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 Abstract

Design as a discipline began its journey with mass-production and industrialization, with a
focus on products and goal-oriented tasks such as work and utility. With the emergence of post-
industrial society, where efficiency and task-oriented activities became ubiquitous and guaranteed, the
state-of-art business and design thinking was challenged by the emotional, personal, and social
qualities of products and services. 'Experience', as a theme, emerged to address this challenge of shift
from 'products' to 'people'. This thesis aims to inquire into the motivations and consequences of
'experience-oriented design', through the merging of two lenses: design thinking and business
strategy. It will investigate how the 'experience' theme can create a positive influence on large-scale
business enterprises, using the case of TeliaSonera Finland, a mobile communications service
provider in Northern and Eastern Europe. The exploration consists of literature review including design
and business fields with research and practice perspectives, analysis of experiences with the
customer experience management methodology and user-centred research methods, including
contextual interviews and surveys. The inquiry will be concluded with the development of an
'experiential platform', which will be embodied with three implementation examples as Sonera / Red
Cross Subscription, Sonera Store Experience Scenarios and a Sonera Experience team. During the
design phase, affinity diagrams, concept generation, and scenario development were used extensively
to create sub-themes that will enhance the experience strategy of the case company. As the CEM
framework suggested, proposed examples illustrated a top-down approach, addressing all the sides of
the experiences including customers, employees, designers, and business people, which makes this
inquiry significant with its holistic stance.

Keywords:
Customer Experience Management, Experience Design, TeliaSonera Finland, Emotional
Value, Experiential Platform. Experience Economy

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Acknowledgements

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Table of Contents

Background information
1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………1
1.1 Experience Economy…………………………………………………………………4
1.2 Service Economy is Booming and so as Service Design…………..……4
1.3 What are Experience Design & Designed Experiences………………….5
1.4 Industry Insight: Experience Design in Nokia…………………………….6
1.5 Provoke Senses and Emotions to create Customer Experiences…..7
1.6 Customer Experience Management……………………………………………8
1.7 Customer Experiences and TeliaSonera Finland…………………………9
1.8 Research Questions………………………………………………………………….9
2. Methodology……………………………………………………………………………………………10
2.1 Analyzing the Experiential World of the Customer…………………….11
2.2 Building the Experiential Platform…………………………………………..12
2.3 Implementing the Experiential Platform…………………………………..13
2.3.1 Designing the Brand Experience…………………………………..….13
2.3.2 Structuring the Customer Interface………………………………….14
2.3.3 Engaging in Continuous Innovation…………………………………15

3. Process & Results………………………………………………………………………….………….16

3.1 Analyzing the Experiential World of the Customer…………………….17

3.1.1 Selection of Target Segment………………………………………….17

3.1.2 Preparation of Survey…………………………………………………..17
3.1.3 Analyzing the Survey Results…………………………………...…..18
3.1.3.1 - Analysis of ELISA…………………………………...…..19
3.1.3.2 - Analysis of DNA………………………………...……....20
3.1.3.3 - Analysis of SONERA……………………………….…...22
3.1.3.4 - Survey Results Retail Store Experiences…...….24
3.1.3.5 - Survey Results Web Experience……………...……26

3.1.4 Conclusions…………………………………………………………………28

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 3.2 Building the Experiential Platform……………………….…………..……29

3.2.1 Experiential Positioning…………………………………...……….29

3.2.2 Experiential Value Promise Creation…….……...………..…..31

3.2.2.1 Creation of Values by Using Affinity Diagram….…32

3.2.2.2 Explanation of Values Related to Sonera…………...35

3.2.3 Selecting Implementation Theme……………………………......37

3.2.4 Experiential Platform – “Sonera Better Together”..........38

3.2.4.1 Internal Experience – Employees.........................40

3.2.4.2 External Sonera Experience – Customers..............42
3.2.4.3 External Experience – Business Partners..............44

3.3 Implementation Ideas for Better Together platform...................45

3.3-1. Idea 1- Sonera Experience Scenarios..............................47
3.3-2. Idea 2- Sonera RedCross Subscription............................55
3.3-3. Idea 3- Sonera Experience Team.....................................59

4. Conclusions & Discussions............................................................................60

References.........................................................................................................63
Appendices........................................................................................................65

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“Strategic Use of Design to Enhance Customer Experience:
Case Study of TeliaSonera Finland”

This thesis aims to inquire into the motivations and consequences of ‘experience-oriented
design’ in large-scale business enterprises by examining the case of TeliaSonera Finland, a mobile
communications service provider running a telecommunications business actively in northern and
eastern Europe. This inquiry will be holding two lenses, those of design thinking and business
strategy, through which to explore the ‘experience’ theme.

Within the last two decades, ‘experience’ has emerged as one of the key themes in the design
community, as the field moves from designing for task-oriented activities to richer experiences
including emotional, social and ludic qualities. Experience design, which can also be considered an
extension and projection of graphic, product and service design fields, deals with moments of
interaction between people and brands, products, services and systems. As opposed to other
branches of design, experience design takes people and their experiences as its starting point.

The business perspective on the other hand looks at the ‘experience’ theme from a marketing
point of view and prefers to name it as ‘customer experience’. Customer experiences are often part of
the company’s overall experience strategy, and must be planned, managed and aligned with
employee experience in order for them to contribute to the company’s overall branding and position in
the market.

In this inquiry, both design thinking and business strategies have been utilized and applied to
create TeliaSonera’s experience strategy. Schmitt’s framework on Customer Experience Management
has been utilized to construct the company’s experience strategy. During the thesis process both
qualitative and quantitative research methods were used, such as contextual interviews and surveys.
Collected data were evaluated and used in the design and implementation of the experiential strategy.

The final outcome is the ‘TeliaSonera experiential platform’ that can be characterized as
“Better together” motto. The inquiry also suggests three implementation examples for the platform,
including a Sonera / Red Cross Subscription, Sonera Store Experience Scenarios and a Sonera
Experience team.

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Background Information

The inspiration for conducting this thesis research with TeliaSonera Finland came after completing an
IDBM (international design business management) industry project. IDBM is a minor study programme
held together with students from the Helsinki School of Economics, Helsinki University of Technology
and the University of Art & Design Helsinki (TaiK). During the one-year IDBM industry project, our
team’s task was to conduct futures research for TeliaSonera Finland. As a result of the project,
together with future scenarios, new service ideas were presented. The results were valued by the
company, and this success led to discussions with Meeri Haataja, Business Development Manager
from TeliaSonera Finland, concerning an MA thesis furthering this topic. During the discussions, it was
stated that Sonera is interested in the benefits of design, and I was asked to make my thesis proposal
around the idea of what design thinking and design methodology can contribute to the company. As a
result of fruitful discussions with company responsibles, the thesis subject has been titled, “Strategic
use of design to enhance customer experience; the case study of TeliaSonera Finland.” The thesis
work was tutored by Professor Peter McGrory from TaiK and Jaana Honkonen from TeliaSonera
Finland.

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 Introduction
This thesis aims to unfold the motivations and ramifications of ‘experience-oriented design’ in
large-scale business enterprises by investigating the case of TeliaSonera Finland, a mobile
communications service provider and mobile network operator active in northern and eastern Europe
as well as Spain. This inquiry will be holding two lenses through which the ‘experience’ theme will be
explored: design thinking and business strategy.

The notion of ‘experience’ is becoming very popular in both research and practice (industry),
including the design and business arenas. Currently many design researchers and companies are
conducting research and developing and comparing tools to enhance user experiences. One recent,
significant design research example from is a PhD dissertation entitled “Co-experience” (Battarbee,
2004). In a similar vein, Pine and Gilmore (1999) from the business research side suggested the term
‘customer experience’ as an economic offering in their book entitled Experience Economy. In industry
there are several companies in the world considering themselves to be experience-oriented, such as
Starbucks and Singapore Airlines. This inquiry will be discussing and utilizing both design thinking and
business strategies to fully examine TeliaSonera Finland`s customer experience.

How does the design community approach the ‘experience’ theme? How does design thinking
shape the overall practice of experience design? Sanders (2001) defines experiences as moments
connected with past memories and future dreams (Fig. 1). Alexander Manu (2007) states that
experience happens in moments and each moment has to be linked to another to create a unified
whole. These moments must be attractive to capture users’ attention, engaging during users’
interaction and extending into different moments.

Figure 1. Experience domain. Source: Sanders, 2001

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 Moreover, due to the recent rise of a ‘service economy’, more and more design studios are
positioning themselves as service design agencies in order to fulfil market needs. In the academic
environment more universities such as the University of Art and Design Helsinki are including service
design in their curricula, and offering service design courses to BA level students.

It is also said that we are moving to an ‘experience economy’, where experience is the actual
business offering: “elements that create customer experiences can be identified and reproduced,
which make them designable” (Shedroff, 2007). As a result, there need to be designers to design
experiences, and as more designers are starting to involve themselves with the creation of customer
experiences, a new field called Experience Design is emerging (Fig. 2). Shedroff (2007) states that
“Experience Design is an approach to creating successful experiences for people in any medium. This
approach includes consideration and design in all three spatial dimensions, over time, with all five
senses, and in interactivity, as well as involving customer value, personal meaning, and emotional
context.”

Figure 2. Shift in between economies (Pine & Gilmore, 1999) and its reflection on the design
field.

According to a survey by the European Centre for the Experience Economy (Boswijk, Thijssen
& Peelen, 2006), common denominators between experiences are emotions. Experiences start with
the senses, and emotions are key. Since most experiences are emotional, before designing customer
experience, companies must have a clear idea of which senses to stimulate and which emotions to
engage during customer experiences. This planning is directly related to the branding strategy of the
company. One example is how Google uses humour as a behaviour in its customer experience:
through, for instance, April Fool’s jokes, or the ‘I’m feeling lucky’ button.

“Successful experiences are personal and memorable.”(Pine & Gilmore, 1999) Experience
can be transformed into memorabilia: this memorabilia can extend the current moment and connect
moments. A small replica of the Eiffel tower in Paris serves as a tool to recall a tourist experience.
(Norman, 2005) It is therefore important that during the planning phase of customer experiences this
notion of memorabilia must also be planned.

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 Having talked about the design perspective, how does business research approach the
experience theme? From a business point of view, experience refers to the ‘customer experience’. “A
customer experience is an interaction between an organization and a customer. It is a blend of an
organization`s physical performance, the senses stimulated and emotions evoked, each intuitively
measured against customer expectations across all moments of contact” (Shaw & Ivens, 2002).
Similar to Alexander Manu`s (2007) definition, the total of experiences links moments of contact, thus
creating ‘customer experience’.

Customer experiences are accepted as an economic offering in Pine and Gilmore’s

experience economy. According to B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore, “the Experience
Economy is an advanced service economy which has begun to sell "mass customization" services
similar to theatre, using underlying goods and services as props.” Today we are in the era of a
‘Service Economy’, where services are commoditized as products. One good example of this
commoditization is how mobile phones are given away almost for free in exchange for mobile service
subscriptions. Another current example is Nokia announcing its further extension into the service
arena through OVI. OVI is Nokia`s upcoming sub-brand created for delivering online services and
content.

“In order to deliver the total brand promise, it is also increasingly important that the internal
employee brand experience is coherent, compelling and aligned with that of the consumers.” (Ardill,
2007) Virgin CEO Richard Branson argues that good employee experiences must be created in order
to provide satisfactory customer experiences. (Milligan & Smith, 2002)

Having mapped out both the design and business perspectives; personal, emotional, and
memorable are higlighted as critical qualities in order to reach unified and rich experiences. This
resulted in three key qualities. 1) Rich experiences exceed people’s expectations, and they always
stimulate and evoke emotions in people. 2) Rich experiences have presence and a sense of
happening ‘in the moment’, and the touchpoints of moments are always linked to each other.
Touchpoints are the points of interaction between the brand and the target audience (Wheeler, 2006)
These touchpoint moments must be tempting before the experience, engaging during the experience
and memorable after the experience. (Manu, 2007) 3) Rich experiences should subsequently have the
capacity to extend their impact between the customer and company with or without the help of
memorabilia. These different moments between the customer and company should be aligned with the
customer’s overall journey in order to create a seamless experience. A seamless customer experience
means that all the experiences around the same brand are consistent and smooth. In creating
seamless customer experiences, an employee’s experience must be taken into consideration as well,
as previously mentioned.

To further the findings from the design and business perspectives, Schmitt’s Customer
Experience Management (CEM) framework was employed to elaborate the TeliaSonera case. The

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CEM framework begins with an analysis of the world of the customer and involves five steps. The
framework is further detailed in Chapter One, section 1.6.

1.1 The Shift to the Experience Economy

According to Pine and Gilmore, “in the last two hundred years there has been a shift from an
Agrarian Economy, based on extracting commodities, to an Industrial Economy based on
manufacturing goods; then to a Service Economy based on delivering services, and now to an
Experience Economy based on staging experiences.” An apt illustration of these changes is found in
coffee. As shown, figure 3, a coffee can be any of these economic offerings; a commodity
(costs slightly more than 1€ per kilo), a product (5 and 10 cents per cup), a service (50 cents to a euro
per cup), an experience (2€ to 5€ more per cup). (Pine & Gilmore, 1999)

Figure 3. Coffee as 4 Different Economic Offerings, Source: Pine & Gilmore, 1999

The shift is therefore from commodities to goods to services and then to experiences. Today
the service economy is booming; companies in the service sector are however needing to use
customer experience as a differentiating factor. An oft-cited example is Starbucks, where customers
are being connected in a personal, memorable way.

1.2 The Service Economy is Booming and so is Service Design

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, table 1, it is clear
that the rate of growth of services as a proportion of the economy has increased especially last two
decades. (DIEC, 2007)

Table 1. Growth of Services, Source: IDEC, 2007

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 Together with the rise of the service economy product designers have a new role in designing
services: to create value for the companies. “Service Design is the field concerned with the
development of services to meet specific needs. These services may make use of different
communication media (including online, telephone, or in-person modes), may or may not be
automated, and may or may not use products as part of the service experience.” (Shedroff, 2007)

Figure 4. Progression of Economic Value: Pine & Gilmore, 1999

As seen in Figure 4, when services are mass-customized and tailored to fulfil personal desires
of individual customers, services turn into designed experiences. Designed experiences can be used
strategically to differentiate from competitors and gain market share. Early experience-oriented
companies include Singapore Airlines, Virgin, and Apple.

1.3 What are Experience Design & Designed Experiences

As previously mentioned, the service economy itself is in the process of being commoditized
by an experience economy. While everything, technically, is an experience of some sort, there is
something important and special to many experiences that make them worth discussing. In particular,
Shedroff (2007) claims that “the elements that contribute to superior experiences are knowable and
reproducible, which make them designable.” and “Experience Design is an approach to creating
successful experiences for people in any medium, including spatial/environmental installations, print
products, hard products, services, broadcast images and sounds, live performances and events,

5
digital and online media, and the like. As previously mentioned, this approach involves various
dimensions, senses, time periods, values, meanings, and emotions. ”

In order to explain Experience Design Ardill (2007) provides the example of redesigning a
Sunday newspaper. Experience design approach considers the actual user and its moments of
contacts with the newspaper. (Fig. 5) How the newspaper can be bought, carried, read and disposed?
What are readers motivations and feelings during these moments?

Figure 5. Moments of Contact in Newpaper Experience, Source: Ardill, 1999

1.4 Industry Insight: Experience Design in Nokia

Experience design is a holistic approach to define the customer journey. As an example Nokia
is one of few companies aware of this holistic way of thinking in experience design. Nokia`s Head of
Brand Visual and Sensorial Experiences Liisa Puukkola defines experience design as the integration
of the design language of the product, the feeling of the product, user behaviour, packaging, use
contexts and potential future services. Nokia`s aim through experience design is to surprise and give
positive feelings to the customers by creating pleasurable and purposeful products. (Sinclair, 2006)

Figure 6. Photos of Nokia Flagship Store Helsinki

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 1.5 Provoke Senses and Emotions to Create Customer Experiences

According to the above-mentioned survey by the European Centre for the Experience
Economy (Boswijk, Thijssen & Peelen, 2006), over 300 people were asked which experiences
actually changed their lives and they will never forget. The answers are mostly in the personal sphere
and the experiences which have high emotional impact.

As a process, Experiences mostly begin as perception through the senses (sight, hearing,
smell, touch, taste) which usually lead to emotions and in the end to meaning. Since emotions are at
the centre of experiences they are the most important factor in customer decisions. Therefore
companies should plan the kinds of emotions they want to be associated with and how to keep these
emotions consistent throughout the entire experience journey along physical and digital touchpoints.
“Customers want and expect to be positively, emotionally, and memorably impacted at every level of
their commercial existence.” (Barlow & Maul, 2000) For example, when buying salt in the supermarket,
even though the substance is the same, a customer may buy the more expensive one because its
package is more appealing and therefore gives her a nicer feeling.

Today sensorial experiences are not discovered by many brands but in the future this will be
the key to create emotional contact and loyalty. (Gobé, 2001) Therefore brands must create their own
differentiated taste, smell, touch, visuals and sound. One thinks of the smell of coffee when entering
Starbucks, or the smell of a new car. An especially powerful example for many global consumers is
the taste and smell of Coca-Cola; this is augmented with the sound of the bottle opening, the texture
on the bottle, or its shape with its distinct, red Coca-Cola label. (Lindström, 2005)

The movie industry as well carefully studies the emotional reactions of focus groups to help
with film-editing sequencing and even plot endings. Its purpose is to create an emotional impact on
movie viewers so that large numbers will return to the theatre to see the film over and over again, tell
all their friends about it and then buy a DVD copy for themselves as well as all its accompanying
merchandise. (Barlow & Maul, 2000)

Sergio Zyman, former chief marketing officer of Coca-Cola, stated, “Emotional branding is
about building relationships; it is about giving a brand and a product long-term value.” Zyman went on
to say that, “Emotional branding is based on that unique trust that is established with an audience. It
elevates purchases based on need to the realm of desire. The commitment to a product or an
institution, the pride we feel upon receiving a gift of a brand we love or having a positive shopping
experience in an inspiring environment where someone knows our name or brings an unexpected gift
or coffee – These feelings are at the core of Emotional Branding.” (Zyman cited in Gobé, 2001) While
customers may think logically, they buy emotionally, and since senses usually lead to emotions,
brands must have a clear strategy to evoke emotions through the senses.

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 1.6 Customer Experience Management

As defined by Professor Bernd Schmitt, “Customer Experience Management (CEM) is the

process of strategically managing a customer’s entire experience with a product or a company. CEM
has a broader approach to how a company and its products can be related to a customer’s life. Then,
after a better understanding of the customer’s life, CEM connects every touchpoint and calls for
integration and common customer experiences.”

CEM is not only focusing on sale but also focuses on before and after the sale as
opportunities in which to provide value to customers by delivering information, service, and
interactions that result in desired experiences. (Schmitt, 2000)

Schmitt describes the CEM framework in the following five steps:

1. Analyzing the experiential world of the customer

2. Building the platform
3. Designing the brand experience
4. Structuring the customer interface
5. Engaging in continuous innovation

“Customer experiences are stories: small scenarios of experience. Customers show up at

places of business with their own unique histories, remembering events, many times without
conscious awareness, that influence the reality of their current experience.” (Barlow & Maul, 2000) The
key word in CEM is therefore management, the need for competent interaction with total customer
experience.

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 1.7 Customer Experience and TeliaSonera Finland

Sonera, the oldest telecommunications provider in Finland, was established in 1917 as a state
organization called Telegraph Office Finland. Ten years later it merged with Post of Finland and The
Post and Telecommunications of Finland was established. Post and Telecommunications of Finland
(PT Finland) had a monopoly until deregulation in 1992, when the state granted licenses to competing
operators. In 1994 PT Finland divided into two companies, Finland Post and Telecom Finland. During
1997 Telecom Finland was partially privatized and its name changed to Sonera. In 2002 Sonera
merged with the Swedish Telecommunications Company Telia and TeliaSonera was established.
(TeliaSonera, 2007)

Today it is the market leader in Finland. Sonera’s main strategy is to be customer-centred.

(TeliaSonera, 2007) However, competition in the mobile business is increasing. Compared to ten
years ago, today more consumer products are being replaced by services, as for example new mobile
phones being given away for free by service providers. This may be one result of the transition phase
between product and service economies. Today the prices of mobile communication services are
decreasing. These price wars will likely continue until the market reaches its limits. In the end service
offerings could be commoditized into ‘experiences’. To take the advantage of this Sonera could
reposition itself as an experience provider. These experience offerings must be emotional, memorable,
personal, and consistent along touchpoints.

1.8 Research Questions

The main research question of this thesis is the following:

How can strategic design enhance TeliaSonera`s customer experience?
The following sub-questions will also be addressed:

1. What does Sonera look like in the minds of its customers compared to its competitors?
2. Where can Sonera be positioned in the market, in order to create better experiences?
3. What emotions could or should be delivered during customer experience?
4. What could the customer experience platform be in order to align experiences around the
brand?
5. What short-term actions could be taken to deliver ‘great’ customer experiences?

2
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 Methodology
After a brief literature review, the Customer Experience Management CEM model (Schmitt,
2000) was selected to apply to the Sonera case. Before applying to the case company, the CEM
framework’s five steps were grouped and transformed into three phases: Analysis, Building the
experiential platform and Implementation. These changes were made in order to explain and apply the
framework easily to Sonera. (Fig. 7) In this chapter these three phases will be explained.

Figure 7. Application of framework into Sonera case.

2.1 Analyzing the Experiential World of the Customer

The first step involves understanding the world of the customers. Designers typically start the
design process by researching user behaviours and motivations; similarly, to be customer-oriented,
customers and their worlds must be studied. The first step is identifying the target customer. This
depends on the company business strategy and which segment they want to and can serve. When the
customer segment is defined, their world is explored through the study of both past experiences and
future expectations. The second step is the creation of experiential values and platform. These values
are the brand’s core values and they will be delivered during the experience. The third step is to
implement and track the experience along the touchpoints.

During the application of the first step to the Sonera case, a number of questionnaires were
used to collect data concerning the positioning of Sonera in consumers’ minds. Surveys lasting
approximately 15 minutes were prepared and sent via email to MA students in Helsinki: from the
University of Art & Design Helsinki TAIK, the Helsinki School of Economics HKKK and Helsinki
University of Technology TKK. This segment (18-30 years old, university-educated, familiar with
technology, and working part-time) was selected according to discussions with Sonera. In all 25

11
participants responded. Questions concerned issues with existing brand experience and Sonera’s
customer interface comparing with its main competitors DNA and Elisa.

At the same time as the surveys were sent out to the respondents, in order to better evaluate
the Sonera experience, five interviews were held with Sonera employees. Two of the employees were
from Design & Usability, one employee from Customer Service and two from the Business
Development Department. The interviews lasted one hour and were recorded by voice recorder. The
main aim was to evaluate the internal Sonera experience, and how the brand is positioned in the
minds of the employees.

2.2 Building the Experiential Platform

Building the experiential platform is the strategy-building phase of the CEM model. The
experiential platform connects strategy creation and its implementation. Platform building includes the
following tasks: first, experiential positioning of the company; second, creation of experiential value
promises; and third, creating and deciding upon the overall implementation theme which will be
realized through different touchpoints.

1- The experiential positioning describes where the brand positions itself in the market; this
positioning depends on the corporate strategy. During the discussions it was stated that Sonera wants
to gain younger customers and refresh the brand. Therefore research was conducted among MA
students of the three afore mentioned universities.

2- Experiential Value Promise describes which values will be transferred to customers during
the experience. These values must be part of the strategy of the brand in order to help the brand to
attain its desired position in the market. (Schmitt, 2000)

3- The overall implementation theme summarizes the style and content of the core message
that the company would use across its entire implementation programme. The core message will be
implemented to enhance brand experience, the customer interface and future product development.
(Schmitt, 2000)

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 2.3 Implementation of the Platform

Implementation occurs in the latter phase of the CEM platform process. According to Schmitt
(2000) the experiential platform must be applied first to the brand experiences, second to the customer
interface and third to the continuous innovation, product development process of the company (Fig. 8).

Figure 8. Implementation of the Platform , Source: Schmitt, 2000

2.3.1 Designing the Brand Experience

After the experiential platform is created, the platform must be implemented into the brand
experience. In brief, the brand experience includes: the look & feel of the brand, such as logos,
signage, packaging, and retail spaces, product experience, and experiential communication,
appropriate experiential messages in advertising offline and online, to complete the brand experience.

1- Product experience: The product provides experiential and functional values to customers.
Essentially these values are the key part of the experiential platform. (Schmitt, 2000) For instance, the
Apple and B&O brands are built around their product experiences, which are very consistent across
the products and deliver the key values of the companies. In Sonera case this refers to the Service
experience.

2- The Look & Feel (also referred to as brand identity): As stated in the introduction, customers’
motives in purchasing are often emotionally driven and decisions are based on the visual experiential
elements rather than product or utility features alone. The look and feel includes the visual identity
(name, logo and signage), packaging, store design and website design. Look & Feel also supports the
customer interface to create a coherent experience. (Schmitt, 2000)

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 3- Experiential Communications stands for the ad strategy of the company. This relies on the
experiential values and positioning. Emotions play an important role in delivering the message to the
customers.

2.3.2 Structuring the Customer Interface

Secondly, after considering the brand experience, the experiential platform must also be
implemented in the customer interface. The customer interface is the touchpoint where physical and/or
virtual interactions occur. This includes a variety of exchanges and contact points with the customer:
examples can be face-to-face interaction in a store, during an exhibition at a fair centre or via a phone
service. It is important to structure the content and style of this dynamic interaction in order to give the
customer the desired experience. Customer interface deals with the way the company greets, guides,
provides information and support before, during and after an interaction sequence. Elements of the
customer interface are the following:

1- Face-to-face: Face-to-face includes direct interaction and exchanges between customers

and employees in the same physical spaces. In the example of a retail store, the customer interface
must be aligned with the brand experience (look & feel) of the company (Schmitt, 2000), For example
in McDonald’s, speed is visible both through the interior design and behaviours of the employees
during the service. It is a suitable example of alignment of customer interface with brand experience.
In the Sonera case, face-to-face interactions occur mainly in retail outlets.

2- Personal-but-distant. Personal-but-distant includes interactions that occur not in the same

physical space but still personal, such as over the phone or fax. Like the face-to-face interface, this
interface is useful to serve individual customers (Schmitt, 2000). In the Sonera case this interface
refers to the phone service for customer care.

3- Electronic. The electronic interface stands for interactions happening on digital channels
such as email or sms (Schmitt, 2000),

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 2.3.3 Engaging in Continuous Innovation

Finally, the experiential platform must be implemented in the innovation process, as Schmitt
states, "...engaging in continuous innovation. Innovations include anything that improves end
customers’ personal lives and business customers’ work life and can change from major inventions to
small innovations in the product’s form, literally and metaphorically. Innovations can attract new
customers; most of the time, however, they build customer equity by helping a company sell more
products to existing customers. Innovations of all kinds need to be planned, managed, and marketed
so that they improve the customer experience."

Since a good customer experience is the critical success factor, a company seeking a
breakthrough innovation should integrate the customer experience into the product development
process.

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 Process & Results
3.1 Analyzing the Experiential World of the Customer

During the application of the CEM framework the first task was to analyze and understand the
world of Sonera customers in order to define their current experience. The research question is: “What
does Sonera look like in the minds of customers, compared to its competitors?” As a research method,
online surveys were prepared.

3.1.1 Selection of Target Segment

According to recent market studies, many Sonera customers are from the baby-boomer
generation, aged 40 and over. During the first month of this thesis, there were ongoing discussions on
how to gain the attention and interest of a younger generation as well as retaining the existing
markets. Therefore with my tutor Jaana Honkonen from Sonera, the scope of the thesis was limited to
the younger segment, aged 18-30, to which I also belong. For the research, BA or MA-level university
students from the University of Art & Design Helsinki (TAIK), Helsinki University of Technology (TKK)
and Helsinki School of Economics (HKKK) were selected. The attributes common to all participants is
that they were Finnish, aged 18-30, familiar with technology, and a bachelor’s or master’s student from
the Helsinki area; some were also working part-time as well as studying.

3.1.2 Preparation of Surveys

During the preparation of the surveys, Helsinki School of Economics expert Sami Kajalo was
consulted. Questions were placed in order from general to specific. The survey involved both multiple
choice, ranking and open-ended type questions. Through the questions, participants’ opinions,
experiences and expectations were elicited about the three main Finnish mobile operators, DNA, Elisa
and Sonera. (Survey can be found on Appendix A). By being asked to compare the brands according
to various aspects, participants positioned the brands. The surveys had been prepared in Microsoft
Word and sent via email to the student list of TKKK, TAIK and HKKK. The survey reached more than
100 students. The expected completion time of the survey was approximately 15-20 minutes. It
included six sections:

A) GENERAL INFORMATION: Simple, general questions were asked in this section such as
which mobile operator the respondent was using and what motivated the selection of that particular
brand.

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 B) LOOK & FEEL: This section investigated each brand’s visual language and its effect,
through for instance how the brand was perceived and what kinds of emotions were engaged through
various touchpoints.

C) PRODUCTS & SERVICES: This section questioned how new service offerings were
experienced by the participants.

D) EXPERIENTIAL COMMUNICATIONS: This section focused on the online and offline

communication ad strategy of the brands. The aim of this section was to discover how brands are
positioning themselves through their communication strategy.

E) CUSTOMER SERVICE: Customer service experiences and expectations were sought,

such as the first contact option consumers take when there are problems: digital, store or phone
service?

F) COMPARISONS: The last section explored the participants’ main motivations when
selecting a mobile operator.

3.1.3 Analyzing the Survey Results

A total of 25 participants responded after three weeks’ time. Twenty-three were Finnish and
two were non-Finnish. Fourteen were female and eleven male; seven participants were between 18-25
years old, seventeen were 25-30 years old and one participant was over 30 years old. The distribution
of each mobile service among the participants as customers was as follows: Elisa 7, Saunalahti 6,
Sonera 5, DNA 3, Telefinland 3, and Kolumbus 1.

3.1.3.1 Analysis of ELISA

When asked the first keywords associated with Elisa, most participants repeated, “Elisa is
neutral, Finnish, refreshing, friendly, basic, innovative.” Secondly all participants remembered Elisa`s
brand colour, blue. Most associated the colour blue with Finnishness. When participants were asked to
imagine Elisa as an animal, the answers were diverse, from reindeer, Finnish cow, Finnish bear to
dolphin, or stupid elephant. Common attributes in these animals are that they are big, flexible and
friendly. Therefore, this may be the image that Elisa wants to deliver: established, big but flexible, and
friendly. Regarding the question asked about the associations to the name Elisa, participants
discussed that it’s a Finnish girl`s name and it gives the feeling of a girl from the next village. On
Elisa`s TV advertisements, two ordinary-looking Finns, Sauli & Pauli, are the main characters. Some
participants found these advertisements Finnish, nostalgic and funny.

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Figure 9. Animal Abstraction of Elisa Brand

If these pieces are connected together, it could be said that Elisa has a theme of
“Finnishness”. All the activities around the brand support the theme Finnishness, from the Finnish girl’s
name Elisa to the colours blue and white; from Sauli & Pauli, to the reindeer figures used in the stores.
Using a Finnish brand is a very important decision criterion in a young country like Finland. Elisa is
emphasizing Finnishness as a strategy against Sonera, since the year 2002 when Sonera merged
with Swedish mobile operator Telia.

