JÖNKÖP I NG INT ERNA T I ONAL BU S INE S S SCHOOL JÖNKÖPING UNIVERSITY

Per fec t c reat ion fo r a w in-win

s i tua t ion

F o u r c a s e s t u d i e s o f c o r p o r a t e e v e n t s

Bachelor Thesis within Business Administration

Authors: Anna Gustafsson 830129

Kristin Svenhed 830921

Supervisors: Olga Sasinovskaya

Maya Paskaleva

Jönköping: January 2008

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all interviewees for their great contribution to the thesis. Their knowledge and expertise inspired us and enabled us to find the answers for the purpose of the thesis. Without their input this thesis would not have been possible to carry out.

The authors would also like to thank Olga Sasinovskaya and Maya Paskaleva as well as fel-low students who have given us feedback and guidance throughout the process of writing the thesis.

Anna Gustafsson Kristin Svenhed

Jönköping International Business School, January 2008

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Bachelor thesis within Business Administration

Title: Perfect creation for a win-win situation Four case studies of corporate events Authors: Anna Gustafsson & Kristin Svenhed

Tutor: Maya Paskaleva & Olga Sasinovskaya

Date: January 2008

Subject terms: Event marketing, motivation, marketing communication, relationship marketing

Abstract

It is becoming increasingly difficult, although very important, for companies to reach out to its customers and differentiate themselves in the market place. The main reason is that the competition is extremely intensified and customers can quite easily switch between suppliers. Focusing on relations is a way for companies to overcome some obstacles of competition that is evident in today’s market place. One way for companies to reach its customers, strengthen the relation, and meet them face-to-face is to create events. How-ever, finding the target group and motivating individuals to attend events is an important issue for the companies arranging events. There has to be a match between what the com-pany arranging the event want to communicate and what the invited individual expects to gain out of attending the event. It is further important to direct the event towards certain individuals and also to make sure that the invited people actually attend the event.

The purpose of the thesis is to explore how companies can arrange meaningful events to a targeted audience and examine what factors motivates the individuals to actually attend these events.

An inductive approach is mainly used since it allows for flexible structure where empirical data is collected and before applying appropriate theoretical framework. The authors have further chose to collect data in a qualitative manner as this allows for open ended inter-views which can generate in deeper understanding of the reasons for individuals to attend corporate events. The primary data was based on interviews related to four corporate events previously taking place.

The authors found that there are numerous reasons for creating corporate events mainly because events are a platform that naturally integrates many marketing activities. When tar-geting individuals a personal contact can increase the likelihood that the invited people will attend an event. The reason is that through direct communication a person has the oppor-tunity to tailor the invitation by explaining the reasons for why this particular person should find the event important and interesting to attend. Corporate events should offer valuable information for the attendees otherwise there is risk that invited individuals will not attend an event. Individuals attend events for the purpose of interacting with represen-tatives from the arranging company as well as people from other attending companies. It can be concluded that a corporate event should be work related in some how and include new information and/or offer networking possibilities.

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Kandidatuppsats inom marknadsföring

Titel: Perfekt skapande för en win-win situation Fyra fallstudier av företagsevent Författare: Anna Gustafsson & Kristin Svenhed

Handledare: Maya Paskaleva & Olga Sasinovskaya

Datum: Januari 2008

Ämnesord: Event marketing, motivation, marketing communication, relationship marketing

Sammanfattning

Det blir allt svårare, men ständigt mer viktigt, för företag att nå ut till sina kunder och diffe-rentiera sig på marknaden. Den främsta anledningen är att konkurrensen är mycket intensiv och det är förhållandevis enkelt för kunder att byta leverantörer. Genom att fokusera på re-lationer kan företag övervinna några av de konkurrenshinder som är påtagliga på dagsläget. Genom skapande av events kan företag nå sina kunder, möta dem öga mot öga och där-med stärka relationen till dem. För att lyckas med detta är det viktigt för företag att hitta de tilltänkta målgrupperna och motivera individer till att bli intresserade och faktiskt besöka eventet. Det är viktigt att anpassa ett företags motiv för skapandet av ett event men det som de inbjudna individerna förväntar sig få ut av att besöka eventet. Det är vidare viktigt att ett event riktas mot de tilltänkta individerna och för ett företag att se till att de inbjudna verkligen besöker eventet.

Uppsatsen syftar till att undersöka hur företag kan arrangera meningsfulla events för en till-tänkt målgrupp och ta reda på vilka faktorer som motiverar individer att faktiskt besöka dessa events.

Ett induktivt tillvägagångssätt används till största delen i uppsatsen eftersom det är tillåter en flexibel struktur där författarna utgår från empirisk data för att sedan hitta lämplig teori. Författarna har även valt att använda kvalitativ data eftersom det möjliggör öppna intervju-er som kan ge djupare inblick i hur företagsevent kan skapa mervärde för ett företag och dess besökare och förståelse för de inbjudnas motivationsfaktorer. Primär data baserades på intervjuer med individer relaterade till fyra olika företagsevent som tidigare ägt rum.

Studien visar att företag har många olika skäl till att arrangera events och den främsta orsa-ken till detta är att events är ett forum som integrerar flera marknadsföringsaktiviteter på ett naturligt och ofrånkomligt sätt. När ett företag marknadsför ett event till en tilltänkt målgrupp kan personlig direktkontakt öka sannolikheten att de inbjudna kommer att besö-ka eventet. Anledningen till detta är att direktkommunikation ger ett företag möjligheten att skräddarsy inbjudan genom att förklara varför just denna individ bör besöka eventet och varför det bör vara viktigt för denne. Ett företagsevent bör erbjuda besökande individer värdefull information, i annat fall riskerar företaget att många individer inte kommer priori-tera just detta event. Individer besöker företagsevent i syftet att integrera med representan-ter från det arrangerande företaget och individer från andra besökande företag. Studien vi-sar att företagsevent bör vara arbetsrelaterade i dess utformning och erbjuda intressant in-formation och/eller erbjuda integrationsmöjligheter.

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Table of Contents

1 Introduction............................................................................... 1

1.1 Background ............................................................................................1

1.2 Problem discussion ................................................................................2

1.3 Purpose ..................................................................................................2

1.4 Delimitations...........................................................................................2

2 Frame of References ................................................................ 4

2.1 Relationship marketing...........................................................................4

2.2 Event Marketing .....................................................................................4

2.2.1 Why Event marketing .............................................................................6

2.3 Attracting customers...............................................................................7

2.4 Communication ......................................................................................8

2.5 Platform for interaction & integration ....................................................10

2.5.1 The Message........................................................................................10

2.5.2 The Meeting .........................................................................................11

2.5.3 The Experience ....................................................................................12

2.5.4 Integration ............................................................................................12

2.5.5 Interaction.............................................................................................13

2.6 Motivation .............................................................................................14

2.6.1 Extrinsic and Intrinsic motivation ..........................................................14

2.6.2 Expectancy Theory...............................................................................15

3 Method..................................................................................... 16

3.1 Research approach/strategy ................................................................16

3.2 Qualitative & Quantitative data .............................................................16

3.3 Data Collection .....................................................................................17

3.3.1 Interviews .............................................................................................18

3.4 Data Processing & Analysis Interpretation ...........................................19

3.5 Validity & Reliability ..............................................................................19

4 Empirical data ......................................................................... 21

4.1 SAP ......................................................................................................21

4.1.1 FKOM - Asia Pacific Field Kick-Off Meeting .........................................21

4.1.2 Attracting visitors ..................................................................................22

4.1.3 SAP Customer interviews.....................................................................23

4.2 Swedish Match .....................................................................................24

4.2.1 Generalgolfen.......................................................................................24

4.2.2 Attracting visitors ..................................................................................25

4.2.3 Swedish Match Customer Interviews....................................................27

4.3 SAPA....................................................................................................28

4.3.1 Hockey Night at Kinnarps Arena ..........................................................29

4.3.2 Attracting Visitors..................................................................................30

4.3.3 SAPA Customer Interviews ..................................................................31

4.4 Chevrolet ..............................................................................................32

4.4.1 Corporate event at WTCC....................................................................33

4.4.2 Attracting visitors ..................................................................................33

4.4.3 Chevrolet Customer Interviews ............................................................34

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5 Analysis ................................................................................... 36

5.1 Defining the cases................................................................................36

5.2 Reasons for arranging the events.........................................................36

5.3 Attracting visitors ..................................................................................37

5.3.1 The importance of targeting..................................................................37

5.3.2 Delivering the message ........................................................................38

5.3.3 The meeting .........................................................................................40

5.3.4 Creating an experience ........................................................................41

5.4 Motivation factors .................................................................................42

6 Conclusion .............................................................................. 45

7 Critique of chosen method..................................................... 47

8 Further Research .................................................................... 47

9 Reference List ......................................................................... 48

Figures

Figure 1 Event purposes (Holm & Karlsson, 2001) ............................................ 7 Figure 2 Communication process (Shimp, 2003) ............................................... 9 Figure 3 Communication interaction model (Maat, 2004)................................. 10 Figure 4 (Behrer & Larsson, 1998)................................................................... 10

Appendix

Company interviews…………….…………………………………………………...51

Customer interviews…………………………………………………………………52

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1 Introduction

_____________________________________________________________________

The following section will firstly introduce the reader to the broader context of the research area in order to understand how the authors encountered the problems associated with the area of interest. The background and problem sections will be followed by a presentation of the purpose of the thesis and the research questions that will guide the authors throughout the process of writing the thesis. _____________________________________________________________________

1.1 Background

In today’s society the importance of applying an efficient and cost focused marketing mix has increase due to intensified competition and globalisation. Companies have to work hard in order to find and keep customers as it is becoming easier for those to switch be-tween suppliers who offer similar products. Due to these changes in the environment, companies respond by trying to discover new channels to communicate and market them-selves. Establish and develop relationships can work as a marketing strategy helping them differentiate and lock in customers (Gummesson, 2002).

The concept of relationship marketing has been developed as more companies focus on strengthening the relation towards customers (Rain Today, 2007). According to Gummes-son (2002) relationship marketing is marketing which puts relations, networks, and interac-tion in focus. Relationship marketing can thereby assist companies to overcome obstacles that a traditional competitive strategy no longer can support with.

One marketing and communication tool commonly used for the purpose of strengthening relations is event marketing. Event marketing focuses on involving the customer, to be able to create interaction between the customer and the company in order to eventually create a long-term relationship between the two parts (Bergh, Lindgren, Anderson, 2004). One great advantage of event marketing is that an event can work as a tool for communication and interaction between companies and their customers (Behrer & Larsson, 1998).

To gain insight in the field of event marketing as a relationship building marketing tool the authors spoke with professionals within the area whom helped in the process of narrowing down the purpose of the thesis. Ulf Lesley, Strategic Director at Unify, which is a B2B event company, firstly inspired the authors. The choice to contact Unify was based on thoughts that it would give the authors an insight into how companies use corporate events and why. It was especially interesting since Unify work towards other businesses and not B2C markets. Evert Gummesson, professor at the University of Stockholm also gave the authors some interesting insights as he is specialized in relationship marketing. The overall aim with these meetings was to gain inspiration and an up-to-date insight into what is working today when it comes to relationship marketing, and more specifically event mar-keting. After speaking with professionals the authors chose to focus on an evident problem that is to arrange events that will attract the targeted group.

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1.2 Problem discussion

As can be understood from the previous background section, customer relationships are becoming increasingly important for companies in order for them to differentiate them-selves (Gummesson, 2002). Event marketing is one tool that can be used in doing so.

Today’s great amount of exposure to marketing activities makes it difficult for individuals to select and distinguish what actually is worth remembering and paying attention to. Com-pany personnel are getting an increasing numbers of invitations to various events and due to time constraints they need to be selective in deciding which events to actually attend. Thus, one of the major challenges for the company hosting the event is to create an event which actually makes people attend it: and communicate the features that make the invited person book the time in his or her calendar and then actually go there (U. Lesley, Personal communication, 2007-10-03). Carroll (2006) agrees and states that it is more difficult than ever to attract people to live events. From the attendees perspective it is essential for them to attend the events that gives them most utility. There has to be a match between what the company arranging the event want to communicate and what the invited individual expects to gain out of attending the event (U. Lesley, Personal communication, 2007-10-03). According to Nicholson & Pearcon (2001) the research in event motivation is important since it is a guide in how events can be designed to make the attendees satisfied by offering better products and service. They con-sider the issue concerning if different events attract visitors with different motives or if people are motivated by similar motivation factors no matter the kind of event. Conclusively it is important for companies to create a corporate event with a clear purpose and direct it towards the targeted groups or individuals. It is not only crucial to direct the event towards certain people but also ensure that these people actually attend the event.

1.3 Purpose

The purpose of the thesis is to explore how companies can arrange meaningful events to a targeted audience and examine what factors motivates the individuals to actually attend these events.

Meaningful in this sense means that the event should be valuable to both the arranging company and the attendees. The authors hope the results can serve companies when creat-ing corporate events in realizing which aspects the prospected guests value the most.

The following research questions will further guide the authors through the process of writing the thesis.

- What are the main reasons for arranging a corporate event?

- What should a corporate event offer in order for it to attract the targeted group?

- What are the major motives when deciding to attend a corporate event?

1.4 Delimitations

The authors of the thesis intend to focus on events arranged by large organisations operat-ing in business-to-business (B2B) markets. This angle is chosen as large organisations use events continuously and has business sections focusing exclusively on event marketing. This enables the authors to gain information from employees with valuable knowledge

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within the area of interest. The reason for examining organizations in B2B markets is be-cause corporate events commonly invites individuals who frequently choose whether or not to attend events and consider many different factors when considering to attend a cer-tain event. Their motives for attending events seem to be complex and certain individuals’ attendants can be very important to the arranging company.

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2 Frame of References

In order to assess the problem in best possible way, there is a need to use theories from different research ar-eas. The main focus of the theory will be connected to event marketing and motivation. Relationship market-ing and communication literature will be a complement to the field mentioned as they provide basic models in marketing. The theory is chosen on the criteria that it will be relevant and a base for the analysis. __________________________________________________________________

2.1 Relationship marketing

The authors will briefly explain the concept of relationship marketing since events is a tool commonly is used in the context of this marketing area. The link between relationship marketing and events will be described in order to understand how events can contribute in achieving the goals of relationship marketing.

Relationship marketing focuses on building long-term and profitable relationships between a company and its stakeholders (Maat, 2004). According to Gummesson (2002) relation-ship marketing is “marketing which puts relations, networks, and interaction in centre.” Re-lationship marketing can offer companies possibilities to develop long-term relations and thereby lower costs that in turn increase a company’s productivity. Another definition of relationship marketing is: “How we: find you; get to know you; keep in touch with you, try to ensure you that you get what you want from us in every aspect of our dealings with you; check you are getting what we promised you, subject of course, to it being worthwhile to us as well” (Maat, 2004). These definitions and statements concerning relationship marketing indicate a win-win situation between a company and its stakeholders. Relationship market-ing is personal and thus directed towards each and every customer individually and requires a lot of effort and resources from the both parties involved. In the process of establishing the mutually beneficial relation mentioned above, event communication has an important role (Maat, 2004). Event Marketing can be explained as a medium used within the frames of relationship marketing as well as a tool for integration of companies traditional market-ing tools. It involves sales promotion, personal selling, direct marketing, advertisement, and PR. Relationship marketing focus on relationships, interaction and networks which is closely related to events where the purpose is to actively engage the attendees and create a platform for interaction (Behrer & Larsson, 1998).

