Executive Summary
Fundamentally, this paper seeks to do an in-depth critique of Nokia 808 Pure View Smartphone, which was just released into the market recently.
In doing so, central focus will be on giving an evaluative analysis of a marketing strategy that can be adopted by Nokia in marketing the 808 Pure View Smartphone such that it not only accrues profits for the company but it also manages to edge-off the strong competition from other phones in the market—including those from Nokia as well as from other competing companies like Samsung and Apple.
In 2010, Nokia had the largest market share in the world. To support this, Abry, (2011a) reports a market share of 36.3% by Nokia in 2010 followed by Samsung at 25.3, Apple iPhone at 16.6% and Blackberry at 15.4%. However, over the recent time, Nokia has been facing a downward spiral in its profits and it global dominance has been replaced by Samsung.
Reports by Abry (2011a), which were based on tabulations at the end of the year, indicate that Samsung’s market share increased by more than double to 52.5% while Nokia’s market share reduced by more than half to 16.9%.
These statistics, combined with the dismal performance of Nokia’s phones when compared to the likes of Samsung Galaxy S2, indicate that there is something direly wrong that needs to be corrected by Nokia. It is with all these in mind that the marketing plan below is proposed for the newly released Nokia Pure View 808 Smartphone.
Organizational Background
Nokia is a global communication company that has been operations for over 100 years, having been founded in 1865. In essence, Nokia mainly deals with these sales of mobile phones, electronic devices and many other electronic services such as the internet, games and other applications.
In spite of witnessing huge challenges in 2011, reports from various quarters indicate that Nokia is the 14 best global brands as of 20011. This, essentially, underlines the factor that Nokia is a large company and just like it has been in the past, the company will find a way of sailing through the usual deep murky waters of phone sales. The diagram below gives a brief glimpse of the nature of operations at Nokia and its outlets.
An interim report released by Nokia in January 2012 shows a sharp drop by the company when compared to the previous year. This, probably, is the reason the company decided to venture into the diversification of its business endeavors.
For instance, Nokia’s website indicates that the company recently got into an inter-cooperation with Microsoft so that they can be able to release better Smartphones in the Market. Also, a cutting down of expenditures was necessary based on the underperformance of the company going by their high expectations in 2011. Whether or not the company succeeds is yet to be known.
Portfolio Analysis
As was earlier mentioned, Nokia is currently the second strongest brand in the world following Samsung. Having suddenly gone down in its market share has been able to raise several questions from various scholars.
To most scholars, the increased adoption and demand for Smartphones and phones operating using the Windows OS has, over the recent times taken the world by storm. However, Nokia, on the other hand, was slow to create Smartphones while using the Windows OS.
Companies like Samsung, who had already started incorporating, were therefore bound to have the upper hand. Nonetheless, turn-around plans have since then been made by Nokia with huge changes expected in the near future. The 808 Pure View Smartphone is just one of the many surprises that are yet to be unleashed by Nokia. The diagram in Appendix I gives a succinct summary of the focus product portfolio and its key areas.
Situational analysis
In conducting a situational analysis, the main area of concern is usually the establishment of the key aims and objectives of a project or report. In essence, marketing objectives simply refer to the key issues that need to be achieved by the end of the report. In this case, the following are the main aims and objectives of the study:
- To analyze the nature of Nokia Pure View (41 Megapixels) on the market
- To show the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the 808 Pure View phone while doing a situational analysis so that we can know strategies in which the product can be bettered.
- To propose ways in which Nokia Pure View (41 Megapixels) can be marketed in a better way so as to defeat its competitors
- To find the market response (opinions and ideas) on the Nokia 808 phone then grope for ways in which the product can be tailored to meet the needs of these consumers.
In order to achieve the above objectives, other key issues such as the geographical environment where the Nokia targets to market the phone, the target population and the competitors in the market will also have to be analyzed. In doing so, the situational analysis will be divided into the macro-environmental and the micro-environmental analysis then discussed.
Macro-Environmental Analysis
In doing a macro-environmental (situational) analysis for this product, two key marketing tools will be used. These are the PESTEL analysis and the SWOT analysis.
PESTEL Analysis
Essentially, the PESTEL analysis involves doing political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal assessments of the product in questions. In the case of Nokia 808, the PESTEL analysis is as follows.