If we analyze how Elisa stimulates our senses, Elisa’s brand, theme and music draw attention.
Elisa’s theme music, played at the end of every Elisa TV advertisement, is also a ring tone available to
customers. This is very similar thinking to Nokia, who has used this approach for quite some time.
Even without the physical device being seen, Nokia phones can be identified through their default
Nokia ring tone. Elisa has taken a similar approach and branded itself through sound. This is a clever
way to extend into customers’ daily life from the small mobile phone screen. It supports the Elisa
experience and creates a link from television to everyday life.

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 Regarding the emotions that Elisa evokes, during the survey many participants stated “neutral
emotions” connected to the brand. As long as Elisa wants to be flexible and friendly, it does not want
to go in any extreme direction. Through its ad strategy it refers to nostalgia and ordinary people from
Finland. Participants’ comments on the TV ads included that, “There is a sense of friendship, simplicity
and humour.” The elements on Finnishness including the blue brand colour fit perfectly together in
Elisa. Moreover experiences are integrated successfully from one touchpoint to another; for example
graphical elements used on the website are visible in the stores as well.

Table 2. Strengths and weaknesses analysis of Elisa

3.1.3.2 Analysis of DNA

During the survey the most associated keywords with the DNA brand were cheap, funny,
young, teen, energetic, unreliable and active. Regarding DNA’s logo and name, similar answers were
repeated, such as cheap, active, dynamic, and young.

When participants were asked to abstract the DNA brand as an animal, the responses were
mainly small, cute animals, such as a ‘pocket’ dog or an overly active squirrel. Common behaviours to
these animals are that they are both weak and unreliable, and on the other hand very energetic and
active. It can be said that these abstractions describe the DNA brand well, since it carries quite a
young image and offers a cheap service.

DNA’s advertisement strategy was described mainly as striking, aggressive, funny and
annoying. DNA is very focused on its segment so some may perceive the brand as annoying.

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Figure 10. Animal Abstraction of DNA Brand

Considering the results of the survey, DNA’s experiential theme could be described as “forever
young”. The brand’s overall strategy is directly derived from its target segment, teenagers and
“wannabe” teens. There is also strong contrast and dynamism in the DNA colours of pink, yellow and
black. The colours are bright and eye-catching. However, they may become tiring to look at after some
time.

By checking its online site, advertisement campaigns, and look & feel the DNA brand seems to
be consistent in applying the theme “forever young”. One example is that most employees in DNA
stores are aged 18-25. The look & feel of DNA’s website is very trendy and dynamic. However one
weakness is, due to the company being relatively new and its low-price (no-frill) positioning, survey
participants did not consider DNA to be as reliable as Sonera or Elisa. Most thought that it did not
have good coverage and associated its cheap image with a low quality service experience.

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 Table 3. Strengths and weaknesses analysis of DNA

As a strategy DNA could keep its theme, but the brand might reposition itself from its
unreliability and low quality aspects to more high quality associations. Or even DNA can create sub
brand opposite to DNA brand targeting for only elder people.

3.1.3.3 Analysis of SONERA

Many participants first associated Sonera with keywords such as expensive, boring,
engineers, reliable, big and traditional. When participants were asked to abstract Sonera as an animal,
the answers were moose, buffalo, whale etc. Common attributes to these animals are that they are
usually large, strong, powerful, scary, or unfriendly. Sonera’s colour of red engages emotions and
memories such as aggression, Christmas, and royalty. Since Sonera is a continuation of Telecom
Finland, most of the participants said that Sonera is reliable. However, the most common opinion
among the participants was that Sonera is expensive, established, big and reliable, but far from
customers.

In comparing all the participants’ answers and looking from a higher level, Sonera’s theme is
slightly vague. Sonera’s theme is as not clear along the brand in the way that its main competitor
Elisa’s is clear and consistent.

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Figure 11. Animal Abstraction of the Sonera Brand

It is also difficult to say that Sonera stimulates the senses and engages emotions. Moreover
when questions about the logo were asked, two participants said the Sonera logo with its arc looks like
an unhappy face emoticon. One participant recalled that, “Sonera is expensive and fires people.” This
is an example illustrating the effect of a company’s strategy on its brand image. In conclusion, similar
to Elisa, Sonera targets all segments and does not have focused segments like DNA. Moreover,
compared to Elisa, Sonera is vague in its overall theme.

Table 4. Strengths and weaknesses analysis of Sonera

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 3.1.3.4 Survey Results - Retail Store Experiences

When participants recalled their previous experiences in mobile operator stores, the look &
feel of the store and employee behaviours were criticized most. These criticisms were not specific to
any brand; rather they were complaints about all three brands.

Concerning the Look and Feel of the Stores, it was said that the interiors were usually dull and
badly designed. The employee clothing was not consistent with each other, nor with the other brand
elements, giving a messy image. In many stores, instead of real phones, mock-ups were presented.

There were also major criticisms about employee behaviour in stores. This refers to the
employee’s technical knowledge and communication skills with the customers. During the survey,
some claimed that the employees knew the technology so well that the customer did not understand
and felt insulted. On the other hand other participants said that employees did not have enough
technical knowledge about phone models. Since every customer has a different level of technological
knowledge and interest, employees should communicate more according to the customers’ needs.
Moreover there could be different types of employees for different types of customers.

Another issue was that customers do not trust employees. They perceived a traditional seller-
customer relationship where the aim was only to sell. One example from the survey described how
someone’s mother had just bought an expensive 3G phone, even though she was not even able to
send an SMS. It has been stated in emotional branding (Gobe, 2001) that interaction between
customer and seller must turn into a relationship where helping and understanding is the main issue.

Since there were equal numbers of positive and negative comments on each brand, it was not
possible to comment specifically on any particular retail outlet or chain. After collecting the survey
results, I visited DNA, Elisa and Sonera retail stores situated in central Helsinki. The employees were
friendly and communicative. Below are my comments and comparisons following my visits in February
2007.

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Figure 12. View from Sonera Retail Store, Helsinki, Feb 2007

Figure 13. View from Elisa Retail Store, Helsinki, Feb 2007

Figure 14. View from DNA Retail Store, Helsinki, Feb 2007

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 In Sonera retail stores (Fig. 12) there are usually two employees working and both of them are
male. The interior design represents the brand’s look and feel. The employees were friendly during the
visit.

Elisa stores (Fig. 13) usually have a minimum of two employees of different ages and genders.
Having a female employee might be an advantage in attracting female customers with little technology
knowledge. In stores there are real phones for customers to try. Moreover there is a water cooler for
customers. Store windows display the same graphical elements as on the website.

DNA stores (Fig. 14) are visible via their striking brand colours. Employees are usually in their
early twenties so that they can easily communicate with their young customers. Phone mock-ups are
presented instead of real phones. The design is dynamic and consistent with the look and feel of the
brand.

3.1.3.5 Survey Results - Web Experiences

Concerning the web experience of each brand, participants did not mention any major issues.
However, simplicity and structure are crucial to a better experience. Participants wanted to have
simple and clear navigation, in order to pay bills or check subscriptions. Below are the screenshots of
each brand’s website during Christmas 2006.

Figure 15. Index page of DNA 21 12 2006

The look and feel is consistent with the overall image. A picture of a middle-aged “wannabe
teen” woman is used on the front page. Pink is used in the entire site.

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 Figure 16. Index page of Elisa 21 12 2006

Elisa has a simple interface design with clear graphics and sections. Each section is
separated by different colours. On the image Elisa`s Finnish reindeer cartoon is celebrating the New
Year.

Figure 17. Index page of Sonera 21 12 2006

Sonera has a family picture on the front page. Similar to Elisa, phone, TV and internet sections
are separated from each other. Sonera has more text than its competitors. Mainly the colour red is
used on the site.

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 3.1.4 Conclusions

When positioning the brands, Elisa`s theme “Finnishness” and DNA`s “forever young” is
visible through different elements of the brand. On the other hand Sonera is more vague in its
positioning. Participants stated that Sonera and Elisa have the most reliable history. Today prices and
coverage are still an important factor in customer decisions. In the future if prices reach their lowest
limits, experiences and emotions might be the differentiator.

This research study had its own limitations due to the number of participants and their age
segment. It would be unfair to generalize the results. However, this survey included both qualitative
and quantitative data. All the survey data was evaluated and brands were placed into a ranking scale
in order to visualize and compare them. During the evaluation of the data, the survey results were
combined with my own intuition and understanding of each brand.

In Figure 18 it can be seen how the DNA, Sonera and Elisa brands are relatively positioned at
the end of the survey. Sonera is traditional, old, large, serious, old-fashioned and reliable. DNA,
however, is young, small, friendly and modern, but unreliable. Conversely Elisa is relatively younger,
friendlier and more modern than Sonera. Moreover Elisa and Sonera are both established and
reliable.

Figure 18. Survey Result, Positioning of DNA, Elisa and Sonera.

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 3.2 Building the Positioning
3.2.1 Experiential Positioning

After analyzing Sonera and its competitors, the next step was to determine where Sonera
should be positioned in the future. Five employees from different departments were interviewed during
this step in order to understand Sonera’s internal experience. Interviewees were selected and
contacted together with tutor Janna Honkonen. The names and the positions of the interviewees are
Mika Jussi Mäkelä, Consumer research; Tommi Anttila, Business Development manager; Mihael
Cankar, Interaction designer; Pia Bonnici, Business Development manager; and Rami Salminen, Art
Director. The interviews lasted one hour and were recorded by using a voice recorder. Similar to the
questionnaire phase, Sonera and its competitors were compared during the interviews. The main aim
of this study was to evaluate Sonera from its own employees’ eyes, in order to evaluate where Sonera
was yesterday, where it is today and where it would be in the future mobile operator business.

Interviewees supported the survey findings. Interviewees stated clearly Elisa’s and DNA’s
positioning strategies as Elisa attempting to be a Finnish and friendly brand, and DNA aiming to be
cheap and no-frills for the teen customer segment. All employees mentioned that Sonera is a
traditional operator with a definitely reliable image in the market. This was also found during the
surveys. Also similar to the survey results, employees found Sonera expensive and thought that
Sonera is no longer a market leader in developing new technologies.

As a corporate strategy, every interviewee agreed that Sonera needs to be customer-centred.

For instance Tommi Anttila described his ideal brand: “What I don’t like today is that we need to be
more innovative, more ability to change, we should be customer-focused, not so much technologically
focused; How to get elements in [the] Sonera brand that we do care for our customers and what kind
of services they like to use, combined with reliability, would be ideal”. To be customer-centred, Rami
Salminen emphasized that technology and innovation must be humanized; in his own words, “in the
future, instead of going and saying you get this and this phone with a lot of technical details, we need
to come up with new methods both to use and to present technology easier than today. Today a lot of
people don’t understand the tech side of it. We have to explain to people more the human side of
technology. For example instead of saying short message service ‘SMS’, we should say 160 letters of
message to the customers.”

