Disposiciones actuales del ministerio de educación a cerca de la elaboración de los

At this point we can discuss the future of media brands, a final area of interest pursued in this thesis project. Hanna Johde explained the role of branding for media products in the future at Sanoma. Building brand communications in the media field is extremely challenging due to its multi-dimensional nature. A media company operates on both B2B and B2C markets. Moreover, it provides a multitude of products via various platforms in several geographic markets (if it is an international firm, at least). In addition, it should also have an attractive image as an employer because creative employees are the drive for innovation and

development. Thus, the corporate media brand should incorporate all these perspectives:

“Trying to find the thing that perfectly describes Sanoma and still fits the B2B sales, and fits employing branding purposes, and fits these under-divisions for instance. And

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trying to make it as a lucrative and interesting value adding as possible. And trying to capture the good things… I think that the multi-dimensional aspect of this is the most difficult”, said Hanna Johde.

Furthermore, she stated that the brand itself is not that important for media products. What matters is the extended identity: the brand’s surroundings and environment, the experience it provides to the customer, the visual image, etc. Ms. Johde said that brands “have to create a consistent harmonised entity that speaks with its own voice”.

Even though it is extremely hard to find that ‘tone of the voice’ for the brand because of the multi-dimensional aspects noted above, the media brand is quite valuable because it defines the entity of the product, service and the whole company it represents. Hanna Johde said:

I do think that it definitely has value. I think the value is in creating the entity; that there are elements that fit perfectly together. It [the brand] has to go deep into the content as well. It is like the full experience.

In Sanoma the future development of product brands will have two main tracks. The power brands are one track, and these brands will remain notably independent, and the brands that represent the aggregation platforms like OmaSanoma are the second track.

I think there will be two tracks. This kind of aggregation…But there also will be the future for these big power brands. That [process of development for power brands] will continue. There will be multi-media brands. They will have the print extension, they will have their online, and mobile and whatever extensions. But there will be these two kinds of brands.

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In essence, then, Sanoma will pursue a specific approach to managing its brand architecture that consists of a house of brands on the one hand, applicable to the power brands that have established, stable and successful positions in competitive markets, and a branded house on the other – which is especially important for new brands and in the context of succeeding as an international digital media corporation. In Chapter 7 we provide discussion about the outcomes of the research, talk about future research and highlight the implications for media managers.

7 Conclusions and Implications

This study investigated how an important international media corporation, Sanoma, understands and manages its brand portfolio. We have clarified the approach taken by the firm for brand portfolio management and the role of media brands in a rapidly changing context characterised by high instability.

Today traditional media companies are working out solutions for a fundamental challenge: how to move traditional media brands into the digital environment. Media technology is developing fast as new solutions and new tools appearing on the market routinely. All these changes are happening in the context of complex real time operations and there are no established algorithms yet regarding how to build successful digital brands or how to move existing brand portfolios to the digital market. Each company is finding its own way to manage the changes.

Previously, media businesses were very stable entities. Media conglomerates developed their portfolio of assets according to the requirements of a continual growth strategy. New business acquisition was considered as one of the best ways to create value. The digitalisation of media changed the foundation on which expectations were grounded. The earlier emphasis on growth strategy has had to give way to a strategy keyed to focus. The digital revolution has

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been further complicated by the economic recession since 2008, which has deeply affected media firms – both consumers and advertisers. Media companies have lately realised that all brands that have been historically important can successfully make the transition to the digital world.

Our case study company, Sanoma, faced all these changes and began with a fragmented portfolio of product assets. It began to change its portfolio in 2008 and had further narrowed it to a clearer, tighter focus in 2013. In this study, we had a valuable opportunity to observe how this important media company is managing the changes and developing its brand portfolio. The results are relevant for both theory development and application by managers because we are able to contribute to growth in media branding theory and to practical implications for media brand management.

In this last chapter we first present an overview on our thesis argument from the standpoint of the findings. Next, we demonstrate how the field of knowledge has been expanded and complemented by the study – with how our findings contribute to developing media branding theory. We then discuss some important implications for media managers regarding

management of the media brand portfolio and development. We conclude with recommendations for the future research.