How do you build a brand that holds up through tough times, budget swings, and new management and board members – without losing momentum or your core?
That was the starting point when marketing managers, brand owners, and insight professionals gathered at Nepa's HQ on Magnus Ladulåsgatan 65 on May 20. During a packed hour, we discussed three interconnected questions:
1. "Aren't we done with brand building soon?"
How Lantmännen has held onto the same brand platform while still evolving the concept – and how Coop, with the help of MMM, can show what happens when you cut back on or invest in the brand.
2. "The way forward is clear – but how do we bring the rest of the organization along?"
How Lantmännen and Coop, with farmers, store networks, cooperatives, and strong product brands, use a shared measurement framework to create a mandate across the whole organization – from boardroom to shop floor.
3. "What does a winning 2026 look like – and what does it take to stand on the 100-watt stage?"
(Note: the "100-watt" refers to the Swedish "100-wattaren" advertising effectiveness award)
Concrete goals, KPIs, and ways of working to stay the course when the world changes fast – and how Coop and Lantmännen are thinking about the next chapter in their brand journeys.
On stage were:
- Dora Harfman Bromée, VP Customer Success, Nepa (moderator)
- Mark Robinson, Director Group Brand & Marketing, Lantmännen
- Johan Öhlin, Head of Marketing, Coop Sverige AB
Dora set the frame right from the opening: this isn't about a single campaign or a single tracker – it's about how you build a long-term mandate for brand work in a reality where everything else is shifting.
Here are the key insights – condensed into a blog post you can take straight into your next management or budget discussion.
Lantmännen
From "Jord till bord" ("farm to fork") to 100-watt award – without letting go of the core
Lantmännen's journey is a textbook example of what happens when you choose a clear position – and actually stick with it.
From well-known name to understood brand
Around 2006–2008, Lantmännen did its foundational brand work. The picture they saw:
- Lantmännen was well-known, but in silos – local cooperatives, Granngården, machinery, etc.
- Only a small share of consumers knew that Lantmännen was also a major food industry player.
- Trends like responsibility, origin, and sustainability were clearly on the rise – and Lantmännen owned the whole chain from farm to fork.
Three crucial decisions emerged from this:
- Unite the group under Lantmännen as a clear sender – mills, bakeries, machinery business, etc.
- Use Lantmännen as an active endorser brand for product brands like Kungsörnen, AXA, and Start.
- Invest long-term in Lantmännen as a consumer brand – not just internally toward members.
That strategy remains largely unchanged today. As Mark Robinson summarized:
"Our strength has been that we've had the opportunity and the conditions to stay the course for a very, very long time."
When a working platform starts to chafe
After just over ten years, "Jord till bord" ("From farm to fork") had done its job. Lantmännen was understood. But in the measurements they saw:
- Diminishing effects on certain brand KPIs.
- A brand that was perceived as trustworthy and well-liked – but also a bit conservative.
- A world where expectations around innovation, modernity, and a clear "why" were rising rapidly.
Mark described the situation as a "golden cage": you know you have something that works – but you also feel it isn't enough to take you all the way forward.
The way forward wasn't to swap platforms, but to evolve it further:
- Add more forward momentum, innovation, and modernity.
- Shift the focus from what Lantmännen does to why – what contribution they actually want to make to the future of agriculture and food.
The result was the concept "Länge leve jorden" ("Long live the earth"). Mark Robinson described the first major campaign like this:
"It felt new – but also very familiar and like a natural next step."
That's the essence of a sustainable shift: new and recognizable at the same time.
Long-term thinking – not on gut feel, but on data
Behind the creative output is a deliberate measurement framework that Lantmännen has built together with Nepa. The most important building blocks:
- Brand tracking over time – same core questions, same KPIs, year after year.
- Systematic pre- and post-tests of major campaigns.
- Purpose and contribution studies showing how Lantmännen lifts its own product brands as an endorser.
- MMM (Marketing Mix Modeling) that connects communication, media, and sales.
This means Lantmännen can today:
- Show a "trust over time" curve that clearly correlates with major brand initiatives.
- Quantify how the Lantmännen logo on a package raises perceived quality, value for money, and sustainability.
- Make the case that Lantmännen as an endorser creates a portfolio lift that would have been almost impossible to build brand by brand.
In short: The 100-watt award win in 2025 is the receipt for nearly 20 years of consistent, measured, and refined brand strategy – not for "one successful film."
Coop
When the brand falls behind – and how to steer back with facts
If Lantmännen demonstrates the power of consistency, Coop shows the price of being forced to prioritize the short term for too long – and how data can become the way back.
A strong name – but a weaker position
Coop's starting point:
- One of Sweden's most well-known brands.
- At the same time, losing market share over a long period.
- Competitors have pushed on price and taken strong positions around "everyday" and "family."
- Coop's own position has been less clear.
Johan put his finger on the core problem:
"If you don't have a charged position and a strong brand, you inevitably end up competing on price. And if you're not the cheapest – you're perceived as expensive."
When the brand does the work – and holds up sales despite empty shelves
Together with Nepa, Coop has built a framework with:
- Brand tracking (trust, attributes, consideration, preference).
- Campaign measurements (pre/post) on larger executions.
- MMM that connects both centrally and locally purchased media with actual sales.
One of the most telling curves shown:
- During a period of clear brand-building communication, consideration and preference rose significantly.
- At the same time, Coop had serious logistics problems – with periodically empty shelves in stores.
"We held up sales even though the shelves were relatively empty," Johan said. People still wanted to go to Coop – even though not everything was perfect – because the brand was carrying more of the load.