Emotions and feelings in Sonera were also discussed together with the employees during the
interviews. Pia Bonicci said that today the situation is more selling-oriented and does not include
positive emotions. In her own words: “Of course in shops, sellers don’t have time, I think there should
be both a selling person and showing person to show and explain.” Bonicci also stated that Sonera
must use the power of internet communities, since it is so easy to share positive and negative
experiences on internet forums.

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 The interviewees painted very similar portraits of Sonera as in the surveys when asked to
describe Sonera as a human. Interviewees referred to a middle-aged, male, serious businessman or
engineer. In the end employees agreed that Sonera must be flexible, friendlier and customer-centred.

Figure 19. Photos of interviewees

Interviewees also found Sonera`s image slightly too traditional. While having a traditional
image, Sonera must refresh itself to attract younger customers. Interviewees appreciated the thesis
scope and previous survey conducted among the younger segment. Tommi Anttila said, “We have a
higher market share in the market segment aged 40 and up. We should get young customers
definitely. I would say that it is a key challenge to gain more by keeping existing ones.”

Later discussions led to the issue of sub-branding. A sub-brand is a product or service brand
that has its own name and visual identity to differentiate it from the parent brand. (brandchannel, 2007)
Either Sonera could focus on one specific market segment by using a sub-brand or Sonera would
serve for all segments. Another complaint from employees concerned Sonera’s pricing strategy. It was
a common feeling for all the interviewees that in some situations customers are not sure how much
they are paying and for what.

In a nutshell, during this phase, it was found that Sonera must change its serious, distant
customer relationship. Instead it must be more friendly, modern and reaching out to younger
customers as well as existing ones. These ideas were combined and Sonera was repositioned in the
previous ranking scale. The figure 20 shows the repositioning of Sonera, which was used as a basis
for further phases of this study.

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 Figure 20. Future Experiential Positioning of Sonera.

3.2.2 Experiential Value Promise Creation

The Experiential Value Promise describes which values will be transferred to customers during
the experience. These values must be part of the brand strategy in order to gain the desired position in
the market. (Schmitt, 2000) As explained in the previous section, Sonera could reposition itself closer
to the customers. Before creating new ways to be closer to customers, however, Sonera’s values must
be defined. These values should also be aligned with each other and must be delivered consistently
through all touchpoints of the brand. These values can be both emotional and sensuous. As a result
these values will help Sonera to be friendlier, younger and more modern. Therefore these experiential
values are the bones of the experiential platform and the new Sonera experience. During this phase,
the survey results and employee interviews were evaluated by using an affinity figure process.

Affinity Diagram: Affinity diagramming is a common tool to increase creativity during

brainstorming sessions. When issues are complex to review and difficult to interpret, an affinity
diagram can be used (leanyourcompany, 2007). Affinity diagramming allows large numbers of ideas to
be sorted into groups for analysis.

The process involves six steps:

1. Arrange a brainstorming meeting

2. Write / draw ideas and issues on post-it notes or cards

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3. Gather post-it notes/cards into a single location (e.g. a desk or wall)
4. Sort the ideas into groups based on participants thoughts.

5. Title each group with a description of what the group refers to and place the name at the top of each
6. Capture and discuss the themes or groups and how they may relate. If there is any relation create
super groups and title them.

3.2.2.1 Creation of New Values by using Affinity Diagrams:

Firstly, important sentences and quotes from both interviews and questionnaires were
extracted and written onto the post-its. Different coloured post-its were used for each interviewee and
one colour for all questionnaires (See Appendix B). Later post-its were scattered into groups
depending on the relations with each other. After the groups were formed, each group was given a title
(Fig. 22). For instance, sentences such as, “As working here things can be very slow sometimes,”
were grouped together with sentences such as, “Sonera is slow”, “When we are doing something it
usually takes quite a long time” and “the people buy things from the operator who gets to the market
first”. Conversely examples such as, “I don’t like long waiting times in stores” were entitled Fast. In the
end all sentences were grouped, and all groups were titled depending on their contents (Fig. 22). As a
result, there were twelve titles: Positive & Optimistic, Friend, Caring, Warm, Finnish, Together,
Inspiring, Updated & Trendy, Fast, Simple, Straightforward, and Reliable. In the next step, these
keywords were grouped once more to form super groups. Later the super groups were titled by
evaluating the relations between the keywords. The titles of the super groups were Emotional,
Competitive and Industrial values (Fig. 21).

Figure 21. Sonera Experiential Value Pyramid

As emotions are the key part of experiences, emotional values were placed at the core of
experiential values. Moreover since many customers buy emotionally and justify logically, emotional

32
values are most critical in purchasing decisions and in keeping loyal customers. However emotional
values are often difficult to measure.
The second part of the pyramid is the competitive values, ‘inspiring’ and ‘updated & trendy’,
which Sonera must have in order to compete and innovate in the market.

On the base of the pyramid, industry values were placed. Mobile service providers must have
values such as ‘reliable’, ‘fast’, ‘simple’ and ‘straightforward’ in order to exist in the mobile
communications market. Industry values are more visible and measurable. In the example of Fast, it is
possible to measure how long a customer waits on the phone line. Similarly how fast the customer
email is answered through the web system is also measurable.

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Figure 22. Affinity Diagram and Experiential Values

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 3.2.2.2 Explanation of Yalues Related to Sonera

Caring: As a value Caring was repeated many times in the interviews and survey. In order to
be customer-centred, Sonera needs to take “caring” as an emotional value. However the concept of
caring must be taken in at a broader level. It must be utilized so that Sonera cares for employees,
customers, the environment, Finland and world issues. For example, in commercial videos, the
internet-based company Google shows how employees are treated in “Google plex” and how the food
and sport facilities are arranged.

Positive: As stated in the book Emotional Design (Norman, 2005), people work better when
they are in a positive mood. Since Finland has dark, cold and long winters, positivism could be one of
the points of difference for the new Sonera experience. Positivism must also be visible inside the
company. For example employee seminars can be held about being positive.

Friend: One of the key values in emotional branding is to turn services into relationships.
(Gobe, 2001) It means that helping one other is at the centre of the relationship. In the examples of
Google and Flickr, the business idea was to first make a community around the brand, increase loyalty
and business would follow. In the long run this relationship can benefit both partners. It was stated
during the interviews and surveys that in the stores Sonera staff are not friendly and they are merely
trying to sell product rather than offering help. Good friends listen to each other, care for each other’s
feelings, are trustworthy, give gifts, joke, share sad moments and enjoy life together. Having Sonera
as a friend can be an apt description of the new Sonera approach.

Together: “Togetherness” represents the main function of Sonera, which is to connect and
bring people together.

Warmth: Warmth has been a Sonera value from the first day the Sonera brand was created.
According to the survey, it presently cannot be said that Sonera is warm. This value can also be
delivered through the senses, through for example a heated air wall while entering the Sonera store.
Alternatively during the cold wintertime, the smell of hot coffee could fill the stores.

Finnish: During the interviews it was stated that Finnishness has a great effect on the brand.
Finnish people tend to prefer and protect their own brands over foreign ones. For this reason it is
important to keep the brand as Finnish as possible.

Inspiring: Mobile service provider companies usually inspire customers by providing cutting-
edge technology. However as mentioned by Rami Salonen, “inspiring should not only be technically
inspiring but also humanized. Therefore Sonera could inspire its customers in a more human way”.

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 Updated & trendy: Sonera can update its current traditional image into a more modern and
younger version. Currently the brand is mainly associated with its old customers. Branding must follow
trends, be up-to-date and refresh itself regularly. Holidays, seasons, fashion trends and societal
changes must be projected into the Sonera brand. Moreover the Sonera experience must be
refreshed regularly so that customer expectations can be met and even exceeded.

Fast: The concept of ‘fast’ can be both measurable and abstract. How rapidly are customers
reached in the stores? How quickly does customer service pick up the phone? How fast can products
be released to the market from the first day the project started? ‘Fast’ can be implemented in the
customer interface, brand experience, and the continuous development phase.

Straightforward: Being honest and straightforward is very critical in order to gain customer
loyalty. However during the interviews it was stated many times that some customers are not sure
about the prices of services, such as mobile internet usage prices.

Simple: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication,” claimed Leonardo da Vinci. As has been
accepted by many companies, simplicity is key to customer satisfaction. Simplicity is also currently
one of TeliaSonera’s values. However today, it is not easy to see simplicity in many Sonera
touchpoints.

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3.2.3 Selecting the Implementation Theme:

Following the creation of the experiential values, the next step was to select the
implementation theme of the experiential platform. As described in the methodology section, the
overall implementation theme summarizes the style and content of the core message that the
company will use across all implementations. (Schmitt, 2000) From the twelve keywords,
“Togetherness” was chosen as a common theme for the platform. The reason why “Togetherness”
was selected is because it represents the main function of Sonera, connecting and bringing people
together.

customers + friends (Service point of view)

Sonera customers are always connected together (virtually) with their relatives and friends
through Sonera services.

customers + employees (Product development)

Sonera employees work together with customers in order to design for them.

employees + employees (Management)

In order to create successful employee experiences, employees from different departments
must work together.

The theme of the platform is “better together”, as it connects customers, employees and
business partners. Therefore, all of the emotional, competitive and industrial values are central to the
“better together” platform.

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38
3.2.4 Experiential Platform

“Sonera, better together”

After selecting the theme for the experiential platform, the next step was building the platform.
During this task the main challenge was to keep both internal and external experience parallel to each
other. Internal experience is the experience of employees. External experience involves customers
and business partners.

The platform was built by integrating the main elements observed and digested from the
literature review, questionnaires and interviews. As previously mentioned, experiential values are at
the core of the Platform and will be delivered during the experience. Looking from a higher level, there
are three main partners with whom Sonera interact: internal employees, external customers and
business partners. These partners also interact with each other; Sonera customers interact with
Sonera business partners and also with employees. Therefore the experience must be the same
among all these partners (Fig. 23).

Figure 23. Sonera, better together platform.

The main advantage of the platform is that it can be used as a strategic tool to create more
ideas. By connecting the experiential values with internal and external partners and merging with
subthemes, new questions can be produced. For example if the following keywords were selected
from the platform, such as “Caring” as an emotional value, “Employees” as a partner and “enjoy
together” as a subtheme, these three keywords can be transformed into a question: “How can Sonera
show that it cares for its employees by making them enjoy their work?” More of these questions can

39
be generated from the “better together” platform and they can be used to track and measure existing
experience.

