Kieringinloma is an award preserving village, located approximately 100 kilometers north from Rovaniemi. Kierinki is one of the only villages that was not burned down during the war in 1940, as it was saved by three young boys while other inhabitants fled to Sweden. On October 11^th 2018 we visited this impressive village, to visit Kieringinloma, or in English, Kierinki Holiday Village. Kierinki Holiday Village offers visitors of Kierinki accommodation in hotel rooms and holiday apartments, but also offers tents and caravan spots. The hotel rooms and holiday apartments are well-decorated, and look quite cozy. You feel at home immediately.

Furthermore, the village has a restaurant. One of the dishes served at the restaurant is Kierinki Highland meat. Parties and weddings can be hosted there as well. Alongside the restaurant, “World’s Smallest Pub” can be found, which is definitely worth a visit. The village has its own grocery shop and gas station as well. This is necessary, as it is located in, practically, the middle of nowhere. Which is a positive thing, as the environment is stunning.

During the company visit it was clearly visible that the owners run Kieringinloma with love and passion. This could immediately be felt upon arrival, as we were welcomed by the owner herself. Since Kieringinloma is one of the few places where one is still able to experience traditional Lappish culture, it’s a unique company. Therefore it is definitely recommended to visit this village for everyone visiting Lapland. A husky farm and a reindeer farm can be found not far away from the village. This gives one the opportunity to get a full Lappish experience.

On September 25^th, an employee from Lapsset group company visited Lapland University of Applied Sciences to give a lecture about the company and its marketing strategies. Lappset was established in 1970. They currently have 5 dealers and 14 subsidiaries in 9 countries. Among its customers are architects, students, kindergarten directors and real estate companies. Lappset provides playground equipment, outdoor sport equipment and park furniture. My first encounter with Lappset group company was when I had just arrived in Rovaniemi, and passed the Angry Birds theme park. I immediately thought it was very interesting, and wished we would have had something like that in my hometown when I was a kid.

The presentation was mainly about what the company does in general, marketing strategies, andhow Lappset uses their social media. We learned about how Lappset is occupied with their brand awareness, csr issues and well-being health-issues. Lappset attends different events like seminars, customer events and trade shows, and it has product launches and webinars as well.

Lappset puts an effort in their social media. The website is run by the marketing department, and the company is on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn as well. As the company itself claims, it provides high quality content to generate interest among persons in the target group so that they will seek out the content on the Lappset website. Herefore it uses different methods, like; guides, studies, leaflets, and their website content text and images are search engine optimized. Furthermore it uses, testimonials, blogs, webinars, infographics, and email. Through their website, Lappset is able to track visitors who leave their email address behind. By doing this they are able to find out who their customers are and what they like. Based on this information, customers receive different newsletters.

I am not sure if I would like to work in the marketing field myself, since the study programme I follow at home is so broad. It does not only cover marketing. Marketing is just a minor part of it. It covers European politics, law, history, and much more. It is definitely something I will consider, but nothing is certain yet. I will wait to see what the future will bring me.

On September 20, a Learning café on International Marketing Tools took place at Lapland University of Applied Sciences. Prior to this learning café, students were divided into groups and each got their own topic on which they would write a paper. During the Learning café, the groups presented their results and ideas on the topics to each other. Branding, Digital Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing and the Moment of Truth and Zero Moment of Truth were among the topics which were discussed.

Our group’s main conclusion was that businesses nowadays can never become successful if they do not engage in social media marketing. We concluded that social media marketing on its own is not even enough. Search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, and conversion rate optimizationIt are essential. It is very important to use a cross-channel, and engagement marketing as well. We learned about PPC advertising, retargeting, SEO,  mobile apps and ads, and personalization.

Other groups in turn made mind-maps to assist them in teaching us  a few things about their topics. They taught us more about for example brand monitoring, how to create good content and generate traffic and interaction, reports that track data activity, different companies and content marketing, and an explanation about the zero moment of truth.

In my opinion, this is a very good learning method. All students are engaged in all topics, can share their views and opinions with others, and thus gain a lot of knowledge on a variety of topics in one class. Personally I learn and remember more from a Learning café than I would from 5 separate lectures. A Learning café requires students to participate, which is not always the case during a lecture. This makes it a very effective way of learning.