Marketing Management Of Nokia Marketing Essay

Nokia’s marketing strategy

Nokia maybe the world leader in the mobile phones arena, but it seems as if it has completely lost its way as far as the marketing strategies are concerned NO DOUBT THATthe products from the Finnish company, Nokia, are some of the very best in the world, but the company still hasn’t found a profitable way to market its goods. The very reason that other mobile phone companies are fast eating up Nokia’s market share is their superior (yet simple) marketing practices.

Motorola and Samsung must now be in the FUW (frequently used words) list in Nokia’s board meetings. These companies have made Nokia pay dearly for its rudimentary approach in marketing its phones. The aggressive marketing practices followed by Motorola have hit Nokia very hard and it is losing very crucial global market share every month to its American competitor.

Nokia, quite alarmed by the dropping sales of its phones, is now putting all its weight behind the N-Series range. The N-Series is packed with multimedia features and Nokia believes that these phones might woo the costumers back to the big daddy of the mobile phone world. But Espoo, we have a problem!! (Nokia is headquartered at Espoo, Finland).

While Motorola (quite intelligently) gives a dashy-flashy name to every phone it brings into the market, Nokia tends to do the exact opposite. Nokia from the very start has relied on numbers rather than names. This strategy worked very well in the past, but only because there wasn’t much competition back then. But times have changed. Every month the market sees at least a dozen new handsets from an equal number of manufacturers. Consumers now have more than they can choose.

Consumers are more attracted by names because they can thus easily relate to the features of the phone. This is evident from the success of the MotoRazr, MotoSlvr, MotoRizr and MotoKrzr. These phones are not packed with heavy multimedia features like the N-Series; still they are selling like hot cakes. Just by reading the name of the handset, one gets a broad idea what the phone looks like or whatits features are.

Nokia advertises more than Motorola. Still its market share is dropping. Motorola does not need to spend much money for the promotion of its products and it doesn’t have to worry about the marketing of these phones; it just simplifies its job by naming its products right. Take the example of Apple. It did not have to do much to promote its iPhone. Thanks to the leaked photos and technical specifications, it became the most anticipated gadget of all times.

It is high time that Nokia starts applying some common sense to its marketing strategies. It doesn’t have to do anything great, other than just naming its phones. A few months ago, a highly placed Nokia official told Reuters that his company would soon go the Motorola way andstart using names for its new phones. It is in Nokia’s best interest that it takes to this path as early as possible, otherwise the once market leader might see its market share plummeting to even lower depths.

MISSION

The mission of Nokia NDIA is to provide the customers with the durable, economic, stylish and reliable cell phones with better features of common use

MARKETING OBJECTIVES

1. Maintain positive, strong growth every quarter.

2. Achieve a steady increase in market penetration.

3. Achieve the expected growth rate of two years

4. To maintain its position of India’s no. 1 cell phone producing company.

5. Maintaining its reputation.

FINANCIAL OBJECTIVES

1. Nokia is introducing a range of new handsets in Indian market for every income sector.

2. Now Nokia is targeting the nerves of young generations’ and providing them with better facilities of mp3, map, video, touch pad e.t.c.

SEGMENTATION

We know our country has very wide market and a marketer can’t satisfy everyone in the market with every product. Thus Nokia has identified and divided the cell phone (handset) market into different segments. Nokia has divided, identified the different groups of buyers who require or prefer different features (facilities) in their handsets by examining demographic, psychographic, and behavioral difference among buyers.

TARGET MARKETS

Nokia had a total Revenue of €50.722 bn, Operating income €4.966 bn, Net income €3.988 bn , Total assets €39.582 bn, Total equity €16.510 bn in 2008. With brands like Nokia cell phone, Nokia accessories, headphone, ear phone, car kit, Nokia batteries. Nokia operates worldwide Nokia Siemens Networks (previously Nokia Networks) provides wireless and wired network infrastructure, communications and networks service platforms, as well as professional services to operators and service providers. Nokia Siemens Networks focuses in GSM, EDGE, 3G/W-CDMA and WiMAX radio access networks; core networks with increasing IP and multiaccess capabilities; and services.