In PESTEL, the factors are taken into consideration in the following manner:
Political Factors
In UAE where the product is mainly targeted, there is a strong political system which accommodates liberalism, conservatism, democracy and independence, all at the same time. This is more-or-less representative of the key ideologies in an international, thus making it relatively easy for the product to penetrate the market both locally and internationally.
However, in order to be cooperative with both the local and international political environment, the product’s marketing should be tailored such that it meets embraces a good number of the existing political ideologies. It is also worth noting that UAE is mostly dominated by Muslims.
Consequently, the political environment is mostly run using Islamic principles like Sheria laws. Reports on the ground indicate that Islamic principles do not have anything against mobile phone sales.
However, the prevalence of terrorist and jihadist activities, which tend to disrupt smooth running of businesses, pose potential threats. In marketing the Nokia 808, caution should thus be taken by the marketers with relevant strategies being put in place for such occurrences (Darowski et al., 2006)
Economic Factors
According to a report by Euromonitor (2012), after a down-ward spiral of sales in consumer electronics witnessed in 2008 and 2009; the years 2010 and 2011 recorded healthy growths courtesy of the improvement of UAE’s economy which, in turn, improved consumer confidence in the consumer electronics.
As of today, the economy of UAE is very strong with Dubai being the strongest and most reliable county in terms of capability in providing capital for consumer electronics. Yet still, UAE has room for developing products and services. This offers good economic prospects for a developed company like Nokia and the need to increase the reputation of the Nokia 808 phone.
Additionally, most of the people in the areas targeted by the 808 phone are financially capable and maintain a luxury life, which makes it easy for them to afford buying the phone without breaking a sweat. In addition, Nokia has been able to maintain its good brand name in spite of the market challenges like the 2008 economic crisis.
However, over the recent times, there has been strong competition from companies such as Samsung (majorly through android products) and blackberry. For this reason, in order for the Nokia 808 phone to perform well and edge out its increasingly strong competitors; Nokia will have to find a way of overcoming the challenges and hiccups expected in the near future.
Social Factors
Socially, the UAE, as a region, is famous for their great hospitality. This hospitality has been accorded to both the people from the localities and the visitors to this region who come in for various aspects ranging from trade to tourism (Cherrayil, 2012c).
The people of this region are also known for their adoration of luxurious technological items such as phones and computers. These good social aspects prospect an amiable environment for the 808 Smartphone.
Also, as it has been previously discussed, the UAE is one of the richest regions in the world with love for luxurious lifestyles. Having a new phone like the 808 Pure View phone will therefore be viewed as a great plus in someone’s social status thus encouraging people to buy it.
Technological Factors
Technology is making a lot of jobs much simpler and faster, and in UAE, the situation is no different. In fact, technology is a key part of UAE’s companies and the fact that Nokia has introduced the 808 phone which has immense technological capabilities is a key reason it will be easily accepted in the UAE.
The other crucial aspect in which technology is bound to play an important role is in regard to the use of social marketing avenues such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn in promoting the phone.
Environmental Factors
Apparently, the climate, environment or the geographic conditions of the UAE, or any country for that matter, does not have a huge influence on the sale of phones.
However, going by the recent concerns of eco-friendly products, a few concerns are bound to arise if the 808 phone is not eco-friendly, However, so far, there have not been any complaints voiced to this regard so it is safe to say that, environmentally, the 808 Pure View is a safe phone.
Legal Factors
If Nokia is to succeed in marketing the 808 Pure View phone in an effective way, the company must follow all the legal laws that are currently in place with regards to telecommunication gadgets.
For example, they should ensure there is no discrimination in their shops for the employees and clients while engaging in their business endeavours. Also, they should also ensure that any customer grievances are solved rightfully.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
To begin with, the Nokia has been in the telecommunication business long enough to be able to identify the indicators of success or failures of the operations.
Being that the Nokia is the second-best market brand in phone sales after Samsung, the company is well-placed in terms of sales when compared to their competitors (Abry, 2011a).
Again, the company has professional marketing system which has been able to help it in launching the new branches and products while intermittently identifying new marketing avenues and trends relevant to their telecommunications business. Examples here include Nokia’s reportedly increased sales in Middle East and Africa.
Weaknesses
There is never any plan that has no weaknesses or challenges that are foreseen. As was earlier mentioned, there are some technologies and modern-day phone essentials that are yet to be incorporated in the 808 phone. This gives an advantage to its competitors.
Also, recent reports indicate that the 808 Smartphone is set to be shipped at 450 Euros. Even though this figure is manageable to some people, the money is not affordable to financially challenged individuals. The phone, is therefore seen as a gadget meant for the elitists in the societies and not for the common person.