Another example question can be generated by selecting “Warm” and “Finnish” as values,
“customers” as a subject and “be together” as a subtheme. The question can then be, “How can we
transfer our values of Finnishness and warmth to the customers through the face-to-face customer
interface?” These questions can be asked during the idea generation phases, or later to the customers
in order to track experience. In the following section are more question examples created using the
platform.

o How can we create a warm and positive work environment inside the company?
o How can a fast, warm and updated feeling be created in the retail store experience?
o How can Finnishness and Friendliness be visible through social activities under the
“live together” subtheme?
o How can Sonera create ideas fast, when its employees work together with
customers?
o How can we create friendships between employees?
o How can we make it visible that Sonera is a Finnish company?
o How can we keep all departments aligned with each other and keep the company
together?

Although it is not necessary that all experiential values be delivered at once, all values must
be placed at different parts of the customer journey. Likewise, even though experiential positioning
and experiential value creation are both outside-in processes, implementation of the platform starts
with employees and is an inside-out process. Virgin CEO Richard Branson explains it as follows: “I
create the best experience for my employees and they deliver the best experience to the customers.”
(Milligan & Smith, 2002) For this reason it is very crucial that implementation begins from inside the
company. Experiential values are at the centre of implementation.

3.2.4.1 Internal Experience - Employees

Learn together: From Schmitt’s CEM framework, the “learn together” subtheme refers to
“continuous innovation”. This subtheme has three different aspects. One is between employees and
customers, one between employees, and the last between different departments.

o Learn together from customers: A customer-centred approach requires higher

involvement of customers in the innovation process. This kind of approach is called
participatory design, where actual users join in the process of designing. This method
includes tools such as video observations, user diaries etc.

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 o Learn together from other departments: Sometimes companies suffer from ill
communication between different departments. It is very important to align and keep
different departments up to date with each other. A good example of this kind of
approach is Google tech talks. Google tech talks are a series of meetings where the
employees present ideas and projects to different departments. This helps to keep
company together. These types of meetings must be set regularly in Sonera and
employees must be encouraged to know what kinds of projects are going on in
different parts of the company. This kind of approach helps to keep the Sonera
experience cohesive, both internally and externally.

o Learn together with other departments: After keeping different departments aligned
through lectures etc. the next step can be to create multidisciplinary teams inside the
company. For example the model of the IDBM study programme can be taken for
some projects to see if marketing, R&D and customer service people can group
together in teams to create solutions.

Enjoy together: The “Enjoy together” subtheme deals with employee activities inside the
company, such as places to drink coffee and places to relax. These elements are very important in
designing the employee experience. Improved employee experience can improve employee
performance and motivation. Moreover, activities such as parties and trips may be arranged to allow
employees to enjoy and share together. There have been many different examples around the world
of activities intended to increase the motivation and commitment of the employees. One extreme
example is from Virgin. Every year CEO Richard Branson arranges large parties in which all Virgin
employees are invited to his island. Every level of employee and their families join this event. This is
very important to giving the feeling that every level of employee is part of the company and that Virgin
cares for them. It also has the effect that outsiders admire and even envy Virgin employees. However,
presently Sonera does not have that type of “cool” image regarding internal experience. One negative
example comes from the survey when asking for initial keywords that come to mind about Sonera: one
respondent said that, “Sonera is expensive and fires people”. This clearly shows that employee
experiences affect brand perceptions. Customers usually prefer to support companies that have a
better reputation for employee treatment.

As mentioned, in order to implement the platform easily, it was broken into four subthemes for
customers. These subthemes are “be together”, “share together”, “enjoy together” and “live together”.

41
3.2.4.2 External Experience - Customers

Be together: (Sonera + customers) The “Be together” concept refers to the brand experience
and customer interface from CEM framework. The “Be together” sub theme is used to emphasize the
touchpoints where Sonera is actually together and interacting with its customers. These touchpoints
are the store, web and phone service. Some touchpoints have two dimensions. One dimension is the
customer interface, such as how to greet, interact and communicate with customers. The second is
the brand experience, such as the graphical identity, visuals and communications. In the example of
McDonald’s, the customer interface is synchronized with the brand experience. As employees are
speaking and moving fast, the brand colours and visuals support the emotion and feeling of speed.

At a higher level, if we take the “be together” concept and compare touchpoints, there are
several common moments between the phone service, web and store experiences. These similar
moments can be more strongly linked in order to create a consistent and seamless experience. This
can be achieved even though experiences in different customer touchpoints vary due to the medium
and context. However, all experiences begin with greetings and continue to the post-experience
phase. The figure below shows the common points in these interactions.

Figure 24. Similarities and links in moments of contacts.

In conclusion, to keep the customer experience consistent, these moments of interaction must
be aligned and planned to maintain uniformity. For example greetings in the store can be linked with
greetings on the website. Through small presents or memorabilia, customers can be guided from one
experience to another. For example if a customer visits the Sonera website first and later goes to the
retail store, they must be engaged with the Sonera experiential values and emotions.

Share together: (customers + customers) In the CEM platform, one of the most important
issue is the product/service experience. As Sonera is a mobile service provider, the aim is to
determine how Sonera services can give emotional values to customers. The “Share together”

42
subtheme stems from the idea that sharing is the basic element of communication. During
communication we share our emotions, ideas, information and feelings with our friends, colleagues
and relatives. So “let’s share together”. It is not only customers who are sharing, but Sonera also
needs to share and promote its own products. Sonera must share its products, services and emotions
with its customers in order to start the relationship. For example in summertime, Suomenlinna could
be covered by free wi-fi. On a hot, sunny, summer day someone in Suomenlinna, full of positive
emotions, opens a laptop on the green grass and sees the Sonera logo. This kind of story and positive
feeling repositions the Sonera brand.

Happy
Mothers
Day

Figure 25. Visaul example of Share together subtheme

In the example of Google, the reason Google makes April Fool’s jokes or celebrates important
holidays is to help us to see the brand as human. If this example is extended, Sonera could make a
point of celebrating Mother`s Day. It could be as easy as changing the default Sonera text on the
screen to “Happy Mothers’ Day”. This would be more emotional, human and friendly.

Enjoy together: (customer 2 community, brand community) Presently we are living in the
web 2.0 era, in which communities build common knowledge. In this era it is very important to use the
power of communities in order to deliver successful experiences. During the surveys, 70 percent of the
participants said that they consume depending on reflections and recommendations from friends.
Therefore it is obvious that we discuss with friends their experiences before purchasing. When I am
waiting for a YouTube video to download, I usually read the comments of others to assess if the video
is worth watching or not. Currently, whether online or physical, community branding is a very important
issue. Apple started to use its flagship stores to create a community around the brand. In Apple
Flagship Stores workshops are held to inform customers about products and to position the brand
closer to customers even after a sale is made.

Another interesting example of community branding is from Orange, a telecommunications

service provider in Europe. In Switzerland Orange sponsors a movie festival next to a lake where all
customers are invited to join. In the UK, if a customer buys one ticket to an event a second one comes
from Orange. Basically these kinds of brand community ideas, built around music, sports and movies,

43
can be explored under the theme “enjoy together”. Enjoy together refers to experiential communication
in the CEM model.

Live together: The “Live together” subtheme refers to experiential communications from the
CEM framework. The subtheme of “live together” is an integration of experiential values with
Corporate Social Responsibility. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) “Social responsibility (is the)
responsibility of an organisation for the impacts of its decisions and activities on society and the
environment through transparent and ethical behaviour that is consistent with sustainable
development and the welfare of society; takes into account the expectations of stakeholders; is in
compliance with applicable law and consistent with international norms of behaviour; and is integrated
throughout the organisation.” (Hohnen P, 2007) Mobile service provider Orange is a good example of
a company using both ethical and social values. Orange has printed a book for parents to show the
risks and abuses of mobile communications. The book is designed to show that Orange respects and
cares for its customers. However under the “live together” subtheme, Sonera not only focuses on its
own corporate social issues, but it also helps its employees, customers and business partners to care.
Moreover experiential values are at the centre of the experience.

3.2.4.3 External Experience – Business Partners

The final part of the CEM framework deals with Sonera’s business partners. While this thesis
work is constrained only to the business-to-customer service, in order to complete the CEM platform,
business partners were included. Although the scale is much larger, Sonera’s business partners are
part of the Sonera experience. Compared to customer and employee experiences, emotional values
are not overly important for business partners. However competitive and industrial values still play an
important role and they must be delivered to all business partners. When talking about business
partners, co-branding is an important issue as well. Sonera’s business partners can be seen as an
asset to gain market position. For example, if Sonera were working with Google, it could reposition its
image in consumers’ minds.

44
3.3 Implementation Ideas for a “better together” Platform
Concept Creation

After the creation phase, the “Better together” platform was presented at the Sonera premises
to Sami Grönberg, director of the R&D department. Sami Grönberg appreciated the “better together”
platform idea and hoped to continue in further implementation. During the discussion we agreed to
make two implementation examples of the platform. The “be together” and “live together” subthemes
were selected for implementation examples.

As previously explained, the “be together” concept refers to the brand experience and
customer interface of Sonera. ‘Be together’ is used for emphasizing the touchpoints where Sonera is
actually together and interacting with its customers. These are the store, web and phone service. The
implementation and ideation part of the interview and workshop were conducted for idea creation.

The one-hour interview was conducted with TAIK student Ryan Sohlden (USA), who
previously worked in Starbucks. As Starbucks is a leading company in experience design, the
interview was very interesting and fruitful. During the interview Sohlden mentioned that in Starbucks,
most of the conversations between customer and employees were formulized, from how to greet
customers to how to make recommendations. Employees were asked to make personal connections
with customers. When employees know a customer’s name and favourite drink, then this regular drink
can be prepared even before the customer orders. If a customer asks for a different drink from the
regular one, then the one which has been already prepared is given for free. The store experience
starts with the senses. In this case, the smell of the coffee, the perception of the space and the music
create an experience. This continues with the interaction with employees. Moreover the Starbucks
experience can be prolonged outside of the store through the Starbucks music albums. During the
creation of the Sonera store experience scenarios, some of these ideas were benchmarked to see
application possibilities.

In the ideation workshop, the aim was to evaluate the experiential values and use them in idea
rd
generation. The workshop was conducted on the 3 of April 2007, in the University of Art & Design
Helsinki building. Participants of the workshop were all design students from different departments of
University of Art & Design Helsinki: Antti Pitkanen (Industrial Design student, Finland), Bjorn Saunes
(Industrial Design student, Norway), Ida Blekeli (Media Lab student, Norway), Ben Cox (Industrial
Design student, Netherlands), Rodolfo Samperio (Applied Art student, Mexico), and Ryan Sohlden
(Industrial Design student, USA). The workshop was recorded by video camera. The results were
taken as a basis for scenario creation.

45
 The workshop included two main parts. The first part was to explore experiential values, to
evaluate and consider possibilities in the store experience. Meanings of the values were discussed
and examples were taken from daily life. It was an open brainstorming session. Post-its were used to
take notes of all the ideas and the keywords. Different colours were used for each experiential value.
The second part of the workshop was to place these ideas into moments of interactions. For example
“fast” was placed in orientation with the Store Experience. Regarding the value “warm”, some
participants preferred that in wintertime there could be a hot air curtain when entering the store.

Figure 26. Ideation workshop

In reality the workshop was not particularly successful as it was too abstract. The aim to
encourage people to think in an abstract way during ideation was difficult to achieve.

Data from the questionnaires and interviews, as well as from the workshops, were evaluated
together to create experience scenarios. For the scenarios, two diverse characters were created to
show different points of view. The first character was Hanna (the tech-free), a 29-year-old nurse who is
not good with technology. The second character was Riku (the tech-freak), a 20-year-old, young
computer science student at university who can deal very well with technology. The survey answers
were taken as the basis for the creation of the characters.

In general stores are a mixture of brand experience and customer interface. No matter how
well the store interior is designed, customer interface, such as the employee’s communication with
customers, must be aligned with the company’s overall experience strategy

46
 3.3.1 Implementation Idea 1

Sonera Retail Scenario 1

47
48
 Idea 1 – Sonera Store Scenarios
Scenario 1 - Hanna the tech-free

Hanna is 29 years old. She is working in a hospital. Her five-year-old phone is not working
1
gggggggproperly and she is now going to the Sonera store to buy a new phone. She is not very
familiar with new technologies, so she is a bit nervous.

While entering the store, her phone beeps. She receives a new message. She opens her
2 phone to see the message: “Welcome to Sonera, you are the 100th customer who has visited
us today.
You have won 100 free SMS’s. Let’s share together! ☺”
Inspiration: In this example the customer is greeted via different media the customer did not
expect. This leads to surprise and a positive feeling. In this case the experience begins in the moment
the customer is greeted, and it is very important to exceed expectations. Moreover the greeting style
must be very consistent in different parts of the company.

Thanks to Sonera, this is her lucky day. She now makes her way to the phones. What she
3
likes dddddd here is that she can touch real phones, not models. Moreover each phone even has a
SIM card. The Sonera name is visible on their screens. It is so easy to review new models.
Inspiration: During the survey there were many complaints about the phone mock-ups
shown in the stores. The respondents felt the company does not value customers enough to put real
phones in the store.

She selects two phones and cannot decide between them; which one is better? The best way
is to ask help from the staff.

Hanna: Excuse me, which one do you suggest?

4 Staff: I have used both of them, and that one is better for battery performance and the other
has a better camera.
Inspiration: For a better knowledge of technology, staff members are encouraged to try as
many mobile phones as possible, from cheaper to more expensive. This is so that staff can become
experts and make recommendations. This idea comes from Starbucks where workers are encouraged
to drink as much as they want. As a result they become their own customers and staff can make
recommendations to the customers, not as workers, but also as friends. This can help to transform the
service into a relationship.

Hanna: How about the sound quality?

5 Staff: As talking is the main function, we give our customers a chance to try mobile phones. So
you can now pick one of your friends and make a “SONERA TEST TALK” to check the sound quality
of this new phone.

49
 Hanna is surprised. She thinks about her mother who always complains about the low sound
quality of her phone.
Inspiration: In the survey, participants complained about not having the chance to try the
user interface of mobile phones in many retail stores. Sonera is a service provider and its main
strength is the service. What if all of the phones were real and contained SIM cards? Customers could
then try what they are buying. Furthermore, if we continue with this idea of trying, Sonera could
provide a test talk for customers. A phone’s main, most crucial function is spoken communication. As
hearing ability is very personal and changes from one to another, testing is even more worthwhile. If
Sonera gave the possibility to customers to have a test talk for sound checks, customers would not
forget that moment. Additionally, when a customer makes a test talk to his or her friend or mother,
then Sonera is advertised to those friends and loved ones too. This is the first step in creating a
community around the brand.

Hanna: Hello mum, I want to ask if you can hear me easily with this phone? No, I have not
6 bought it, I am just trying it out in Sonera.
Mum: Hello honey, I can hear you very well with this phone, my dear.

After a short talk with mum, Hanna buys the phone. In addition, she receives a free content
7
card lllllllllllllll as a present. With the card she can download one game or song from the Sonera
site. She is thinking of giving this card to her 20-year-old cousin Riku, who is very interested in games.
Inspiration: The Sonera content card idea extends customer experience to another
touchpoint. This is so that the customer continues to experience different parts of the company. This
card can help to link these moments.

She is now excited to tell her friends about her memorable Sonera experience. Therefore
Sonera needs to provoke customers to create stories about their experiences.

50
 3.3.1 Implementation Idea 1

Sonera Retail Scenario 2

51
52
 Scenario 2 - Riku the tech-freak

Riku is a 20-year-old Finnish student. Today, while at university, he received a reminder sms
1
from jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjSonera saying that this was the last payment day for his phone bill. He always forgets
about his bills, so this is very nice of Sonera. In order to pay the bill he decides to visit the nearest
Sonera Store.

At the Sonera Store there are always new technologies to try. Instead of waiting in a queue,
2
he llllllllllllllllllllprefers to check Sonera’s fastest internet connections, in order to see how quickly he can
watch his friend`s video on YouTube.
Inspiration: This idea is an application of a new term called try-vertising, where products and
services are advertised through trying. In this example customers can try out Sonera`s fastest internet
connection. The idea is an implementation of Sonera`s experiential value “fast” into the store
experience.

Through an agreement with Apple, Sonera now provides its fastest internet connection to the
2
ssssssssApple store and Apple provides its high design computers to Sonera.
Inspiration: Co-branding is extending a brand into new markets-geographic, demographic or
otherwise-by complementing or supplementing another brand's strengths can also contribute to
growth. (Hogan S, 2007) One example of this kind of approach is the LG-Prada mobile phone
designed by the fashion company Prada and produced by the Korean manufacturer LG. In this
scenario Sonera, the most reliable Finnish service provider brand, works together with Apple, a
company known for its high-designed products and services.

Riku comes and logs in to the computer by using his phone number. On the menu he selects
3 self-service for paying bills.
Inspiration: The idea is similar to the self-service approach in a bank. Today many banks have
internet kiosks so that customers can make basic transactions and payments. This decreases the
amount of queuing in branches. The same approach can be used in telecoms stores so that
customers can make basic transactions. Customers can enter the system by using their phone
number.

Today retail stores are becoming a place to create physical and emotional connections with
customers. Last year Apple computers opened 150 stores in the United States. Apple stores are more
than a just a store, as they arrange seminars and workshops for their customers.

Just before leaving Riku pays attention to a new section in the store called “create
4 5
tkkkkkkkkkkktogether”. This is a tool for customers to create their own ring tones and themes in the

53
store. By recording his own voice and then transferring it to his phone, he can make a really cool ring
tone. He cannot wait to tell his friends about his new ring tone.
Idea sources: This idea is to create a unique experience in the store environment. Moreover, the
experience can be shown to other people through gifts and memorabilia. In this example a ring tone is
a piece of memorabilia specially created in the Sonera Store.

Figure 27. Summary of, Moments of contacts in retail scenarios

54
55
 3.3.2 Implementation Idea 2

Idea 2 – Red Cross

Under the subtheme of “live together”, a Sonera / Red Cross subscription concept was
created. The idea is to implement experiential values, especially the emotional values, through the
service offerings.

Inspiration for this idea came from the questionnaires. During the questionnaires, when asked
“Would you like to have free coffee in the store?” participants said they would prefer the money to go
to charity instead of coffee.

As “caring” is accepted as one of Sonera`s emotional values, it must be shown that Sonera
cares for its employees, customers and world issues. Additionally, it is important that it appreciates
that its customers care about global issues. This is an opportunity for customers to support the Red
Cross by using their Sonera subscription. The Sonera / Red Cross subscription involves positivism,
caring and Finnishness.

The Sonera / Red Cross subscription includes three steps:

1- Customers can upgrade their current subscription to Sonera / Red Cross via the internet or by
going to a Sonera Store.

2- When using the Red Cross subscription, a certain amount of money goes to the Finnish Red
Cross, for example one percent of the monthly bill.

3- The Red Cross can then help with issues both in Finland and internationally with the collected
money.

Figure 28. Visual example of Sonera Red Cross subscription

56
 This subscription can be used in experiential communications; it can have its own ring tone
and phone themes etc. (Fig. 29)

Figure 29. Visual example of Sonera Red Cross subscription

The main advantages of such a subscription are listed below.

• The Sonera public image will be changed towards a more positive, caring, warm and friendly
image.
• Sonera and the Red Cross both have a distinctive red colour. This increases Sonera’s
visibility.
• The Red Cross has similar emotional experiential values, such as caring and friendly.
• Sonera and the Red Cross operate both locally and globally.
• It is easy to implement and a good start to repositioning the company.

57
 The Sonera / Red Cross subscription can be implemented easily and would help to decrease
Sonera’s cold engineer image. Moreover Sonera could also work with the WWF or other NGOs.
Sonera customers could upgrade their current subscriptions to add the Red Cross, World Wide Fund
for Nature (WWF), or the Finnish local environment protection organization Suomen
Luonnonsuojelulitto. Customers could select which charity to support (Fig. 30). In the end, Sonera can
increase social awareness and help its customers to care for local and global issues.

Figure 30. Sonera subscription Add on’s idea

58
Idea 3 – Sonera Experience Team

Managing the Sonera experience is as important as the creation of it. An internal Sonera
Experience Team must be built in order to control and manage the implementation of the platform. The
team must consist of employees from different backgrounds and departments (Fig. 31). The mission of
the team should be to check if the Sonera experience is consistent both internally and externally. For
example, the Sonera Experience team can check if the marketing campaign is delivering the desired
emotions or new service idea by R&D involves planned Sonera experience. Basically, the Experience
team works closely with all departments. It is also a link and a bridge to combine different
departments. (Figure 31). Due to the confidentiality of the Sonera’s organizational structure, below
figure is created just to give clue about the basic idea to align experience creation process in different
departments.

Figure 31. Sonera Experience Team

59
60
 Conclusions & Recommendations
This thesis applies a multidisciplinary approach to analyzing and revitalizing TeliaSonera`s
Customer Experiences. During the thesis I combined business and design methodologies in the
Sonera case. As a basis of the thesis, a CEM framework was utilized. The work concludes with
proposals for design solutions.

The main result of this study is the “Sonera Better Together” experiential platform. The
platform can be used as a strategic tool to create new experiences. The thesis ends with the three
implementation ideas of the platform. These three ideas are: firstly, the store experience scenarios;
secondly, the Sonera / Red Cross subscription; and finally the Sonera Experience team. Due to time
limitations these ideas are not overly evolved. They were created to explain and illustrate examples of
an experience-centred approach.

