Along with more and more intense competition of OEM as well as ODM low margin strategy, Taiwanese' small appliance manufacturers have inevitably encountered the sharp profit decline and could no longer benefit from the original good earnings that derive from Vertical Integration Strategy commonly applied. In order to sustain the competitiveness and pursue higher returns, it's indispensable for those Taiwanese small appliance manufacturers to further consider moving towards value chains that generate better added-value such as R&D and marketing; R&D here includes innovation, patent and marketing consists of brand as well as channel. By fully adopting Vertical Integration Strategy in the preliminary, Airmate has fruitfully grown to a well profit-earning company and then moved towards design innovation as well as brand that were extremely stressed in Smile Curve Theory. Once again, Airmate has succeeded in the branding and considerably benefited from its brand equity. Based on China market's small appliance background, trend and affiliated with a liner regression analysis on home appliance manufacturers as well as channels, a research was conducted through in-depth interview and secondary data gathering to discuss how Airmate should further utilize channel to manifest its brand equity so that it could accordingly generate more profits as well as stabilize its cash flow. In summary, this very study has revealed and concluded a number of suggestions as followings. 1.New Product Development Strategy Owing to the inferiority of its product mix, Airmate has to further develop new product with eminent complexity and more varieties so that it could enhance its core competence as well as keep the new competitors from involving in the original competition. 2. Branding Strategy Airmate is highly suggested to keep investing in the branding as a way to better strengthen Airmate's high-end brand image. At the same time, a new branding project should be planned in order to extend Airmate's brand recognition to those secondary and thirdly cities as well as farmers market. It's not advised to additionally rebuild the middle or low end brands for thirdly cities or farmers market as it will muddle its brand positioning and diminish its high-end brand image. In light of brand theory, a product with higher added-value could correspondingly secure higher market price and generate better profit. Thus, since Airmate has been doing OEM as well as ODM for those celebrated appliance companies worldwide, it's extremely recommended that Airmate should appeal to media such as newspaper or magazine to publish articles to associate its brand with those high-end appliance companies. 3.The Channel Selection Strategy It's highly advised that Airmate should concentrate on primary and focused channels such as Home Appliance Chain Stores and Supermarket. A review and scheme should be conducted as a way to raise its brand exposure and at the same time increase the sales amount. 4.The Selection of Domestic or Foreign Channels Strategy With the advantages of advanced channel operations as well as management know-how and its large scale new stores opening plan, foreign channels have obviously surpassed the performance of channel efficiency and benefit than that of domestic channels. It's highly recommended that Airmate should actively build further close cooperation with foreign channels. 5.Channel Relationship Management A review on various channels and consumers' behaviors is suggested in order to better position the price and product separately to match up each channel. 6.The Measure to Cope With the Competition Resulted from WTO Innovation and setting up new appliance standard are key to sustain the core competence, Airmate is thus advised to focus on these two aspects.

Food waste from grocery stores - An analysis of municipal management inSweden and a detailed study of the situation in Umeå municipality The objective of this thesis was to analyze the municipal management of food waste fromgrocery stores in Sweden in general and in Umeå municipality in particular. Furthermore theobjective was to account for the different waste treatment methods that can be used and toevaluate them from an environmental perspective. In order to analyze the municipalmanagement a survey was sent to all of the municipalities/municipal waste companies inSweden. A general comparison of treatment methods was carried out on the basis of ascientific review and a system analysis was performed in order to compare three differenttreatment alternatives for the food waste generated in grocery stores in Umeå. The surveyshowed that the legal definition of food waste from grocery stores is unclear and variesbetween municipalities. However, a majority of the municipalities that offer any kind ofsource separation include grocery stores in the offer. The packaged food waste is oftenincinerated even if source separation is available due to the difficulties with removingpackaging materials. Concerning treatment methods, the results show that composting is theenvironmentally least advantageous method for large-scale treatment of food waste.Incineration and anaerobic digestion are about equal in their environmental impact, but thelatter was found to be favorable in principle based on the fact that it, in theory, generates bothnutrient recycling and energy recovery. For the food waste generated in grocery stores inUmeå municipality, incineration at the Dåva power and heating plant was found to be thepreferable method rather than anaerobic digestion in Skellefteå and composting in Luleå.