…and what happens when you turn the brand off
When the positive effects appeared in the data, the plan was to keep pushing on the brand. But:
- The economic situation tightened.
- Internal priorities led to a major price push.
- The budget for brand activities was cut sharply.
The effect was clear in the same graphs:
- Preference dropped.
- Sales became more sensitive to price and promotional pressure.
- The built-up brand buffer started being eaten up quickly.
Johan's conclusion is brutal but honest:
"It's incredibly expensive to build the brand. But it's actually even more expensive to pause."
The key point here isn't that Coop "did something wrong" – it's that through tracking and MMM you can show exactly what happens when the brand is accelerated or braked – and thereby have a more fact-based dialogue with management and the board.
In a cooperative structure with:
- Cooperative associations,
- A large store network,
- Locally purchased media and regional differences,
the same model provides:
- A shared language about what drives what.
- A factual basis for how to allocate budget between brand and tactics.
- The ability to follow up on outcomes both centrally and locally.
From boardroom to shop floor
Same map, different views
A common thread throughout the morning was perhaps the hardest question:
How do you make all this understandable – not just for marketing, but for the board, the CFO, local managers, and stores?
Both Lantmännen and Coop highlighted three things as decisive.
1. Pedagogy
The model itself is rarely the big problem – it's how you explain it.
You need to draw out the chain in a way that everyone can grasp:
- If trust moves like this…
- And the attributes (e.g., quality, value, sustainability) move like this…
- What does that mean for:
- base volume,
- price elasticity,
- margin on the bottom line?
2. Shared language
To avoid talking past each other, you need:
- The same terms (e.g., consideration vs. preference)
- The same KPIs
- The same central charts/graphs
…but with different levels of detail depending on whether you're in the boardroom, the marketing team, or on the shop floor.
3. Consistency
Perhaps the most boring – but most decisive:
- Don't change KPIs, question batteries, and models every year.
- Dare to live with the fact that some questions feel "a bit old" – that's the price for getting historical data.
Consistency is what enables you to show:
- A 10–15 year long "trust over time" curve.
- The effect of changing or evolving a concept – not just how a single campaign performed.
- How the brand actually connects with base sales, price position, and margin.
In practice, this has led to annual cycles where:
- Brand tracking and MMM run all year.
- Campaign measurements are added on for major initiatives.
- Ad-hoc studies are used for things like creative shifts or new category launches.
- The quarters have clear roles:
- Q1: planning, trend reports, final input for budget/strategy.
- Q2–Q3: execution, campaign deep dives, optimization.
- Q4: 360 review ahead of the coming year.
Mark expressed the upside this way:
"The communication creates pride and recognition. But to get a long-term mandate, we have to translate the effects into the same language as the other strategic discussions in the company."
What is a "winning 2026" for Lantmännen and Coop?
When Dora asked the panel to describe what a successful 2026 looks like, the answers were unusually concrete.
For Lantmännen
- The third iteration of "Länge leve jorden" ("Long live the earth") in full force.
- Clear, measured wear-in effects over several years – not just ad-hoc comparisons between campaigns.
- Even sharper evidence of how Lantmännen lifts the product brands in the portfolio – both in attitude and in sales.
For Coop
- A three-year plan that actually gets followed.
- An updated visual identity and longer-lived brand executions.
- A more sustainable balance between tactics and brand.
And, above all, clear development in:
- Market share – stopped decline and the start of recovery.
- Consideration and preference.
- Customer satisfaction (NKI) – satisfaction in stores and across membership.
In other words: a winning 2026 isn't just a new 100-watt award – it's curves pointing in the right direction over time.
The data-driven recipe: how it all fits together
A common denominator in both cases is that no single tool is "the silver bullet." The effect comes when they work together.
- Brand tracking Provides the long-term perspective – shows how the brand moves over time and across target groups.
- Campaign measurements (pre/post) Shows what individual executions actually do: recognition, understanding, emotions, brand impact.
- MMM (Marketing Mix Modeling) Connects all activities – media, campaigns, channels – to sales, margin, and business goals.
Together they answer questions like:
- How is the brand doing – and what does that mean for base sales?
- Which campaigns work – and on which dimensions?
- How should we allocate budget to maximize both short-term and long-term impact?
- Which channels and levels give the best ROI given our category and competition?
As one of the speakers said:
"This isn't something you just pull out for the annual review. It should be used continuously – week by week, quarter by quarter."
Three things to do this year
The panel landed on three concrete things everyone in the room should take home:
- Define and secure your framework. Decide which few KPIs and tools should connect brand, campaign, and sales – and make them standard, not projects.
- Build history – don't change metrics every year. Dare to endure the fact that some questions feel "a bit old." Continuity is a prerequisite for proving what long-term brand work actually does to business and margin.
- Anchor it across the whole organization. Use the same map – but adapt the view. Marketing, sales, management, and local units should be able to talk about the same numbers, with the same logic, even if at different levels of detail.
Summary: build a framework, not just a campaign
Lantmännen shows what happens when you stick with a core for nearly 20 years – and consistently measure, learn, and refine. Coop shows what happens when the brand gets – and doesn't get – the budget and space it needs in an extremely tough category.
For anyone working in marketing or brand, the message is clear:
- Build a framework, not just a campaign.
- Measure systematically, not just when there happens to be time.
- Use the insights to bring the C-level and the operational floor along on the same journey.
Then the chances increase substantially that a future case from your organization will not only win awards – but also stand firm when the world around you starts to shake.
Want to know more?
If you're curious about how Nepa can help you work more data-drivenly with brand, campaigns, and media investments – contact us.
Published on: 25TH MAY 2026