An Educated Approach to Digital Marketing
Petri Laine - Copywriter, Radikal Advertising & PR
In Finland, large industrial companies have been slow to adopt new digital media in comparison to their foreign counterparts. Finnish B2B companies are finally taking the plunge into the world of digital marketing and social media, but in true Finnish form, they are not taking these steps lightly. While many of their American competitors have been active on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogging sites for some time, this hasn’t meant that Finnish companies have blindly jumped on the bandwagon. They prefer to do their research first.
The University of Jyväskylä (Finland) has received a sizeable grant from Tekes, The Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation, for its research into digital marketing and communications. The university heads the million Euro research project that aims to increase the digital marketing and communications know-how of Finnish industry. The project is set to delve into the relationship between digital marketing and traditional communications and will work towards creating effective tools to utilise digital channels and social media in sales, marketing and R&D.
Finnish industrial companies are known internationally for taking their promises seriously. Customers consider these companies and their products reliable and high quality. This high quality is also expected in their digital presence and customer communications. “We are especially interested in finding out how the use of new media can help create savings and play a supportive role in sales and R&D operations, while simultaneously improving the quality and frequency of dialogue with customers,” explains Professor Heikki Karjaluoto of the University of Jyväskylä.
The research is carried out by The University of Jyväskylä, Aalto University, Jyväskylä Polytechnic University and Oulu University. There are 13 major corporations involved in the project. The industrial B2B companies represented include the likes of Elematic, Moventas, Rautaruukki, The Switch, UPM, Vapo and Wärtsilä. Radikal Advertising & PR, along with BrandSon, DiVia, Movya, Sanoma and Tieto are also actively taking part in the project.
“In the long run, we wish to develop our customer communications across new channels. This research project offers us a great way to do just that that. We are especially keen to find out about the opportunities that social media has to offer for the B2B sector. We are also interested in finding out how these digital channels will affect the traditional media mix,” says Pirkko Harrela, Chief Communications Officer, UPM.
“This project allows everyone involved to exchange ideas and it will help us develop our digital customer service concepts,” Kimmo Kanerva, Marketing Director of Rautaruukki explains. He continues by stating that he believes: “we will be able to gain a competitive edge through developing faster and more agile operational models.”
The Finnish B2B sector is serious about social media and new digital channels of communication. While it is too late for them to be the fastest to adopt these new approaches, we can expect them to become very efficient in utilising the opportunities they present. We are happy to be a part of this study that will, without doubt, provide valuable information not only for Finnish industrial companies, but also for the global B2B sector in the near future.
For more information:
- Professor of Marketing, Heikki Karjaluoto, University of Jyväskylä, School of Economics:
- TEKES – The Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation: