Dissertationen zum Thema „Marketing Management Case studies“

Aim:The overall aim of this study was to obtain more knowledge on the implementation of health care marketing in Sweden, using Uppsala University Hospital (UUH) as a case study. Additionally, based on the results of this case study, the aim was also to give concrete suggestions on how to enable increased focus on the formulation and implementation of health care marketing management strategies. This gives the study a slightly normative approach and aim, since the line is not drawn at description and analysis but also advocate guidelines for the enabling of market orientation.

Method: The chosen methodology of the study was qualitative, as the study sought to explore, interpret and gain a deeper knowledge of the research area.  Three different strategies of primary data collection were used; (1) interviews with key hospital managers, (2) a survey sent to all heads of clinical departments (68 departments) and (3) the study of selected UUH internal documents and UUH internal material related to the subject. The massive data was consolidated, reported and analyzed as separate parts and as well as an overview analysis from a health care marketing management theoretical framework.

Results & Conclusions:The study showed that UUH, despite the fact that they produce an annual revenue from health care services sales of approx 1,5 billion SEK, lacks almost every aspect of the tools and abilities necessary to function on a competitive marketplace. This included a non-marketing based planning process, the absence of a marketing organizational unit, no marketing research abilities etc. There were also facts pointing at severe flaws in the accounting systems, uncertainties of the legality of the current marketing activities and no marketing-stimulating incentive-systems in place. Besides these hard facts, the conservative, non-market oriented, organizational culture was deemed to make an attempted marketing adaption very hard to implement. The interviews provided valuable data for the structure and analysis. The survey had a very low response-rate, which didn´t provide any valuable data per se, but was interpreted to support the analysis of the organizational flaws in regard to marketing orientation. The internal document study also resulted in support of this analysis and increased the validity. Based on the analysis, a suggestion for a “road map” to successfully market-adapt Swedish health care was presented.

Suggestions for future research:Health care marketing most likely constitute its own area of research which also is specific for Sweden, which gives infinite opportunities for further studies. The implementation of marketing strategies in health care is an area that really needs to be further studied, therefore a suggestion for future research is to try and find out just how to enable implementation of a marketing-orientation in an organization which never had one. Another suggestion for further research could be the study of how economic incentive systems and other means of co-worker stimulation influence the production of health care services.

Contribution of the thesis:We believe that this study will strengthen the marketing understanding for UUH personnel at both managerial as well as all other organizational levels that are interested in the subject. We also believe that politicians, both locally and nationally, will benefit from practical knowledge regarding health care marketing mechanisms currently in place. Though conducted as a case study at one hospital, we deem that the analysis and suggestions are applicable for many other health care providers acting on the Swedish health care services marketplace, possibly contributing to the development of Swedish health care.

This master’s thesis was carried out at SuperMap.SuparMap is a Chinese company supplying the Geographic Information System (GIS)software and service. It is leading the way in GIS research. The product of SuperMapis called SuperMap GIS applied by lots of government agencies, schools, andorganizations. SuperMap actively gets involved in the market of Japan, Korea,Singapore, Vietnam, India, Kazakhstan, and South Africa. However, in 2008, it hasentered the Sweden market and tries to involve in the whole European market.In European market, the GIS technology is relatively mature and the most marketshares have been taken by ESRI the top GIS software company. SuperMap has toimprove the strategy to make the customers turn to it from the ESRI. According to the4Ps, 4Cs and Brand management theory, SuperMap adopt a series of measures onmarketing.In this article we will analyze those measures referring to the 4Ps, 4Cs and brandmanagement theory. At the end of our thesis, we summarized our suggestions basedon our thesis analyzing.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to increase the understanding of the link between internal marketing and customer relationship management by conducting a case study of one Nordea call center.

Background: Keeping existing customers is less expensive than acquiring new ones. Nowadays, up to sixty percent of marketing budgets are being dedicated towards retaining customers. So forth customer relationship manage-ment is slowly beginning to penetrate the banking industry as sustaina-ble relationships between organizations and their customers are becom-ing more evident.

Theory: The case study is based on an internal marketing model by Bansal et al. (2001) which shows how managers can influence the job satisfaction of their employees through six dimensions. Based on the previously men-tioned model, customer relationship management theory and the service marketing triangle by Kotler et al. (2002), the researchers present their our own model, at the end of the theoretical section, which seeks to en-hance the understanding of the link between internal marketing and cus-tomer relationship management.

