How to triple your market share?

The Dutch telecom company Tele2 had two goals:

1. To retain existing customers
2. To attract new customers

Tele2 wanted to know the influence of brand image on achieving the two goals. Neurensics studied Tele2 brand image. The results led Tele2 to triple its market share. How? Check it out below.

Client Tele2_logo
Used techniques
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"Winning the 2018 Silver Effie was made possible by NeuroBranding. It showed us which unconscious associations are important for increasing our NPS and which associations we needed to focus on to turn non-customers into customers." Leslie Hogeveen, CCO Consumer Mobile, Tele2

Which associations contribute to building a strong brand?

Tele2 NeuroBranding Mind Mapping Neuromarketing

Tele2's research question

  • How can we retain existing customers?
  • How can we attract new customers?

How it's studied

Two consecutive studies were used. First, a long list was used to capture all conscious associations which are characteristic for the telecom market and also associations which are distinct for Tele2.

The shortlisted associations served as input for the main study, Mind Mapping, which examined the extent to which the associations are unconsciously linked to Tele2.

Mind Mapping™ 

A brand activates conscious and unconscious associations. The unconscious associations especially influence consumer behaviour.

That's why it's important to study the unconscious associations activated by a brand. It's not enough to ask respondents about the associations they have with a brand because this will result in well-considered answers based on conscious reasoning.

Mind Mapping™ was used to discover the unconscious associations activated by Tele2. Under time pressure, test participants had to choose whether certain associations, such as valuable and cheerful, were appropriate for Tele2 or for its competitors.

The time pressure is essential because participants don't get the chance to think about the answer for a long time, resulting in more objective answers. 

Results: The most important brand associations for Tele2

Tele2 Case NeuroBranding Mind Mapping Resultaten

The study has shown several associations which are important for Tele2. These associations are distinctive for Tele2 as compared to its competitors and also contribute to customer loyalty.

  • The association 'Freedom' contributes to customer loyalty (increasing NPS).
  • The association 'Smart choice' contributes to attracting new customers (switching to Tele2).


Advice for Tele2

It's important to focus on the brand associations that are distinctive for Tele2. This will enable Tele2 to consistently maintain brand growth, making the brand more impactful in the long run.

Tele2 triples its market share and wins an award

Tele2 wint zilveren effie 2018 mede door Mind Mapping

Tele2 winning a Silver Effie in 2018 is a testament to the impact of its brand. This award indicates that the brand has increased in impact over the years and proves that the brand has improved its commercial position.

It's no wonder that Tele2 won this award because its market share had tripled in the Netherlands! Tele2 is as well known as its 3 biggest competitors in the Netherlands and is the sole provider that has been growing in the past years.

Advantage of NeuroBranding for Tele2


  • Tele2 knows brand associations which are important for long term growth and uses it in their communication.
  • Tele2 has insights into brand-associations which contribute to hard KPI's, such as NPS and new customers.
  • Tele2 knows that NeuroBranding works because it helped them win the Silver Effie in 2018.

We work together with

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