Day 2 @ Kunstenniemi

Today we have continued working with our project and it is going really well. We have many ideas to present tomorrow for our client, Raisio. Hopefully they will like them.

Guess what we ate for breakfast? ;)

WE <3 PORRIDGE!

On our mind: enjoying Elovena snacks!

Even during our breaks we can't stay away from Elovena! We have come up with promising ideas and we are continuing with brainstorming! Still, stay tuned, this is going to be awesome! :D

On our mind: So excited about Kunstenniemi!

This morning Marie-Sophie, Rita, Maria and Anna took the bus to Raisio Group and got our exciting final task! For the moment we are drinking glögg and eating "joulutorttuja" and planning on our project, stay tuned!

Mind about a book: “Friends with Benefits: A Social Media Marketing Handbook”

I read "Friends with Benefits: A Social Media Marketing Handbook" because it could be very useful to know why companies can profit from this marketing channel and therefore be able to use it ourselves for our project with Raisio. 

Social media marketing is using social media channels to promote a company and its products. This type of marketing is a subset of the company’s online marketing activities, combining traditional web-based promotional strategies like email newsletters and online advertising campaigns. Social media marketing qualifies as a form of viral or word-of-mouth marketing. Viral marketing is a marketing strategy which focuses on spreading information and opinions about a product or service from person to person by using the internet. So if I tell my sister about a restaurant I really like, only she hears about it. Maybe she tells her boyfriend or some friend about that restaurant, but my opinion doesn’t spread further than that and it moves slowly. But if I have a restaurant review podcast with 500 listeners, my opinion spreads much fasters and reaches many people. If a company is already taking advantage of marketing actions like trade shows, media relations, direct mail, and telemarketing, trying social media marketing is a logical addition to the marketing tactics. The primary goal of every social media marketing campaign should be a stronger web presence. Concrete metrics for an increased online visibility are: more visitors and more incoming links to the company’s website, better search engine optimization and an improved Google ranking. I think it is obvious that social media marketing is a useful instrument for a company to attract potential customers. But new site visitors are not buying customers yet. So a company needs to have a strategy how to convert the visitors into customers. 

If we decide to use social media for our project, we need to figure out a strategy to get these new site visitors to buy Raisio's products. I'm looking forward to  Kunstenniemi and then finally be able to present all we have figured out during the last few weeks :)

//Marie-Sophie

On our mind: meeting day 13.11.2013

 

Today we were creating ideas about ways of spreading them. We designed an action plan for the next two and a half weeks until Kunstenniemi. The team members who couldn't attend the meeting can check there what has to be done. We also decided to create an Twitter account and will now start tweeting :)

During the working day we mixed the different groups and that way we got some new and innovative ideas from the other teams. 

 

 

 

 

 

On our minds: spreading ideas & health promoting food

For the moment we know this about our task: spreading ideas & health promoting food. Here we have gathered things that could inspire us!

Here are some ideas how to market new products:

10 tips for successful product promotion

http://supportawahp.com/competitions/mothersdaycomp/10-tips-product-promotion/

How to spread your ideas

http://writetodone.com/how-to-spread-your-ideas/

We found a book about spreading ideas for better health care

http://www.chcanys.org/clientuploads/downloads/Clinical_resources/Leadership%20Articles/GoodIdeas.pdf

What is the deal about spreading ideas?

If everyone shares a little, everyone will get a lot. The one who shares his ideas can have feeling about not losing anything. That’s the power of Internet and blog writing. People agree that sharing is a good idea, but it hardly happens. It’s more common in hobbies and free time than in work. One reason is that we are not allowed to use so much Facebook, Twitter, blogs during workdays.

Spreading ideas makes development easier and faster. It also increases the community thinking. Workers have more motivation and are more committed to their work.

Ideas to promote healthy eating

http://www.wechealthunit.org/workplace-health/initiatives/ideas-to-promote-2/ideas-to-promote-healthy-eating

On our mind: Working day 1!

Training session 23.10.213:

We started to discuss about the design tools and focused on the User persona tool. The user persona tool is about grouping individuals together according to their similarities. This is useful for a company to be able to adjust their strategies according to their target customers. 

We had the idea to use this tool to put our customers into personas, but that was harder than expected. Raisio operates in many different markets in different countries. We designed a mindmap to visualise their different product ranges. This mindmap also shows the key markets of Raisio, all their products are available in the following countries: Finland and the Baltic countries (except of milk products and farming supplies). 

We took a look the other design-tools and thought that for our task the design-tool Design brief could be useful for us later in our project. When we have discovered what we want to achieve with our project this tool will help us to define possible risks and challenges. Service safari was a tool that we liked, but for us it's not that useful but for Raisio itself it might. This tool is more for companies providing services.

Today one of the coaches took a photo of us three who were present, hopefully we'll be more next time! :)

//Maria, Marie-Sophie & Anna

On our mind: general information about Raisio Group

Here we have gathered together everything we found about Raisio to make it easier for us to start our task “Idea creation”.

Raisio presents themselves on their homepage (http://www.raisio.com/www/page/mainpage) like this:

The Raisio Group is an innovative expert in plant-based nutrition. Raisio is known worldwide for Benecol products that effectively lower cholesterol. In different market areas, the company is known for its strong brands that include, e.g., Elovena, Honey Monster, Sunnuntai, Nordic, Fox's and Juicee Gummee. Moreover, farmers and livestock producers in Finland also recognise Raisio as a modern agricultural trader, Raisioagro. Our key market areas are Finland, the UK, Sweden, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Estonia and the Czech Republic.

Raisio’s activities are based on tasty, ecological, healthy and safe products that meet the customer need. In all our operations, the emphasis is placed on sustainable development and continuous improvement. We actively participate in the development of the Finnish grain chain and provide our customers with tools to improve their own operations including environmental aspects.

Raisio plc is a Finnish company established in 1939, whose shares are listed on NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Ltd. The company has over 35,000 shareholders. It employs some 1,900 people and operates in 9 countries. Group's net sales in 2012 were EUR 584.1 million and EBIT was EUR 34.6 million.

Raisios contact information

http://www.raisio.com/www/page/4548 here are Raisio’s contact information in Finland. We can call some of them if we want to get answers to our questions.

Videos connected to Raisio

Here is a video where Raisio presents themselves. There is an English subtitle to this video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqa66-mMbUE

Here’s another video about the Raisio group in English with finnish subtitles where you can see a lot of Raisio’s products and you also get to know the company better: http://vimeo.com/48735015

Publications by Raisio

Raisio also publishes an Annual Report every year which contains a review of the last year and information about Raisio’s strategy, sustainability, corporate governance and financial statements. The Annual Report of  2012 you can find here:

http://www.raisio.com/www/page/8233

Raisio also has a news site where you can follow how Raisio is expanding for example. The latest news are that the Benecol products was launched in the Philippines on Monday this week (21.10.2013). http://www.raisio.com/www/page/4430

Raisio’s vision and values

Raisio’s vision is to be a forerunner in ecological and healthy snacks with leading brands as well as an active developer of sustainable food chain.

Raisio is a forerunner in healthy, ecological snacks with leading brands and an active developer of the sustainable food chain.

Company values are tools that help Raisio’s employees to reach the targets defined in the Group’s strategy. A developing, competent and motivated staff is in a good position to achieve its goals. 

Raisio’s growth strategy

Raisio aims at growth through acquisitions and through organic growth in the company’s domestic markets. Raisio’s strong balance sheet and cash flow provide a good basis to continue implementation of the growth phase. Raisio continues to be active on the acquisition front.

Growth through acquisitions:

Globalisation of the trade and its distribution channels requires additional structural arrangements, which means that the food industry also has to become more international. Acquisitions provide the fastest way to internationalise and Raisio has excellent opportunities for this. The company is small and flexible with an ability to make quick decisions. Additionally, Raisio has strong balance sheet and cash flow.

Strong balance sheet results from the divestments carried out during the last few years. Raisio divested potato and diagnostics businesses in 2007,  sold its margarine business to Bunge Limited in 2009, malt business in 2011 and non-dairy business in the spring 2013. During the growth phase, Raisio acquired two UK companies producing breakfast and snack products, Polish pasta company and a confectionery company in Czech Republic. Raisio’s strategic focus is still on ecological and healthy snacks.

Acquisitions based on strict criteria

Raisio is interested in companies that comply with its strategy and represent small and growing product segments as well as new market areas.

Raisio has defined strict criteria that potential acquisition targets need to meet. These four criteria are related to product applications, consumer brands, customer base and purchase price.

Raisio consists of two divisions: Brands and Raisioagro

These are the competitors of the Raisio Group we found so far:

Myllyn Paras (http://www.myllynparas.fi/suomi/)

Danisco A/S (http://www.danisco.com/food-beverages/)

Danone (http://www.danone.com/?lang=en)

Greencore (http://www.greencore.ie/)

//Anna, Maria & Marie-Sophie

The minds of our group: Marie-Sophie

Hej!
I'm from Germany and I'm 21 years old. I used to live in a village close to Tübingen, in Southern Germany until I moved out of my parents house to study in Landshut, Bavaria. There I studied International Business for two years and now I finish my Bachelor's degree here in Turku at the Novia University of Applied Sciences with a double degree. Finland was my first choice for this year abroad and I am really glad to be here.
I never participated in a project like INNO58 before, but the description of this project was very interesting and therefore I decided to take part in it. 
I am also very excited to be a part of our "Raisio in my mind"-team and I am looking forward to work with the girls on our project. I am sure, we will have a good and productive time together :)

//Marie-Sophie