The study has shown that retailers in the mid-price segment differentiate their brand through developing a strong company identity around the brand. The personality involves store atmosphere, merchandise and advertising. Larger companies have chosen to lay the responsibility on management level, which facilitates on store level. By controlling the strategies on a central level the company can make sure that the stores are steered in the direction that the company wants them to be steered in, and also that they follow the positioning-concept. The company can also devote its efforts to working with its core value, which is service. Service, quality and durability have been the main strategies to differentiate them from low-price chains. / Undersökningen har visat på att återförsäljare i mellanprissegmentet differentierar sig mest genom att utveckla en stark identitet kring varumärket. Personligheten involverar butiksatmosfär, sortiment samt marknadskommunikation. I större kedjor har verksamheten valt att förlägga ansvaret för detta på ledningsnivå, vilket underlättar för butiker på lokal nivå. Genom att centralstyra dessa strategier kan verksamheten dels försäkra sig om att kedjan styrs i den riktning företaget vill och följer positioneringskonceptet. Dels kan butiksansvariga hänge sig åt att arbeta med verksamheternas kärnvärde, som är service. Service, kvalitet och hållbarhet har även varit de främsta strategierna för att differentiera dem från lågpriskedjor.

I denna branschstudie gällande livsmedelsbutiker, kommer vi att beröra hur butiker kan marknadsföra sig samt vilka faktorer som spelar störst roll vid kundernas val av butik. För att kunna klargöra detta, kommer vi att använda oss av teorier så som Porters fem konkurrenskrafter samt vissa skolformer utifrån boken Marketing Theory av Jagdish N. Sheth, David M. Gardner och Dennis E. Garret. Vi upptäckte under arbetets gång att det är en komplicerad marknad, vilket även kommer att diskuteras under kommande kapitel. Syftet med uppsatsen är att få en djupare inblick hur marknaden ser ut då de olika livsmedelsbutikerna marknadsför sig på olika sätt, samt även kunna konstatera vilka faktorer som är avgörande för kunderna vad gäller deras val av butik. De forskningsfrågor vi satte upp inför denna studie var: ”Hur marknadsför sig livsmedelsbutikerna till kunderna?” ”Vilka är de faktorer som styr konsumenternas val av butik?” För att kunna besvara våra forskningsfrågor, har vi genomfört två typer av studier. En kvalitativ undersökning där vi genomförde två intervjuer med en informant från en mindre Coop-butik samt en informant från en större Ica-butik. Den andra studien var en kvantitativ undersökning, där vi genomförde en enkätundersökning för att få reda på kundernas krav och dylikt. Utifrån resultatet av våra undersökningar ställdes dessa mot de teorier vi har tillämpat för att kunna få fram en teoretiskt stärkt bild av dagens livsmedelsmarknad. Teorierna har hjälpt oss att få en klar och tydlig uppfattning om hur livsmedelsmarknaden fungerar. Vi kan genom vår undersökning se, att det finns klara skillnader utifrån storleken på butik när det kommer till hur marknadsföringen utformas samt hur butiken är geografiskt placerad. Kundernas val av butik bestod till största delen av åsikter som berörde butikens utbud samt geografiska positionering. Dock har vi sett från tidigare forskning, att det finns många fler faktorer som styr valet av butik. Mycket av detta sker undermedvetet hos kunderna. För att kunna få en mer tydligare bild av detta, har vi utvecklat tre olika kundtyper: Den uppmärksamma Den ouppmärksamma Den medkänslosamma / In this paper about grocery stores, we will try to find out how retailers market themselves and what the underlying factors are for the customers when they do their choice of store. To clarify this, we will use some theories such as Porter's five competitive forces and certain types of schools based on the book Marketing Theory by Jagdish N. Sheth, David M. Gardner and Dennis E. Garrett. During the work with this paper we discovered that this is a complicated market, which also will be discussed in later chapters. The purpose of this paper is to gain a deeper insight into how the market looks as the various grocery stores market themselves in different ways, but also be able to identify those factors that are crucial concerning customers choice of store. The research questions for our study were: “How do the grocery stores market themselves towards customers?” “What are the factors that make customers choose a store?” In order to answer our research questions, we have conducted two types of studies. The first one was a qualitative study, where we performed two interviews, one with an informant from a smaller Coop store and one with an informant from a larger Ica store. The second study was a quantitative survey, where we conducted a survey to find out customers requirements etc. Based on the results of our investigations, we set up the result against the theories that we have applied to obtain a theoretically confirmed image of today’s grocery store market. The theories have helped us to gain a clear idea of how the market works. We can see through our investigation that there are some distinct differences based on the size of the store when it comes to how the stores market themselves and where the stores are geographically positioned. Customer’s choice of store consisted largely of opinions involving the stores offering and geographic positioning. However, we have seen from previous research that it is much more than just these factors that made customers choice of stores. To get a clearer image about it, we have developed this to these three different types of customers: The attentive The inattentive The compassionate

