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RESEARCH REPORT ON
BRAND POSITIONING
BY
NOKIA
SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:
SOURAV SINGH
AMITY UNIVERSITY, LUCKNOW
2010 - 2012
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The research report will be incomplete without acknowledge giving
my sincere, gratitude to all persons who have helped me in the
preparation of this dissertation.
First of all, I thank “GOD ALIMIGHTY” for the blessings
showered on me throughout this research project work, which has
helped me in the successful completion of the training.
I take this opportunity to extend my sincere gratitude and
profound obligation towards my guidance for
giving me valuable suggestions & his inestimable help rendered to
me throughout the research project and all other persons for without
their encouragement and continuing support, this research project
would not have been possible.
Sourav singh
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Theoretical concepts
Introduction of NOKIA group
Scope of study and Importance of study
Objective of study
Research Methodology
Introduction of industry / organization
Data Presentation
Data Analysis
Findings of study
Recommendations
Bibliography
Annexure
THEORETICAL CONCEPTS
Meaning of Marketing
Marketing is a societal process by which individuals and group obtain
what they need and want through creating, offering and freely
exchange the products and services of valve with others. For a
managerial definition, marketing has often been described as “the art
of selling products’’, but people are surprised when they hear that the
most important part of the marketing is not selling! Selling is only tip
of marketing iceberg.
The American marketing association offers the following
definition : marketing is the process of planning and executing the
conception ,pricing , promotion and distribution of ideas , goods and
services to create exchanges that satisfy the individual and
organizational goals.
Marketing Research System
Marketing managers often commission formal marketing studies of
specific problems and opportunities. They may request a marketing
survey, a product performance test , a sales forecast by reason, or
an advertising evaluation. It is the job of marketing researcher to
produce customer insight into problem. we define the marketing
research as the systematic design ,collection , analysis , and report
of data and findings relevant to specific marketing situation facing
the company.
Branding
Branding is a major issue in product strategy. As Russell
Hanlin, the CEO of Sunkist Grower, observed : ”An orange is an
orange………is an orange. Unless……that orange happens to be
Sunkist, a name80% of consumers know and trust. ”well-known
brands command a price premium. Japanese companies such as
Sony and Toyota have built a huge brand loyal-market. At the same
time, developing a branded product requires a great deal of long-term
investment, especially for advertising, promotion, and packaging.
What is a brand?
Perhaps the most distinctive skill of professional marketers is their
ability to create, maintain, protect, and enhance brands. Branding is
the art and cornerstone of marketing. The American Marketing
Association defines a brand as a name, term, sign, symbol, or design,
or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods or services
of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those
of competitors. Thus a brand identifies the seller or maker. Under
trademark law, the seller is granted exclusive rights to the use of the
brand name in perpetuity. Brands differ from other assets such as
patents and copyrights, which have expiration dates.
A Brand is a complex symbol that can convey up to six levels of
meaning.
1. Attributes : A brand brings to mind certain attributes. Mercedes
suggests expensive, well-built, well-engineered, durable, high-
prestige automobiles.
2. Benefits : Attributes must be translated into functional and
emotional benefits. The attribute “durable” could translate into the
functional benefit. ”I won’t have to buy another car for several years.”
The attribute “expensive” translates into the emotional benefit “The
car makes me feel important and admired.”
3. Values : The brand also says something about the producer’s
values. Mercedes stands for high performance, safety, and prestige.
4. Culture : The brand may represent a certain culture. The Mercedes
represents German Culture organized, efficient, high quality.
5. Personality : The brand can research research project a certain
personality. Mercedes may suggest a no-nonsense boss (person), a
reigning lion (animal ),or an austere palace(object).
6. User : The brand suggests the kind of consumer who buys or uses
the product. We would expect to see a 55-year-old top executive
behind the wheel of Mercedes, not a 20-year old secretary.
Companies need to research the position their brand occupies in the
customer’s minds. According to Kevin Keller, “ What distinguishes a
brand from its unbranded commodity counterparts is the consumer
perceptions and feelings about the product’s attributes and how they
perform. Ultimately, a brand resides in the mind of the Consumers”.
Importance of a Brand
As we know brand plays a very important role in leaving the image of
its product in the mindset of the consumer and some of the important
points about brand importance are as follows:-
1. It helps in recognizing the product in unique manner or it
distinguishes the product from others.
2. It helps consumer to search or to remember the product which he
wants in a very ease and quick manner.
3. It helps in creating the personality or image in the eyes of the
consumer regarding the product.
4. It helps in conveying the values regarding the product.
5. It helps in suggesting the kind of consumer who buys or uses the
product.
Brand perceptions
Perceptions of brands in the same category are not necessarily
equal. We can have a richer and more complicated set of
associations for “Pepsi” than we do for “Cott" or “Mitsubishi". A richer
set of associations can increase the ease with which we recall a
brand, affect our feelings towards it (increasing trust or confidence,
for instance) and affect our price sensitivity. It is hard to justify a price
premium for a brand about which we know little. And, also, even
brands with the same associations can be perceived differently
because the vividness of those associations differs. Both Levi's and
Lee jeans are “American", rugged, associated with American West,
and are similarly designed and priced. Yet perceptions of Levi's are
likely to be more powerful and more vivid. These differences are the
results of brand strategy. The process of acquiring brand perceptions
have important implications for the marketing concept and for the
nature of competition. If consumers know what they want, then they
establish the perceptual dimensions along which they perceive
brands and all brands are subject to them. On the other hand, if the
buyer perceptions are learned and if that learning depends on the
strategies of brands, then marketing has a completely different
objective: to influence the evolution of perceptions in a way that
competitors cannot effectively imitate. The aim is to create vast
inequalities- in the richness of perception - between a brand and its
competitors.
Brand preferences
Buyers may sample a number of brands, liking some more than the
others. This experience triggers the process of consumer inference:
“what are the characteristics of the ones I like and one I like not."
