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H A N S A P R I N T C U S T O M E R M A G A Z I N E SALES LIGHT UP THE DARKNESS 5x NET SUCCESS NITRO STYLE MAXIMIZING BILL POWER Too young to be fooled Student jury makes demands on brands 12010 Buster goes overboard Professor Alf Rehn POWER IS SHIFTING TO CONSUMERS
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hansapress 12010 editorial 22 16 Published for Hansaprint Oy EditorinChief Minna Kokka Editorial Assistant Kerttu Pietilä Publisher Sanoma Magazines Finland Oy Custom Publishing Managing Editor Sirkka Järvenpää Producers Elina Karemo and Susanna Marklund Graphic Designer Arijukka Turtiainen Printed by Hansaprint Oy Hansapress published biannually in 2010 Feedback regarding magazine distribution hansapresshansaprintfi Minna Kokka EditorinChief LAST SEASONS MARKETING TALK To my delight I was invited to a Federation of Finnish Technology Industries seminar to talk about the service business Ie about how we sectors that focus on industrial products have to stand out from the crowd and improve our services by making them more customer oriented Since the wording of the title plays an important role in attracting an audience I gave considerable thought to the name of my presenta tion I tried to detach myself and take an objective view of the service I was to speak about and its development trajectory From the recesses of my memory the thought came to mind that this particular implementa tion could be described by an excellent phrase that already exists Blue Ocean strategy I referred to my bookshelves once again and this really was the strategy I meant But since the book in question came out ve years ago I wondered whether newer ashier terms had been invent ed I nevertheless ended up using the words Blue Ocean in my title The initial comments on the title of my speech did in fact conrm my suspicions How very last season Nobody talks about Blue Ocean any more After being taken aback for a moment I returned to ration ality There cant be many organizations that have even had time to carry this new strategy through to its conclusion and the terminology is already out date The more experienced among us may even remem ber the predecessor to the phrase used here Whether we talk about pure de pommes de terre or mashed pota toes the basics do not change Already in the 1980s people were buy ing their groceries from local shopkeepers because they offered home delivery Nowadays that selfsame service is being revived in the spirit of added value for the customer albeit with telephone orders replaced by online shopping But once again instead of simply polishing up our marketing terminology it is time to focus on the core issues on cus tomers and their needs and on the service strategies targeted on them
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4 Alf Rehn says consumers now want a share in product design Custommade success 4 The Web makes boats go faster 8 Anu Harkki and the craft of the redesign 13 Wizard Welho and the Magic Bill 16 Weighing up brands 20 Nitro explodes onto the market 22 Its wise to personalize 27 News 31 Cover photo Buster boat 22 16 13 20 4 co n te n ts 22 Nitros Sami Puutio and Pasi Hiltunen say quality stands out on the Internet Suuri Käsityö magazines outmoded look is history as Anu Harkki and her editorial team let in some fresh air 20 Our student jury tells us why lollipops or makes of car are their favourites 16 Timo Arvonen and Seppo Tuuli of Welho see bills as a reliable marketing channel
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4 Text Hasse Härkönen Photos Juha Salminen Our ideas about selling products need a thorough shakeup So says Professor Alf Rehn Pushing readymade products no longer does the job On the contrary customers of the 2000s want to shape products and services in their own image CUSTOMMADE FOR SUCCESS Mass production mass marketing and mass customers according to Alf Rehn its time to dump this verbal triad in the waste bin The whole concept of the customer is chang ing and the relationship between customer and company has changed completely In industrial society the way things were done was very clear The customer was the one who bought products and products were physical goods Companies made goods and sold them to the broad mass of people says Professor Rehn Chair of Management and Organization at Åbo Akademi University About 30 years ago the postindustrial era began with services increasing and gaining substantially in importance This changed the traditional customer relationship to some extent but the old idea of mass production and the custom er relationship was carried over into services too Then came the IT wave which made its own contribution to reshaping the picture We are now living in the third wave which really is a major shift We are entering a situation in which customers are beginning to be involved in producing the goods The technolo gies and logic of production have changed so radically that the whole idea of the customer is undergoing alteration In fact we should probably abandon the traditional terms customer and consumer altogether since they are so entrenched in the old industrial model Rehn says CUSTOMIZATION WILL SOON BE THE NORM The customers of the new era no longer simply accept the things that companies produce They want to be involved in selecting and creating products and services Rehn talks a lot about his 14yearold son whose attitude to companies is totally different from his fathers Rehn describes the difference like this My sons genera tion understands an incredible amount more about produc tion technology than mine does When I see a new interesting product in a shop my rst reaction is Whoah So they can do that too My son on the contrary the rst thing he asks is Why has that bit been made that way and why hasnt it been made like this and this He automatically assumes he has a right and a possibility to make products and services in his own image Young people see customization as selfevident Power is rapidly shifting to consumers They are no long er at the mercy of companies production decisions but can increasingly make productionrelated choices themselves According to Rehn any attempt at controlling customers is doomed In a few years time consumers will have individu al access to a vast range of options and tools for inuencing production and hence even more choice Already now todays 15yearolds are quite different from earlier customers Companies have to understand that they are not pro duction plants but platforms that make things possible for other people Companies that realize this will do well the Professor says According to him the oldfashioned customer and the aver age consumer no longer exist while customer relationships that are more difficult to dene do still exist Customer relationships are above all about making things
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5 Alf Rehn thinks companies should understand their role with customers gradually becoming partners
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6 ALF REHN NAMED FOUR COMPANIES THAT SET A GOOD EXAMPLE OF ADOPTING AND IMPLEMENTING THE NEW CUSTOMERRELATIONSHIP THINKING The Nike iD allows customers themselves for example to design their own trainers right down to the width and colours of the shoes and the words written on them The design is done via simple graphicled web pages where you can view the shoe from different angles and alter the colours of its parts Trainers can be made totally unique The service is tailoring at its purest Apple has a large number of faithful fans who constantly fol low the companys product development and actively discuss news about forthcoming Appleproducts on the Net Fans rela tionship with the company and its products is a very close and emotional one For many of them Apple is little short of a way of life The companys success is personally important to them Artek the Finnish furniture company is another that Rehn says has succeeded in acquiring fans They not only buy Arteks prod ucts but want to support the company and help it succeed Ikea has for Rehn been ahead of its time Customers have become a fixed part of the companys process since they themselves assemble the furniture at home possible for the other parties to the deal about opening your own platform up for the others use If you come and join us in making things together we can create something good That is the new model for companies thinking about their customer relationships A SOLID EMOTIONAL BOND WITH THE COMPANY Why would anyone become a fan of your rm is Rehns standard question for companies Behind this question is the idea that people look for things that they really want to be involved in and which they genuinely want to support Apple is a good example Apple has thousands of fans who months before a new product is launched are fervently dis cussing it and attracting attention to the company Without these MacTaliban Apple would not be quite the successful company it is now Rehn says According to him the focus is generally on analysing how Apple designs its products But what is a lot more interesting is how the company has been able to radically redene the customer relationship There is greater emphasis on doing things together with the company and on an emotional bond with the company The customer is no longer something xed and carved in stone but an ongoing process This too affects marketing Any attempt at controlling customers is doomed The new tailored production requires that marketing be in the picture right from the start When a company begins cre ating something new marketing should be there Rehn says He thinks companies separate marketing departments should be broken up and marketing spread throughout the organization Organizations as such are still needed since in terms of practical action they represent an essential perma nence and order But the organization and its structure should not be a barrier to change The majority of marketers have not understood what social media are about Social media are not just one new marketing gimmick among many You cant market in social media like you do in the old channels since people nowadays are incredibly good at not seeing adverts The core of viable social media is that people are there out of genuine interest and choice Traditional broadsweep advertising campaigns t this model really badly NO MORE MACHISMO According to Rehn selling possibilities and customization demands a profound change in companies strategies Tradi tionally strategies have been macho policy statements that talk about positioning the company on the market carving out a market share and beating the competition Now that strategy has to change substantially to being more feminine It has to include empowerment and nurturing of customer relationships This is a major cultural shift one that is happening more rapidly than has even been understood yet Toughguy culture still rules in Finnish management is the Professors view In other words companies should nd ways of becoming important to their customers and via that set about building something new out of their customer relationships Nevertheless Rehn says Finns have a good chance of suc ceeding in this new situation Finland has a strong tradition of doityourself and community spirit which ts admirably with the new customer relationship with tailoring of prod ucts and individual participation Only a couple of generations ago Finns did everything themselves beginning with their own houses and creating new industries after the war My generation has forgotten that spirit since we are characteristically the consumer generation We now need an update of the doityourself culture to bring it into the present using upgraded tools Rehn says The tradition of doing things communally is an impor tant one Our history can help us create a new customerrela tionship culture in our own image one where customers are involved in companies operations 4x MODEL EXAMPLES
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7 Community spirit can help Finns succeed Professor speaker and writer Alf Rehn 38 is Professor of Management and Organiza tion at Åbo Akademi Uni versitys School of Business and Economics a post he has held since 2004 He was previously Professor of Innovation and Entrepre neurship at the Royal Insti tute of Technology in Stock holm Rehn began his academ ic career as an assistant at Åbo Akademi in 1997 He gained his doctorate in 2002 He has published several books and is a regu lar public speaker In 2009 Rehn was cho sen one of the worlds ris ing top business thinkers by the Thinkers 50 website The list is compiled joint ly by Forbes The Times of London and McGraw Hill The Guru Radar list of rising thinkers is at wwwthinkers50comradar Rehn says not all marketers have yet understood current demands For example social media are not just another gimmick
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At Fiskars boat business at the height of a beautiful summer they were thinking of ways of boosting endofyear sales At the same time they were wondering what their chances were of changing traditional boatsales practice In the conventional scheme of things a large number of boats are made in the autumn to be held in stock waiting for the brief sales season in spring Making boats for stock brings its own difficulties predicting sales is hard and boats lying around in store eat up cash Staff work 12 months of the year but cash comes in for only four At Fiskars they wanted to change this In June Fiskars boat business in collaboration with Luo via set about creating a Buster Internet service a congurator that allowed potential boat buy ers personally to design a Buster boat to suit their needs Users could choose the model the ttings and the colour The service was launched at the start of last November Website boosts boat sales The motorboat as an endofyear sales hit sounds about as likely as a skiing season in June And yet a successful campaign made the impossible possible Buster boats were selling at breathtaking speed at the frosty end of last year e goal was to make sales at the quietest time of year 8