Method: Since there was lacking theoretical evidence in how to link internal marketing to customer relationship management, the study was of exploratory nature. Qualitative data was collected by conducting two fo-cus groups (independently of each other) at one Nordea call center. The first focus group was composed of five managers and the second focus group of three frontline employees.

Conclusion: Nordea has been used as an example to illustrate that customer relation-ship management, such as using sales opportunities to strengthen rela-tionships with customers, is dependent on managers‟ ability to “sell” the organization‟s customer relationship management ideas to its front-line employees. Moreover managers have the ability through the six dimensions of internal marketing to affect job satisfaction which in turn will determine how frontline employees make use of the sales opportu-nities provided by Nordea‟s content management system (CMS).

In this thesis, we aim to find out ways that Multimind’s create customer focused value and sustain the value in the recruitment industry and their customer relationship management in the niche market. Our purpose is also to study their strategy, policies and their organizational culture especially in customer focused value and relationship management in this service business.  In this thesis we will study only on their strategy toward this niche market. Therefore, the scope of study will cover its business’s history on company’s objective, operation process, organization’s culture, company’s policy and strategy in market learning and innovation. We use qualitative method by conducting the interview with the informant. We use both primary and secondary data for collecting the data. In our primary data, judgment sampling method is being applied in selecting the interviewee. For Secondary data; we have searched the information from the company’s website, academic journals from university library. 

Background

Marketing spending has grown dramatically over the last decade but the traditional market-ing strategies such as advertising in TV, on billboards and posters might not be as effective as they used to be. The phenomena, how to work with marketing with the use of limited capital, has attracted attention in different contexts lately. It may sound hopeless to reach all the way through by the use of limited capital but it although exist examples of compa-nies that have succeeded with this; they are doing more with less.

Purpose

The main purpose of this thesis is to examine how firms, by the use of no or limited finan-cial resources, could market themselves successfully and how such a marketing process look like. The other purpose is to identify or map out the difference among traditional marketing and doing more with less.

Method

With a more inductive research approach and a qualitative research method the data was collected for this thesis. Four companies were carefully selected and interviewed over the phone. The chosen respondents are; Tomas Gustafsson representing Brämhults, Per Holk-nekt at Odd Molly, Jan Gustafsson at Saltå Kvarn and Hanna Lundgren at WeSC.

Conclusion

We have concluded that many strategies can be successful in doing more with less. The strategies found in this study are; Public Relations, Brand Management, Packaging, Product Placement, Event Marketing and Unique Selling Propositions. A coherent pattern or proc-ess could not be identified but it exist similarities in the way that companies make use of marketing strategies concerning doing more with less. Moreover we came up with the con-clusion that the difference between traditional marketing and the strategies identified as do-ing more with less, besides the obvious cost aspect, is the connection that they are often presented in a way which is not as easy for the potential consumer to perceive as commer-cial.

This study has been written to increase our knowledge about Sino-Western business relations and to understand how to successfully embark in China. It aims to create a deeper context understanding of the Chinese consumer and the Chinese market – in order to successfully manage your business in China. A qualitative case study methodology is used, involving the abductive method and a hermeneutic approach. Appropriate interviewees have been selected, i.e. those having valid and reliable insights and experiences to this study. The empirical results are portrayed as short stories along with reflections, to enlighten key findings in the research. Results of the investigation show that a willingness to understand and being humble are key in the creation of a successful business relationship with the Chinese. Certainly, the importance of guanxi and trust are tremendous. Thus, learn the rules and play by them – use them to your advantage. Show empathy and patience and trust the universal law of reciprocity. Indeed, as we understand the underlying forces, the cultural values and traditions, we appreciate how to effectively communicate with the Chinese and ultimately how to deliver value to create a healthy business relationship in our marketing efforts. A plethora of stories are presented that illuminate various situations that experienced Western business managers have encountered, and how to manage these. Key findings in this research may benefit not only academics, as new theory is introduced, but also everyone interested in China and aiming to create a healthy Sino-Western relationship. Finally, top managerial implications are presented that are of relevance to readers both intending to and already doing business in China. Some of the most important ones advise us to remain patient, to gather all the information possible and to never underestimate the Chinese.

