Brand Power

We were having a discussion at home over the Easter break with regard to local dialects. I was a bit annoyed because I had forgotten to watch a documentary I had been looking forward to which focused on a particular dialect that exists around our area. For anyone who doesn't know our background, we live quite far up in Sweden, about a 90 minute drive from the border with Finland. Between here and the border are a number of village areas which have their own unique dialect. Some are a variation on Swedish while others incorporate Finnish into Swedish. Coming from an island country I continue to find it fascinating how much influence neighbouring countries have on each other.

We went a bit further with this, and looked at how significant events can change a society. About 7 or 8 years ago, we flew to Sweden for a holiday. Just for a couple of weeks to show me around. Because I'd never driven to another country before, we decided to take a drive up to, and across, the border into Finland. Nothing especially interesting for my Swedish family, but a real buzz for me. Finland and Sweden are divided by the Torne River in the north. Where the motorway passes over, that is. On each side of the river, stands a town. Haparanda is on the Swedish side of the river, while Tornio is on the Finnish river bank. If I remember correctly, they were originally one town, prior to a bit of fisty cuffs a couple of hundred years back. When we drove through those towns, they were, well, simple. To be kind. They were small border towns going nowhere. But one was definitely a Swedish town, while the other, four hundred metres away, was completely a Finnish town. They are even in a different time zones from each other. We did some shopping over in Tornio, which was a little tough as no one there spoke Swedish. I think we managed to get by with simple English. Likewise, there was nothing Finnish to be seen in Haparanda. You could chuck a rock from one town to the other, and yet they were literally lands apart. That fascinated me as there was no real physical barrier separating these 2 very different communities.

Fast forward 5 years. After about a year or so of lobbying, politicking, etc, megagiant IKEA decided to open it's newest Swedish branch in Haparanda. Right beside the motorway, and about 200m on the Swedish side of the river. There's quite a few documented cases around the world of resistance against the arrival of IKEA into an area. Mostly from existing retailers and manfacturers who fear that they will drown under the IKEA tidalwave. Possibly. I guess the Americans have the same issues regarding Wallmart. Anyway, the effect that IKEA has had in the short time it has been open in the region is, well, it has to be seen to be believed. From a town that had a couple of small supermarket and not much else, Haparanda has exploded into a giant shopping estate. Naturally, property values, spending levels, and tax incomes have increased with the demand and profile. Across the river in Tornio, the infection has spread. A major multi level shopping mall where there was once a candy shop and a liquor store. The roading infrastructure has completely changed and improved on both sides to accomodate for the increased movement of people. It really is phenomenal.

The most interesting part of looking at the before/after IKEA experience, has been the change in the languages of the societies. We drive up to IKEA once a month as part of our long term kitchen upgrade project. What we usually do first, is to drive further into Finland and eat a meal in the new Tornio shopping mall. And then pop back into Sweden to IKEA. In the 9 or 10 times we've done this, we've only talked to one shop assistant in Tornio who didn't speak Swedish. As opposed to the ZERO we met prior to the arrival of IKEA. Likewise in Haparanda where the increased movement of shopping Finns into the town has almost turned Haparanda into a bi-lingual town. It would not surprise me if there were to be a new dialect born in the region if it hasn't already started. Maybe it'll be called Ikeasmål ?