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Text Sirpa Kurvinen Illustration Karoliina Pertamo Photos Juha SalminenWebsite boosts boat sales We wanted to change our operating model and create demand in the quietest period of the year Instead of producing boats for stock we began making them as custom products says President Buster boats Juha Lehtola A DIRECT MAILING TEMPTED PEOPLE ONTO THE NET To attract customers attention to this new serv ice which is unique in its sector a multichan nel campaign for carefully considered customer groups was devised with Luovia and Hansaprint Also sharing in the collaboration was Konekesko which markets Yamaha outboard motors in Fin land A decision was made to offer target groups YamahaBuster boat packages The chosen targets for the campaign were sum mer cottage owners who travel by water shermen and people who had just bought summer cottages Each person received a tar geted direct mail post card inviting them to vis it Busters website The personal code on the card meant the campaign page could identify the precise target group of everyone who logged in They could thus be automatically offered a suita ble page display on the website where they then got to design their own boat package The campaign was also reinforced by a targeted emailing sent to people interested in boats The interactive aspect got a good response 8 percent of those who received the direct mailing or email visited the Buster service Elements of the sales campaign Directmail postcards to summercottage owners boaters and fishermen Dealers Email shot to boating enthusiasts Other media boating magazines Google Configurator on the Internet e campaign made buying a boat interesting 9
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Construction of the Buster configurator began in June 2009 Launch campaign presented to dealers at end of October Doubts years end is no time for boat sales will it work Direct mailing to customers 211 Internet service launched 611 Campaign 6113112 Emails to customers 1011 Waiting and suspense At the turn of the month new contacts began to be made December was a busy time for sales The campaign ended THE DESIGN ENGINE SPARKED INTEREST The campaign proved its power The Buster service met with a positive reception from both buyers and dealers Fiskars boat business gained momentum after last years quiet period One expectation for the campaign was to get sales moving in the quietest time of the year Our goal was fty boatpackage sales but the outcome was nearly a hundred YamahaBuster packages at a time when we normally only sell a few boats Lehtola believes the reason for this success is sur prise the new way of making boat sales and the dif ferent campaign period from the rest of the trade Buying a boat became interesting for custom ers when they personally got to do the designing and think about the alternatives Buyers can now choose from ve colours from various tting pack ages and from several basic models whereas pre INVESTMENT REWARDED Almost mailing cards were sent out e email postcard went out to a further boating enthusiasts Each one received a personal code for the Internet e Internet service had visitors ie 8 percent of of direct messages A total of website visits were made Only 042 percent of visitors visitors exited the website immediately People spent an average of 337minutes on the website which shows they are interested in designing boats During the campaign almost boat packages were sold 26000 10000 2800 3333 100 10
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Construction of the Buster configurator began in June 2009 Launch campaign presented to dealers at end of October Doubts years end is no time for boat sales will it work Direct mailing to customers 211 Internet service launched 611 Campaign 6113112 Emails to customers 1011 Waiting and suspense At the turn of the month new contacts began to be made December was a busy time for sales The campaign ended The campaign prompted a sales spike How it was done Fiskars boat business has 38 dealers of which 28 salesper sons selling YamahaBuster packages took part in the campaign The biggest dealership is Venemyynti Lindberg in Virkkala whose founder entrepreneur Timo Lindberg says he was initially a bit doubtful about the campaign The campaign came at an unusual time I wondered a bit whether anything would come of it But it hit the spot very well We made a good number of sales when there is usually nothing happening at the end of the year The campaign clearly prompt ed customers to buy when generally at that time of year they make inquiries but dont buy Now we quickly closed the deal Venemyynti Lindberg sold ten boat packages during the cam paign Lindbergs son the companys current Managing Direc tor Kimmo Lindberg adds that the campaign aroused attention among customers but the ultimate feedback will only come in time once the boating season has begun The Lindbergs saw the strength of the campaign as being its brevity A campaign has to be a real campaign It should not be overlong You have to see clearly within a short time that the message is getting through Timo Lindberg agrees with Juha Leh tolas idea that it is worth using dealers local knowledge in future campaigns Venemyynti Lindberg was initially doubtful about the campaign Previously we advertised only in the traditional mass media viously Busters were always the same colour and always had certain basic ttings Lehtola observes The point of launching the Buster service and the campaign was to serve customers better but also to make the dealers work easier They no longer have to t the boat out during the sales season It arrives from the works with the customers choice of ttings already installed THE POWER OF MULTICHANNELLING Combining electronic and printed channels worked excellently with multichannelling being downright surprising in its impact 11
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Previously we advertised in the traditional mass media This was a totally new kind of cam paign for us Saleswise the campaign was a suc cess Lehtola says The campaign also brought its makers new les sons for the future such as the fact that there are enormous differences between target groups That is why it is crucial that the message tar geted on a particular group goes just right For the next campaign we have to identify which messages hit the spot and which dont so we can target our marketing better Lehtola sees one essential aspect of the effec tiveness of the campaign as being its intensity and short duration about ve weeks But in future he would expand the dealers role This time only concentrated advertising was used The end result might have been even better if they had made use of dealers local knowledge too Perhaps the biggest risk was selling at a time of year when there is no natural demand But the campaign succeeded beyond expectations and we have had positive feedback from dealers Lehtola says with satisfaction He is also very pleased with the collaboration with Luovia and Hansaprint and with their expertise Further projects are already being planned A successful campaign Lehtola style Define your target groups carefully Think carefully about what message will work with each group The campaign has to look like a cam paign so brevity and impact come first Electronic channels print media a profitable combination Learn from feedback Listen to customers and dealers Buster Made since 1977 over 80000 boats sold Finlands most popular leisure boat Biggestselling aluminium boat in the Nordic countries Modifiable durable unsinkable and easy to maintain The boat business is part of the Fiskars groups Outdoor business area and accounted for 19 percent of the groups turnover in 2009 Made at the Inha Works in Ähtäri Finland The Works is Europes biggest maker of aluminium open boats with 177 employees e success of the campaign exceeded expectations 12
