Purpose: The aim of this bachelor thesis is to investigate the relationship of online subcultures, electronic trust, electronic word-of-mouth, and purchase intention towards a special event within selected Facebook Pages. Background: Given the increasing impact of social media platforms in communications not only between consumers, but also consumers and companies, this study takes a deeper look at the influence that companies can exercise on consumer’s purchase intention for a special event through these platforms. The background is based on previous researches and existent theories related to products, which are tested for a special event. Method: In order to fulfill the purpose of this study  a cross-sectional design is applied. A deductive approach is followed, and a quantitative method is used through the application of questionnaires in order to collect the empirical data necessary to answer  the given research questions. The questionnaires were distributed to the selected sample, which is anyone who “likes” the following Facebook Pages: Sweden Rock Festival, Göteborg Horse Show, Hultsfred, and Swedish Speedway Grand Prix. Conclusion: Based on the background a modest to strong relationship was expected  between the measured variables. This however has been disconfirmed by the results, thus showing a weaker relationship than has been previously tested with regards to a product. The main finding is that when it comes to special events, the organizer is seen as a more reliable source, thus it is more influential than fellow members of the Facebook Page.

Title: Think inside the Guerrilla box? – A quantitative study of how consumers perceive guerrilla marketing in contrast to traditional marketing Course: European Business, Undergraduate thesis at C-level, 15 Hp. Authors: Jennifer Lundström and Madeleine Sjöbom Question: Based on consumer’s perception, is guerrilla marketing more beneficial than traditional marketing? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyse how consumers perceive guerrilla marketing in contrast to traditional marketing, looking at a gender perspective. This to be able to determine whether it is more beneficial for a company to invest in extra energy and time with less money spent and choose guerrilla marketing over traditional marketing. Methodology: A quantitative study, with a deductive approach and extensive structure Theoretical framework: The theoretical framework includes theories concerning the twomethods and gender marketing. A communication stream model has furthermore been developed and modified from existing theories within the concept of marketing and communication. The AIDA model has been used to determine the buying behaviour. Empirical framework: The empirical framework presents the outcome of the primary research such as findings and statistics. Conclusion: Guerrilla marketing shows a clear advantage in most cases except when it comes to credibility. If companies can over win the issue with trust, guerrilla marketing is to prefer over traditional marketing, based on consumer perception. Major gender differences were none to be found.

Framväxten av en ny kundlogik, orsakad av teknikens framfart, har tvingat företag och organisationer att hitta nya tillvägagångssätt för att nå potentiella medlemmar eller kunder. Sociala medier är ett fenomen som har utvecklats från att vara ett kommunikationsverktyg för privatpersoner, till att bli ”ett nödvändigt ont” och en viktig del av marknadskommunikationen för många företag. Med denna uppsats vill vi utforska hur en ideell förening använder sociala medier för sin marknadsföring, vilka risker detta medför och vad som kan göras för att undvika dessa. Uppsatsen är en fallstudie som bygger på metodtriangulering och karaktäriseras av en abduktiv ansats. Studien baseras på två kvalitativa personliga intervjuer och en kvantitativ undersökning i form av enkät. Den teoretiska referensramen utgörs av word-of-mouth marketing, word-of-mouse marketing och many-to-many marketing.  Resultatet påvisar att fördelar med användandet av sociala medier för marknadsföring överträffar nackdelarna. För ideella organisationer borde nätverkande med hjälp av sociala medier vara en del av det vardagliga arbetet, både av ekonomiska och strategiska skäl. / The emergence of a new customer logic, caused by technological progress, has forced businesses to find new ways to reach potential members or customers. Social media is a phenomenon that has evolved from being a communication tool for individuals, to become a “necessary evil” and an important part of marketing communication for many businesses.  In this paper we explore how nonprofit organizations use social media in marketing, the risks involved in the process and what can be done to avoid these risks. The essay is a case study based on a quantitative survey and two qualitative interviews. The study shows that the benefits of the use of social media marketing surpass the disadvantages. For nonprofit organization, social media networking should be an integral part of the marketing efforts, for both economic and strategic reasons.

