Paradiset: Sweden’s answer to whole foods : a netnographic case study of modern marketing techniques and how to build a business identity

Abstract: The practice of marketing has changed from a focus on promoting individual products to engaging with people’s identities and lifestyle choices (Belz & Peattie, 2009). A consumer focus and sustainability movement has triggered the marketing development further, where techniques such as green and social marketing are used to reach the more conscious customer. The prevalent use of the Internet for product research has introduced social media to marketers, and given them a new tool to work with. The focus of this thesis is how an organization uses these sustainability marketing techniques to build its business identity and brand. The aim is to explore how an organization can use marketing techniques, such as storytelling through social media, to build a strong business identity and brand. The case company, Paradiset, is a 1600 square meter large grocery store located on Södermalm in Stockholm. With its 4500 products, a deli, a food court, and a bakery, it is Scandinavia’s largest organic grocery store (www, Paradiset, 1, 2016). The theoretical framework, used to analyze the empirics, includes organizational theory, branding, sustainability marketing, and social media theory as well as the concept of storytelling. This thesis consists of an individual case study, and to collect data for the case a netnographic study of Paradiset’s social media has been conducted, as well as an interview with the company’s CEO. The results show that corporate storytelling through social media channels, such as Facebook and Instagram is an effective way for Paradiset to build a business identity. It also shows that its location, in combination with its strong business identity, is essential when trying to become a leading player in a market. The grocery store market has many large players, but Paradiset has managed to establish a new concept on the market despite the many challenges. To gain market share they have focused on building a strong business identity and brand.