2.2 Event Marketing

In order to understand the nature of events and event marketing the authors will firstly provide a few defini-tions followed by further explanation of the practical use and the reasons for companies to use events.

A. Shone and B. Parry (2001) give the following definition of events:

“Special events are that phenomenon arising from those non-routine occasions which have leisure, cultural, personal or organizational objectives set apart from the normal activity of daily life, whose purpose is to enlighten, celebrate, entertain or challenge the experience of a group of people.” (Shone & Parry, 2001, p.3)

Getz (1997) uses two definitions to cover the two participating parties, the organizer and the customers.

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First “a special event is a one time or infrequently occurring event outside the normal program or activities of the sponsoring or organizing body.” The definition directed towards the customers is presented as “To the customer or guest, a special event is an opportunity for a leisure, social or cultural experience outside the normal range of choices or beyond everyday experience.” (Getz. 1997, p.4)

The above mentioned definitions describe events in general although they do not explain the perspective that the thesis focuses upon, that is corporate events. A definition of the term corporate event can be found in the International Directory of Event Management;

“ An event sponsored by a corporation for the purpose of achieving specific goals and objectives such as enter-taining the customers, introducing and promoting new products and services, or providing incentives or train-ing for the employees, as well as other activities.” (Goldblatt & Nelson, 2001, p.49)

The relation between event marketing and an event could according to Sporrek (2001) fur-ther be understood as “Event marketing is the way and the event is the medium”.

“Event Marketing is the process which integrates a range of marketing elements around a central event sponsorship or lifestyle-themed activity. This process incorporates advertising, employee and consumer pro-grams, sales promotion, public relations, causes, business-to-business, television promotion, and trade promo-tion with a specific event.” (Goldblatt & Nelson, 2001, p.72)

According to Shone & Parry (2001) some characteristics of events are:

• Uniqueness, Perishability & Intangibility – It is a temporary occurrence that is a blend of its duration, setting, management and people. Events have a fixed time scale contradictory to routine activities that have an infinite time line. This means that every event will be different and will never be repeated in the same way as previ-ously. It a service activity which is consumed during the event and when it is over it cannot be experienced again. Effort can be made to make the experience of the event more tangible, an example being the occurrence of gift bags.

• Ambience – By paying careful attention to the planning, details, and the desired out-come an event can either create positive or negative vibes among the attendees which in turn will make it either a success or a failure. This indicates that there are risks with an event as it is a temporary service.

• High level of personal contact and interaction – Events allow integration and interactions with the prospects and the outcome of the event is largely reliant on the interac-tions and reactions of the people attending.

In practice events can be anything from a small get together for companies’ most impor-tant clients to giant events that are open to the public. The broad usefulness of events indi-cates that all companies can use events as a part of their marketing strategy, no matter which industry they operate in or which size they are (Behrer & Larsson, 1998). Carroll (2006) divides events into two categories: promotional driven events and reputation driven events. The former is also called branding events and has its objective in name recognition and association. This kind of event is used when the target is a large audience and the pur-pose is to influence peoples’ perception of the company. Reputation-building events are more related to corporate events but also B2C markets where the products or services are complex and expensive. The reputation driven events are frequently seen in the form of seminars, summits, trade shows and conferences with current and potential customer. The purpose with these kinds of events is to improve sales or strengthen customer relations (Carroll, 2006).

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2.2.1 Why Event marketing

Here the authors will present theory related to reasons for organisations to create events. The motives for cre-ating the events in the company interviews will be analyzed in the light of theory from this section and will assist in answering the first research question. The model presented by Holm & Karlsson (2001) will also be used in relation to the customer interviews and their reasons for attending the respective events.

There are numerous reasons why companies are interested in using event marketing. Gold-blatt (2001) claims that there are four different motives why to use event marketing and explains how the purpose of different events can be fulfilled according to what the motives are.

Celebration derives from the Latin word celebro, which means to honour. In this case events have the purpose to celebrate something that is tied to a person’s or an organisations life cycle or something that has historical importance. Celebration events can for example be fairs, festivals, or political events.

Education can be a motive for the use of events in the sense of a public assembly. Attendees take part of new ideas, emotions and actions that the hosting companies want to transmit. Conferences, meetings, alumni events, and training at corporations are all examples of edu-cation events. Another example is the concept of edutainment, which grew out of the use of entertainment tools presenting educational concepts. Companies use this in order to in-volve attendees in the event.

Marketing is an essential element of any marketing plan. Events are used for the same pur-pose as other communication tools such as advertising, PR, and promotion. That is to cre-ate awareness and to influence the current and prospect customers to purchase. Face-to face contact has been noticed by most businesses to have positive impact on sales.

Reunion is an activity that takes place when a group meets for the purpose of remembering or assemble as a group again. In the case of events, an initial event has developed a desire from the group who found it successful and interesting to attend the event again.

Holm & Karlsson (2001) similarly divide events according to the purpose and motives re-lated to the arrangement of an event and these are depicted below in figure 1. Some events focuses on the organisation with the purpose to strengthen the emotion of belongingness and proudness among the employees and other stakeholders associated with the organisa-tion in order to create solidarity in a group. Companies can also create an event that allows employees to identify themselves with the organization and to create a positive attitude to-wards the organization. Events are also used when launching new products, technology, or exposure of already existing products as a mean to educate and make it possible for the participants to get familiar with the products. When a company have the intensions to strengthen or create a brand, events are used to enhance the desired image they want to possess. Another purpose is to establish and strengthen relations where the event is seen as a meeting place for individuals to interact.

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Figure 1 Event purposes (Holm & Karlsson, 2001)

A similar opinion is expressed by Behrer & Larsson (1998) who mention two main catego-ries for using events, strengthening the relations and to stimulate sales. Event marketing is an effective tool for creating long-term relationships as it is easier for companies to actually reach out to their customers and deliver a message since events offer direct interaction and communication. When a company has a well-defined target group and a strong message to deliver, arranging an event can be the most profitable solution (Behrer & Larsson, 1998).

2.3 Attracting customers

As been discussed, in today’s business world time is scarce and individuals are selective in the process of where to put effort. In this case they deal with which events to attend. To attract companies today there is a need to create expectations that will drive the invited to the event. There are means that can support the invi-tation and make the invited more aware of the event. The following section will describe who to target and the marketing tools used in relation to events.

Considering the targeted audience it is essential to research the market in order to find the customers who are best suited for the planned event and whom they want to establish a re-lation with and influence. In all market planning this is important but it is particularly es-sential in the case of events since the target group usually is very narrow which in turn makes it crucial to specify. When targeting managers and other executives it can be effec-tive to focus on a smaller group of people, hence focus on quality instead than quantity (Meeting News, 2006).

When marketing events it is important that the event offer an attractive alternative to the target group’s normal disposition of their time. Within B2B markets the alternative cost for attending an event is productive working time. This is one reason why corporate events are becoming more and more effective, business oriented, and time saving (Behrer & Larsson, 1998).

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For marketers, the event is a product that needs to be sold. Companies arranging big events need to be well organized and have local commitment and knowledge in order for their event to be successful (Behrer & Larsson, 1998). For an event to be “sellable” a cru-cial issue is to attract the right people to actually attend the event. Promotional activities can be an aid to build up the events attractiveness. According to (Carroll, 2006) some of these promotional activities are advertising, other events, other speakers, blogs, direct mail, phone calls, web site, and PR.

According to Behrer & Larsson (1998) there are many similarities between marketing of events and marketing of other products and services. It is all about matching a company’s offer to the customers need by making the event attractive in accordance with customer preferences. The message is of great importance as with any kind of marketing and it is thereby crucial that this message reaches the right target group through the use of different medias. For a target group to be reached it demands that it is identified, hence who should be invited to the event? It is essential but easier to target the right group in a B2B situation compared to a B2C situation since there usually are fewer customers that make it easier to keep track of them.

2.4 Communication

Before continuing to describe the features of events any further the authors find it relevant to include certain definitions and description of how communication is connected to events and event marketing. Communica-tion is an important ingredient in any event and the next coming section will ease the understanding of the communication and its importance in the event perspective. This section will be analyzed in relation to the communication process related to the invitations and the interaction taking place during and after the events.

According to Fill (2002) “communication itself is the process by which individuals share meaning.” This process provides different elements that are the source, message, channel, receiver and the process of encoding and decoding (Maat, 2004). The process starts with a source that can be an individual or an organisation wanting to transmit a message. The message needs to be encoded in order for the intended message to turn into symbols that can be transmitted. The communication channel is the mean by which the message is transmitted from the sender to the receiver. The receiver must decode the message in order to understand it, and then communicate back to the source on sender of the message (Fill, 2002). In this process noise can disturb the message and hinder it from reaching the re-ceiver and also impede on the content of the message. The noise will influence the effect that the message can have on stakeholders (Maat, 2004). By using event as a communica-tion channel the noise interference will be eliminated thanks to the face-to-face contact (Fill, 2002). Shimp (2003) agrees and have developed a communication process figure which is displayed below.

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Figure 2 Communication process (Shimp, 2003)

Marketing communication, also called promotional mix, refers to the tools used to com-municate with the target audience. There are five main marketing communication tools: advertising, sales promotions, public relations, direct marketing and personal selling. There has been a shift from the promotional mix that was used for mass communication towards the mix that emphasises more directed and targeted promotional activities. Marketing communication, which is based on seeking the attention of customers who might not be very interested, is called the intervention-based approach and on the contrary the permis-sion-based communication has the focus on communication with an audience that already has shown interest in a particular offering. There has been a shift from the intervention-based approach towards the permission-based approach where relationships are established in accordance with what the audience actually demands (Fill, 2002).

Maat (2004) has classified the communication in different steps starting with phase 1, pre-event communication, where the communication to the attendees deals with information about specific facts. During the actual event, the second phase, attendees communicate with each other and the hosting company face-to-face and the communication here refers to dialoguing. Phase 3 indicates that the attendees are being formed during the event as the experience moves them from dialoguing to the forming of opinions and decision making. Phase 4 occurs after the event when attendees communicate with other stakeholders who did not attend the event themselves. They effect these stakeholders in accordance with what they experienced during the event (Maat, 2004). Below is the model visualising what just has been discussed.

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Figure 3 Communication interaction model (Maat, 2004)

2.5 Platform for interaction & integration

In the following section the authors will use theory related to how integration and interaction can be achieved by the use of events. As can be seen in the figure below an event can create integration and interaction by de-livering a message, experience, and meeting. It is essential to describe the figure in further detail as the crea-tion of a successful event can depend upon the different factors within the model. The authors will describe the different parts and factors further in the following section.

Behrer & Larsson (1998) argues that there are three key words that characterize an event and that is the meeting, the experience and the message. Figure 4 below further illustrates that these three factors generate integration and interaction.

Figure 4 (Behrer & Larsson, 1998)

2.5.1 The Message

An Event organized by a company usually has a special purpose and aims at communicat-ing certain objectives (Sporrek, 2001). The event itself can be seen as a mean to communi-cate corporate messages to their stakeholders (Toole & Mikolaitis, 2002). An event is a platform with a purpose to deliver a certain message across memorably and also to provide a positive experience. In today’s corporate climate time is scarce and it is therefore impor-

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tant that the message of an event delivers the right information before, during and after the event (Frankelius, 1997).

In the process of communicating a message with an audience there are several layers that the message needs to filtrate. The first is selective exposure that equals the first contact with a message where individuals decide to accept the message or reject it. The second step is the selective perception that is the step where we create a value. The perception and ac-ceptance of the message is depending on the expectations, values and interest an individual holds. The last layer is the development of an attitude (Behrer & Larsson, 1998).

Directing and formulating a message to an individual gives a high probability of success, but also requires efforts. It is important that a company research the prospects in order to realize what is important and interesting for them. After research is being carried out a message that will appeal to the prospect should be created. The message can influence the attendees’ relation and opinion towards the hosting company and its products (Frankelius, 1997). It is also important to consider that more than one message frequently is transmitted and that the message reaches more than one target audience. A problem occurs when communication is directed towards a number of target audiences with information that should be suitable to every one of them. An organisation expects communication to trans-mit an offering and message to the audience and encouraging an establishment of a dia-logue and relationship (Fill, 2002).

Customers in B2B markets usually have high involvement in the decisions process, the message should therefore be rational and informative compared to the consumer market. There may also be individuals who need to be reached and influenced which will require a good media and message strategy (Fill, 2002).

2.5.2 The Meeting

The meeting is an important factor in the model proposed by Behrer & Larsson (1998) since it is where the interaction and communication with an organisation’s stakeholders can take place. An event provides the benefit that people meet face-to-face which allows for a dialogue and interaction to take place which other marketing tool can not offer (Behrer & Larsson, 1998). Maat (2004) suggests the use of experimental marketing for event market-ing and defines it as marketing that enables companies to connect with target audience face-to-face. Today’s technology development and the use of Internet as a communication source make a forum where people can interact physically even more powerful. By having a live dialogue with the stakeholders and being able to inform and influence them a company can reach a persuading phase.

Frankelius (1997) argues that the personal meeting between people is a central component in marketing and that relations can be strengthened in a genuine manner through a face-to-face meeting.

The meeting also allows for two-way communication since it enables a dialogue to take place. This indicates that both the organisation sending a message as well as the receiver is involved in the exchange of information. One-way communication is no longer an alterna-tive if organisations aim at influencing its stakeholders (Bergh, Lindgren, Anderson, 2004).

In order for an organisation to attract the targeted group and influence them to attend an event, the choice of meeting place can also be significant in the sense that attractiveness of place and distance to the place matters. The organisation should think about whether the

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arena has arranged similar events previously. The communication possibilities for the guests should also be considered as well as if other competing events are arranged within the same area (Behrer & Larsson, 1998).

2.5.3 The Experience

Maat (2004) states that experiences “are private events that occur in response to some stimulation. They involve the entire human being. They often result from direct observa-tion and/or participation in events”.

According to Maat (2004) the large amount of messages people encounter have made them immune to message sent to them. He suggests that an efficient way to reach the customer is to create an experience for them. This will make it easier for people to accept the mes-sage and consider it as they will immerge themselves in the experience.

According to Behrer and Larsson (1998) event is the only marketing medium that allows the attendees to use all senses resulting in a stronger and more memorable experience and meeting. Maat (2004) agrees that by experiencing events people will be able to sense, feel, think, act and relate which in turn will enhance their perception of the event. He further claims that the attendees’ interaction can result in unique, educational, entertaining and memorable experiences (Maat, 2004). If the attendees found the event enjoyable and im-pressing then a positive view towards the hosting company can be established through this experience. A positive experience of the event can also be a factor that simplifies the accep-tance of the message the hosting company wants to transmit (Behrer & Larsson, 1998). In combination with other communication tools the attendees’ experience during the event can influence the perceived image and reputation of the company. Offering a memorable and positive experience can lead to better reputation by being visible, genuine, transparent and consistent towards the stakeholders (Maat, 2004).

