The Finnish country-of-origin effect: The quest to create a distinctive identity in a crowded and competitive international marketplace

Abstract

This paper discusses the efforts made by Finnish producers to emphasise the country of origin of their products in order to convey an image of innovation, quality and prestige. Finland's efforts in this area are relatively recent, dating mainly from the early 1990s. Traditionally, a producer of resource-intensive commodities—especially wood and wood products—Finland found itself facing growing competition from producers in other countries, especially emerging nations that enjoyed substantial cost advantages over Finnish producers. In response, Finland drew upon its tradition of excellence in design as well as its long-standing policy of investing heavily in education and research. It began to produce more ‘value added’ products and complemented this change in strategy by a conscious effort to make ‘made in Finland’ synonymous with superior design, quality and innovation. To successfully differentiate their wares, Finnish producers not only made intrinsic improvements to their manufactured goods but also made their Finnish provenance an important and attractive extrinsic feature. Finnish companies have been especially successful at creating brands that have a strong Finnish flavour, conveying an image of Nordic life that is progressive, responsible and technologically advanced. In this context, branding is much more than placing a name or a logo on a product. What is important is not only how the customer views the physical product but also the broader notion of how the product was conceived and produced and the values and traditions that it is perceived to embody. This paper cites a number of examples of how Finnish producers and marketers use the country-of-origin effect to differentiate and market their products. The paper, however, is mainly conceptual rather than empirical. It examines a marketing effort—supported and encouraged by the state but carried out by individual firms—but does not seek to provide a systematic overview of the extent or impact of such efforts. These are issues for future research.