How to successfully communicate your brand when scaling up in a new country? Enterie PR experts share their hints from their home markets. Today: Focus on Denmark by Jakob Kemp Hessellund from Kemp&Kjaer
market
Danish market is not big, but very easy to enter. Registering your business takes literally ten minutes online. Denmark follows all EU regulations and timely implements EU directives, from which there are no significant exceptions.
As the country is relatively small, our economy and business culture are very open. Most companies are SMBs, used to cooperate with foreign clients or providers. People are well educated, with a really good command of English, which also helps in international business relations. The country is homogeneous, there are no regional differences, so it is often treated as a test market and a gate to Nordics.
culture factor
Danish culture is open, but also very modest. We don’t like bragging and we don’t like arrogance. So if I was to advise anything – the tone of voice which you use in communication has to be adjusted accordingly. Also, mind our specific sense of humour which you should be aware of and consider in your communication. People in Denmark use a lot of ironies.
We have a non-conflict culture which prefers negotiations and consensus over demonstrations power. So it is much more effective to act modestly than to force your way through the market. Historically Denmark was never a good place for revolutionists. When there was too much tension, the king was sitting at one table with opponents and look for satisfying solutions. And note, that we still are a monarchy.
media landscape
As the country is small and homogeneous – it is centralized. We have several flagship media – three national dailies, two tabloids and two main TV stations. The younger generation also watches international televisions. The main population rather sticks to Danish media.
Same as everywhere – circulations of newspapers are declining in favour of online.
what works
First of all – localization. Even though Danish people speak good English, use native Danish when communicating with journalists – it will save their time and can be a crucial factor for whether your story will be covered or not.
Days when it was enough to be a startup to get media interest and coverage are over. The pick of interest is behind us, so to get attention there has to be more in your story. As with any other business, you need to find an interesting angle. And it has to be the local one, related to Denmark.
social media
We are a Facebook country. Twitter is mostly for politicians and media, so it cannot be overlooked, but you will not find a general audience there.
If you are targeting white collars think of LinkedIn. Paid campaigns perform there much better than in other places.
PR services
We have mostly medium companies and offices. There is a lot of people in this business and, as it is really easy to set up your own shop, a lot of small agencies as well. Which is good for competitiveness and clients.
costs
10K for 6 months activities is minimum. For a new company which has something interesting to say – it should be enough to get a decent coverage, build first relations with media and get some basic visibility. And the maximum – sky is the limit.
