The role of brand identification in alumni support to their alma mater

Universities around the world are facing global competition and challenges to finance their main functions - research and education. This study focused on the role of graduates, alumni, in the success of a university. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of brand identification in alumni willingness to support their alma mater. The research concentrated on finding out what is the relationship between brand identification and it’s antecedents (prestige, satisfaction, interpretation of brand) to alumni willingness to promote university, participate in university activities and support financially by donating money to university’s research. The research method was quantitative and the data was collected via online survey from 569 alumni of a Finnish university. The findings suggest that there is a strong relationship between brand identification and alumni support. The stronger brand identification is, the more willing alumni were to promote university, participate in university activities and support financially. Based on the research, it is beneficial for universities to invest in brand development in order to get alumni to act as ambassadors of the university after their graduation.

Analyzing and Computing the Sustainability Gains of Building Automation

Smart home implementation in residential buildings promises to optimize energy usage and save significant amount of energy simply due to a better understanding of user's energy usage profile. Apart from the energy optimisation prospects of this technology, it also aims to guarantee occupants significant amount of comfort and remote control over home appliances both at home locations and at remote places. However, smart home investment just like any other kind of investment requires an adequate measurement and justification of the economic gains it could proffer before its realization. These economic gains could differ for different occupants due to their inherent behaviours and tendencies. Thus it is pertinent to investigate the various behaviours and tendencies of occupants in different domain of interests and to measure the value of the energy savings accrued by smart home implementations in these domains of interest in order to justify such economic gains. This thesis investigates two domains of interests (the rented apartment and owned apartment) for primarily two behavioural tendencies (Finland and Germany) obtained from observation and corroborated by conducted interviews to measure the payback time and Return on Investment (ROI) of their smart home implementations. Also, similar measures are obtained for identified Australian use case. The research finding reveals that building automation for the Finnish behavioural tendencies seems to proffers a better ROI and payback time for smart home implementations.

Measuring Effectiveness of Marketing Message: The Role of Verbal, Visual and Brand Elements

The aim of this paper is to study the role of verbal, visual and brand elements while meas-uring effectiveness of marketing message. The thesis is written in the context of mobile gaming industry. The object of the study is marketing message. To achieve the aim, the main research question was formulated: How do the elements of marketing message, such as verbal, visual and brand, affect the consumer’s attitude toward the ad, emotional response and attention capture? The theory development chapter lays on three corner stones – analysis of previous litera-ture on marketing message and its elements, namely verbal, visual and brand; overview of literature on attitude formation and particularly attitude toward the ad. In addition, investiga-tion of key points of emotional response and attention capture literature finalizes the chap-ter. The empirical part consists of experiment, conducted with 27 participants. Experiment includes the self-report semantically anchored scale, measuring the attitude toward the ad, as well as autonomic measures – eye tracking (attention capture) and facial expressions (emotional response). The results of the experiment showed that the size of the brand element – the logo – has an effect on the attention capture and the overall attitude toward the ad. The bigger the logo, the more time people spend viewing it, and they realise the message is more educa-tional and factual. The measure related to the visual element – the visual complexity – in-creases the intensity of participant’s facial expression. While the measure of verbal ele-ment – the contrast between text and background colours – leads to a better attitude to-ward the ad. The higher the contrast between text and background, the more known the message appears to the viewer.

Brand Protection Perspectives

The main focus of this qualitative study is to explore and understand the boundaries of a brand protection program by assessing risks caused directly or indirectly by counterfeiting and finding remedies for treating those risks. 12 of 20 brand protection managers, anti-counterfeiting experts and marketing professors completed anonymously an internet-mediated questionnaire. During this study, a pattern of risk tolerance level within the sample was identified. The empirical results suggest that this pattern influences participants’ risk perception of and attitude towards counterfeiting; these also imply that, in risk treatment, this pattern influences decision- making as well as selection of countermeasures. Further, the results propose that brand equity and reputation are compared to other brand variables more vulnerable to the impact of counterfeiting. In addition, the results obtained in the question whether companies should employ public announcements of counterfeit seizures as an additional brand protection tool were contradictory. Companies were more apprehensive towards this solution than marketing professors. Thus, further investigation on this subject is recommended. This study concludes that as long as the impact of counterfeiting cannot be measured properly, the true damage on a brand or company and their reputation cannot be determined.

THE ROLE OF CULTURAL AWARENESS IN BUILDING CHINESE HEALTH FOOD BRANDS Using Netnography in Searching Cultural Arguments to Be Used for Marketing Health Foods in China

Despite the complexity of the Chinese culture consumer product businesses should apply them in building brands for Chinese markets. There are reasons to believe that cultural values and attitudes affect the buying behavior of Chinese consumers. Companies that wish to create brands in China should therefore be aware of the prevailing cultural values and consumer attitudes. This thesis will examine which values and attitudes mostly affect Chinese consumers of health food products. The study will be done by conducting a netnography. Because netnography is actually a collection methods rather than a single method, other auxiliary methods will also be applied. These methods are emotion, language and sentiment analysis (ELS analysis). Emotion analysis will be conducted because cultural values are mostly built on emotional basis. Sentiment analysis will assist in recognizing the key factors that help to locate values and attitudes. Because the netnography will be conducted in Chinese web forums by a non-native researcher, linguistic aspects should also be analyzed in parallel with emotions and sentiment analysis. The study shows that the Chinese consumers of health food products put much importance on functional, analytical and collectivistic attitudes as well as social and psychological values. Of all the twelve cultural values defined, the role of family rose above all. Also perseverance, frugality, guanxi and harmony were highly presented. The attitudes were found by recognizing certain attitude factors. Of all the factors, health foods’ functional benefits and aesthetic content together with consumers’ value consciousness surpassed other factors. Besides these results that can be applied by foreign health food companies willing to enter Chinese consumer markets, also academia can benefit this new approach for conducting ethnographies online.

Why to invest more in women's football for your brand and your business?

The aim of this master’s thesis is to study the role of sponsorship in the business value of companies and clubs. In order to achieve this goal, the French women’s football context is studied. The main research question is formulated as follows: What is the business value in sport sponsorship? The literature and theory part consists of three chapters that clearly follow the theoretical framework: from the sport sponsorship to the sponsor brand, from the sponsor brand to the brand equity, from the brand equity to the business value. The empirical part of the master’s thesis is based on qualitative research method. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 4 participants who are Sponsorship Manager or General Manager of French women’s football clubs or sponsors and thus considered as specialists of the study context. The results of the study show that the planning process, the objectives, the sponsor brand, the brand equity components such as the customer behaviour, the economic, financial and immaterial values have positive impacts on the business value in sport sponsorship in the French women’s football context.