First Impressions of Finland after Six Years

A blog/video series inspired by a visit to Finland after a long absence.

First Impressions of Finland after Six Years

I did not want to set any expectations when I visited my country of birth, Finland, for the first time in six years. I wanted to experience the country with the eyes of curiosity, questioning things I had perceived as normal when I had lived there. Those observations are collected here on this series of blogs and videos. 

When I arrived, everything seemed just like it was when I left six years ago. Already at the airport, I felt the familiarity that you can feel when a place is an integrated part of you. People and places were the same. But they sure can make a lot of traffic changes in six years!

One noticeable change was the grocery store. The number of new products and packaging was almost overwhelming, but at the same time exciting! So many healthy new products, which made an impression that half the country has gone plant-based. Super!

The innovation displayed at the grocery store is a great example of first-class Finnish product development and execution, as well as stellar success in the domestic market. Finns know the Finnish market best (obviously, duh!), and that detailed knowledge was presented at the grocery store aisle that had gone through a full transformation during my six absent years.

If product innovation runs in Finnish veins, why is it then so hard for Finnish companies to make a breakthrough on the global market? There are multiple reasons for it, and I’d like to bring up some that have become obvious to me as half a foreigner.

1. Blame it on the welfare state. No, seriously! When a marketing person has grown up in a Finnish environment, it can be difficult to internalize how the other markets operate differently as the roots of the behavior go as deep as your education system. As the result of a high-quality education system that was even considered the best in the world at one point in time, the Finnish consumers are world-class. They are educated, they make more or less rational decisions choosing healthy, ecological, and durable products. Our education system teaches the kids about nutrition, exercise, how to eat right, how to cook your own meals from scratch, how to mend your own clothes, safe sex, religions, and what is good for the environment. Not so in many other countries. In the US, many of these things are not taught. Many people think that potato chips can be counted as a serving of vegetables! 
2. You are behind. Whereas Finnish consumers are highly educated on health, environmentalism, etc, the Americans are light years ahead when it comes to services, customer service, and technology. The service culture is so ingrained into the American way of life and doing business that it can be hard for a Finn to understand. Speaking from a personal experience! It goes through the entire society. Services are cheap, people and companies use them, and you can expect customer service to be impeccable. Even leadership in companies touts being servant leaders, the service concept goes both ways. When you combine service culture with technology, you will face a market where consumers expect the delivery to be at their door in a few hours or at least a day or two. Consumers expect to be able to return products easily, that someone responds to the chat message 24/7, an email within a few hours, and that someone is available only a call away.
3. Your company is considered “peculiar” instead of unique. Being unique is a great selling point for a product, service, or company. People are looking for uniqueness and want to identify with it. Unique is not a synonym for peculiar. If you make your company or products all about the peculiarities of Finland / Finnish people, you will not be as successful as if you were concentrating on being unique. So, leave the awkward jokes, Finnish characteristics, and naked people to the marketing that targets the Finnish market if you want to gain a broader general acceptance beyond fringe groups.