Additionally, the key to Nokia’s success has been their regular and error-free supply from its vendors. However, there certain times that delays occur in their supplies and distribution systems thus greatly affecting their clients. Also, unlike the likes of Samsung Galaxy S2, which already have client bases, the 808 Smartphone is yet to establish one.
Opportunities
To begin with, the recent boom in Smartphones presents a good demand for accessories such as the 808 phone (Cherrayil, 2012a). In addition, the introduction of the 808 phone will definitely help in increasing Nokia’s market share, thus helping the company to progress in a myriad of ways.
Threats
The main threat for Nokia and the launch of the 808 phone is the ever-increasing competition from companies like Android (Samsung) and iOS (Apple iPhone) which have been reportedly gaining increased market shares (Cherrayil, 2012b).
To sum up the SWOT analysis, it is very important to take note that Nokia has made has, in the past, been able to deal with the threats and weaknesses just like the ones mentioned above. It can, therefore, be expected for them to handle these strengths and weaknesses while augmenting the strengths and opportunities.
Micro-environmental Analysis
Porter’s Five Forces
The use of Porter’s five forces in analyzing the business plans is something that is today almost synonymous to the process of strategic marketing planning. These five forces, advanced by the renowned macroeconomist and Harvard scholar;
Michael E. Porter in 1979, essentially helps in guiding business planners on what to expect in their new business ventures and how they should handle their challenges as well as opportunities. A more circumspective analysis of these forces, in relations to the Nokia Pure View phone, is done below.
New Competitor’s Entry
Reportedly, Nokia plans to widen the scope of its businesses such that the entry of new competitors will not have much effect on them.
Substitute Product or Service
In essence, the diversification plan which entails venturing into other regions while bettering its product (Nokia 808) will duly ensure that this force is taken care of.
Increase in Bargaining Power of Buyers
With the rise in the number of outlets similar to Nokia, customers will have a wide range of options to choose from thus resulting into price war and ultimately favouring customers. They will have a higher bargaining power. In regard to our case, Nokia is known for having good prices for its buyers, and the same principle will be replicated in the 808 Pure View phone so no difficulty is expected.
Increase in Bargaining Power of Suppliers
If the Nokia Pure View performs well as anticipated, then more suppliers will be required. Nokia will, therefore have to increase the number of suppliers so as not to be affected by any market fluctuations.
Intensity of Competitive Rivalry
Reports from various quarters indicate that Nokia is reputed for having good relations with other market players, so very minimal challenges are expected. But even more importantly, the existing players only act as a motivation for the company to work extra hard—something which is bound to ensure that continuous progress ensues.
Competitor Analysis
In today’s fast-growing and highly competitive market of phone sales, there is need for organizations to adopt an effective strategy for marketing in order to gain revenues and gain competitive advantage as well as meet its operational goals (Porter, 1985). This is driven by the presence of competition among companies, for the limited market of the companies’ similar products.
However, a company that has a strategy that is ineffective rarely attains success or survives in the market (Perrey & Riesenbeck, 2009). This occurs since those companies that have effective marketing strategies win a large pool of customers in comparison to those companies that have weak marketing strategies.
In a competitive environment like mobile phone sales, success is normally measured in terms of gains (market share, revenues), and meeting operational goals.
Whereas positive competition is encouraged and recommended among market players; some companies resort into unethical acts such as blackmail, copycatting of products and corruption just to stay above the rest. Over time, Nokia has witnessed such issues but, in one way or another, they have always found a way of travailing.
According to Cherrayil (2012b), In UAE, Nokia faces stiff competition from companies like Samsung, Research in Motion, Apple and blackberry as shown in Appendix II. Other competitors like LG, HTC, Sony Erickson, Huawei and Motorola are said to be significant competitors. In 2011, Cherrayil reports that Nokia sold a total of 95.83 million devices in the year 2011.
On the other hand, Abry (2011b) reports that Samsung sold over 300 million. The dominance of Nokia being replaced by Samsung, according to Abry (2011a), is based on reasons such as the increased acceptability of Smartphones which, over the recent times, have been available in low prices.