On June 19, 2006 Nokia and Siemens AG announced the companies are to merge their mobile and fixed-line phone network equipment businesses to create one of the world’s largest network firms, called Nokia Siemens Networks. The Nokia Siemens Networks brand identity was subsequently launched at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona in February 2007

As of March 2009, Nokia Siemens Networks serves more than 600 operator customers in more than 150 countries, with over 1.5 billion people connected through its networks.

PRODUCTS

Product is the physical product or service offered to the consumer. Product includes certain aspects such as packaging, guarantee, looks etc. This includes both the tangible and the non-tangible aspects of the product and service. Nokia offers variety of handsets Nokia is famous for its long batteries and durable batteries. Various models of Nokia cell phone.

On September 22, 2003, Nokia acquired Sega.com, a branch of Sega which has been the major basis to develop the Nokia N-Gage device

In November 2007, Nokia announced and released the Nokia N82, its first (and currently, only) Nseries phone with Xenon flash.

In 2008, Nokia released the Nokia E71 in the United Kingdom which was marketed to directly compete with the other Blackberry devices offering a full keyboard and cheaper prices.

Other products are Nokia 6300, Nokia 6000 series, Nokia 1100 handset, Nokia 1110, Nokia 1600, Models 9000, 9110, 9210 and 9500Nokia-E66 Nokia-7210-Supernova Nokia-5800-XpressMusic Nokia-5130-XpressMusic .Nokia n70, 73,95, 76,91,72 etc

PRICE

Pricing includes the list price, the discount functions available, the financing options available etc. It should also take into the consideration the probable reaction from the competitor to the pricing strategy. This is the most important part of the marketing mix as this is the only part which generates revenue. All the other three are expenses incurred. The price must take into consideration the appropriate demand-supply equation.

The price of each handset increase or decrease with increase or decrease in demand of the hand sets

PROMOTIONS

Nokia undertaken NO. Of promotional activities to permote its products like website (which provide full information of the products), advertisements (the marketing method of advertisement is an effective way to permote the products) the common methods of the advertisement is newspaper, TV. industry magazines. Players and film stars are hired for the promotions of different products for e.g. Sharuk khan is hired by Nokia to permote its products. Nokia has sponsored many cultural activities, sports events, sport teams, to permote its brand

POSITIONING

Nokia have positioned itself as the NO.1 hand set Provider Company in the world. Founded by Fredrik Idestam, Leo Mechelin in 1871.in Espoo, Finland now it has total 24,292 employees as of March 31, 2009 and more than trillions of customers all over the world. This positioning has been achieved by vast experience of producing and meeting the customers’ needs.

PLACE

Place mainly consists of the distribution channels. It is important so that the product is available to the customer at the right place, at the right time and in the right quantity. For placing its products Nokia uses retails outlets, exclusive showrooms, mobile showrooms, websites, super marts, etc.

STRATEGIES

The single objective is to maintain the NO. 1 position in cell phone products and accessories. Serving the worldwide. The marketing strategies will seek to first create customers awareness about the offered products and services and then develop the customer base, The message which is communicating by The Nokia is that “connecting people” means a product which have same preference in all and helps people to connect with each other or the features of the concern product This message can be communicating by website, advertisement, T.V. adds, film stars which provide a rich resource of products information.

MARKET MIX

The market mix of Nokia mobile company comprised of the following approaches known as 4p approaches they are

Products: different products of company

Price: the price of different products

Promotions: various methods of promoting the products

Place: place where the product is sold

Conclusion:

Nokia is more than a mobile phone manufacture. They are offering variety of services such as the Nokia Music Store, N-Gage, Nokia Maps, Files on Ovi and a few more. However, the problem of these services is how to market them and how to bring these services to the customers. Who will use the Nokia Music Store if they need to pay first? Therefore Nokia adds vouchers to devices such as the E75. Nokia being in a competitive market holds the market as a monopoly with its unique identity, Marketing Strategy and distribution policy. Through the Ease-of-use concept, it will add a lot to Customer Value, which further helps Nokia in capture the market share. Nokia’s goal is to be a good corporate citizen wherever they operate, as a responsible and contributing member of society.

REFERENCES

1 www.nokia.com

2 www.managementfunda.com

3 www.scribd.com

4 KOTLER PHILIP; KELLER Kevin lane: Marketing management 12th Ed.