Quality Builds Lasting Connections – Case in point: Tikkurila


Tikkurila is Finland’s leading paint brand and it is often seen as the premium choice both in terms of best colours and technical paint quality. But how can a premium brand both maintain their position and compete in other terms than just product pricing? The answer is simple: providing quality content and creating value for customers even before any purchase has been made.

This case will dive deep into how Tikkurila is able to serve their customers with high-quality content designed for each step of the painting project:  from finding inspiration to finalising the project.

Interior design and updating the feel of your home – inside or out – is perhaps one of the most interesting long-lasting consumer trends currently. As the cost of living goes up, yet salaries are somewhat stagnant, refreshing your home instead for constantly looking for a new one seems all the more intriguing.

Tikkurila – Finland’s leading paint brand – is perfectly positioned to cater to consumers who want to bring new life to their home in almost limitless creative ways: the combination of beautiful colours, textures and surfaces can literally breathe new life to any home, bringing it from the 1900s to 2010s – or vice versa and even beyond. So the demand is there – Tikkurila knows what to do and how to do it – they provide the products and have the strongest brand. Perfect, right?

Well, perhaps not one-hundred-percent perfect. Why? Because Tikkurila is not the only paint brand out there, and the competition is quite strongly centered around the product pricing – why shouldn’t I buy the cheapest possible paint I can get? 

The short answer: because essentially you’re not buying paint, you’re buying a successful painting project. This rings true, for Tikkurila at least, even if the competition may still be more about selling on price instead of selling on the idea of being successful at refreshing your home in a modern way. 

The longer answer: because cheap paint doesn’t get you everything. Building a strong emotional connection with consumers very early on in the consumer journey, and selling the quality that Tikkurila provides every step of the way lets consumers value Tikkurila higher than their competitors. It’s not just paint, it’s practically a partner on my painting journey. 

From finding inspiration and getting to know about the modern colours and project ideas, to actually painting with the right tools and methods, to getting a ‘shade guarantee’ for the colour you picked, to finishing your painting project by yourself (or with help from Tikkurila’s customer service or their network of painters-for-hire), Tikkurila is there for their customers. And for each step, relevant and most-sought-after content is logically distributed online and offline, so that very different kinds of customer personas are always able to find and get Tikkurila’s help, no matter where they are in the painting project.

This approach of bringing Tikkurila’s brand alive through high-quality content designed to fit each consumer’s path from inspiration to a renewed home is how the brand has been able to connect with their consumers and keep the competition at bay.  Quality truly builds connections, and these connections last even when consumers are at the hardware store and looking at different paint brands with different price tags.

Want to hear more about how Tikkurila does it? Join me at Ping Festival on May 8th at 14:00 at the Quality Stream Cases showcase, where we will go deeper into the process of building an end-to-end content ecosystem that builds connections between brands and consumers.

Vapa is one of the partners for PING Festival 2018. Read more about the event here and secure your spot soon – the amount of the tickets is limited! 

PING Helsinki