating marketing practices has become an area of much more interest than ever realized before. A common misconception prevalent is that marketing in micro businesses is just a miniature of larger enterprises. This is why earlier researchers have paid scarce treatment to marketing practices in micro businesses as evident from the scant published material on the topic, making it an intriguing area to study. Currently much hype has been created about social media applications like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc and their marketing value for small businesses. It is therefore, in this thesis we study social media and prevalent marketing practices in the context of micro business. Purpose Micro firms are often cash-strapped which limits their revenue generating ability through prevalent marketing practices which are resource intensive. In the back drop of all the hype about social media as a marketing tool we got the clue to find the right marketing approaches for these businesses regarding the choice of prevalent practices and social media as a new marketing tool. To achieve this purpose, we have formulated the following research questions.RQ1.Which of the two types of marketing is more effective in terms of targeted segment coverage and expenditures? RQ2.Which marketing approach enables micro firms to maintain better relationships with customers? RQ3.Whether or not it is the right time for micro firms in Sweden to adopt social media marketing practices? Method A qualitative approach has been used to achieve the exploratory purpose of the thesis. Overall; eight micro firms were chosen from a convenience sample, representing different regions and industries of Sweden. In the first phase, two pilot semi-structured interviews were conducted to attain a better understanding of the phenomenon under study. Later, six more semi-structured interviews were carried out from micro businesses representing different sectors in Skövde, Mariestad and Jönköping Counties. Conclusion This thesis suggests that micro businesses are mostly marketing weak organizations (MWO) as they are sales oriented and see marketing as more of a luxury. Micro businesses in the sample reveal a tendency to carry out marketing activities in a haphazard manner which limits their likelihood of achieving their targets. It has also been indicated that conventional approach to reach target segments, still has a strong effect on micro firms in Sweden and is therefore more appropriate for them as majority of their customers are geographically concentrated as well as a major strata of these are yet to start active participation on the social media landscape. In terms of costs social media Given, the small population of Sweden, it has also been showed that micro businesses are keeping good customer relationship with customers via word-of-mouth marketing which is considered as instrumental for success of majority of micro business. At the same time, this finding does not indicate any clear picture as to which form of marketing is doing better for these businesses. In terms of social media adoption the findings indicate that micro businesses see social media as a great marketing opportunity in which micro businesses can compete on a level playing field with their larger counterparts. This study also concludes that social media is in infancy stages of its development in Sweden as people though they are present on the social media landscape, but have not yet, thought of it as a mainstream marketing channel. Therefore, it is suggested that micro firms in Sweden need to adpot a (high volume, low expense) is more effective only when used in tandem with conventional marketing (low volume, high expense) approaches. It is therefore suggested that micro businesses can use a blend of social and conventional marketing practices till the time that the social media network externalizes to a greater extent. wait and see approach for the time being and start preparing to capitalize on social media soon when it becomes ripe and ready for marketing.