The influence of the visual elements of cover design on the appeal of art and cultural magazines: case study is book fare in Oulu

Design of magazines - a complex and time-consuming process, often requiring custom solutions. Developers need to know what impact on the visual component of information influence on the audience. The purpose of this case is to gain an understanding of what kind of visual elements of paper media influence on the choice of viewer. As a particular type of magazine were chosen art and cultural magazine with a reason to narrow research and to get depth knowledge about this topic. The study is structured that in the first chapter the information about purpose and research questions is provided. Second chapter describes research materials and methodology that were used to collect data. The third chapter gives the literature review that focus subjects of the study. In the chapters four, the results of the research is analysed and conclusions are made. After all chapters made generalised conclusion using data from the literature review and data collected from the interviews

Taking your values shopping: Conversations about values and fulfilment: Dialogue and engagement with customer stakeholders in the body shop, Western Australia

The specific contribution to this field of study is about customer \u27engagement\u27, their values and fulfilment. In this research we wanted to have a conversation with customers of The Body Shop Australia (TBS) about taking their values shopping. We found that TBS customers were remarkably clear and passionate about their own personal values and had no trouble expressing them in a conversation with us. Customer stakeholders in this research expressed values that were \u27postmaterialist\u27, concerned with the environmentally human choice and self -expression, gave importance to belonging among family and friends and showed a marked lack of trust in global or large businesses..

Internal brand identification as metamorphic glue in the internal branding process within a retailer network

The growth of collaborative independent retail networks (CIRN’s) has been a significant response by independents to the growing power of retailer multiples. These networks vary in nature and structure, but share a common objective of improved competitiveness through more effective buying, pooled marketing and/or national brand recognition. At a minimum, these networks have enabled independent retailers to achieve a relative degree of competitive parity with multiples, through participation in strategic brand building. Consequently, there is a need for a greater understanding of key issues relating to building independent store brands through collaborative networks. This research aims to better understand the internal branding process within CIRNs, a relatively unexplored area of both the corporate branding, retail and organisational studies literatures. It focuses on one antecedent of internal brand commitment, namely brand identity, interpreted as the metamorphic glue in the internal branding process, using a multiple case methodology. Findings indicated a perception of shared values, shared goals, common branding challenges and strategic fit with the network brand that was key to the level of internal brand identification, but it was the level of social identification among owner-managers that provided fertile ground for internal brand commitment to develop

The influence of inter-firm relationships and routines on service development: a study of Taiwanese convenient stores

This thesis examines how inter-firm relationships and routines influence the process and outcomes of new service development (NSD). The research questions addressed are: 1) How do inter-firm relationships and routines influence the speed of NSD? and 2) In what ways do the different types of service development affect inter-firm relationships and organisational routines associated with the speed of NSD? Prior research has emphasized the importance of cooperating with other organizations to exploit external sources of knowledge and capabilities, but relatively little is known about the specific mechanisms to achieve this and how these affect the outcomes of new service development. This research contributes to the literature on new service development and innovation networks. The research design consists of comparative case studies and draws on empirical evidence from the development of two contrasting e-commerce services in the four dominant Taiwanese convenience store chains. In total 52 interviews were conducted with members of staff of convenience store chains and suppliers. The interviews were analyzed using the thematic framework approach, which represents the patterns and relationships in the interview data. Cross-case synthesis was chosen as the analytical technique to summarize the findings from the individual cases. The present study found that trust and interdependence have positive influence on the speed of NSD. Intensity of inter-firm collaboration has a negative effect on the speed of NSD under some circumstances (e.g. task complexity and project newness). Moreover, the relationship between organizational routines for knowledge transfer and the speed of NSD may vary under different degrees of project newness. The thesis demonstrates the interaction of organizational and project level characteristics in new service development, and the multi-dimensional nature of service development compared to that of conventional product development

Twittering to the top: a content analysis of corporate tweets to measure organization-public relationships

Corporations worldwide are realizing the potential to build relationships with publics using social media. The microblogging site, Twitter, has transformed from a platform in which people merely update the Twitterverse about their daily activities to a communication channel where interpersonal conversations between millions of users thrive. As public relations practitioners, it is important to utilize new media to reach out to publics in order to build mutually beneficial relationships. This study examines how 47 corporations use Twitter as a communication and relationship-building tool and works towards developing guidelines for practitioners on using and evaluating their communication efforts on Twitter. Grounded in Grunig’s four models of public relations, Hon and Grunig’s (1999) relationship indicators, and theories of interactivity, this thesis utilized a content analysis to investigate corporate use of Twitter as a means of communication. This study analyzed 47 corporations’ Twitter homepages (n = 94) and tweets (n = 1,577) during a one-week sampling period. This research is important because companies dedicate time and resources to communicate with publics through Twitter. Not only do public relations practitioners need to know how to effectively utilize this medium, but they also need to be able to demonstrate to corporations their return on investment. The data show that 44.4% of the tweets follow the two-way symmetrical model of public relations, and 63.3% of the corporate tweets demonstrated a desire on behalf of the corporations to form communal relationships with users. In addition, trust and control mutuality were the most common relationship indicators used. Finally, the data reveal that corporations post higher interactive tweets, utilizing the “at reply” function to converse with publics. While these results reflect the tweets as a whole, when analyzing individual companies, many are not following commonly accepted relationship building and communication strategies. The first study of its kind, this thesis illustrates how corporations are using Twitter as a communication and relationship-building tool. This study concludes with implications of using Twitter and how public relations practitioners can effectively use Twitter for developing and maintaining long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with publics

Volume 5, 2011

What to look for in this issue... New Location and One-Stop-Shop p.1 Map to New Office p.3 Meet the Team! p.4 Awards p.5 Did you know? p.7 Presentations, Publications, Exhibitions and Performances p.8 Upcoming Workshops p.15 New Office of Student Research p.16 Contact Information p.1

Public relations via Twitter : an analysis of South African commercial organisations

Background: As more people are using mobile phones to receive and read news, Twitter has become a popular communication tool, particularly for commercial brands in South Africa. This thesis investigates twelve South African organisations’ use of Twitter. It portrays Twitter as an informational network that allows conversational communication. It seeks to identify how commercial brands in South Africa use Twitter as a public relations/communication tool. Aim and Objective: In attempt to learn whether current South African tweets among certain organisations follow Western practices of public relations, the study aims to understand and identify how commercial brands in South Africa communicate with their publics through Twitter. Revealing the content of these organisations’ tweets facilitated the fulfilment of this objective