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3 tips for adapting your marketing strategy for the Swedish culture

By Elin Box on November 17, 2020

The Scandinavian markets are known for being digitally mature, innovative and having high levels of disposable income.

The largest Scandinavian market is Sweden, making it an attractive market for businesses wanting to expand internationally.

If you want your brand to succeed in Sweden, you need to tailor your marketing activities to the local culture.

Let’s look at three ways you should adapt your marketing strategy for Sweden.

1. Sweden’s “lagom” attitude

Lagom roughly translates as “in balance” or “not too little, not too much; just right”.

In this culture, excessive or grand behaviour is seen as distasteful and unappealing.

Modesty and cooperation are valued, whilst standing out from the crowd is not.

For this reason, status symbols are not important in Sweden, so do not try to promote your products or services in this way.

2. Data security and privacy are big concerns in Sweden

Swedes are willing to give up their personal data (such as their name and email address) if they get something in return (like an asset).

But they want to know that their data is safe and will not be shared with any third-parties.

It is therefore important to have a stringent data protection policy and to display this prominently on your website.

3. The environment is very important in Sweden

They are very concerned about climate change and try to be as green as possible.

For this reason, both the government and big companies are strongly pushing the idea to go paperless.

You should bear this in mind when targeting Sweden, and try to make your business practices as environmentally friendly as possible.

I hope this blog post has given you a useful introduction to how you need to adapt your marketing strategy for the Swedish culture. For more in-depth information, read Webcertain’s online consumer behaviour report here. 

This 219-page report gives concise, up-to-date overviews of the cultures of 38 countries worldwide.

  • Learn how each country scores for Hofstede’s cultural dimensions.
  • Discover what this means in terms of marketing.
  • Get additional insights directly from our experience helping global brands.
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Elin Box

Content Marketing Manager at Webcertain
Elin is a Content Marketing Manager at Webcertain. She is responsible for Webcertain’s Self-learning platform, producing in-depth guides on a range of international digital marketing topics. She also helps run the Webcertain blog and is the writer of the Webcertain search and social report, an annual report summarising digital marketing best practices in over 50 countries. She is passionate about educating and empowering people to make the best decisions for their business and is proud to help share Webcertain’s wealth of digital marketing knowledge with the world. Elin is from the UK.

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