F-Secure is a Finnish company on the global market for PC internet security software. In response to computer manufacturers’ increasing pre-installment of security software as part of their standard product, F-Secure wanted to strengthen its brand attractiveness towards end-users on the SME and consumer market.

We started out with conducting a qualitative, etnographic study in three countries to gain first-hand insight into people’s motives, needs and behaviour when online. Observing their PC and internet usage and listening to their views and preferences re. IT-security we discovered, that people were little worried about virus/ malware attacks per se - despite the industry’s unanimous focus on ‘the virus/malware threat’ in their marketing. Consequently they regarded internet security software brands little relevant to them..!

Their real security concern was of a different nature: They feared experiencing sudden loss or corruption of the files on their computer (work documents, family photos, emails, music collection etc.), since these files were often irreplacable. If an internet security software could protect them from experiencing such loss, they would consider it radically more relevant if not inexpendible to have!

We validated this breakthough insight in a following quantitative survey which we furthermore designed to deliver F-Secure a database for building an internationally applicable segmentation model enabling them to profile and target the most valuable segments across their markets.

Finally, we developed a new brand strategy that re-positioned the F-Secure brand to capture the found consumer insight with the groundbreaking value propostion: Protecting the Irreplaceable! The further implementation work included updating the F-Secure brand logo and graphic identity to better reflect this ‘guardian idea’, and assisting F-Secure in the development of new communication and targeted products such as automatic back-up etc. all to support the new brand positioning on the global internet security market.