When you generally think about Finnish people, you would think that they are mostly calm and quiet. That is mostly true and the Finns love and respect the quiet.
In fact, if you take a look at various information platforms available in Finland, you will see that most of the blogs are much more subtle compared to their international peers.
When you think about marketing platforms online, they are usually advanced and flashy. This is because they are targeted towards an audience that could be more interested in flashy images and call to action buttons (something the Finnish audience might not appreciate).
Now let us tell you about a few prime examples of how the quiet Finnish way of life and habits might extend to online. Take a look yourself and notice the differences that they have.
Reviews for Finnish bonus codes
Bonuskoodit.com, a Finnish review platform for bonus codes and online casinos takes a different approach. When they publish reviews, they are incredibly easy to read.
Reading is one of the key points in this review platform. In order for the customer to find what the offer is about, they have included many user-friendly features, such as a sidebar menu and various toplists for browsing online casinos (Finnish: nettikasinot). All visible on desktop and mobile.
Images are also super crisp, offers are described clearly and they are easy to read. Even for mobile users the site is fully available.
On the contrary, if we look at some review sites outside of Finland, we can find a big difference. Just as an example,for the English speaking market, let’s look at a bike comparison website.
We can see a lot of call-to-actions, images and a pretty messy menu. Although the template is simple, in this case the content is presented in a messy way.
So when you are designing websites for Finns, remember to keep in mind the ease of reading and mobile accessibility. Finland is the land of Nokia after all.
Who would want to miss on a recent review while not being able to read it with their phone properly.
Paulig – The essence of coffee
Another prime example of Finnish people, is the love for their coffee. Paulig, the inventor and seller of famous coffee brand Juhla Mokka, uses more of a blogging style approach.
They publish loads of interesting statistics about how much coffee Finns actually drink.
Paulig estimates, that an average adult in Finland consumes up to 10kg of raw coffee per year. That is a truly staggering amount. No wonder the Finns get through the long and dark winter, with the help of their love to a hot coffee.
Finland is probably not the first country that one would relate to coffee. But did you know that most of the coffee is not consumed at coffee shops? Yep, Finns brew their 3-4 big mugs of coffee at home and at office.
“Most Finnish people tend to have their coffee either at work or at home.”
Take a look at Paulig’s website and you will see how they are targeting the audience with more defined pictures and clear content.
Even the elderly people are not forgotten. Paulig even has their own style of nostalgia products, such as Juhla Mokka “50 years limited edition” package.
Conclusions
As you can see from the examples above, the style and themes which Finnish designers use and appreciate, are way less “eye-catching” than you would think.
Finns appreciate honesty and easy-to-read content. It is also good to remember that too complex selling tricks won’t work in Finland. You just have to go straight to the point – and customers will decide themselves if you have a good product or service.
You can also try to use infographics. Infographics and great design are good opportunities to outperform your competition.
TOP 5 Things to keep in mind while designing a service for the Finnish people
- Use clear and clean images
- Remember mobile-friendly design
- Be honest
- Go straight to the point
- Respect the intelligence of the potential customer and reader