NOKIA: History
NOKIA: History*Started as a paper mill in 1865
*Near bankruptcy after World War One-joined with rubber works and cable works
*First electronic device-pulse analyzer
*Kept diversifying product line-eventually producing radios, TVs, and computers
* 1992-changed strategy and focused only on telecommunications
Nokia Corporation (Nokia) is a global manufacturer of mobile devices headquartered in Espoo, Finland. Nokia operates through four business groups: Mobile Phones, Multimedia, Enterprise Solutions and Networks. In the late 1990s, Nokia overtook then leader Motorola to emerge as a behemoth in the global mobile phone industry. Nokia’s dominance continued into the first few years of the 2000s, but it suddenly came under threat in 2003-2004, when smaller Asian vendors started making their presence felt with better products at lower prices.
Nokia and Indian Markets: The Indian mobile handsets market witnesses today a number of leading brands namely Sony Ericsson, Samsung, LG, Apple, HTC, Blackberry, Motorola, and Acer along with many other new entrants which flooded this market with many low-price editions and with fabulous features, though Nokia is the first which created this market. Unlike the erstwhile radio industry, television industry and many other electronic goods industries in India, which grew with marketing orientation from the stage of production concept to that of societal marketing concept, whereby the market leaders which were instrumental in creation of market, turned out to be victims of erosion of market in favour of rival companies, Nokia beat this growth path in mobile handsets industry differently. Nokia took novel paths that not only kept on strengthening its market potential but also caused its diversification, serving sustain-ably the interests of all the stakeholders from companies to consumers
The company’s problems also had internal causes and analysts said one of the reasons could be that it had become too complacent with its success and lost its agility in reading and responding to market signals.
In India, they entered in 1995 and since then it was clear cut leader till the era of Smart Phones.
Early stages of Mobile Phones:
Nokia found that The Indian market was adding about 10 million users a month. Nokia observed the Indian market as a growth opportunity particularly in the country’s rural areas. Rural penetration in India was still very low at 13%. By 2010, Nokia estimated that there would be around 500 million mobile phone users in India as compared to 427 million. According to Standard Chartered Bank’s annual forecast, India will have signed up its 500 millionth mobile subscriber sometime in December 2009 or January 2010. So, it took India 12 years (from 1997 when the mobile revolution began) to grew from zero to 500 million subscribers.
Problem Started at Nokia: In spite of its strong marketing, Nokia’s problems at the global level had an impact on the company’s Indian venture. Globally, Nokia had been experiencing tough times with revenues falling to 29 billion euros in 2004 from 32 billion euros in 2001. The company’s operating profits decreased from 5 billion euros in 2003 to 4.3 billion euros in 2004…
But,during the era of Smartphones, sales of Nokia started degrowing month over month. There were few reasons for the degrowth:
1.Competition: The total market for high-end devices increased. But, Nokia’s high-end handsets did not do well as compared to Samsung or Blackberry.
2. Nokia’s price strategy: Nokia’s refusal to be drawn into a price war in India. Nokia is clearly struggled to maintain its dominance in the face of aggressive price competition from its rivals.
Core Objectives were:
1. NOKIA wanted to show to their audience that “N95” is having computer like facilities,
2. They wanted to grew in SMART PHONE category ,&
3. To create ITP (Intent to purchase) for “N95” .
To create brand awareness for the new device N95, Nokia contacted Microsoft to reach high technology users and groups.Apart from this, for cross media research, they contacted Metrix Lab; Metrix Lab measured the different combinations
of media affected brand metrics such as awareness, recall, imagery,message association and purchase intent. Around 3500 people were the part of the research.
They used MSN entertainment/music/videos , windows live messenger, windows live hotmail and windows live Spaces to run varieties of ads that were highlighted and focused the salient features of “N95” on all Microsoft network.
creative: For a total online advertising package, Nokia dialled the Multinational Sales Team at Microsoft. The team answered the call and delivered an integrated online campaign that put the phone’s special features underthe spotlight. Backed by a variety of print ads, outdoor, and TV promotions, the online activity came to life in early 2007. A variety of ads that highlighted the N95’s features appeared on MSN Entertainment and Music pages,Video, Windows Live Messenger Webcam,
Windows Live Hotmail, and Windows Live spaces.
Result:
while combining TV ads with online, total volume increase by 16% while comparing ads combining TV ads with print media.
Key Learning:
1. Uses of internet is increasing in multiple folds; we can’t ignore the huge pie of cake,
2. We can get immediate feedback from direct audience,
3. It is cost & time effectiveness,
4. It is the key to success in today’s era.
Image Credits: Nokia