As a common denominator between experiences are emotions, senses and emotions are key
aspects in human experience. For this reason emotional values are placed at the core of the Sonera
Better Together platform. Sonera should trigger planned emotions and senses during the experience.

Compared to five or ten years ago, increasingly consumer products are being further
commoditized by services, as services become value-added priorities in the transition from a product
to service economy. Ultimately, services offered will likely be commoditized in turn by experiences.
Sonera should therefore reposition itself as an experience provider. The Sonera ‘Better Together’
experiential platform is created to meet Sonera`s future strategic needs.

This thesis has received positive feedback from the case company. It has been presented
three times inside Sonera, each time provoking great discussion. Despite positive feedback from the
company, the thesis recommendations have not been taken into a real implementation phase.

In the future the platform and experiential values can be evaluated and improved through
larger-scale customer research. Further surveys could be conducted with different market segments to
determine their needs and opinions concerning Sonera. This would affect the experiential platform.
Moreover the Sonera employee experience could provide an interesting subject for further study.

In this study, a survey methodology was used. Through surveys both qualitative and
quantitative data was collected. However it was problematic to access and measure participants’
feelings and emotions towards each brand.

During the process company commitment was very high. It was a wonderful opportunity to be
inside the company for five months and experience life as a Sonera employee. Sonera gave me the
support to meet and discuss with many people from different backgrounds.

61
 Time and language were the main limitations affecting this thesis. Most of the material related
to Sonera is in Finnish. This meant that at times it was difficult to access information. Due to the
limited timetable of the thesis, it was not possible to create more detailed concepts and scenarios to
further explain the experience-oriented approach. Furthermore, even though customer experience is a
very popular subject, as a new topic there is relatively little literature.

Finally, it was an excellent learning process and a chance to synthesize my design

background with my minor studies in business. While the basis of this thesis is a business framework,
in the end design solutions were created for the company. For Sonera I was the first designer dealing
with future business strategies.

62
References

Ardill R, (2007), Experience design, http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/en/About-Design/Design-

disciplines/Experience-design/

Barlow J & Maul D, (2000), Emotional Value: Creating Strong Bonds with Your Customers, Berrett-
Koehler Publishers, San Fransisco

Boswijk A, Thijssen T and Peelen E (2006), A New Perspective on the Experience

Economy,ghttp://www.experience-economy.com/2006/01/22/a-new-perspective-on-the-experience-
economy/ (accessed14 January, 2007)

BrandChannel, (2007), Brand Glossary; sub-brand,

http://www.brandchannel.com/education_glossary.asp, (accessed 16 April, 2007)

DIEC, (2007), Growth of the Service Economy, http://diec.co.uk/, (accessed 9 February, 2007)

Gobé M, (2001), Emotional Branding, Allworth Press, NY

Hogan S, (2007), Positioning a Brand in the Marketplace,

http://www.lippincottmercer.com/pdfs/a_hogan01.pdf, (accessed 20 March, 2007)

Hohnan P, (2007), Corporate Social Responsibility, http://www.iisd.org/pdf/2007/csr_guide.pdf,

(accessed 15 April, 2007)

Lindström M, (2005), Brand Sense, Kogan Page Ltd, London

Lean Your Company, (2007), Using Affinity Diagrams to make sense from Brainstorming,
http://leanyourcompany.com/methods/Using-Affinity-Diagrams.asp, (accessed 18 February 2007)

Manu A, (2007), Lecture on Service Design, at Forum Viirum`s 100%Service Design afternoon,
Helsinki

Milligan A & Smith S, (2002), Uncommon Practice: People Who Deliver a Great Brand Experience,
Financial Times Prentice Hall; 1st edition

Norman D, (2005), Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things, Basic Books, NY

Pine J & Gilmore J, (1999), The Experience Economy: Work is Theater and Every Business a Stage,
Harvard Business School Press, US

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Sanders, (2001), Virtuosos of the experience domain,
http://www.maketools.com/pdfs/VirtuososoftheExperienceDomain_Sanders _01.pdf, (accessed 10
April, 2007)

Scmitt B, (2000), Customer Experience Management, John Wiley & Sons, NJ.

Shaw C & Ivens J, (2002), Building Great Customer Experiences, Palgrave MacMillan, NY

Shedroff N, (2007), Experience Design, http://www.nathan.com/ed/, (accessed 10 February, 2007)

Sinclair M, (2006), New levels of Experience Design, http://www.pingmag.jp/2006/05/12/new-levels-of-

experience-design/, (accessed 12 June, 2007)

TeliaSonera, (2007), http://www.teliasonera.com (accessed 10 May, 2007)

Wheeler A, (2006), Designing Brand Identity, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken NJ.

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Appendices
Appendix A – Survey

Finnish Mobile Operator Analysis Questionnaire

NOTE: This questionnaire is designed as a part of MA thesis at University of Art and Design
Helsinki. Purpose of this, is to analyze and compare Finnish mobile service operators from the
perspective of brand experience. Core idea is to figure out how dna, elisa and sonera brands are
positioned in the mind of consumers.

Language: Recommended language for filling the questionnaire is English, however if you are
experiencing any problems when remembering English words, please use Finnish instead.

Age: ( ) <18 ( ) 18-25 ( ) 25-30 ( ) 30<

Gender: Male / Female
Occupation:

A) GENERAL INFORMATION
1- Which mobile service operator are you using?
( ) DNA ( ) ELISA ( )SONERA ( )Other? ......................
[None]
2- What were your primary motivations when selecting an operator? (please select one or
more)
o Cost competitiveness/Price
o Coverage
o New Services / innovations
o Recommendations from Family/Friends
o Other……………………………………..

3- How long have you been a customer of this operator?

o less than 1 year
o 1-3 years
o 4-5
o 5-10
o 10+
5- Have you ever switched in between different operators? [YES/NO]
If YES ... What was the reason?
6- What are your primary future expectations from a service operator? (please select one or
more)
o Cost competitiveness/Price
o New Services / innovations

65
 o Mobile internet experiences
o Other……………………………………..

B) LOOK & FEEL

1- What is the brand that comes FIRST to your mind when thinking about a mobile service
operator?

( ) DNA ( ) ELISA ( )SONERA ( )Other? ......................

[None]

2- What keywords comes FIRST to your mind when thinking about each of the following
brands? (you can also select from example keywords)
[e.g.: youthful, innovative, established, boring, nothing ,very expensive, cheap, playful,
Finnish, hi-tech, unreliable, old, fun, trendy, cool, simple, friendly, positive, cheerful, efficient,
rigid, smooth, slow, fast etc.]

o DNA………………………………………………………………………………………
o ELISA……………………………………………………………………………………
o SONERA…………………………………………………………………………………

3- What colour or colours come to mind when you think about the following brands: DNA,
ELISA, SONERA? What does this colour / colours represent to you?

o DNA………………………………………………………………………………………
o ELISA……………………………………………………………………………………
o SONERA…………………………………………………………………………………

4 – i - How often do you visit the website of your mobile service operator?
give time categories

o once in 3 months
o once in 6 months
o once a year
o more than a year
o never

ii - When was the last time you visited the website?

iii - What was the reason for visiting the Website? ...........................
( ) to check new price offerings ( ) to check your bills
( ) problems with existing subscription ( )others .....................................

iv- Was it helpful (i.e. did you get what you were looking for)?
( ) Yes, it was helpful ( ) No it wasn’t helpful, explain……………………

v- Could you suggest ways in which this experience could be improved?

……………………………………………………………………………………….

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5 – i- When was the last time you were in a mobile operator’s retail store?
o Less than 3 months
o With in 6 months
o With in a year
o More than a year
o never

ii - What was the reason for visiting the store?

( ) to check new price/phone offerings ( ) to have a new subscription/phone
( ) issues with existing subscription ( ) others .....................................

iii - Was it helpful [i.e. did you get what you were looking for]?
( ) Yes, it was helpful ( ) No it wasn’t helpful, explain……………………

6- If you remember your experiences, what do you appreciate / dislike about mobile operator
retail stores?

7- Could you suggest ways in which this experience could be improved; What would be nice
a retail store gives/offers? eg: it would be nice, if they give me free coffee in retail store

8- What are your feelings about brand names, logos and colors of DNA, ELISA, SONERA?

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C) PRODUCT & SERVICES
1- Do you use the internet or 3G/GPRS services from your mobile phone? [YES/NO]

2- If yes, Are you familiar with OPERATOR SERVICES such as: music download/ mobile tv
or other services? [YES/NO]
If YES ... (Which services do you prefer to use most)?

3-Could you describe a dream mobile service or services you would like to have in the
future?
eg: showing discounted food offers from supermarket, when I am passing byt etc...

D) EXPERIENTIAL COMMUNICATIONS
1- Do you remember any of the current ad’s of DNA, ELISA, SONERA? [YES/NO]
If YES, what are your feelings about the AD or AD’s? e.g. Humorous, Informative, Boring, the
Usual ...

2- Which AD did you like most? Name the BRAND — DNA, ELISA, SONERA?
( ) DNA ( ) ELISA ( )SONERA ( )Other? ......................
[None]

3- If DNA, ELISA, SONERA? were animals what kind of an animal would each be?
e.g. FAT CAT, Friendly but Stupid DOG, Wood Worm ...

o DNA:
o ELISA:
o SONERA:

E) CUSTOMER SERVICE
1- What is your first Choice or Option to gain access to Customer Service when you face a
problem with your connection?

o Internet help (provided it is possible ...)

o Phone help (provided it is possible ... )
o Visit the retail store
o Other ...................

2- i - Have you ever faced problems with your operator? [YES/NO]

ii - Did you get the help/support/solution you needed? [YES/NO]

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 iii - If YES ... How was the problem solved?

F) COMPARISONS

1- Could you arrange the following keywords according to their level of importance
to you? Write the #1 beside the most important, #2 beside the second most important,
and so on until the last and least important.

SIMPLICITY, EASE OF USE, FUN, INNOVATIVE, USER FOCUSED, MEMORABLE &

DIFFERENT, COHERENT, PERSONALISED

2- If DNA, ELISA and SONERA offered the same price offering for a service,
which one would you select first, second, third if any? Please briefly explain WHY?

3- Which Marketing Communications channel is more important/suitable for you, when

choosing a mobile service operator. Could you arrange the following keywords according to
their level of] importance to you? Write the #1 beside the most important, #2 beside the
second most important, and so on until the last and least important.

TV / print ad’s, Retail store, Web site, Service offerings, Reflections from
friends

Thank You

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Appendix B – Experiential Value Creation

Figure 32. Extracted comments/ideas from interviews and surveys

Figure 33. Clustering and grouping the comments/ideas

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Figure 34. Creation of values, titling the groups

Figure 35. Sonera Experiential values Pyramid

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