Sanoma Trade succeeded excellently in the Suomi Tänään (Finland Today) 1/2009 chain store survey conducted by the market research company Taloustutkimus. The survey shows that the Suomalainen Kirjakauppa bookstore chain is the most respected chain store brand in Finland. Kiosk operator R-kiosk made it to number seven.
Suomalainen Kirjakauppa excelled in the survey with the grade 8.27 on the scale of 4–10. The grade of R-kiosk was 7.97. The consumer experience of Suomalainen Kirjakappa has developed well during recent years: last year Suomalainen Kirjakauppa was ranked on place three and the year before on place five.
Jarmo Oksaharju, Managing Director of Suomalainen Kirjakauppa says the good result shows that the nearly 100-year-old brand has managed to renew itself and answers to the needs of modern customers. Suomalainen Kirjakauppa has renewed its stores and selections during recent years to better support the customer orientation.
Suomalainen Kirjakauppa launched its customer loyalty programme in 2005, and has now almost half a million regular customers.
"We create a sense of community around reading. For example, we arrange trips to the scenes of books and meet with the authors. Our bookstores are very active in organizing events for their clients. Additionally, Suomalainen Kirjakauppa has a fan club of more than 3,000 people in Facebook," tells Pirjo Purovesi, Marketing Director of Suomalainen Kirjakauppa.
Suomalainen Kirjakauppa is part of Sanoma Trade, a division of the Sanoma Group.