The Internet is a useful marketing tool for businesses looking to enter the Russian market. This marketing is most effective when it is done in Russian, provided that cultural differences are properly taken into account in the website design work.
Well-planned Internet marketing, incorporating techniques like search engine optimisation, banner advertising, social networks and search term advertising, offers companies an effective way of getting their message across to the huge Russian markets," says Nataliya Kohvakko, Managing Director of Jyväskylä-based Infokone Oy, which specialises in Russian-language Internet marketing.
Originally from Ukraine, Nataliya Kohvakko established Infokone in early 2009. The company's fresh business concept has attracted a lot of interest. Infokone is profiled as an international information service agency.
Kohvakko herself uses the term "Internet bridge" - a bridge which acts as the central marketing tool between two different cultures. The Internet makes it possible to build this bridge, provided that the contents of the marketing messages are made attractive for the target group. "It's not enough just to have websites translated into Russian," she explains.
Nataliya Kohvakko says that she developed the idea for her business over a number of years as she sought information about services available in the Jyväskylä Region. Once the company was established she built an Internet portal offering information in Russian on tourist attractions in Central Finland. At the same time the portal provides tips on practical, everyday issues facing Russian speakers in Finland - starting with instructions for drivers on how to buy fuel at Finnish service stations. One of the company's revenue streams comes from selling marketing packages on the portal - www.keskisuomi.ru - to businesses in the tourism sector.
"Ski resorts in Central Finland like Laajavuori and Himos fill up with Russian tourists, especially around New Year. By boosting their marketing they could get more tourists at other times of the season, because a lot of Russians search for holiday destinations direct from the Internet," Kohvakko emphasized.
There are around 160 million native speakers of Russian, and English is not particularly widely spoken in Russian-speaking countries. The way to influence consumers' purchasing decisions is therefore to do marketing in Russian.
Kohvakko also offers her expertise to companies outside the tourism sector. "Finnish companies lose a huge proportion of their potential customers if they only do their marketing in Finnish or English. On top of that, websites in Finnish or English are less visible on Russian-language search engines than Russian sites. Therefore companies should register a .ru domain and create a site that's designed with the target market in mind," Kohvakko says.
Nataliya Kohvakko (29) graduated from Kharkov Technical University of Radioelectronics in 2000 and continued her studies on the EU funded Master's Degree Programme at the University of Jyväskylä, focusing on mobile technologies. Having completed her MSc degree, Kohvakko joined the doctoral programme and completed her PhD in 2006. Her dissertation concerned context modelling and utilisation in heterogeneous networks.
It was in Jyväskylä that Nataliya met her future husband, Dimitri Kohvakko, who traces his roots back to Finland. The couple have two children, Ulrika who is five and Juliana, one. Between 2006 and 2009 Nataliya Kohvakko worked for Nokia in Jyväskylä as a software specialist. "Nokia offered me positions that would have involved moving to Helsinki or Tampere with my family. But we had decided that we were going to stay in Jyväskylä. This was just the right situation for me to try out my own business ideas."
- For further information: www.keskisuomi.ru
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In the Jyväskylä Region the objective is to turn new ideas as quickly and as efficiently as possible into new business. Protomo constitutes a novel way of promoting the creation of such business.
"Protomo is an environment based on interaction between people in which highly educated and experienced specialists refine their expertise in a collaborative manner into new business," reveals Jyväskylä Innovation Ltd's Kari Halttunen, who is responsible for the project. Jyväskylä Innovation provides teams working on a business idea with the necessary facilities and data communications connections.
"Protomo can be used by freelance professionals, young guns in the final stages of their studies or who have recently graduated, and enterprises. The method of working also suits those who are unemployed, since at Protomo they are able to enhance their own employment prospects without receiving any form of compensation."
At the present time the ideas being refined at Jyväskylä's Protomo are connected, among other things, with mobile technologies, the internet, wellness, process industries, healthcare and the forest industry.
Words by Timo Sillanpää, Photos by Petteri Kivimäki