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Course of studies
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.
Die SICK STEGMANN GmbH verkauft ihre Motor-Feedback-Systeme als Komponenten zum Einbau in Servo-, Linear- und Torquemotoren verkauft. Die Motoren werden wiederrum in Maschinen und Anlagen verbaut. Vor allem Motoren mit Einkabeltechnologie, die durch die Schnittstelle HIPERFACE DSL® von SICK bereitgestellt wird, gelten als entscheidender Vorteil für den Maschinenbauer, der dadurch letztlich einen geringeren Verkabelungsaufwand hat. Das Problem entsteht dabei, dass der Maschinenbauer nur den fertigen Motor sieht und die Produkte von SICK als Komponenten für ihn nicht ersichtlich sind. Weiterhin gewinnen umfangreiche Servicestrukturen immer mehr an Bedeutung, diese hatten in der Vergangenheit in der Business Unit „Motor-Feedback-Systeme“ einen geringen Stellenwert. Die Thesis soll klären, inwieweit der Wandel vom Komponentenhersteller hin zum Service- und Solution Provider vollzogen werden kann und welche Positionierungsmaßnahmen dafür notwendig sind. Im Rahmen von Experteninterviews und einer internen Kundenbefragung mit Hilfe eines standardisierten Fragebogens wird der Ist-Zustand beschrieben und daraufhin eine Soll-Analyse zur Klärung der Forschungsfragen abgeleitet. Die Analysen zeigen, dass Veränderungen auf Produkt- und Serviceseite notwendig sind, um vermehrt Maschinenbauer anzusprechen und hier einen Kaufwunsch zu platzieren. Im Detail beschäftigt sich die Thesis mit der Ausarbeitung neuer Positionierungsstrategien für Motor-Feedback-Systeme und Services. Ferner werden Handlungsempfehlungen zu weiteren strategischen Überlegungen beschrieben. Die Evaluierung schließt die Bachelorthesis ab.
3D Fitting Room – Einstellungen und Bewertungen von Studierenden - Eine qualitative Untersuchung
(2023)
Der Online-Handel wächst auf der ganzen Welt weiter mit hoher Geschwindigkeit an. Im B2C (Business-to-Consumer) Sektor stellt dabei Mode das größte Segment überhaupt dar. Gleichzeitig weist dieses Segment mitunter die höchsten Rücksenderaten auf.
Diese Arbeit zielt darauf ab, die Rolle von virtueller Anprobe beim Online-Kleiderkauf heute und in der Zukunft am Beispiel von 3D Fitting Rooms zu beleuchten. Dafür werden qualitative Interviews mit Studierenden durchgeführt, in welchen diese zu ihren Erfahrungen, Einstellungen und Erwartungen in Bezug auf 3D Fitting Rooms befragt werden. Es soll herausgefunden werden, ob und aus welchen Gründen, die Befragten bereit sind den 3D Fitting Room zu nutzen. Hinzugezogen wird dabei die qualitativ strukturierende Inhaltsanalyse nach Kuckartz und das Technologieakzeptanzmodell nach Davis. Im Teil der theoretischen Grundlagen werden Trends in der Modeindustrie, das Problem der Retouren beim Online-Modehandel und das Technologieakzeptanzmodell beleuchtet.
Die Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass die Studierenden grundsätzlich Bereitschaft zur Nutzung der Technologie aufweisen, diese allerdings von einigen Bedingungen abhängt. Ebenso deuten die Ergebnisse darauf hin, dass die Anzahl der Rücksendungen durch 3D Fitting Rooms reduziert werden könnten. Zum Ende werden die Stärken und Schwächen der Forschung beleuchtet und ein Ausblick für die Branche und weitere Forschung dargestellt.
Sales promotion are commonly used tool by marketers to manipulate consumer toward a certain offer or product. Attractiveness of a promotion can increase the demand of the promoted product. Monetary and non-monetary are considers the two main types of sales promotions. Monetary sales promotion, also known as price promotion, will provide immediate price discount upon purchase, for example 50% discount. Non-monetary sales promotions or premium promotion, on the other hand, usually grant consumer an extra free product or additional service for free. Previous studies also demonstrated that different sales promotion affect consumer behavior differently. Consumers’ value perception can be influenced by several factors. For instance, marketers use specific “phrase” such as “value pack” to influence consumer price perception. Rationally, consumers’ value perception should remain unchanged regardless of the phrases use to describe the promotion with same discount value. In this study, we examine the impact two sales promotion those are “50% discount” and “buy one get one free” on value perception of Thais consumers. These two deals have equal economic value but perceived differently by consumer. We aim to answer the question “does two different deals with the same value impact value perception of the same product differently?” In order to obtain logical answer, two set of questionnaires were send out to observe the maximum price which consumer willing to pay for “instant noodles” and “soy protein powder”. Unfortunately, the result from our survey were not significant enough for us to derive a concrete conclusion. We also discuss about potential cause of the unexpected result and interpret our result for better understanding. Even without a significant finding, this paper address that different sales promotions impact consumer in various ways supported by other literatures and also self-assumption.
This thesis paper aimed to compare the marketing of wine in Germany and France. Though Germany and France are neighboring European countries, they are culturally, politically, socially, economically, geographically, and technologically different. These differences, directly and indirectly, affect the way both countries do business.
Three research questions helped to compare wine marketing in Germany and France. These questions are the following:
Factors that go into the wine production as well as certain indicators or characteristics inform the potential customers about the quality of the wine they have in their glasses. That is why the first question in this thesis focused on how the quality of wine is defined in Germany and France.
Wine Associations at different layers: regional, national, European, and international play an important role in wine promotion. So, the second re-search question was to investigate the contribution of these different wine co-operatives in wine marketing.
To market their wine, many countries put in place different marketing strategies to increase their wine image and customer base. That is why the Last part of this paper was to compare the different marketing strategies used in the wine sector in Germany and France.
This thesis ended up with a conclusion.
As the service industry continues to grow in all aspects it is becoming clearer that as consumers have more options companies have to find different ways to distinguish themselves from their competition. One of the ways to do this is pricing, although some firms are still using old forms of pricing most are now gravitating towards newer more unconventional methods.
The purpose of this research was to analyze different pricing strategies and how they affect consumer purchasing behavior. The study looked at new forms of pricing such as Pay what you want, more conventional pricing in the service industry which was Dynamic pricing and a controversial form of pricing which was partitioned pricing.
This thesis contains 6 chapters. The first chapter will be an introduction and literature review, Chapter 2, 3 and 4 will represent the different pricing mechanisms respectively Chapter 5 will compare and summarize the pricing strategies and Chapter 6 will provide the conclusion and limitations
This Thesis comes to the conclusion that different pricing strategies invoke different behavioral characteristics in consumers. Pricing strategies can either affect consumer behavior negatively or positively. Pay what you want pricing influences consumer behavior the most in a positive way whilst Partitioned pricing will cause increase consumers’ willingness to purchase a service. Traditional methods such as dynamic pricing affect consumer behavior to a lesser degree. In comparison with the other forms of pricing does not affect consumer behavior positively.
The impact of store atmosphere elements on the purchase behaviour and emotions of customers has an important significance in modern marketing. How to design and conceptualize a store atmosphere in such a way that it provides an unforgettable experience for the customer and entices him or her to arouse an interest in the store environment is one of the most fundamental concerns merchants and marketers must ask and think through these days – likewise, the role of culture in connection with store atmosphere is necessary to understand. The goal of this paper is to answer the question on how behavioural and emotional responses to store atmospheric elements such as visual, aural, olfactory, tactile, social, exterior design, interior design and layout & design differ across individualist and collectivist cultures. A cross-cultural analysis between Germans and non-Germans is made in respect to the posed question. A quantitative online survey was conducted, in which a total of 99 valid participants took part, of which 57 were Germans and 42 were non-Germans. This research extended the study of Barros et al. (2019) and added two more separate store atmospheric elements which are the general exterior design and the general interior design. The data was then analyzed, and the findings were ultimately presented. The findings showed that overall store atmosphere elements have similar emotional and behavioural effects on individualist and collectivist cultures with the exception of the general exterior design element, where a significant difference was found. This paper gives a comprehensive overview on the importance of store atmospheric elements in retail and the comparison between Germany which acts as a country that scored relatively high on the Individualism dimension of Hofstede’s national culture model and the countries Turkey, Russia, Portugal, Albania, Bosnia, Romania, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Iraq which serve as a union of cultures that performed high on the Collectivism dimension. Additional research on the topic needs to be done on how culture affects shopper’s emotional and behavioural responses.
This thesis examines the culture concerning the Celebrity-Endorsed Advertisements in Luxury Brands. Culture and its value have an impact on the effectiveness of the advertisement. Culture can also impact celebrity endorsement as a celebrity can be seen differently according to the cultural pattern. Luxury is also seen differently according to the cultural values, and brand can have an impact on the value of the luxury. Since the advertisement is a very crucial tool for marketing strategies, commercials should be made according to the values of the culture to increase its effectiveness. Culture is a group phenomenon, and it influences the behavior of an individual which impacts the brand and product. Culture creates a lifestyle and new markets; it also allows market adaptation according to the local taste. Culture helps us to understand the changing attitude of the market towards a product or service. Culture plays a role in the perception of the product and advertisement as people from a different country will perceive and interpret things differently according to their culture and experience.
This thesis addresses various diverse questions related to the culture regarding celebrity-endorsed advertisements in luxury brands. The foremost question which addressed is; the culture impact on the customer's perception of the brand image for celebrity-endorsed advertisements as to luxury brands. This thesis is based on the Qualitative research method, including descriptive case study-based research with observations, following an inductive approach to generate a theory, model, and explanation by analyzing the data to finding patterns. This thesis follows the research task based on theory and applying research models to new situations, explaining phenomena, and analyzing the relationships. The information and data for the research are taken from the online & social media platforms YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are used for TV commercials. The data is analyzed through observation by checking the advertisement like and dislike on the online platform. How often they are comment and what kinds of statements are used for an advertisement. Afterwards, the data is analyzed according to the culture models. The findings of this thesis answer and highlight the challenges along with the research questions. The study helps us to understand what culture is and how to target the market more effectively. It explains the importance of the brand and the value of the luxury associated with it. This thesis helps us to understand the impact of the celebrity in the advertainments and how to use them effectively. It also helps us to understand consumer behavior and the perception of the product value. This thesis highlights the fact that what can be seen offensive in the advertisement by a different culture and its impacts on the brand image.
A Descriptive Study on Customer Attitudes towards Green Branding in the Fashion Industry in Germany
(2021)
This paper attempts to provide an up-to-date representation and analysis of customers' attitudes towards green branding in the fashion industry and their willingness to pay (WTP) for sustainable and ethical clothing in Germany. Related literature strands are reviewed to understand how the fashion industry works, what green branding means, and how customer attitudes are shaped. After creating an attitude measurement model, an online questionnaire was designed and sent to Furtwangen University students, with 153 valid responses returned. The descriptive analysis sheds light on the three attitudinal components related to sustainability and ethics in the fashion industry. It is noted that customers do not hold a definite attitude. However, a tendency towards the positive end is ascertained. Significant gaps still exist in terms of knowledge and awareness of some commitment by fashion brands. Another huge factor influencing attitudes appears to be a lack of trust. The behavioral component showed that customers are trying to contribute through proper disposal and are willing to buy sustainable and ethical clothing more often. However, there is still some room for improvement in terms of customer education. Nevertheless, it is found that they are willing to accept an additional contribution for sustainable and ethical clothing. In general, it can be concluded that there is a foundation to improve the fashion industry towards more sustainability. However, all stakeholders, i.e., customers and fashion brands, as well as the government, need to work together to change the industry in the long run.
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.
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.
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.
The use of social media for marketing purposes has already begun replacing virtually all traditional marketing practices in order to cater to a generation of digital natives and young festival goers – a trend that can be especially observed in the music industry today. For all that, not all marketers of music festivals are fully informed about the necessity of a well-developed and multifaceted social media strategy. The goal of this study was to explore the topic of strategic social media in music festival organizations and to derive a model upon which music festival organizations can establish and form their social media strategy more effectively. For this purpose, a literature review was conducted and a combined social media model for assessing social media strategies of music festival organizations was proposed. Six prevailing themes pertaining to social media strategy that were identified constitute the model: 1. Channel selection and evaluation, 2. Audience analysis, 3. Communication style, 4. Social media content, 5. Social monitoring and risk management, and 6. Roles and responsibilities. In the second part of this study, a qualitative research design employing interviews and a case study was used in order to explore strategic social media use in leading festivals in Serbia, Croatia and North Macedonia. The findings of this study reveal about the impact of specific social media platforms, the use of analytics tools for gathering audience insights, the two-way interactive communication with the fans, the efficiency of content resulting from co-creation, the role and importance of PR in social media, as well as the position of social media in the organization and the staffing approach for social media marketing.
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.
The food delivery industry is growing rapidly. As the biggest delivery platform in the western world, Just Eat Takeaway.com (JET) must adapt its processes according to its growth. This growth is especially reflected in need for delivery drivers. To adapt to this increasing need, JETs current recruitment marketing affiliate campaign is examined by reviewing the literature, such as books, magazines, journals, and business reviews. Best practices and processes within JET are explained in depth to draw a picture of the current campaign status. Through this research, hypotheses on campaigns issues are drawn. Through a qualitative publisher survey, these hypotheses are either accepted or rejected. Furthermore, a SWOT analysis discusses the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the program. Finally, conversion strategies are used to discuss where JET can improve by highlighting potential plans for the optimization of recruitment marketing affiliate campaigns.
Im Zeitalter der Digitalisierung nimmt das Internet einen hohen Stellenwert in der heutigen Gesellschaft ein. Vor allem im Bereich Shopping ist das Internet von
besonderer Bedeutung. Hinsichtlich der Etablierung zahlreicher Online-Shops findet heutzutage der Großteil der Einkäufe über das Internet statt. Angesichts dieser Entwicklung hat auch die jüngste Marketingdisziplin, das Online-Marketing, in den letzten Jahren an Bedeutung gewonnen. Hierbei hat sich das Affiliate Marketing als eine der wichtigsten Online-Marketing Instrumente etabliert. E-Commerce-Unternehmen, wie bspw. Amazon oder eBay gehören in diesem Bereich zu den bekanntesten Werbetreibern. Folglich befasst sich diese Bachelorarbeit mit der umfassenden Darstellung des Affiliate-Marketings. Weiterhin werden die Online- Marketing-Instrumente, die im Rahmen des Affiliate Marketings eine zusätzliche Anwendung finden, dargestellt. Allerdings gibt es auch hier Betrüger, die durch den Einsatz betrügerischer Maßnahmen unberechtigte Provisionszahlungen beanspruchen. An dieser Stelle ist es für den Werbetreibenden von essentieller Bedeutung, betrügerische Handlungen zu erkennen und sich aktiv gegen diese abzusichern. Durch den Einsatz entsprechender Gegenmaßnahmen können
schwerwiegende Schäden vermieden werden.
This thesis tries to answer questions with respect to a future cultured meat industry, that is what influences consumer behavior and which consumers will be likely to buy cultured meat products. In addition I am trying to answer the question if there even will be a cultured meat industry in the future or whether the current developments can be seen more like a bubble that will disappear once enough money is burned with no profits made. Answering these research questions was quite a challenge, even though I did an extensive amount of research the lack of available data was not ideal. Therefore, I need to acknowledge that with more available data more precise conclusions could have been drawn. Nevertheless, through my research I could conclude that the cultured meat industry, which is shortly before bringing the first products to market is unlikely to disappear. The technology seems sound and the concept behind it seems to make sense. Regarding potential consumers I concluded that marketers should try to identify consumers who go through extensive problem solving when making food or rather lifestyle choices. These consumers might be best to approach when launching the first marketing campaigns for a cultured meat product.
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.
The current master thesis makes an effort to investigate relationships between perceived service quality, membership satisfaction, and membership loyalty at “Gesellschaft für technische Kommunikation – tekom Deutschland e.V.”, applying adjusted SERVQUAL model. To attain the formulated objectives in scope of the current research, the “Satisfaction – Profit Chain” model is applied, consisting of “Attribute Performance”, represented by SERVQUAL service quality dimensions supposed to serve as antecedent of the second component of the chain “Membership Satisfaction”, and “Membership Loyalty” in order to investigate relations between these three. The findings of the study are supposed to serve as a basis for altering the existing CRM Strategy in order to eliminate current issues within the association, develop strategic marketing capabilities, and create value for members’ attraction and retention.
Prior research agrees that consumer choice is heavily influenced by the choice context.
According to the compromise effect, the middle alternative in attribute space is preferred over more extreme options. However, the role of the spatial order of alternatives seems to be neglected by most compromise effect studies. Usually, alternatives are ordered by attributes, meaning that the compromise option is placed in the spatial middle of the choice set, despite the fact that research indicates a consumer preference for the spatial middle of a choice set. To investigate this issue, we hypothesized that an alternative would be chosen more frequently when positioned in the spatial middle of a choice set versus at the edge of a choice set. We assumed that this effect would be stronger when consumers are unfamiliar with a product category. Therefore, we expected to observe a negative correlation between decision-makers’ familiarity with a product category and their tendency to choose an alternative more frequently when positioned in the spatial middle of a choice. To find out, we conducted an online survey targeting 907 university students. The results support our hypothesis and the notion that the compromise effect might be partly driven by a preference for the spatial middle position of a choice set rather than only by a preference for the compromise option.
The primary purpose of this thesis is to gain a deeper understanding of how factors influence sport sponsorship, especially in football. In order to fulfill this purpose the thesis identifies, describes and tries to explain sponsorship in general as a non-classical communication instrument, the selection of sponsorship objects, companies´ objectives of sport sponsorship activities. In addition, the thesis considers companies´ planning process of sport sponsorship and finally, an identification of several factors, which may have an impact on sport sponsorship. Two examples of application of a company in the telecommunication industry and of a company in the automobile industry are pointed out, where the aspects of sponsorship of the German Fußball Bundesliga respectively the German national team, are studied. The paper makes use of studies which shows how respondents remembered sponsorship activities. It is possible to conclude from the thesis that many factors will have an effect on sport sponsorship. The paper demonstrates that image, memorizing, duration and the fit between sponsor and event or sponsor and sponsee are relevant criteria. Finally, the thesis summarizes the results and outlines of the possible future of football sponsorship.
Analyse der Berufsgruppe Architekten zur Ermittlung einer zielgruppengerechten Kommunikation für einen Baustoffhersteller
Analysis of the occupational group of architects to determine a communication appropriate to the target audience for a building materials manufacturer
This thesis deals with the specialties of addressing the occupational group of architects in Germany. It examines their role and approach in the process of buying building material with the aim of finding out a suitable way for a building materials manufacturer to communicate with the target audience. For this purpose a secondary analysis of architects is carried out and replenished with a primary data acquisition.
After analyzing the work, role and way of obtaining information of the architect the theory of corporate communication is explained. This chapter shows the requirements and possibilities and examines the features of communication for a business-to-business company. Following the primary data acquisition in the form of expert interviews is carried out. In conclusion the outcome of the secondary and primary research is merged, which allows the derivation of a recommended course of action.
The results show that architects have a powerful role in the buying center and therefore a tremendous influence on the buying process of building materials. However it emerges to be difficult to address the target audience, since they communicate in a passive way. Furthermore the study identifies that architects are artists and builders in one person. This is why it is important to them that their projects do not only look good but are also functional. Another result is that architects often do not feel respected as experts, although they have a wide specialized knowledge. Moreover the research shows that the target audience has to face new challenges with every project, which is why they are always searching for new inspiration and ideas. Finally it emerges that architects feel a special enthusiasm for their occupation and work as well as architecture in general.
From the insights gained it could be derived that the appropriate way to communicate with architects is in two phases. On the first stage the attention of the target audience needs to be won in the right moment, which is why the manufacturer has to show a steady presence. In the second phase the company has to provide all information needed to the architect. In conclusion of this thesis it is highly recommended for building materials manufacturers to address architects in an appropriate way because in the long run it will improve the market position of the company.
Weintouristen haben in deutschen Weinregionen einen besonders großen Einfluss auf die regionale Wirtschaft und sind daher von besonders hoher Bedeutung für diese Regionen. Ziel dieser Arbeit war es die aktuelle Marketingstrategie zur Ansprache der Weintouristen in der Weinregion Rheingau zu analysieren und diese mit den Marketingstrategien zweier konkurrierender nationaler Weinregionen Mosel und Rheinhessen zu vergleichen. Basierend auf diesen Ergebnissen wurden Handlungsempfehlungen für die zukünftige Marketingstrategie der Weinregion Rheingau abgeleitet. Hierfür wurden online zur Verfügung gestellte Informationen der Weinregionen und ihre Kommunikationskanäle analysiert und themenrelevante Studien untersucht. Die Weinregion Rheingau besitzt auch im Vergleich mit den beiden anderen Weinregionen eine robuste Marketingstrategie, die auf die selbst identifizierten Zielgruppen abgestimmt ist. Handlungsbedarf gibt es allerdings bei der Tiefe der Marketingstrategie besonders bezüglich der Zielgruppen und den gebotenen Aktivitäten,
die für diese von Interesse sein könnten. Ebenso wurde die Social Media Plattform LinkedIn als ungenutzte Ressource zur Kommunikation identifiziert.
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.
Es gibt zahlreiche Beweggründe, um sich eine Fremdsprache anzueignen. Eine Herausforderung, vor der viele Sprachlernende dabei stehen, ist oftmals, dass die anfängliche Motivation im Laufe der Zeit verloren geht und dadurch der Antrieb zum Weiterlernen fehlt. Es stellt sich also die Frage, wie die Motivation aufrechterhalten werden kann. Ein Lösungsansatz in diesem Zusammenhang ist der Einsatz von Musik und Liedtexten als Lernmedium. Im Rahmen dieser Bachelorarbeit wird diese Idee aufgegriffen und das Erfolgspotenzial einer digitalen Umsetzung als mobile Sprachlernapplikation bewertet, um dem Risiko eines Misserfolges am Markt entgegenzuwirken. Für diesen Zweck wurde der Prototyp „Singuage“ entwickelt, der die Ausgangslage darstellt. Der Untersuchungsfokus dieser Arbeit liegt auf zwei Grundvoraussetzungen des Markterfolges: Auf der einen Seite wird die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit untersucht. Hierbei werden die Stärken und Schwächen sowie das Preis-Leistungs-Angebot von Konkurrenten analysiert, um Alleinstellungsmerkmale und mögliche Wettbewerbsvorteile zu identifizieren. Auf der anderen Seite werden im Zuge einer Zielgruppensegmentierung, zunächst relevante Zielgruppen bestimmt, deren Bedürfnisse mit dem Nutzen von Singuage am weitesten übereinstimmen. Ob Singuage tatsächlich den Bedürfnissen dieser Zielgruppen ent-spricht und die erforderlichen Vorteile bietet, wird anschließend im Zuge einer empirischen Akzeptanzanalyse überprüft.
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.
The research is the basis for a recommendation for an advantageous positioning of the research sponsor in its business line corporate banking on the issue; the business of sustainability with corporate clients. Simultaneously it gives an impression about the positioning of the research sponsor’s competitors in this business. The research is structured in three research questions; “How do ING WB and its competitors differentiate in their positioning, what are the needs of the clients a corporate bank is serving and how far are the actions of ING WB and of its competitors in consistence with what they are communicating?” The research questions are composed based on a positioning model. The outcome of the research questions provides data needed to formulate the recommendation for ING WB’s positioning. The research is comprised of a comparative analysis based on a desk research and secondary data analysis. The study revealed that the positioning of banks differ slightly from each other. Therefore a good positioning, which can be achieved by taking the outcome of the three research questions into consideration, is advantageous to be able to stand out in a competitive business.
Companies operating in the grocery industry are facing low customer loyalty, resulting in strong customer switching behaviour. Additionally, the high similarity of the products predominantly prevents them from deriving benefits from switching barriers. As these issues represent decisive interfering factors for a sustainable and successful business, we intend to examine possible customer retention strategies, which target an increase in customer loyalty. We aim to identify the most appropriate reward strategy in the context of customer loyalty for direct sellers in the grocery industry.
In order to compare and evaluate different possibilities, we conducted an empirical study. Our study focuses on the concrete case of bofrost*, a representative of direct sellers. A total of about 430 bofrost* customer panel members participated in an online survey. With four different survey versions, four customer groups were influenced by different specific customer retention strategies. After being confronted with unfavourable situations, participants had to state how likely they would recommend the company, intend to stay loyal to the company and abstain from competitive offers.
The survey data reveals no significant differences among the four groups. Therewith, based on the study results, we cannot diagnose the best strategy. Nevertheless, based on the theory of cognitive dissonance, we highly recommend bofrost* and other direct sellers to surprise the customer with a present, namely with a T-shirt, discreetly embroidered with the company logo. Furthermore, this research highlights the specific potential of direct sellers - especially in the grocery industry - to reinforce relational switching costs by implementing this suggested customer retention strategy. Thereby, companies can strengthen customer loyalty in the long-term and are able to prevent customers from churning. Moreover, company-specific recommendations of action are provided to bofrost*.
This research creates value to direct sellers, specifically of the grocery industry, by offering a foundation for decisionmaking regarding the design of a sustainably effective customer retention strategy. This takes companies a step closer to the increase of customer loyalty, which is essential in the light of a highly competitive market in which own customers are likely to get attracted from competitors.
Die vorliegende Arbeit zeigt Herausforderungen im modernen Investitionsgütermarkt auf. Diese werden am Beispiel der KARL STORZ Industrial Group dargestellt, welche Endoskope für industrielle Anwendungen herstellt. Dabei nimmt die applikationsbezogene Vermarktung von Industrieendoskopen eine zentrale Rolle ein. In diesem Kontext wird die zunehmende Bedeutung von industriellen Dienstleistungen und insbesondere von Produktlösungen erläutert. Weiterhin wird der Zusammenhang von Produktlösungen mit modernen Ansätzen im Verkauf analysiert, was den großen Stellenwert von Kunden- und Anwendungswissen erkennen lässt. Dieses Wissen wird durch die Erarbeitung einer Methodik für das Anwendungsgebiet Fahrzeugtechnik und Verkehr systematisch generiert, was gleichzeitig die Basis für ein applikationsbezogenes Produktmarketing und der Generierung von weiterem Kunden- und Anwendungswissen darstellt.
Die Bearbeitung der genannten Thematiken wird auf der Grundlage der Auswertung aktueller Fachliteratur diskutiert. Weiterhin wurden zentrale Erkenntnisse anhand von Vertriebsmitarbeiterinterviews und einer Online-Kundenumfrage gewonnen.
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.
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.
Auswirkungen der Kundensicht im Customer Journey Management auf die Prozesse im B2B-Marketing
(2017)
Die Customer Journey ist die gesamte „Reise“ eines Kunden hin zu einem Produkt oder Service vom ersten Kontakt bis zum Kaufabschluss. Das Customer Journey Management schlägt vor, die gesamte Kaufreise aus Sicht des Kunden zu betrachten um ihm seine Wünsche bestmöglich erfüllen zu können. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es, die Kundensicht auf die Prozesse im Marketing zu untersuchen und daraus optimale Prozessdefinitionen abzuleiten. Aufgrund des Umfangs der Arbeit werden nur die drei Prozesse Content Management, Integriertes Lead Management und Event Management im Detail analysiert. Hierfür werden zehn Experten in qualitativen Interviews befragt und deren Aussagen zum aktuellen Aufbau und der Sicht des Kunden gegenübergestellt. Das Ergebnis der Befragung ist, dass sich das Kundenverhalten durch die Digitalisierung bereits sehr stark verändert hat, Unternehmen hingegen ihre Prozesse häufig noch nicht daran angepasst haben. Mithilfe dieser Ergebnisse werden Best-Practice-Modelle der behandelten Prozesse erstellt, die eine Vorlage für eine Neudefinition der Prozesse bilden.
International terrorist attacks have led to growing concerns of governments, companies and societies and there is barely any other topic which is exploited by the mass media that extensively. Due to security reasons holiday plans are increasingly questioned by private consumers who are scared by the politically motivated violence, which seems to appear everywhere. The following bachelor thesis investigates the impacts of terrorist attacks on the international tourism sector, especially which consequences changing tourist demand has on dependent companies. Furthermore, there is taken a closer look to the crisis management of travel agencies when responding to attacks in certain destinations. Thereby, adjustments of the marketing mix can play an important role for long-term success and competitiveness. Despite the fact that analysing effects of terrorism on economic markets is a well discussed topic, little research is devoted to the implications for the tourism sector and international travel agencies in particular. For this reason, this thesis is based on examining published data and conducted surveys to develop a set of recommendations for travel agencies in case of terrorism in tourist destinations. Nevertheless, further research is recommended to gain a deeper understanding about the effects of security concerns and derived marketing actions on consumer patterns.
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.
Die Abteilung Warranty Handling der MAN Truck & Bus AG strebt eine qualitativ höherwertigere Antragsbearbeitung im Rahmen der Gewährleistungsabwicklung an. Darauf aufbauend gerät das Thema der Kundenzufriedenheit zu einer zentralen Zielgröße für diese Abteilung. Dieses Ziel lässt sich in mehrstufigen Absatzsystemen erschwert steuern, da die Nutzfahrzeughersteller nur selten in direktem Kundenkontakt stehen. Die persönliche Kundeninteraktion findet vermehrt in der Werkstatt statt, insbesondere im Falle von Gewährleistungsreparaturen. In diesem Zusammenhang bestätigt die Wissenschaft, dass von einem positiven Effekt der Händlerzufriedenheit auf die Kundenzufriedenheit ausgegangen werden kann. Die vorliegende Arbeit gibt im ersten Teil einen Überblick über die theoretischen Grundlagen von händler- und kundenzufriedenheitsrelevanten Kriterien im Kundendienst und B2B Geschäftsbeziehungen. Hierbei werden die Strukturen und Beziehungen der Wirtschaftsakteure Hersteller-Händler-Kunde in der Nutzfahrzeugbranche näher betrachtet.
Der zweite Teil beschreibt die praktische Gewährleistungsantragsprüfung der MAN Truck & Bus AG und widmet sich den kundenzufriedenheitsrelevanten Zielen. Anschließend wurden – in Zusammenarbeit mit den nationalen Importeuren – zufriedenheitsrelevante Kriterien der Gewährleistungsabwicklung identifiziert. Aufbauend darauf wurde eine empirische Studie mit 169 Händlern durchgeführt, um mögliche Schwachstellen aufzudecken und diese zu optimieren. Die Umsetzung der Erkenntnisse und Empfehlungen sollen im ersten Schritt die Händlerzufriedenheit positiv beeinflussen und sich somit positiv auf die Zufriedenheit der Kunden auswirken.
After the Second World War and especially in the early 70s a new phenomenon arose – today widely known as globalization. It eliminated barriers and thus increased international competition. Companies such as Siemens, General Electrics and Procter & Gamble were forced to act globally in order to stay competitive and therefore they had to redefine their businesses in a strategic and internationally oriented manner. As one of a company’s most essential departments, human resources was tremendously forced to adapt to the changed business environment. Language skills, cultural awareness and global mobility were only a few new requirements in human resources.
Early in the beginning of globalization, large companies recognized the opportunity to outsource specific departments with the goal of cost-saving and resource bundling. Manufacturing was and still is a predestined department to make use of outsourcing, whereas the situation for other departments including IT, procurement and human resources is more complex. The main fear is losing control to the outsourcing partner. Main departments with a strategic importance for the overall success are therefore only conditionally suitable for outsourcing. Companies need to ask themselves, how much control over their human capital they are willing to sacrifice for saving costs and staying competitive. With the purpose to evade this conflict of objectives, companies seek for a hybrid model, which allowed them maintaining control and cutting costs at the same time.
In the early 70s, first companies found the solution in the Shared Service Center model, which then rapidly spread throughout a number of countries and industries. Human Resources Shared Service Centers can be defined as a hybrid model, combining advantages and avoiding disadvantages of outsourcing and decentralization of Human Resources. The Shared Service Center model is expected to lower costs, improve efficiency and service quality, and enable organizations to better focus on core functions. Although the strategy seems only having advantages, there are many aspects to consider in the pre-implementation phase. Moving to the Shared Service Center model represents an immense strategic project, including high risk, costs and impact on the overall success. For this reason, the project needs to be well planned, designed, implemented, monitored
and evaluated from the right people, at the right time and at the right place. Any small mistakes made during the project might have an unpredictable and irreversible impact and prevent the company from benefiting of the Shared Service Center model or might even force the organization to stop the project completely. Before deciding to implement Shared Service Centers, companies need to accept that there is neither guarantee for success nor a universally valid success strategy. Best and worst practices will be discovered during the transition at the earliest and a success evaluation can only happen in the post-transition phase. Although the Shared Service Center model is not a recent trend as it found first-time application many decades ago, the topic remains relevant as many companies still hesitate implementing this risky strategy. Some organizations succeeded, others failed and returned to their old approach while some are currently in the transition phase.
Before deciding to move to the Shared Service Center model, one of the top pharma company’s was facing the same issues as other companies on such a scale. The management increasingly felt the pressure to offer the same or an even better service quality at a lower price. Changing the strategy and implementing Shared Service Centers across the globe was seen as the most promising solution. The large pharma company with employees of many nationalities worldwide offers a huge variety of cultures, which can be seen as a chance, but also as an obstacle on the way to a successful Shared Service Center implementation. Primarily, the company has to consider that the project might not work in the same pace, quality and method for all countries. Finding best practices for all countries is a desirable goal, yet not easy to achieve.
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.
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.
Brand ambassadors have the power to have a positive influence on how consumers feel and their relationship with the brand. Despite the popularity of brand ambassadors and their effectiveness, a company's employees as brand ambassadors have an ideal and credible impact on consumers and how the brand is perceived.
This bachelor thesis reviews the literature of theoretical and empirical nature to identify how business leaders strengthen the image of their corporate brands the objective is to examine and compare the case of Microsoft Bill Gates and Apples Steve Jobs illustrate how they strengthen their respective brand image.
The results indicate that even though the risk of having CEO’s as ambassadors may tarnish the image of the company in case of unethical behaviors, celebrity CEOs such as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates have a positive impact on their respective companies and strengthen the brand image.
In the quickly developing industry landscape of the organic food market, keeping pace with consumer demands and market growth can be a challenge. Organizations with long histories in the organic market, such as dairy supply cooperatives are facing difficulty to maintain their competitive advantage. These cooperative organizations are unique compared to traditional firms in their committed responsibility to multi-stakeholder value creation and protection as defining measures of successful operations.
The paper investigates what factors and principles could be implemented by a cooperative to establish a consumer retail brand in the organic food market. It also examines the effects of this strategic marketing decision on the relationship between, and outcomes for, several of their stakeholder groups. To balance between narrowing the variables and context, while still providing relevant findings on a national scale, a French organic dairy coop serves as a qualitative case study. In addition, a pool of expert semi-structured interviews was conducted, obtaining real time information applicable to the current case study situation.
The findings supported the development of a consumer retail brand to enhance competitive position in the French organic food market. Beyond organizational competitiveness, these results conclude that a retail brand presence for the cooperative could return synergistic additional value to the cooperative stakeholders, including the business, members and their social and biological environments. Finally, the outcome suggests a reciprocal, reinforcing relationship between a corporate brand strategy and the mission of the organic dairy cooperative case study subject. These findings are partially transferable to other organic cooperatives and add a cooperative organizational perspective to the brand strategy and development academic work.
This research is exploring how companies can create the right brand image through marketing activities and brand management. We will determine all the components needed in luxury goods industry for a successful brand image establishment and how important this is in the luxury industry. We will start by discussing about the important aspects of brands, luxury and the luxury industry leading to a more practical chapter of the brand image creation methods in luxury goods industry with real life examples and finally concluding the brand image being a main ingredient in consumer-based brand equity creation. The conclusion is formulated with Aaker´s (1991) model of brand equity and Keller´s (2013) dimensions of brand knowledge and finally supported by Na et al. (1999) model of brand power.
In recent years, an increasingly technological and digital world, with new opportunities
and communication channels, has seen a power shift between brands and their consumers
in favor of the latter (Hansen et al., 2018). This bachelor's thesis examines the question
of whether there are models that can help companies and their brands to counteract the
change in the power balance while responding to changing consumer behavior.
Method: To answer this question, two models, crowdsourcing, and influencer marketing
were presented, that can also be used in the context of brand management. These were
analyzed from a brand perspective in terms of their possibilities and benefits. In addition,
both were analyzed from the consumer's point of view in terms of their correspondence
with the customers' requirements.
Results: The results show that both crowdsourcing and influencer marketing are suitable
in principle, because they address parts of the new consumer requirements, while at the
same time enabling the brand to act in a more self-determined manner. For a successful
implementation of the models, however, it is essential that there is a strong brand
community that wants to interact with the brand and its partners.
Significance of the results: The results provide some good initial insights into solving the
problem presented, but also clearly point out, that further research is required to better
address the issue of the shifted balance of power between consumers and brands.
Diese Bachelorarbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Markenbildung der eigenen Person. Die Marke ist die Wiedererkennbarkeit, das Alleinstellungsmerkmal einer Firma und gilt als Orientierung für Kunden. Die Wichtigkeit eine Marke als Firma zu haben ist bekannt. Das Konzept der persönlichen Marke ist hingegen bisher relativ unbekannt und das Personal Branding, insbesondere in Deutschland, relativ neu. Sich selbst in der heutigen Arbeitswelt hervorzuheben wird immer wichtiger und zugleich immer schwieriger. Ziel dieser Arbeit ist somit, den Begriff Personal Branding zu erläutern und Gründe zur Motivation zum Aufbau einer eigenen Marke aufzuzeigen. Wie eine Personal Brand entwickelt werden sollte, wird anhand eines Literatur Review sowie eines Best-Practice-Beispiel aufgezeigt, um sich anschließend selbst wettbewerbsfähig am
Markt zu positionieren.
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.
Can the different framing of price promotions decrease consumer value perception and their willingness to pay? Prior research provides evidence of differences in consumer perception of economically equivalent monetary and non-monetary price promotions. In detail, many research works suggest that non-monetary promotions positively affect consumer perception and are therefore preferred over monetary ones that are associated with a drop in quality. Results suggest that this biased consumer behavior is caused by the framing of the promotion, causing difference in cognitive processing and dissimilarities in perception of benefits and product quality. We put this theoretical foundation to the test on the Turkish consumer market of non-durable goods, in order to contrast effects on consumers of the economically equivalent formats ‘50% discount’ as a monetary and ‘buy-one-get-one-free’ as a non-monetary promotion. In particular, the focus was set on analyzing attractiveness perception of the two promotion types and the development of WTP pre- and post-promotion. To achieve this, the non-durable goods rice and antibacterial soap were selected as product stimuli to stage scenarios before, during and after a promotion period. Four sets of questionnaires were shared on social media and distributed to a total of 919 participants via randomization generator. The survey results put forward empirical validation of product-related decrease in value perception as a consequence of both promotion types, namely the ‘promotional effect’. Nevertheless, our data provide no evidence for the ‘framing effect’ in neither attractiveness perception nor post-promotional WTP. This paper aims to bridge the gap on empirical research of key theoretical implications of promotional impact on consumer behavior and to benefit domestic and foreign marketing managers conducting business operations on the Turkish market.
Year after year, global warming, and plastic output increase, and massive volumes of carbon dioxide (CO2) are being released into the atmosphere. Even though humans are aware of their environmental impact, they do struggle to change their behavior. But what is the reason for this?
The purpose of this thesis is to illuminate the factors that make it difficult for people to demonstrate pro-environmental behavior (PEB) and to form ideas from the field of nudging to assist in guiding humans to a better PEB. As a result, a meta-analysis was created from a multitude of papers on the issues of PEB and nudging. The proposals presented in this work serve as an impetus for future studies in the field of PEB nudging.
Challenges and opportunities in building an Eastern European Brand: the Polish fashion market
(2015)
An insight on how domestic eastern European brands can go global The aim of the thesis is to find out how local eastern European brands can grow into international brands. There are already many global brands existing in the current world market. Most of these global brands are from developed countries. There are, however, brands from other countries which have great products. Eastern Europe, for example, has many products that are interesting, are of high quality but unknown to the world. For this reason the author would like to take Polish alcohol industry as an example. He will then look into the challenges and possible solutions of a domestic eastern European brand going global. The thesis first examines 4 big Polish liquor companies that start off unknown to the world. Through the implementation of a series of marketing and brand strategies they are able to become global players. Their product positioning are being looked into, and their marketing campaigns are being analyzed. The challenges that these brands faced before are summarized and possible strategies in coping with them are being suggested.
Understanding how consumers choose between alternatives and how they use the context in doing so is the aim of numerous consumer behaviour studies. The effect of extremeness aversion has been found to be a replicable phenomenon in this field. According to this context effect, alternatives with extreme numerical attributes are less likely to be chosen than the alternative with intermediate attributes in a choice set. A new research direction regarding extremeness aversion considers not only these numerical attributes of a choice set but also the implications of the spatial dimension. Therefore, it has been hypothesized that there could also be a preference for the spatial middle in a choice set. As the phenomenon of extremeness aversion corresponds with decision uncertainty, this research aimed to investigate numerical and spatial extremeness aversion in a product class of high uncertainty and complexity. Thus, consumer preferences regarding the product class of wine were analysed in different choice architectures. Interviews in a wine specialist store and an online survey were conducted with a total number of 924 participants. The study’s results are not consistent over both data collection methods. However, independently of each other, they support the notion that consumer choices may be partly influenced by a preference for the numerical middle option, as well as by a preference for the spatial middle option.
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”.