Arska Group – Brand strategy and implementation

Objectives: The hierarchy of Arska Group's product brands, along with their marketing communication and concept in relation to the group company, needed to be clarified. Additionally, tools and materials were to be updated for effective implementation.

Role of Smartbutlers: Our role was not only to support the strategic work but also to create the tools and materials for marketing, considering the growth targets for international sales.

Results: The project resulted in an updated brand strategy, a refreshed visual identity, a brand manual, and new website and e-commerce platforms for all companies within the group.

Arska Group, along with its subsidiaries Mepu Oy and Arskametalli Oy, offers grain drying solutions for agriculture and industry. All products are designed and manufactured in the company's own factories in Finland. In addition to the domestic market, sales extend to 13 European countries. Arska Group is a traditional Finnish family business that has been part of the Finnish grain industry since the 1950s.

“As farms grow in size and to better serve our industrial clients, we want to offer our customers strong project and solution expertise. We have local sales representatives in target countries, but we manage marketing and sales centrally from Finland. There are significant differences between export countries, not just in seasonality or the quality of grain being cultivated, but also in buying behavior and marketing needs. In the project with Smartbutlers, our goal was to create operational models and implement tools that allow us to manage marketing in target countries and ensure brand consistency,” says Tarja Viilola, Marketing Director at Arska Group.

Analysis, conceptualization & visualization

The work began with interviews of the management and sales teams, as well as a competitor and market review. Following this, the brand strategy was conceptualized, and the brand's visual identity was updated. The brand strategy materialized in the form of a renewed company presentation. A brand manual and marketing plan were created as tools to guide brand identity both in Finland and among local sales representatives in international markets.

As part of the visual renewal, Smartbutlers updated materials and created graphics, such as logo and symbol libraries, product and company brochures, corporate presentations, business cards, and templates for social media ads. Following the visualization phase, the next step was to renew the website and e-commerce platforms.

A website platform that grows with the company

“For the websites, we wanted a solution that meets multilingual needs and also serves as a tool for product and material management, as well as for advertising purposes. It was also essential to be able to update all the sites from the same platform. Additionally, we wanted a site that is integrated with both the e-commerce environment and our CRM system and is agile enough to be integrated with our other future systems. The end result is a platform hosting three websites with e-commerce features and 4-10 language versions per site. The website work is still ongoing, with the e-commerce platform updates scheduled for the spring,” Tarja explains.