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In this thesis, the following object was addressed: Is employee advocacy an influential component in the war for talents and customers? This thesis collaborates with the company Ambassify. Firstly, all relevant subjects and information regarding this topic were discussed in a literature review. Based on this, a research strategy was created, including all aspects necessary to answer the research question. In order to gather this data and then answer the research question a quantitative study, more precisely an online survey was conducted.
The aim of this research is to explore social media platform TikTok and how it can be used as a marketing opportunity for brands but at the same time be a challenge for others. A qualitative study has been conducted due to the subjective nature of the topic, as well as a qualitative survey to get better insights of TikTok users’ behaviour. To analyse the data, a content analysis of 4 brands over the time frame of 3 months 01.06.2022 to 25.08.22 has been conducted. The findings can offer researchers and marketers better insights about if and how to implement TikTok into a marketing strategy of a company.
Concerns about mental health and the declining rate of body satisfaction have increased interest in topics such as diversity, body positivity, and inclusion in recent years. Thus, the suggestion is that companies can communicate deep meanings through advertising images and strengthen their brand identity. This bachelor thesis proposes the application of two theoretical frameworks: Esch’s "Brand Steering Wheel" for identifying the brand identity, and the framework of “Visual Grammar” for analyzing images in advertising. The aim is to find out if diversity in advertising can improve brand identity.
Firstly, this work intends to offer an overall understanding of advertising, brand identity, and multimodality. For this, previous academic literature is used to establish a theoretical basis for understanding. Secondly, certain problems that lack inclusion in traditional advertising are analyzed. Thirdly, with the help of the theoretical framework, the brand identity is analyzed using the brand steering wheel. Additionally, Kress and van Leeuwen’s framework of visual grammar is used to examine images for their meaning.
The findings indicate that there is significant theoretical and practical evidence to suggest that the application of diversity in advertising campaigns would be an effective strategy to build a strong brand identity. The identities and relationships indicated in the photos between viewers and models represent desired attributes that may be identified with the advertiser's products. The brand may be picked if the viewers see that it is correctly represented.
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.
The aim of this thesis is to answer the question of how consumers can be influenced by influencers to purchase sustainable fashion. To this end, the following research question was posed: How do social media influencers influence consumers' attitudes, awareness, and purchase intentions toward sustainable fashion? In order to answer the research question, the main terms of the work were defined and explained. Through the use of multiple examples, sustainable influencers with different reach were analyzed. The results of this work showed that followers can be influenced to buy sustainable fashion by influencers on Instagram. Companies see influencer marketing as a high opportunity to achieve their business goals such as brand awareness and increasing sales. Based on this, it is recommendable to use influencers as a corporate strategy to raise awareness of sustainable fashion brands. In this way, sustainable companies can reach different target groups.
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.
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.
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.
Young wine consumers are becoming increasingly important for the wine industry, but also represent a challenge for wine businesses as their consumer behavior and attitude towards wine differs from other generations. This relative new group of wine consumers shows a comparatively low level of wine knowledge, while focusing wine choice criteria rather on different attributes, namely wine bottle optics, including label and bottle optic in general. Being aware of wine consumers choice criteria and its implications is crucial for wine marketers to successfully attract their potential customers. The presented thesis uses grounded theory to determine how the choice criteria of wine bottle optic influences the choice criteria of taste, in Gen Z wine consumers. For this purpose, a group of ten Gen Z wine consumers took part in a qualitative experiment, including pre- and post-test interviews, to determine attitude and behavior of participants concerning the wine choice criteria of taste and wine bottle optic. The findings of the study suggest that the choice criteria of wine bottle optic can overrule the importance of the wines actual taste in the decision process of wines. Furthermore, insights into the participants awareness of their own choice criteria, the influence of cognitive dissonance on the topic, as well as general attitude towards wine, such as the low level of knowledge and the preference for wine consumption in social context, could be generated.
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.
The market for foods and beverages is one of the largest worldwide. Thus, there is a lot of interest in understanding and predicting consumer behavior. Two subjects that have gained attention recently in the food sector are perceived naturalness and high-tech eco-innovations like cultured meat. This work addresses how the preference for natural products and the inference of product attributes via perceived naturalness causes problems for novel technological food products. By reviewing existing literature following questions will be answered: (1) What do most people assume about the health, taste, sustainability, and safety of food products based on perceived naturalness? (2) How is the public acceptance of high-tech food eco-innovations influenced by a lack of perceived naturalness? (3) How can these challenges be addressed by food businesses? It will first be determined what natural means for customers and how it influences food choices in general. The main findings based on the currently available market research are consumers do not desire to consume any highly unnatural foods including technological eco-innovations and it might be more efficient in terms of sustainability gains and customer needs to commit resources to developing existing products or eco-innovations that are perceived to be natural.
This research thesis examines affiliate review’s role in the relationship between direct-to-consumers (D2C) brands and consumers. Three D2C brands were selected as case companies for the multiple-case study. Seventy-five affiliate reviews were analysed, out of which fifteen were analysed in-depth. Additionally, a share of voice analysis was performed to establish the market share of each case company. The research has shown that affiliate reviews play a dual role as recommenders and sellers, which D2C brands use to achieve competitive advantage. However, the dual role is created at the expense of review quality, which is low.
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.
In two experiments, this empirical research examines consumers’ willingness to pay and the likelihood of purchase decisions by thoroughly investigating the neural, behavioral, and psychological properties of packaging design. A general theory is tested by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a NeuroPricing online survey on consumer behavior using the example product Tassimo. Hypotheses are tested with 592 German consumers who evaluated the packaging of Tassimo coffee. A closer look at the neural data from the brain imaging experiment shows that uncertainty can arise among consumers with regard to sustainable packaging and this can have a negative impact on the purchase decision and willingness to pay. The results from both experiments show that it is not possible to make a holistic statement as to which sustainable or enjoyment-focused packaging design increases the likelihood of a purchase decision or the willingness to pay. Implications for future packaging design research and underlying complexities with sustainable packaging are discussed.
Growing environmental awareness, especially among young generations, is reflected in the willingness to accept price premiums for sustainable and recyclable products. In recent years, marketers have focused on reinforcing consumers’ attention and interest in green goods by increasing the effectiveness of various sustainability information on product packaging.
In this thesis, an analysis of variance (ANOVA) investigated the effect of visual and verbal recycling claims on product packaging upon the willingness to pay (WTP). Although findings showed no changes in WTP related to a visual claim, the presence of a verbal claim positively impacted the WTP in two of four cases. Further, significant interactions between the two factors were detected. The results suggest that students considered an imagery seal irrelevant during product evaluation, whilst communicating recycling information with a textual message or with a conjunction of both claims showed a tendency to improve price-value perception. However, results for the verbal and interaction effects showed variations across products. Therefore, one may not draw unequivocal assumptions from the findings of this study without research replication on a larger scale.
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.
Frugality has become a prerequisite for success in a low-resource environment, a reality exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. When it comes to consumer needs, the priorities affordability and functionality are increasingly coming into focus. This study examines how frugal products are performing in developed markets, whether they meet consumer needs, and ultimately if there is a demand for these products.
The aim of this paper is to assess the status of Frugal Innovation (FI) in developed markets, using Germany as an example, and thus consumer behavior, in order to better evaluate the current status and related potentials based on this. The link between FI and environmental and social sustainability can be traced back to and limited to the minimal use of resources. Against the backdrop of the current economic and political situation, these factors represent one of the most significant competitive advantages of today.
This multi-method experiment helps to understand the consumer behavior towards frugal products as well as the opinions and attitude towards it. As a result, it can be said that there is interest in innovation in general as well as FI. The respective buying decisions were balanced, what means that frugal products do not necessarily outperform non-frugal ones, but they are in strong competition. It can be concluded that there will be an increasing demand for frugal products in developed markets such as Germany, especially for certain product categories.
Today, in an increasingly digitalized world, the Internet and social media allow for connection on a global scale. Companies utilize social media for their business-to consumer and business-to-business marketing activities.
This paper focuses on establishing a LinkedIn strategy development process in business to-business social media marketing for the AMOS Sport Business School in Strasbourg, which is seeking new partnerships with partners from the German sport industry, who will bring added value to the school.