By participating in an event the attendees have a certain interest and expectations about what the event will generate in. By researching and creating an event that appeals to the at-tendees and their interest the event can fulfil theses expectations and leave the attendees with a positive experience (Behrer & Larsson, 1998). Maat (2004) argues that in order for an event to match or even exceed the expectations of the attendees their preferences should be taken into consideration when planning the event. He means that it is vital that stakeholder and other participants of an event feel that they obtain something but also con-tribute to the event. Between the expected and perceived experience there is a gap that should be as minimal as possible to obtain an event that is creating a good experience. The intended strategy and objectives with the event may be destroyed if the gap is of a magni-tude that will give negative feedback in the evaluation due to a negative experience from the attendees. On the contrary if the expectation and perception coincide and create a minimum gap the strategy can be seen as successful and the objectives fulfilled (Maat, 2004).

2.5.4 Integration

The event is a platform where integration of the different elements of the promotion mix can be used. It is further an opportunity to create publicity and word-of-mouth tendencies. Direct communication can be used at the same time as marketing material; sales promo-tion, personal selling etc are used to influence the attendees (Behrer & Larsson, 1998).

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An event also creates an opportunity for an organisation to integrate its different stake-holders. Below some of the organisations stakeholders will be presented and explained. The employees of the organisation should be involved in the event as their participation will strengthens the internal environment and give a unified view to the stakeholders. Busi-ness partners such as banks and other financial actors have an opportunity to take part in how the organisation is handling its relations with customers. Future suppliers and retailers will be exposed to the strength and goodwill of the organisation when it comes to upcom-ing investments and projects of the organisation. Opinion leaders and decision makers within the community might be able to take part of possible incomes of an event if ticket sales go to charity, buildings, and scholarships etcetera. The shareholders can realise the communication strength the organisation holds and also experience the attitude from the customer towards the organisation that can be valuable to them. The management can via the event get direct feedback from the participants in the event. This kind of information would be more difficult to gain when meeting in a more business related or formal occa-sion. By inviting Medias, such as TV and newspapers and allow them to make exclusive re-ports from the event and its participants, publicity and thereby integration can increase. The organisation can integrate a recruitment process by inviting prospect employees and give them the opportunity to experience the corporate image and values and encourage in-teraction between them and the organisation (Behrer & Larsson, 1998).

The integration in the event deals with how the message is transmitted and communicated to the target audiences that are participating at the event. To sum up it is central and de-terminant how the message, meeting and experience are created and how the attendees will perceive it. The integration makes enables an interaction to take place during the event (Behrer & Larsson, 1998).

2.5.5 Interaction

Another important reason why event marketing can be seen as an important marketing tool is that when traditional Medias focus on informing customers, event marketing is highly in-teractive and concentrates on direct communication. Customers of today’s market place demand interaction that is a reason for communicating through events (Behrer & Larsson, 1998). Events have become a more natural part of companies’ marketing strategies because the number of opportunities to interact personally with customers has diminished (Sporrek, 2001). Including event marketing in the marketing strategy has showed better response from customers and great exposure compared to traditional marketing methods.

There has been a shift from focusing on products towards focusing on customers to greater extend which indicates that the customer need and demands are in centre of atten-tion for marketers. Event marketing has shown to be an interesting alternative compared to the traditional marketing tools because of its ability to meet the new customer demands (Behrer & Larsson, 1998). The interactivity can further be explained by the fact that the event is the medium in itself which almost makes it impossible for attendants not to inter-act as the sender of the message is right where the receiver is, hence at the event. Fill (2002) and Behrer & Larsson (1998) states that this interaction makes it possible for the sender to transmit the message to the receiver without any interference.

Events can be explained to have an important strength compared to the more traditional mediums used in marketing theories and practice. It integrates the elements of being dy-namic and personal that other tools such as TV, radio, and news papers fail to do. There is

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a possibility for companies to arrange the events according to the needs of the customers which is extremely important today (Glaas, 2001).

2.6 Motivation

The following section will describe different factors of motivation and how individuals make decisions con-cerning whether or not to take certain courses of actions. The theories presented here will be analyzed in rela-tion to the information received from the customer interviews concerning why the different individuals at-tended the respective events.

Motivation can be explained as a drive that exists in order for a need to be diminished (Mayo & Jarvis, 1981). Another definition is that motivation is pursuing something in order to receive something and that is the reason for doing it. This motivation lead to complex behaviour of people as it is influenced by individual factors such as perception and learn-ing, and also social factors such as culture and social environment. These factors are the conditions why organism chooses one response over another and why we move in one di-rection or another (Vroom, 1995). Concerning events, it is difficult to point out and gener-alize exactly what motivates people to attend them. One problem when trying to explain what motivates people to attend events is that there is commonly more than one factor of motivation (Toebosch, 2001). It is significant to consider factors that can be of importance for motivating people to act in certain ways.

2.6.1 Extrinsic and Intrinsic motivation

When discussing what motivates people to act in certain ways and do certain things, two approaches are commonly used to explain what actually motivate people to perform. Ex-trinsic motivation is at work when people are motivated by exogenous factors such as money. In the case of employees the salary is an important factor for extrinsic motivation. This motivation serves to satisfy indirect needs in the sense that the work in itself is only an instrument used in order to earn money that can be used for something outside work (Frey & Osterloh, 2002).

Intrinsic motivation is guided by internal factors such as job satisfaction and the motivation in these cases is directly linked to the activity carried out at the moment. According to Frey & Osterloh there are three main types of intrinsic motivation found among employees. The first is when the activity carried out by a person provides pleasure in itself where an exam-ple can be playing golf. The second type is when the end goal and the activity carried out are of equal value. An example can be when employees meet certain standards (fairness, team spirit, respect etcetera) at the workplace for their own sake. The last type of intrinsic motivation can be found when a person achieves, and is very satisfied with, an own-defined goal although the progress of reaching it was not enjoyable (Frey & Osterloh, 2002).

The two approaches are linked together and it is not always clear which of them is at work at different points in time. On the other hand it can be argued that people are different and they have different goals and preferences, answer to different incentives and are thereby motivated by different factors. Some people tend to be more extrinsically motivated and those find work only to be unpleasant and necessary simply to be able to consume the money earned by doing the job. This way of acting is closely related to how a person is de-fined in economic theory and it has been proven that this concept is very successful. Also the so called “status seekers” are extrinsically motivated and find motivation in compari-sons with other people. People who tend to be more intrinsically motivated can be those whose personal goals are closely linked to the organization’s goals. It also applies to those

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whose work procedures have become natural parts of their behaviour and it is not easy to influence them with offering extrinsic rewards (Frey & Osterloh, 2002).

2.6.2 Expectancy Theory

In motivation and management the expectancy theory developed by Victor Vroom (1995) describes how we select alternatives that will maximize the outcome to the lowest price. The theory presumes that the behaviour is a result of a conscious choice among these al-ternatives.

The theory was established to explain employees’ individual behaviour and goals in the workplace. This theory is found to be useful when describing how individuals who repre-sent firms choose an event depending on what it expects to give them. The theory states that we are motivated if certain criteria are expected to be fulfilled;

- When there is a positive correlation between the efforts and the performance

- The performance will result in a desirable reward

- The reward will satisfy an important need for the company

- The desire to satisfy the need is strong enough to make the effort worthwhile

The Expectancy Theory is further based upon three beliefs that are valence, expectancy, and instrumentality. Valence refers to the emotional orientations and values individuals hold with respect to the outcomes/rewards. Expectancy is concerned with the likelihood of an outcome to occur due to a particular act. While expectancy is an action-outcome asso-ciation instrumentality is an outcome-outcome association. This means that the attainment of various consequences is a determinant source for the attitude to the action. These three beliefs further interact psychologically to create a motivational force for how people make decisions and act accordingly. The different beliefs can indicate and predict such things as job satisfaction, one's occupational choice, the likelihood of staying in a job, and the effort one might expect at work (Vroom, 1995).

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3 Method

______________________________________________________________________

The following chapter will include a description of approaches linked to the gathering and analyzing of data. The choice of data collection method will be motivated and the section will go further into description of the data collection methods and sample selection. ______________________________________________________________________

3.1 Research approach/strategy

There are two main research approaches to be used when conducting scientific research that is deductive and inductive. The choice of approach lies to ground for how the re-searcher will collect and analyse the data and should be decided dependent on the nature of the research topic.

The deductive approach starts with formulating a theory and hypothesis that are subject to tests and data is used to test the theory. An inductive approach on the other hand collects data that is analyzed and used as a base for development of a theory. It is important to choose between the deductive and inductive approach as the second one aims at under-standing why something is happening whereas the first one aims at describing what is hap-pening (Saunders 2007).

The purpose of the thesis called for an inductive approach as this strategy fit the purpose of the thesis in the sense that the authors aimed at understanding why certain events are tak-ing place and why individuals chose to attend certain events. Saunders (2007) also point out that the inductive approach enables flexible structure that permit the research to be open to change during the process which further gives us opportunity to include new perspectives during the process of writing the thesis. The inductive approach was further suitable since the authors firstly gathered empirical findings and then applied it to relevant theoretical framework. According to Patton (2002) the inductive and deductive approaches are com-monly combined and this thesis used a deductive approach to a certain extent in the sense that in order to explain the why there is a need to first explain the what, hence describing the events in depth.

3.2 Qualitative & Quantitative data

There are two major sorts of data to choose from when conducting research. The most prominent difference between the approaches is that they use different units for analysis, where the quantitative approach use numbers while the qualitative use words (Denscombe, 1998). The quantitative method generates broader rather than deep knowledge about the research field, which gives the opportunity to generalize the result. The qualitative method is employed when acquiring deeper understanding by transforming information from in depth methods into written words (Patel & Davidson, 2003). The qualitative approach fur-ther seeks to understand data by the use of dialogues and open ended techniques (Imms & Ereaut, 2002).

The authors have chosen to collect the primary data in a qualitative manner as this allows for a more flexible structure, which makes it possible to change direction of the thesis dur-ing the process of writing it. In order to fulfil the purpose the authors needed deeper un-

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derstanding in how meaningful events can be created and why people choose to attend cer-tain events and by the use of qualitative data this can be achieved.

3.3 Data Collection

When conducting qualitative research the findings should be based on purposeful sam-pling, which normally indicates a limited sample size being described and examined in-depth. This kind of sampling procedure suggests the use of information-rich cases meaning it is possible to learn a lot about the issues related to the purpose of the research (Patton, 2002). For the purpose of the thesis studying a few cases, hence using purposeful sampling, can generate deep insight and understanding of how meaningful event can be created and how individual employees are deciding which events to attend.

The choice of using qualitative data further enables a case study approach to be used. The approach of studying cases for qualitative analysis stands for a special way of collecting, or-ganizing, and analyzing data and in that sense it represents an analysis process. Case studies can generate in deeper and more describing information within the research field. Cases can be individuals, groups, organizations, nations or anything else which can be explained as a unique practice or system. Cases are units of analysis and the authors are using events as units of analysis, hence they are the cases used for answering the purpose of the thesis (Patton, 2002).

The sampling of organisations was in the first step decided by a category of larger organisa-tions that use corporate events continuously and that the authors knew would be more or less suitable for the research. SAP was chosen since it matched the category criterion and since the authors had accessibility to their information sources. The other three cases were randomly chosen by searching the web for companies fitting into the category criterion. E-mails and phone calls were directed to persons that held positions within the marketing or sales departments within the organisations who were most suitable for the research and likely to work with events. As the authors came in contact with the companies it was de-cided what events that were suitable for the research. Contact information for the custom-ers was given to the authors by the four companies to make it easy and accessible to inter-view them.

Not only the sample strategy but also the sample size needs to be considered and fitted to the purpose of the study carried out. According to Patton (2002) there are no rules for sample size in qualitative analysis, rather it should be in accordance or adjusted to the pur-pose. The choice can further be explained to depend upon what you want to find out, how the findings will be used, and the resources available. Patton (2002) argues that the sample size for qualitative analysis is not as important when evaluating the validity and meaning-fulness of the data gathered. It is rather the depth or richness of the cases that determines how valuable or useful the insights are. The sample can change during the time of the re-search; perhaps the sample size will increase or decrease as the field study has begun. Al-though the sample size does not need to be fixed there should be a decided minimum of cases to be studied (Patton, 2002). In the case of this thesis it was decided that at least two companies were going to be the basis for the study. As the research set of to a start realiza-tion was made that two cases would generate in a result where comparison between the two would be a reasonable continuation. As this was not the purpose of the thesis two more cases were included.

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3.3.1 Interviews

Patton (2002) also describes three kinds of qualitative data to choose from for research studies. That is observations, documents, and interviews. Observations yield in-depth in-formation of how individuals act and behave in social or organizational contexts. Docu-ments on the other hand indicate studying experts, reports, written responses to surveys, etcetera. Interviews are used to collect data on peoples’ experiences, opinions, and knowl-edge (Patton, 2002). Qualitative interviews are especially useful when one is aiming at ob-serving individuals attitudes and values (Silverman, 2006). The authors used qualitative in-terviewing since the thesis aims at finding out what motivates individuals to attend corpo-rate events which deals with peoples’ personal values and opinions.

According to Patton (2002) there are three approaches to choose from when conducting qualitative interviews. The first is the informal conversational interview and indicates that the in-teraction between the interviewed and the interviewee generate a natural flow in the con-versation and impulsive creation of questions. The second is the general interview guide ap-proach where the person(s) conducting the interview holds a checklist with areas or ques-tions to be covered. There is no certain order or specifically formulated questions that should be followed. The third and last approach is the standardized open-ended interview that uses a more or less exact list of questions that are to be followed in a certain sequence. This last approach is most commonly used when it is important that each respondent answers the same questions, hence when there should be little variation in questions.

The approaches explained by Patton (2002) can also be related to structured interviews, semi-structured interviews, unstructured interviews and focus groups. Tight control over the format of the questions and answers is a characteristic of a structured interview. Semi structured on the other hand is open-ended questions that put emphasise on being flexible and elaborating on the questions discussed. Unstructured interviews are even more open than semi-structured interviews and very flexible. Focus groups is a forth approach and indicates the use of a small group of people who are especially suitable for the purpose of the interviews and who will discuss the questions together. These approaches can further be divided into one-to-one interviews and group interviews (Patton, 2002).

The authors have conduct interviews related to four corporate events with open-ended questions that enabled the authors to add additional questions that arose during the discus-sion. Within each case, hence FKOM, Generalgolfen, WTCC, and the Hockey night at Kinnarps arena, interviews were held with employees with high involvement in each event. The authors further interviewed three participants from each event and analyzed them in relation to the associated event. Through interviews the intension was to gain knowledge of each person’s perspective on why they choose to attend certain corporate events. Qualita-tive interviewing specifically assumes that these perspectives are meaningful and important to include in a research for one or many reasons (Patton, 2002). As the purpose of the the-sis deals with exploring how companies can arrange meaningful events and why individuals act in certain ways, interviews can help in gaining information about those peoples’ opin-ions and experiences, hence help the authors in answering the posed research questions. The interviews conducted with employees who are involved in the specific cases and events will allow the authors to gain valuable information of those individuals’ knowledge con-cerning each event.