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13 GREAT HANDICRAFT GREAT REDESIGN Text Sanna Hovi Photos Juha Salminen Anu Harkkis newlook Suuri Käsityö magazine has consigned shabbiness to history The EditorinChief has a solid sense for current trends but readers opinions count too
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14 Anu Harkki winds yarn into a ball as she chats A lot has happened in the year since this rsttime Editorin Chief was chosen to redesign the tradi tionladen Suuri Käsityö Great handi crafts magazine Harkki is known for her eye for visual impact The aim is to get new readers while keeping the old ones I have to say this is a major challenge Harkki says shaking her head The magazines brand is solid in Fin land It has been appearing for nearly four decades now but its cover design has not changed much in that period This is a real shake up At rst glance the magazine almost hot off the press reveals two major changes it is two cen timetres larger and the logo is hand written which is all the rage around the world The word magazine has been dropped from the logo too We try to have something for every one while also being a bold openmind ed pioneer We are constantly innovat EditorinChief Anu Harkki says a large read ership is a challenge She has to try to offer something to everyone equally How to make a thriving handicraft magazine Stitch interestingness to quality Weave in inspiration Apply powerful visual impact Spin it with passion The magazine has more than 300000 readers most of them subscribers There are few singlecopy buyers but the larger format will help the mag azine stand out on shop shelves The product is now also the same size as its biggest competitor Script logos are rapidly gaining in appeal around the world Handwriting didnt used to be popular for logos as it was considered unclear Our graphi cal designer handpainted the magazine logo with a brush Im very proud of it ing and we support sustainable devel opment and recycling in handicrafts EYECATCHING FORMAT Harkki began the redesign work last summer She put her ideas together and got management approval The practi cal work did not begin until January when new AD Kaisa Manner took up the reigns Our visual outlooks coincided very well straight away That made the work a lot easier Harkki enthuses
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15 So many young peoples moth ers dont know how to do handicrafts but their grandparents do Our read ers range from 12 to 80 That includes beginners hobbyists and even profes sionals says Harkki This broad readership brings its own major challenges Harkki says she fol lows the Golden Mean and tries to offer something for everyone equally She avoids extremes Readers direct feedback on the new magazine has been largely posi tive They are happy about the changes which have even inspired and encour aged them to try new things Harkki says there have been virtually no changes to the content but readers pages have been added for reader feed back Work on the website continues The magazines marketing budg et is quite small and advertising sales low The redesign has been promoted in major shopping centres and with small stickers on public transport On top of that the EditorinChief has appeared on radio and TV to talk about the rede sign and about handicrafts The yarn in Harkkis hands has now been wound into a ball She believes knitting and sewing clothes will con stantly grow in popularity I myself am a passionate knitter but I also like sewing furnishing and arts crafts PAPER THAT FEELS LIKE CLOTH Harkki wanted a strong handicraft feel that was evident as soon as you touched the magazine The cover material was changed to matt since it feels like cloth and the paper reproduces images beau tifully Another important aspect was durability as the magazine is passed from grandmother to mother to daugh ter The matt paper stands up to wear better than the old material With the redesign readers were also delighted by the retro clothsurfaced folders for storing the magazines READER FEEDBACK ENCOURAGING The redesign was not done blind the magazine commissioned a subscriber questionnaire rst Subscribers were called and answered questions with the magazine in front of them Hark ki says the responses contained no surprises On the contrary they con rmed her own views on the magazines visual design The messiness and shabbiness of the old layout bothered me Looking at it you didnt always know which decade of the magazines 36 years you were living in When I looked at foreign handicraft magazines they were really a long way ahead of us That shabbiness went when the edi torial team revised the layout style guide and harmonized the colours shapes patterns and language used in the magazine When using pictures from foreign photo agencies the editorial team care fully ensures that the models suit Fin land and that the cloth is available here AVOIDING EXTREMES Harkkis speciality is sniffing out the very rst signs of future trends Handicrafts have been rapidly gain ing in popularity both globally and in Finland Young people are very interest ed in doing them People no longer make clothes out of necessity it has become a hobby The magazines largest reader group is 5565yearold women They are big consumers who do a lot of handicraft and want quality and challenges Wom en born in the 1960s are not as inter ested in doing handicrafts as those from the next decade The current 30year olds may be at home with small chil dren and do handicrafts as a hobby e magazine has to stand up to being passed on from mother to daughter Suuri Käsityö Finlands biggest handicraft magazine Readership 312000 Circulation 67200 Of the magazines readers 81000 are 5064yearolds Average reading time 88 minutes Handwritten logos are all the rage
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Systems Manager Seppo Tuuli left and Customer Relations Manager Timo Arvonen say extra info in bills should not be all sales talk 16
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Text Matti Remes Photos Juha Salminen A couple of years ago cableTV and broadbandservice provider Welho began thinking of ways of using bills for more than just collecting payments This led to the idea of making more effective use of these monthly mailings for mar keting and customer communications All of our bills now have a message box usually containing two messag es for promoting sales or for customer information says Customer Relations Manager Timo Arvonen The design of the bills has been con stantly rened and the development work continues In its current form the message box is in the middle of the page framed in eyecatching bright colours A bill that works is a clear bill It At Welho a bill is more than a piece of paper necessary for business The cableTV operator makes effective use of paper bills to promote sales and to communicate WELHO BILLS SAY MORE I darent calculate how much posting these messages separately would cost CR Manager Timo Arvonen also looks good and reects the compa nys brand Arvonen emphasises Designing it is an important job The marketing and customerinformation messages should not interfere with the bills basic function People have to be able to spot the number of euros the due date and other essential payment details at a glance The message box cant dominate the whole thing too much Conversely a good message is one that gets noticed Systems Manager Seppo Tuuli observes MESSAGES CAREFULLY PONDERED Welho also consider the content of the message box right down to the nest detail The extra information in bills cant be just about selling Customers wouldnt like that They have to feel the informa tion is of some benet Arvonen says For him in a suitable mix the mes sages are partly about sales campaigns and partly about other customer com munications 17
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A bill is many companies most important or even their only customer message People always open envelopes The time spent checking paper bills is many times that for eg email customer messages Customers go back to bills again The message is valuable an eighth of the cost achieves four times the impact 5 good reasons for marketing in bills Bills can also be used to point customers to electronic channels We recently told people about Welhos Face book page Arvonen says the most important thing is the chance to target messages on different customer groups For instance we tell Pay TV custom ers about new channels Or we might remind broadband subscribers say about the importance of virus security Arvonen explains All the information in Welhos cus tomer register can be used for person alizing messages including purchasing history length of customer relationship age and sex MAXIMUM COST EFFECTIVENESS Arvonen says the effect bill messages have on sales is hard to assess precise ly The message boxes are generally for sales campaigns that use other channels too A message might be reinforced by telephone or email marketing Arvonen admits that in terms of attention value messages in bills may not be the most effective channel Nev ertheless this is absolutely one of the most costeffective ways of reaching customers The added information means more than four million messages to Welho customers every year I dont even dare calculate what it would cost to post these messages separately SPEED IS A TRUMP CARD FOR SALES Hansaprint is Welhos partner in collabo ration in billing matters The data drawn up inhouse is emailed to Hansa print where the bills are printed and mailed to customers Hansaprint has been our partner for three years and the cooperation has We can personalize the details to be printed at short notice Systems Manager Seppo Tuuli 18
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84 of Welhos customers have noticed the messages on their bills 76 have read them 83 have read messages inserted with bills 77 have got useful information from them Source Welho targetgroup customer panel 192009 RESEARCH DATA Finlands biggest operator Welho is Finlands biggest cableTV operator providing television and broadband services in the Helsinki metropolitan region Its range includes about 140 television channels 19 of them high definition HD At the end of 2009 there were about 116000 subscribers to its broadband services and about 76000 PayTV customers The company is part of Sanoma Television Oy which comprises all of Sanoma Entertainments television operations Sanoma Entertainment owns 95 percent of the company and the TS Group the rest gone extremely well Some of the most important things are speed and agility Tuuli says On top of these it is essential to develop new options All these aids are needed since the business is by nature fastmoving The cable network offers customers some 140 TV channels Turnaround is rapid with new chan nels arriving on average every month Meanwhile old channels disappear from the range Customers have to be told about these changes The collaboration with Hansaprint works If necessary we can change the design and personalize the details to be printed at short notice Tuuli says Along with messages printed on bills Welho also uses separate brochures inserted with the bills in its marketing The costeffective way is to use an extra sheet of paper delivered to the customer with the bill Welho designs its bills carefully so the marketing and customer information do not interfere with its basic function 19
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20 Text Johanna AatsaloSallinen Illustration Arijukka Turtiainen We asked five students what brands they are fans of and what campaigns ring a bell with them What emerged was that products should keep their promises and meet the demands of productconscious young consumers BRANDS IN THE BALANCE
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21 Ina Mikkola a student at Helsinki Metro polia University of Applied Scienc es likes the retailertrademark Rainbow The products are inexpensive but have the same taste and quality as the costliest branded products I am also a fan of BonBon lollipops and am total ly hooked on the taste of lollipops As regards other products I appreciate and am a fan of Seccos recycled bags and other great ideas Good value and consumer and ecofriendliness are very important to me One thing that has particularly stuck in Inas mind is the advert for Alpro soya milk Albeit not necessarily for reasons the advertiser might wish It was interesting that an advert for healthy milk did not take account of the ethical view of soya milk On the other hand a sportswoman in an ad is somehow quite a bold choice since you dont really think of skiers as typical soyamilk users Antti Mäkelä who is doing business studies in Scotland is a fan of Beamers BMW is able to produce and sell at a premium price in what is a histori cally bad economic situation for the motor trade I personally like the design of BMWs and the feel of driving one My rst and so far only car of my own has been specically a BMW Being a fan perhaps also means looking at new models and occasionally seeing what the company is up to What has stayed most in Anttis mind is a BMW ad seen on the Internet It seems BMW doesnt have to adver tise a terrible lot Brand awareness is so great among Beamer people that in practice it could simply tell them about its new models Right now for example in Britain BMW is running an advert for its new 5series design on the tele and the Net Its not the best advert Ive seen but it makes its point and gets the message across Lassi Hämäläinen student at Aalto Uni versity School of Economics is keen on Apple products Userfriendliness functionality and design are the deciders if you compare with other computers or phones Even though I wasnt very enthusiastic about Apple at rst my friends good experi ences and assurances got me to try one Its great that I now actually have a com puter and phone that really work prop erly in a userfriendly way Lassis favourite campaign runs on the Net Audi has set up its own Facebook fan page and when it has more than 50000 fans one of them will win a car I think the idea is really good and says that the company as it were values its fans by drawing lots for an expensive prize between them As an added bonus it is good that people can discuss things together on the page both true Audi enthusiasts and newcomers interested in other peoples experiences of using them There are some good discussions Pirita Pykäläinen Metropolia student especially likes two Internet Tshirt shops In the Tshirt shops of La Fraise and Threadless the product ranges are based on designs sent in by custom ers Buyers then decide what designs are made The system is based entirely on supply and demand There should be more like that nowadays Pirita finds it easy to name her favourite campaign Marimekkos Kalevalainspired clothprint advert which was in the press and on bus stops was really beautiful both in its colours and visually And you didnt even need to read Marimekko anywhere The advert trusted in itself Lasse Granroth Aalto University design student is a critical consumer I am not a fan of anything And that is a value in itself My designer back ground makes me think about products lifespans from start to nish Lasse explains He has followed DNAs rockband ad campaign albeit not very actively or enthusiastically I have to look quite far aeld but nothing else comes to mind right now It somehow seems that for instance the shark in the advert is quite farfetched and may not represent the product But its hard to say why an advert is straightforwardly good or bad I gener ally react to provocative adverts which irritate amuse entertain and which include feeling I react to provocative adverts which include feeling Lasse Granroth
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Text Elina Karemo Photos Juha Salminen Executive Vice President Pasi Hiltunen left and Design Director Sami Puutio say quality helps you stand out from the crowd 22
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BANG Nitro explodes onto the marketing scene A few years ago a lot of firms were still only playing at being on the Internet Now for increasingly many of them digital marketing is a vital necessity At Nitro they know what it takes to make an Internet success story 23
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Yes digimarketing is still quite a mouthful Executive Vice Presi den Pasi Hiltunen replies when asked to explain what people can buy from a digiera agency like Nitro To simplify its about marketing We help customers use Internet and social networking services and other elec tronic channels What we do reinforces brand images affects customer relation ships and advances sales He explains that Nitro takes a digi centric Weboriented view of things Campaigns usually involve improving the user experience At the same time the companys visual identity is redesigned to support multiple channels Equally customers always have a business goal which we help them real ize Hiltunen adds Nitro is not only a digitalmarket ing agency but also a lmproduction company So customers can be sure its expertise wont run out in the rst lap 1 Nitro and Luovia combined forces in December e new company has 85 employees and a turnover making it one of Finlands leading marketing companies of the design work This is conrmed as we tour the big office with its woolly hatted techies tweaking Flash anima tions experts pondering strategies in conference rooms and an editor work ing intently on an advertising lm The executive vice president sees it as extremely important that Nitro is able to both create designs and implement them Its hard to create a successful use experience without an adequate grasp of the technology Being able to make say a 3Dsimulated water bottle ourselves means everything is quicker and easier Since we own the original we can use it immediately without copyright nego tiations in all the various media We can also do things to a strict timetable as soon as the designs are completed HOMESPUN IS HISTORY Design Director Sami Puutio points out that the sector has been developing year by year There has been a gradual shift from individual actions to market ing packages 24
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Pasi Hiltunen and Sami Puutio listed five things worth noting before plunging onto the Internet Be in the right place Simply being on the Internet is not enough for anything How and where you are is crucial Think about how to present your case Are you imagining the experiences and stories you are offering or are you really offering them Does a static impression need enlivening with moving images Invest in services Having the first two boxes ticked will be all for nothing if your services are clunky Consumers will soon click Close if there is not enough information about your products and services if buying is difficult or navigation complicated Play fair Know what is permissible and what isnt you are sharing in peoples everyday lives If youre stupid irritating and aggressive youll get the boot Dont rush into social media People can sniff out the fakery if your firm plays the funny guy on Facebook or Twitter It takes a few sessions to think about what content to go into the media with and what you are going to be like there Sami Puutio says Lots of rms used to make cute media widgets for the Net but now the winners are those who understand the big picture he summarizes For example buying a car has changed People now go on the Internet to investigate manufacturers websites they follow that with discussions may be send an interesting link to a pal and so on Hiltunen continues People no longer surf for links at ran dom rather consumers can act quite systematically and directly Even the fact of a user ending up on a companys website is no guarantee of anything The Nitro duo repeatedly stress that buzzing about on the Internet is not an end in itself It is such a focal place an Internet presence without a proper plan is pointless You have to think what the Internet means for your business That strategy then has to be integrated into your busi ness strategy Hiltunen says 1 Senior Producer Marika Tulivuori and Pro ducer Henry Ollinkari refine strategies 2 The cando spirit is evident as we tour Nitros offices The company creates designs and implements them 3 Editor Jukka Eggert says keeping up with developments results in topquality work 4 Markku Luotonen is an ace animator Specialist experts are not made by academic studies alone Success often comes when the job is a private passion A smash hit 2 3 4 YOU CANT CONTROL WHAT PEOPLE SAY The most common mistake on the Inter net is treating all consumers the same To succeed you have to understand what interests your target group and what does not You also have to know where the mass of people are and where your actual target group is hiding And even that is not enough You have to know where people meet and what they do during the day That way you avoid their coming across the same message everywhere etc The amount of stuff on offer is constantly growing so it is important that the message always feels fresh and interesting Puutio says You also have to keep a cool head since people can discuss products and services in really brutal terms Complete image management is still just a dream Chat cannot be controlled You still have to monitor and react to it like any other customer feedback 25
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People have always exchanged views on things but before they only chatted amongst themselves Yet people have already learned to interpret whats said on the Internet and they dont take eve rything so terribly dramatically Puutio says consolingly QUALITY MAKES ITS MARK The crucial thing from companies view point is that out of all the sound and fury quality of content rises to the top The number of YouTube clips is grow ing by 20000 a day so you can stand out from the crowd with nished pro fessional production Net marketing is now in a break through phase since the Internet has become a channel for reaching even very narrow target groups while massmar keting also has potential Evians lm of dancing rollerskat ing babies made for the Internet was by directadvertising campaigns by email on Facebook various socialnet working sites and so on You have to understand why and how to get people to recommend things to other people Comparing products and services has become a real hobby for consumers We could even say that nowadays if an apartment isnt for sale on the Inter net its not for sale Puutio says The most important key to success is understanding the roles of the different media At Nitro they are condent that as the torrent of information rises the best will survive Among them will be those who understand what why how and for whom they are doing things On top of all that campaigns have to be constructed to make success measurable Funny stuff is not enough you also need clear results Puutio observes If an apartment isnt for sale on the Internet its not for sale Design Director Sami Puutio the biggest prizewinner last year About 30 million viewers have seen it so far Hiltunen says But megapublicity is rare and pop ularity cannot be guaranteed At Nitro they still make sure no message misses its target group Campaigns are backed Sami Puutio and Pasi Hiltunen know that an Internet presence without a proper plan is pointless 26
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Text Tom Kalima Photos IStockphoto Image processing Arijukka Turtiainen A magazines subscribers are never just one big family One is a student another is mad about organic food a third about world travel They can each be offered interesting content now that magazines do not have to be compromises made to suit all readers The more personal THE BETTER The idea of target groups has been around for a long time but its application has often been very basic Companies have been happy to approach even large numbers of people with one and the same message But the days of cramming everyone into the same target group are coming to an end A print product using the same basic template can be per sonalized to talk to different groups It is thus possible to take account of smaller groups and even individuals Fonecta Service Director Henrikki Korhonen believes personalization has great potential 27
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IT IS NOT ABOUT THE AMOUNT OF INFORMATION BUT ABOUT FUNDAMENTALS Henrikki Korhonen NET VISITS UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Korhonen says personalization is about talking to people in a tar getgrouporiented way with messages var ied according to recipients characteristics The necessary material might be informa tion about customers lifestyles and buying This is undoubtedly a great opportunity for marketing A message varied to suit the indi vidual recipient is the surest way to have an impact But personalization means you need to know your target groups FINLAND TRAILING BEHIND Magazines often get information about readers via reader surveys and questionnaires But for Korhonen this is not yet enough Survey data is frequently produced on too general a level It is as it were rounded off and its content or the number of respondents mean it cant be linked to specic customer groups That requires supplementary informa tion about recipients He says for instance that there is a lot of information in official databases that can help to rene even small registers and to personal ize more effectively For example in Finland alongside marketers own customer data consumer information from the Population Information System Vehicular and Driver Data System and Statistics Finland can be used for targeting Apart from the cus tomers age economic and personal status these official databases also reveal things like pur chasing power and education Currently it is not possible to get the most out of the customer data in official databases Finland is a world leader in consumerdata infrastructure But that does not apply to tar geting Korhonen emphasizes REMAKING THE FRONT PAGE The information about recipients of magazines in subscriber registers may be small and curso ry but more efficient use could be made of this information too If for example the same customer maga zine goes out to multiple recipient groups of dif ferent types the front page could be designed for each group separately Thus for example one version would appeal to corporate manage ment and another more to staff says Market ing Planner Kerttu Pietilä at Hansaprint This kind of personalization can be imple mented quite easily by combining the cost effectiveness of traditional printing the bind ing methods for variable content and the per sonalization options of digitechnology This combination means we can easily cre ate more individual editions of a magazine and exploit the best aspects of the technology Pietilä says 28
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habits or those of people like them Data recorded about consumers website visits are in a class of their own Customers who visit company websites leave a record of the pages they open and of items for which they look further Korhonen explains It is often not about the amount of cus tomer information but the ability to use the fundamentals Traditional massmedia channels usually have few targeting options while customerrelationship marketing chan nels onlinecommunications and personal ized customer magazines represent the other extreme These media have excellent target ability of communications and measurability of impact BETTER SERVICE THE GOAL While not everyone likes the idea of customer registers and consumer information Korho nen sees targeting as above all a benet to the customer If I think about myself as a consum er and as a recipient of marketing informa tion I would naturally choose personalized advertising and marketing where possible I much prefer to receive things that interest me rather than a vast ood of nonpersonalized advertising EditorinChief Sami Sykkö Personalization is an opportunity Existing magazines can benefit from personalization too The new EditorinChief of Gloria Sami Sykkö ponders its potential The magazine that he steers has 300000 readers who the EditorinChief says are not connected by age but by attitude and interest in Glorias world Do you see personalization as offering opportunities for a general magazine particularly Gloria Personalization certainly offers opportunities since you can highlight one theme for one reader group and another for another But of course that would increase the editorial teams workload And would the end result be better than the current magazine When I think about myself as a reader I like the fact that the magazine has material of specific interest to me but not every article has to be for me individually For me its fun to wonder So are there really people ideas or phenomena in the world like this If the magazine was tailored solely for me there might not be any surprises How well does Gloria know its readers I would say knowing your readers is a lifelong learning process We have so many kinds and so many ages of readers that you can never know them too well But I trust reader surveys They provide a lot of useful information The editorial teams professional skill also lies in coming up with things that readers cant even imagine wanting to read in the magazine Do you see any journalistic barriers to the same issue having different content That has to be considered from lots of different angles Newspapers have for a long time made sever al different editions that may contain different articles That has not bothered readers But as to whether personalization can really achieve something big I would like to see research data before I answer that Sami Sykkö says a magazine should contain surprises so personalization does not have to be taken to extremes Ku va Ja rn o Ko va m äk i 29