Also, the models Galaxy S and Galaxy S II which have comparably superior features to those of most Nokia phones are said to have immensely contributed to Samsung’s (Android) dominance (Abry, 2011b). A brief comparison table of the Nokia 808 Pure View and Samsung Galaxy S2 on some key aspects can be found in Appendix I
Based on that comparison, it is worth taking note of the following pointers. The Galaxy S2 is better than Nokia 808 pure view in terms of Price (it is cheaper), Operating system (Increased dominance and relevance of the Android OS), Processor (Dual-core is better than single-core), Display (large screen with big resolution), and Memory/Storage (it has more RAM and internal memory thus faster).
The only instance that the 808 Nokia is better is in terms of Camera (no phone in the market has camera features even mildly close to it). Probably, this superiority of the Galaxy S2 is the reason Samsung performed very well in 2011—as was earlier mentioned.
Even more worryingly, Cherrayil (2012d) says that, in the coming years, the Symbian market share is expected to drop with the Android phones being expected to increase. Even more importantly, most UAE clients have been less keen on windows phones with most clients looking for the luxurious phone capabilities offered by phones such as Android.
This, essentially, is the reason why Android’s market share has been going up at a high rate—with more sales and market share being anticipated in the future. If progress is to be made by Nokia, more improvements should be made in their products so as to measure up other competitors like Samsung (Bodzash, 2012).
Also, if Nokia is to spread its market tentacles beyond the gulf region, more marketing endeavours should be directed in Arabic countries and regions Cherrayil (2012e). Commendably, such initiatives have already commenced with recent reports by Cherrayil (2012d) projecting sales totalling to $1.2 billion in 2012.
Stakeholder Analysis
In order to know the role of stakeholders in marketing a product like the 808 Smartphone, were must preliminarily know their categories. To this regard, Darowski et al. (2006) say that “These stakeholders are categorized into three groups: the primary, secondary, and tertiary stakeholders.”
Darowski et al. further advance these categories by saying that primary stakeholders basically consist of “managers, investors, customers, creditors, suppliers, wholesalers/retailers, employees and competitors.”
The secondary level of stakeholders consists of “the natives, local community, government, social activist and the media” while the tertiary stakeholders is comprised of the group formed by the merging of primary and secondary stakeholders.
Regardless of the category, Darowski and his fellow authors argue that all these stakeholders must ensure that they all play the roles that are assigned to them in order to orient success.
In the case of Nokia, stakeholder cooperation has been one of the major strong-points in the company with several examples being in place to exemplify the cooperation amongst stakeholders. For instance, in making the Nokia Pure View Smartphone, Catanzariti (2012) says that several technologies sourced from various companies had to be used.
On top of that, many co-operations had to be done with stakeholders such as the government, managers, retailers and even social media houses in order for the 808 Smartphone to be released into the market.
Nonetheless, there are still many issues that are yet to be put in place, in regard to stakeholder cooperation, if the 41 megapixels phone is to have a lasting impact on the market (Cherrayil, 2012e). For example, more retailers and wholesalers have to be supplied with the product so that they can easily outlet the phone to the targeted populations.
Organizational Analysis
Nokia is a global company with major specialization in mobile communications. According to Nokia’s website, the company has a global outreach with over 1.3 billion people using Nokia products to share experiences, key in data, access information, send texts, speak to each other or even capture day-to-day events.
Based on their vision to be a globally respected brand name with diverse products and services; Nokia has been able to release several products and services that have made it stay relevant to its ever-increasing clients. It is, however, worth noting that Nokia’s dominance is mainly felt in Europe and America—with other regions coming up slowly but surely.
In assessing whether or not a company is effectively serving its purposes, Boone (2001) says that the market should be identifiable or measurable, accessible, meaningful, and substantial. These characteristics are normally divided into four segmentations, namely geographic segmentation, demographic segmentation, psychographic segmentation, and behavioural segmentation of the market.
Among these, demographic segmentation is the most fitting option for Nokia. In essence, demographic market segmentation subdivides the market into units based on nationality, education, income, religion, family life cycle, gender, and age.
This type of segmentation forms the most common means of customer groups’ segmentation. This is due to the ease of measuring demographic variables, and various needs, usage, and wants of consumers vary intensively with respect to demographic variables.
The reason this method would be most befitting for Nokia is because the company products have sensitivity to various demographic groups. However, this should take place after an effective analysis of customers’ behavioural variables is conducted (Cherrayil, 2012d).
These preliminary market researches aid in the identification of the various factors that may impact effective demographic segmentation of the company’s product.
Moreover, demographic segmentation of the company should occur through integration with the psychographic segmentation. This is because the Nokia 808 phone is more of a luxury than a basic need. As such, people of the same age may have different psychographic makeup, which will influence their buying characteristics of the product.
Therefore, adoption of demographic market segmentation is an effective strategy for the company to make more sales, as well as attract and retain a rich customer base, for its products as shown in Appendix II. This will aid in an effective growth and development of the company while it serves its clients effectively.
STP Analysis
Segmentation in Nokia 808 will be based on three factors. First, we will have demographic segmentation. This will basically include the product packed with features such as music, social network apps and games which can be used by teenagers for entertainment, networking and communication.
On the other hand, features like news, sports, real-time access to stock exchange markets will help satiate the needs of business-minded individuals. All these will be provided in various colors to appeals to the various aesthetic needs of men and women.
Second, we will have geographic segmentation whereby the needs of the UAE region will have to be incorporated in the product. For instance, since majority of the people in UAE are Muslims, the phone and advertisements will be tailored to reach this audience effectively.
Third, psychographic segmentation will be duly incorporated in marketing the product. Current information from most studies indicate that UAE is a booming business center with various social events, entertainment arenas and keen eye on sports.
For this reason, the 808 phone will be perfect since it already has good social connectivity, access to maps and business applications, among other factors. In addition to all these, issues such as prices and location will also have to be keyed in. The more affordable the phone is, the easier it will be to sell it just in the same way the phone will be probably perform better in urban centers than in rural ones
Strategy analysis
The strategic marketing of Nokia 808 phone will be done entail various aspects as summarized in the diagram below:
Product Strategy
It is inherent to state that solving the problems of the new Nokia 808 Pure View requires a multifaceted approach where several strategies will be combined together.
For instance, in order for improvements to be made on the phone so that its relatively small display resolution (640 x 340) requires for more funds to be pumped in by the stakeholders while the Nokia’s engineers find a way of increasing the resolution while maintaining the uniqueness of the phone in that a number of stakeholder groups must be duly incorporated in to ensure the smooth running and sustainability of the educational system.
On a general level, I would give the following in the bid to help better the Nokia 808 Pure view camera.
To begin with, the Nokia can coordinate with other phone-companies in the market to help them revolutionize the phone in a better way. Secondly, the phone was just launched recently; thus many people do not know about the phone’s existence and in instances that they do, very few people have been able to buy it.
As a marketer, I would encourage more advertisements to be placed in print and electronic media (both local and international) as well as in social network sites. In effect, it will not only help the targeted population get to learn more about the phone, but it will also encourage more people to purchase it.
In essence, Product lifecycle decisions can sometimes be complex and challenging—especially in the Telecommunications industry where several market players with a myriad of products exist. With the presence of such players, competition can sometimes be very stiff, thus making it difficult for supply chains to align themselves adequately.
To make matters worse, the advent of globalization has forced multinational companies like Nokia not only to make products that suit the needs of their local clients but also serve their international audiences as well. Such challenges in product life circles, supply chains and target markets duly call for effective PLC strategies to be put in place.
In this case, Nokia’s management should create better supply chains and marketing strategies that will widen the scope of their newly launched Nokia Pure View phone.
On a specific level—regarding the core, actual and augmented product strategies to help ensure competitive advantage of the 808 Pure View phone; I would give the following recommendations:
Core
In essence, the 808 Pure View phone’s body design is based on the Nokia N9, which was reportedly introduced in the year 2010. Even more importantly, the N9 phone has several functionalities and technologies that are similar to the Nokia 808 model.
This phone will therefore help in furthering the already well-established target market. During problems in the 808 phone (especially those problems related to the N9 phone), it would be recommendable for users to seek professional help from ardent N9 mechanics.
Actual
The 808 phone has been reported to use several interfaces such as the windows phone design system commonly referred to as Metro. The availability of such an interface encourages the use of applications such as Facebook and Gmail.
Here, the strategy I would recommend would be for the company to continually work appropriately as it has always been the case. Moreover, the Nokia’s relatively good brand name together with the 808 brand features such as the 41 megapixels camera sensor and 4in AMOLED display with a resolution will greatly help in the marketing of the phone.
Augmented
Being the first phone to ever run the Windows OS, the 808 does indeed offer immense potentialities to its users. However, if more progress is to be facilitated, more applications that can easily utilize platforms such as Symbian and Meego—even if it means paying some extra cash to the sellers.