In the case of the companies arranging the events three of them were conducted as face-to-face interviews while one was done via a telephone conference due to geographical dis-tance. General interview guide approach was used to be able to have a discussion that al-

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lowed flexibility and questions that make sure to cover the essential areas. This can also be linked to the semi-structured approach where the in-depth interviews with companies ar-ranging events enabled to increase the understanding for the phenomenon by having the ability asking additional open-ended questions. A tape recorder was used in the purpose to be able to interpret the discussion in a correct way where the ability to re-listen existed. This was convenient since it was face-to-face interviews that were carried out in three cases out of four and the other one was taped vie speaker phone. For the eleven interviews with the participants at the events a standardised open-ended telephone interview was used to make sure that the participants answered the same questions. This can be related to the structured interviews since the authors wanted a control over the questions asked and the information provided by the participants. By following a list of questions with more direct answers, easy to distinguish, and since they were carried out via telephone a tape recorder was not used in these cases.

3.4 Data Processing & Analysis Interpretation

“Qualitative analysis transforms data into findings” (Patton, 2002). The major problem or challenge with this transformation of data is that it is commonly a very large amount of in-formation that needs to be sorted out. As all data needed for the case study has been col-lected in a so called case record, there is a need to organize it in order to make the findings appropriate for readers to take part of. It can be organized chronologically or topically (Pat-ton, 2002).

The authors have chosen to present the data according to topics, as it will allow the empiri-cal findings to be presented in a way that suits the purpose of the thesis. The first part of the data related to each case will include information related to the specific event arranged by each company whereas the second part will present the customer interviews related to the same event. The first part is in that sense related to how companies arrange meaningful events and the second part to the motivation factors of attendees. In the customer inter-view sections different respondents’ answers will be combined for each question in order to make the data more comprehensive for the reader.

3.5 Validity & Reliability

Validity and reliability is crucial when considering the methods used for a research study. Validity can be equalized with the word truth (Silverman 2000) and Patton (2002) argues that it deals with the information richness of cases and not the sample size. The authors have used information rich cases that suited the purpose of the thesis and chosen the sam-ple on reasonable grounds. According to Denscombe (1998) “Seeing things from a differ-ent perspective and the opportunity to corroborate findings can enhance the validity of the data.” The authors have definitively increased the validity in this sense as data was gathered from both companies arranging events as well as individuals attending corporate events in order to find the most reliable result. Denscombe (1998) also states that validity can be im-proved by getting feedback from the respondents in the study after the results have been proposed. The authors send the proposed findings to the different respondents and gained their thoughts upon the interpretation of what had been said during the interviews, hence validity was raised.

Reliability refers to the degree of consistency in the data collection methods when individu-als observe occurrences. When qualitative data is collected the reader will many time de-pend on the authors description of what the data represented includes (Silverman 2000).

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When carrying out the research it was vital to consider the reliability of the data collected and presented in the thesis. The authors tape recorded in-depth interviews which increased the reliability of the data as it enabled the authors to re-listen and discuss the content and the intended message. The raw data gathered in form of tapes and transcripts are therefore available for the reader to take part of and it is also possible for the authors to investigate the material further. These possibilities can increase the reliability of the data used in the thesis.

The case study approach used in the thesis can be argued not to allow for generalization. On the other hand it can be said that although each case is unique it can be also be a single example of a broader set of instances (Denscombe 1998). In the thesis it can be argued that four cases which all are large B2B companies can very possibly be examples of what holds true for other large B2B companies, which make generalization possible to some extent.

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4 Empirical data

______________________________________________________________________

In this section we will present the gathered data collected from the interviews. Each case is presented accord-ing to how the data was collected. Within the presentation of each case the first part will include the in-depth interview held with the companies arranging the events. The second part of each case consists of interviews conducted with attendees of the particular events arranged by the different organisations. ______________________________________________________________________

4.1 SAP

Founded in 1972 as Systems Applications and Products in Data Processing, SAP AG is the world’s largest business software company and the third-largest software supplier overall. Headquartered in Walldorf, Germany, SAP has around 43000 employees operating at sales and development locations in more than 50 countries worldwide (SAP, 2007a).

SAP provides a comprehensive range of enterprise software applications and business solu-tions to empower every aspect of business operations for all types of industries. By using SAP solutions, organizations of all sizes can reduce costs, improve performance, and gain the agility to respond to changing business needs (SAP, 2007b).

The authors have interview Mike Wong, who is Regional Marketing Manager at the Singa-pore office, about their event strategy with focus on SAP Asia Pacific Field Kick-Off Meet-ing (FKOM) 2007, a major annual event where approximately 3000 visitors participated. The event was held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Hong Kong from 29 – 31 January 2007.

4.1.1 FKOM - Asia Pacific Field Kick-Off Meeting

According to Mike Wong (2007) events must be an integral part of the overall strategy and marketing mix that SAP currently follows. SAP is working with events as a communication tool to achieve the long-term goals and objectives. Business events arranged by SAP are combinations of sales and marketing activities. Events are therefore an efficient way to bring together diverse marketing techniques in order to reach the intended objectives and business strategy. Arranging events are an efficient way to create a resonating experience for customers, partners, employees and other stakeholders (M. Wong, personal communi-cation, 2007-10-26).

Depending on the objectives with the event, the strategy differs. The objective of an event is usually a combination of a marketing mix such as increasing brand awareness, maintain-ing existing customers, attracting new potential customers, launching a new product etc. At the FKOM event customers, partners, and employees attended the event. The event was a perfect opportunity to network with customers, partners and employees of the different re-gional teams. Corporate events are also a platform for customers to network and have a good time. In many cases, a combination of business activities and entertainment is to be recommended. The audience usually likes a mixture of business information and social ac-tivities, as well as good food and drinks (M. Wong, personal communication, 2007-10-26).

The activities presented bellow was part of the FKOM event.

- Keynotes speeches by members of the executive board and president

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- Information sessions about the corporate vision, mission, and growth strategy

- Smaller seminars with product information

- Smaller activities at the different booths

- Demo jams (a number of selected partners competed for the best solution demo)

- Social activities; food & drinks, music and dance performances, games etc.

In most cases, entertainment and social activities represents a significant part of the agenda. To attract the right crowd, the event has to offer all kinds of ingredients. Entertainment and social activities are important as they bring people together but that it only brings extra value and is not as important when it comes to attracting the right people. Networking is a crucial part for executives and top managers – to meet and exchange ideas and knowledge with each other (M. Wong, personal communication, 2007-10-26).

4.1.2 Attracting visitors

Mike Wong (2007) continues by stating that is important to arrange your event in accor-dance to the message you want to deliver and which visitors you want to attract. It is a lot easier to attract people to an event that actually interests those people that you want to in-vite. The event must be interesting and have an important value to the visitor. The message SAP wanted to deliver during FKOM was to teach and educate people within the industry (customers, partners, and employees) about SAP as an organization and its future strategies when it comes to product launches and solutions. The intended message was,

By joining this event the attending visitors would increase their understanding for where and how the market is moving within this particular industry. Learn about SAP business solutions and how they can help inte-grate information, automate business processes, and enable visibility across the operations – so operational excellence in a world that is developing and changing with an incredible high pace can be achieved (SAP, 2007b).

This is what SAP wanted to accomplish and what they wanted the participants to think and feel when they got the message and invitation (M. Wong, personal communication, 2007-10-26).

Events usually works as a part of an entire marketing campaign including everything from advertisement, e-marketing, service marketing etc. to event marketing. When designing the communication activities and information about the event it is of great importance to cre-ate is so that it attracts the real potential buyers and minimizes the non-prospects. At the FKOM event all kinds of marketing tools were used to attract the public and to attract va-luable visitors. Except for the invitations the home page, advertisements, e-marketing (such as banners and search), e-mail, press releases etc were used to spread the word and get the news value for the event (M. Wong, personal communication, 2007-10-26). .

With so many events competing for the time and budgets of existing and prospective cus-tomers, it is crucial to have a team that can understand the audience you are trying to build and the techniques needed to attract these people. In all cases the focus lies on striving to draw qualified leads, people who decide to visit the event because there is something in it for them. A way to attract desired visitors is to invite other important and influential peo-ple. All C-suite executives (CEO, CTO, CIO, CAO, COO, CKO), managers and IT-managers, purchase managers etc were invited to FKOM, as well as employees at SAP.

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SAP strives to invite people that have a managerial position thus can make own decisions, as well as influential people that have a certain interest in our products and services. The more influential people that are attending the event, the more prominent and valuable the event become for both SAP and the visitors. It is also vital to invite same kind of people. In addition, it is a credit value for networking purposes (M. Wong, personal communica-tion, 2007-10-26).

A good track record also attracts visitors. If a company have completed successful similar events before, it is a lot easier to draw attention and attract people to come. For this rea-son, it is very important to make sure the event becomes successful and get positive reac-tions and publicity. Mike Wong (2007) further argues that the attendance list will depend a lot on your previous performances and reputation and since FKOM is an annual event the previous years are in their favour.

4.1.3 SAP Customer interviews

The interviews were held with three customers attending the FKOM event during 29-32 of January 2007. The interviewees were A1 who is a Director, A2 who is an IT Manager and A3 who holds a position as a Managing Director.

A1 attended FKOM in 2006, the invitation was handled by the secretary who accepted the invitation for A1. A2 was also attending FKOM last year and replied directly to this year’s invitation since the experience last year was good. What A2 also stated was that the invita-tion had a nice layout and was informative, what the event can offer has to be stated in the invitation. Thus, A2 directly wants to know why to attend that certain event. Normally A2 attends event where the Managing Director is invited, sometimes together with the director and sometimes A2 takes the Managing Directors place if that person don’t have time to at-tend the event. A3 had received positive feedback from A3’s customers and other vendors about the event. The opinion about the invitation was that it was very professional and fol-lowed up by information from one person in SAP’s sales force. The message with the event should be stated in an interesting way preferably in accordance to what just A3 and the company can get out of attending the event. A3 also wants to know which other companies that have been invited. A3 also gained information about the event from SAP’s webpage. A3 further claims that the feedbacks from former participants made A3 have high expecta-tions about the event and that SAP lived up to the expectations.

The most important purposes for attending the event in A1´s case was to take part of the information provided at the event and to be able to meet other important people. What also was a determining factor was the phase A1´s company was in and the information they required at that point in time. In general the event has to be interesting and comprise in-formation that is valuable for A1 when deciding to attend events. The event can not be too long since A1 usually do not have time to attend events that last for several days. At this point A1 found that the FKOM event could have been shortened down to fewer days. A third general criterion for attending events is if other important people attend the event so A1 can make contacts and exchange industry information. A2 was there in order to receive information about new IT products and solutions as well as information about the indus-try. A2 claims that the IT industry is a fast moving industry and with the position A2 holds it is vital to be updated about what is happening in the industry. A2 also states that some events can contain too much entertainment and social activities and definitely prefers pure business oriented events like FKOM. A2 further states that events must provide informa-tion that A2 needs to be aware of to do a good job. In the case of FKOM A2 expected a

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professional and high quality event and also this year A2 was not disappointed. A3 at-tended the event mainly to take part of the information provided and also to meet people. A3 states that before attending an event A3 wants to have a glance at the invitations list in order to find out if interesting people will participate. This in order to find out if other companies in the industry will attend and if their competitors will be there as well. In gen-eral A3 criteria’s are that the event must contribute with something to the A3 and the com-pany when it comes to information about the industry and new products. What also mat-ters is who is arranging the event and why it is organised. A3 stated that one criterion to at-tend is that a company should have arranged successful events previously and that is the reason why the organizer is of importance. Further A3 find it important to be able to rep-resent A3’s company at the events they attend in order to promote themselves. The infor-mation given by SAP A3 was considered to be valuable and interesting and A3 find the whole event to be very organised and professional.

4.2 Swedish Match

Swedish Match is a company with a history going all the way back to 1915 when the Swed-ish tobacco monopoly, STM, was introduces. Two years later Svenska Tändsticks AB was founded. Together these two organisations created Swedish Match which is a publicly listed company producing matches, disposable lighters, and foremost tobacco. The company has around 12500 employees and its head office is situated in Stockholm (Swedish Match, 2007ab)

Swedish Match have two categorizes of customers, that is local and central customers. Lo-cal customers are retailers who Swedish Match sells their products to directly. Central cus-tomers are retailers who are in charge of many stores where Swedish Match’s products are sold to the consumer (J. Isdahl, personal communication, 2007-11-22).

The authors have interview Jörgen Isdahl, communication director, at his office in Stock-holm about Swedish match’s event strategy and more specifically Generalgolfen which is an annual golf event organized by the company. In 2007 the event took place during the spring at 8 different locations in Sweden.

4.2.1 Generalgolfen

Generalgolfen is an annual event arranged by Swedish Match. The event includes eight golf tournaments (including a final) at different locations throughout Sweden and the arrange-ment is directed towards the organisation’s customers. Generalgolfen is the largest cus-tomer event arranged by Swedish Match and this year the tournaments held 523 attendees. Aside from this event, the sales force that invites local customers commonly arranges din-ners and other small events. Swedish Match is very pleased if succeeding in gaining their customers attention one day per year. On the other hand Jörgen Isdahl (2007) argues that more events could be arranged but time is a major constraint that always needs to be taken into consideration.

The strategy which is used for the planning of Generalgolfen is to deliver the best customer golf tournament in the industry. Due to an increasing competition when it comes to at-tracting customers due to their limited time to be spent on events it is not enough to cerate mediocre events nowadays (J. Isdahl, personal communication, 2007-11-22).

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The main goal that Swedish Match tries to achieve by using the above mentioned strategy is to create goodwill among central and local customers. Jörgen Isdahl (2007) points out that the two categorises of customers, local and central, are equally important when it comes to develop and improve good relations. The objectives of the event are also to influ-ence the customers’ attitude towards Swedish Match and the company’s products (J. Isdahl, personal communication, 2007-11-22).

Combining work and pleasure is also an important ingredient in the event strategy. Even though many attendees might show up at the golf course only to have fun they may very possibly come home with samples of new cigars and some new information about product launches and market developments or surveys. The attendees can report to their co-workers and boss back home that they did in fact have a really good time but they also talk about the inspiration gained in the sense of new products etcetera (J. Isdahl, personal communication, 2007-11-22).

It is important for Jörgen Isdahl (2007) and Swedish Match to denote that events such as Generalgolfen are not arranged in order for the Organisation to make sales at the actual event. He clearly points out that the event rather is an opportunity for Swedish Match to give a positive experience to their customers. The positive aspect of an event may easily diminish if customers feel they need to give something back right away, Jörgen Isdahl (2007) implies that “We only want to influence our customers’ attitudes”. If the customers experience something positive and leave the event with a good attitude towards Swedish Match the sales force will have the opportunity to talk with those companies later on (J. Is-dahl, personal communication, 2007-11-22).

During the event it was very important that each customer played golf with their respective sales representatives, as this was an opportunity for them to improve their relation and talk business as well as pleasure. There are also different stops during the course where Swedish Match representatives talked and informed about different products and the brand is being marketed. After the actual tournament a late lunch was being served (J. Isdahl, personal communication, 2007-11-22).

4.2.2 Attracting visitors

There are many aspects to consider when planning and creating an event. The greatest challenge is according to Jörgen Isdahl (2007) to attract the right companies, hence cus-tomers. It is crucial to find what they want from the company and what we can give to them. Another challenge is to sell products although this should not be directly related to the event in itself. It is further very important to Swedish Match that their customers gain something from an event without feeling that there is “a catch” attached to it. The aim is not to give something and demand something back in return. What Swedish Match directly gains from customers who attend their events is that they try their products that later on of course can generate in increased sales. But customers will only buy their products if it is profitable for them to do so, hence there is a win-win situation. Jörgen Isdahl further ex-plains that there are many undone deals that can be made between Swedish Match and its customers and an event as a great platform for establishing a relationship that can generate in business later on. It is not about tricking someone it is about investing time, energy, and effort in the customers (J. Isdahl, personal communication, 2007-11-22).