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WHY PERSONALIZE You use the information you have about the recipient You offer material that matches peoples interests You can put an individual accent on things You can sell the same advertising space several times You can talk to people directly You give your marketing greater impact You get happier readers with different reader groups feeling the magazine is their own He also points out that only a few percent of Finns have prohibited the use of their own details The same applies to blocking of direct marketing the per centage who do this being vanishingly small For companies using personalization or precise targeting the issue is ulti mately one of increasing returns on their marketing investments Marketing development is ulti mately founded on understanding tar get groups A company should identify its main target groups and understand their most important motivations Of course targetgroup understand ing is only a competitive advantage when it is used in practice Continual development in turn requires system atic measurement of campaign results DIFFICULT AND EXPENSIVE Relatively few companies in Finland are currently using message variation Korhonen gives several reasons for this Personalization is seen as expensive and laborious and people dont believe it works since the measurements dont measure effectiveness Measurements are often made in terms of traditional media attention and numerical parameters This distorts the conclusions if the aim is also to spur the target group to action Korhonen says another glitch is that marketingchannel design is often based onedimensionally on contact costs In other words companies try to maximize the number of recipients per message but forget contact quality ie the effect They are thus used to buying adver tising space from traditional media optimized for contact cost This is done using nonvariable communications that looks the same to everyone But we are already heading in a more positive direction since even traditional media are taking the rst steps in a more personalized direction ONLY A FEW PERCENT OF FINNS HAVE PROHIBITED THE USE OF THEIR DETAILS Henrikki Korhonen Fonecta Service Director Henrikki Korhonen urges firms to use official databases The front page can be designed for each recipient group separately says Marketing Planner Kerttu Pietilä at Hansaprint Ph ot os M ar k N isk an en 30
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31 Hansaprint news Optio now has something to put in its trophy cupboard with the mag azine picking up a medal and awards of excellence in a Nordicinternational competition The Society for News Design Scandi navia has given Optio awards of excel lence and a medal in its Nordic news design competition The awards of excel lence are for two features in the Visual Communication section The Musiikin uusi bisnes the new business of music article is the handiwork of subeditor Jus si Tuulensuu graphic designer Emilie Uggla and photographer Lauri Olander The other award of excellence came for an article Totuuksia metsästä Truths about the forest made by Jussi Tuulen suu and illustrator Elina Saarikoski Optio won a medal for overall design Compled by Elina Karemo ACCLAIM FOR KAUPPALEHTI OPTIO HansaBook will get some meat on its bones when the system is augmented by an Internet service This will allow publishers to print costeffectively to match demand The tool is a response to fragmenting demand with pub lishers now able to manage the orderproductiondelivery chain and keep bookmaterial up to date The book trade is used to operating in very traditional ways Up to now speed flexibility and transaction efficiency have not played key roles True printondemand still faces major challenges Electronic transactions make both the customers and Hansa Books operations more efficient We offer publishers a system in which bookproduction costs do not depend on the size of the print run in the traditional way The result is smaller runs at the unit sale price of larger editions Publishers can thus cut their warehousing risks and match their book production to realizable demand This operating model also requires a handy Web service to support it Sales Manager Minna Kokka sums up The HansaBook service allows books to be made in a few days As a bonus stock levels publishing risks and overall costs stay within bounds HansaBooks PrintonDemand service is the only one of its kind in the Nordic countries Further details Minna Kokka Tel 358 010 542 5941 HansaBook internet services augmented Fresh VTT research shows that the Finnish media sector is globalising despite the fact that peoples behaviour changes slowly The success of Google and Facebook proves that international factors are shaping the ways Finns use the Internet too More users means the services gets more adverts Advertisers have joined media houses in the rush to social media The latest craze on the Net is the realtime web a result of expanding Twitter services with applications that analyse tweets Facebook and Twitter are developing into a Win dowsstyle operating system that can be used for other services Many people already use their profiles when logging into other services on the Internet And the popularity of mobile Internet services is growing continually This is thanks to the spread of highperformance 3G networks and mobile broadband and smartphones The printed word is still standing up to the compe tition but magazines have managed to meet readers needs better than newspapers VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Media living through a major shift in the Design section The metal of the medal will be revealed in an award cer emony at a seminar in Oslo 22244 Kauppalehti Optio has also won Awards of Excellence in the internation al 31st Best of News Design Competition This highly prestigious contest is held annually by the Society for News Design The prizes were for a portfolio of photos that dives beneath the pack ice of the Gulf of Bothnia The photog rapher is Jukka Nurminen The other prize was snapped up in the Informa tion Graphics category for a graphic by Jussi Tuulensuu showing the colours of Finnish cars Optio got an award of excellence for its cover story article Totuuksia metsästä The magazine also won a medal for overall design
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A MAGAZINES COVER IS ITS PACKAGING ITS WRAPPING IT MAKES US EITHER PICK UP THE MAGAZINE OR REJECT IT The cover sells the magazine Customers have to be grabbed in an instant Does the picture say anything to them Do the words speak to their needs To make a targeted cover you need to know your customer very well But what if customers and readers vary as they often do The answer of course is variable covers In Finnish version of this issue we tried dividing things into two speed for the men and an interesting personality for the women We accentuated the split using playground colours So pale blue for the gentlemen and pink for the ladies We devised the titles for each target group separately for the mens cover facts and figures and for the womens version softer values while avoiding excessive stereotyping