The purpose of this thesis is to explain how satisfaction, trust and commitment impacts customer retention and word-of-mouth communication within the industry of Speciality Stores. The study takes off from a historical perspective where the development of marketing is presented, which ultimately leads to customer relationship management (CRM). The study raises the components of customer loyalty and the difficulties of how to build successful customer relationships within the industry of Speciality Stores. A survey questionnaire is conducted and distributed digitally to respondents that are customers of an anonymous company within the industry under investigation. The main findings in this study are that companies within the industry of Speciality Stores can achieve word-of-mouth communication through customer satisfaction and trust. The study also finds that the features of customer satisfaction have a stronger impact on word-of-mouth communication than the features of trust. This means that it is these features of the ones treated in this study that companies within the industry of Speciality Stores should enact in order to best achieve word-of-mouth communication among its customers.

Social media provides a new position of power to the single individual within PR and marketing campaigns. When a company uses social media as a communication tool in their PR and marketing practice, they have to adapt themselves after the customers' needs and the new communication structure within social media. Communication in social medi is different from traditional media, which is more one-way communicative and visual in its interaction, rather than the digital media that are more two-way communicative av viral through dialogue. If a company creates PR and marketing campaigns within social media without adjusting to the new rules of communication through dialogue, and instead try to apply traditional one-way communication to their social campaigns, they put themselves and their brands in risk of public humiliation and loss of customers; the speed of the viral dialogue over social media can spread bad news fast, and with the newfound power of the single individual, the impliacations can thus be devastating for a company and its brand. If an organization does not respond and take part of the criticism that may be directed at them through the customers' comments, the negative dialogue among clients and the public within social media can quickly create a hazard enviorment for a company and its brand to be seen in.  The public within these social media platforms are more independent and continuously conversing with each other on a local an global scale. They share information, opinions and experiences with both strangers and friends, and if company wants to ahve a chance of creating a dialogue with a positive outcome with their customers, they have to adapt to the conversations to be able to satisfy the customers' needs. In that meaning, they have to be prepared to talk with their customers more than they talk at them to be able to take in all the feedback and possible criticism they may receive, and then use it in a constructive way for the company's development of their productions and relationship with their customers.  To succeed with PR and marketing through social media, the company and communicators need to define a communication strategy over how to maintain a viral dialogue with their customers, and how to handle and respond to comments and criticism the company may recieve. By doing so, the company can figure out how to satisfy the needs of both the organization and of their customers at the same time as they create closer and more personal bonds to their target groups. It is therefore critical for a company to research their target groups' behaviors and needs before they commence any campaign or dialogue over the social web to be able to construct well-planned campaigns thar enforces trustful and stabile relations with their target groups, the company's campaigns will probably not appeal to their customers, which can lead up to open criticism and a bad repuation for the organization over the social web.  Social media is a huge field of knowledge that needs research and education to be handled correctly to be able to eliminate the risks of being social through social media. However, if PR and marketing campaigns in social media are well thought out and open for dialogue and feedback, then PR and marketing through social media is the most effective tool to enhace and develop a company's brand and its relationship with their customers. Social media is the communication of the future, and it is crucial that companies and communicators are able to understand and handle the new commnication structure of social media in their PR and marketing practices to have a chance to gain customers in our digital world. The communicators and companies that know how to use the dialogue through social media for their own benefit can use their knowledge as the new competitive weapon in the battle of gaining customers.

Social media provides, as many points out, new possibilities for marketing. Marketing in social media requires a two way communication, rather than the traditional marketing where the communication model is typically sender – receiver.To create a marketing campaign that is suitable for a two way communication model has its difficulties and risks as well as its opportunities. Opportunities in the sense that the campaign can become a viral, a Word of mouth and create a Buzz, which will reach potential customers, to a bigger quantity for lower costs, with a message that will make a different impact from the types of commercial messages we are used to. Risks in the sense that the message, if not properly aimed and phrased, can be turned overnight into something that humiliates the company and possibly harm its brand.The difficulties in creating such a campaign is to create something that will catch people’s attention, discuss and forward it, while at the same time avoid getting hurt.We aim to describe the internet from a cultural context, and from that point of view explore the types of misunderstandings which often seem to happen when a corporate message is created and sent out in social media, how to avoid putting the image of a company in danger when doing this, and examine if there is ways to know how the message will be received. We truly feel that linking marketing in social media with internet culture is a field of research with great possibilites. Number of pages: 33 Course: Media and communication studies C University: Department of informatics and media, Uppsala University Period: Fall 2011 Keywords: Internet culture, social media marketing, word of mouth, viral marketing, participatory culture, transparency, anonymity, Web 2.0,