There are always certain expectation attached to an event and it is important not to make an event seem greater in any way than it actually is. Jörgen Isdahl (2007) felt this way when the company marketed Generalgolfen by using the name of a very attractive golf course

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even though it (the course) was nearly not completed. Then there are always factors that you can not control such as bad weather etcetera. In those cases people will have expected a greater day than they finally actually experienced. It is better not to boost an event too much and instead surprise attendees positively than the other way around. The customers who won one of the tournaments had the opportunity to play the final tournament and there is a lot of prestige in playing in the final. There were no great prizes to be won; rather it is the great team spirit and prestige that is important for the attendees. Although this is the case all customers get golf balls, pegs, etc. during the tournaments and in the final all at-tendees get a golf bag and nice shirts with their names written on (J. Isdahl, personal com-munication, 2007-11-22).

It is important to look at different industries when encountering problems with events as these differ very much between businesses. Swedish Match operates in an industry where very many golf tournaments are arranged for companies’ customers. The pace in peoples’ lives is higher compared to a few years ago and employees are very busy and have to allo-cate their time in best possible way. Customers might have played 10 tournaments a couple of years ago but now they are perhaps only playing two. This indicates an increasing com-petition for companies such as Swedish Match concerning the creation of events. It is cru-cial to demonstrate how a particular event can be valuable. This is especially true for central customers as these often are even busier and sometimes find it difficult to find motivation for attending events. Jörgen Isdahl (2007) believes customers think twice about what they can gain from attending an event before deciding to come or not. They also consider how they can motivate attending events that only bring pleasure as they are busy and this also might upset other co-workers (J. Isdahl, personal communication, 2007-11-22).

The goal of the event was to have at least 400 attendees at Generalgolfen and the company managed to attract 523 customers. The goal was further to succeed in getting the “right” people to attend the events, as the invitations tend to wander from the actual invited to other people whom like to play golf. This implies that some attendees will not be part of the actual target group for the event. Although this is the case Jörgen Isdahl (2007) has come to the insight that “wrong” attendees actually can turn out to be even better guests than the person who was invited in the first place. A good example is when an invited per-son once gave his invitation to his father who was the former owner of the store that the son now owned. It is highly probable that the son listens a great deal to what his father has to say about issues related to the store, hence Swedish Match have the opportunity to cre-ate a positive experience for someone who influence the targeted person (J. Isdahl, per-sonal communication, 2007-11-22).

Invitations to the event usually came directly from the people working with sales and al-ready have a relation to the customer. They handed them over when they met face to face. Although the central customers often get the invitation by mail as the sales force rarely meet them. Sometimes the company sends a so called teaser mentioning the date of the tournament although the formal invitation will arrive later. Jörgen Isdahl (2007) believes that customers will go only if nothing more important such as an essential meeting comes in the way. In these cases playing golf does not seem like a valid reason for not attending the meeting. It is crucial for Swedish Match to pick good dates when it comes to planning an event such as Generalgolfen. The time planning aspect can be difficult concerning golf tournaments as the golf season is rather limited in time and all companies plan their events during the same months of the year. Next year invited customers will de able to choose which of the seven tournaments to attend. This increases the possibility that customers will attend the event (J. Isdahl, personal communication, 2007-11-22).

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Swedish Match work hard to attract customers and make them attend the events, especially the central customers. You want to make customers well aware of the tournament and market it to a certain extent at the same time, as you do not want to make them feel un-comfortable if choosing not to come. In this case the whole point of creating something positive for their customers is lost (J. Isdahl, personal communication, 2007-11-22).

Jörgen Isdahl (2007) argues that there are two categories of motives related to why people attend their event. The first one includes the ones who only attends the event to have fun and do not care about Swedish Match as a company during the day. This group of people will hopefully come home with a positive attitude towards Swedish Match and although they did not at first care about the products they might have appreciated to taste a new ci-gar etcetera. In that sense, the goals of the event are achieved. The second category in-cludes people who want to bring something home and listens to all that is being said about Swedish Match and its products. Of course they attend for playing golf but also to bring something new in terms of products or knowledge to their co-workers and bosses back home. Swedish Match aims at influencing and giving as much information as possible to their customers but not in a way that can be perceived as negative. They will rather include customers who have a good time playing golf than customers who obtain a lot of informa-tion but felt they were overwhelmed by it. Jörgen Isdahl (2007) states that; “Generalgolfen must not be a way of taking hostages or creating debts. It has to be about creating and building relationships. A good relation means that we then have the attention and the time needed to realize better, win-win, business opportunities.”

4.2.3 Swedish Match Customer Interviews

The authors held interviews with three attendees of Generalgolfen that was arranged by Swedish Match during 2007. The interviewees will be named B1, B2, and B3. B1 is a Res-taurant Manager, B2 is a supermarket employee, and B3 is a Marketing Manager at their re-spective companies and they are all customers of Swedish Match.

The process of deciding whether or not to attend the event was different among the invited due to the different positions the participants held. B1 receives approximately three invita-tions each month while B2 hardly ever gets invitations directly directed to him. In the case of Generalgolfen B2 did not receive a direct invitation, rather two other employees from the same company participated as well and they held positions in the company that was re-lated to Swedish Match and they were the ones who received the invitations. Both B1 and B3 received personal invitations. B1 found the invitation to be exclusive which was a rea-son why it caught his eye. Later, as his personal contact at Swedish Match was verbally tal-ented, he convinced B1 to participate at Generalgolfen. B1 stated that directly after the talk with his personal contact he signed up and argues that direct communication convinced better in this case. B1 further thinks that the event should not be over exaggerated in the invitation as the expectations can get to high. In B3’s case he had participated in General-golfen before and argued that a success record from Swedish Match’s previous events made him want to attend it once again. B3 also got a personal invitation that he argues is important in order to make the right people attend and invitations are not given to some-one who is not part of the targeted group. B3 thinks it is important to talk to the company arranging the event and asks if they consider giving an invitation to someone else to be al-right. When speaking generally about events, B1 on the other hand forward some event in-vitations to employees that he considers to be more suitable for attending the particular event. The teaser sent out in advance to notify the invited that something was going to happen, was considered efficient by B3. It was a good way to keep that date of the event

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free if nothing more important appeared. B1 on the other hand cancelled more important meetings on the basis that Generalgolfen was found appealing and fun.

When B1 deciding whether or not to attend an event B1 firstly considers the importance of the event. In some cases the position B1 holds requires participation in certain events. Rea-sons can be that the information given at the event is important, people expect B1 to be there, or the business partner is of high importance. The event should give something that makes you prioritise it. The goals B1 has when attending an event is to get information, to meet other participants, and have a good experience. In the case of Generalgolfen this event both offered an opportunity to maintain the relation with Swedish Match, network with other participants, and also playing golf which of interest to B1. At certain events it does not matter who else is there if the reason for attending it is more related to gaining in-formation. Although in Generalgolfen’s case B1 says that it was very interesting to find out how other actors involved with Swedish Match’s products work. Discussions concerning how these other actors work can generate in new ideas regarding how B1’s organisation can improve. The main reason for attending Generalgolfen was that it seemed like a fun event. Since B2 does not attend many events B2 attended Generalgolfen since golf in an interest and the two colleagues had participated before and had good recommendations. The in-formation about the Swedish Match and their products was nothing B2 had in mind before attending the event but found it interesting. It would still not be a reason to attend the event. The interaction with the other attendees was nothing B2 valued very much as B2 was not part of the target audience.

B3 foremost considers the business relation between his company and the arranging com-pany and argues that if the relation is good there are higher incentives to attend their events. This is the case of Swedish Match as B3 consider them being an important partner and enjoys the partners company. Generalgolfen both gave social value and product infor-mation that stimulated on different levels and was a positive experience. In this case the personal golf interest also played a part in the decision and specially the choice of golf course, Bro Hof, which attracted B3 very much. As mentioned B3 have participated in events arranged by Swedish Match before and had a positive memory about an enjoyable and well organised event. The interaction with the other attendees is seen as a chance to get knowledge about how other actors in the market conduct their business related to Swedish Match products and other suggestions and information exchange. The prize itself does not play a big part in the decision to attend the event rather it is the experience that is valuable as Generalgolfen is a generous event. B3 also states that it is the feeling of being on the winning team that is more important than a prize.

B1 states that it is important that an organisation does not exaggerate the characteristics and activities of the event. In the case of Generalgolfen B1 had a positive experience of the event as well as B3 who consider the experience of Generalgolfen being higher than the expectations.

4.3 SAPA

SAPA was founded in 1963 as the first production plant was set up in Vetlanda, Sweden where the head office still lies. Sapa Profiler is a subsidiary to SAPA AB and is world lead-ing in the supply of extrusion and value-added manufacturing of aluminium profiles. SAPA AB employs around 15000 people and production is conducted at plants in 18 countries (SAPA, 2007abc).

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The authors met Ruth Hasselgren and Annica Svensson who are Market coordinators at Sapa Profiler in Vetlanda for an interview for discussion of Sapa Profiler in relation to event marketing. The interview focused on the Hockey Night at Kinnarps Arena which was an event arranged by Sapa profiler on the 8th of November 2007.

4.3.1 Hockey Night at Kinnarps Arena

The marketing department at Sapa Profiler consists of seven different elements. Relation-ship marketing is one of them and this is where event marketing belongs in the company. Events create a more relaxed and positive relation between the company and its customers compared to the daily contact which usually only deals with pure business related conversa-tions and issues. Sapa Profiler has always worked extensively with events and the company has a history of arranging events that are well met by the attendees (Hasselgren & Svens-son, personal communication, 2007-11-27).

Depending on time and situation Sapa Profiler arrange events of different characteristics. Some events organised by Sapa Profiler does not have any informative purpose, the pur-pose is rather to socialize with the customers in an informal matter. Sometimes the atten-dees are not as open to information as other times and appreciate doing something that is not directly business related. However most events have some informative purpose where seminars, internal and external speakers, etc are used. This was the case for the event Hockey night at Kinnarps arena which is described below (Hasselgren & Svensson, per-sonal communication, 2007-11-27).

The event that the authors of the thesis will analyze further is the event arranged by Sapa Profiler at Kinnarps arena, Jönköping’s sport centre, the 8th November 2007. The com-pany invited so called AA and A customers to this particular event which are two catego-ries of customers (Sapa Profiler, 2007d). The relation to AA customers are of strategic characteristics and decisive for Sapa Profiler future success. The relation to a customer is very important although not decisive for Sapa Profiler future development. They limited the invitations to construction managers and purchase managers. The reason for the limita-tion was due to preferences from the sales force at Sapa Profiler and also because the event was concerned with product development. These customers are very important to keep and develop good relations with and the Kinnarps event allowed Sapa Profiler to meet them face-to-face for a few hours. The reason for arranging the event at the specific point in time was due to the Subcontractor fair taking place at Elmia, Jönköping during the days around the 8th of November. Elmia is located right next to Kinnarps arena. Sapa Profiler knew that many of their customers were attending the subcontractor fair and saw an op-portunity in meeting customers while they were in the area. A hockey game was also played between Sweden and Russia this evening and SAPA bought tickets already in February to ensure it would be possible to attend it. The aim of the event included many different as-pects and the company had many reasons for arranging the event. It was a combination of allowing the customers to meet representatives from Sapa Profiler, listen to speakers, see exhibition of products, have dinner, and of course watch the hockey game at Kinnarps. When the tickets were bought in February Sapa Profiler was not aware that a new CEO would be employed in august. As it turned out, the Hockey Night was a perfect occasion for the new CEO to present himself to the company’s customers. Sapa Profiler AB was merged with Alcoa during the summer. The event was also an opportunity for Sapa Profiler AB to present the positive effects of the joint venture (Hasselgren & Svensson, personal communication, 2007-11-27).

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There where 49 tickets in total used at the Hockey Night at Kinnarps Arena. This number included sales employees at SAPA as well as the CEO and speakers. The event started at 3 pm when the employees of Sapa Profiler got the opportunity to meet their respective cus-tomers. There were also a product exhibition part which the attendees had the possibility to take part of while they where drinking coffee and talking to each other. Sapa Profiler had arranged a small question competition concerning the exhibition partly in order for the at-tendees to interact but also to influence them to pay attention to the company’s products. At 4 pm the new CEO held a seminar followed by an information discussion about the product development from the manager from Technical Service department. The seminars were followed by dinner and entertainment consisting of stand up comedy by Thomas Oredsson and information from Curt Lundmark, the previous captain of the Swedish hockey team. After the dinner the hockey started in Kinnarps Arena. During the breaks of the game the attendees came back to the event location for refreshments, getting the right answers to the question competition, and also to listen to Curt Lundmark for comments about the game. Sapa Profiler wanted the attendees to pay attention to the product exhibi-tion as much as possible which is a reason for the company to attract the attendees to come back in the breaks (Hasselgren & Svensson, personal communication, 2007-11-27).

4.3.2 Attracting Visitors

The invitations were send out almost two months in advance. The invited customers were selected by the employees working with sales at Sapa Profiler and they were also the ones who were notified about their attendance directly. While the invitations were sent out at an early stage SAPA profile had the possibility to send out another round of invitations to a second group of customers when they found out the number of declines in the first group. If the invitations would have been sent later this would not have been possible since the new round of invited customers might have felt they were the “second hand choice”. Overall, Ruth Hasselgren and Annica Svensson (2007) found that a good number of the invited customers chose to attend the event. Ruth Hasselgren (2007) considers the timing of the invitation is important in order to make invited customers attend an event. If the in-vitations come very early there is a risk they will only be laid aside as customer will think it is yet still far away in the calendar. On the other hand they should not be sent out too late, as peoples’ calendars will then already be fully booked. When it was decided that a famous Swedish hockey player would play in the game on the 8th of November the demand for tickets suddenly increased which indicates that customers were thinking about coming only because of the Hockey game and nothing else (Hasselgren & Svensson, personal commu-nication, 2007-11-27).

When first planning the event, it was in a relationship building purpose. The 8th of Novem-ber was a good time as the subcontractor fair was taking place during these days and it was possible to capture some important customers through the creation of a corporate event. Sapa Profiler found an informative purpose of the event in the sense that the new CEO was going to speak and also in the product exhibition arranged. When the invitations were to be sent out, different aims of the event had become evident. The hockey in itself was of course still an important factor for arranging the event and making customers attend it but the seminar held by the CEO was something that made the event even more attractive as management is important for some of the customers invited. According to Ruth Hassel-gren (2007) the hockey is more of a by-product. The new CEO is young and does not have a background within production that is totally new to Sapa Profiler and its management. It was very important that he had the chance to meet and talk to important customers in lead-ing positions as they are very interested in how Sapa Profiler is managed in the future. Sapa

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Profiler’s own marketing survey showed that the CEO gave a positive and reliable impres-sion (Hasselgren & Svensson, personal communication, 2007-11-27).

Ruth Hasselgren (2007) believes that some customers attend an event such as the Hockey Night for the purpose of meeting other people within the same industry or other related industries in the same position as them. The attending people usually know that other peo-ple similar to themselves will attend events.

4.3.3 SAPA Customer Interviews

The authors held interviews with three attendees of the Hockey night at Kinnarps Arena that was arranged by Sapa Profiler on the 8th of November. The interviewees will be named C1, C2, and C3. C1 is a Purchaser, C2 is a Purchase Manager, and C3 is a Product Manager at their respective companies and they are all customers of Sapa Profiler.

C1, C2, and C3 do not attend events very often. Considering the Hockey night at Kinnarps Arena C1 received the invitation around 3-4 weeks before the event by regular mail. C1’s chief also received an invitation and the two of them attended the event together. C2 also obtained the invitation by mail and as he questioned what the event further was about, C2 received more information through email. C3 on the other hand received the invitation from their contact person at SAPA face-to-face around 1-2 weeks before the event and at-tended the event together with two colleagues. The three customers were all present at the Subcontractor fair before attending Sapa Profiler’s event.

As the three customers all attended the subcontractor fair the same day, attending the Hockey night arranged by Sapa Profiler was rather likely. C1 decided to attend the event also because the new CEO was going to be present. The hockey was not the reason for C1 to attend the event. It was rather the whole concept that attracted C1, the information about the CEO and product development as well as the dinner and hockey. C1 had re-ceived four invitations to the hockey from different companies however the other compa-nies offered only hockey and not anything else, which is why C1 decided to attend Sapa Profiler’ event. C2 was also interested in the fact that the new CEO was presenting himself at the event. C2 actually asked a contact at Sapa Profiler what would be gained by attending the event and when he told C2 that the new CEO was coming C2 thought it was interest-ing enough to attend. C2 stated that it was important that the event was work related oth-erwise C2 would probably not have attended the event as time is valuable and you do not want to attend an event if it does not feel important to do so. C2 argues that the hockey game in itself was not important when deciding whether or not to attend the event, might as well have watched the game at home on TV. C3 had been asking the respective contact at Sapa Profiler for an event such as the Hockey night at Kinnarps Arena to take place. C3 was therefore decisive to attend the event as the invitation came. Except the hockey, C3 also found the speakers and other attendees to be valuable when deciding whether or not to attend the event although C3 would have attended only for the hockey as well.

C1 found that the expectations of the event were fulfilled at the actual event although the hockey talk during the dinner was not extremely appreciated. C1 would rather have had music or something similar enabling conversations to take place to a larger extent. There was too much entertainment which circled around hockey, otherwise C1 found the enter-tainment fun. The information given during the event was not very important to C1 al-though it is always interesting to see what other companies are actually doing. C1 mostly talked to representatives from Sapa Profiler and not so much to other attendees of the event. In other instances other attendees can be very interesting to C1 in the sense that

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they can exchange experiences although in the case of this particular event the representa-tives from Sapa Profiler were more attractive to talk to. C2 found the new CEO interesting to listen to, except him there was nothing new C2 had not heard before from Sapa Profiler. C2 had also been listening to people from the technical development department previ-ously. C2 found the dinner nice but still argues that C2 could as well have been at home having dinner with the family. However C2 ended up having a nice evening with live hockey. C2 only talked to the new CEO very shortly and they did not have time to talk fur-ther about work related issues, rather C2 prefer to discuss work related issues with the companies contact person at Sapa Profiler. The product exhibition could have been inter-esting but in this case C2 had already seen it all but still thinks it is a very good idea, espe-cially for new customers who have not seen it before. C3 believed the expectation before the event was fulfilled during the event. The entertainment was very good and the hockey and information as well.

Both C1 and C2 believe they were invited because they are big customers who are impor-tant to Sapa Profiler. C2 further believes that the event was arranged in order to give the new CEO a nice entrance and a first contact with some customers. It did not matter who else was attending the event as the invited companies usually are of different character and if wanting to meet people C2 rather goes to a fair organised for the industry they operate in. On the other hand C2 argues that bring open to people is vital, as you never know what can be gained. C3 believe they were invited, as Sapa Profiler want to maintain good relation between the companies and market the company in best possible way. There are many ac-tors in the industry that Sapa Profiler operates in today and therefore it is crucial with good relations. The company where C3 works have been a customer to Sapa Profiler for over a decade and C3 have an interest in meeting the people from Sapa Profiler at an event such as the Hockey night at Kinnarps Arena. C3 prepared for the event in the sense that C3 talks about own projects at the event. C3 had already seen the product exhibition; hence it was not very important or interesting. C3 also mentions that it is interesting also to attend certain events only for the pleasure and not in the purpose of business.

4.4 Chevrolet

General Motors Corporation is the world’s largest automaker who sells the following brands: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Holden, HUMMER, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn and Vauxhall. GM Nordic was established in 2004 and has the re-sponsibility for sales and after sales of Opel, Saab and Chevrolet cars in the Nordic market. In Sweden GM has 846 dealerships selling these three mentioned car brands and GM has 5802 employees in Sweden where approximately 130 persons works at GM Nordic in Stockholm (General Motors, 2007).

The brand Chevrolet was established in 1911 by Louis Chevrolet, a European engineer, and Billy Durant, the American who later founded General Motors. Today Chevrolet can be found in approximately 70 countries (Chevrolet, 2007).

In this case we will focus on Chevrolet’s corporate event at the World Touring Car Cham-pionship (WTCC) which took place in Anderstorp on the 28th and 29th of July 2007. The interview was held with Maria Stenbom, Integrated Communications Project Manager Chevrolet Europe, and Gisela Gerner, Chevrolet Communication Manager General Motors Norden AB.

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4.4.1 Corporate event at WTCC

WTCC takes place every year and in 2007 eleven races was taking place at different loca-tions around the world and one was located in Anderstorp, Sweden. Chevrolet is one of the car brands participating at the WTCC and the focus will be on WTCC in Anderstorp.

The target audience for the corporate event at WTCC was Chevrolet retailers and their cus-tomers. According to Maria Stenbom (2007) a car racing appearance has a strong relation to brand awareness and sales. From Chevrolets perspective the aim with the event was to create brand awareness and let the customer know who they are, what they stand for and which products they have. That is the reason why the WTCC was chosen as the arena for this event where they could expose the brand (M. Stenbom, personal communication, 2007-11-26).

The event took place during two days, starting on Saturday the 28th where special chosen guests were invited to a VIP event. During this day the attendees were able to follow the qualification race later followed by a barbeque. They were also able to join the three Chev-rolet WTCC drivers in the car on a hot lap on the track. On Sunday the 29th another 200 invited guests arrived to participate in the event. This day started with a lunch before the race in the afternoon. After the race a press conference was held with the drivers in the Chevrolet hospitality tent where the attendees could discuss with the drivers. In this com-petition the Chevrolet drivers held the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place that made this press conference even more positive (M. Stenbom, personal communication, 2007-11-26).

One aim of the event was to create a forum where people could interact and network with the Chevrolet crew and each other. The employees from Chevrolet in the Nordic countries were invited since the event also aimed at creating internal marketing in the sense that the employees could enjoy the event and feel belongingness towards Chevrolet (M. Stenbom, personal communication, 2007-11-26).

4.4.2 Attracting visitors

Further Maria Stenbom and Gisela Gerner (2007) means that it is important to create an event that is suitable and appealing to the invited. In this case Chevrolet assumed a genuine interest in cars and motor sport and wanted to communicate the message that this will be days filled with activities concerning the interest. The invited were Chevrolet retailers’ em-ployees such as sales people, office people and mechanics as well as customers to the retail-ers, to make everyone feel a part of Chevrolet and be able to attend such an event. The VIP customers were those who held a CEO or sales manager position. This variety of at-tendees made it possible for people to interact and discuss with them different parts of the whole Chevrolet chain, ending with the customer (Stenbom & Gerner, personal communi-cation, 2007-11-26).

The WTCC event itself was heavily promoted in TV, Radio, Press and outdoor promotion. The Chevrolet event invitation was sent to the selected attendees via mail and later fol-lowed up by phone calls or face-to-face discussion from the Chevrolet sales force (M. Stenbom, personal communication, 2007-11-26).

To provide some information to the attendees Chevrolet had hoped to be able to display a new car at the event that also could attract some visitors, though this was not possible this year. Instead they provided information in a leaflet concerning the coming launches of new cars and about the drivers at WTCC. At the same time all attendees are quite knowledge-

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able about Chevrolet since they work with their products on a daily basis (M. Stenbom, personal communication, 2007-11-26).

According to Maria Stenbom (2007) it has become harder to arrange events as the number of events has increased and people don’t have the time to attend all of them. When choos-ing which events to attend people are interested in who else is attending the event, how the agenda is planned, and what the event can contribute to them.

The corporate event at WTCC is very suitable for the target audience since they in general share a genuine interest for motor sports. Chevrolet wanted the event to be created so that networking possibilities could be seen as a possible motivator for people to attend. While both the employees at Chevrolets offices in the Nordic countries and the retailers partici-pated a unique opportunity to interact and network was created. It also provided the op-portunity for the retailers to invite their customers and thereby exposes them to Chevrolet and to strengthen their relationship in a relaxed and positive atmosphere. To provide a platform for interaction Chevrolet also supplied the retailer’s conference rooms and other facilities to have meetings with their customers. The two interactions with the Chevrolet drivers when the VIP attendees could go in the car with and also during the press confer-ence was also a way to attract people (Stenbom & Gerner, personal communication, 2007-11-26).

One possible drawback with this event was that WTCC was taking place on the 29th of July that is the high season for holidays (M. Stenbom, personal communication, 2007-11-26).

4.4.3 Chevrolet Customer Interviews

The authors held interviews with two attendees of the corporate event at WTCC that was arranged by Chevrolet the 28th-29th of July 2007. The interviewees will be named D1 who is a Sales Manager and D2 who is a General Manager. The two companies are retailers to General Motors and Chevrolet.

D1 first got to know about the event through Mia Stenbom at a meeting where they met personally. Later on D1 received an invitation to the event by email. Usually D1 does not receive very many invitations to events. D1 found the event interesting, as it was a possibil-ity to see three famous drivers in action. The fact that it was an invitation to the WTCC (World Touring Car Championship) and not the STCC (Swedish Touring Car Champion-ship) made the event especially interesting to attend. D1 further has a personal interest in Chevrolet cars. D1 still says that the main motive for attending the event was to meet peo-ple who have been working at different places and also to meet the contacts at Chevrolet. According to D1 it is easier to stay in contact and keep track of who does what etcetera if you meet people face-to-face. You do not attend events only for pleasure, there has to be something more to it. It is a bonus if it is fun as well.

D2 received the invitation from Chevrolet’s sales manager who spoke about it at a regular meeting. D2 also received a formal invitation later on. D2 found it interesting to attend the event as D2 has a personal interest in cars and was already in the area of where the event was going to take place. The main motive was personal interest and engagement although D2 also found it interesting to meet colleagues from the industry who sells the same brand, hence Chevrolet. Exchanging experiences concerning car models, how business is going in general etcetera. Networking can definitely be a motive for attending an event such as the WTCC although in this case D2 found personal reasons to be the main motivator. Nor-mally D2 does not attend many events, as the days usually are not long enough for these

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kinds of activities. It was possible for D2 to attend the WTCC as it was during D2’s vaca-tion and time was not as scarce as during working weeks. D2 does not attend events if they are not stimulating in any way, it they are not D2 might as well be at work getting things done. In order for D2 to attend an event it needs to be something “bigger” such as the WTCC where a lot of things happen. The event itself is what determines if D2 attend it or not. It should not be too informative as it can feel too heavy and create a “back to the school bench-feeling”. In that case you might not attend the event at all. D2 rather attend en event that is arranged by someone you work with, in this case Chevrolet. Chevrolet is a part of out every day life and work so the odds of attending one of their events are greater compared to other companies’ events.

D1 feels that the expectations before the event were fulfilled as the event took place except that it was a little bit too far to go in order to get there and the placement during the races was not as good as hoped. D1 does not think that the timing of the event matters much as long as you know about it in advance and can plan and prepare for the event. D1 find it in-teresting both to meet other retailers working with the same things and also Chevrolet em-ployees. If knowing beforehand that many interesting individuals will attend an event, it is more probable that D1 will attend an event. The formal information received during the event was not particularly important; it is rather the face-to-face contact, which is of inter-est and importance.

D2 definitely found the event to live up to the expectations D2 had before the event took place. It was a great event and a very cool experience. The overall impression and experi-ence was very positive. The only think D2 finds negative is that the event was during the summer although it worked out in this case as D2 was not too far from the place of the event. D2 believes more people would attend the event if it was not arranged during peo-ples’ vacation. On the other hand D2 finds the fact that the event was on a weekend to be a good thing as many people are very busy at work and do not have time to attend events during working days.

D1 thinks that their customers would have appreciated coming to an event such as WTCC and it can enable you o keep a customer. In the case of WTCC, D1 did not invite custom-ers to come to the event, the reason being that it was arranged during a vacation week. Af-terwards D1 was pleased that customers were not invited as the weather was very bad and they might not have appreciated the event as very much anyways. D2 thinks it would have been a good thing to bring customers to WTCC as the can place Chevrolet in their minds as a brand connected to something fun. If the purpose of the event would have been to ac-tually make sales D2 would definitely attend. D2 believes that Chevrolet’s main purpose of arranging the event was to profile Chevrolet as a sport brand.

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5 Analysis

_____________________________________________________________________

This section describes how the empirical findings have been analysed in relation to the frame of reference. The analysis is conducted in order to fulfil the purpose of the thesis and provide the reader with deeper insight concerning the research area. The analysis also provides a foundation for the conclusion that will follow in the next section. _____________________________________________________________________

5.1 Defining the cases

The four events that have been examined fit the definition of Goldblatt’s (2001) definition of a corporate event as they all are sponsored by a corporation with the intention to achieve specific goals and objectives. The authors also found that all events are character-ised by the feature expressed by Shine & Perry (2001) as they are unique and temporary oc-currences, have unpredictable outcomes, and calls for interaction. It is further found that the different events are partly promotional driven and partly reputation driven (Carroll, 2006). FKOM can mainly be seen as a reputation driven event as it included conferences and seminars and one aim was to strengthen customer relation (Carroll, 2006). SAP is a company offering complex products and services and FKOM enables them to give cus-tomers a better understanding of their business offers. Generalgolfen is also found to in-clude factors related to a reputation driven event in the sense that it strengthens the rela-tion with the company’s customers. However Generalgolfen is also promotional driven as Jörgen Isdahl claims Swedish Match aims at influencing their customers’ attitude towards the brand (Carroll, 2006). This was evident as the event included product exposure that can influence customer perception. The Hockey Night at Kinnarps arena is mainly reputation driven, as it is a corporate event where the important customers are invited in order for Sapa Profiler to strengthen the relation towards these individuals. The corporate event at WTCC arranged by Chevrolet is the most promotional driven event out of the four. It was arranged in order for Chevrolet to expose their brand and create brand awareness and ap-pear at a professional car race making attendees perceive Chevrolet cars as being excellent.

5.2 Reasons for arranging the events

All cases have different motives for creating the respective events. The marketing motive pre-sented by Goldblatt (2001) is evident in all the four cases as all companies creating events appreciate the face-to-face contact and awareness-creating aspect. However, the marketing motive is more obvious in the case of WTCC and Generalgolfen as the intension was to ef-fect the attendees attitude towards the company and brand.