The way of consumption has changed. Now, consumers are not only rational when purchasing. They do not buy just for the functionality of the good or service they are looking for. The consumption is more affective and consumers are considered now as poly-sensorial entities that are looking for more emotional and sensorial stimulation during their purchase process. This evolution of consumption is part of the trend that is called “retailtainnment”, a mixed of “Retail” and “Entertainment”. It is a concept of distribution that combines both of those two activities. Earlier studies have shown the success of using the Sensory Marketing, a concept based on stimulating the five senses in a strategy view. But, if certain senses are heavily used by companies/brands, as the sight and hearing, some are still underused, as the touch, the taste and particularly the smell. Wherefore a study on scent marketing is considered relevant to measure the potential of it. Even if several studies have already explained the important role of smell in a company’s strategy, only few of them are using it. Our paper aims to go further on this subject by understanding the scent marketing in stores through the aims, the obstacles, the techniques used, in Umeå, Sweden. For our research, we first had to collect knowledge from scientific articles and previous studies on odours, on smells or perfumes and on scent marketing. Then, we constructed three hypothesises that helped us to conduct our research and made conclusions. Those hypotheses will be discussed by conducting a mixed-method, that is to say by combining two types of researches: a quantitative one, mainly to measure how many stores are using smell as a marketing tool, and then a qualitative one to go deeper into the reasons and how those stores are applying it. The quantitative research, based on a deductive approach, was conducted by using questionnaires. The qualitative research, based on an inductive approach was conducted by making semi-constructed interview. Both types of data collected and analyzed enable us to draw conclusions about scent marketing in Umeå. In this paper we identify the stores in Umeå that have odours or perfumes, those that are using smell as a marketing tool and their reasons to use it or not.

An effective process for translating contextual inquiry data into usable design concepts is described. A literature survey, field observations and laboratory simulations preceded contextual inquiry sessions with seven cashiers working in retail checkstands. Data from this field research was communicated with a graduate student design team during interpretation sessions. Diagrams and pictures from the physical workspace were introduced, work behaviors and breakdowns were discussed and design ideas and insights were recorded during these sessions. The final communication tool is a wall-sized affinity diagram created by members of the design team. The affinity diagram tells the story of peoples experiences working in retail front end work environments by incorporating patterns of cashiers behavior and concerns, while maintaining details of each participants comments. It translates the applied research from basic contextual inquiry data to a sustainable communication tool for contextual researchers, workspace designers and other project stakeholders. The design research method presented yields valuable qualitative results for physical workspace design that can be communicated to people who are not involved in data collection.

In the face of globalization, the restaurant industry has to quickly develop chain stores that feature delicious food, rapid service, and uniqueness in order to create advantages in this traditional industry. Because of the highly labor-intensive nature of restaurant chain stores and the ever-increasing demand on high quality services from consumers for convenience and time efficiency in the competitive environment, integrating modern management concepts with a variety of information technologies to enhance the efficiency and competitiveness of the restaurant has become winning tools for businesses. This research includes several main portions. First, we use the Formosa Chang as a case to analyze the competitive situation of restaurant chain stores, including the five forces analysis, SWOT, and critical success factors for restaurant chain stores to form the four management strategies of the case study company for store expansion, marketing, products, and service. Then, the E-business status of the chain store and its upstream and downstream E-business status are investigated. Finally, the mechanism for deployment the system is reported, which includes system investigation to confirm organizational preparations and resources allotment and determine the priorities in the development of the E-business system. This is followed by system analysis, system design, system hardware and software configuration and installment. Finally, the performance of the system is evaluated. Analysis of the key performance indicators (KPI) of the case study company shows high effectiveness of e-business in improving and simplifying its operational procedures.

This research is focus on discussion of Convenience Chain Stores¡¦ Key Successful Factors, in which using for lead into the LOHAS¡]Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability¡^. This case is based on the 7-11 of which used both of the ¡§Case Study¡¨ & ¡§Penetrate Interview¡¨. Except two high-level managers in charged of LOHAS, there are some other key men involved as following: two high-level managers in Uni-President(upstream company of 7-11) Enterprise and two high-level managers in Ton-Chuang¡]logistics¡^company. Among them I got four KSFs to be the result of this research, which van be the references in the future development of Convenience Chain Stores as following¡G 1.The factor of Social Environment. 2.The factor of Resource Input. 3.The factor of Product Strategy. 4.The factor of Strategy Popularization. 7-11 suppose to be the NO.1 beneficiary. Even though 7-11 had popularized the LOHAS foe three years, it never made any similar analysis and generalization. I expect to get the resonance of 7-11by the share of this research-to make a harmonious society by the three-wins of egoistic, altruistic and the earth.

Thesis (M.Des.)--York University, 2008. Graduate Programme in Design. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-61). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR38805

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1985.