It is becoming increasingly difficult, although very important, for companies to reach out to its customers and differentiate themselves in the market place. The main reason is that the competition is extremely intensified and customers can quite easily switch between suppliers. Focusing on relations is a way for companies to overcome some obstacles of competition that is evident in today’s market place. One way for companies to reach its customers, strengthen the relation, and meet them face-to-face is to create events. How-ever, finding the target group and motivating individuals to attend events is an important issue for the companies arranging events. There has to be a match between what the company arranging the event want to communicate and what the invited individual expects to gain out of attending the event. It is further important to direct the event towards certain individuals and also to make sure that the invited people actually attend the event.

The purpose of the thesis is to explore how companies can arrange meaningful events to a targeted audience and examine what factors motivates the individuals to actually attend these events.

An inductive approach is mainly used since it allows for flexible structure where empirical data is collected and before applying appropriate theoretical framework. The authors have further chose to collect data in a qualitative manner as this allows for open ended inter-views which can generate in deeper understanding of the reasons for individuals to attend corporate events. The primary data was based on interviews related to four corporate events previously taking place.

The authors found that there are numerous reasons for creating corporate events mainly because events are a platform that naturally integrates many marketing activities. When targeting individuals a personal contact can increase the likelihood that the invited people will attend an event. The reason is that through direct communication a person has the opportunity to tailor the invitation by explaining the reasons for why this particular person should find the event important and interesting to attend. Corporate events should offer valuable information for the attendees otherwise there is risk that invited individuals will not attend an event. Individuals attend events for the purpose of interacting with representatives from the arranging company as well as people from other attending companies. It can be concluded that a corporate event should be work related in some how and include new information and/or offer networking possibilities.

Det blir allt svårare, men ständigt mer viktigt, för företag att nå ut till sina kunder och differentiera sig på marknaden. Den främsta anledningen är att konkurrensen är mycket intensiv och det är förhållandevis enkelt för kunder att byta leverantörer. Genom att fokusera på relationer kan företag övervinna några av de konkurrenshinder som är påtagliga på dagsläget. Genom skapande av events kan företag nå sina kunder, möta dem öga mot öga och där-med stärka relationen till dem. För att lyckas med detta är det viktigt för företag att hitta de tilltänkta målgrupperna och motivera individer till att bli intresserade och faktiskt besöka eventet. Det är viktigt att anpassa ett företags motiv för skapandet av ett event men det som de inbjudna individerna förväntar sig få ut av att besöka eventet. Det är vidare viktigt att ett event riktas mot de tilltänkta individerna och för ett företag att se till att de inbjudna verkligen besöker eventet.

Uppsatsen syftar till att undersöka hur företag kan arrangera meningsfulla events för en tilltänkt målgrupp och ta reda på vilka faktorer som motiverar individer att faktiskt besöka dessa events.

Ett induktivt tillvägagångssätt används till största delen i uppsatsen eftersom det är tillåter en flexibel struktur där författarna utgår från empirisk data för att sedan hitta lämplig teori. Författarna har även valt att använda kvalitativ data eftersom det möjliggör öppna intervjuer som kan ge djupare inblick i hur företagsevent kan skapa mervärde för ett företag och dess besökare och förståelse för de inbjudnas motivationsfaktorer. Primär data baserades på intervjuer med individer relaterade till fyra olika företagsevent som tidigare ägt rum.

Studien visar att företag har många olika skäl till att arrangera events och den främsta orsaken till detta är att events är ett forum som integrerar flera marknadsföringsaktiviteter på ett naturligt och ofrånkomligt sätt. När ett företag marknadsför ett event till en tilltänkt målgrupp kan personlig direktkontakt öka sannolikheten att de inbjudna kommer att besöka eventet. Anledningen till detta är att direktkommunikation ger ett företag möjligheten att skräddarsy inbjudan genom att förklara varför just denna individ bör besöka eventet och varför det bör vara viktigt för denne. Ett företagsevent bör erbjuda besökande individer värdefull information, i annat fall riskerar företaget att många individer inte kommer priori-tera just detta event. Individer besöker företagsevent i syftet att integrera med representan-ter från det arrangerande företaget och individer från andra besökande företag. Studien visar att företagsevent bör vara arbetsrelaterade i dess utformning och erbjuda intressant in-formation och/eller erbjuda integrationsmöjligheter.