BLAGOVNE ZNAMKE JEDILNIH OLJ TOVARNE OLJA GEA

The diploma thesis is dedicated to understanding the brand, understanding the recognition of the Gea brand, the influence of the brand on the purchasing decision process in the case of edible oil purchases and the perception of Gea brand awareness in the Styrian market. The diploma thesis presents the company's basic strategy in connection with positioning its own brand in comparison with competing brands. The objectives of the diploma thesis are to determine the level of awareness of Tovarna olja Gea brands and how the brand influences customers' purchases, to determine how consumers are inclined towards the expansion of the Gea brand and to research consumers' opinions about the Gea brand. The basic assertion of the diploma thesis is that the Gea brand is still among the leading edible oil brands in Styria.

Problem

The diploma thesis is dedicated to understanding the brand, understanding the recognition of the Gea brand, the influence of the brand on the purchasing decision process in the case of edible oil purchases and the perception of Gea brand awareness in the Styrian market.

Solution and Method

The diploma thesis presents the company's basic strategy in connection with positioning its own brand in comparison with competing brands. The purpose of the diploma thesis is to define the brand, its tasks, elements, analyse the profile of users of Gea brand oils and the development strategy of this brand.

Results

The objectives of the diploma thesis are to determine the level of awareness of Tovarna olja Gea brands and how the brand influences customers' purchases, to determine how consumers are inclined towards the expansion of the Gea brand and to research consumers' opinions about the Gea brand. The basic assertion of the diploma thesis is that the Gea brand is still among the leading edible oil brands in Styria. The research was conducted using a questionnaire that contained both open questions and closed-type questions.

Limitations can be broadly defined as geographical, where the focus was on the Styrian part of Slovenia, where the Gea brand is best known, and in this way the best results were obtained in the research. Internal data from Tovarna olja Gea from 2005 to 2007 were used. The primary research was conducted in June and August 2007.

A theoretical review of literature on brands and secondary sources for desk research were used. The diploma thesis is divided into several chapters, from which the connection between theoretical foundations and practical events in the company under consideration is evident. A primary field research was conducted using a questionnaire.

The entire sample consists of a randomly selected group of 110 consumers of different ages and genders. The research was conducted in various locations in Styria. The collected data are processed in tabular and graphical form.

Tovarna olja Gea brings to the market a selected range of food products that satisfy even the most demanding consumer. Their brands are the result of many years of experience, knowledge and modern, environmentally friendly technology. They present themselves on the market with a wide assortment of various products that have become synonymous with quality.

Among the multitude of brands present on the Slovenian market, it is difficult to differentiate oneself solely through quality, as this is already self-evident. Therefore, Tovarna olja Gea must form a brand identity – adaptable to the user, containing the company's true values of satisfying every individual's wish. At every moment of their lives, people constantly adapt to each other both within the family circle and in the business environment, so they need something that will also constantly adapt to them.

The latter is also the reason why the selected identity is considered desirable among buyers of Tovarna olja Gea oils. Likewise, the Gea brand, based on its identity, significantly differentiates itself from the competition. But a brand is more than just a symbol or name.

It is a kind of guarantee for the consumer, assuring them that they will get what they wanted and expected. Therefore, due to increasingly aggressive competition in the Slovenian edible oil market, Gea must respond even faster and with higher quality to market demands and take into account the wishes and needs of users as much as possible. They must carefully monitor competitors in the market and constantly adapt the marketing mix based on information obtained about competitors' market activities.

A brand is much more than just make-up, because even the most beautiful exterior without soul and personality is like clothes on a rack, dead and lifeless. Brands exist only and exclusively in people's heads and hearts, which means that a brand is a psychological construct that requires psychological weapons. Differentiation between individual competing brands can partly derive from hard elements such as product or service quality, but the smallest differences derive from its soft elements, such as values, attitudes, temperament, character and style, which create rich and lasting associations and feelings.

Creators must not forget that a brand is the sum of all perceptions, attitudes, representations, associations and feelings that an individual or group has towards a brand. The latter, and not the utility value of the product, strongly influences a person, who is primarily an emotional being. A strong brand must radiate energy, lifestyle, achievements, success, status, eroticism, passion, romance, memories, hopes, desires, dreams, imagination, poetry.

It must merge with users' dreams, yearnings and desires and take them into the world of desired identity. Brands must enable people to become, at least in the subjective world, what they want to be, so they often fly on the wings of the brand into an imaginary world and surrender to the feelings created by the brand. Because people are also and primarily social beings, it is important how our brand is perceived by the wider environment.

People like others to see us with a winner, that is, brands that are perceived in the environment as the best, prestigious and winning. With them we create our own self, we transfer the winner's image to our own image and thereby increase our self-esteem and self-confidence.