Branscherna mobila företagstjänster och webbteknik har svårt att utnyttja det kundupplevda värdet i sin marknadsföring, då de tillhandahåller produkter som befinner sig i gränslandet mellan varor och tjänster. I dagsläget finns det inga marknadsföringsteorier som behandlar dessa produkter. Syftet med detta kandidatarbete är att föreslå en modell för marknadsföring av produkter i gränslandet mellan varor och tjänster. Modellen kommer att fokusera kring kundupplevt värde. Empiriinsamlingen har skett genom kvalitativa intervjuer. Vi har valt kvalitativa intervjuer för att få fram ett resultat som är användbart vid analys och vidare för att kunna dra relevanta slutsatser. Vi har intervjuat tio olika företag inom branscherna mobila företagstjänster och webbteknik. Respondent är den marknadsansvariga eller den verkställande direktören inom företagen. I analysen ställs vår empiriinsamling i förhållandet till våra valda teorier. Baserat på materialet i analysen drogs slutsatser som sedan låg till grund för vår modell för marknadsföring av produkter som befinner sig i gränslandet mellan varor och tjänster. Resultatet påvisade brister i dagens marknadsföringsteorier. Företag kategoriseras utefter den specifika branschen vilket medför att man förlorar fokus på kunden. Kunden är den viktigaste komponenten vid marknadsföring av produkter som befinner sig i gränslandet mellan varor och tjänster. Eftersom företagen tillhandahåller produkter som är svårförståliga för kunden, samt till viss del är immateriella, är det viktigt att vid marknadsföring utgå ifrån kunden, och inte marknaden eller företaget i sig. Det är det kundupplevda värdet som är viktigt att förmedla. Produkter som befinner sig i gränslandet mellan varor och tjänster måste skapa resultat som är upplevda och önskade av kunden för att kunna skapa ett verkligt kundvärde. / The business types mobile business services and webb technology has a hard time taking advantage of the value experienced by its costumers, since they supply products that are on the borderline between goods and services. Today, no marketing theory deals with this kind of products. The purpose with this thesis is to propose a marketing model for products in between goods and services. The focus of the model will be costumer experienced value. Our empirics have been collected through qualitative interviews. We have chosen this way of collecting empiric to get a result that is usable in our analysis and possible to draw relevant conclusions from. We interviewed ten different companies within the business types mobile business services and webb technology. The respondent part has been the marketing manager or managing director within the company. In the analysis, our empiric material will be put in relation to our chosen theories. Based on the material in the analysis we pulled conclusions that later on became the basis of our own model for marketing of products that are at the borderline between good and services. Our results showed clear scarcity in today’s marketing theories for this type of business. Companies and business organisations are categorized by the specific type of business they belong to and this makes them loose focus on what is important, the costumers. The costumer is the most important part in marketing of products in the borderline between goods and services. Since the companies supply products that sometimes is difficult to understand, and partly intangible, it is exceptionally important that they see it from the costumer’s point of view, and not the market or the business. It is the value experienced by the costumers that is important to communicate. Products in the borderline between goods and services have to create results that are experienced and whished for by the costumer to create a true costumer value.

在這網路發達的世界，電子口碑(electronic word of mouth)一直以來都是學術界研究的重點。電子口碑分成正面跟負面，尤其以負面電子口碑備受關注，因為這會帶給企業難以估計的傷害。而在2014年，開始有學者提出了網路風暴(online firestorm)的新名詞，描述在現代社群網路下，負面口碑在網路上突然大量流傳的現象。 關於網路風暴的文獻相當少，但在台灣2014年舉辦的九合一選舉中，可以看出網路風暴對選情的影響之大，我們觀察到某些候選人可以藉由應對來有效控制情勢，但有些回應卻會讓負面口碑風暴越趨惡化，因此我們想要探究這之間的問題所在。所以本研究首先透過文獻了解口碑風暴的定義，從而利用文獻推斷出口碑風暴形成過程。並以Google Trend設計出衡量口碑風暴的方式，以此找出選舉中符合口碑風暴標準的負面口碑案例。之後把案例分成三種情境，每種情境以兩個不同候選人的個案為例，把從Opview收集到的負面口碑資料套用在設計出的公式裡來判斷選舉人的應對有效與否。選舉人的應對則會利用Benoit印象修復理論來做進一步說明。最後，由於此篇研究是以選舉中的口碑風暴為主，因此我們會把選舉中的口碑風暴與傳統商業中的口碑風暴做比較，來看兩者間有何不同或相同之處。 / During the political election period in Taiwan in Nov. 2014, this study observed significant effects caused by online firestorms: some candidates used appropriate responses to mitigate their effects or minimize the harm, some turned negative into positive support of their brand, but some candidates were unable to manage the crisis and lost their brand value. To date, few studies have noted the importance of negative WOM (NWOM) management in political election campaigns. Nor have studies noted the effects of online firestorms on brand value. This study undertakes research to seek answers to the following research questions: What is the uniqueness of online firestorms in a political election? And, how do candidates respond the online firestorm to retain brand value? This study initially reviewed the literature on negative WOM and online firestorm, and consolidated these studies to formulate the forming process of an online firestorm. Then the study classified online political election firestorm cases into three categories including fault, defect, and counterforce slander, and analyzed the best responses in each situation. Next, the study applied Google Trend to measure the online firestorm and referred image restoration theory to form an understanding of the response of a brand manager. The study results show that for fault situation, the most useful strategies seem to be mortification, minimization the offensive feeling, and ignoring to respond to most offensive accusations. For defect situation, the most used strategies are insisting the main opinion and using attack strategy to evade the most offensive accusations. Last, for counterforce slander situation, most candidates used full denial, blame shifting and accuser attack strategies to prove their innocence. Finally, the study further distinguished the difference between conventional business online firestorm and political elections online firestorm from several angles which include: online firestorm targets, causes, consumer reactions, initiatives, effects and dissemination.

Denna kandidatuppsats är skriven i syfte att analysera hur väl företaget ONOFF i Södertälje informerar sina kunder om deras konsumentköprättigheter och hur missnöje vid okunskap kan förebyggas. Uppsatsens problemformulering är därmed hur väl informerar företag sina kunder och hur de kan klara av diskussionen med kunder om deras rättigheter enligt konsumentköplagen. Genom enkätundersökning mättes kundernas kunskaper om konsumentköplagen samtidigt som ONOFFs chef intervjuades för att få information om hur ONOFF informerar sina kunder om deras rättigheter. Dessutom undersöktes informationskällor från ONOFF som broschyrer och deras hemsida. Genom undersökningen har det framkommit att kunder inte alls är speciellt medvetna om vilka rättigheter de har. Personalen utbildas för att kunna informera korrekt men informationskällorna är inte fullständiga och kunder verkar inte angelägna att vilja ta emot juridiska kunskaper. Genom bland annat använda sig av teorier om Word of mouth och Customer delight kan ONOFF eventuellt minska missnöje.

Sociala medier har på sistone vuxit till att bli ett mycket populärt verktyg för att kommunicera med folk världen över. Användandet av sociala nätverk har ökat explosionsartat de senaste åren och företag har insett att detta bjuder på en fantastisk möjlighet till att nå ut till kunder runt hela jorden, via ett nästintill gratis forum. På de olika kanalerna erbjuds företag de medel de behöver för att kunna kommunicera med sina kunder över nätet och på detta sätt interagera med kunderna på ett ställe där de redan finns. Utöver möjligheten att kommunicera med kunden kan företaget publicera redaktionellt innehåll med syftet att marknadsföra sin verksamhet och dess produkter. Fördelarna som kommer med marknadsföring via sociala medier är många, men det finns nackdelar som gör att man måste hantera sitt företags sociala nätverk med stor aktsamhet. Sociala medier är en plattform som är öppen för alla, där alla användare kan uttrycka sina egna tankar och åsikter. Tankar och åsikter som ett företag varken kan förutse eller kontrollera. I detta arbete har vi undersökt hur ett företag ska arbeta med sina sociala medier för att det ska ge ett positivt resultat för både kund och företag i fråga, vilka negativa effekter som kan uppstå genom att ett företag aktivt arbetar med sociala medier samt vad kunden tycker om företag som finns på sociala medier. / Social media has recently grown to be a very popular tool for communicating with people all over the world. The use of social networks has grown exponentially in recent years and companies have realized that this offers a fantastic opportunity to reach customers around the globe, via a virtually free forum. The different channels offer businesses the resources they need to communicate with their customers over the Internet, and thanks to this they can interact with customers in a place where they already exist. In addition to the ability to communicate with the customers, the company is now able to publish editorial content with the aim to market their business and its products. Benefits that come with marketing through social media are numerous, but there are drawbacks that make it necessary to manage the corporate social networks with great care. Social media is a platform that is open to all, where everybody can express their own thoughts and opinions. Thoughts and views as a company can not foresee nor control. In this essay, we have investigated how a company should work with their social media for it to give a positive result for both the customer and the company in question, the negative effects that may arise from a company actively involved in social media, and what customers think of companies that are on social media.