Ninepine's Marketing Approach

Written by Lotte Andkjær Christensen on 04, 2024

At Succeed Abroad 2024 in Stockholm, we met up with the founders of Swedish brand Ninepine, Benjamin Lau and Kousha Torabi. We spoke to them about the keys to their global success and learned how Ninepine adopts a lean and rapid approach by focusing on niche targeting and testing hypotheses with minimal risk. 

From the outside, Ninepine has embraced a global strategy, viewing themselves not as a local company seeking global expansion but as a global brand from start. But how is that possible?

According to Ninepine, it's all about adopting a lean and rapid approach, avoiding over-optimisation for specific markets in the early stages. Instead focus lies on speaking the right language to the right customer, regardless of geographical boundaries. It's about resonating with the specific customer that aligns with Ninepine's brand.

"At Ninepine, we take a global strategy. We see ourselves as a global brand rather than a local brand going global" .

Dive into the brand's strategy right here:

• Quickly test your hypotheses
  
  In the pursuit of expansion, Ninepine adopts a "quick and dirty" approach, launching what works in their existing markets. By focusing on ad types optimised for sales, Ninepine gauge market interest early on without overspending time and resources. While top of funnel activities hold potential, Ninepine prioritise testing hypotheses with minimal risk and investment, ensuring a baseline stability before diving deeper.

• The marketing funnel redefined

  In an era where the traditional funnel is evolving, Ninepine blure the lines between brand building and performance marketing. With digital channels, Ninepine seamlessly integrate brand aesthetics and values into their marketing efforts, bypassing traditional top of funnel activations in favor of a more direct approach.

   

"The whole conception of the funnel - top funnel, mid funnel, bottom funnel - with digital these days, it's pretty flat, right?" says Benjamin Lau.

• Know your audience

  Rooted in their unique brand identity and product offering, Ninepine acknowledge the importance of niche targeting over broad market appeal. While this approach may not suit every business, it is vital for Ninepine - and the ability to be able to launch in new markets being profitable from day one.
  
  

"When we launch new markets, it's not our aim to build brand awareness or top of mind awareness with the broad, whole country or the whole audience. What we're trying to do instead is to build an awareness with the 10, 20 % early adopters" Kousha explains. 

• Language beyond words

  While language localisation is crucial, it's the content itself, its ability to resonate with customers that takes primary. Whether in English or German, Ninepine prioritises engaging content over translations.
  
  

   

Thanks for sharing your experiences Benjamin and Kousha.

This is the latest story in our series where 50+ top e-commerce professionals share their learnings on market expansion tactics, localisation and technology across markets with our learning community. Check out the full collection for more tips.