According to Mike Wong, SAP’s main motives for creating the event were to educate peo-ple within the industry about the company and its future strategies concerning product launches and technology. The motives are in accordance with what Holm & Karlsson (2001) describe as exposure of current products and exposure of new products and technology. Gold-blatt (2001) also mention education as one of four motives for organisations arranging events. This aspect is especially apparent in case of SAP in the sense that attendees are ex-posed to new technology used by SAP and obtains general information about the company and the industry tied to it. Jörgen Isdahl argues that the primary objectives for creating Generalgolfen were to create goodwill among central and local customers. He also denotes

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that Swedish Match aimed at creating a positive experience that possibly influences the cus-tomers’ attitudes towards the company and brand. The motives are linked to a few of the purposes proposed by Holm & Karlsson (2001), primarily establish and strengthen the image and create an experience for the attendees. The reason why Swedish Match chose to create an event with the above-mentioned motives is that an increased positive attitude towards the company can generate in better long-term relations and sales opportunities. In that sense an indirect motive is found, hence establish and strengthen the relations. Swedish Match also chose to include exposure of products that also can be seen as a secondary aim of General-golfen. This is closely related to Goldblatt’s (2001) theory that presents education as a mo-tive for creation of events. The education motive is not as evident as in the case of FKOM rather it is carried out in a more informal matter. Behrer & Larsson (1998) argues that inte-gration of different promotional tools can be used simultaneously to influence the atten-dees. They also argues that events are mainly seen as platforms for direct communication although it gives opportunities for other marketing tools such as sales promotion, personal selling, and marketing material to be used as well. This kind of marketing integration is ap-parent in the case of Generalgolfen where marketing material was used throughout the tournaments. Golf pegs, towels, golf balls, and flags are examples of material where the Swedish Match logo was printed. Generalgolfen further integrated different promotional tools by offering product trials during the event.

When the event was first planned, the main motive for creating the Hockey night at Kin-narps arena was to create a good experience for the important customers of the company. However as time past the motives came to change and as the invitations were send out the purpose was a mix of many motives. Finally, the main motives were to enable customers to meet SAPA profile representatives, inform the attendees about products and the new CEO, and also to allow for socialization and having a good experience. The motives for the creation of the Hockey night at Kinnarps arena are mainly related to Holm & Karlsson’s (2001) establish and strengthen the relation, exposure to products, and create an experience for the atten-dees. Goldblatt’s education perspective on motives can be found also among the motives for Sapa Profiler’ creation of their event. The new CEO was presented and attendees gained information related to products and product development. Mia Stenbom argues that the reason for the creation of corporate event at WTCC was to create brand awareness and let the get familiar with the company, the brand, and the products. Here, the motive estab-lishes and strengthens the image presented by Holm & Karlsson (2001) is clearly connected to the main motive of event. The creation of the corporate event at WTCC also allowed the company to meet their retailers and employees in which Holm & Karlsson (2001) calls focus on the organisation and this is explained to create solidarity and belongingness among the at-tendees. This can be seen as an indirect aim of the event creation.

5.3 Attracting visitors

5.3.1 The importance of targeting

The motives for arranging events are diverse and the four cases in the thesis have stressed the aims that were important for the creation of their particular event. As Meeting News (2006) suggests it is very important to find the people whom are most suitable for particu-lar events. The aim of the events should be directed towards certain groups in order for it to be successful in the sense that it contributes to the company arranging the event. The target groups in the four events mostly include individuals who have positions enabling them to influence decision making within the companies in one way or another. Meeting

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news (2006) further suggests that it can be effective to focus on a small target group with executives and managers enhancing the quality of the event. In this sense Sapa Profiler acted in accordance with this theory as a rather small number of the company’s most im-portant customers were invited to the Hockey night at Kinnarps arena. The event thereby invested in the individuals who have relevant positions within their respective company and whose relation and interest towards Sapa Profiler is vital. The three customers who were interviewed, C1, C2, and C3 suited the targeted group well as they held positions that can influence decision making within respective company.

Chevrolet’s target group consisted of employees as well as retailers from all over Sweden. According to Behrer & Larsson (1998) the positive aspect of involving employees in an event is that the internal environment can be strengthen and a unified view towards the other stakeholders can be delivered. Among the invited people from the retailers there were sales people, managers, and mechanics. This indicates that not only managers, hence decision makers, were invited which can be related to the quality aspect presented by Meet-ing News (2006). However, the first day the company invited only VIP customers that can be seen as quality enhancing according to Meeting News (2006). Also the aim of the event was not only to influence decision makers, it was to influence the attitude of all involved individuals working with, or driving, a Chevrolet. The fact that not only decision makers were a part of the target group can thereby be seen as being in accordance with the objec-tives. As the aim was to influence the attitude, Chevrolet found the chosen target group to be better suited compared to if only decision makers would have been invited. D1 and D2 were part of the target group and they held positions that Chevrolet wanted to reach out to. On the other hand, the two retailers did not invite their respective customers who were suppose to be part of the target group but did not actually get invited. FKOM was a large-scale event with more than 3000 participants and there were mostly managers and other in-fluencers attending the event. Although the target group was considerably large it only in-cluded executives and managers that are in accordance with what Meeting News (2006) names quality enhancing. The customers who were interviewed were all managers and di-rectors and were part of the group considered to be important to target.

Swedish Match directed their invitations towards a larger audience that included not only the decision makers. The sales force at Swedish Match chose the attendees, as they know who is most suitable according to them. The target group was less fixed and some invita-tions were handed over between people within the invited companies. This indicates that individuals who were not part of the target group can attend the event. It is clear that cus-tomer B2 did not have a position related to Swedish Match or their products as B2 works at a department dealing with tobacco products. B2 did not receive a personal invitation; hence B2 was not intended to be a part of the target group for Generalgolfen. Both B1 and B3 obtained personal invitations and B3 argues that personal invitations are important for arranging company to make sure that only the targeted individuals will attend the event.

5.3.2 Delivering the message

Carroll (2006) suggests that there are different promotional activities that can be used to build up the attractiveness of an event. Mike Wong states that an invitation was send out to the target group of FKOM, which is a promotional tool Carroll (2006) names direct mail. B1 firstly got an invitation send to him by mail and as B1 received a phone call from the per-sonal contact at Swedish Match B1 got more interested. B1 argues that direct communica-tion convinced better in this case. B3 firstly received a teaser by mail, which B3 found to be an efficient way to gain B3’s interest. The teaser was followed by a formal invitation by

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mail. The promotional tools used to attract the invited people to Generalgolfen were found to be phone calls and direct mail. Sapa Profiler reached out to their target group by sending an invitation by mail, except in the case of C3 who received the invitation face-to-face. This was the only planned promotional activity although C2 received more personal information when C2 talked to the personal contact at Sapa Profiler followed by an email from the company. The same promotional activities, phone calls and direct mail can be found in the case of Sapa Profiler. C2 points out the importance of gaining information about why he particularly should attend a certain event and how it can be related to C2’s work. C2 stresses what is in accordance with Behrer & Larsson (1998) who argues that it is essential that a corporate event offers the invited an appealing alternative to their normal disposition time. The promotional activities used by Chevrolet to attract individuals to the corporate event at WTCC were very much similar to those used by the other three companies. Both D1 and D2 firstly came to know about the event through personal face-to-face communi-cation and later on received an invitation by email.

The empirical findings overall indicate that except direct mail personal phone calls or meet-ings have been used to attract invited people to attend the events. The use of direct com-munication can generate in noise being diminished in the sense expressed by Shimp (2003) and Fill (2002). In the communication process Shimp (2003) and Fill (2002) argues that noise such as interference or interruption of a message can be delimited by use of direct communication. In the case of the four events, companies have a chance to explain and ar-gue for the reasons what particular individuals will gain from attending the event. When the message is delivered or clarified personally it is a good chance that factors which otherwise would interfere disappear. As in the case of C2 the person doubted the message of the event however when receiving direct information concerning the benefits of event it was clearer as the ingredients that C2 found unnecessary were not highlighted. The factors that were considered to be noise to C2 at this stage vanished. The same can be observed in the case of B1 who better understood what the personal reasons for him attending the event could be. Fill (2002) argues that directed and more targeted promotional activities are used today and its success is evident in the cases of both C2 and B1. Fill (2002) further argues that the so called permission-based approach has become more common it focuses on communication with already interested groups of companies/individuals. The companies whom are customers to SAP, Swedish Match, Sapa Profiler, and Chevrolet surely have an interest in the respective company however it is up to each and every individual to decide whether or not the events in themselves are interesting to them. The ones choosing to at-tend the events have a shown interest as they have decided to attend it that according to Fill (2002) indicates that relationships are established in accordance with the attendees’ de-mands. In all of the four cases the interest is high as they attend the respective event al-though different people are interested in different aspects of the event.

According to Behrer & Larsson (1998) argues that interaction and integration follows the meeting, experience, and message that are main ingredients of any event. Frankelius (1997) claims it is important that the message delivers the right information before, during, and af-ter an event. In order to do so it is important to understand what is essential and interesting to the invited individuals. Frankelius (1997) continues by stating that directing a message towards an individual gives a high success probability. As have been described previously a number of attendees (B1 & C3) highlighted the importance of direct communication. It is clear that direct communication not only is important for attracting customers but also to communication of a certain message. Fill (2002) further also states that problem can occur when companies direct messages towards many target groups although same messages might not be suitable for all of the. In the case of Sapa Profiler event it can be seen that

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different messages were important to different attendees, C1 was absolutely not interested in the hockey on the contrary C3 had been waiting for a hockey invitation. Sapa Profiler managed to understand that individuals were not attracted by the same messages and in-cluded information about the speakers and product information already in the pre-event stage. C2 would not either attend the event if the message of the event only included hockey, the event have to include aspects which are related to work. What C2 state is in ac-cordance with Fill (2002) who states that the message should be rational and informative in B2B markets compared to B2C markets, as the attendees at corporate event are more likely to attend for business purpose. In all cases presented in the thesis, the message more or less included the right information in all those stages. In the case of FKOM the invited people were highly aware of all that was going to take place during the event already in the pre-event stage as extensive information was received as the invitations were send out.

5.3.3 The meeting

Behrer & Larsson (1998) and Maat (2004) suggest that the meeting taking place during an event allows communication and interaction to take place between an organisation and its stakeholders. The four cases in the thesis all enable interaction to take place in the actual face-to-face meeting during the events. However it can be seen that the different events use this direct kind of communication to different extent and in different ways. FKOM was a large scale event and it seems as if the face-to-face communication may not be as obvious compared to if the event would be smaller and more personal. The meeting during the FKOM was more characterised by one-way communication rather than two-way dialogu-ing. According to Bergh, Lindgren, Anderson (2004) an event enables dialoguing and ar-gues that one-way communication is now a poor alternative for influencing of attendants. However the aim of FKOM was to educate the attendants hence the dialoguing may not have been as important as it is in other occasions. It can also be said that although the fo-cus way not primarily on dialoguing the meeting at FKOM still allowed for this kind of two-way communication to take place. Turning to Generalgolfen the meeting taking place was highly interactive in the sense that Swedish Match representatives were present and ac-tive during at the gold course. They played together with the attendants during four-five hours, which allowed for dialoguing to a great extent. The Hockey night at Kinnarps Arena also allowed for a meeting although it might not have been as interactive as in the case of Generalgolfen. Since SAPA invited a very limited number of guests the event held a small qualitative standard were personal two-way communication could take place. During the dinner the attendees were seated next to SAPA representatives allowing for interaction to take place. C1 on the other hand argued that some dialoguing diminished due to the enter-tainment taking place during the dinner, which sometimes made talking impossible. There were also some other one-way communication activities taking place such as information from the CEO as well as the technical service department. The corporate event at WTCC can be divided in two parts in relation to the meeting. The Saturday allowed for more ex-tensive face-to-face communication and interaction as the attendees there were 80 com-pared to the Sunday when 250 attended WTCC. At the VIP event attendees were mixed with Chevrolet representatives and the meeting between them and also between the differ-ent attendees allowed for interaction. Dialoguing occurred at the barbecue, during the test driving of Chevrolet cars, etcetera. The focus the next day was the experience as it mostly consisted of car races and not as much dialoguing although retailers were provided with conference rooms where meetings with customers could take place. However, the retailers interviewed did not use these. The fact that the event was two days long increased the overall possibilities for two-way communication to take place. Naturally, attendees and

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Chevrolet representatives had many opportunities to dialogue compared to if the event only took place during a few hours.

According to Frankelius (1997) the meeting can strengthen relations in a genuine matter, which indicates that depending on the degree of face-to-face interaction the organisations in the four cases can develop relationships differently.

Behrer & Larsson (1998) further argues that the place of the meeting also can be of great importance when considering the attractiveness of an event. The corporate event at WTCC was based on the fact that the races took place at this particular place and point in time. The corporate event at WTCC did not control the place and timing of the races rather it was adapted according to the WTCC races. Anderstorp is otherwise not a common meet-ing place for people to gather as it is not close to any large city in Sweden although the WTCC races are well known and transforms Anderstorp in to an attractive meeting place during these particular dates. According to Behrer & Larsson (1998) it is important to con-sider this distance to the event as it can effect the attractiveness. It also took place during the summer when most people have vacation and even though they might be more flexible they also have a lot of plans during this time of the year. In the case of Sapa Profiler’ event at Kinnarps arena the timing and place was extremely significant. The fact that the subcon-tractor fair took place during the same time as Sapa Profiler’ event increased the possibili-ties for attracting attendees. Sapa Profiler knew that many of their customers were going to participate at the fair that was situated right next to Kinnarps arena. Sapa Profiler further has a conference room at Kinnarps arena, which they can use at any given point in time. The hockey game was taking place this particular day at Kinnarps arena, which made the placement of the event even greater and attractive for the invited. Generalgolfen made it possible for attendants to play golf at a course not too far from where they live and work while seven different tournaments where held at different locations in Sweden. The impor-tance of place and distance discussed by Behrer & Larsson (1998) also applies here, as it probably would have been more problematic for the invited to attend the event if it was situated further away. The final tournament was held at the golf course Bro-hof, which is an extremely well-known course outside Stockholm city. The fact that the final tournament was taking place at Bro-hof was a strategic choice made by Swedish Match when planning the event, as attendants hopefully would find the particular meeting place very attractive. Turning to SAP and the FKOM event it can be argued that the choice of using Hong Kong as the meeting place was strategically oriented as it is a hub in the Asia/Pacific re-gion. The location could however have a negative impact on the attendants, as their ability to travel to Hong Kong at these particular dates may be limited.

5.3.4 Creating an experience

As Maat (2004) states experience is an essential aspect of events as it can be an efficient way to reach the customers as people are overloaded by different messages. An experience makes it easier for people to accept a message as they will immerge themselves in the ex-perience. Behrer & Larsson (1998) agrees with Maat (2004) and argues that a positive ex-perience can simplify the message that the company aims at delivering. The corporate event at WTCC focused on experience to a great extend as the many activities was related to cars and races. On Saturday the VIP guest had the opportunity to sit next to a racing driver in Chevrolet racing cars when driving. On Sunday the actual races were taking place, which in itself is an experience that can relate Chevrolet cars to the message that the company wanted to deliver. The fact that the invited also had opportunity to talk to the racing driv-ers after the races further contributed to the experience. All these activities were definitely a

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way for Chevrolet to generate unique, impressing, memorable, and entertaining experiences for the attendants. Maat (2004) and Behrer & Larsson (1998) argues this kind of memora-ble and positive experience can lead to a better reputation and positive attitude towards the arranging company. In accordance with Maat (2004) the experiences can be seen as an effi-cient way to reach the invited people especially since they all work within the automobile industry and seem to have personal interest in cars. In Generalgolfen the golf experience was used to attract people to come to the event. Since they held the final at Bro Hof, which as mentioned is a top quality course the experience was further enhanced. The event was an opportunity for Swedish Match to create a positive experience for their customers and the whole event circled around golf, which in itself is an experience. Generalgolfen can in accordance with what Maat (2004) and Behrer & Larsson (1998) argue generate in a memo-rable and entertaining experience. The message and aims of Generalgolfen was to create a positive attitude towards the company and it can be argued that by generating a great ex-perience the aims of the event are more likely achieved. The Hockey night at Kinnarps arena also emphasized the experience aspect of events, as the hockey game was an experi-ence to the attendees. Also the entertainment during the dinner and hockey brakes can be seen as generating a positive experience. FKOM on the other hand did not focus in experi-ences related to entertainment to the same extend as the other three events in the thesis. The event did however include educational experiences, which according to Maat (2004) is another way of incorporate the experience angle. The event further did not focus on indi-viduals’ personal interests

5.4 Motivation factors

Vroom (1995) defines motivation as pursuing something in order to receive something. Several customer interviews indicate that this definition is valid in the cases explored in the thesis. The attendants of FKOM all states that the main reason for attending the event was to gain information about SAP and its technology and products, which indicate that they want to receive something that is highly business related. A2 clearly states that pure busi-ness events are preferable. When connecting the customer motivation factors for the FKOM event with Holm & Karlsson’s (2001) model of event purposes it can be argued that they coincide with the aims of SAP as the motive for attending the event are in all three cases to get exposed to products and technology. A3 also wanted to gain information about the industry overall. It is further evident that the motives for the three attendees are closely linked to the education motive proposed by Goldblatt (2002). A1 and A3 further found it important to know that other interesting people were invited and attending FKOM and the networking possibilities were definitely a motivating factor for attending the event. The SAP customer interviews implies that the motivation factors are of intrinsic characteristics as they in accordance with Frey & Osterloh (2002) are guided by internal factors, hence not exogenous factors such as money. The customer interviews connected to Generalgolfen also indicate that intrinsic motivation is taking place and different kinds of intrinsic motiva-tion can further be pointed out. B2 points out that the main motive for attending General-golfen was for pleasure, as B2 likes to play golf. B2’s motivation can be linked to the kind of intrinsic motivation, which Frey & Osterloh (2002) argues takes place when the activity carried out provides pleasure in itself. B1 and B3 also mention the golf in itself to be a mo-tivating factor but also state that it is important to keep a good the relation to Swedish Match and gain information about products, meet representatives as well as other people from the industry. These last motivation factors can be linked to the kind of intrinsic moti-vation, which Frey & Osterloh (2002) explains take place when both the end goal and the activity carried out have a certain value. B3 is interested in playing golf but also considers

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the outcome of Generalgolfen when considering whether or not to attend the event. Over-all, the attendees’ motives for coming were to strengthen the relations towards Swedish Match and obtain an experience. Swedish Match created Generalgolfen in order for their customers to receive a positive experience and as the attendees were motivated to attend due to the experience, the purposes of the attendees and Swedish Match coincide. The in-dividuals who attended the Hockey night at Kinnarps arena shared some motives for com-ing to the event. Both C1 and C2 were motivated by the fact that the new CEO of Sapa Profiler were speaking at the event and also hoped they would gain information about product development and it was important that the event contributed to work in some how. These motives can be related to what Frey & Osterloh (2002) explains take place when both the end goal and the activity carried out have a certain value as C1 and C2 found it important not only to obtain a great experience rather the opposite as they aimed at receiving something valuable and work related. C3 on the other hand was mostly inter-ested in the hockey game itself and not so much the additional attributes that the event of-fered. According to Frey & Osterloh (2002) it can once again be stated that the activity car-ried out provided pleasure in itself and the speakers and information was not as important for C3 as it was to C1 and C2. C3 further argues that an event does not always need to be business related, instead a pure entertaining event is sometimes preferable. D1 and D2 both found their personal interests to be reasons for attending the corporate event at WTCC. They both had a personal interest in cars and D1 also saw the opportunity to see three famous drivers in action to a motive for attending the event. The attendees were in this sense driven by intrinsic motivation and more specifically the kind which Frey & Os-terloh (2002) describes as being driven from the actual activity carried out, hence the ex-perience. Mia Stenbom and Gisela Gerner did not mention the experience to be the main mo-tive for creating the event, the company rather used the experience to attract the attendees. Although the experience was an important factor of motivation for both D1 and D2, D1 still argues that the main motive for attending an event such as the one at WTCC was to meet representatives from Chevrolet and interact with other retailers. The fact that building relations with those people were of importance indicates that the end goal was essential to D1.

Vroom (1995) argues that his expectancy theory can be useful when describing how indi-viduals who represent organisations choose an event depending on their expectations. In section 2.5.3 Maat (2004) and Behrer & Larsson (1998) argues that by fulfilling the expecta-tion that the attendees have on an event a positive experience can be generated otherwise a gap might occur between the expectations and outcome. In the case of FKOM A1, A2, and A3 all expected the event to include interesting information and A2 specifically states that the event was expected to be of very high quality and professional. A1 and A3 both ex-presses that the event could be interesting to different degrees depending on who else was attending the event as networking during these kinds of events is of great relevance. The criterion expressed by Vroom (1995) is evident in the case of the attendees of FKOM as the information gained and the networking effects are expected to satisfy important needs of their respective companies. Some of the attendees of FKOM had attended the FKOM previous years and expected the event to live up to the previous years’ qualities. The fact that SAP is one of the largest companies within the industry also increased the motivation for attending the FKOM. A positive instrumentality (Vroom, 1995) is evident as attendees experiences from FKOM previous years are optimistic. This effects the expectations (Vroom, 1995) for FKOM 2007 and the likelihood that the desired outcome will occur is high and can be seen as a motivation for the attendees to attend FKOM again.

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In the case of Generalgolfen B2 did not have any expectations and mostly attended for the purpose of playing golf while B1 and B3 expected networking possibilities with the Swed-ish Match crew and other participants as well as the golfing. Vroom’s (1995) criteria where the performance will generate in a desired reward that can be useful for business purposes can be applied to B1 and B3 expectations. B3 had preciously attended events arranged by Swedish Match and had a positive memory of the events. Due to this B3 probably expected the desired outcome to occur which is in accordance with the belief expectancy in Vroom’s (1995) Expectancy Theory. At the Hockey night at Kinnarps Arena it is evident that the criteria’s for motivation are partly fulfilled according to C1 and C2 who expected that the information from the CEO would generate in desirable information related to work. C2 had expectations that valuable information would be the outcome but argued that this was not the case as most information was already known to him. This indicates that the instru-mentality and thereby the attitude towards attending the event is not as positive. Both C1 and C3 expectations motivated them to attend the event and stated that the expectations was more or less fulfilled and had positive feedback. During the WTCC event D1 and D2 were mostly motivated by personal reasons and interests and the experience gained can be seen as the generated reward which is in accordance with one of Vroom’s (1995) criteria for motivation that the performance will result in a reward. The attendees were motivated to at-tend the event due to the expectations that the event had a high likelihood to generate in the outcome, hence the experience, they were looking for.

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6 Conclusion

In this last section the authors will present the final remarks important for the purpose of the thesis. Some critiques of the chosen method are also presented as well as a few suggestions and ideas concerning areas of further research.

During the process of writing the thesis the authors have found that companies usually have several reasons for creating corporate events. The reason for this is that an event is a platform allowing for different activities and marketing tools to be used simultaneously. It is found that the companies have one or two main motives for creating their events al-though other purposes are integrated automatically. Strengthen relation is a great example of this since it is not always a purpose directly mentioned as a main motive for creation, however it is constant and natural ingredient of an event caused by the direct face-to-face interaction.

The reason for the diverse main motives can sometimes depend upon what is going on within a company currently. The authors argue that happenings such as merging of compa-nies, product launches, or new management can be reasons for creating events, as it can be an opportunity to inform attendees about the organisational news and market new prod-ucts, personnel etc. Different motives for creating events can also depend upon industry as well as complexity of products. The authors argues that a reason for having education as a main motive could be linked to companies producing advanced products where informing customers about the quality and features is of great importance. Information here is used for creating understanding and reliability of the company and its products. When it is not as important to be aware of the products complexity this informative motive is more commonly found as a secondary motive for creating an event. Here it seems more useful to use trials and thereby create a certain feeling for the products and effect the attendees in that sense. An experience is a great way of attracting people to attend an event and an ex-perience is in itself can sometimes be the actual motive for creating an event. When having experience as a motive for creating an event, it seems as if the underlying idea is to enhance the image of the arranging company and strengthen relations.

The study has showed that the targeting of an audience is very important when planning events. In all cases the companies targeted influencers or other individuals who had some kind of relation to the company. It is also evident that individuals who have high positions within their respective companies commonly are invited and part of the target group for events. In order to attract the targeted group it is crucial to offer an event that seem appeal-ing to the invited. It is also found that individuals nowadays have limited time at their hands, which makes it even more difficult to attract the target group.

It is found that a corporate event should contribute with some aspect that the invited find important and related to their work in order for them to attend them. When events have an informative purpose the authors have found that it is effective to attract customers with this actual message since many individuals apparently look for events to be work related, hence informative. Even though not all cases have information as a main motive for creat-ing the events, it seems to be an appreciated aspect desired by many of the individuals in the target groups. This implies that corporate events should put emphasis and focus on in-formation and learning possibilities in some how. It is further crucial to provide the atten-dees with information during the event that is new and relevant for the attendees to hear

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about. Generally the authors found that pure entertainment does not attract many atten-dees.

In some cases arranging companies do not have clear control over who is invited to their event and there is a risk that individuals who are not part of the target group might attend those events. When an event is based on an experience it might be especially interesting for people who are not part of the target group to attend the event. In those cases a tighter control may be required if wanting to avoid that those people attend the event indicating careful selection of invitees and personal invitations. The authors have found that the sales force in some cases chooses whom to invite and as those have a previous relation to the invited they have a better chance of influencing them. In all cases the authors found that direct mail, phone calls, and email have mainly been used for notifying and attracting the invited people to attend the respective events. The most effective way of informing the in-vited about the event and its attributes has shown to be direct communication either through phone calls or face-to-face contact. The study illustrates that personal contact means a lot for deciding whether or not to attend events. When a representative from re-spective company speaks to invited individuals it is possible to tailor the invitation and ar-gue for why the event is beneficial for each individual.

The motives for attending corporate events are found to be partly different however the main objectives are to gain information from the arranging company and interact with the arranging company and to some extent other attendees. The attendees overall expects a corporate event to generate something valuable, which usually indicates that it should be work related, otherwise they would not consider attending the events. What they will find valuable differs and each individual have personal beliefs on what they will gain most from and thereby are motivated by different attributes of an event. The underlying finding is that attendees are motivated when they will receive something work related from attending the event. It can be concluded that a corporate event should be work related in some how and include new information and/or offer networking possibilities.

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7 Critique of chosen method

During the process of writing the thesis the authors have come to the insight that a quanti-tative study could have been used for gaining broader knowledge about the different moti-vation factors at force in relation to corporate events. This indicates a mix of qualitative data, hence the company interviews, and quantitative data, hence the customer interviews. The quantitative study could allow for more generalizations to be made.

It could further have been interesting to use cases which were more similar than the once in the thesis enabling comparison to a greater extent. Studying for example golf events ex-clusively would have made it possible to compare the events and easier conclude what fac-tors that effect individuals when choosing to attend corporate events.

8 Further Research

When conducting this thesis it has generated in interesting angles and subject that can fur-ther be spent more research on. One phenomenon that the authors have found interesting is that most events are characterised by what is considered male interest. What could be a research approach is what kind of events that can be created in order to attract the female public since there is a trend in more women holding high positions in the business world.

Another further research approach of interest could be to focus on the difference between separate arranged corporate events and events where a numerous of companies are creating an events, such as fairs and trade shows. When information and education is the main fac-tor for arranging events what is most suitable and effective way to reach the target audi-ence? The angle on what the attendees find most effective and interesting is also something that can be of interest for the arranging companies when deciding to create a separate event or be a participant in a forum where more actors in the market are taking part. This could work as a guide for companies when planning there marketing and sales activities to find an optimal way to reach out to the stakeholders and how they should divide there resources.

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Appendix

Company interviews

Areas to cover:

The companies’ event strategies. The questions here circle around how each company’s generally works with events and the motives for arranging events. The authors want to find out if they have a worked-out strategy when it comes to events arranged by the company, what kind of corporate events are arranged by the companies and why, what the major is-sues to consider is when arranging events, which people that usually are invited and why.

The cases- Here the authors want to cover general facts about the events of interest, hence why it was arranged, description of how it was planned and executed, as well as the practical details that could be of importance.

Motives for arrangements- This section will cover questions related to the aim of the events and dig further into the reasons for creating each event of interest. What was the aim of the event, what was the message that the companies wanted to deliver, and what did the companies want the participants to think about the event before as well as after the ac-tual event?

Choosing target group- Here the authors want to gain information related to who the companies chose to invite to their respective corporate event. The authors want to find out how the companies chooses whom to invite, why, and what relation they have to the ar-ranging company.

Marketing of the event- This area concerns the different marketing activities related to the corporate events in the thesis. The aim here is to find how each company marketed their event and worked to make it attractive to the invited, towards who did they market the event, and which tools were used. Here it is also interesting to find out if the companies attracted the invited with the actual message of the event or if they mostly used other at-tributes for marketing to the invited.

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Customer interviews

Question 1-6 deals with general facts and thoughts about events.

1) What is most important to make you attend an event (pleasure, sales opportunities, net-work building etc)?

2) What do you look for in an invitation for an event? What attributes in the invitation at-tract your attention? Which information do you find useful/unuseful to include in an invi-tation in order to attract people to attend the event?

3) What specific activities are you looking for when attending an event?

4) What do you want to gain from the event you are attending? Which are your objectives when attending an event?

5) Does it matter who else will attend the event? How much does this influence the attrac-tiveness of the event?

6) Do you ever attend events just for pleasure?

Question 7-16 deals with facts related to the specific events which the thesis focuses on.

7) Which people from your organization attended the event?

8) Which relationship does your company have to the company arranging the event?

9) How did you get to know about the event? Did you receive an invitation? How was the invitation designed? What did it say? Did you receive any reminders? How many in that case?

10) Why did you attend the event?

11) Do you remember any specific attributes in the invitation or the message that made you attend the event?

12) What was least important for you when deciding to attend the event?

13) Which expectations did you have before you attended the event? Did your experiences match your expectations?

14) Why do you think the company invited you to the event?

15) Did you make any preparations before attending event?

16) Could they have done the event differently, in a better way?