Pricing Strategy
The Price strategy in the 808 phone is to begin by selling the phone at a relatively high, yet affordable price, then as time goes by; the phone’s price will be reduced. This is based on the fact that designing and making the phone took a lot of time and money.
By selling it at a relatively high price will thus help in compensating for the immense effort put in making the phone. However, once the phone has already cut out a niche in the market, the price will be reduced with profits to be realized through the economies of scale—whereby selling many phones at a cheap price will result in small but lasting profits.
Also, this will help in edging off the competition from companies like Samsung. Again, one of the key strategies that could be used by marketers of the 808 phone would be to release it into the market and let it compete against Samsung’s Omina, Apple’s iPhone 4S which are more-or-less priced similarly to it. In doing so, key considerations should be made on the price of the 808.
Being a new phone which took a lot of time to be made and uses various high-profile technologies; it is expected for the phone to be priced highly (Catanzariti, 2012).
Nonetheless, in order to attract customers while bettering its image, marketers of the 808 phone should give certain discounts to its buyers so that the phone can be afforded by low, middle and high-minded people. Other promotional strategies, such as involving people in competitions which can be won even by people who are not rich enough to afford the full price of the phone, should be put in place.
Place Strategy
Despite the fact that all facets of a business are important, the external environment we work in is the most vital aspect. The points below support this argument. The external business environment has numerous influences on a business unit’s strategic planning.
The external environment essentially refers to the outside considerations like the government regulatory framework, the technological advances, state of the economy, the changes in cultural environment and tastes, and the state of political affairs, among others.
Of course, the internal environment also has a huge part to play in strategic planning and making sure that the firm’s objectives are met. These include matters to do with the personnel management, internal processes like sales and deliveries as well as the resource availability and modes of raising capital for long and short term goals.
However, the external factors—to, a great extent, determine what is to be done internally. For instance, the government may limit business ownership by foreigners to a certain percentage and this mostly affects companies who are seeking to spread their business tentacles.
This is because they may fail to meet the shareholding threshold they need to control the decision-making organ in the foreign subsidiary. Effectually, this affects strategic business planning in terms of finance because the business has to adjust its requirements to conform to the required regulatory concerns.
Again, technological advances and developments in information, communication, and technology have also greatly affected internal business processes in that businesses have been able to replace human capital with computers to hasten the processes or reduce system errors.
Finally, cultures also go through transformations and these changes in tastes and preferences contribute to effective drafting of strategic management. This has a big impact on companies that are involved in the direct sales of products. A product meant for a definite market has to reflect the cultures of the place for it to be accepted effectively (David, 2009).
Bearing all these in mind, a multifaceted place strategy will be implemented such that both internal and external environments will be duly considered—with emphasis being on the latter. The fact that different places offer different forms of marketing will have to be considered.
For instance, the different markets in the United States, United Kingdom and Eastern Europe have developed their niche market in terms of the service and product provision. The markets have perfected in developing brands that are preferred in the different countries tom improve their sales.
For instance, products that are popular in the United States could be unfamiliar to the market in UAE. Before venturing into any place, an in-depth market research in the targeted places in UAE will have to be done to determine the best brands that will be appreciated. Also, issues such as the expected challenges will have to be researched.
In addition, the types of promotion differ from market to market, as shown in Appendix II. An example to this, over 75% of households in the United States have access to computers and internet (Solomon, 2009). In this regard, it is better to advertise over the internet in the United States as opposed to other nations which are not conversant with things like computers.
Finally, according to their official website, Nokia had to decentralize its distribution to end-users in china, going from three sales offices to seventy to counter the sales efforts of local phone producers. It also introduced china-specific phone models with special software.
These initiatives gained Nokia a strong preference over Motorola and Samsung. If such place-based strategies can be continued, immense progress can be realized by Nokia. See Appendix II for information on Nokia’s current performance compared to other companies.
Promotional Strategy
In today’s world, the use of technologies in conducting public relations campaigns is greatly pronounced and preferred by most audiences. It is for this reason that online promotional tools will be used. More specifically, social media campaigns (through social forums like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) will be conducted with messages specifically tailored to meet our aims and objectives.
Other than the use of social forums, promotional or advertisement materials will also be placed in selective newspapers and magazines in form of banners and short captivating messages to target people who love print media messages.
In addition, marketing messages will also be spread through popular radio and televisions networks in the targeted regions. Finally, the use of roadshows and word of mouth advertisement campaigns will be relevantly used. By combining all these tools, a good blend of information spread is bound to happen to the targeted audiences.
Customer Perceived Value
Generally, the use of a customer relationship management system has been found out to give several advantages to a company. These include:
- Quality and efficiency- a customer-focused relationship management will ensure the quality of the goods and services offered are the best ever. Because a customer-focused culture will thrive on producing the best for the customers, the quality will be improved to match the needs of the customers hence efficiency.
- Reduction in wastage of resources- a customer-focused culture will ensure that only the things that customers want are produced and offered. This implies that the company will not have a lot of goods and services that will not be consumed by the customers hence reduction in wastage of resources.
- Decision support- decision making will be simpler. This is because as the process of making decisions is started, the customers’ needs will guide direction and hence ease in decision making.
- Enterprise agility- the organization because will be equipped with the tools that aid in decision making and that guide in what is produced will be faster in its processes.
It is with such advantages in mind that the marketing of the 808 Nokia phone will be customer-oriented. In fact, reports from Nokia’s website indicate that several market research was done before designing the phone. And even at the moment, more studies are still being made in order for the company to know how the phone will perform in various markets.
Even more importantly, various phone apps will be duly incorporated into the phone on top of the ones that currently exist. This will be purposely done to orient customer satisfaction. In most occasions, mobile phone customers usually want to socialize, do business in a secure way, surf the net and interact with others through social forums, among many other issues. Such considerations will thus be vital in Nokia’s proposed plan.
Budget
Much of what is entailed in the budget to be used in achieving the objectives of this project are yet to be representatively disclosed by the finance experts to the relevant parties. Nonetheless, at least 7% of the Nokia’s reported 2011 net sales of 38.7 billion Euros would be required for expenditure purposes. Additional support from the management and willing donors/supporters will also be appreciated.
The highly confidential nature of the budget is the reason it will only be sent to the relevant leadership in the company—as well as to those people who have affirmed their interest in participating in soliciting funds for this project. A highly detailed and informative budget will be sent or hand-delivered by our financial personnel to such people.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be said that the concept of marketing entails the placement of customers needs in the decision-making process of an organization. This is driven by several factors; such as, increment in competition for products, presence of a myriad dynamics in the demand of products, and better educated, as well as informed customers.
Market segmentation is driven primarily by the dynamics in demand of the products. The process of marketing segmentation involves subdivision of the market of a given product into smaller markets that represent a given target market.
According to Porter (1985), customers that have similarity in demand preference should be categorized together in a given segment. This will aid in the formulation of effective strategies to meet the demand of these segmented customers.
This occurs after an effective market analysis of the company is conducted. Regarding the process of segmentation, it is normally assumed that customers within a given segment have equal demand, or similar buying characteristics of the company’s products.
To this regard, it is recommendable for Nokia to assess its marketing endeavours, define its targets markets then design ways in which they can be reached easily. If this is done in marketing Nokia 808, then there will be more chances of them accruing success.
It is, however, worth noting that, in some cases, companies do not effectively satisfy the market segment. As such, these companies resort to the establishment of target markets within the various segments that the company has. Target markets are established through consideration of the buying behaviour of customers in these markets.
The accrued benefits of target marketing allow the company to sell more of its products. Appraisal and identification of unfilled “gaps”, as well as marketing opportunities forms one of the significant benefits of target marketing. This aids the company in formulating an effective strategy in product improvement, as well as marketing.
Again, such marketing enables a company to manipulate marketing mix effectively, in order to meet customers’ needs. Finally, since target marketing may be concentrated in a given locality, the company stands a better chance of maximizing its profits.
Consequently, the company achieves its goals effectively. This is attributed to the ability of the company to make more sales in the same market segment, as well as identification of inherent problems within the market segment.
However, this is possible if effective market segmentation takes place. Advertising is one of the most crucial measures that companies adopt in order to address the issue of marketing opportunities. By finding a way of controlling market elements such as products, services, competition or even marketing; success will be greatly enhanced (Rust et al., 2004).
Finally, offering an innovative array of fashionable and functional cell phones is a continuing challenge faced by Nokia, and many other companies as well. In addition, the company also faces a tough global competition.
Nokia is, therefore, charged with the unavoidable obligation of continually changing its operations while adapting to new trends. It is only by keying in such issues that the company may be able to outwit its competitors and regain its dominance in the market
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Appendices
Appendix I
Appendix II: Sale of Smartphones Based on Regions in 2011
