CLIENT
DEN is a Finnish housing group whose businesses cover the design and construction of homes and other spaces.
At the time of our collaboration, the group operated four brands in the same relatively concentrated market: Finnlamelli, DesignTalo, Ainoakoti and Talliosake.
Co-founders was invited to help DEN clarify the roles of the different brands and create a stronger foundation for managing the portfolio as a whole.
CHALLENGE
Having several established brands gave DEN the ability to serve different customer needs. But in a limited market, it also created a strategic challenge.
If the brands were not sufficiently differentiated, they risked competing for the same customers rather than strengthening the group’s overall market position. And differentiation could not be achieved through communication alone. The brands needed clearer roles, distinctive offerings and their own recognisable design principles.
The challenge was therefore to determine which customers and needs each brand should serve, what each should offer them and how the brands could complement rather than compete with one another.
The central question became:
How should four brands divide the same market?
PROCESS
We began by examining the market from the customer’s perspective.
Market research helped us identify distinct customer segments, their priorities and the factors influencing their choices. We complemented this with in-depth interviews to understand how people considering building a home evaluated different alternatives and what mattered to them throughout the decision-making process.
These insights allowed us to look at DEN’s portfolio as a whole and explore different roles for each brand. Together with DEN, we clarified their respective positions and value propositions and used these choices to reshape the house and service portfolios.
To make the differentiation tangible rather than merely conceptual, we also defined a distinct design DNA for each brand, creating principles that could guide future product and design decisions.
WHAT CHANGED
DEN gained a clearer strategic logic for managing its portfolio, with more distinct roles for each of its brands.
The work extended from positioning into the offering itself. House and service portfolios were reshaped to better reflect the needs of different customer segments, while a distinct design DNA gave each brand clearer principles for developing its future offering.
This created a more systematic foundation for managing the brands, their offerings and their respective roles in the market.