Obvious differences in brands or attributes are assumed to be the
“cause" of such differences. It may be concluded that one has
preference for a brand or some combination of attributes. If you prefer
Starbucks coffee to other brands, you might judge that you do so
because of the darker roast and particular blend of beans. In reality,
of course, the source of a satisfactory outcome can never be
precisely determined. Nevertheless, buyers form a naïve theory
relating brand features to satisfaction which is reinforced by
advertising and repeat purchase. In the process, preferences are
formed and evolved, based on the interaction of buyer experience
and brand strategy. This suggests that what customers want depends
on what customers have experienced. Brand strategy plays a defining
role in this evolution and can have enduring consequences.
Decision making Buyers learn how to choose brands. The
conventional view is that buyers consider all the alternatives, evaluate
the differences - making the necessary trade-offs - and ultimately
choose the brand that maximizes self-interest. In fact, people make
decisions in many ways, responding to the situation and the need.
We draw on a repertoire of decision rules. In purchasing a battery we
use a very different decision process that we would in buying jeans.
In case of buying a battery, we only consider brands we have tried or,
at least, our acquaintances have and put aside lower-priced
alternatives as too risky. In the case of jeans, we may compare all the
brands to Levi's, not one to each other. The decision rules buyers
learn depend on the strategies brands pursue. If all brands deliver
value with respect to the same goals and comparisons between
brands are easy, buyers may simply exhaustively compare
alternatives. In more complex situations, buyers may resort to simplify
matters by using simpler decision rules. They may buy the one on
special offer or the one recommended by a friend. Competitive
advantage Consumer learning has got profound implications for the
nature of competition and competitive advantage. If buyers learn what
they want, competition is less a race to meet consumer needs than a
battle over how perceptions, preferences and decision-making will
evolve in a market. It is a battle over the rules of the game. And
following are the ways to gain competitive advantage on others:
Pioneering advantage in many markets, the pioneer or the first
entrant outsells the others in its category, in some cases for decades.
Brands like Wrigley chewing gum, Gerber baby food and Kleenex
tissues have retained the largest shares of their markets despite
numerous competitive entries. The traditional view of the marketing
concept suggests that pioneers have higher shares because they
have pre-empted the best position in the market leaving less
attractive positions for later entrants.
A central characteristic of competition is that companies are mutually
dependent – the outcome of a company's marketing action depends
to a great extent on the reaction of its rivals. The little research that
has been conduced in this arena suggests that, across product
categories and marketing mix instruments, there is significant
variation in the type of interaction that takes place. The techniques is
to confirm leader-follower relationships estimated by the other
approaches.
Type of interaction
Previous research has attempted to classify or categorize competitive
interaction, specifying three basic forms. First, independent behaviour
implies a lack of competitive response. Second, cooperative
behaviour implies that companies' actions move together in a
coordinated fashion. Finally competitive behaviour implies that
companies maximize their own profits by responding competitively to
rivals' actions. Such interactions are not always easily inferred from
actual market data. For instance, while simultaneous price increases
might be evidence of cooperation, simultaneous price cuts may be
indicative of retaliatory behaviour. Recently, a more detailed set of
interactions - comprising of three forms of symmetric and two forms
of asymmetric behaviour - has been specified. Forms of symmetric
competitive behaviour Co-operative promotions imply that
promotional decisions are made in a co-coordinated function, i.e. if
one company increases its promotional intensity the other reduces its
promotional intensity to accommodate. Instances of this type of
interaction might include the alternating promotions run by Coke and
Pepsi. Alternatively, non-cooperative promotions imply that an
increase (or decrease) in one company's promotional intensity is met
by an increase (or decrease) in that of its rival's. Two companies
competing for end-of-year market share with extensive coupon drops
will be an example of such behaviour.
Finally, a lack of response of both the rivals is also symmetric.
Such a detached behaviour might be expected in markets where
demand substitutability is weak. Since there will be little or no cross-
promotional response, the competitive response is also expected to
be quite small.
Forms of asymmetric competitive behaviuor
Leader-follower behaviour occurs when one company (the follower)
reacts to the other's actions, whereas the other (the leader) does not.
For instance, private labels are often found to follow national brand's
marketing efforts. In dominant-fringe interaction, two companies'
competitive strategies take opposite directions - one company may
behave cooperatively while the other behaves non-cooperatively. To
site an example, a weaker of “fringe”.
Company may simply not be willing to tackle a dominant
company directly and may thus accommodate its larger rival's
promotional efforts. But a company with a dominant market share
might fiercely defend its position, adopting a non-cooperative stance.
There is no one pattern of competition between companies in any
industry in any setting. The pattern of competitive interaction in any
category is the result of a complex set of variables. Several issues
like demand-side factors, market and industrial structure, company
“personality" and category characteristics interact in a complex
fashion to determine strategic behaviour. Thus, managers ought to
consider the direction and size of the competitive response when
evaluating the likely impact of a change in their firm's marketing mix.
Changing rules: colluding with a competitor
Collusion is a hated word in many countries like the UK, US,
Australia, New Zealand, Canada and certain EU institutions. In the
US a manager can be jailed for colluding with a competitor. Yet
elsewhere collusion is not a crime and is regarded as a natural
business practice. Based on a study of over 7,000 cases of collusion
over the past five years across a broad spectrum of industries, four
factors can be singled out to make collusion work - the four Cs viz.
Communication, Constraints, Co-ordination and Confusion. They are
managed using “facilitators" who ensure that the Cs can survive in
the long run. The ultimate goal for colluders is a covert cartel. A cartel
is a publicly known agreement among companies selling substitutes.
A covert cartel is the same thing except that the public is unaware of
the arrangement.
Communication
To collude effectively, companies must send information to each
other. Or else the cartel falls apart. Managers can simply call a
competitor on the telephone or meet in an office or some other
discreet location. Companies have also used a number of less
obvious means of communication which include announcing pricing
plans over online networks (US airlines were caught doing this using
their reservation systems): using “meet or beat" pricing
announcements over public broadcasting media - these serve to
establish price floors; organizing joint trade events, symposiums,
workshops and association meetings.
Constraints
In order for the cartel to survive, it is essential that all of the players
have a similar sense of constraints. Consider the simple case where
the actual sales potential for a given market is $500 million. Company
A correctly perceives the potential as $500 million but Company B
perceives the potential to be at least $ 900 million. Each of the two
companies starts with a 50 percent market share. Company B will be
erroneously tempted to engage in aggressive marketing in order to
expand its total revenue to absorb some of the perceived excess
demand. While doing so, it will cut into the share of Company A.
Company A will, surely, retaliate and the covert cartel will crumble. A
number of facilitators help to ensure that market constraints are
similarly perceived by competitors. This include the formation of trade
associations, workshops, seminars, industry-level training courses
and other forums open to all players within the same industry. These
lead to discussion of historical and future industry prospects and even
in some cases to the publication or sharing of data among cartel
members.
Coordination
Coordination of research and development activities, distribution,
production, positioning or even pricing can help companies split the
market, block further entrants or obtain cartel-level prices despite the
being multiple suppliers. A good example is provided by the two soda
companies that were caught in the famed “Cola Payola" case, in
which they used retailers to help co-ordinate promotions so as to
block a third entrant. Brand A would be on promotion at retail from
January 1 to February 23; Brand B would be on promotion from
February 24 to April 16 and so on. Since retailers promote only one
brand at a time there was simply no room in the calendar for a third
party to be promoted. Other facilitators include having board
members sit on several companies competing in the same industry.
Cross-ownership also facilitates co-ordination.
Confusion
Confusion requires that consumers, employees, regulators and
potential entrants should not fully understand the working o the cartel.
This involves elaborate use of peripheral cues or signals. One of the
most common coordination schemes - Round Robin collusion -
generates such signals. This scheme works as follows. Let us
suppose there is a covert cartel of seven companies in the chemical
industry. Al the companies sell to clients around the Pacific Rim. This
is a case of multi-market contact. The same companies compete
against each other at different, rather disparate locations. Suppose all
the seven companies meet and decide to increase prices throughout
the region to monopolistic levels. Company A will volunteer to
increase its price in, say, Indonesia, citing a plausible reason. Its own
market share will fall in Indonesia and everyone else's share will rise.
The other competitors will use the same story in other Pacific Rim
countries, each taking its turn as the “bad guy" in order to help the
others out. With the four Cs in place, a number of companies have
been able to maintain the illusion that there is no collusion in their
sector for a long time. They have been so successful that citizens in
countries where no price-fixing laws exist often do not realize that
price-fixing is a daily event for most of the products they purchase.
The above article has been abstracted / condensed from the views of
the following professors in Mastering Marketing published by
Business Standard in partnership with Financial Times. All rights of
the authors and publishers are reserved.
* Philip Kotler, Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg
Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University
* Gregory Carpenter, Professor of Marketing at the Kellogg Graduate
School of Management, Northwestern University
* Venkatesh Shankar, Assistant Professor of Marketing and director
of Quality Enhanced Systems and Teams (Quest) at the Smith
School of Business, University of Maryland
* William Putsis, Jr, Associate Professor of Marketing at London
Business School
* Philip Parker, Professor of Marketing, Insead
Changing rules: Where to be marketing headed?
As the marketplaces are changing at an accelerating pace and
corporate boundaries are blurring, companies are striving hard to
access quick and reliable intelligence about their customers,
competitors, distributors and products. Marketing, which will continue
to remain the key to company adaptability and profitability even in the
new millennium, will have a mutated look in the future years, opines
Philip Kotler, the distinguished Professor of International Marketing.
And, as suggested by him, the major developments in the evolving
marketplace/market space will be as follows:
There will be a substantial disintermediation of wholesalers and
retailers owing to electronic commerce. Virtually all products will be
available without going to the shop. The buyer will be able to access
pictures of any product on the Net, get the much-needed information,
shop online for the best prices and terms and click order and
payment over the Internet. Expensively printed catalogues will
disappear from market. Business purchasing agents will also shop on
the Net, either advertising and waiting for bidders or simply surfing in
their “book-marked" websites.
* Shop-based retailers will find the numbers of buyers dramatically
diminished. In order to combat this, more entrepreneurial retailers will
build entertainment and theatre into their shops. Shops selling books,
food and clothes will also have coffee bars, for instance. The sellers
will crave to market an “experience" rather than an assorted product.
* Companies will build proprietary customer databases containing rich
information on individual customer preferences and requirements that
they might use to mass-customize their offerings to their buyers.
Business will be able to retain customers through finding
imaginative ways to exceed customer expectations. Thus the rivals
will find it increasingly difficult to acquire new customers and most of
the organizations will spend time figuring out how to sell more
products and services to their existing customers. Companies will
focus on building customer share rather than market share.
* Organizations will persuade their accounting departments to
generate real numbers on profitability by individual customer, product
and channel and will soon come up with reward packages and
incentives for their more profitable customers.
* Companies will switch from a transaction perspective to a customer
loyalty-building perspective. Many will move to customer lifetime
supply whereby they will offer to deliver a regularly consumed product
on a regular basis at a lower price per unit. They can afford to make
less profit on each sale because of the long-term purchase contract.
* Most of the companies will outsource over 60 percent of their
activities and requirements. A few will outsource 100 percent, making
themselves virtual companies owning over very few assets and
therefore earning extraordinary rates of return.
* Many sales people will be franchisees rather than company
employees. The organization will equip them with the latest sales
automation tools, enabling them to develop individualized multimedia
presentation and customized market offerings and contracts. Buyers
will prefer to meet salespeople on their computer screen rather than
in their office. They shall interact with each other on their computer
screens in real time. Sales people will have less of traveling and
airlines will shrink.
* Mass TV advertising will greatly diminish due to several viewing
channels. There will be very few printed newspapers and magazines.
On the other hand, marketers will reach their target markets more
effectively by advertising through specialized online magazines and
news-groups.
* Companies will be unable to sustain competitive advantages. Their
rivals will be quick to copy an advantage through benchmarking,
reverse engineering and leapfrogging. Firms will believe that their
only sustainable advantage lies in an ability to learn faster and
change faster.
Hence, according to the marketing Guru, the global marketplace will
evolve at an unthinkable pace. And the key to competitive success
will be to keep ones marketing changing as fast as ones marketplace.
Changing rules: the evolving concept of marketing
Hounded by nerve-wrecking competition and increasing awareness
and sensitivity of the buyers, the corporate players are yearning to
get close to the buyers. To woo them better the organizations are
going to any extent by initiating/resuming dialogue with customers by
scrutinizing market research, by coming up with new ideas to add
value to their products, by bolstering customer relationships and by
adopting innovative measures to speed products to market. All these
abide by the classic definition of the marketing concept: Giving
customers what they want. While their benefits have surely been
enormous, this race to embrace the marketing concept has given rise
to some unanticipated consequences. In many a case the
competitors are conversing with the same customers, analyzing
similar market research data, trying to come up with new ideas from
the same sources and benchmarking the same companies. Thus they
are approaching market with the same perspective and are offering
products that, while offering high value, are completely
indistinguishable. This lack of differentiation presents an important
challenge to the concept of marketing. Ergo, the concept of marketing
itself is evolving.
The core assumption of the current view of marketing that is all about
“giving customers what they want" is that the buyers know what they
want. The evolving marketing concept is challenging this view.
Increasingly strategies are been framed on the assumption that, at
least at the very start, the customers do not know what they want. On
the contrary, they learn to want and to aspire. Under the conventional
view of customers, how they perceive, value and select brands are
the “essential rules of the game". The rules of the game ought to
evolve as buyers learn. The evolution depends on what the sellers
teach the buyers to ask for. For instance, Motorola, Nokia and
Ericsson are shaping buyer perceptions of cellular phones. Thus
brand strategies play a pronounced role in defining the rules of the
game.
The emerging concept suggests that marketing is part learning -
gaining an understanding of what buyers know now and of the
process of buyer learning - and part teaching - playing a role in the
buyer learning process. It is about being market driven and market-
driving.
Consumer learning
At the root of much consumer learning are the goals that motivate.
Over time, the goals associated with product categories and brands
grow from a simple set of functionally oriented goods to a more
elaborate set of functionally and emotionally oriented goals. The
goals associated with brands differ from brand to brand in the same
category. For instance, among sport-utility brands, Mercedes-Benz
provides safety and prestige, Range Rover enables its owners to
portray themselves as refined individuals who are sensitive to
tradition and Lexus provides peace of mind and a more modern,
smart self-image. Thus links between brands and goals are nurtured
over time. And these brand-goal links are fundamental results of
consumer learning. The concept of brand-goal links has important
competitive implications. The conventional view is that the customer
compares brands along only one dimension, making comparisons
across brands simple. In formal economic terms, the consumers seek
a single goal-utility.
The emerging view is that buyers seek many different goals
and that within the same category some brands can be linked with
multiple goals in unique combination. Volvo has, for example,
successfully linked both “be a responsible parent" and “add
excitement to life" to the Volvo brand through its new V70 station
wagons, which combine a high performance engine, suitable racing,
with a family car, blurring the age-old distinction between a family car
and a sports car. By successfully linking these goals - along with the
“safety" so long associated with the brand - Volvo has defined the
brand as delivering value that none other can. Brand-goal links such
as these built through strategy and learned by consumers prove
themselves to be unique.
INTRODUCTION
The research project I have completed is all about the market
research regarding Brand Positioning by one of leading company
Nokia in Cellular phones Market. My research projects give a brief
scenario about how brand is created and leaves an impression in the
eyes of the user and force him to buy that product. The research
instrument which I have used during the research is questionnaire
and for that I surveyed 100 people.
If we talk about Market research It is a function which links the
consumer to the market through information use to identify and define
marketing opportunities.
I don't think that the signals in the last two years mean that Nokia lost
the leading role in the mobile market. Probably there is another truth
behind it: Nokia, as a lot of other brands, is still trying to digest the fall
down of mobile forecast. The problem is always the same people talk
enough using the mobile and all the sector needs is something that
has real value for customers (business and consumer) and for
corporate and that speeds up market growth. If you see the numbers,
you will see that just Samsung grew in last two years. Motorola,
Ericsson, Sony Ericsson, Panasonic and others are still floating in the
market. I think that without an answer to the main question (what will
make the value's market speed up?), leaders like Nokia will have
some problems to increase the leadership.
In this report I have analyze that Nokia is having a very great position
in present scenario and in the coming years as well and other
companies have to do very well to remove the Nokia brand from the
customers mindset.
OBJECTIVE OF STUDY
The purpose of research is to discover answers to questions
through the application of the scientific procedures the main aim
is to find out the truth which is hidden and which is not been
discovered yet .
Our main objective is to find out the problems which are the main
barriers in the promotion of NOKIA in market. Our others objective
are:
To find out the sources of promotion in market.
To find out perception of people about NOKIA brand
To locate the potential market for NOKIA
To find out the sources of promotion in market by NOKIA.
To find the awareness of nokia among public.
To find out the brand loyality of consumer.
To know the competitive advantage of nokia.
What should be the new strategies to be adopted by NOKIA.
Brand image of nokia
The research program is designed for the promotion of NOKIA in
market and overcome the main barriers for brand in market , the
work which is being done for this is described as fallows .
To find out the areas where perception is positive and where is
negative ; initially we see that how many areas are positive and
how many are negative responded . Problem faced in the market
because they are in the in the direct contact of consumer and know
their liking and disliking in a better way, Problems and their solution
in market ; ultimately we have to increase the sale of Nokia in this
areas for this it is mandatory to remove the problems like
consumer awareness . These problems could be find out by doing
survey of that particular area .
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research in common parlance refers to a search for knowledge. One
can also define research as a scientific and systematic search for
pertinent information on specific topic. In fact research is an art of
scientific topic. Some people consider research as a movement, a
movement from the known to unknown. Research is an academic
activity and as such the term should be used in a technical sense.
Research comprises defining and redefining problems, formulating
hypothesis or suggested solutions ; collecting ,organizing and
evaluating data making deduction and reaching conclusion ; and at
last care fully testing the conclusion to determine whether they fit
the formulating hypothesis . social science define the research as
the manipulation of things , concepts or symbol s for purpose of
generalization to extend ,correct or verify the knowledge aids in
construction of theory or in the practice of an art .research is thus
an original contribution to t existing stock of know ledge making for
its advancement . The systematic approach concerning
generalization and the formulation of the theory is also research.
Defining the Problem:
Quite often we all here that problem half solved. This statement
signifies the need research problem properly is a perquisite for any
study and is a step of highest important. In fact formulation of
problem is mire essential than its solution. In Brand Positioning by
NOKIA our main problem is how to create the brand image of NOKIA
in market and strengths the roots of NOKIA Company in the industry.
A part from this we have it cores the national capital region in a
peoples way in terms of approach.
Objective of research:
Our main objective is to find out the problems, which are the main
barriers in the promotion of NOKIA in market. Our others objective
are:
To find out the sources of promotion for market.
To find out the Brand perception on people.
To locate the potential market for NOKIA.
Research design
A research design is the arrangement of conditions for collection and
analysis of data in a manner that aims to combine relevance to
research purpose with economy in procedure. Here we have used
descriptive research design. Since the aim is to obtain complete and
accurate information in the said studies.
The process had to be started from the grass root level and it
was very important to understand the market for this IT product,
which is very fast in production, distribution and consumption.
The entire process was more of a Descriptive Research type
and incorporated a formal study of the specific problems faced by
most IT companies an exploring the opportunities in the untapped
market. The survey was conducted on the basis of NOKIA’s product
preference and evaluation of sales forecast in the new and
underdeveloped market including the evaluation of the advertising
and promotional measures. The data collected had to be
systematically arranged, analyzed and reported in a form congenial to
take on the spot decisions
The entire set of various segments in the population comprises
all the retail store and outlets each retail store in the sampling frame
constitute the sampling unit in brief we can say overall sampling is
based on 100 people.
Sampling design
A sample design is a definite plan for obtaining a sample from a given
population. If it refers to the technique or the procedure the
researcher would adopt in selecting items for the sample. Sample
design may as well lay down the no of items to be included in the
sample. The researcher must prepare the sample design which
should be reliable for research study.
Sampling unit
Decision is taken after concerning the sampling unit, sampling unit
may be a geographical one such as state district village etc or a
construction unit such as house flat or it may be a social unit a club or
school. Here selected sampling unit for study is outlet of NOKIA.
Source list
It contains all the items of universe in case of infinite universe it is
also known as sampling frame.
Size of sample
It refers to the no. of items selected from the universe to constitute a
sample. The size of sample is 100 people.
Collections of primary data
The task of data collection begins after a research problem has been
defined and research plan chalked out. The primary data are those
which are collected a fresh and for the first time and thus happen to
be original in character.
We collect the primary data during the course of doing
experiments. In given problem the descriptive research is used so we
can obtain primary data either through observation or through direct
communication with respondent or through personal interviews.
For collecting primary data we used observation method,
interview method and interview through questionnaire.
Fieldwork
The entire project was divided into five phases and each phase had
its individual significance and supplemented each other.
The four phases into which the project was divided were:
1. Retail Tracking
2. Each Distributor survey
3. Each SD survey
4. Analysis of finding and observations
INTRODUCTION OF NOKIA GROUP
Nokia is a world leader in mobile communications, driving the growth and
sustainability of the broader mobility industry. Nokia connects people to each
other and the information that matters to them with easy-to-use and innovative
products like mobile phones, devices and solutions for imaging, games, media
and businesses. Nokia provides equipment, solutions and services for network
operators and corporations. Nokia is a broadly held company with listings on four
major exchanges.
The world's first international cellular mobile telephone network NMT was opened
in Scandinavia in 1981 with Nokia introducing the first car phones for the network
Or, that the world's first NMT hand portable, the Nokia Cityman, was launched in
1987?
History of Nokia
Year 1969
Nokia introduced the world's first 30-channel PCM (Pulse Code
Modulation) transmission equipment conforming to the standards of
CCITT (Consultative Committee on International Telegraphy and
Telephony).
Year 1981
The world's first international cellular mobile telephone network NMT
opened in Scandinavia with Nokia introducing the first car phones for
the network.
Year 1982
Europe's first digital telephone exchange, the DX 200.
Year 1984
The world's first portable NMT car telephone, the Nokia Talkman.
Year 1987
The world's first NMT handportable, the Nokia Cityman.
Year 1988
The world's first ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) exchange
conforming to CCITT standards, manufactured by Nokia, was brought
into use in Finland.
Year 1989
The world's first Actionist trucking mobile radio network was brought
into operation. The world's first fast-poll 14,400 bps (bits-per-second)
modem.
Year 1990
The world's first Radio Data System (RDS) and Mobile Search (MBS)
text pagers.
Year 1991
The first manufacturer to have a large-scale production-ready GSM
phone.The world's first genuine GSM call made using Radiolinja's
network, supplied by Nokia.
Year 1992
The Nokia 1011, the first digital handportable phone for GSM
networks.The Nokia 100 series, the first family of handportale phones
for all analog networks.
Year 1993
The first Personal Communications Network based on GSM 1800
standard delivered by Nokia.The world's first SMSC (Short Message
Service Centre) taken into commercial use in Europolitan's Nokia
network.The world's first credit card size cellular modem card
developed with AT&T Paradyne.
Year 1994
The first offical GSM call in the People4s Republic of China made on
a Nokia phone on Beijing TA4s network, supplied by Nokia.The first
European manufacturer to start selling mobile phones in Japan.The
world's first Data Communications Server (DaCS), providing fully
digital, fast access to corporate LANs.The world's first digital cellular
data products, including the Nokia PC Card and the Nokia Cellular
Data Card.Inmarsat made the world's first satellite telephone call with
Nokia's pocket-size GSM handset.The first manufacturer to launch
series of handportable phones for all digital standards (GSM, TDMA,
PCN, Japan Digital). The Nokia 2100 was the world's smallest and
lightest family of digital products.
Year 1995
The world's first integrated wireless payphone.The new joint venture,
Beijing Nokia Mobile Telecommunications Ltd., was established: the
first factory to manufacture large scale GSM systems and equipment
in China.
Year 1996
The first digital multimedia terminal in the world, the Nokia
Mediamaster.The Nokia 8100 product family, the first with an
innovative, ergonomically comfortable design. Chinese character
short messaging service and Chinese user interface were launched in
the Nokia 8110 mobile phone. Nokia was the first manufacturer to
offer both simplified and traditional character sets in the same phone.
The Nokia 2160, the first available dual mode AMPS/TDMA phone.
The Nokia 9000 Communicator, the world's first all-in-one mobile
communications tool introduced at the CeBIT exhibition.
Year 1997
The world's first four TETRA networks were delivered by Nokia.
A new handset for the NMT 450 standard, the Nokia 540, which is
the world's first NMT phone with Navi Key.
The next generation GSM product family, the Nokia 6100 series.
New standards for operating times and a set of innovative industry-
first features, including audio quality and an entirely new Profile
function which enables users to adjust the phone settings according
to various situations.
Next generation half-rate hand portable for the digital PDC standard
in Japan. With this introduction, Nokia is the first company to
demonstrate an entirely new, innovative feature for PDC handsets,
which enables calling by voice activation.
The world's first GSM dual band base station, the Nokia GSM
900/1800 Dual Band BTS. This provides the possibility to integrate
GSM 1800 transceivers (TRXs) into an existing GSM 900 Base
station(BTS). The first call on the Helsinki City Energy Company's
digital TETRA network was made. The network, called officially Helen
Net by Helsinki City Energy Company, is the world's first network
taken into operative use, according to the TETRA standard.'
The Nokia 3810, the first mobile phone specially designed for Asian
consumers
Year 1998
Nokia delivered world's first ETSI standard ADSL and IP network to
Telecom New Zealand, thereby marking the start of commercial
delivery of broadband data services using the ADSL network.
The Nokia 9110 Communicator, the first hand-held mobile device
supporting wireless imagining.
The Nokia 5100 series, the first mobile phones with user-changeable
covers. The world's smallest NMT 450 phone, the Nokia 650, sets a
new benchmark for NMT 450 technology. As a special additional
feature and first in the market, the Nokia 650 has a built-in FM radio.
Year 1999
Nokia introduced the world's first high-speed data terminal for
wireless networks: the Nokia Card Phone 2.0 brings about a four-fold
increase in data transmission speed.
Nokia completed the world's first WCDMA (Wideband Code Division
Multiple Access) phone call through a public switched telephone
network.
Nokia announced the world's first media phone that is based on the
Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) in Mobile Media Mode. The
Nokia 7110 dual band GSM 900/1800 media phone has been
designed to enable easy access to Internet content from a mobile
phone.
Year 2000
Nokia introduced the world's first IPv6-enabled end-to-end GPRS
network. Operators can use Nokia GPRS networks to provide their
customers with new types of services that bring benefits offered by
IPv6, such as global reachability and end-to-end security.
Nokia introduced the world's first TETRA WAP browser which brings
powerful WAP applications to TETRA professional mobile radio
networks. WAP over TETRA provides a new method of data
communication for professionals. It enables real-time direct access to
various customer and technical databases in only a few seconds.
Nokia has combined the versatility of WAP with the power of TETRA
to introduce the world's first WAP services for digital professional
mobile radio users. The new WAP services have been developed in
co-operation with Finnish companies Helsinki Energy and Tekla
Corporation. Nokia and Sonera have completed tests that bring
roaming capabilities for IP traffic between GPRS networks for the first
time in the world.
Nokia and Scandinavian Airlines Systems announced a partnership
to bring Nokia mobile phones to the selection of goods sold on all
international SAS flights. This is the first time mobile phones will be
sold on airplanes.
Nokia launched the Nokia LiveSite platform, the world's first WCDMA
implementation which is compatible with the latest 3GPP standards
for third generation networks.
Nokia successfully carried out the world's first WAP service over a
trial WCDMA system. The tests were completed in Beijing, China,
where Chinese language WAP services were transmitted via the
WCDMA system and radio network.
Nokia, a founding member of the SyncML initiative, announced that it
had successfully demonstrated the world's first wireless Internet
synchronization using the SyncL protocol.
Nokia is the first vendor in the world to bring full mobile IP packet
data functionalities into TETRA networks. Nokia TETRA IP
significantly enhances access to WAP services and more efficient
WAP service development is possible with new TETRA IP
functionalities.
Nokia announces world's first GPRS roaming between M1 Singapore
and Cable and Wireless HKT Mobile Services, Hong Kong. This is
the first announcement of its kind in the world for GPRS inter-
operator roaming.
Year 2001
Nokia introduces the industry first multimedia messaging solution, the
Nokia Artuse (TM) MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) Center, a
high-capacity platform for the next wave of mobile messaging. The
solution enables operators to introduce multimedia messaging
services combining new rich content, such as audio and video clips,
photographs and images with the traditional text messaging.
Nokia and the Finnish operator Sonera conducted the world's first
Wireless LAN roaming based on GSM technology. Sonera is making
use of Nokia technology that allows mobile operators to offer
broadband wireless Internet services in Wireless LAN access zones.
Year 2002
Nokia succesfully made the first 3G WCDMA packet data calls
between its commercial network infrastructure and terminals in its
laboratories in Finland. The Nokia 3G WCDMA network and terminal
used were based on the commercial standard level known as 3GPP
(3rd Generation Partnership Research research project) Release 99
June 2001 version. This was the first time that packet data has been
transmitted end-to-end on a commercial system based on the above
mentioned commercial standard.
Year 2003
Nokia announced that the world's first cdma2000® 1xEV-DV high-
speed packet data phone call was completed at Nokia's CDMA
product creation center in San Diego. The call, achieving a peak data
rate of 3.09 Mbps, was made between a test set based on a
commercially available Nokia 2285 handset upgraded with a Nokia
1xEV-DV chipset and a Racal Instruments, Wireless Solutions Group,
1xEV-DV basestation emulator. This chipset is the world's first to
support complete 1xEV-DV Release C functionality.
Year 2004
Using Nokia's CDMA Dual-Stack handset, Nokia demonstrated the
industry's first Mobile IPv6 call at the 3G World Congress Convention
and Exhibition in November. The demonstration highlighted real-time
streaming video with seamless handoff between two CDMA access
networks using Mobile IPv6.
Nokia announced the Nokia NFC (Near Field Communication) shell,
the latest step in the development of innovative products for mobile
communications, in November. With the Nokia NFC shell on their
phone, consumers will be able to easily access a variety of services
and conveniently exchange information with a simple touch gesture
utilizing NFC technology.
In October, Nokia and TeliaSonera Finland successfully conducted
the world's first EDGE-WCDMA 3G packet data handover in a
commercial network.
Achieving a first for the Asia-Pacific region, Nokia, MediaCorp
Technologies, M1 and the Media Development Authority of Singapore
jointly showcased a live end-to-end mobile phone TV broadcast over
a DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast - Handheld) network at the Nokia
Connection event in Singapore.
Nokia and Texas Instruments Incorporated introduced the first pre-
integrated and validated Series 60 Reference Implementation based
on TI's OMAP(TM) processor-powered reference design in February.
The Reference Implementation is available immediately to Series 60
licensees.
Year 2005
The Nokia 6630 imaging smartphone has as the first device in the
world achieved global GCF 3G WDCMA Certification. The
certification was achieved based on the requirements defined by
Global Certification Forum (GCF), an independent industry body
which provides network compliancy requirements and testing for
GSM/WCDMA mobile devices. SBS Finland's Kiss FM became the
first radio station in the world to begin Visual Radio broadcasts. This
unique new concept developed by Nokia offers the listeners the
possibility to give feedback and to participate in programs easier than
ever before.
Nokia introduced a new product for secure mobile contactless
payments and ticketing. The world's first Near Field Communications
(NFC) product for payment and ticketing will be an enhanced version
of the already announced Nokia NFC shell for Nokia 3220 phone.
In July 2007, Nokia acquired all assets of Twango, the comprehensive media sharing solution for organizing and sharing photos, videos and other personal media.
In September 2007, Nokia announced its intention to acquire Enpocket, a supplier of mobile advertising technology and services.
In October 2007, pending shareholder and regulatory approval, Nokia bought Navteq, a U.S.-based supplier of digital mapping data, for a price of $8.1 billion. Nokia finalized the acquisition on 10 July 2008.
In September, 2008, Nokia acquired OZ Communications, a privately held company with approximately 220 employees headquartered in Montreal, Canada.
On 24 July 2009, Nokia announced that it will acquire certain assets of cellity, a privately owned mobile software company which employs 14 people in Hamburg, Germany. The acquisition of cellity was completed on 5 August 2009.
On 11 September 2009, Nokia announced the acquisition of "certain assets of Plum Ventures, Inc, a privately held company which employed approximately 10 people with main offices in Boston, Massachusetts. Plum will complement Nokia's Social Location services".
On 28 March 2010, Nokia announced the acquisition of Novarra, the mobile web browser firm from Chicago. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.Novarra is a privately held company based in Chicago, IL
and provider of a mobile browser and service platform and has more than 100 employees.
On 10 April 2010, Nokia announced its acquisition of MetaCarta, whose technology was planned to be used in the area of local search, particularly involving location and other services. Financial details of acquisition were not disclosed.
Nokia phones
Nokia remains the world's number one manufacturer of mobile
phones, although its position is under threat from other
manufacturers, particularly Sony Ericsson and Samsung. Nokia have
the advantage of outstanding loyalty from its traditional customers,
together with a perceived reputation for reliability and user-
friendliness. One of Nokia's problems is its difficulty in competing
against electronics giants like Sony and Samsung with their
unparalleled expertise in technologies like digital photography and
LCD displays. As these technologies become more and more
important in modern phones, the gap between Nokia and its rivals
becomes more apparent. Nokia's response is to focus more on
innovative design and the concept of a "fashion" phone. However, at
the top end of the market, Nokia has a dominant position in the
smartphone market with its Series 60 platform.
DATA PRESENTATION
Competitive Analysis On the basis of the Questionnaire
Q1. Do you have Mobile phone?
Yes 85
No 15
Q2. Which is the most popular Brand ?
No.of replies
42%
28%
13%
4%
2%
11%
NOKIA
SAMSUNG
SONYERICSSON
MOTOROLA
LG
PANASONIC
Q3 Have you ever purchased Nokia handset?
Yes 70
No 30
Q4 What are the qualities you look for in a Mobile Phone?
Percentage in favour
20%
25%10%
20%
20%5%
STYLE
DESIGN
BRAND
PRICE
TECHNOLOGY
POPULARITY
Q5. Among the following of latest Nokia handsets, which all have you heard about and you want to purchase?
Percentage of Choices in favour
13%
15%
14%10%
13%
5%
8%
2%
20%
Lumia 800
X7
C5 - 03
E5
E6
X3 - 02
C3
Q7 What is the reason behind your preference for the above particular Handset?
percentage of views
21%
12%
24%
32%
11% Price
Quality
Technology
Design
Style
Q8. Which is the most popular market player according to you?
percentage of views
47%
29%
10%12% 2% Nokia
Samsung
Panasonic
Sony Ericsson
Others
Q9. What is the reason behind your preference for the above particular Market player? (You can tick more than one option also)
Q10. For how long you are using your handset?
percentage of views
25%
31%20%
16%8%
Advertising
Quality Assurance
Price affordability
Resale value
Warranty period
Percentage of Views
45%
37%
18% Less than 6months
More than 6 butless than 1year
More than 1 year
ANALYSIS OF DATA
Market leaders
A paradoxical situation prevails in the fledgling cellular mobile
services industry in India. On the one hand, the service providers
have collectively brushed aside negative growth of the past two-three
years and are quite gung-ho about prospects. Their combined
subscriber base has crossed the 2.5 million mark last month and
despite threat of local competition from government-controlled
players like MTNL, these service providers are a happy lot. One
would automatically expect the handset providers to be on Cloud
Nine. Things could not have been better for these global players as
an Indian competition is yet to emerge in their territory and every
time a mobile service provider lands a customer, they should benefit
too. Curiously, the euphoria seems to have bypassed them!
Be it the rugged Motorola, the sleek Nokia, the sturdy Siemens or
the highly sophisticated Ericsson, a pall of gloom seems to have
enveloped all these giants in the competitive mobile handset
industry. Make no mistake. It is the large and unruly grey market that
has wiped away the smile from their faces at a time when the
cellular service industry has already gotten on to the high growth
expressway. Says Ranjitjeev Singh, Director (Consumer Products)
at Ericsson India Limited: "Indian subsidiaries of the global cellular
handset brands are finding it difficult to improve their sales. We have
no real estimate of the grey market and are in no position to plan
ahead because of this."
He is dead right. It is almost impossible to measure the share that
the grey market takes way from the cellular handset makers. Singh
hazards a safe guess to peg it anywhere in the region of 65 to 70%.
Naturally the Indian subsidiaries of Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola and a
host of other manufacturers are left scrambling for a nibble of the
already shrunken cake. The overbearing presence of the grey
market has another interesting facet. It has unleashed a price war
where, at the end of the day,the losers and the gainers are one and
the same company. Sounds illogical, isn’t it?
Well, if one were to be aware of the skewed import policies that the
government puts in place, one wouldn’t be surprised at the above
statement. Currently, the price was is not between rival brands, but
between Ericsson and Ericsson, Nokia and Nokia, Motorola and
Motorola, Siemens and Siemens and Samsung and Samsung. While
the Indian subsidiaries of these transnational companies watch
helplessly, their parents make hay on the strength of highly
competitive pricing which is, as compared to the products available
through the Indian subsidiaries, at least 30 per cent cheaper, says
Ajay Sachdev, Head of Marketing, Motorola India Ltd.
The plain fact behind the price differential is that while Indian
subsidiaries are subjected to an accumulated import duty of 26-28
per cent, hiking the price of handsets in that proportion, their parents
are exempt. The mobile handsets from foreign shores are smuggled
into the country by grey market operators. The impact of this grey
market operation is huge. Frustration has come to stay for the Indian
managers of these global brands. Queries about the current
scenario solicit the predictable volley of accusations against the
government's import policy. By imposing a high import duty whom is
the government protecting? The handsets are neither manufactured
nor assembled in India.
In fact, government is caught in its own web. Since high tariff level
has resulted in large scale smuggling of handsets, the government
loses almost 70 per cent of the revenue it would have collected. By
a logical extension, a lower tariff would not only enable the Indian
companies combat the grey market, it would also increase revenues.
The recent 5% reduction in basic import duty on handsets is
indicative that realization has dawned. However, in the current
market matrix this tariff cut remains a futile exercise as the grey
market continues to be cheaper by almost 30%.
But then, skewed policies seem to characterize the Indian
government. Barely a year ago the government demonstrated its
strange ways by withdrawing duty exemption on import of wireless-
in-local loop (WLL) to "protect the domestic industry", in full
awareness that there was none to protect. The government’s
frequency allocation policy too adds to market inefficiencies. In the
developed economies, service providers are allowed to operate on
two, even three frequency bands – 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2700
MHz - whereas in India only the 900 Hz frequency band is available
to operators. As a consequence, the handset vendors worldwide
have phased out single band handsets in favor of dual and treble
band phones. The technological backwardness has proved to be a
boon for grey market operators who smuggle the discarded
handsets and dump them in India at a throwaway price, ranging from
Rs.3500 to Rs.5000.
If government is aiding grey market by creating inefficiencies in the
marketplace, the service operators are not far behind either. They
themselves restrict the proliferation and popularity of handsets by
refusing to pass on the benefits of falling operational costs to the
customer. Obsessed as they are with the ‘business class’, the
service providers have stubbornly maintained high tariff levels.
Though after switching over to revenue share, the cost of providing
a mobile connection has fallen to 1/5th of that of a landline
connection, the airtime charges for cell phone users remain 12 times
higher as compared to fixed phone users. In the past, high license
fees justified high airtime rates. At present, the metro cellular
operators need not bring down rates as their networks can hardly
accommodate more customers. But since the high end user
business class is anyway hooked to cell phones, investment in
network expansion is not a priority for most of the operators.
The average middle classes have, as a result, kept away from cell
phones. The loser again is the handset vendor. ''If the turnover
increases, the cost gets amortized over a period of time. In that case
we can afford to lower the prices and still maintain the profit levels",
says Ranjitjeev Singh. That, in turn, will help them compete with the
grey market, albeit from a disadvantaged position.
That scenario appearing remote, the handset vendors have
embarked on other marketing strategies. The buzzwords of this
strategy are ‘replacement’ and ‘segmentation’ of the handset market.
"The point is to outwit the grey market operators by offering tailor-
made handsets to each customer segment," says Ajay Sachdeva.
At the user level the market is maturing fast. Clear segments of
users are emerging which are differentiated on the basis of tariff,
service or handset types.
Nokia was the first to recognize this segmentation. Subsequently, the
company launched a plethora of feature-rich handsets. The strategy
was to tap the replacement market. People were fed up with black
and grey handsets. They wanted something new. Nokia made this
newness visible by introducing many colors as well as shapes. As a
result it was able to corner almost 90 per cent of the replacement
market, which typically accounts for 15 per cent of the total
subscriber base in the country. In the process, it not only beat the
grey market, it beat every other vendor by cornering over 30 per
cent of the market share. Though it has launched handsets for other
segments as well, Nokia continues to focus on entry-level and mid-
level customers, which according to its head of marketing and
strategy, Sanjeev Sharma, are the fastest growing segments.
Ericsson, on its part, was focused more on the technology or on
what was inside the handsets, and so lost its No. 1 position to Nokia
by the end of 1997. The company has now woken up to the new
mantra. According to Singh, