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Der Tourismus ist eine der größten und profitabelsten Branchen der Welt. Seit vielen Jahren wächst der Umsatz und die Zahl der Gäste stetig, aber der Wettbewerb in dieser Branche ist groß. Viele Reiseziele und Unternehmen versuchen, über die Social-Media-Plattformen neue Kunden zu gewinnen. In den letzten Jahren haben viele Unternehmen die Macht und den Einfluss von Social Media erkannt, und es wurde zu einem der effektivsten Marketing-Tools. Doch wie hat sich Social Media genau auf die Tourismusbranche ausgewirkt und wie groß ist der Einfluss auf Destinationen und Unternehmen? Die folgende Arbeit analysiert die Auswirkungen von Social Media auf die Tourismusbranche und sucht nach Möglichkeiten, diesen Einfluss für das Marketing in dem jeweiligen Bereich zu nutzen.
Tourism is one of the biggest and most profitable industries in the world. Since many years it keeps a steady grow in revenue and guests, but the competition is high in this branch. Many destinations and companies are trying to win new customers through emerging Social Media platforms. In recent years a lot of companies recognized the power and influence of social media, and it became one of the most effective marketing-tools. But how did Social Media effect the Tourism industry exactly and how big is it´s influence on destinations and companies? The following thesis analyzes the effects of social media on the tourism industry and searches for ways to use this influence for marketing in the respective field.
Generation Z born between 1995 and 2010 has a growing influence on the markets and businesses need to adapt their marketing strategies to meet the needs and expectations of said generation and therefore influence their brand perception, preferably positively. Consequently, it is essential to understand Generation Z, their values, characteristics and behavior.
The goal of this thesis is to answer how the modern marketing strategy cause-related marketing influences the brand perception of Generation Z. Thus, the following research questions are being posed: “How does cause-related marketing influence Generation Z’s brand perception in Germany?” and “How can cause-related marketing influence Generation Z’s brand perception in Germany positively?”.
To answer the research questions a quantitative study regarding brand perception was conducted. More specifically a survey was run to measure the brand perception of Generation Z regarding the practice of cause-related marketing. The respondents had to indicate how much they agree or disagree with statements about brands practicing cause-related marketing posed on a 5-level Likert scale to measure their brand perception.
The results of the study indicate that the perception of Generation Z gets influenced by the practice of cause-related marketing. Moreover, Generation Z’s brand perception gets influenced positively. This effect can be augmented if companies pay attention to the specific values, characteristics and behavior of Generation Z and choose their message, collaboration partners and causes accordingly. Additionally, Generation Z’s brand perception can be influenced positively if cause-related marketing is practiced originally, especially via suitable communication tools.
Further studies concerning cause-related marketing influencing Generation Z’s brand perception in other countries or how specific brands or industries are affected could be conducted. Additionally, studies focusing on the negative impacts of cause-related marketing could be performed.
Aufgrund der sich ständig weiterentwickelnden Marktsituation und dem Bestreben, seine Produkte kontinuierlich basierend auf den Wünschen seiner Kunden zu verbessern, gilt es zu untersuchen, wie die aktuelle Kundenzufriedenheit mit Accu-Chek Smart Pix Software ist. Ziel dieser Arbeit ist anhand der Durchführung einer quantitativen Kundenzufriedenheitsanalyse die Bestimmung von Faktoren, die sowohl für die Nutzung von Accu-Chek Smart Pix Software, als auch für die Nutzung von Fremdsoftware eine Rolle spielen. Des Weiteren gilt es zu ermitteln, welche Wünsche Nutzer bezüglich zukünftigen Produkteigenschaften haben, sodass eventuelle Ableitungen diesbezüglich getroffen werden können. Im Rahmen der Datenerhebung wurde ein Fragebogen entwickelt, welcher die zu untersuchenden Aspekte in Form einer expliziten,multiattributiven Methode beurteilen soll.
Die Auswertung der erhobenen Daten gab Aufschluss darüber, dass die Kundenzufriedenheit mit Accu-Chek Smart Pix Software als rundum positiv bewertet werden kann, sowie dass die Nutzung einer Diabetes Management Software tendenziell einen erheblichen Mehrwert generiert.
COVID-19 has caused severe consequences for the tourism sector, many small- to medium sized travel agencies went bankrupt. Furthermore, the digitalization has been an important global trend, which also affects tourism. The question “how a travel agency could survive in these external circumstances?” is now under the spotlight.
With information from secondary literatures, the macroenvironments surrounding the Chinese and German travel markets are examined. This comparison results in two PEST analyses in order to find out the differences. The case of KaiYuan GmbH, a travel company with Sino-German background, represents a survivor of COVID-19. The SWOT analysis on the company´s microenvironment shows that to possess a broad portfolio and to enter new markets are crucial. The results from the macro- and microenvironment analyses lead to the creation of the new business model Intelligent Travel Agency (ITA), which combines digital developments and a diversified product portfolio. Refined marketing strategies as a German travel agency towards Chinese customers are presented, such as utilizing different Chinese media channels. With feasible components and implementation suggestions, ITAs could replace traditional travel agencies and ensure the existence of travel agencies.
This thesis is written based on secondary research to understand the main determinants of purchase intention of Generation Y women towards Fast Fashion products and how important is sustainability among those determinants. There are many different studies dedicated to Generation X and Z, however, when it comes to Generation Y there are not many sources available. I decided to put them together in this study.
This thesis consists of secondary researches, mostly journal articles and case studies from different countries, with detailed specific information.
The gathered information is categorized into 3 small hypotheses, which include theoretical and practical approaches.
More research can be made conducting primary research in different countries using physical stores and online stores.
Current work aimed to conduct the market research for premium surgical power systems market segment in China. Qualitative and quantitative primary and secondary researches were completed in order to set the right strategical direction for service, weight the opportunities in the market, set the right models and methods for service. Research results are describing the demand on service, mechanics of the business and the benchmark of the segment. Customer's profile, sales channels, service portfolio and 5 Ps for the service of surgical power systems were completed.
The promotion of Fruits and Vegetables (F&V) is challenging, especially in the past
centuries. The difficulties in branding or advertising arise from traits of the produce,
making it less presentable than manufactured products. Modern farming technologies
ensure better produce appearance, therefore, need to re-examine the possibilities of its
promotion. The technology changed, so had the dietary trend. In contrary to modernised
farming, F&V advertising that appeared to be a carry-on from the 40s had seemingly
dissociated itself from consumers. This paper collected results from empirical studies.
Most of the works, however, conducted experiments with manufactured products, might
not apply to fresh produce. Discussions on the relevance of the sources are, therefore,
necessary. This research identifies a lack of branding of fresh produce, which could be a
direct causal for inactive promotion. Further examinations suggest deeper market
segmentation, which helps the marketer to create a better advertisement. The research
also notices many researchers regard promoting nutritional value as equivalent to
effective advertising, which leads to higher consumption. Promoting nutritional value,
however, appears to be merely attractive to the certain consumer. In many cases, other
mechanisms, for instance, originality, health, fun and other emotional tags, could attract
more attentions.
This research identifies positive and negative influence factors by examining the effectiveness of digital video advertising. The objective is to discover ways of leveraging
these factors successfully through an extensive literature review. As this ad format has developed into a staple in most brands' media strategy, it is valuable to drive
understanding of effective implementation forward. Three brands that utilize digital video advertising are selected for an analysis of their recently published ads. This analysis is supported by a suggested model that was developed based on advertising literature to assess ad effectiveness. Results show that the perceived intrusiveness of an ad and the consequential ad avoidance behaviours in consumers represent a hindrance to ad effectiveness. In contrast, elements used in an advertisement that increase its value facilitated ad effectiveness. Credibility, entertainment and informativeness are ad value contributors and impact ad recall, the gateway to positive marketing outcomes such as purchasing decisions. The circumstances under which consumers are exposed to digital video advertisements play a role in if the ad message can effectively be conveyed.
While negative influence factors have their detriment, they can still be counteracted and leveraged. Advertisers and ad-supported video streaming sites like YouTube can find
ways to broadcast ads without significantly impeding the user experience and, in doing so, secure the continued profitability of this promotion format that depends on users
watching ads.
Maßnahme einer Social Media Marketing Strategie des Schwarzwälder Freilichtmuseums Vogtsbauernhof
(2016)
Nowadays, in times of saturated markets, there may be observed an intensified competition among companies, while at the same time needs and demand of the customers are increasing as well. To counteract this growth of competition, companies need to continuously implement new and innovative strategies, if they don’t want to lose any market share among their market competitors. Under such conditions, innovated business modules and new market technologies have to be developed through the usage of Digitalization and the Internet and, especially the usage of Social Media; creating a new Touchpoint to deal with the customers, where companies can better get to know their requirements, enabling them better to serve the market and satisfy customer needs. Keeping this in mind, many large international companies already recognized the importance of Social Media within their business model, but until now they don’t have any real strategic plan yet in place to backup, utilize and exploit the situation over longer periods of time. The Schwarzwälder Freilichtmuseum Vogtsbauernhof, also recognized this important aspect and is already using Social Media, but until now, without any Strategic Plan or Model too. Beyond this the objective of this Bachelor Thesis is to create a complete a Strategic Model as well as some further strategic actions for the Schwarzwälder Freilichtmuseum Vogtsbauernhof, to adapt to changing market conditions and not to fall behind the competition but to excel above them. To achieve this objective, a Company and Competitor Analysis has to be carried out as an answer, if such a strategic implementation in Social Media might be useful for the business model of the Schwarzwälder Freilichtmuseum Vogtsbauernhof or not. Verifying this analysis, some Strategic Models from the literature will be presented, and applied as a combination at the business model of the company. As a different point of view, an empirical study will be used to apply the created Strategic Model in a suited way into practice. Due to this application, as well as due to some further Strategic Actions, there will be improved some already existing Social Media channels. Furthermore there will be established one completely new Social Media channel. To prove the success of the Strategic Model and its additional actions, a second empirical study and some Monitoring tools will be used as a measurement at the end of the Thesis. The results of the Company Analysis could be interpreted as first evidence, that a general strategic implementation of Social Media for the business model of the Schwarzwälder Freilichtmuseum Vogtsbauernhof might be useful. Additionally both methods of measuring results and performance show a partial success of the implemented Strategic Model which could be interpreted as a competitive advantage at least in the short run. This Thesis is especially written for the Online Marketing department of the Schwarzwälder Freilichtmuseum Vogtsbauernhof, but it doesn’t mean that for any other person, which isn’t part of the company, it might be completely useless. The Thesis is also directed to all the people, which already had recognized that classical Marketing methods won’t work any longer, and because of this, are looking for some digital alternatives. Because of this the results might be used as an inspiration or as a special kind of guide to establish a strategic presentation within Social Media.
Das Unternehmen XYZ befindet sich in einer entscheidenden Phase in der Umsetzung der Digitalisierungsstrategie. Im Rahmen dieser Strategie wird die neue Unternehmenshomepage mit dem neuen Onlineshop gekoppelt. Die Plattform fungiert zum einen als zeitgemäßer Onlineauftritt und zum anderen soll dadurch ein neues Rollenverständnis für das Unternehmen geschaffen werden. Herzstück der Plattform ist die mit dem Onlineshop verbundene Onsite Suchfunktion.
Ziel dieser Arbeit ist Teile der Strategie zu analysieren und teilweise kritisch zu würdigen. Um die Suchfunktion für den neuen Onlineshop neben grundlegenden sprachlichen Features zu erweitern, wurde eine Umfrage mit ausgewählten Mitarbeitern durchgeführt.
Die Ausgangssituation dieser Arbeit ist das Unternehmen zu präsentieren. Darauf aufbauend wird die Schnelllebigkeit der Digitalisierung erläutert, sowie die Reaktion des Unternehmens darauf. Kern der Arbeit ist die Analyse von User Experience (UX)- und User Interface (UI)-Komponenten des Shops sowie die Suchfunktion im Allgemeinen, als auch im Kontext von XYZ zu beschreiben.
Darauf erfolgt die Erklärung der Methodik der qualitativen Datenerhebung, welche für die Umfrage eingesetzt wurde. Anschließend werden Ablauf, sowie die dazugehörigen Ergebnisse dargelegt. Das letzte Kapitel liefert einen wertenden Ausblick auf Teile der Ergebnisse und fasst die gesamte Arbeit nochmals reflektierend zusammen. Abschluss der Arbeit bildet eine Diskussion, sowie ein persönliches Fazit.
This study focuses on whether users perceive Trust as an essential factor in revisiting Saleduck CHDE to maximize profit. Three major components were identified based on academic literature on online customer behaviour and e-commerce: Perceived Aesthetics, Perceived Usefulness, and Perceived Ease of use. Seven measurable indicators from previous research were used to measure the unobserved components. Also, relevant company data about the German-speaking Switzerland domain were analyzed to outline the relevance of revisiting visitors. According to Google Analytics, the average revisiting visitor generates approximately 4.8 times higher revenues than the average new visitor. The sample consists of 104 students and employed respondents who took part on a five-point Likert scale. The questionnaire also incorporates questions about demographics and target grouping. For assessing the relationship between these three constructs and Trust, Structural Equation Modelling techniques were implemented using IBM SPSS AMOS 28.0. Results show that most participants value Trust highly when using a coupon website. Nevertheless, relationships between Trust and its latent indicators could not be adequately assessed due to suppression effects. Additionally, differences between groups among both measured variables and latent constructs were assessed. The study found that five out of seven indicators in the measurement model significantly reflect the hypothesized components. However, insufficient sample size and a low number of indicators per construct were most likely the reason for the presence of suppression effects. Also, several potential validity issues occurred; the absence of German-speaking respondents from Switzerland, a low number of employed respondents, and a lack of diversity in the samples' age distribution.
With the rise of the internet and the flood of information it provides at no cost, print is no longer the main source of information. The German magazine market has been highly affected by this change. Publishers are faced with declining sales volumes, loss of advertising income and increasing costs. The implementation of Augmented Reality technology could make print magazines less static by providing the opportunity to add extra content and create an interactive reading experience. However, so far the use cases of this technology in print magazines have been rare, which might be due to the deficiency of information publishers have about its likelihood of success. To reduce this information gap and provide some recommendations for publishers, a web survey and expert interviews were conducted to establish the consumer perspective on an implementation of AR technology and to provide a potential future outlook based on the opinions of German AR solution providers. It was concluded that an implementation of AR would lead to a value addition for consumers and would result in an increase in purchase intention. Despite also resulting in an improved perceived image of the magazine, it should only be implemented if it does not lead to an increase in price or the reduction of editorial content, to avoid losing readers, who will not access the additional content. The substantial costs involved in implementing AR as well as existing technological limitations, which affect the ease of use for consumers, will likely prevent many publishers from realising such an implementation. AR glasses will play a significant role in the decision if AR technology will have a future in German print magazines according to the interviewed experts, in case they are accepted by the general public.
This paper examines the potential of short videos within the organic marketing of startups. Through a case study, this research looks at the company Choosy UG (haftungsbeschränkt) (henceforth “Choosy” or “Choosy UG”) on the platform TikTok. Firstly, the relevance of short videos in marketing is presented and the specific strengths and possible uses of TikTok are shown in comparison to other platforms. Afterwards, quantitative and qualitative analyses are used to examine what an effective TikTok presence looks like and how the use of short videos affects the organic reach and engagement rate of the Choosy account. In the context of this work, it is elaborated how a good short video content strategy is developed for the platform TikTok and what it looks like particularly for Choosy. The results show that short videos can be an effective tool in organic marketing for startups, especially on platforms like TikTok. However, it is important to develop the right content and consider the specific strengths and weaknesses of the platform in order to realize the full potential of short videos. This paper provides valuable insights for startups looking to use short videos in marketing and shows that using TikTok can prove useful, especially for companies that do not allocate a large budget for marketing activities.
Die vorliegende Bachelorarbeit untersucht anhand einer E-Shop Analyse der Sick AG, Wachstums- und Umsatzpotentiale im E-Commerce Bereich zu optimieren. Durch den Einsatz von qualitativen Interviews wurden Erkenntnisse darüber gewonnen, welche Erfolgsfaktoren einen erfolgreichen E-Shop ausmachen und welche Optimierungsmöglichkeiten Einfluss auf das Wachstum- und Umsatzpotential haben. Die Arbeit untersucht, wie die Analyse eines E- Shops dienen kann, um eine Basis für einen Business Case zu Erstellen. Die Analyse des E- Shops umfasst eine Umfrage von Kunden, eine Wettbewerbsanalyse sowie eine SWOT- Analyse. Die Ergebnisse der E-Shop Analyse und der qualitativen Interviews werden genutzt, um die Forschungsfragen dieser Arbeit zu beantworten und eine Handlungsempfehlung für die Sick AG anzufertigen. Die Handlungsempfehlung basiert auf fundierten Erkenntnissen, die sich aus den Experteninterwies und der E-Shop Analyse ableiten lassen.
Abschließend kann festgehalten werden, dass die Analyse eines E-Shops und die darauf basierende Entwicklung einer Handlungsempfehlung für einen Business Case von großer Bedeutung sind, um das volle Potenzial des E-Shops auszuschöpfen. Durch die Optimierung der E-Commerce Strategie können Umsatzsteigerungen und Kundenzufriedenheit erreicht werden, was langfristig zu einem erfolgreichen und profitablen E-Shop führt.
Mobile internet and smartphones have experienced a strong growth in the past years.
Teenagers and increasingly younger children consume the mobile internet via mobile end devices, especially smartphones. Such technical innovations are commonly
accompanied by social changes that affect societal as well as individual behaviours.
For this reason, the question of how mobile internet influences and changes children’s behaviour arises. Therefore, the topic being treated in this thesis is about
“Marketing to children: Do smartphones change children’s behaviour? – An approach to children’s consumer behaviour and the ethical perspective of the economy.” The objective is to find out whether children’s behaviour is changed by mobile internet and smartphones and which marketing opportunities arise due to these changes as well as observing which marketing practices are conducted. Firstly, general consumer behaviour, its theories and tendencies as well as the consumer behaviour of children is studied. Following that, the examination of the ethical perspective of the economy including general ethics and theories are treated and marketing ethics as well as answers to ethical issues that arise in business are scrutinised. Basic facts of marketing aimed at children practiced by the media as well as the neurological perspective and ethics of marketing directly to children is investigated. To get more
evidence of changes in children’s behaviour due to mobile internet and smartphones a practical experiment in the sports field is conducted to find out whether
smartphones lead to a lack of concentration during training.
As a result, the literature review confirms that mobile internet and smartphones lead to social changes and to changes in children’s behaviour such as variances in their
communicative, consummative and social behaviour which present new opportunities for modern mobile marketing practices. The hypotheses of the experiment that
smartphones lead to a lack of concentration could not be validated. Relating to the measurements, concentration under smartphone presence was higher than without it.
From an ethical perspective it is critical to use (mobile) marketing opportunities for targeting children as their brains are still in development and they are not able to
identify the intentions of marketing.
Die vorliegende Bachelorarbeit beschäftigt sich mit der gezielten Ansprache des Seh- und Tastsinns in deutschen Supermärkten. Zunächst werden anhand einer Literaturanalyse der Mehrwert und die möglichen Einflussfaktoren einer visuellen und haptischen Marketingstrategie erörtert. Durch das Mittel der Beobachtung werden daraufhin Umsetzungsbeispiele aus der Praxis ermittelt und analysiert. Darüber hinaus werden, durch Experteninterviews mit den zuständigen Filialleitern, die Erfolgswirkungen der jeweiligen visuellen und haptischen Gestaltung erfasst. Die erhaltenen Aussagen werden durch die Ergebnisse einer Kundenbefragung bezüglich der Erfolgswirkungen ergänzt. Im Anschluss werden anhand der erhobenen Daten Optimierungsmöglichkeiten in der Umsetzung visueller und haptischer Reize im Supermarkt bestimmt.
Die Umsetzung visueller Reize findet vor allem in der Nutzung von natürlichen Materialien und Produktbildern statt. Haptische Reize ergeben sich dagegen im Angebot von Selbstbedienung und loser Ware. Die sensorischen Elemente bieten den Supermärkten die Möglichkeit, durch die Hervorhebung von Waren, die Erzeugung positiver Emotionen und Assoziationen, sowie der Erstellung eines Einkaufserlebnisses, den Umsatz zu steigern und sich von Wettbewerbern zu differenzieren. Dennoch beschränkt sich die Gestaltung der Märkte noch stark auf den Sehsinn. Da Kunden ebenso Wert auf den Tastsinn legen, sollten auch haptische Reize gezielt genutzt und in einer stimmigen sensorischen Strategie eingebunden werden.
The present master thesis assesses the customer attitudes towards e-food in Germany. As more shoppers are ordering their groceries online, stationary food retailers are increasingly interested in the development and acceptance of e-food.
In the secondary literature review, the determining factors of the customer attitude towards ordering groceries online were identified through the Tricomponent Attitude Model, shopper characteristics and the Technology Acceptance Model. Additionally, potential changes in the customer attitude in the next five years were assessed. The theoretical findings were tested for their relevance and underlying motivations using qualitative in-depth expert and shopper interviews. Ultimately the results were analyzed, compared, and interpreted regarding their theoretical and managerial implications. As a result, a recommendation of action was derived for the Traders’ Cooperative Göppingen.
The findings suggest that the customer attitude depends on the perceived value of e-food based on its benefits and risks, the relationship quality built on emotions, satisfaction, and trust, and the switching intentions depending on the customer loyalty. The shopper’s motivation, situation, and technological abilities are stronger predictors than socio-demographic characteristics. Even though German shoppers are curious to try e-food occasionally, they are still skeptical and need to be convinced of the utility. The results indicate a slowly improving attitude in the next five years resulting in more hybrid cross-channel shoppers. As a result of the Covid pandemic, e-food became a convenient alternative for certain products and situations. As some shoppers and market shares are expected to drift online, stationary grocery stores like Edeka Staufers must focus on their advantages in terms of social interaction and multi-sensory shopping experience.
This thesis explores the emerging phenomenon of second screen marketing, by providing a holistic view on this topic. The first part presents an extensive literature review, approaching second screen marketing from an advertiser’s view. Second screening and user groups are defined and common second screen measures are presented and evaluated.
The second part examines the consumer’s perception of a brand using second screen marketing, comparing two age groups (18 to 30 years and 50 to 62 years). Brand perception is measured following suggestions from Low and Lamb Jr. (2000), using a three-dimensional construct consisting of brand attitude, brand image and perceived quality. Main findings entail, that younger audiences perceive a brand using second screen marketing significantly more positive than the older generation. While perceived quality for both age groups is evaluated neutrally, brand image and brand attitude scores show more extreme values. This is relevant for advertisers, as indications about potential target groups, content creation and success of marketing campaigns can be derived: Especially younger consumers are potential target groups and perceive second screen marketing as modern and innovative, but dishonest. Concerning content, strong implications about quality, an uniform brand image and the communication of trustworthiness should be a focus to marketers.
The continuous growth of e-commerce combined with new developments in mobile technology make it vital for sporting goods retailers to look for strategies to increase their online competitiveness. Dynamic pricing is a powerful strategy to increase revenue and at the same time ensure price competitiveness. With this in mind, the aim of this thesis is to explore revenue maximization in e-commerce sporting goods retail through dynamic pricing of product inventories. To do so, a multi-method approach was performed using three parts, namely a literature review on e-commerce sporting goods retail and various dynamic pricing strategies, an analysis of empirical sales data, and an interview segment amongst experts from e-commerce sporting goods retail.
The research in this thesis has produced two key findings. In theory, inventory and demand-based dynamic pricing is the optimal choice for revenue maximization of product inventories in e-commerce sporting goods retail. In practice, inventory and demand-based dynamic pricing can only be used for revenue maximization of clearance inventories. The reason for this is because the multichannel pricing strategies used by sporting goods retailers prohibit inventory and demand-based pricing of all product inventories in e-commerce.
Future research should seek to combine multichannel pricing strategies with dynamic pricing, and doing so would enable e-commerce sporting goods retailers to exploit the full potential of revenue maximization through dynamic pricing of product inventories.
The common occurrence of impulsive buying is present in our everyday lives, but what is behind this occurrence? Impulse buying behaviour is described as a sudden, spontaneous, and compelling phenomenon that accounts for a great part of regular shopping. However, shopping should not only be considered in physical stores but also on online websites and social commerce platforms. With the advancement of technology, the number of social media users is also increasing and with it the importance of online purchases. In order for businesses, marketers or e-retailers to capitalize on this surge, it is necessary to understand what factors drive impulse buying behaviour, and particularly what the key driving factors of online impulse purchases are. Therefore, this paper address impulse buying behaviour and its general influences as well as social media marketing and online stimuli. Moreover, it aimed to examine the relationship between online impulse buying behaviour and social media marketing. To identify the relevant insights on the topic, a systematic literature review was conducted by using databases and literature search engines such as Emerald, Google Scholar, EBSCO, and ResearchGate. After the selection process, 39 articles were further reviewed for this study. The main findings that emerge from the paper are hedonic motivation, price promotions, payment facility, website quality and content, and trust beliefs on online websites are the key driving factors of online impulse buying behaviour. Furthermore, certain literature indicates that social media marketing influences impulsive purchases through so-called influencers and adapts influencing factors of online impulse buying to their social network sites.
Der Begriff Greenwashing bezeichnet den Versuch von Firmen oder Organisationen ihr eigenes Image, ihre Produkte oder auch Dienstleistungen als besonders gut für die Umwelt anzuwerben, ohne dass dies der Wahrheit entspricht. Das Ziel in der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es zu beantworten, welchen Einfluss Greenwashing auf die Generation Z hat. Denn zumindest auf den ersten Blick scheint die Generation Z, welcher u.a. auch die wohl berühmteste Klimaaktivistin Greta Thunberg angehört und auf welche die Fridays for Future Bewegung zurückgeht, im Vergleich zu anderen Generationen ein besonderes Umweltbewusstsein entwickelt zu haben.
Um die Forschungsfrage zu beantworten, wurde eine quantitative Studie in Form einer Online-Umfrage mit Teilnehmenden aus vier verschiedenen Generationen durchgeführt.
Die quantitative Studie zeigte, dass kein Unterschied bezüglich der Ausprägung des Umweltumweltbewusstseins zwischen den verschiedenen Generationen bestand. Ebenso konnte nicht bewiesen werden, dass es einen Zusammenhang zwischen der Ausprägung des Umweltbewusstseins einer Generation und der Ausprägung der Skepsis gegenüber der Umweltfreundlichkeit grüner Produkte gibt. Auch konnte nicht bestätigt werden, dass die Generation Z eine höhere Skepsis aufweist als andere Generationen. Dies zeigt, dass der Einsatz von Greenwashing größtenteils unentdeckt bleibt.
The present study was conducted in the International Purchasing Department at the Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG which is the headquarters of the international grocery retail discounter Lidl. The subject was defined by the author in cooperation with Mr. Robert Maier, executive manager for non-food and brand, and Ms. Silvia Carazo Soto, manager for the product range development in the Lidl non-food sector. The present study has two major purposes: Firstly, to investigate how customers perceive the non-food products and sector at Lidl and secondly, to identify what characteristics they value and would like to see improved in the Lidl stores.
The goal of this present study is to determine various proposals to optimize the non-food sector of Lidl stores in order to increase customer satisfaction and sales. Data and information material for this research were gathered through the author’s mentors, colleagues, meetings, an empirical survey, internal company presentations, the company homepage, the university’s EBSCO online research database, various business press as well as scientific publications.
In the first part, a theoretical background on the subject as well as company insights into the non-food division is provided. These show that the spending power of consumers has increased, consumers are becoming progressively demanding and that Lidl is faced by strong competitors on the food retail market.
The thesis then presents the empirical study conducted by the author from 30 November 2015 until 12 December 2015. Three hundred customers in ten different Lidl stores in four German federal states were interviewed face-to-face. The survey included fifteen questions regarding the customer’s shopping behavior at Lidl, the customer’s satisfaction with regards to a non-food purchase as well as customer expectations, experience and improvement proposals of the non-food sector.
The survey results show that 77% of all participants had bought non-food products at Lidl during the six months before the survey date. Of all these participants, 75% were either very satisfied or satisfied with their non-food purchase. Furthermore, it was concluded that Lidl lives from its price-performance ratio and promotion via the Lidl leaflet in-store or distributed to home. Inferential, the survey results suggest that the product presentation and the store atmosphere need to be optimized as well as the product availability. Moreover, the results indicated that customers think that up-to-date Lidl leaflets, information boards, product brochures and a mirror need to be available at the non-food sector.
In conclusion, on the basis of the results of this research, the author recommends optimizing the non-food sector in the Lidl stores by means of five different proposals. First of all, to improve the customer experience in a Lidl store by providing a “five senses experience” and secondly to optimize in-store promotion by integrating speed-bumps and optimizing the creation and presentation of product posters, banners and product paper models. Thirdly, the author recommends introducing a digital terminal as an operation tool to order and purchase non-food products that are sold out or not available in a Lidl store with the possibility to choose a home or store delivery, to search products on the Lidl homepage and to watch non-food product videos. Furthermore, the terminal includes a built-in shelf to collect paper product brochures. Fourthly, in order to optimize the product presentation of non-food products, two proposals for a sample product presentation are made. Primarily by means of a non-food module which is attachable to a non-food table in order to present a sample either on a coat hanger or a built-in shelf or by means of a hallstand with an integrated mirror. In addition, the author presents the option of a digital mirror. The fifth proposal is a category management LED lighting module installed above the non-food tables to facilitate the customer orientation in the non-food sector. In addition, the author presents three further proposals including executing customer satisfaction survey periodically, optimizing employee training and improving the Online Shop.
In conclusion, the thesis argues that Lidl is prepared to optimize the non-food sector in the interest of increasing customer satisfaction, attracting new customers, staying competitive and trendy and increasing sales. The author recommends focusing on providing an optimized customer experience in the Lidl stores, thereby primarily focusing on the most important sense, sight. For this, an optimized sample product presentation is primarily of highest interest followed by a better in-store promotion. The present thesis hopes to offer the Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG useful ideas on how to optimize the non-food sector and thus contribute to Lidl’s company success.
This research paper explores consumer behaviour towards the purchase and usage of Electric Power Two Wheelers (EP2W) by German millennials, the target consumers of this paper. To evaluate the purchasing intentions of German millennials on EP2W, academic research has been conducted. Therefore, data from scientific studies have been collected with a focus on which aspects influence the target consumers’ opinions between electric P2W and fossil fuel P2W. The resulting data showed that millennials exhibit stronger purchase motives towards EP2W. It also states that the purchase price of the EP2W serves as a primary factor.
It has been common for retail firms to simultaneously operate multiple channels.
However, customers are increasingly demanding a seamless shopping experience and
cross-channel strategies have gained in importance for retailers across industries. It has
become evident that successful integration of online and offline channels can increase
customer loyalty and ensure a retailer’s long-term profitability. Although opportunities
presented by cross-channel retailing are diverse, until today only few retail companies
have successfully implemented such a strategy, as they face firm- and customer-related
limits. Thus, the purpose of this bachelor thesis is to provide a general understanding of
the concept of cross-channel retailing and to examine how new technologies can link
retailers’ sales channels on the one hand, but also pose major challenges on the other.
A literature review using academic journals, trade publications and academic books
provides valuable insights on the changes in customer shopping behaviour due to the
prevalence of new technologies and the consequences for retailers. Furthermore,
opportunities and limits of cross-channel retailing are critically examined following a
customer-centric approach. Primary research is conducted to illustrate customers’
experience with Artificial Intelligence in the form of a chatbot implemented by an US
apparel retailer. The thinking aloud method is used to gain insights into participants’
thought processes and to analyse the chatbot’s potential to replicate the experience
offered in a physical store. Findings include that showrooms and emerging technologies
such as artificial intelligence, big data analytics and beacons may present an opportunity
for retailers in the apparel industry, while privacy concerns, technology acceptance,
demographics and firm-related challenges need to be taken into account.
Der Wirtschaftsboom in China der sich über die vergangenen Jahre beobachten ließ, hat dafür gesorgt, dass China global den wichtigsten und größten Markt für Automobilhersteller darstellt. In Bezug auf Volumen, Wachstum und Umsatz ist kein anderer Markt wie der chinesische Markt. Dadurch bietet er auch Besonderheiten, die kein anderer Markt bietet. Aus diesem Grund liegt es nahe, dass Trends sowie Veränderungen des Kaufverhaltens, der potentiellen Kunden genauestens beobachtet werden sollten, um langfristigen Erfolg zu garantieren, was eine Herausforderung für Automobilhersteller und deren Produktportfolio, sowie Marketingmaßnahmen bedeuten kann. In dieser Arbeit werden die aktuellen Trends im chinesischen Automarkt und das daraus resultierende Konsumentenverhalten untersucht. Um dies zu analysieren wurde eine Umfrage durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse der Umfrage zeigen unter Anderem, dass als klassisch zu bezeichnenden Faktoren immer noch einen hohen Stellenwert für chinesische Kunden haben und deutsche Marken auch unter jüngeren Generationen, Vorrang vor landeseigenen Marken haben. Aber auch Trends zur Elektromobilität, Car-Hailing Diensten und Onlinekonnektivität ließen sich feststellen.
In dieser Bachelorarbeit wird das Management der Distributionsorgane thematisiert, mit dem Ziel, das Potenzial im indirekten Absatzkanal auszuschöpfen. Die Arbeit ist hierfür in zwei Teile gegliedert. Im ersten Teil werden die theoretischen Kenntnisse erarbeitet und spezifische Instrumente sowohl für das Management der Distributionsorgane als auch für die Potenzialausschöpfung vorgestellt. Der zweite Teil setzt diese Instrumente konkret am Beispiel von Standex-Meder Electronics in die Praxis um.
Eine Vielzahl der Produkte von Standex-Meder Electronics werden über Zwischenhändler vertrieben. Somit ist ein erfolgreiches Management der Distributionsorgane ausschlaggebend für den Erflog des Unternehmens. Trotz der Wichtigkeit wurde dies bisher vernachlässigt und somit ist das Potenzial im Absatzkanal nicht voll ausgeschöpft. Durch die vorgelegte Bachelorarbeit soll hier eine Verbesserung erzielt werden, um die Leistung der Distributionspartner zu steigern und somit ebenfalls den Umsatz von Standex-Meder Electronics.
As a leading medical technology company, KARL STORZ SE & Co. KG continuously wants to bring innovations and applications into the market and expand its existing product portfolio. As strategic initiatives, the company has set priorities and goals to ensure its sustained success. One of those strategic initiatives is to start developing new products in the field of robotic surgery and compete in this segment. To achieve these ambitions, the company decided to spin off its robotic solutions department and establish a new business called KARL STORZ VentureONE Pte. Ltd. With a smaller and more agile structure, the new venture seeks to implement new ways of working and promote innovation.
This new-born company is playing in a fast-growing market that one single competitor has traditionally dominated. However, robotic surgery still has much potential, and existing suppliers have not yet reached different market segments. One segment that has called the attention of the spin-off is the ambulatory surgery centers in the US.
These surgical institutions are growing and gaining relevance in the American surgery landscape. Hence, the company is particularly interested in developing a robotic solution for this segment. Before introducing a product, the company must understand the target customer intended to address. Management at the new venture is also convinced that new business models can be successfully implemented in this segment. Thus, this academic work aims to evaluate the ambulatory surgery center market in the US and propose a suitable business model for this target customer.
For this purpose, this thesis was divided into two main parts. The first aimed to conduct market research on the ambulatory surgery centers in the US by collecting secondary data from articles, reports, and governmental publications. The second part focused on proposing a business model for the ambulatory surgery center segment. To do so, primary data was obtained by interviewing experts in this market.
The research found that the ambulatory surgery centers segment is a growing market where robotic surgery has not yet been fully implemented due to its high cost and reduced reimbursement rates for outpatient procedures. Another barrier to robotic surgery in surgery centers is the high upfront investment needed to buy the technology. Based on these insights, different business models, such as leasing, renting, pay-per-use, and subscription, were assessed. A subscription model was selected and further developed by presenting the most advantages. Using the “Business Model Navigator” methodology, this work defined and documented the target customer, the value proposition, the value chain, and the profit mechanism.
With information on corporate ethical behavior now more accessible than ever, consumers have become increasingly socially and environmentally aware, which has translated into a growing demand for ethically made products. For ethically minded consumers, certification labels such as fair trade or organic are simple indicators of whether a product meets their ethical standards. For companies that wish to become certified, which is a lengthy and sometimes expensive process, there are several pertinent questions to consider, such as how much customers really value particular labels and whether multiple labels yield significant added competitive benefits. One should also consider how best to collect this information, because simply asking customers via surveys isn’t guaranteed to return results that actually reflect or predict real-life behavior (Carrington et al. 2010). For this paper, we collected information on consumers’ willingness to pay for products with the organic and fair trade labels (both individually and in combination) using two different methods: a traditional questionnaire and a reaction-time based electronic research method designed to reveal subconscious value perceptions. The factors involved were product type and number of labels. We found little evidence to suggest that additional ethical labels significantly increase willingness to pay.
Abstrakt
Die sozialen Medien sind aus der heutigen Zeit kaum noch wegzudenken. Der Einfluss und die Wichtigkeit der Social Media Plattformen wächst sowohl für Privatpersonen, als auch für Unternehmen stetig. Besonders das Social Media Marketing konnte in den letzten Jahren an Bedeutung gewinnen. Auch die Vereine der ersten Fußball-Bundesliga haben das Potential erkannt und investieren zunehmend in das neue Marketing Instrument. Allerdings sollten einige Unterschiede von Vereinen aus der Fußball Branche, im Vergleich zu Unternehmen aus der Wirtschaft beachtet werden. Die vorliegende Arbeit erforscht die Erfolgsfaktoren, Anwendungsmöglichkeiten und Besonderheiten des Social Media Marketings für Fußballvereine. In diesem Zusammenhang wird der VfB Stuttgart als Beispiel aus der Fußball-Bundesliga herangezogen. Hierbei werden Interviews mit verschiedenen Experten aus der Sportbranche, eine Umfrage unter den VfB Stuttgart Fans und Literaturrecherche getätigt. Die Ergebnisse der Arbeit werden zu einer Handlungsempfehlung zusammengefasst.
Abstract
Nowadays the importance and impact of Social Media grows both, for private persons and companies. In recent years Social Media Marketing has become an established marketing tool and continues to gain importance. The clubs of the German “Fussball Bundesliga” have recognized the potential and are investing increasingly in their Social Media Marketing campaigns. Thereby, the difference between business companies and sports clubs should receive attention. In the following research key success factors of Social Media Marketing and characteristics of the sports industry are explored. For this purpose, the soccer club VfB Stuttgart has been chosen as an example. Interviews with various experts from the sports industry, a survey with VfB Stuttgart fans and a literature research are made. The bachelor thesis findings are summarized as a recommendation for action for the VfB Stuttgart soccer club.
Die VBM Medizintechnik GmbH hat sich in der Vergangenheit bewusst gegen den Direktvertrieb entschieden, obwohl die meisten Mitbewerber diesen Absatzkanal zur Umsatzgenerierung einsetzen. Divergierende Marktbedingungen, ein sich veränderndes Einkaufsverhalten und neue Distributionswege, die durch das Internet entstanden sind, lassen das Unternehmen an der Modernität und Potenzialausschöpfung der aktuellen Vertriebsstrategie zweifeln. Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht, ob die Firma den Direktvertrieb implementieren sollte. Anhand verschiedener Methoden, wie bspw. der SWOT-Analyse, werden die Vor- und Nachteile der unterschiedlichen Absatzkanäle sowie der derzeitigen Vertriebsstrategie kritisch bewertet. Außerdem erfolgt eine Analyse des Medizintechnikmarkts in Deutschland. Es geht hervor, dass Verbesserungspotenzial in der Distributionsstrategie besteht und das Absatzsystem der VBM Medizintechnik GmbH an neue Marktbedingungen angepasst werden muss.
When enterprises decide to expand operations to new foreign markets, they are encountered with the crucial decision of how to implement their marketing strategy in each market without losing consistency across their global brand image. This thesis will focus especially on the impact culture has on this decision and on its implementation. To do so, a qualitative analysis in form of expert interviews was performed in six multinational companies across different industries. Marketing managers from the headquarters were questioned about the implementation of their global marketing strategy in their local markets. The findings give new insights for managers in terms of future adaptations for efficient communication of marketing strategy across the multinational company.
The two strategic options standardisation and adaptation are examined in the literature to set a foundation to later discuss culture’s influence on this decision. Furthermore, a cultural framework will be given and the communication structure of the two main parties of a multinational company will be reviewed in the existing literature.
Social media has become inseparable from our daily lives thanks to the widely use of internet and mobile technological advancement. Travel and tourism has benefited a lot from social media, especially the travelers. Not only can they find travel-related information on social media platforms, but they can also discuss and exchange necessary and relevant opinions and information.
The purpose of this research study is to examine how social media influences where German millennials determine their holiday destination. This dissertation analyzes to what extend social media influences the individual German millennial’s decision and whether reviews and comments affect their decisions.
The research study comprises of 5 chapters which represent the analytical process from beginning to end. The first chapter is the introduction, then literature reviews, then the methodology for primary research of this research is identified and explained. Results from the online questionnaire are then presented followed by an analysis and interpretation. Finally, the conclusion and limitation of the research have been discussed.
This research study concludes that social media does influence German millennials when they use social media to compare the holiday destinations in comparison to those who do not use social media for this purpose. It is clear that social media is the main source of information when they are looking for holiday destination information and is preferred compared to travel books and travel agencies. The results have shown that TripAdvisor is the most used holiday destination information page among other social media platforms. Furthermore, most of German millennials are passive users of travel-related social media platforms. That means they only consume information but do not necessarily write reviews or comments after their holiday experience.
This thesis is based upon an interest in the field of neuromarketing and a desire to depict which is the most advisable strategy to implement in a situation, where there is a potential introduction of a methodology coming from that field in a new / foreign market. Special emphasis is put on the market entry strategy (modes of entry and marketing strategy).
At the beginning of the thesis, there is a brief inspection of the neuromarketing field according to the nowadays situation that lead to the creation of a methodology, which is called neuromerchandising®. This methodology is the competitive advantage of a German consultant company called neuromerchandisinggroup GmbH&Co.KG. With this patented methodology, this consultant company provides strategic solutions to numerous companies mainly in the field of retail.
The main purpose of the thesis is to define which are the decisions to be made while introducing this methodology to a foreign country and in particular to Greece, in order to improve the Greek retail situation.
This thesis provides an analysis of the tools necessary to speculate whether Greece is the appropriate country to introduce this methodology. After this analysis, the thesis provides solutions of the potential market entry strategy putting emphasis on the marketing strategy of introducing this methodology.
Internal documentation of this company, market reports and analyses are used to provide a professional framework of the dynamic capabilities in the venture of introducing this methodology to Greece.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is often said to increase efficiency which is why it is especially interesting to companies seeking possibilities to improve existing processes. Consequently, this thesis, written in cooperation with the Corporate Communications and Marketing / Public Affairs department at Marquardt GmbH, explores opportunities in this field by determining prerequisites that should be met when considering working with AI as well as risks that should be taken care of. In order to determine the department’s level and progress in the field of AI, the employees involved in the existing tasks and processes completed a questionnaire, resulting in the department being at the lowest level. Moreover, providers of tools within the fields of social bots, document classification, content marketing, media planning and sentiment analysis are compared with the help of utility analyses, allowing for a recommendation regarding what the next steps of the department should be. The fields were chosen premised on the emplyoees’ current tasks while information required for the analyses was obtained by contacting the providers as well as their websites. Based on findings of the thesis, the department is recommended not to follow the trend of AI immediately as the effort required would be disproportionate to the return.
The topic of education and web-based training in particular in the technical domain has gained wide acceptance as an effective medium for enterprises to deliver learning and training for their employees and customers. Since learning through the web has several didactic challenges to face, companies must choose the adequate learning method to deliver training to their employees. In the case of Bosch Communications Systems, using web-based training for instruction in the field of professional audio engineering, software remains a subject of investigation and constant innovation. The present study aimed to determine which method of web-based training is better to apply for Expert Level learning on the use and configuration of the sound system software SONICUE. To achieve so, the instructional design of the two methods of study, video tutorial and simulation tutorial, were developed based on cognitive theories. Learning outcomes and levels of user experience of both methods were measured and compared. A sample of 31 participants of Bosch Communications Systems, divided into the two tutorial groups, took part in the present research. Results indicated no significant differences in learning outcome; however, the video tutorial received higher levels of preference among participants and was perceived in a more positive manner than the simulation tutorial in terms of practicality, design, features and navigation. The results of this evaluation reflect the importance of incorporating cognitive research based frameworks to improve the learning quality.
Building and further strengthening customer relationships is of vital significance for organizations per diem, as maintaining an existing customer base is proven to be less costly than acquiring new customers. Therefore, customer loyalty programs serve as the ideal foundation to enhance customer-centric businesses in the long-run and reward continuous engaging customer behavior. The B2B automotive aftermarket industry with respect to loyalty programs is a general under-researched area. Thus, this study aims to close the gap.
The objective of this research study was to create a suitable loyalty program for the automotive aftermarket on the example of Parts Trading at Mercedes-Benz AG. In order to achieve that, literature concerning individual factors that compose a loyalty program were reviewed as well as twelve qualitative expert interviews in the German market conducted. The experts provide specific, deep-rooted practical knowledge in the automotive aftersales field and assist in gathering valuable information in terms of desired aspects, challenges and experiences regarding loyalty programs. The results were assigned to six categories which were further used to provide recommended action for a loyalty program in Parts Trading and the general automotive aftermarket.
The results of this study display that an automotive aftermarket loyalty program is associated with a great deal of effort, as various challenges have to be overcome. These include the issue of data management, specialized rewards that provide high-perceived value that need to be offered in an easy-to-understand scheme, the signif-icant topic of support and accessibility from the company that needs to be ensured before implementing a loyalty program and lastly, the subject of profitability for the organization. Consequently, it is suggested to derive further international studies where quantitative research with a greater sample size is conducted to review whether the results are in alignment along with a long-term study in which the impact on customer buying behavior and profitability of the program with the same experts is evaluated. However, these findings serve as the ideal starting point for Parts Trading with a lot of possibilities to further develop the loyalty program.
The advertising industry has strongly changed over the past years. Obviously, the coming of digital media has created networking between consumers and revolutionized traditional marketing toward companies building lasting relationship with potential customers and thereby generating an exponential growth in exposure and influence still called viral marketing. Despite the fact that viral marketing is an old topic, its relevancy in the business area is quite recent. However, little research is devoted to the adoption and internal usage of social media in SMEs, which are of high social and economic importance. Findings of numerous researches on this topic have been constructed on the B2C market. For this reasons, the aim of this study seeks to address the gap in knowledge regarding the use of social media in the B2B SMEs in Germany.
Durch das digitale Zeitalter und die starke Vernetzung sind Influencer zu den neuen Superzielen in der Werbebranche geworden. Für die schnelle Vermarktung und den Durchbruch von Produkten, Dienstleistungen und Marken werden so genannte Social-Media-Influencer eingesetzt, die durch ihre Posts, Follower und Likes in den Social-Media-Kanälen ihre Community gezielt beeinflussen können. Als Adressaten von Werbebotschaften von Unternehmen haben Influencer nicht nur ein hohes Potenzial, die Wahrnehmung eines Produkts, einer Dienstleistung und einer Marke zu beeinflussen, sondern auch den Ruf und den wirtschaftlichen Erfolg eines Unternehmens und letztlich den Kaufentscheidungsprozess der Rezipienten.
Diese Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit Social Media Influencer Marketing und der Frage, ob sich erfolgreiche und einflussreiche Werbebotschafter mit Social Media Aktivitäten von Kommunikations- und Schlüsselfiguren im Hinblick auf Luxusgüter typisieren lassen und welche Umsetzungsstrategien sich daraus ergeben.
Diese Bachelorthesis diskutiert die Bedeutung eines nachhaltigen Produktmanagements, um langfristig die Kaufbereitschaft von Waschmittel bei Schweizer Konsumenten zu steigern. Aufgrund der derzeitigen Umweltthematik ist es notwendig, dass sowohl Unternehmen als auch Konsumenten nachhaltiges Verhalten annehmen können. Diese Arbeit erschließt Handlungsempfehlungen für den Waschmittelmarkt in der Schweiz. Bezogen auf die Unilever Schweiz GmbH, soll verstanden werden, welche Erfolgsfaktoren Konsumenten zu einem nachhaltigen Kauf animieren. Basierend auf einer Literaturrecherche, die sich auf gegenwärtige Theorien bezieht, werden Preisstrategien, Produktauslobungen, PoS Kommunikationen, das Markenmanagement sowie die Einschränkung von Entscheidungsfaktoren berücksichtigt. Durch eine Wettbewerbsanalyse sowie durch einen Konsumententest werden Erfolgsfaktoren verifiziert. Diese quantitative und qualitative Erhebung ermöglicht eine ganzheitliche Betrachtung des Waschmittelmarktes, wobei Strategien gezielt für die Unilever Schweiz GmbH implementiert werden können.
Promotional offers play a significant role in order to obtain and retain new and existing customers. There are already many researches comparing the performance and effectiveness of sales strategies during the promotional period. Results reveal that the framing of the saving message influences consumers’ perception of the price which in turn leads to an uncommon purchase decision. Even though the offers are mostly economically equivalent, people have preferences depending on the pricing practice. Data from previous researches shows that in many cases bonus packs are generally more preferred than a discount. Most commonly applied in-store strategies in Germany are price discount and buy one get one free. Will the value perception for BOGOF still be higher than price discount after the promotion expires? This study will specifically focus on BOGOF and price discount in the consumer nondurable goods industry. A total of 450 randomly selected people participated in the A/B survey. The A survey focusses on questions relating to price discount whereas the B survey includes questions regarding BOGOF. In both surveys, the promotion is no longer valid. The survey data reveals that the willingness to pay for consumer nondurable goods during the post-promotion phase is higher when promoting with BOGOF rather than with price discount. This research has the potential to form a crucial answer for academics and marketers in the consumer nondurable goods industry as it provides insight of the long-term influence of promotion on consumer psychology.
Mental health is becoming a more important topic in the workplace, and it is not anymore only addressed in employee's free time. Due to increased sick leave, costs are rising for companies, the company's reputation could be improved, and productivity could be raised.
To prevent and handle common mental disorders in the workplace better, the research paper focuses on how a corporate culture should look like.
If the corporate culture is supportive and understanding, employees will feel secure enough to disclose their common mental disorder. If there is no stigmatization and judgment, people will feel normal no matter if they are diagnosed or at risk of a mental health problem.
Also, if people are empathetic and know each other well, colleagues, managers, and bosses will recognize stress and adapt to employee's tasks and jobs, which will prevent common mental disorders at all.
As a result, the board of management should think about how the current corporate culture is and how a supportive culture looks like that shows empathy and understanding.
Small measurements and selected interventions can make a huge difference.
Creating effective cross-cultural advertising campaigns is one of the most challenging ongoing topics in international marketing. This paper aims to apply the insights of cross-cultural neuroscience of emotion to advertising in China and Germany.
Examining the differences in cross-cultural perception of emotions will be instrumental for models used in advertisements across China and Germany, help understand the role of consumer age for the emotional reaction to advertisements and elucidate the influence of emotions on cross-cultural prejudices and memory.
Based on an expert interview conducted with the neuroscientist Dr. Henning Beck, several hypotheses were generated. In order to investigate the hypotheses, a cross-cultural survey in China and Germany was conducted testing the influence of the own-race bias on emotional advertising using the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM). The results of the primary research suggest that the perception of emotions is culturally trained and can lead to a different emotional experience of advertising for Chinese and German citizens.
In the last few years no other innovation has been able to influence the marketing environment like neuromarketing, the new science of consumer behaviour, which combines neuroscientific techniques with marketing in order to understand brain functions in terms of marketing activities. This combination helps to improve the understanding of the influence of emotions and senses on decision-making and buying-behaviour. The aim of this study is to investigate the potential and limitations of neuromarketing, by taking a close look into published data, conducted studies and expert opinions concerning this new field of science. The published data retrieved from studies using brain-imaging techniques found that emotions and human senses influence every second in human beings’ perception and that consumers are not able to decide completely economically. Nevertheless, further research is recommended in order to gain a deeper understanding of the human brain and how it conducts
decision-making processes. Additionally, consumer neuroscience has high potential to become a commonly used technique, which sustainably supports traditional
market research. Neuromarketing seems to become a promising technique to provide consumers with desired products, services, web shops and advertising
design.
The interest in topics such as understanding the communication between product design and customer has increased dramatically in recent years. Researchers have been dedicated to understanding more of product design, its dimensions and the consumer perception of it.
The spirits industry competition is dominating in the alcoholic beverages, and the second largest spirit which has a highly competitive market, is vodka. Companies are struggling to stand out from the competition and grab the consumer attention. The following study will explore the aesthetic and symbolic dimensions of a product design and it will show how the design of the vodka bottles is communicating with the consumer. The research questions that are going to be explored are: Which parts of the aesthetic dimension are positively influencing the consumer and how does the consumer perceive the bottle shape when there is no brand influence?
In answering these questions, a secondary data has been reviewed and a questionnaire has been developed where participants will be answering attitudinal questions, open-ended questions and picture choice questions. The questionnaire has been completed from a random sample group of 92 participants of whom mostly are students.
The findings of the questionnaire indicate that angular shape and thin body of a vodka bottle are most positively appraised by the customer. In combination with a bright colour, the bottle express feelings of excitement and elegance. However, the questionnaire has been conducted with no brand logos, shapes or descriptions, and consumers still have found similarities in the shapes because of the strong influence of some world-famous brands.
This research shows that consumers are affected of how a product is designed and, that certain shapes and colours do not seem to be an option for a vodka bottle. The findings in this study are important, because a better understanding of colour-shape composition could potentially improve vodka company’s marketing strategy.
The topic of the thesis is ‘‘Identification of success patterns of the most successful SAP SFSF VARs as a base to recruit new high-potential partners. A way to achieve time to revenue efficiency for new partners joining the SAP ecosystem.’’. The whole approach is based on SAP SE, an international company providing enterprise application software with a focus on cloud solutions. The objective of the thesis is to help SAP SE to expand their cloud partner ecosystem and achieve time to revenue efficiency for new partners joining SAP ecosystem. The research question explores what are the success patterns of SAP TOP 20 SuccessFactors (SFSF) value-added resellers (VARs). The aim is to use the insights as a template to recruit new partners who show high potential for future success in reselling SAP SFSF (cloud) solutions. Currently, SAP is facing a challenge to recruit partners who are successful as VARs for cloud solutions in the small and medium size enterprises (SME) market. So far, SAP focused on increasing its market coverage by continuously expanding its Ecosystem, while the quality of the recruited partners was neglected. As a result, SAP invested a lot of resources in terms of time and money trying to onboard partners who could not deliver the expected impact. Recruiting partners who have the right patterns will decrease the resources that SAP spends on onboarding and training process while at the same time the partners will generate the revenue faster. However, SAP needs to have a clear view what a high-potential partner looks like. Therefore, it could be said, that the topic of the thesis is crucial for SAP further channel development and expansion, invested resources and indirect revenue. In order to answer the research question, the whole study is divided into seven chapters. The theoretical framework provides a general idea about the importance of partners for reselling cloud services to SMEs and what are the factors and practices that make partners successful. The empirical research explores the common success patterns of the Top 20 most successful SAP SuccessFactors value-added resellers. The author came to the conclusion that in order to be achieved time to revenue efficiency, the company should recruit only those partners who are representing the following set of success patterns: international presence, quality webpage, human capital management as a core line of business, strong digital and event marketing.
Global warming provokes our climate and the world how we know it today to change severely. The production of food together with its consumption is responsible for 19-29% of world’s greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activities and further rises are
expected. As a response to this phenomenon, the assessment of a product’s carbon footprint has awaken huge interest with the purpose of controlling food’s environmental impact during its life-cycle. In order to involve individuals in the target of reducing harmful emissions, besides governmental and business efforts, CO2 labels have been developed to communicate a product’s carbon footprint and enabling consumers to make more climate-friendly purchase decisions. However, it has been shown that a successful
implementation of CO2 labels on grocery products still confronts barriers from the consumer side.
For a better understanding of the meaning of mentioned labels, this thesis deepens the theoretical backgrounds of greenhouse gas emissions and the carbon footprint related to the food industry. In a second step, the acceptance and effectiveness of carbon labels on
groceries will be analysed critically by using contextual literature reviews and a case study on German purchase behaviour.
A growing population, climate change, animal welfare and health concerns are issues with increasing relevance. They draw attention to new technologies that focus on more sustainable and healthier solutions. This thesis analyses the market of meat substitutes with the aim of getting a deeper understanding of the market drivers, what contributes to consumer acceptance and a successful market positioning. The focus lies on the factors that make meat substitutes successful alternatives in Germany.
The research includes previous literature, expert interviews and a marketing mix analysis. The secondary literature is used to introduce the topic, to analyse the market drivers and to gain insights into consumer food choice behaviour, whereas the expert interviews focus on market assessment and effective company positioning. The marketing-mix analysis is conducted on the basis of purchased meat substitute products which are compared to regular meat products. The researcher included a place analysis that takes the entire German market into account, as well as a promotional analysis that highlights effective marketing strategies.
Based on the findings of the thesis, it can be concluded that animal welfare, sustainability and health trends are major drivers of meat substitutes. The market is expanding and has great future potential. However, large scale consumer acceptance is highly dependent on the preferred sensory properties such as authentic taste and texture, as well as a product variety that meets German consumer preferences. All in all, the promotion of meat replacement products should focus on a combination of benefits that include both functional and emotional aspects.
Gender Marketing für Kinder - Wie Gender Marketing zum Erhalt veralteter Geschlechternormen beiträgt
(2021)
Die vorliegende Bachelorthesis erörtert wie gängige Gender Marketing Methoden bei Kindern zum Erhalt veralteter Gendernormen und Rollen beitragen. Weiterführend soll gezeigt werden, dass Gender Marketing nicht nur ein Resultat der Gesellschaftsordnung ist, sondern diese durchaus auch beeinflusst. Studien zeigen, dass Stereotypen im Gender Marketing Kinder vermehrt beeinflussen, da ihnen das Wissen und die Reife fehlt um diese zu erkennen. Kinder beginnen schon früh mit der Entwicklung ihrer Persönlichkeit, dabei orientieren sie sich an den Vorbildern ihres Umfelds. Um diese Frage zu beantworten werden in der folgenden Arbeit wissenschaftliche Artikel, Bücher und Studien analysiert.
Die Arbeit ist in vier grundlegende Bereiche aufgeteilt. Diese Bereiche sind die Hinführung zum Thema und der Forschungsfrage, eine Einführung in die Grundlagen der Marktsegmentierung sowie in die Entwicklung moderner Genderkonzepte. Es folgen der Hauptteil und im Anschluss eine abschließende Diskussion verschiedener Kritikpunkte.
Der Hauptteil erörtert anhand der angegeben Literatur, wie Firmen und Marketingexperten Gendermarketing nutzen um ihre Zielgruppen anzusprechen. Des Weiteren wird in diesem Abschnitt gezeigt, dass Gendermarketing Kindern hauptsächlich beibringt wie die Rolle des Mannes und der Frau im Beruf-, Sozial-, und Privatleben aussieht.
The purpose of this paper is a conceptualization of the identification and motivational methods for top distributors in the Chinese market for frequency converters. An examination of the market size, participants and segments is provided. Further the benefits for the manufacturer and distributor that occurring from a partnership are elaborated on and the term top distributor is defined.
Based on marketing channel literature a conclusive multidimensional model for the top distributor selection has been developed. The basic dimensions for distributor selection were determined as Sales/Market, Product/Service and Risk/Uncertainty factors. Those dimensions are supplemented by the China specific factors Guanxi and Human Capital. With special focus been given on the aspects that businesses might encounter when operating in China the reginal factors in distributor evaluation are also being discussed.
IN order to determine the value of different rewards two surveys were conducted. For the identification of the most valuable motivators a rewards portfolio was developed and applied on the data gathered in this surveys. The rewards portfolio was based on the portfolio analysis first developed by the Boston Consulting Group. The rewards determined as most valuable from both the manufacturers and distributor sides were “additional marketing and customer acquisition support”, “extended payment terms” and “market intelligence from manufacturer”. An explanation for the importance of those rewards is additionally provided.
This thesis explores the dynamics of digital marketing, brand positioning, and
branding strategies within the agri-food sector, and delves into the current efforts of Finca San Antonio, a Peruvian cacao farm that manufactures their own products. The rapid growth of digitalization in Peru, emphasize the changing landscape of consumer behavior and media channels. This creates a need for companies to enter the digital era and update their traditional marketing efforts, in order to cater to the new arisen needs.
The study further delves into the dimensions and strategies for brand positioning
in the agri-food industry, shedding light on the relevance of product differentiation
and market segmentation. The case of Finca San Antonio exemplifies the
incorporation of sustainability and eco-branding in building brand identity and value proposition, which is instrumental to establishing brand loyalty. Overall, this research serves as a comprehensive overview of the interplay between digital marketing and brand positioning, especially in the agri-food sector.
Total Hip Arthroplasty is a highly effective procedure. Precise preoperative planning is crucial for a positive patient outcome. One approach to improve patient outcomes is preoperative planning of hip implants, which could replace the currently dominant 2D planning and improve processes in dealer markets by enabling more efficient delivery. The objective of this study is to survey and measure dealers’ acceptance of a patient-specific delivery and operating room setting. The evaluation is based on the Technology Acceptance Model. A recommendation for action will be derived from the evaluation.
This study examines the acceptance of new technologies through a systematic literature review utilizing the Technology Acceptance Model. Additionally, it presents the current state of 2D and 3D planning for hip implants and analyzes the Italian and Brazilian dealer markets. The target group was surveyed quantitatively, and their acceptance was analyzed and interpreted using descriptive statistical evaluation.
The two markets share similarities in their current requirements and conditions. In Italy and Brazil, planning is done intraoperatively by surgeons, which has been identified as an obstacle on several occasions. Acceptance of the new process is therefore mixed and requires supportive measures.
The similarities between the two markets allow for uniform comparability and interpretation. However, the acceptance can be traced back to the lack of preoperative planning among surgeons. It is clear that both markets are rather critical of a switch to preoperative planning, especially 3D planning. Therefore, some measures and further research on surgeons must first be taken before a successful implementation is possible.
Modern online marketing strategies, techniques and problems - based on product ''Weddings in Bali''
(2015)
The purpose of this Bachelor-Thesis is to analyze the current situation of the company The Seven Agency in regards to the efficiency of currently used online marketing
channels to promote the website www.baliwedding.org in the international market. The conclusions were made based on results of a questionnaire which has been sent to
current and former clients of the company. Another part of this work contains research about how the company can achieve optimal results with using appropriate channels.
Both, the results of the Situation- and Target-Analysis have been compared to each other and were completed with a summary of the effectively and not effectively used
channels and a recommendation based on secondary data and literature study in order to achieve targeted results has been given.
The Bachelor-Thesis has been written in cooperation with The Seven Agency, located in Bali, Indonesia.
Social media and social networks are terms which appear daily in all sort of different contexts. The importance of such online platforms is growing day by day. People spend an immense time of their everyday life in such networks. Therefore, it is not surprising that marketers have encountered the great opportunity coming along with this. This paper contributes to the little research on follower demographics and delivers an insight into the hotel industry in the Black Forest. It attempts to close the knowledge gap of comparing social media followers of hotels to actual hotel guests, shows how hotels can integrate social media in their marketing strategy and why it is relevant for different market participants. Moreover, a comparison of possible target groups was made.
For analysing social media followers of hotels, own primary data was collected in form of an email survey of hotels in the Black Forest. The findings were afterwards compared to actual tourist demographics derived from a former hotel guest survey in the Black Forest. According to responses of 85 hotels, the study found that hotel guests are usually from older generations (60+) and mainly male, whereas hotel social media follower tend to be younger (around 30) and female. This shows the possibility for hotels to target customers, different from their loyal customer base, via social media. Secondary data helped drawing further conclusions. Instagram clearly supports hotels to attract new customers. It has high relevance for hotels, as well as individuals, and can be integrated in each step of a marketing planning process. Target group analysis of current guests and potential new clients, who are present on social media, has made clear that both are coming with advantages and disadvantages. Hotels should enter new markets to enlarge their customer group, however, not at the dispense of loyal guests. Loyalty and customer relation management in the accommodation industry will always be an essential point.
Globalization brought high competition in the market. Therefore, international Marketers started to use a strategy of linking a product to its Country of Origin to get a potential competitive advantage on their product. Previous studies have found that the effect of Country-of-Origin on consumer´s product evaluation, perception and purchase intention. However, it was limited to find the County-Of-Origin effect on different age groups especially in Germany.
The purpose of this research was to analyze the effect of Country of Origin on German consumer´s product evaluation and different age groups. Projective test was adopted for designing the questionnaire and Italy, China and France were selected as the country. In the end, the data was represented by statistical analysis and graphic representation.
This research comes to the conclusion that the Country of Origin either has an impact or has no impact on German consumer´s product evaluation. Their evaluation showed various results based on country and product information such as Country image, Country of Manufacturer image, product category and brand. Therefore, this research was not able to define the general Country of Origin effect on German consumer´s product evaluation. However, this research will give an insight for designing a future research and a more comprehensive understanding of the Country of Origin effect on age groups.
The rapid development of digital technologies has stimulated the shift from real life interaction to online communication. Internet audience is rapidly growing every day, while cost of reaching it is remains affordable.
Transformational changes in business environments, skills and cultures have led to the shift from product-based to knowledge-based economies.
New models of employment are getting more and more common, non-standardized employment has risen. The work lifecycle is changing. Instead of linear pattern— education, work, and retirement— there is a move to “cyclic life plans,” with periods of education, work and recreation overlapped and interspersed across a lifetime. This trend challenges standardized career paths, development programs and incentive systems. “Employee consumerism” is rising, especially for those with in-demand skills and experience.
All the above trends in global economy bring a new challenge for the individuals who want to succeed in their careers and personal development. This challenge is decent self-promotion on a labor market, which can be achieved by using efficient self-marketing channels and tools, in particular online.
Travel bans, lockdowns, and social distancing shape the daily pandemic rou- tine and force marketers, producers, business, and consumers to changed buying behavior and disrupted buying habits. Online sales are sky rocking and hence the comprehension of changes in consumer behavior towards online shopping play an important role for the economy. The aim of the present thesis is to investigate changes in consumer behavior due to COVID-19 and give insights whether these changes last or not. Subordinately, it is examined whether – and if, how – online and offline buying motives are linked to possible lasting changes. Therefore, a deductive quantitative method, namely an online questionnaire, was chosen to conduct, and descriptive statistics to display and analyze data. The conducted data confirms a surge in online shopping fre- quency during the pandemic, but also shows that the respondents will not re- turn to old buying frequency habits and keep buying online as much as during the pandemic. Besides that, the present work confirms the assumption that COVID-19 raised awareness to support local stores. I further conclude that the research subjects gain trust in shopping online and will repeat new online shopping experiences. Hence, adopted consumer behavior will be repeated respectively and old buying habits are being refrained.
The marketing strategies concerning the establishment of a brand originally come from the business sector. Because of the differences between non-profit organizations (NPOs) and companies they are not equally applicable to the non-profit sector. This thesis examines the applicability of these strategies and also looks at their possibilities of adaptation to fit the characteristics of the NPOs. Apart from that it shows the operationalisation by means of the communication. In the practical part of the thesis the findings are applied to the example of the Spanish NPO Iniciativa Internacional Jóven. Starting with the organization’s mission and vision it is explained how the organization’s purpose, values and principles, and the view of the future evolve during the phase of foundation and which requirements have to be met. Subsequently the development of marketing objectives is shown. The following chapter of the marketing strategy is divided into four parts: segmentation and target groups, differentiation, brand identity and image and lastly positioning. Concerning the segmentation and target group this task is more complicated for NPOs because NPOs have to pay attention to the three different target groups of the users, volunteers and donors. However, the definition of target groups can support the efficient use of resources because of the focus on narrowly defined groups of persons. With regard to the differentiation the competitive advantages are examined. Those result from the combination of core competencies and their respective contribution to the value for the target groups. That way NPOs can discover where to focus their resources and an additional connection to the target groups can be established. The brand identity corresponds to the self-image of an organization. By investigating this self-image in a structured way and elaborating an extensive and at the same time consistent brand identity the basis for a favourable brand image can be created. The brand image is equivalent to the brand perception on the side of the stakeholders. The link between the brand identity and image is the positioning. Within the positioning strategy the various characteristics of the identity are transformed into a few positioning features, depending on their relevance for the target groups and the prevailing market conditions. The marketing strategy lays the foundation for the strategy of communication. Within the scope of this strategy those communication instruments are selected which best contribute to the achievement of the communication goals, which for their part allow the marketing objective achievement. In addition the communication message can be developed so that it can be perceived, remembered and associated with the organization the best way possible. The application of the findings leads to the impetus to two communication campaigns for the non-profit organization Iniciativa Internacional Jóven.
The topic of simplicity has drastically increased in branding in recent years, as it allows companies to conquer a competitive world dominated by growth and complexity. There are studies explaining the benefits and power of simplicity in business in general. Nevertheless, simplicity is a field that has not been explored extensively for single industries.
The bachelor thesis attempts to investigate the critical importance and power of simplicity in the customer journey of the car rental business and to provide an overview of possible improvements for the customer experience on the example of car rental company Hertz. Secondary data adopted from academic books, academic journals, study reports and press articles are used to develop a comprehensive analysis and a theoretical framework on the topic of customer experience, customer loyalty in connection with simplicity. The car rental company Hertz and its customer journey are being investigated through the lens of simplicity. Qualitative and quantitative research is adapted to cover insufficient information on Hertz and to uncover the pain points in Hertz’s customer journey. An expert interview with a Hertz executive is conducted to gather first-hand insights on Hertz's viewpoint of simplification and to what extent the company aims to use simplicity as a tool for its customer journey. A succeeding customer survey is executed to gain a better understanding of Hertz customers' perceptions and towards Hertz and to collect a broader picture of Hertz's customer journey. The conclusion drawn is used to derive possible simplification enhancements for Hertz in order to achieve various desired business results. A critical assessment for future research on the topic and limiting conditions are discussed in the conclusion.
Internationally standardized POS layout considering success factors - the example of Würth Group
(2017)
This work is part of the project “International expansion – Standards”. The overall objective of this thesis is to develop an internationally standardized POS layout which ensures a uniform international appearance. The situation in Germany as the headquarters and development center and the surrounding countries Austria, Switzerland and France has been taken into consideration. An analysis of the current layouts regarding shelving system, arrangement of the product groups, guidance system and design factors has been carried out in selected pick-up shops in these countries. In addition, a customer survey has been conducted whereby orientation, overview and legibility of the store have been focal points. As a third analysis the assortments of the respective countries have been analyzed and compared. It was found that some areas at the POS vary from country to country. Major differences exist in the assortments of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France. Among the areas of arrangement of the shelves and product groups, size of the sales area, guidance system and coloring scheme, differences have been revealed as well. Taking into consideration the differences and similarities in the layouts and assortment optimization possibilities have been worked out. As a result an ideal layout has been developed on the basis of the conducted analyses. The layout itself can be implemented cross-nationally. Due to limitations in the analysis of the assortment, it must be analyzed in more detail in order to implement it for the new shop concept. However, a cross-national uniform appearance can only be reached if in addition to the new stores all existing pick-up shops are adapted to the ideal layout.
Living in times when the Internet and Social Media is changing customer’s behavior, Customer Relationship Managers face the question how to deal with those changes and how to optimize their strategy to remain attractive for the customers. The behavior of people is changing immensely as customers do not prefer to be influenced by companies which are pushing products and brands to them. The force and pressure of customers towards brands is rising steadily, since they expect them to actively engage with them and to offer high quality information rather than a brand who is trying to make the purchase decision for the customer. These times, ordinary customers turn into active influencer who could reach a huge number of people and potential customers and therefore influence their purchase decision. Therefore understanding the current customer behavior and the way how, when and why they make a purchase and what could influence their decision is crucial to businesses. Consequently, businesses have to start managing the complete Customer Decision Journey of each target group and customer. On this account, this Thesis will cover each step of the Customer Decision Journey – Formulation, Pre-Purchase, Purchase, and Post-Purchase - and its influence factors. Thus the key success factors will be indicated, afterwards the Thesis will continue with the concept of corporate Online Shops and Multichannel Retailing and two Case Studies will finish this paper. After a secondary research, findings show that the participation of a certain generation and culture, as well as product reviews on the Internet and Social Media peers are influencing the Customer Decision Journey tremendously. Thus, Online Shops are playing an important role in the first two stages of the Customer Journey and the second Case Study shows the importance of the post-purchase stage. On the one hand side, all those new channels that are influencing and changing the customer and his/her behavior could be a big challenge for businesses. But on the other hand, businesses could start to modify their strategy and approach towards its customers, make use of new possibilities the Internet is offering and start creating a positive, memorable and shareable customer experience.
The leisure industry experiences a shift in selling their services online. While external sales channels have been dominating the online ticket sales in the last decade, a new trend of Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) sales through individual platforms has been on the rise. This study aimed to research on the usage of external and direct sales channels in the leisure industry and tried to find reasons for the rapid increase of leisure venues shifting their sales channels on their own online platform and abandoning external sales channels. For this study, a primary research with leisure venues across Germany, Switzerland and Austria in the form of a questionnaire with 104 participants was conducted. The topic of the questionnaire was the usage of external and direct sales channels and ticket reseller as well as promotion methods of the leisure venues participating. Furthermore, an expert interview with the CEO of a wellness centre was conducted to gain first-hand knowledge on the research topic. The thesis ends with an analysis of the survey results and conclusions on what the usage of external and direct sales channels in the leisure industry are and how the DTC trend emerged from the state of the industry.
This study explores the attitudes and perceptions of consumers of the baby boomer generation (age 50-62) concerning contents on the social media channels of Facebook and YouTube. Ten in-depth interviews are conducted in which representatives of the target group perform tasks on the two platforms such as gathering information about a firm or comparing advertisements. The main finding of the empirical research conducted is a set of preferences and attitudes about social media contents classified in following categories: 1) company profiles on Facebook 2) company channels on YouTube 3) sponsored posts on Facebook 4) sponsored search results on YouTube and 5) navigation on the two platforms. The obtained results significantly complement existing research on firm-supplied contents on social media for several reasons. Firstly, baby boomers represent a highly valuable target group as they possess immense consumption power and demonstrate high willingness to try new products and services, as well. Moreover, they increasingly join social networks, first of all Facebook,and they browse other social media channels, but they have been mostly neglected in research about social media in Germany. Secondly, this study links inbound marketing via social media to small and medium-sized enterprises. For the latter, this holds substantial benefits to facilitate being found by consumers on social media platforms in order to compete against larger firms. Therefore, implications for small business managers and marketing representatives are given. Thirdly, the study focuses on the attitudes and perceptions of consumers in order to replenish data on consumer behavior on Facebook and YouTube obtained by the algorithms of the platform providers. Therefore, it complements extensive existing studies focusing on analyzing the latter. Furthermore, the distinct advertising and targeting functions of Facebook and YouTube have been considered in the creation of the interview in pursuance of pertinent practically oriented results.
The aim of this study is to understand the concept of Ethical Branding from the perspective of Generation Z. This umbrella question was divided into three research questions: 1. What constitutes an ethical brand for Generation Z, 2. What is Generation Z´s attitude towards ethical brands, and 3. How will the future of ethical brands look like? For this, ten individual online interviews with undergraduate students were conducted. Findings reveal that young people view Ethical Branding as an important personal issue. Members of Generation Z view an ethical brand as holding values such as fairness, honesty, integrity, and consideration at its core and consistently acting according to these values. This manifests itself in the fulfillment of environmental, social, legal, and economic responsibilities. Participants depict a largely positive outlook for ethical brands as society – in particular young consumers – becomes more aware of the importance of mindful and responsible consumption, challenging existing brands in the future. Companies should therefore focus on delivering what they promise and aligning all business activities if they want to be perceived by Generation Z as a truly ethical brand.
This thesis deals with the marketing of today and its benefits for companies and universities. The focus is on the recruitment of students at universities through the business platform LinkedIn. The tools offered by LinkedIn will be presented and the purpose for which they are beneficial will be determined. Surveys are used to clarify questions about the use of social networks for different activities. In addition, it will be worked out why students choose a university and how LinkedIn fosters this. These findings are then translated into marketing measures for the HFU Business School in Villingen-Schwenningen.
To achieve sustainable development, appropriate individual consumer behavior is required. However, the increasing statements expressing the intention to buy green products by consumers are reflected in only a fraction of actual purchases. This paper presents a literature review on the attitude-behavior gap phenomenon, focusing on the controversial role of green marketing in promoting sustainable consumption and its influence on the gap between intentions and behaviors.
The attitude-behavior gap is attributable to various situational and internal factors, with the prevailing price sensitivity and routine purchase behavior for low-involvement products playing a critical role in the fast-moving consumer goods industry. Counteracting these factors with the help of a green marketing approach that encompasses internal, strategic, and tactical marketing orientations was examined in this work. While it has been found that creating credibility and transparency through a holistic marketing orientation and targeting the origins of the attitude-behavior gap with the respective green marketing tools can positively contribute to its narrowing, divergent green marketing strategies can lead to the opposite. Greenwashing as a strategy to give companies a greener image without adapting their business activities accordingly leads to a negative impact on the attitude-behavior gap.
On the basis of this analysis, the study found that according to the way a company employs green marketing strategies, it may either widen or narrow the gap.
Social Media spielt in der heutigen Zeit für viele deutsche User eine wichtige Rolle im Alltag. Doch aufgrund der hohen Nutzungszahlen, werden die sozialen Netzwerke inzwischen nicht mehr nur für freizeitliche Aktivitäten benutzt, sondern sind auch bei Unternehmen eine beliebte Möglichkeit Konsumenten auf sich aufmerksam zu machen.
Und nicht nur im B2C-Bereich werden die sozialen Netzwerke genutzt, sondern auch immer mehr B2B Unternehmen verwenden die sozialen Netzwerke um Aufmerksamkeit für sich und ihre Produkte zu wecken. Aufgrund der geringen Ressourcen die dafür aufgewendet werden müssen, bieten sich bei Social Media vor allem für kleine und mittelständische Unternehmen viele Möglichkeiten.
Die vorliegende Arbeit wird daher zunächst die theoretischen Grundlagen über die Zielgruppe und die bevorzugten Interaktionsmöglichkeiten der User erläutern, während im nächsten Schritt Social Media und insbesondere die Plattformen Facebook und LinkedIn inklusive ihrer Nutzer analysiert werden. Dabei werden zur Veranschaulichung Best-Practice-Beispiele vorgestellt, welche bereits in den sozialen Netzwerken erfolgreich sind.
Ziel ist es, ausgearbeitete Handlungsempfehlungen aufzuzeigen, welche es gewerblichen Unternehmen mit begrenzten Ressourcen ermöglichen ihre Reichweite durch die Plattformen Facebook und LinkedIn zu erweitern.
An Empirical Investigation of the Effect of Packaging Design on Consumers' Willingness to Pay
(2021)
This study sheds light on the extent to which high-quality aesthetic packaging can positively influence consumer choice and raise willingness to pay at the point of sale. In two separate parts, we measure purchasing decisions and willingness to pay by contrasting high- and low-quality packaging of a pullover and a vodka bottle.
Findings show that, compared to cheap and standardized designs, visually appealing packages can significantly raise willingness to pay for a product. Besides, packaging design is crucial when consumers buy the product as a gift rather than for self-consumption. This research provides evidence that beautifully designed packages can positively influence consumer choice at the point of purchase. However, packaging can only influence purchase decisions within a specific price range. If prices are too high and above the individual’s accepted price limit, packaging cannot convince consumers to buy the product. Further, our investigation shows that consumers’ age, gender, educational level, and occupational status can be related to their package choices. The late adulthood, men, and individuals with higher education and professional status are likely to spend more on attractively packaged products than other demographic groups.
Die COVID-19-Pandemie ist Treiber der Digitalisierung, welcher das Verhalten von Menschen nachhaltig beeinflusst und Organisationen vor neue digitale Herausforderun-gen stellt. Diese Forschung untersucht hierzu 75 Sparkassen aller Größenklassen und Regionen Deutschlands auf deren Digitalisierungsstand während der COVID-19-Pandemie. Der DSV-Gruppe als zentraler Lösungsanbieter der Sparkassen, liegt derzeit keine aktuelle Forschung zu Einstellungen und Maßnahmen bezüglich der Digitalisie-rung in den Sparkassen vor. Daher sollen die Forschungsfragen „Welche digitalen Her-ausforderungen bestehen zum aktuellen Stand bei den Sparkassen?“ und „An welchen Punkten kann die DSV-Gruppe ansetzen, um die Sparkassen bestmöglich in ihren digita-len Herausforderungen zu unterstützen?“, durch eine quantitative Online-Umfrage be-antwortet werden. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die befragten Sparkassen Unterstüt-zungsbedarf in der Digitalisierung von Prozessen, vor allem für Beratungsgespräche und Home-Office, aufweisen. Zudem wurden Defizite in der Agilität und Gewinnung digi-tal geschulter Mitarbeitenden identifiziert. Die DSV-Gruppe könnte den befragten Sparkassen in der Digitalisierung mehr Führung durch zentralere Steuerung zeigen und eine individuellere strategische Beratung bieten. Außerdem könnte die Schulung von Mitarbeitenden in ihrer digitalen Fitness unterstützt und tiefergehende Forschungen zum Zusammenhang zwischen dem Kostendruck, der digitalen Einstellung und den digitalen Maßnahmen der befragten Sparkassen angestellt werden. Die Forschung erkennt Relati-onen, welche die DSV-Gruppe in weiteren Forschungen auf Kausalität untersuchen soll-te, um die untersuchten Sparkassen bei der Anpassung ihrer Geschäftsmodelle an die veränderten Gegebenheiten der Digitalisierung zu unterstützen und somit die Ge-schäftsbeziehung zu den Sparkassen nachhaltig zu festigen.
The following thesis aims at analyzing the development of media in travel planning and the role of Google.
The theoretical part of this thesis deals with the media used and their evolution and impact in travel planning. Due to tools like Google Maps, Google Hotel Finder and Google Flight Search the company has enormous opportunities to step further into the online travel market. If the European Parliament does not restrain Googles power, it is likely to extend its current position as an uncontested market leader in search engine marketing even further, leading to a monopoly in online travel planning. The vast impact of Google in travel planning is tested and proven by the advertising spending of the Danish holiday house portal Cofman A/S and a survey among newsletter subscribers of this company in the practical part.
In der vorliegenden Bachelorarbeit wird eine Analyse des jetzigen Status quo der Franke GmbH durchgeführt um eine Handlungsanweisung zur Verbesserung der Sichtbarkeit der Website aufstellen zu können. Das Ziel der Arbeit gestaltet sich darin, die Website „Franke.com“ in Deutschland in der Suchmaschine Google so zu präsentieren, dass die Rankingposition der Website optimal ausfällt. Durch die zunehmende Wichtigkeit der Suchmaschinenoptimierung als Online-Marketing-Tool in der Welt des Marketings, ist es für eine Firma wie Franke unumgänglich ihre Strategie weiter zu entwickeln. Die Bachelorarbeit wird mit den theoretischen Grundlagen eingeleitet, welche die wichtigsten Fakten und Schritte, um in der Suchmaschinenoptimierung erfolgreich zu sein, beinhaltet. Diese werden detailliert dargestellt und basierend auf wissenschaftlichen Artikeln und Studien erläutert. Daraufhin wird eine breite Analyse durchgeführt, die eine Inhaltsanalyse, Experteninterviews und eine großzahlige Befragung mit sich bringen, um herauszufinden welche Möglichkeiten die Firma Franke noch hat, um durch einen strategischen Maßnahmenplan die Suchmaschinenoptimierung auszubauen.
With today’s trends of higher flexibility in production processes and Industry 4.0, there is a heightened demand for flexible sensor solutions. SICK IVP is catering to this demand by providing highly customizable vision sensor systems. However, in the past, customization was mainly done by experts in the vision market and so, vision sensors were primarily sold in a B2B market. Recent development
towards easier to use micro-software solutions, so called apps, enable the end user to develop his own solutions. This allows SICK to market their vision products more directly to the end user, or in other words
in a B2C market.
These trends necessitate new marketing strategies and User Experience Design. Accordingly, this thesis evaluates the current marketing approach for the SICK vision apps, namely, the SICK AppPool and sick.com by mapping customer experience for a specific given task. In-depth empirical research on
customer experience was conducted. Finally, recommendations on a marketing approach for the SICK vision apps, including training, a pricing model and a UX Design concept are given.
Die Arbeit wird in Kooperation mit der Nonprofit-Organisation Street Child Deutschland angefertigt und soll dieser dabei helfen mehr Wirkung in Deutschland zu erlangen, indem sich mit der Fragestellung beschäftigt wird, wie sich die Organisation besser auf dem deutschen Markt positionieren kann. Street Child ist eine gemeinnützige Organisation, die über verschiedene Projekte Bildungsmöglichkeiten für die am stärksten gefährdeten Kinder in Sierra Leone, Liberia und Nepal entwickeln möchte. Street Child hat seine Aktivitäten 2015 auf den deutschen Markt ausgeweitet und einen eigenen Verein „Street Child Deutschland “ gegründet, welcher sich bisher gut entwickelt hat. Jedoch ist Street Child Deutschland noch sehr jung, wenig bekannt und wird vor Ort nur von einem kleinen Team ehrenamtlicher Helfer vertreten. Im Rahmen der vorliegenden Arbeit werden mittels einer strategischen Analyse Ideen und neue Konzepte für Street Child Deutschland erarbeitet. Ein höherer Bekanntheitsgrad ist hierbei das Ziel, welches die Grundlage für den weiteren Ausbau der Organisation in Deutschland bildet. Abschließend wird einen Blick auf mögliche innovative Geschäftsmodelle geworfen, welche die Non Profit Organisation langfristig tragen und eine nachhaltige Finanzierung sichern können.
„We are not thinking machines that feel, we are feeling machines that think.” (A.R. Damasio). This quote from famous neuroscientist Antonio R. Damasio illustrates the significant role emotions play in human perception, behavior and decision making. Marketers in Business-to-Consumer and Business-to-Business sectors increasingly realize that establishing an emotional connection with the company’s or brand’s target group is crucial to aid differentiation, competitiveness and awareness. Especially in highly competitive environments it is important to find ways to connect more closely with the target groups. KLS Martin Group, a medical technology company based in Tuttlingen, Germany, strives to strengthen its brand awareness through Audio Branding and Influencer Marketing and thereby adding an emotional value to the brand. Hence, this bachelor thesis investigates how these two concepts can contribute to this ambition. An empirical qualitative study has been conducted with eight cases to examine the concept of Audio Branding and nine cases regarding the topic of Influencer Marketing as tools to emotionalize the brand and to find out how they can support awareness-raising endeavors. This thesis reveals and illustrates frameworks, emphasizing the dimensions of acceptance, identifiability, continuity and adaptability for Audio Branding and the 4-C framework including the elements credibility, content communication, closeness and control. Further, practical approaches regarding the implementation of Audio Branding and Influencer Marketing in the context of emotions at KLS Martin Group are expounded.
The thesis emphasizes on the scale of production and waste of plastics, market share of single use plastics and attempts to find alternatives to one of the most problematic single use plastic marine litter items – single use plastic tableware and cutlery. The thesis is further narrowed to one of the Biodegradable tableware and cutlery BIOTREM from Poland that produces single use or disposable tableware and cutlery with the raw materials wheat bran and bioplastics PLA.
A study involved in the internationalization of BIOTREM is carried out based on the guidelines and principles of Global Marketing by Hollensen (2014). The study includes the important steps in internationalization process such as decision whether to internationalize, factors affecting internationalization, internationalization models suitable for BIOTREM.
Germany is considered as a hypothetical target market for the expansion of BIOTREM and the challenges for internationalization to Germany is analyzed with the help of Porter’s Five Force framework and SWOT Analysis. Further, various types of entry modes and factors that would influence the strategy for BIOTREM’s entry into German Market are studied and the suitable options are recommended.
A few recommendations w.r.t elements of marketing mix – product, place and promotions are suggested and also included are the general recommendations regarding company’s website contents. A recommendation is made on new form of crowd funding option – Security Token Offerings (STO’s) for BIOTREM expansion plan.
Finally, it is concluded with enlisting the answers found for the research questions and the message on taking responsibility for single use plastic pollution problem.
A Successful introduction of E-learning for Bosch Car Service and Auto Crew Workshops Worldwide.
(2016)
The purpose of this study is to determine how to introduce E-learning successfully for Bosch soft franchise workshops to maintain quality in services and a high level of customer satisfaction. The study focuses on two research question A) Should Bosch continue to invest in producing elearning course for workshops. B) How to increase workshop’s participation for e-learning. Regional Concept Managers from 14 countries evaluated the existing e-learning courses to define exclusively “E-learnings” pro and cons as per their marketplace to see if investing in elearning is beneficial. Secondly, the emphasis was placed on Regional Managers to brainstorm on what are the new strategies can be used to motivate the workshop to take part in e-learning. Broadly speaking, learning is an expensive and time-consuming activity that can be a disadvantage when it comes to teaching people. Bosch was one of the pioneer company after Daimler that uses e-learning platform to train their workshops- Bosch car Service and Auto Crew. The vision for e-learning was very innovative and useful for the workshops to teach the structured way of showing all the works that carried out in a workshop. However, low participation from the workshop in e-learning courses has been a challenge.
The first part of the thesis provides a theoretical understanding of the Automotive Aftermarket. It also gives detail introduction and usage of “E-learning” in 21st century. The second part explains the workshop concepts “Bosch Car Service” and “Auto Crew.” It also provides an overview of “how e-learning course is produced and used for workshops” and the final part consists of an “Empirical Research” that includes the findings from Expert Interview and survey with Regional Managers. The findings from empirical part reveal that E-learning courses are useful for the workshop. Therefore, Bosch should continue to invest in producing E-learning Courses. However, study shows the different areas that need improvement, therefore findings from the empirical research need to be considered by the Headquarter as well as the Regional Organization to successfully introduce “E-learning” for the workshops.
Die nachfolgende Arbeit befasst sich mit der Ausarbeitung eines Marketingkonzeptes für das Start-up Unternehmen THE EARTHBAG, mit Ausrichtung auf den deutschen Markt.
Die Bedeutung der Arbeit liegt in der Etablierung des jungen Unternehmens auf dem deutschen Markt sowie in der Steigerung des Verkaufs. Um diese Ziele zu erreichen, wird das Unternehmen in einer internen Situationsanalyse und dessen Konkurrenten in einer externen Marktanalyse untersucht. Weitere Informationen werden im Rahmen einer Online-Umfrage gesammelt. Anschließend wird eine Marketingstrategie anhand aller ausgewerteten Ergebnisse abgeleitet, welche mit Hilfe konkreter Maßnahmen imple-mentiert werden soll. Ein Mangel an Markterfahrung sowie eine finanzielle Einschränkung stellen Herausforderungen für diese Arbeit dar. Dennoch wird mit entsprechender Fachliteratur zum Thema Marketing sowie internen Informationen von THE EARTHBAG ein Marketingkonzept erarbeitet.
Sustainable product offerings in food retailing have been increasing in the last years, making their way from specialized stores to mainstream food retail stores. It is the case of Germany in which sustainable food products are found in many retailing channels, even discounters. Many pieces of research have been focusing on the bio- and fair-trade labels effect on consumers' behavior, and increased interest has been put in the effect it has regarding WTP towards food products. These studies tend to conclude in a higher WTP towards sustainable labeled food products. However, the studies focus only on the valuation of the product qualities and leave the retailer format aside, which is the location where the product and the labels are being displayed and evaluated by the customer. This research will focus on assessing if the retailer format influences consumers WTP towards bio and fair-trade labels in the German food retail market. In total, 400 randomly selected participants answered one of four surveys regarding WTP towards food products in different retailer formats. Two retailer formats are considered discounters and supermarkets. This research analyses if the labels are performing adequately throughout all food retailing formats in order to provide valuable information for the future of sustainable consumption and regulation. In the end, we cannot conclude a statistically significant difference through the analysis of variance of the means of the label performance in both retailer formats.
Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, die Funktion von Keywords für den Suchalgorithmus zu untersuchen und festzustellen inwieweit die Optimierung von Keywords für die Suchmaschinenoptimierung wichtig ist. Während die Funktion von Keywords für den Google Algorithmus theoretisch untersucht wurde, wurde die Bedeutsamkeit von Keywords mit einer praktischen Suchmaschinenoptimierung und deren Auswirkungen auf die Google Suchergebnisseite gemessen. Um die Auswirkungen von optimierten Keywords zu messen, wurde eine Forschungsstudie zur Datenerhebung durchgeführt. Diese Studie umfasst eine E-Commerce Website, die Handyketten verkauft und wurde über einen Beobachtungszeitraum von 17 Wochen implementiert. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass sich sowohl die Keyword-Optimierung, als auch die On-page Optimierung positiv auf die Ranking-Position der Suchergebnisliste auswirken. Generell deuten die Daten an, dass die Optimierung von On-page Faktoren eine größere Auswirkung auf die Ranking-Position haben und somit eine größere Gewichtung durch den Suchalgorithmus zugeteilt bekommen.
Der Rückgang der Kundschaft und die Vielzahl an digitalen Geschäftsmodellen sorgen für Umsatzeinbrüche und zwingen immer mehr stationäre Stoffeinzelhändler zu Schließungen. burda create! vertreibt in vielen Stoffgeschäften weltweit Schnittmuster, sowie Zeitschriften und ist daher ebenso von dieser Situation betroffen. Ziel der Arbeit ist es zu beantworten, wie der Verkauf von burda style Schnittmustern im stationären Stoffeinzelhandel mithilfe von multisensorischen Konzepten und Maßnahmen wieder gestärkt werden kann. Dabei soll auch beantwortet werden, wie es gelingt mehr Frequenz in Stoffläden zu generieren, welche Faktoren zu einem längeren Verweilen führen und wie der Kunde zu einem Käufer gemacht werden kann.
Auf Grundlage der theoretischen Ausarbeitung wurden Faktoren herausgearbeitet, die für ein kundenzentriertes Design maßgebend sind: das Zusammenwirken der menschlichen Sinne und die Schaffung einer Wohlfühlatmosphäre. Dabei galt es nicht nur den Point of Sale, sondern auch den Point of People zu betrachten. Basierend auf einer qualitativen Befragung, sowie quantitativer Umfragen wurde ermittelt, wie zufrieden bestehende Kunden mit den burda style Katalogen und den stationären Stoffläden sind. Da bestehende burda Kunden einen höheren Altersdurchschnitt haben, wurde eine neue Zielgruppe im Alter von 18 bis 35 Jahren befragt, um herauszufinden wie es gelingen kann, diese als Kunden zu gewinnen. Die Auswertung dieser Umfrage zeigt, dass viele nicht vollkommen zufrieden mit dem Prozess der Schnittmusterauswahl im Stoffladen sind, und die Hälfte kann sich vorstellen, in Zukunft eine andere Marke für ihr Nähprojekt zu verwenden. Diese Ergebnisse unterstreichen die Wichtigkeit von der Konzipierung neuer Konzepte, bei denen der Kunde im Fokus steht.
Angesichts der bereits erforschten Faktoren und Wirkungen und der Ergebnisse der Umfragen, wurden Konzepte und Maßnahmen für den stationären Stoffeinzelhandel entworfen, mit Fokus darauf den Schnittmusterverkauf von burda style zu steigern. Diese wurden mit den Händlern von burda geteilt, damit sie diese umsetzen können und so Erfolge erzielen können.
Hubert Burda Media ist ein international agierendes Medienunternehmen, das unter anderem in den Segmenten Woman, Luxury Lifestyle, Living und Food aktiv ist. Das Unternehmen befindet sich auf Expansionskurs und ist dabei bestrebt, neben dem Ausbau weiterer Geschäftsfelder (z.B. Digital), sein Wachstumspotenzial durch Internationalisierungsaktivitäten bestehender Zeitschriftentitel in anderen Märkten auszuschöpfen.
Die Koch- und Genusszeitschrift SAVEURS wird vom Burda Verlag Editions Hubert Burda Media in Paris publiziert und wurde bereits in Russland und Deutschland lanciert. Nach der Einführung der Zeitschrift auf anderen Märkten außerhalb des Heimatmarktes, soll das Potential für eine erfolgreiche Einführung auf dem brasilianischen Markt untersucht werden.
Dank sozialer Medien können Influencer eine grosse Reichweite und Bekanntheit aufbauen. Vor allem die jüngeren Zielgruppen fühlen sich von diesen Meinungsführern angezogen und bilden Scharen von Followern in den verschiedensten Themenbereichen. Immer mehr Firmen versprechen sich günstige und effiziente Werbung durch Kooperationen mit den Meinungsmachern. Vor diesem Hintergrund soll die Frage nach der Bedeutung von Influencer Marketing für Unternehmen in Deutschland geklärt werden. Die Forschungsmethode beinhaltet die Erarbeitung des theoretischen Hintergrunds, der anschließend anhand einer empirischen Untersuchung im Zuge einer Online-Befragung von Konsumenten überprüft wird. Die Ergebnisse der Studie bekräftigen den aktuelle Stellenwert der Influencer und das daraus resultierende Potenzial der Disziplin. Trotz Kritik an der Glaubwürdigkeit und Zweifel an der Objektivität von Influencern bei Kooperationen mit Unternehmen, bietet die Disziplin viele Vorteile wie die kostengünstige Reichweite und das Erreichen der gewünschten Zielgruppe ohne viel Streuverluste. Werbetreibende müssen sich jedoch anpassen und ihren Partnern genügend Vertrauen entgegenbringen, sodass die Zusammenarbeit Früchte tragen kann. Die Werbeform birgt Risiken wie potenzielle Shit-Storms bei schlechter Anwendung, aber auch Chancen wie die virale Steigerung der Bekanntheit und der Sichtbarkeit der Marke im Internet. Die Thematik ist heute schon höchst relevant und wird ihren Stellenwert hinsichtlich der zunehmenden Professionalisierung der Branche voraussichtlich weiterentwickeln. Bereits weit mehr als ein Trend hat Influencer Marketing das Potenzial, sich in Zukunft zu einer essentiellen Disziplin zu entwickeln.
Life cycle management of key products (franchises) offered by a company is one of its most strategically important tasks. As their overall ability to capture and use sales data improves, companies have been able to investigate and manage their franchises better than ever before.
This thesis explored the franchise management framework of Nike Inc., a global leader within the sporting goods retail industry. The thesis is divided into two parts. The first part explored the current franchise management framework of Nike and its effectiveness. The second part applies this framework to one of Nike’s biggest franchises and prime sources of revenue for the ‘Running’ category. ‘Nike Free’, the franchise in question, suffered a big decline in sales and surgical franchise management had to be applied in order to revive it. The results indicated that this framework delivered positive results and helped improve the performance of this franchise.
Fact based decision making, enabled by effective gathering and processing of sales data was used during this study. Overall, the goal of the thesis is to help understand and lay a foundation for effective franchise management for a sales organization.
In this thesis, the author researches the topic of global Scotch whisky marketing strategies and adapted strategies for the emerging markets in Asia, using the example of Johnnie Walker and Chivas Regal. Scotch whisky has become a truly international spirit, with a growing demand coming from the emerging markets of Asia. The multinational players in the Scotch whisky industry soon recognized the need to adapt their marketing strategies for the Asian markets in order to gain a foothold and survive in the highly competitive spirit market. The two leading multinational Scotch whisky producers are Diageo and Pernod Ricard. They both successfully market two blended Scotch whisky brands globally, Johnnie Walker and Chivas Regal. Their current global marketing strategies for these brands are based on six key elements, which are Innovative Packaging, Responsibility/Consideration of Social Aspects/Care about Society, Strategic Sponsorships/Partnerships, Celebrity Branding, Digital Marketing/ Social Media Engagement, and Experiential Marketing /Physical Spaces. The marketing actions of Johnnie Walker and Chivas Regal in Asian markets have four elements in common, which can be seen as key success factors for a successful marketing strategy in Asian markets: tell sophisticated Brand Stories in an authentic, inspiring and emotional connecting way; use Digital Content and interactive platforms, like Social Media, to engage with Asian consumers; create rich brand experiences with Physical Spaces, and use the power of Influencers to inspire and communicate brand content.
The following thesis examines the role of drug advertising in the United States. It takes a theoretical approach to explore the relationship between drug sales and the corresponding advertising and their perception, effects and implications on the public by focusing on the opioid crisis in the United States. In order to assess the effectiveness of drug advertising, the theoretical hierarchical framework by Robert J. Lavidge and A Steiner was utilized as it provides a straight-forward and frequently applied model to examine the workings of advertising in general.
The thesis’s conclusions give a synopsis of the results both for drug advertising and its effects on sales, as well as the implications drug advertising can entail as demonstrated in the case of the opioid crisis.
Gamification has become an innovative marketing tool in the tourism industry. It can potentially increase engagement and brand awareness and enhance overall tourist experiences. This thesis presents the theory behind gamification and its application in travel marketing. It discusses extrinsic and intrinsic motivational factors, fundamental concepts, practical examples, and the role of mobile applications in driving these strategies forward. By understanding how gamification can amplify tourist engagement, marketers could take advantage of this strategy and create campaigns that leave a long-lasting and positive impression. In addition, real-world examples demonstrate that tourism marketing can benefit from this innovative technique. Based on the literature's most critical findings, a model for implementing gamified marketing strategies to potentially increase tourist numbers during off-season traveling in less popular destinations is proposed.
The interest in topics such as the environment, health and sustainability has increased dramatically in recent years, due to concerns about global warming and demographic change, giving way to the concept of “green branding”.
This bachelor thesis proposes the application of a green branding strategy in order to position Irish agri-food products in the German grocery retail market, and explores its potential effectiveness and current relevance. Firstly, this work intends to offer an overall understanding of the characteristics and implications of a green branding strategy. Secondly, it analyses the connection with Ireland as a country of origin for agri-food products, by putting forward the different arguments for its suitability for the respective products. Finally, the key learnings regarding the successful implementation of a green branding strategy are discussed, based on a real-life best-practice case.
This research employed previous academic and trade literature to develop a theoretical foundation for understanding the concept of green branding in a marketing context. Various forms of industry, consumer and retail insights were used to identify the extent of demand for green brands in Germany and to analyse strength and weaknesses of the Irish agri-food industry in this regard.
An expert interview with the Marketing Manager for Kerrygold in Germany was conducted to uncover points arising from the best-practice application of a green branding strategy.
The findings indicate that there is significant theoretical and practical evidence to suggest that the application of a green branding would be an effective positioning strategy for Irish agri-food in the German consumer market.
The following bachelor thesis was written in cooperation with the company GF Automotive AG located in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. It is a worldwide recognized development and serial production partner of the automotive industry. The thesis covers the topic ‘The potential of gaining competitive advantage through Green Marketing’. The purpose of this thesis is to research if sustainability within the automotive supply industry is of high importance and can be used to gain competitive advantage. The thesis offers possible measures to implement successful practices that were detected in the conducted benchmark. It points out that green marketing in the B2B business can support companies to differentiate and it illustrates how marketing communication of the company GF Automotive AG can be adapted in order to succeed and remain leader in the highly competitive automotive supply market
Konzeption einer Social-Media-Strategie am Beispiel der Firma BMSC für den französischen Markt
(2018)
Die vorliegende Bachelorarbeit befasst sich mit der Konzeption einer Social-Media-Strategie für den französischen Markt. Die Firma BMSC dient hierzu als Praxisbeispiel. Zunächst werden Grundlagen von Social Media und Social-Media-Strategien thematisiert. Anschließend wird eine Social-Media-Strategie mit Unterstützung einer Social-Media-Strategie-Methode schrittweise erarbeitet. Grundlage für die Entwicklung der Social-Media-Strategie stellt eine Zielgruppen- und Konkurrenzanalyse, eine Ressourcen- und Kompetenzanalyse des Unternehmens sowie eine prägnante Marktanalyse, gestützt durch Experteninterviews, dar. Die Definition der Ziele, die durch einen Social-Media-Auftritt erreicht werden sollen, hilft bei der Entwicklung von Handlungsempfehlungen, der Auswahl der Kanäle und der Entwicklung von passenden Inhalten in den sozialen Netzwerken. Abschließend werden ein Redaktionsplan und Social-Media-Guidelines entwickelt und Kennzahlen definiert, die dem Unternehmen helfen den Social-Media-Erfolg zu messen.
Conception and development of a corporate website strategy on the example of KARL STORZ SE & Co. KG
(2022)
In recent years, digitalization has caused an increasing transformation of the entire business world towards a digitalized economy. The Covid-19 pandemic has rapidly accelerated this ongoing digital transformation. Therefore, online presence is also becoming increasingly important for companies to survive in the digital economy. KARL STORZ SE & Co. KG, a traditional medium-sized company firmly focused on face-to-face sales, was strongly affected by the limitations of the pandemic. Switching to digital alternatives, especially the corporate website, stands out as the most critical digital cross point.
This bachelor thesis uses a marketing strategy model to analyze and research the position of KARL STORZ SE & Co. KG in the market and explores the functions and characteristics that a corporate website must have to meet today’s customer, stakeholder, and employee needs.
First, this work intends to offer an overall understanding of digitalization and its impact on the medical technology industry and medium-sized companies. Secondly, the corporate website characteristics are considered. The third theoretical part includes the analysis of two digital marketing strategy models, which are compared with each other. Finally, the company KARL STORZ SE & Co. KG and its website are presented, and a strategy model for developing a website strategy for the business year 2023 and beyond is applied.
Interviews conducted with internal and external experts on websites provide valuable information and a deeper understanding of the importance of a website in the digital environment.
In the end, this paper gives recommendations for actions for website development.
Trade shows are a major marketing tool for B2B companies due to its effectiveness by reaching all key players in the industry at one place in one point of time. However, this is combined with a high cost factor making a cost justification crucial. For this purpose, an objective explanation on the results of the trade show performance is compulsively necessary. The following research focuses on a single multinational B2B company within the safety, security and communication industry. It aims to convey an understanding of how to evaluate the trade show participation of Bosch Building Technology. Hereby, theoretical deliverables will be compared to explain relevant success factors of the B2B market and the industry while identifying trade show dimensions. This research includes expert interviews to gather information from professionals in the field of trade show organization. Subsequently to an internal survey research, the example of a best practice measurement model is analysed in a case study.
Due to technical advances, multisensory technologies have gained traction in the research and development of many industries. With the launch of virtual and augmented reality systems, the potential for these technologies increased even further. The senses of vision and hearing have long been integrated into current products, leading to the assumption that olfactory stimuli are likely to be included soon to stimulate the sense of smell.
With this trend, the issue of implementation into current digital products and services arises, as odors currently cannot be captured in one place and released in another on a large scale. Therefore, this thesis deals with the nature of smell from a cognitive psychological and technological viewpoint. We show why it makes sense to stimulate the sense of smell in multisensory experiences and present early and current technical standards. In addition to this, we conducted expert interviews enabling us to provide insights into the digital scent and olfaction industry. Among other aspects, our results suggest that there are fundamental challenges that developers have to overcome and that a successful implementation depends on the business application.
City branding
(2015)
The subject of this Bachelor thesis is based on place branding. The goal is to show its evolution since its creation until today and to analyze its importance nowadays. Our work focus mainly on four aspects of place branding, namely sense of place, identity of a place, stakeholders and communication. Sense of place helps to create meanings and attachment to the place. Identity of a place is mostly created by the different people living there and is very important to build a successful brand. Stakeholders are fundamental to place branding and it is very important to recognize the right groups of stakeholders to involve in the branding process, especially local people. Communication is a big part of place branding and has to be managed in an adapted way. The growing evolution of online branding has to be taken into account and managed closely. Word of mouth is a very efficient and powerful way of communication and it should not be neglected when creating a city brand. All these elements are being studied through the example of Strasbourg’s city branding, “Strasbourg, the Europtimist”. We see that the city is ignoring some of the elements mentioned above and could improve its city branding by applying these aspects more carefully. The Bachelor thesis then analyses the success of one of Strasbourg’s sub-brands: “Strasbourg, Capital of Christmas”. Through its analysis, we demonstrate that the key success factors of this event are based on the involvement of the right groups of stakeholders, a strong identity of place, the creation of meanings to the place and a powerful word of mouth. Recommendations are then made to improve the branding of “Strasbourg, the Europtimist”, based on the successful branding of “Strasbourg, Capital of Christmas”.
The influence of quality labels on perceived product value - Marketing to the conscious consumer
(2018)
Quality labels are an important cue for customers in their search for indications of product quality. They provide consumers with valuable information about production standards. Whether the value-added by labels directly translates into price premiums is still an open question, as researchers could not reach consensus so far. Moreover, the use of multiple labels on one product is another topic discussed controversially in the research literature. Current research has further identified multiple factors affecting consumers’ willingness to pay for labelled food products. For this paper, a survey among 400 shoppers from the Villingen-Schwenningen area has been conducted, in an attempt to identify the significance of various influencing factors on willingness to pay for labelled products. Four distinct food products have been tested in this survey, each in four different labelling situations. Two labels were used on the products, one indicating social standards and another certifying ecological production standards. The study identified the following factors as influential on participants’ expressed willingness to pay: product type, information and label type. The influence of missing reference prices could not be proven to be significant. The marginal effect of a second label was found to decrease for only two of the products. As the effects of each of the factors varied between the products, no general conclusion about the effects of either of them could be drawn. Therefore, the paper concludes on the note, that a general assumption about label value should not be made.
Online commerce is growing rapidly. With the wide accessibility of the internet, e-commerce is becoming the most important ways or medium for doing business globally. The growth of e-commerce business provides companies a great opportunity to invest online so as to position their brand.
This thesis observes the elements of online brand positioning. Furthermore, it analyses whether these elements can be applied to an online business. For this Zalando the online fashion retailer, will be taken as an example. It starts with a literature review on e-commerce definition, important factors for e-commerce business, advantages of e-commerce business, brand positioning, importance of brand positioning and online brand positioning elements. The chosen brand positioning elements are then applied to analyse the online brand positioning of Zalando. Furthermore, it observes the influence of brand positioning elements on their competitive advantages.
The brand positioning elements are benefits and feature, price and value statements, competitive advantages, information on product and services, processes, partnering and relationship, leadership claims and corporate power, corporate social responsibility and credibility. All these brand positioning elements are addressed by Zalando and these elements have played an important role for the positioning of Zalando`s brand.
It is generally recognized that emotions aroused in individuals through marketing communications have an influence on their buying decisions in the B2C context. However, it is often disregarded that individuals are also decision-makers in organizations. Therefore, in the B2B context, emotional stimuli in marketing communications may influence their organizational buying decisions as well. In this paper, we examine the extent to which marketers in the mechanical engineering industry can influence their customers by positive emotional stimuli. Practical recommendations are given for the marketing communication of the newly launched production line CUBE by ZAHORANSKY AG, one of the worldwide leading organizations in the industry for brushmaking machinery.
The impact of Social Media Marketing on consumer decision-making process in the tourism industry
(2019)
Decisions are defining our daily lives. Consumers are making decisions frequently. Since new technologies appeared, and globalization is rising, people are facing new challenges and are confronted with more decisions to make than it was two decades earlier.
Decisions are made in every industry. Likewise, it is in tourism.
The tourism industry is booming, and the necessity of the internet required more than ever. Simultaneously tourism industry is faced with a new consumer who is creating, commenting, sharing, liking and posting content. Hence, it is more complex to analyze and understand this form of consumer. Changing position from an offline to an online member of the internet have had a huge impact on consumers’ behavior. Adaptation of Social Media Marketing to the new consumers tend to be more difficult than it was earlier. Consumers are getting more communicative dispose of a wider range of information, as the internet became a tool to interact and communicate. It is now more important that the tourism industry acts in a successful and sustainable way to improve its Social Media performance and adapt communication processes to be able to influence decisionmaking and direct consumer to their touristic supply.
At this academic work, firstly, it is identified the term “tourism” to analyze the decisionmaking process adapted to the tourism industry. Moreover, critical phases, which can be strongly influenced by Social Media Marketing are defined, based on theoretical research.
Moreover, a model is going to be designed, which describes adequate Social Media applications which are influencing consumers’ decision-making process. This is based on a quantitative research in form of a questionnaire. The resulting model is proved and discussed later approached by a qualitative research, which will be designed as an expert discussion.
This research examines the impact of social media on consumer behavior, focusing on how consumer behavior and habits change after the use of social media by German and Chinese young consumers. A comparison of the differences between the two groups is also conducted. The study was conducted based on theoretical background and terminology, followed by six hypotheses. Then this research determined the scope, target population, and sample size before using focus groups and online questionnaires as survey methods. While analyzing the questionnaire data, the research tested the hypotheses and demonstrated the effects between the variables. The results indicated partial agreement with existing studies. Browsing time positively correlates with the purchase journey. The duration of online discounts negatively correlates with transaction speed. Young consumers' demand increases with the amount of time they spend browsing product advertisements. However, some findings ran counter to previous investigations. The impact of SMM on young consumers has no adverse effect on the time spent browsing products. Moreover, only in some cases, young consumers' purchase intentions are positively correlated with demand.
Keywords: Young consumers, Social media marketing, Consumer behavior, Purchase journey, Purchase intention, Online time-limited discounts, Demand
The investments’ dynamics in the Fintech industry represent a great opportunity for many Fintech entrepreneurs that use technology to drive down operating cost and build products that match the digital needs of the millennial customers.
They challenge the status quo of the existing players in the industry, but it is a bigger challenge for the new entrants in to acquire customers and compete for a
market share because of the high acquisition cost and lack of historical data for optimization.
This thesis seeks to explore the digital channels used for customer acquisition and to make an analysis about the cost of the channels, targeting capabilities,
effectiveness and the effort required to set up and optimize the digital channels.
This paper also seeks to improve our current understanding of which factors influence the acceptance of fintech technology, are relevant to consider in the
context of the fintech industry, using TAM as the theoretical foundation and internet banking technology as the closest example of fintech products.
The relationship between health care practitioners and the pharmaceutical industry is increasingly drawing public attention due to misguided behaviour. Practices like gift giving, holding luxurious conferences or allowences for research are under scrutiny. With all these influences, how can practicioners stay neutral and have the interest of patients in mind? And what is the level of emotions and data used by the pharma industry when marketing drugs to a physician? In order to find out, we targeted pharmaceutical industry managers and directors to participate in an eleven question online questionnaire. For example, participants were asked to rate the best approach between data and emotions to persuade physicians. The results show tendencies in the data, but fail to show significant evidence for our hypotheses. Further research is needed in order to clarify which factors influence the decision for an emotional or data driven approach.
Möglichkeiten und Grenzen von Online-Händlern im Multi-Channel-Handel – Ein analytischer Ansatz
(2017)
Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit reinen Online-Händlern, die den stationären Handel als weiteren Vertriebskanal nutzen und somit im Multi-Channel-Handel tätig sind. Durch die Ausbreitung des Internets im Jahre 1990 hat sich der Handel grundlegend verändert. Eine neue Vertriebsmöglichkeit ist entstanden, die viele Vorteile mit sich bringt. Vor allem Start-Up Unternehmen haben begonnen im Online-Handel Produkte und Dienstleistungen anzubieten. Diese Chance auf mehr Umsatz haben auch stationäre Händler erkannt. Vermehrt haben sie ihre Betriebsform um Online-Shops erweitert und operieren somit im Multi-Channel-Handel. Bis heute ist Online-Shopping der schnellst wachsende Bereich der Internetnutzung, wohingegen die Umsatzzahlen im stationären Handel stagnieren. Kritiker des stationären Handels plädieren sogar zur gänzlichen Ablösung stationärer Ladenlokale durch den Online-Handel. Im Widerspruch zu dieser Kritik steht jedoch die Tatsache, dass unter anderem die erfolgreichsten Online-Pure-Player seit diesem Jahr stationäre Ladenlokale eröffnen. Demnach ist der stationäre Handel für den Konsumenten nicht gänzlich durch den Online-Handel zu ersetzen, anderenfalls weiteten Online-Pure-Player ihre Tätigkeiten nicht in den stationären Handel aus. Das Handeln erfolgreicher Unternehmen ist immer vom Kunden aus getrieben. Auch in der vorliegenden Arbeit liegt der Fokus auf dem Konsumenten. Es werden mit Hilfe der neusten Erkenntnisse des Konsumentenverhaltens, Potenziale für Online-Pure-Player im Multi-Channel-Handel erörtert. Zudem wird analysiert inwieweit soziale Determinanten, welche im Online-Handel nur passiv wahrgenommen werden können, für den Konsumenten beim Kauf von Relevanz sind. Abschließend werden die Chancen und Risiken von Online-Pure-Playern im Multi-Channel-Handel gegenübergestellt.