To answer the research questions, interviews were conducted with six experts who either came from the business-to business marketing sector or worked at or on behalf of LinkedIn. Based on the interviews, the focus was on determining key components for a LinkedIn strategy. The results highlighted four reasons for choosing LinkedIn: the presence of a national and global target group, the seriousness of the content and users, the importance of LinkedIn presence for company marketing, and LinkedIn’s use as a recruitment tool. Seven key components of a LinkedIn strategy were identified: “definition of goals,” “target group identification,” “adaptability and agility,” “content creation approach,” “employees’ integration,” “LinkedIn monitoring,” and “LinkedIn algorithm.” Special attention must be paid to the fourth, fifth, and seventh components, which can influence each other. The research made it possible to determine how to develop the strategy successfully by paying particular attention to LinkedIn’s algorithm, which can be “artificially” influenced by employees’ LinkedIn engagement activities, thereby resulting in a more successful strategy. Such a chain reaction can be initiated at the content creation stage by observing the eight elements of “content creation approach”: “generation of a high level of engagement with published content,” “language,” “relevant and authentic message,” “up-to-date content,” “hashtags,” “time and frequency,” “selection of the appropriate type of content,” and “content distribution plan.”
An AMOS Strasbourg LinkedIn strategy was developed, along with recommendations for action for each component. Investment in the sales navigator was highlighted, as it facilitates target group identification and therefore provides a higher guarantee of success for the LinkedIn strategy when used in conjunction with the other key components. The strategy’s organization and implementation was accompanied by a content guideline and content distribution plan so that AMOS Strasbourg’s strategy can achieve positive results.
The Impact of Using Sustainability Labels in Advertisements of Fashion Brands on Social Media
(2022)
This thesis investigates the impact of sustainability labels in advertisements of fashion brands on social media. It aims to answering the following research questions: Do consumers search for more information on sustainability labels? Do sustainability labels impact credibility? Do sustainability labels impact purchase decisions? To answer the research questions an online survey with 202 participants was conducted. The empirical study revealed that consumers tend to search for less additional information when a sustainability label is displayed in an advertisement on social media. Few consumers believe that brands are fully sustainable when sustainability claims in an advertisement are not supported by a sustainability label. The display of a sustainability label may not be one of the most important factors for consumers considering purchasing fashion items. Those results suggest that brands should use sustainability labels as an important tool in advertising on social media to fill the informational need of consumers and increase credibility.
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.
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.
Prior research found extremeness aversion effects to be common and robust. Nevertheless, most research neglected the spatial arrangement's influence on a consumer's choice and placed the compromise option of a choice set simultaneously in the spatial middle. Following these findings, five bachelor theses were conducted to investigate both aspects by analyzing numerical and spatial choice architectures – their data comprised three online surveys and three field experiments. This study aimed to compare their findings and analyze their data sets to search for overarching effects. Therefore, we hypothesized that there is either information-format compatibility or a general tendency towards the spatial middle of a choice set. To research this hypothesis, we brought the data sets into a comparable format, analyzed our findings, and conducted t-tests to test for statistical significance. Even though the study could not find overarching effects across the data, it supports the notion that a choice set's spatial arrangement, like the numerical one, can influence consumer behavior. Furthermore, it led to valuable insights for future research approaches concerning expanding extremeness aversion into a spatial dimension.
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.
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.
As prerequisite to final graduation of my master in international business management MBA at Business School, Hochschule Furtwangen University, I conducted this Thesis but also as a practical business case that match with the nature of my master’s focus of international business and could be used in real life.
I put myself as a member of project’s managing team for a pharmaceutical company, this team as a part of strategic decision-making process is responsible about assessing different potential international markets and segments as a part of the company plan to expand their operations, tape and penetrate new markets.
Narrowing down the options to two geographic markets (Germany & Saudi Arabia) and two pharmaceutical segments (Diabetes& OTC), starting this assessment with macro analysis (PESTEL) of Germany and Saudi Arabia followed by micro analysis (Porter’s five forces) of the pharmaceutical industry in the two markets of concern, having more in depth review of the two potential segments in each individual market then head to head attractiveness comparative analysis of the two potential segments in the two potential countries showing the pros and cons for each of the potential available opportunities and finally reach a conclusion to solve this business scenario.
In order to satisfy both scientific research basis and business need I utilized Data from both peer reviewed articles, reports from highly trusted international institutions and organizations for their data accuracy and few theoretical books.
Limitation of this paper: taking in consideration that some relevant data i.e., regarding specific market profitability are not accessible due to either company’s confidential policies or data consolidation for example the financial statements of Bayer, the pharmaceutical company shows consolidated data combining Europe and middle east allowing no possibility(for outsider) to directly compare profitability of each specific country, here in our research Germany and Saudi Arabia, also I tried my best to use the most recent accessible data , but some of the most updated relevant data is out of my reach either due to confidentiality or it is paid data that requires funding resources not available in my case as I am doing this Thesis independently not in partnership with a company, these limitations might to some degree affect the precision of the final conclusion.