Managerial Implications

My thesis provides business operators with a useful knowledge of sauna myths, and how they are incorporated in Finnish consumers’ sauna consumption. As a practical contribution to the business world, the study discovered how sauna myths contribute to sauna consumption, and provide insights into how to take advantage of sauna myths by turning them into selling points. In general, the identified myths, and cultural meanings attached to them, can be exploited by marketers in order to engage Finnish consumers more in sauna-related consumption, and to promote sauna commodities more appealingly. Companies operating in the field of sauna consumption could attract new customers, and retain existing customers, by appealing to prevailing sociocultural values and beliefs through applying sauna myths to marketing efforts. In addition, customer segmentation could be carried out on the basis of existing sauna myths; as an example, companies pondering customer segmentation could benefit from the findings, according to which, the myth of the Finnish man was surprisingly powerful within the sauna marketplace. Consequently, companies could use this insight in target marketing in order to appeal to men.

Since marketplace mythologies interpret, employ and rework cultural meanings, sauna myths can be utilized and commercialized in marketplaces in order to attach positive associations and symbolic meanings to market offerings and promotional messages. In order to market sauna- related commodities and services more successfully, marketers should be able to capture prevailing cultural meanings, values and beliefs embedded in sauna myths, and turn them into cornerstones of marketing efforts. Furthermore, business operators can gain a competitive advantage by taking an active role in the reproduction process of sauna myths. The better a commercial myth is adapted to correspond with constantly changing socio-cultural values and beliefs, the easier it is accepted by the consumers. Hence, being proactive in myth reproduction and acting as a marketplace “mythmaker” is recommended for business operators.

Referring to the myth of returning to nature within the context of the Finnish sauna, business operators could benefit from incorporating more nature-related elements into urban saunas. It became apparent that the respondents felt overly exposed to technology, which prompted them to seek a return to nature and primitivism through sauna consumption. For example, a competitive

advantage to a sauna manufacturer could be gained by equipping saunas with nature-related commodities, such as lighting in a shape of an actual constellation of stars. The researched evidenced that consumers prefer a wood-heated sauna experience, because a wood burning stove provides a more pleasant ‘löyly’. None of the informants referred to a pleasant feeling when they were describing the ‘löyly’ of an electric stove sauna. Sauna manufacturers could benefit from this observation, for example by simulating, in some way, the sensation of wood-heated ‘löyly’ in electric stove saunas.

The data led to the perception that the sauna is seen as the ultimate relaxation place. Based on this observation, sauna manufacturers should emphasize the seating comfort in sauna designs. For example, sauna benches or ‘lauteet’, as well as low ceilings, are often designed in a way that makes a sauna bather physically unable to fully straighten and relax the body. Most sauna benches have a stick straight back and nails attached that might burn the skin when heated. With regard to supplementary sauna-related commodities, I observed that the informants linked the word “sauna” with commodities regularly consumed in connection with taking a sauna. This linkage could be of benefit in companies’ promotional messages by naming suitable products with the prefix ‘sauna’–, for example, by branding beers as “sauna-beers” and sausages as “sauna-sausages”. By employing mythical narratives and linking sauna-association to commodities, companies could create more appealing and distinguishable promotional messages, thus gaining a competitive advantage.

Construction companies could benefit from the insights into sauna preferences provided by the study. As regards the summer cottage environment, the informants considered the sauna to be an imperative element. Based on the research, it also became apparent that despite the home sauna seldom being used, many informants felt it was necessary to have an opportunity to take a sauna at home, if they wished. Nevertheless, the informants were not willing to pay much extra for having a sauna at home. Consequently, simple and inexpensive ways to build saunas, especially in apartment buildings, could be a solution. Based on the research, one of the predominant attributes of the Finnish sauna is its status in terms of social gatherings, since sauna was noted as rarely being consumed alone. However, surprisingly, communal saunas in blocks of flats were not seen as desirable places to take a sauna. Business operators should take advantage of the social gathering status of the sauna, by bringing sauna consumption closer to city life, and by

incorporating the sauna into other social occasions. As a great example, an event venue, called Allas Sea Pool, has succeeded in adapting sauna to contemporary consumer culture by combining modern urbanity, Finnishness, nature and socializing elements with public sauna services (Helsinki Allas Oy). Located in the heart of Helsinki, Allas Sea Pool provides consumers with communal, urban saunas, supplemented by additional sport and cultural events, restaurant services as well as easy access to swimming in the Baltic Sea (Helsinki Allas Oy). Calling itself “a one-of- a-kind oasis” and “an awakener of the soul of the spa culture” (Helsinki Allas Oy), Allas Sea Pool has revitalized and re-invented communal sauna habits by exploiting some of the predominant myths prevailing in the Finnish sauna culture.