This thesis discusses trade names including their histories, formations, and semantic implications.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study aimed to answer the question whether a change of trade name would affect the brand distinctiveness of MC Design & Contracting. MC Design & Contracting is a small to medium-sized enterprise based in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The business falls within a segment of the manufacturing sector known as the engineering sector. The business manufactures and installs engineered production facilities and components to industrial markets. As MC Design & Contracting is based in the Eastern Cape where the majority of South African automotive manufacturers are situated, it has a strong reliance on the automotive industry. In an attempt to break this single industry reliance, MC Design & Contracting management has deployed customer diversification strategies. The brand MC Design & Contracting is unique and the business therefore has achieved brand distinctiveness within its industry sector. The customer differentiation strategy requires marketing and sales personnel to target new customers that are not familiar with the business. As a promotional aspect of business-to-business marketing, the element of personal selling plays an important role. The salesforce and marketing personnel felt that the trade name of the business, MC Design & Contracting, was no longer aligned with its customer value proposition. They considered the trade name to be a distraction to the selling and promotions process. In order to assess the impact of a trade name change, MC Design & Contracting’s board requested an independent study dealing with the matter. This study set out to establish the various elements relating to the design of a trade name, including the procedural and legal requirements within a South African context. The ultimate goal of branding is for a business to achieve a degree of ‘uniqueness’ over its competitors. Referred to as ‘brand distinctiveness’, this study explored how trade names relate to brand distinctiveness. The study utilised a qualitative research methodology in the form of semi-structured interviews to gather data from internal and external stakeholders of MC Design & Contracting. The study found that MC Design & Contracting has a distinctive brand, but its trade name is no longer relevant. Furthermore, the study suggests that a change of trade name would affect both brand recognition and brand distinctiveness. The study concludes with recommendations to MC Design & Contracting’s board of directors. The recommendations revolve around the process of selecting an effective trade name that contains an element of distinctiveness. It also deals with the element of brand protection by suggesting the registration of a trademark.

Disertacijoje nagrinėjamos aktualios problemos, kylančios komercinių žymenų (prekių ženklų, firmų vardų ir kitų komercinėje veikloje naudojamų žymenų, turinčių skiriamąjį požymį) teisinės apsaugos srityje. Disertacijos turinį sudaro keturi skyriai, iš kurių pirmasis nagrinėja komercinių žymenų teisinės apsaugos tikslus ir formas, o kiti – tam tikrą probleminę komercinių žymenų teisinės apsaugos sritį: firmų vardų sampratą ir teisinės apsaugos ribas; komercinių žymenų apsaugą pagal nesąžiningos konkurencijos teisę; reputaciją turinčių žymenų papildomą apsaugą; nagrinėjamų institutų tarpusavio kolizijas. Disertacijoje pateikiami argumentuoti autorės siūlymai dėl darbe nagrinėjamų komercinių žymenų teisinės apsaugos problemų sprendimo būdų. / This work examines the problems arising in the field of legal protection of trade marks, trade names and other distinctive signs under Lithuanian law. The work is comprised of four separate chapters. The first chapter analysis the purpose and forms of protection of distinctive signs; the each of the remaining chapters examines the particular problems relating to different aspects of legal regulation of distinctive signs: the concept and the scope of protection of trade names; protection of distinctive signs according to unfair competition law; additional protection of distinctive signs having a reputation and conflicts between the different legal institutes in the area of protection of distinctive signs. The author of the work presents motivated suggestions regarding possible solutions to the legal problems identified in the rea of protection of distinctive signs.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T18:18:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rogerio Troiani Barbosa.pdf: 466863 bytes, checksum: f3d65fe7a1b10500acd2decb6af89297 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-06-14 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The advertising message televised as commercial films generates a receptive impact that seeks the transformation of its signs into supposedly world-wide symbolisms. Such symbolisms aim at adhering to concepts of certain products or product divisions. This research starts from the assumption that it is through the actor´s body, in televised commercials that this message builds itself and is than transformed and reproduced. In order to develop this, we have adopted the concept of mediabody (Katz/Greiner,2005), which brings us a new way of observing and discussing the body as an enunciator of its culture and its communication, turning itself, in this case, into an agent of transformation of the publicitary product. The aim of this dissertation is, therefore, to understand the communicative action established by the body, as well as the simultaneous connections that result from its own organization and act directly on the advertising market, creating a network of activation among authors, producers, consumers, actors and trade names. It is from this interaction between body and environment that one establishes the flow of information with an aptitude to generate cultural systems and their respective symbolic narration when televising commercial films. In addition to the theory of mediabody, other theoretic references, such as the memetics of evolucionist Richard Dawkins (1976),Armando Sant´Anna theory of advertising media (2001) and Mario Perniola´s sociology of communication (2005) are specifically cited. The research corpus consists of the analysis of three advertising films produced by S.F, S.S and F. F filmes. The methodology starts from the analysis of the elaboration, construction and of the resulting film, finished and ready to be televised. The expected result is a better understanding of the politic-ideological system of the impact of the body´s representation on the elaboration and production of an advertising piece / A mensagem publicitária, veiculada pelos filmes para televisão, gera um impacto na sua recepção que visa transformar seus signos em simbologias supostamente universais. Estas buscam aderir aos conceitos de determinados produtos ou classes de produtos. Esta pesquisa parte da hipótese de que é através do corpo dos atores dos filmes publicitários que essa mensagem se constrói, é transformada e reproduzida. Para desenvolvê-la, adotamos o conceito de corpomídia (Katz/Greiner, 2005) que apresenta um modo de observar e discutir o corpo como enunciador da cultura e da comunicação, tornando-se neste caso específico, um agente transformador do produto publicitário. O objetivo desta dissertação é, portanto, entender a ação comunicativa que o corpo estabelece, assim como, as conexões simultâneas que resultam da sua própria organização e atuam diretamente no mercado publicitário, criando uma rede de ativação entre criadores, produtores, consumidores, atores e marcas. É a partir das trocas entre corpo e ambiente que se estabelece o trânsito de informações com aptidão para gerar sistemas culturais e as respectivas narrativas simbólicas veiculadas pelos filmes publicitários. Além da teoria do corpomídia, são citadas pontualmente outras referências teóricas como a memética do evolucionista Richard Dawkins (1976), a teoria da mídia publicitária televisiva de Armando Sant´Anna (2001) e a sociologia da comunicação de Mario Perniola (2005). O corpus da pesquisa consiste na análise de três filmes publicitários realizados pelas produtoras S. F, S.S e F.F. A metodologia parte da análise da elaboração, construção e do resultado do filme publicitário já montado e pronto para a sua veiculação televisiva. O resultado esperado é uma maior compreensão do sistema políticoideológico do impacto da representação do corpo na elaboração e na execução da peça publicitária