Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Internet brand equity'

The area of Brand Equity has received considerable attention during the past twenty years. The importance of a brand emanates from the fact that brand recognition and positive associations with it create value for companies and consumers. This value is called Brand Equity and translates into monetary value. Until now, there is scant research on brand equity for online retailers to test whether theoretical frameworks developed for offline companies apply to online businesses. The study is an attempt to bridge this gap by developing and testing a comprehensive brand equity model with selected drivers (customer support and a mix of functionality and fulfilment marketing efforts) and sources (awareness, association of value and trust, and loyalty) of brand equity. Grounded in a traditional offline consumer-based brand equity framework, a research model (at the aggregate level) for assessing brand equity of online companies is developed and tested using structural equation modelling (SEM). Several key findings are reported: First, a measurement model based on dimensions of awareness, associations of value and trust, and attitudinal loyalty seem to fit the data well. Measures have adequate reliability, convergent and discriminant validity. Secondly, from the SEM application, only value association and loyalty are potent determinants of brand equity. Third, awareness, trust and value associations contribute indirectly to create brand equity. Fourth, the hierarchical hypothesized relationships between the sources of brand equity are confirmed. The final best-fitting (calibrating) model derived from the subjects that had bought from the online businesses under study was validated across a sample of subjects. Simultaneous model comparison using structural equation (by means of Chi square difference) confirms the tenability of the calibrating model. To test for the probability than an incorrect model will be rejected, power analysis was calculated. The results indicate that the likelihood of rejecting the hypothesis of exact and close fit equals 1.0. The second phase of the study involved brand analysis at the individual level. According to the calculations Amazon obtains slightly higher brand equity than eBay and puts it in first place, eBay is in second place, followed by Dell in third. CDNow is the worst performer and obtains consumer-based brand equity below average. The study offers contributions to both academia and business in several ways.

With the rising power of Internet and especially social media which includes different communities, blogs, portals(1) , etc., nowadays brand value, - its creation and control, is not in the hands of the companies anymore, but is shifted to the consumers. One aim of this paper is to investigate and try to prove the existence of social media influence on brand value. Another goal is to introduce a different vision of brand value in connection with Internet and the rise of social media's influence on consumer's minds. For the purpose of this research the terms brand value and brand equity would bear equal meanings. My theory, which I would like to introduce, was borrowed from biology and physics, namely from I.P. Pavlov's studies and his conditioned reflex theory(2) and the physics part is based on the dispersion of light theory which was first introduced, as we know, by Isaak Newton(3). I dare to say, that nowadays creation of brand value in consumer minds works the same way. When someone, man or woman, hears a brand name, a picture and a feeling, either positive or negative is immediately formed in the person's mind from personal experience with this brand. If not, then the brand is an unfamiliar one, thus we have to rely on a provided opinion, which was previously usually conveyed to us by family, relatives and close friends while recently, also by our growing virtual community. At the beginning of the thesis, I will present the theoretical background and data on World Wide Web and social media, followed by a concise description of some of the existing brand equity models, afterwards introducing my own vision on significant brand value components, elaborating on this theory with the help of relevant case studies and researches. Brand equity has generally been defined as "a brand's power derived from the goodwill and name recognition that it has earned over time, which translates into higher sales volume and higher profit margins against competing brands"(4). Further on in the second chapter I will bring together more definitions on brand equity/value to be able to propose a modified one, components of which will be discussed thoroughly in the same chapter. The main goal of my Master Thesis is to analyze the existence of a dependency between social media and brand value. A second goal is to assess whether the impact is a positive or a negative one or is a mixture of both.

Background: The modern day era of the Internet gave birth to the growing phenomenon of Internet memes (IM), a type of online user generated content (UGC) (Gangadharbatla, 2008). Now marketers have begun researching the relationship between UGC and consumer based brand equity (CBBE) (Christodoulides et.al, 2012; Rachna and Khajuria, 2017). The problem discussion presents the issue of the diminishing control of brand equity due to the rise of UGC and lack of research on how to manage its influence (Morrison et al., 2013). Leading to the purpose of this thesis, which is to determine the impact Internet memes have on consumer based brand equity. Literature: The review presents two leading contributors to the field, Aaker’s (1991) framework on the different dimensions of CBBE and Keller’s (1993) definition of the concept. In addition recent studies on UGC and brand equity provided the basis for hypothesis development. Method: This thesis assumed a deductive research approach, developing the hypothesis from current literature in the field. A quantitative study, that utilized an explanatory research approach, because it best suited the experimental design. As for the data collection method, surveys were considered (Saunders et al., 2016), which the authors designed as a self-completion questionnaire and pre-tested (Bryman and Bell, 2015). Convenience sampling was chosen to select participants (Hernon, 2004). Construct and content validity was used along with homogeneity and stability to control reliability and measure the quality of research instruments (Bryman and Bell, 2015). SPSS version 25 was used to conduct all statistical analyses. Results: Four hypotheses were developed, to measure the effect of the independent variable IM on each of the four CBBE dimensions. To summarize, three of the hypothesis (H1, H3 and H4) were rejected as the difference in the means are not significant enough and can be explained by chance. The effect on brand association (H2) was however found to be significant therefore H2 was accepted.

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In regards to the importance of branding and the value of management to contemporary organizations and the relevance of the Internet on the world stage, this study aims to understand how the Internet can be used as a mean to generate value to the brand in addition to understanding how Social Media (social networking, virtual communities, blogs and forums), sites other than Google Adwords, Adsense and Analytics can be useful in creating value for brands and how these features can influence the perception of value by consumers. This study was developed through qualitative research. The bibliographic review on the brand value was based on the concepts of Aaker (1998, 2007) and Keller (2006), as these authors support the line taken in this project that the brand value lies in its positioning in the minds of consumers , as is, the quota that the brand occupies in the consumers' mind , on the issue Internet, we used bibliographic concepts present in Castells (1999, 2001) as well as articles and specialized sites that deal with the issue. The field research was developed through case study, and to ensure the reliability of the survey, we used the case study protocol based on the model proposed by Yin (2001). To answer questions presented a research was made on a study of a single case in a company specializing in the development and improvement of online marketing, where a survey was conducted through exploratory approach of open questions in order to investigate how this company through the means of Internet adds value to your brand, and thus present results that demonstrate the relevance of the Internet as a creator of value. The main conclusions of this study indicate that the Internet and its resources are a key resource for the generation of value for contemporary companies in the current scenario, the increased importance of the Internet shows that companies need to understand and leverage the resources available on it to obtain consistent results and perennials
Em função da importância das marcas e do gerenciamento do seu valor para as organizações contemporâneas e da relevância da Internet no cenário mundial, esse estudo tem por objetivo entender como a Internet pode ser usada como meio para gerar valor à marca além de compreender como as mídias sociais (rede sociais, comunidades virtuais, blogs e fóruns), sites além do Google Adwords, Adsense e Analytics podem ser úteis na criação de valor para as marcas e como esses recursos podem influenciar na percepção de valor por parte dos consumidores. O estudo foi desenvolvido por meio de pesquisa qualitativa. A revisão da literatura sobre o valor da marca foi pautada nos conceitos de Aaker (1998, 2007) e Keller (2006), pois esses autores defendem a linha seguida nesse projeto de que o valor da marca reside no seu posicionamento na mente dos consumidores, ou seja, na cota que a marca ocupa na mente do consumidor . Com relação ao tema Internet e mídias sociais, utilizou-se como base bibliográfica os conceitos presente em Castells (1999, 2001) e Cardoso (1998) além de artigos e sites especializados que tratam do tema. A pesquisa de campo foi desenvolvida por meio de estudo de caso, e para garantir a confiabilidade da pesquisa, utilizou-se o protocolo de estudo de casos baseado no modelo proposto por Yin (2001). Para dar respostas às indagações apresentadas foi realizado um estudo de caso único em uma empresa especializada no desenvolvimento e aprimoramento de marketing online, onde foi realizada uma pesquisa exploratória por meio da abordagem de questões abertas com o objetivo de investigar como essa empresa através dos meios da Internet gera valor para sua marca, e dessa forma, apresentar resultados que demonstrem a relevância da Internet como geradora de valor. As principais conclusões desse estudo apontam que a Internet e seus meios são um recurso fundamental para a geração de valor para as empresas contemporâneas no cenário atual. O aumento da relevância da Internet demonstra que as empresas necessitam entender e potencializar os recursos disponíveis nessa mídia para obtenção de resultados consistentes e perenes

As technology continues to affect the business sector, many companies have been faced with the nesessity of transformation. Adapting to a new, more Internet based society im-plies that companies are venturing into new market channels to get their products or ser-vices out to the consumers. Simultaneously as many companies are digitalizing, they are also launching or planning to launch brand extensions. Combining the two phenomenon’s we get a corporate situation that is vaguely explored, namely how a brand extension be-tween market channels work. Further more, how can value be transferred in this process?

The purpose of this thesis is to further investigate the phenomenon described above and to gain more understanding about the new situation. Therefore, the authors have chosen to conduct an empirical investigation exploring how a company can transfer brand value to a new online product or service. This was done in cooperation with the company Eniro that recently have focused their efforts from their traditional printed market channel into a digital brand extension. During the study 15 in-depth interviews with small to medium sized companies were performed, and backed up with complementary communication with managers at Eniro. Four research questions were formulated to serve as a read thread throughout the work. The main aim was to evaluate brand equity of the traditional product to then compare if this brand equity had been transferred to the new online extension.

After having performed the in depth interviews with representatives from the various companies, the authors could conclude that the original product of the printed directory with the company/person Gula Sidorna held stronger brand equity than the online exten-sion despite the company’s effort to promote the extension. The authors believe the rea-sons for this could be that during the process of extending the brand, some strategic deci-sions were made that did not enable the parent brand value to be transferred to the new extension. There were however value in the new extension in terms of simplicity and speed. Being able to quickly respond to the new and dynamic market where speed to market can be an important advantage was part of the positive associations for eniro.se. In the discussion regarding the main issue of transferring brand value to a digital platform the authors found that one of the most vital aspects is having clear communication within the organisation, sending out a clear message in marketing activities, not forgetting to emphasize reliability and stability to ensure that people in all ages feel inclined to use the digital product.

Nya möjligheter leder till nya utmaningar. I takt med att privatpersoners användande av Internet ökat explosionsartat, har även företagens närvaro ökat markant. Företagen ser möjligheter då kostnaden för marknadsföring och varumärkesbyggande on-line ofta är lägre än att gå via de mer traditionella media kanaler. Internets natur gällande kommunikation ger företagen en möjlighet till att närma sig konsumenterna och bygga en relation till dem. Studien ämnar skapa förståelse för hur svenska mikroföretag inom mode använder nya mediekanaler för att bygga upp sina respektive varumärken. Således utfördes ett förståelseinriktat arbete där den empiriska basen består av fyra stycken semistrukturerade intervjuer med tre mikroföretag samt en med en PR- konsult. Där till består arbetet av en teoretisk referensram som behandlar Internet, sociala medier, varumärkesteori, varumärkeskapital och slutligen kommunikationsteori. Studien vittnar om att företag idag aktivt och framgångsrikt kan använda Internet som en del i sitt varumärkesbyggande. Att företagen använder sig av en mängd olika kanaler så som Facebook, bloggar, modebloggar, Newsletters, Twitter etc. för att nå till konsumenter samt att bygga en relation till dem. Men också att detta arbete inte är helt oproblematiskt, då risker uppkommer om arbetet utförs felaktigt.
New opportunities lead to new challenges. As the private usage of the Internet has grown so has the commercial. Companies now get the opportunity to build their brands on-line at a lower cost compared to traditional media. Internets nature enables two- way communication, which companies can use when they try to close in at the customers and to build relationships with them. This study aims to create understanding of how Swedish micro companies in the fashion industry uses these new media channels when they are building their company brands. Thus we performed an understanding-oriented study were the empiric foundation rests on four semi- constructed interviews. Three of these interviews were with Swedish micro companies and one with a PR-Consultant. Beside this, the study consists of a theoretical framework that includes theory about the Internet, social media, brands, brand equity and finally theory regarding communication. The study has shown that companies today can use the Internet as a marketing tool when they are building their company brand. That they use several different media channels on-line such as Facebook, Bloggs, Fashion- blogs, Newsletters, Twitter etc. and that the reason for this is to reach and to build relationships with consumers. But also that this work is not unproblematic and that risks can occur if the work is done in an incorrect way.

El presente trabajo de investigación tiene como objetivo conocer la relación entre el social media marketing y la construcción de brand equity para micros y pequeñas empresas (Mypes) del sector textil confecciones. En efecto, este estudio busca ahondar en el análisis de estudios académicos de relevancia que permitan mejorar la competitividad de las Mypes. La investigación se basó en la revisión de literatura teórica y empírica especializada, encontrándose modelos de social media marketing y brand equity en diferentes industrias y estructuras empresariales para definir un modelo adecuado para el caso de Mypes. Con relación al social media marketing, se emplea el modelo de Kim & Ko (2012) donde las dimensiones más representativas son: personalización, entretenimiento, interacción, tendencia y boca a boca (WOM) al cual se le ha adicionado la dimensión “publicidad” siguiendo las consideraciones de Bilgin (2018). En cuanto al brand equity, los modelos se enfocan en medición y construcción de valor de marca; siendo la perspectiva de construcción de brand equity de Keller (2001) la que resulta de mayor utilidad para el presente estudio. Adicionalmente, el análisis del contexto nacional nos permite resaltar que las Mypes del sector textil confecciones presentan limitaciones que restringen su crecimiento, así como la importancia y necesidad de hacer uso de nuevas tendencias del social media para la generación de marca que también está siendo impulsado por organizaciones públicas y privadas. De la misma manera, se evidenció empresas interesadas en desarrollar estrategias digitales para el impulso de su marca, transformándose en casos de éxito. La principal conclusión fue encontrar modelos que estudian la vinculación entre estos dos conceptos, luego se analizó y adaptó al contexto de una Mype del sector textil confecciones. Estas podrían emplearse para una futura investigación que permita analizar los efectos del social media marketing en la construcción del brand equity a través de las plataformas más apropiadas para este sector.

This essay reviews the situation for small actors in the Swedish clothing industry. In this essay we assume that loyalty is a requirement for survival on the competitive clothing market. Four small actors have been analyzed up on theories on loyalty, brand equity, relationship marketing, service marketing, quality, interactive marketing, distribution and value creating activities. The chosen actors are Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair, Boutique Sportif, Jenny Hellström and Ida Sjöstedt. The conclusion of the essay is that it is possible for small actors on the Swedish clothing market to build loyal relationships with their customers. This can be achieved if the right strategic decisions are made. It has been noticed that the Internet seems to make a big difference in the process of communication between companies and their customers.

Denna uppsats har kommit fram till att små företag på den svenska konfektionsmarknaden har goda möjligheter att skapa lojala kundrelationer. Det krävs strategiska beslut för att lyckas. De faktorer som har behandlats är distributionssätt, värdeskapande, kvalitet och varumärkets värde. Analysen konstaterar att de olika undersökningsobjekten värdeskapar på olika sätt. De använder sig av olika distributionsstrategier för att nå ut till sina kunder. Undersökningen visar att ju närmare kunden man värdeskapar och ju mer selektiv man är i sitt val av återförsäljare desto mer lojala kunder vinner man. Undersökningen har visat att hög varumärkeskännedom inte alltid betyder att man har lojala kunder. Den har också visat att egen butik inte är nödvändigt för att skapa trogna och lojala kundrelationer.

Den svenska konfektionsmarknaden har hög tillväxt och en kollaps förutspås. Nya företag verkar under svåra förhållanden och måste skapa lojala kundrelationer för att överleva. Stigande priser på importerade kläder gör att endast de stora kedjorna kan hålla låga priser ut till slutkund. Detta påverkar de mindre aktörerna då de inte har samma stordriftsfördelar. Ökade krav från kunderna gör att företagen verkar under hård press och de måste bemöta kundernas allt högre förväntningar.

Undersökningen har genomförts med en deduktiv ansats. Studierna är utförda med kvantitativa och kvalitativa metoder i form av enkätfrågor och intervjuer. Dessa har genomförts med företagens kunder respektive ledning. Kundundersökning har genomförts med ett sannolikhetsurval. Fyra mindre aktörer som verkar på den svenska konfektionsmarknaden har valts ut och undersökts. Företagen är Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair, Boutique Sportif, Jenny Hellström och Ida Sjöstedt.

De teorier som uppsatsen behandlar är;

· Mogen marknad

· Lojalitet

· Värdeskapande

· Distribution

· Tjänstemarknadsföring

· Interaktiv Marknadsföring

· Kvalitet

· Hävstångeffekten

Det perspektiv som uppsatsen har tagit är;

· Systemtänkande och Relationsmarknadsföring

För att mäta teorier har vi använt oss av;

· Brand Equity

Undersökning har observerat att Internet är en betydande faktor lojalitetsskapande. Det finns en tydlig koppling mellan de som besökt varumärkenas hemsidor och de som handlat av respektive varumärke.

Den ökade betydelsen av att som företag ha ett starkt varumärke för att synas på marknaden har inneburit att det läggs ner allt mer tid och resurser på varumärkeshöjande aktiviteter inom företagen. Den växande virtuella världen och den ökade handeln på Internet har i kombination med vikten av ett starkt varumärke skapat en komplicerad situation. Vagabond är ett svenskt varumärkesproducerande skoföretag som har ställts inför de möjligheter och svårigheter som den ökade Internetanvändningen har inneburit. Expansionen genom försäljning via återförsäljare på Internet har inneburit att svårigheterna med att kontrollera hur varumärket framställs på olika sidor på Internet har ökat. Den totala skokonsumtionen har ökat de senaste åren och konkurrensen på skomarknaden har blivit stor, vilket bidrar till att vikten av att sticka ut blir allt större.Syftet med vår studie är att förklara hur det varumärkesproducerande företaget, i vårt fall Vagabond, arbetar med att framställa och bevara sitt varumärke och vidare hur de Internetbaserade återförsäljarna resonerar kring sina produkters varumärken. Syftet är på så sätt också att undersöka och analysera vilka attityder de Internetbaserade återförsäljarna har, vilket ansvar de känner gentemot framställandet av varumärkena samt hur viktigt det är för dem att framställa dem på rätt sätt. Vi har i vår studie fokuserat på relationen mellan företag och har på så vis inte beaktat konsumenten till någon högre grad. Vårt huvudproblem lyder: Hur säkerställer företaget sitt varumärkes profil och image vid försäljning via återförsäljare på Internet?I vår teoretiska referensram förklaras begrepp som behandlar de ämnen som hjälper till att svara på vår huvudfrågeställning, det vill säga litteratur som behandlar områden som varumärke, marknadskommunikation, ”Visual Merchandising” och Internethandel. Som tillägg till litteraturen har vi funnit intressanta teorier i vetenskapliga artiklar som behandlar ämnen så som ”online branding” och ”online Visual Merchandising”. Tillsammans har teorierna gett oss en bra och översiktlig bild av vår problemställnings bakomliggande omständigheter.Vi har genomfört en fallstudie där det empiriska materialet har samlats in genom intervjuer med relevanta parter samt egna observationer av ett urval av de Internetbaserade återförsäljarnas webbplatser. Relevanta parter definieras som representanter från fallföretaget Vagabond samt Internetbaserade återförsäljare av skor. Insamlat empiriskt material har sedan applicerats på uppställda teorier som sedan använts som grund till vår analys och slutsats.De slutsatser som dragits i studien kan kort sammanfattas i att det i slutändan handlar om att varumärket ska arbeta med sin egen image och varumärkesbyggande för att göra det så tydligt och starkt som möjligt. En slutsats är också att det kan underlätta om det varumärkesproducerande företaget ger återförsäljarna korrekt information om varumärkets värden och produkter. På så sätt uppfattar både återförsäljare och konsumenter varumärket på önskat sätt och genererar goda associationer och en hög förväntad kvalitet.The increased importance of having a strong brand to be differentiated on the market has lead to that companies put more time and resources on brand-enhancing activities. The ever growing virtual world and the increased phenomenon of Internet trade have in combination with the importance of a strong brand created a complicated situation for the companies and their brand. Vagabond is a Swedish designer and distributor of shoes that has to face the opportunities and difficulties that the increased usage of the Internet has lead to. The expansion of selling your products through resellers online has increased the difficulties of how to control in what way the company’s brand is emitted on the Internet around the world. The consumption of footwear has increased in recent years and the competition in shoe business has become fierce, which has contributed to the enhanced importance of differentiation.The purpose of our study is to explain how the brand manufacturer, in our case Vagabond, works with the exhibition and preserving of the company’s brand, and further how the online resellers deliberates when it comes to their product’s brands. The purpose is in that way also to investigate and analyze what attitudes the online resellers have, their responsibilities when it comes to exhibition of brands and how important it is for them to exhibit them correctly. We have in our study focused on the relationship between companies, and have thus not taken into account the consumer to any great extent. Our main problem follows: How can the company ensure their brand’s profile and image when selling their products through resellers online?Our study can be defined as a case study where the empirical material has been gathered through interviews with the company Vagabond and two online resellers, and observations of a selection of online resellers and their websites. In our theoretical framework we explain different concepts that discuss the subjects that help to answer our main problem, i.e. literature that discuss subjects such as branding, market communication, visual merchandising, and trading on the Internet. In addition, we found interesting theories in scientific articles about online branding and online visual merchandising. Altogether the theories have given us a good and perspicuous view of the underlying circumstances of the problems discussed in our study.The conclusions that came out from our study can be summarized as follows; in the end, it’s all about the brand manufacturer and its’ own brand building activities to make the brand as strong and clear as possible. A second conclusion is that the brand manufacturer can facilitate for themselves and for the online reseller if they provide correct information about the brands’ values and products. In that way, both the resellers and the consumers can understand the content of the brand and generate positive associations about the brand and a high level of perceived quality.
Program: Textilekonomutbildningen

The fundamental purpose of this thesis was to determine how effective is the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to predict and explain shopping for embarrassing products in single and multi-channel. This is important because multi-channel consumers buy more, the question is why (Neslin, Grewal et al. 2006). The question was answered by comparing consumer behaviour in three different channels: drugstore, internet and multi-channel. The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) has been successful to predict intentions for a wide variety of products and behaviours. However, little is known about how effective it is when the behaviour under study is influenced by the emotion of embarrassment. Similarly, the TPB is parsimonious and has a good predictive power; nevertheless, this thesis identified that the TPB could be more effective if it considered: (1) the role of positive and negative emotions (2) other determinants of choice like personality and demographics (3) variables that are useful to make marketing decisions like the synergistic effect of brands, retailers and channels (4) variables that explain consumer response like approach and avoidance. To provide a comprehensive theoretical framework that is able to understand single and multi-channel, this thesis integrated the TPB within the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework. To evaluate the proposed model, the study used a context and target product that resonated with the theory: the purchase of Regaine (a hair loss product that is embarrassing to buy) in Boots (a well-known UK. multi-channel drugstore). The embarrassing nature of Regaine created differences in the importance that variables play in each channel. The results were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and the three shopping environments were compared using multi-group analysis (MGA). The effectiveness of the TPB was improved. The variance explained (R² to intention) was 73 percent for the drugstore, 67 percent for the internet and 54 percent for multi-channel. However, subjective norm (SN) was the only factor that achieved significance for the three shopping environments. Personality and demographic factors had a low but significant moderating effect on intention. This thesis built on a series of contributions in different areas, such as the TPB, attitudes, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control, embarrassing products, multi-channel, marketing, emotions, personality and demographics. Future research should expand this thesis to other embarrassing products, industries and social media settings.

Background: Nowadays, football is much more than just a sport. In fact, football is a global industry contributing to many countries’ economic and social wealth. Football leagues are deeply involved in globalization processes and follow international marketing strategies while aiming for growth in foreign markets. In that context, it is essential for any football league to know its brand equity and the interest in the league in the desired market, to be able to make strategic decisions which lead to internationalization and marketing management success. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the Brand Equity of the Bundesliga including Brand Interest. The current research extends Shuv-Ami's (2016a) market brand equity model within sport organizations with Machleit et al.'s (1990) concept of brand interest and is applied to the Bundesliga in the Swedish market. Research Question: What is the perceived Brand Equity including Brand Interest of the Bundesliga in Sweden? Methodology: The chosen approach for this study was a deductive approach with a theory and context extension of Shuv-Ami's (2016a) market brand equity model. A quantitative data collection through online survey was conducted and collected 805 survey answers from Swedish football fans which were used for the analysis. Conclusion: The findings showed that the perceived Brand Equity including the brand interest of the Bundesliga in Sweden was very positive. The Bundesliga was especially highly ranked in terms of Brand Knowledge, Brand Image, Brand Personality, Brand Satisfaction, and Brand Interest. Further, the proposed Brand Equity model including Brand Interest as a new variable has been successfully confirmed by this study as Brand Interest had been identified as a significant contributor to Brand Equity. Keywords: Brand Equity, Brand Interest, Bundesliga, Sports Marketing, Football, Brand Equity of a Football League, Football Marketing.

Problem:

Which of Thailand’s four main sectors that nation brands compete including tourism, FDI, export promotion, and talent attraction that should be develop a main focus in developing a stronger Nation Brand for the country comparing to other four countries in South East Asia including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines?

Purpose:

The purpose of this paper are 1) to study and analyze the current status of Thailand’s nation brand equity and 2) to examine the feasibility in each of Thailand’s four main sectors that nation brands compete including tourism, FDI, export promotion, and talent attraction by comparing to other four countries in ASEAN including Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia in order to generate recommendations for the country in developing a stronger nation branding strategy in the future.

Method:

In order to achieve our purpose, firstly, we chose ‘Asset-based Nation brand equity’ model to collect the information and perform analysis on the contribution of both nation internal and external assets towards nation brand equity. Secondly, ‘Nation brand internal analysis’ model was chosen in order to be a guideline for gathering data and performing analysis on Thailand’s nation brand capability in each of the 4 main sectors comparing to the other four countries. In addition, due to our research topic and limited time frame, we would rely on secondary sources as our main source of information with some guidance from our primary source. After the analysis had been performed, we had reached the conclusion and generated recommendation for our target group

Conclusion:

For the analysis of Nation brand equity, Thailand has equipped relatively strong internal assets both innate and nurtured as the country is rich with beautiful landscape and fascinating culture together with a strong support for the art from both governmental and private sectors. However, as for external assets, both disseminated and vicarious assets of Thailand still weakly contribute to the strength of the nation equity. Due to these reasons, we have recommended Thai governmental units to set up the organizations to improve the quality of disseminated asset and also start cooperation with private sector in order to come up with external portrayal in popular culture that can effective represent and enhance the country’s image.

As for the result of ‘Nation brand internal analysis’, Thailand has shown moderate to high capability in the Export Promotion sector which was the highest among the other 3 sectors. However, based on the data in the analysis part, there are still lots of things needed to be done both by Thai governmental units and private sector in order to boost the country’s nation brand capability to achieve competitive advantage in the international market in the long run. According to this point, we had listed some recommendations for the governmental units to use as a general guideline in obtaining a strong nation brand that could help the country become more competitive in the global market.

Vartotojų elgsenos aktualumas verslo praktikoje ir teorijoje neabejotinas – vartotojų elgsenos, ypač pirkimo sprendimo priėmimo stimulų, kylančių iš vartotojų asmenybės bei aplinkoje esančių ir skatinančių pirkti stimulų išskyrimas. Impulsyvaus pirkimo fenomenas mokslinėje marketingo literatūroje analizuojamas jau daugiau kaip penkias dešimtis. Todėl stimulai, sąlygojantys impulsyvaus pirkimo sprendimą ypač svarbūs – tokių stimulų sukūrimas skatintų vartotojus priimti pirkimo sprendimą per sąlyginai trumpą laiko tarpą, o pastaroji tendencija generuotų pelną organizacijai. Dar vienas itin plačiai mokslinėje literatūroje analizuojamas konceptas – prekės ženklo vertė. Prekės ženklo vertė pagrįsta vartotojo sąmonėje susiformavusiomis teigiamos asociacijos su prekės ženklu, prekės ženklo vertės vartotojui sukūrimu bei vartotojų lojalumu prekės ženklui. Visi pastarieji veiksniai mokslinėje literatūroje traktuojami, kaip skatinantys vartotojo sprendimo pirkti priėmimą. Prekės ženklas įvardijamas, kaip vienas iš impulsyvaus pirkimo stimulų. Darbo objektas – impulsyvaus pirkimo stimulai ir prekės ženklo vertė. Darbo tikslas – teoriškai pagrįsti ir empiriškai patikrinti impulsyvaus pirkimo ir prekės ženklo vertės sąsajas „Nivea“ prekės ženklo pavyzdžiu. Darbo struktūra. Magistro darbą sudaro trys dalys. Pirmojoje darbo dalyje pateikta ir nagrinėta impulsyvaus pirkimo koncepcija, vidiniai ir išoriniai impulsyvaus pirkimo stimulai. Taip pat analizuojami prekės ženklo vertę kuriantys... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]
The aim of this master work – theoretically support and empirically examine the relationship between impulsive buying and brand equity. The structure of thesis. The Master work thesis consists of three parts. The first part of thesis represents and examines the conception of impulsive buying, its internal and external impulsive buying stimulus. It also analyzes the creating factors of the brand value. The analysis of impulsive buying models is also presented. The second part of the thesis represents the structural interface pattern of impulsive buying and the brand equity. The research methodology, aims and tasks are also given. A previous analysis of impulsive buying research results is done. The third part of Master work thesis does the empirical research of the relationship between impulsive buying and the brand equity; the results are generalized. Empirically checked structural model relationshiop between impulsive buying and the brand equity by the example of Nivea brand is done. At the end of the Master work the conclusions are made and suggestions are given. In order to make it more transparent, the work contains of 14 pictures and 17 tables. The theoretical analysis has been prepared using 117 English and Lithuanian literature sources.

Tourism and Sport
Ph.D.
To achieve brand success and develop a competitive advantage through consistently delivering brand experiences to customers, the roles of employees in service organizations are critical. Specifically, it is necessary that service employees are capable and motivated to transform a brand promise into brand reality. Although service organizations have widely adopted internal branding initiatives to engender employees' pro-brand attitude and behavior, how employees perceive such organizational effort to inform their brand-consistent attitude and behavioral outcomes has remained unclear. Drawing upon Job Characteristics Theory, Self-Determination Theory, and Organismic Integration Theory, it is suggested that the attainment of employees' pro-brand attitude and behavior requires a joint effort from both the organization and employees. Organizations need to establish a brand climate through internal branding practices that enhance employees' perceived encouragement and support of the coveted brand performance. Based on this brand climate, employees are likely to internalize the brand enabling them to obtain necessary brand knowledge and skills, understand the relevance of the brand to their roles, as well as perceive a fit between their values and the values of the brand. As such, employees are more likely to develop positive brand attitudes and behaviors, including endorsing the brand, staying with the brand, and exhibiting brand-consistent behaviors (i.e., employee brand equity). The brand climate to brand internalization to employee brand equity model conceptualized in this dissertation was assessed with two empirical studies. Study 1 utilized a sample of current employees in service-related industries and Study 2 served as a strict replication study with a sample of current hotel employees. Additional moderation effects based on employees' individual traits including proactive personality and intrinsic motivation were also examined in Study 2. The results from both studies provide strong support for the conceptual model. Brand climate is shown to have a significant impact on all employee brand internalization factors. That is, when employees perceive that the organization is supportive and encouraging with respect to employees' brand performance, they are more likely to transform such perception into their brand understanding, including perceiving appropriate brand knowledge, self-brand relevance, and congruence between the brand values and their own value systems. In addition, it was found that when employees perceive a high level of relevance between their roles and the brand success, as well as congruence between the brand's values and their personal values, they are more likely to develop positive brand attitudes and behaviors, including endorsing the brand, staying with the brand, and exhibiting brand-consistent behaviors (i.e., employee brand equity). Further, it is suggested that employee proactive personality has a positive impact on the relationship between brand climate and employee brand value congruence, while employee intrinsic motivation to work has a negative impact on the relationship between employee perceived brand relevance and employee brand equity. This dissertation significantly advances the current internal brand management literature and contributes to theory development with respect to examining and validating employee brand internalization. This dissertation also provides practical implications to help justify and guide service organizations' investment in internal branding. In addition, this dissertation demonstrates that a brand-aligned workforce can be selected and cultivated through a brand climate that affords employees' internalization of the brand.
Temple University--Theses

Background: Differentiation towards one’s competitors is crucial. Brand can symbolize competitive advantages through intangible assets, though the focus in both companies and academia has largely been on adding intangible values to products. To large extent employees has not been consider as an aspects that could add value, i.e. employees as brand builders.  Recently gained interest in both areas have make it possible to compared them both the see employees possibility to add brand value.   Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to describe the relationship between employer attractiveness and internal brand equity.   Methodology: Conducted a quantitative study, with a single cross-sectional design and self-completion questionnaire as data collection method. Descriptive statistics and simple linear regression was thereafter performed. All with ethical principles in consideration.   Conclusion: This study provides empirical evidence that confirms a relationship between employees and the brand equity through the concepts of employer attractiveness, and brand equity through the concept of internal brand equity. The study provides a regression analysis between the two concepts that indicates a relationship to a very large extent. The confirmed relationship thus adds new perspectives of how to add intangible value to a brand and thus adds to a potential success.

Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka och utreda hur tjänsteföretag inom charterbranschen arbetar för att stärka sitt varumärke, samt att utreda hur och vilka associationer som skapas kring varumärket.

Metod: Försöka implementera en modell för att få en klarare bild över hur charter företag arbertar för att stärka sina varumärken, författarna använder sig olika litteratur käller samt emperiska studier.

Resultat: Resultaten visar hur viktigt det för företag att hitta nya metoder för att stärka sitt varumärke, samt betydelsen för tjänsteföretag av att hitta sin egen plats i en konkurrenskraftig marknad.

Avgränsning: Genom att begränsa vår undersökning valde vi att koncentrera oss på endast två charterföretag, detta för att skapa en bättre och djupare inblick på vår frågeställning. De två charterföretagen som vi har valt att undersöka och utgå ifrån är; Apollo och Ving. Anledningen till detta är att de är marknadsledande och har lyckats skapa ett starkt varumärke.

Nyckelord: Varumärkeskapital, kärnvärde av tjänst, postionering, märkesidentitet, marknadskommunikation, intern märkeslojlitet, associationer.

Purpose: The purpose with this study is to evaluate how leading companies in the “charter branch” create brand equity and associations related to the brand.

Methodology: To test the anticipated model in the context of how charter companies work to establish a stronger brand, the authors use data collected from different literature sources and empirical findings.

Findings: The results underline the importance of always finding new methods to establish a strong brand, and the value for service companies have to find their own place on a competitive market.

Research limitations: We choose to limit our study by choosing two different charter companies, this choice made it able for us to get deeper understanding to our purpose. The two companies that we choose to investigate where: Apollo and Ving. The reason was because these two companies are market leaders and they have managed to create a strong brand.

Doutoramento em Gestão
Traditionally, researchers and practitioners placed significant emphasis on the customer or financial perspective of branding and less on the interaction between the brand and employees. Due to the recent market changes and the raising importance of 'service dominant logic', the scope of marketing management has been broadened in demand to embrace other stakeholders, in particular employees. Nowadays, organizations acknowledge the influence employees have on a customer's service experience and satisfaction, which in turn can lead to organizational growth. This thesis aims to discuss the various aspects of employer brand management, nominally the employer brand and employer branding process, employee's perception of brand equity, employer brand attractiveness and internal communication. Accordingly, this investigation considers the wider conceptualization of employer brand management, determined by both employer branding (building the employer attractiveness to both current and potential employees), as well as internal brand management (communicating brand promise). This thesis is constituted on the base of five papers, of which the first two are conceptual and the following three studies are empirical, and all serve to enrich the understanding of employer brand management. The first paper uses a narrative review to summarize the existing literature while analyzing the relevant studies in two areas. The second of the conceptual studies applies a systematic literature review and focuses on the area of employer branding and employee-based brand equity while summarizing the literature progression during passed eleven years. As it comes to the three empirical studies, the third gives more light to the connection between brand knowledge dissemination and brand equity form the perspective of employees, following the conceptualization of King et al. (2012). The fourth study applies the mixed method to evaluate the employer brand attractiveness in the perceptions of both current as prospective employees and applies the EmpAt scale proposed by Berthon et al. (2005) while linking it with the intention to submit a job application, as proposed by Highhouse et al. (2003). Finally, the fifth study takes under the lens the internal brand management to investigate the links between internal communication, perceived organizational support and organizational identification. The employee satisfaction with the internal communication of the organization for which they are working is measured in this study with the Internal Communication Satisfaction Questionnaire (UPZIK) developed by Vercic et al. (2009) and based on previous Downs and Hazen's (1977) conceptualization. This investigation presents several scientific contributions. First, it adds new empirical evidence to the underlying theories, predominantly to the theory of social identity, to the theory of social exchanges and to the theory of organizational identification. Second, the present research offers insights into an area that is relatively new and not yet well explored in the area of marketing, contributing to the conceptual systematization of terms related to the employer brand management in this way addressing existing research gaps.
Tradicionalrnente, pesquisadores e profissionais de marketing colocam ênfase na perspetiva do cliente ou na perspetiva financeira da marca e menos na interação entre a marca e os funcionários. Devido as recentes mudanças de mercado e a crescente importância da "lógica dominante do serviço", o âmbito da gestão de marketing foi ampliado pela necessidade de incluir outras partes interessadas, em particular os funcionários. Hoje em dia, as organizações reconhecem a influência que os funcionários têm na experiencia e na satisfação do serviço ao cliente, o que por sua vez pode levar ao crescimento organizacional. Esta tese visa discutir os vários aspetos da gestão da marca do empregador, nomeadamente o processo da gestão da marca do empregador, a perceção do colaborador sobre o capital da marca do empregador, a atratividade da marca do empregador e a satisfação do colaborador com a comunicação interna. Consequentemente, esta investigação considera a conceituação mais ampla de gestão da marca do empregador, determinada tanto pela marca do empregador (construir a atratividade do empregador para os funcionários atuais e potenciais), quanto pela gestão da marca interna (comunicar a promessa da marca). Esta tese é constituida a partir de cinco artigos, sendo os dois primeiros concetuais e os três seguintes empíricos, com o prop6sito de contribuir para uma melhor compreensão da gestão da marca do empregador. 0 primeiro estudo utiliza uma revisão narrativa para apresentar um resumo da literatura existente ao mesmo tempo em que analisa os estudos relevantes em duas áreas. 0 segundo estudo, através de uma revisão sistemática, foca-se na área de gestão da marca de empregador e capital da marca centrado no colaborador, considerando a progressão da literatura durante os últimos onze anos. Quanto aos outros três artigos, o terceiro da maior ênfase a conexão entre a disseminação do conhecimento da marca e o capital da marca na perspetiva dos funcionários, seguindo de perto os contributos concetuais de King et al. (2012). 0 quarto estudo, recorre a métodos mistos para avaliar a atratividade da marca empregadora de acordo com as perceções tanto dos funcionários atuais quanto de potenciais. Isto é feito utilizando a escala de atratividade da marca de empregador EmpAt (Berthon et al., 2005), combinada com a intenção de submissão de uma candidatura de emprego, como proposto por Highhouse et al. (2003). Finalmente, o quinto trabalho foca-se na gestão intema da marca para investigar as ligações entre a comunicação interna, o suporte organizacional percebido e a identificação organizacional. A satisfação dos funcionários com a comunicação intema da organização para a qual trabalham é medida recorrendo aos Questionário de Satisfação de Comunicação Intema (UPZIK), desenvolvido por Vercic et al. (2009) e com base em Downs e Hazen (1977). Esta investigção apresenta diversas contribuições cientificas. Em primeiro lugar, adiciona novas evidências empíricas as teorias subjacentes, predominantemente a teoria da identidade social (social identity theory), a teoria das trocas sociais (social exchange theory) e a teoria da identificação organizacional (organizational identification theory). Em segundo lugar, a presente pesquisa oferece insights sobre uma área que é relativamente nova e ainda não bern explorada na área do marketing, contribuindo para a sistematização conceitual de termos relacionados a gestão da marca do empregador abordando lacunas de investigação existentes (research gaps).
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

碩士
實踐大學
企業管理研究所
91
As the age of digital coming, traditional marketing strategy and transaction model can fit the fast moving environment for many companies. Hence, how can we combine marketing strategy and information technology to create Internet marketing strategy real time interaction and quick response with customer, to promote customers’ purchase intentions for this is most important issue for modern company. The purpose of this study is to include the differences shaped by the product attributes. The 2*2*2*2 laboratory experiments are employed to collect primary data to validate the proposed conceptual framework. The results indicate: (1) the type of brands alliance websites won’t affect consumers’ attitude toward the brand alliance. (2) Consumers’ purchase intentions and brand equity will be positively influenced which is consumers’ attitude toward brand alliance. (3) Taking product category as a moderator, the consumers’ attitude toward brand alliance could be positively influenced by two factors which are the type of brands alliance websites and the degree of brand fit; the increasing consumers’ purchase intentions and brand equity toward experience goods will be greater than search goods. (4) Taking brand awareness as a moderator, only when product is high brand awareness, the consumers’ attitude toward brand alliance could be positively influenced by two factors which are the type of brands alliance websites and the degree of brand fit; the increasing consumers’ purchase intentions and brand equity toward high brand awareness will be greater than low brand awareness.

The Internet became an inherent part of people’s daily life and the major source of transformation in the relation between consumers and brands. However, in the luxury branding context, the introduction of prestige brands into a mass channel such as the Internet might bring the risk of vulgarization, loss of control over the brand, loss of the high-luxury appeal, jeopardizing brand equity. Hence, the present thesis paper proposes to answer the dilemma between the imperative of going online and the risk of luxury high-appeal dilution, by examining whether brand digital competence enhances the impact of advertising on the several dimensions of customer-based brand equity (CBBE) sources of luxury brands. Further, this study investigated the main impact of digital competence on CBBE as well as the risk of vulgarization by luxury going online. Additionally, it was tested if the impact of advertising on CBBE is mediated by the channel (online vs. offline) through which it is exposed to the consumers. To perform the study, a 2 (before the Advertising vs. after the advertising) x 2 (high digital competence vs. low digital competence) x 2 (online vs. offline) experiment was conducted and results were tested through MANOVA and ANOVA analysis. Around 250 international general consumers participated in the experiment though online questionnaire. The results show that consumers rated brands better in terms of awareness and image after being exposed to the brand advertising. The effect of advertising on brand image proved to be moderated by the level of brand digital competence, which means that, considering the same type of advertising, consumers will rate better a brand endowed with high digital competence than a brand endowed with low digital competence. However, this moderation effect does not apply in the case of brand awareness, which means that digital competence level does not affect the effectiveness of advertising in enhance brand awareness. Besides the analysis of the moderation effect, digital competence proved to be a very significant direct main effect on all the dimensions of the dependent variables Brand Awareness and Brand Image (excepting sensuality), which means that the effect of a brand digital competence goes much beyond the advertising activity. The ANOVA analysis on the online vs. offline channels demonstrated that there was a significant effect of advertising through online channels on awareness and significant effects on some dimensions of brand image such as love, uniqueness, positiveness of associations, quality and sensuality perception.

碩士
國立臺北科技大學
工業工程與管理研究所
96
Enterprises are facing increasingly fierce competition with the market opening and trade liberalization, in order to maintain growth and even survival, resulting in global acquisitions prevalence of Commerce, the Ministry of Economic Affairs press release pointed out that the current international to the U.S., Europe, Japan and other advanced countries in the largest corporate acquisitions. U.S. Securities and coupons information company from 1990 to 2007 the amount acquisitions, growing from 446.4 billion dollars to 3.63 trillion dollars in 16 years the amount of acquisitions rose 8.13 times. For corporate growth, acquisitions is undoubtedly the most rapid strategic tool, however, acquisitions for the organization''s decision-making will bring about major changes, enterprises is the main reason for acquisitions by the two companies would integrate to achieve synergies. Therefore, this study strengthens research methods to understand the impact of acquisitions of brands. This study will be discussed by the relevant documentation, integration and related works of the past academic research, the development of a marketing channels between the theoretical framework to the Taiwan region have been used by enterprises from the use of acquisitions Internet services for customers of the study, Through the survey, LISREL linear structure and mode of the industry mergers and acquisitions in different ways, the managers have a brand equity and brand loyalty, the performance generated by the impact. The most significant findings are： 1.There is a significant, positive correlation between Brand Equity and Brand Performance. 2.There is a significant, positive correlation between Channel Strategy and Brand Performance. 3.There is a significant, positive correlation between Corporation Acquisition and Brand Equity. 4.There is a significant, positive correlation between Corporation Acquisition and Channel Strategy. 5.There is not a significant positive correlation between Brand Equity and Channel Strategy. The survey takes the Internet service industry evidence on the relationship between the different variables, and to develop marketing strategies for the industry as a reference to the period of mergers and acquisitions of enterprises have contributed to promoting synergy.

碩士
國立雲林科技大學
企業管理系碩士班
89
Abstract Although Internet industry is in the recession period, the new life style brought by Internet did not stop moving forward. The market of online shopping is waiting to be exploited, and the future of this industry is still prospective. However, building brand name in the world of Internet is comparably more difficult than in the real world due to the open and free information flow. There are no imitation barriers for new techniques or marketing methods. A web user can easily search or compare products among different websites, and decide where to shop. It is thus difficult to build customer loyalty. Therefore, building Internet brands is essential to the Internet store dealers. In this study, we built up an Internet store practically to figure out the influence of information richness, promotion strategy, and brand image to the brand equity of Internet store. This research divides information richness into basic information, rich information, and rich information with peripheral information. Sale promotion is divided into three parts: no promotion, sales promotion and lottery promotion. Store’s image is divided into with positive store image and without positive store image. We used a 3x3x2 experiment design to discuss the influences of preceding three factors on the brand equity of Internet store. Besides, this research tries to explore whether the website user type and the demography variables moderate the above-mentioned relationship. There are three major findings in this study: (1) Information richness will have positive impact on the brand equity of Internet store. Information richness will have positive impact on all three dimensions of brand equity: browse, satisfaction, loyalty, and purchase intention. When information is rich, offering peripheral information will not have significant influence on brand equity, but the average of offering peripheral information is higher than the one who do not offer. (2) SP (sales promotion) will have positive impact on the brand equity of Internet store. SP will have positive impact on loyalty and purchase intention, but only the price discount will have positive impact on brand equity, the sweepstakes will not. (3) Store image will not have significant impact on the brand equity of Internet store, but offering positive store images will have positive impact on purchase intention. However, we did not find out any moderating effects on website user types and demography variable.

O electronic word of mouth (eWOM) tem uma influência decisiva no comportamento do consumidor. Este impacto é particularmente visivel no sector do turismo, onde cada vez mais os consumidores recorrem à internet para planear e comprar as suas viagens. Muitos fazem-no através do Booking, o agente de vendas on line mais utilizado em Portugal e um dos que reúne mais utilizadores em todo o mundo. (...)

碩士
國立勤益科技大學
工業工程與管理系
99
As the rapid development of Internet network, making the network a lot of people get important information outside the pipe, and to promote Internet users rapidly increased, showing that the Internet plays an important role in the Chinese mind. User satisfaction and loyalty will affect the people once again using the search engine will find information, and these reference indicators and the search engine itself, between the value of brand equity and customer have a significant impact. This study was to explore the Internet search engine Yahoo's brand equity and customer value, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty on the impact of research subjects to the main users of Yahoo Internet search engine, using a questionnaire survey to collect data, the sample data obtained by SPSS 12.0 for descriptive statistics, reliability and validity analysis, a single sample T-test analysis, correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis, and important - the performance level of analysis to the analysis to understand the site's brand equity customer satisfaction and customer value and loyalty of the relationship between the variables and differences between variables to understand the impact, according to the research and analysis that stated the following: 1. Brand equity of "brand awareness" on the part of a significant impact on customer value, "brand equity" has a significant impact. 2. Brand equity, some significant impact on customer satisfaction, and have significant impact on customer loyalty. 3. Customer value on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty both have significant impact. 4. Have a significant impact on customer satisfaction on customer loyalty.

碩士
南華大學
旅遊管理學系旅遊管理碩士班
104
The parent-child tourist hotel is an emerging hotel type. The enterprise must create a warm and safetourist hotel that be in line with needs of childern. The consumer inquire about parent-child tourist hotels through the internet. The social atmosphere of the electronic word-of-mouth communication provokes consumers’ act in conformity the group decision. A brand equity can be improved whether ornot that will impact the purchase intention of consumers.In this study,we use the convenience sampling and snowball samping methods to conduct 1097 questionnairs collected from the general public,and 1097 samples are valid with the effective rate of 87.06％.Descriptive statistics,one-wayANOVA and StructuralEquation Modeling (SEM)were used to test the hypotheses proposed in the study. The results were derived as following: (1)Electronic word-of-mouthpresentprominentinfluenceon conformity. (2)Electronic word-of-mouth present prominentinfluenceon brand equity. (3)Conformity present prominentinfluenceon brand equity. (4)Conformity presentprominentinfluenceon consumers’ purchase intention. (5)Brand equity presentprominentinfluenceon consumers’ purchase intention. (6)In spite of the fact that electronic word-of-mouth presentno prominent influence on consumers’ purchase intention, it will not bring about interfering influence, through the user behavior on internet and the numberof children. 　　Finally, the research gives advice of word-of-mouth marketing to enterprises.Try to enhance brand equity of parent-child tourist hotels so that the consumers’ purchase intention will be increased; and that the scholars can make profound research and discussion based on the happening causes for the company’smanagementcapability on electronic word-of-mouthand the cause of conformity.

In the business-to-business sector, the brand owner´s employees are increasingly playing a key role in terms of representing the brand to existing and potential customer. The role of a well-established internal brand equity can give a business-to Business Company the edge it needs in the market today. Internal branding has recently emerged as an important issue in industrial market. This study aims to find out how internal brand equity and its determinants affect the external brand equity of business-to-business companies. This study is based on previous research of internal brand equity in business-to-business setting. In this study four hypothesis were tested. Surveys were conducted among manufacturing and promotional companies in Sweden and Latvia, which resulted in 94 complete and useful response with a response-rate of 28.3%. The findings offer evidence, that internal brand equity with determinants have a great impact on the external brand equity of a firm.

В настоящее время актуальной проблемой в сфере маркетинга является выбор экономически обоснованных инструментов оценки бренда и повышения его узнаваемости. В рамках данной работы была проведена оценка капитала бренда и выявлено, что узнаваемость компании находится на низком уровне.В связи с этим,были предложены и апробированы маркетинговые инструменты в сети интернет, а также рассчитана их эффективность.
The current issue in marketing is economically feasible tools for assessment and increase brand awareness. Within this work, the brand equity was evaluated and it was revealed that the company's recognition is low. In connection with this, marketing tools in the Internet have been proposed and tested and their effectiveness has been calculated.

In the last decade, companies have been started to give more importance to employees, recognized them as a competitive advantage and pursuing organization tools to engage them. This study intends to analyse the influence and effects of employees’ engagement on relationship employee/brand, through understanding if employees act as customers engaged of the brand where they work and if they conduct employee brand equity. As a last challenge, realize if they are capable of being voluntary brand ambassadors, increasing in this way the brand reputation and awareness. A quantitative analysis was carried out with the aim to develop and measure employee engagement and these effects in four Portuguese big companies. The results demonstrated that employee’s identification, commitment and loyalty, represent a significant role in employee engagement who promote brand positive behaviours. Through the findings of the study, we gathered that managers and marketers should focus their efforts to create and maintain engaged employees in order to conduct effectively employees’ positive behaviours through the brand, and consequently generate brand ambassadors.
Na última década, as empresas começaram a dar mais importância aos colaboradores, reconhecendo-os como uma vantagem competitiva e procurando ferramentas de organização para evolve-los. Este estudo pretende analisar a influência e os efeitos do envolvimento dos colaboradores no relacionamento empregado/ marca, através da análise dos colaboradores como clientes externos envolvidos, mas também como condutores de comportamentos que promovem o valor da marca. Por último, perceber se os colaboradores são capazes de ser embaixadores voluntários da marca para a qual trabalham, aumentando assim a reputação e a consciência da mesma. Inicialmente foi realizada uma análise quantitativa, em quatro grandes empresas portuguesas, com o objetivo de desenvolver e medir o envolvimento dos colaboradores. Os resultados demonstraram que a identificação, compromisso e lealdade dos colaboradores representam um papel significativo no envolvimento dos indivíduos que promovem comportamentos positivos da marca. Através dos resultados do estudo, concluímos que os administradores e profissionais de marketing devem concentrar os esforços para criar e manter funcionários envolvidos a fim de conduzir com eficiência os comportamentos positivos em relação à marca e, consequentemente, gerar embaixadores da marca.

The role of brand has evolved to take on a broader application as a post-modern management concept and has attracted increasing attention in the 21st century as a key component for the development of competitive advantage. Far removed from its origins as an identity device, branding now transcends the pure marketing interpretation and is increasingly seen as a catalyst for corporate strategy and a tool for holistic reputation management and business performance. This thesis evaluates the extent to which brand is being adopted as a mechanism to align with corporate strategy, internal culture and supporting behaviours and external delivery or organisational performance: in essence, the concept of a brand-driven organisation that deploys brand as a core capability in pursuit of competitive advantage. This evaluation takes into account defined South African perspectives and examples in a case research approach. It seeks to evaluate how the brand alignment methodology can advance current theory and be applied as a management practice. The research argues that brand extends beyond the marketing function or the end-point of organisational systems and delivery. Rather, it suggests that brand becomes integrated as one of the primary elements of corporate strategy and seeks to embrace strategic organisational intent, internal culture and external manifestation of the business vision and results. The organisational architecture model is adapted to suit this research and offer a brand alignment framework that facilitates the effective and efficient implementation and realisation of strategic intent. This links brand alignment to resource-based theory and posits that it is considered as a core capability within the firm, enabling the attainment of competitive advantage. iv This thesis concludes that brand is not confined to an aspect of marketing, but should be deployed holistically in the organisation as a core capability and opportunity for competitive advantage. The research demonstrates an emerging body of thought and advances theory and practice in this area of business, both academically and in a professional management context, offering possibilities for continued further research in this field of management.
Business Management
D.B. L.

Subordinada ao tema “O internal branding aplicado ao setor das instituições de ensino superior: o docente enquanto representante da marca”, este dissertação pretende compreender como as instituições de ensino superior desenvolvem a gestão da sua marca interna junto dos docentes. Para o desenvolvimento do estudo foi desenvolvida uma investigação com metodologia mista, a qual engloba um estudo quantitativo a docentes do ensino superior, através de um questionário distribuído por e-mail, e um estudo qualitativo, de caráter exploratório, a quatro docentes. A dissertação inicia-se assim com uma revisão de literatura assente nas temáticas de relevância para o estudo, com um enfoque principal no internal branding e no modelo employee based brand equity (King & Grace, 2009, 2010), o qual apresenta o colaborador enquanto fonte de valor para a marca e o qual constitui a base desta investigação. Após uma abordagem à posição metodológica adotada, apresenta-se a análise, o tratamento dos dados e a discussão dos resultados. Com a realização deste estudo tornou-se possível comprovar a importância do internal branding para a representação da marca por parte dos docentes das instituições de ensino superior.