The Role of Customer Magazines Customers’ perceptions of the Volvo Trucks Customer Magazine

摘要

Title The Role of Customer Magazines - Customers’ perceptions of the Volvo TrucksCustomer MagazineAuthor Veronica NyblomCourse Bachelor thesis in Media and Communication studiesSemester Spring semester 2010Supervisor Jan StridUniversity University of GothenburgAim The purpose of this study is to investigate how the readers perceive the VolvoTrucks customer magazine, and if these perceptions correspond with the magazineobjectivesMethod Qualitative interviewsMaterial Four conducted telephone interviews with customers from South Africa,Saudi Arabia and ArgentinaMain results The main results of this research study show that the generalperception of the customer magazine is positive, and that the image of Volvo Trucksas a technically driven company should be further emphasized throughout themagazine. Furthermore, the consensus among the respondents indicates that theinterpretation and perception of the magazine is primarily derived from therespondents’ professional job role, rather than being influenced by individual orcultural norms and values.Conclusions Publishing customer magazines has been a way for Volvo Trucks toestablish and obtain fruitful and strong relationships with their customers, but how themagazine is perceived by the readers has up until today been unknown to theorganization. Gaining knowledge of the role the customer magazines play as aninformation source, providing advice and entertainment, is of great significance toVolvo Trucks in their ongoing efforts to develop constructive communicationstrategies.Acknowledging the outcome of this research, Volvo Trucks will have a betterunderstanding of how to create content and messages that correlate with thepreferences of the intended target groups. Managing this, would consequentlystrengthen the relationship between Volvo Trucks and their customers, ultimatelyresulting in achieving the overall customer magazine purpose of reinforcing the brandand supporting the business of Volvo Trucks.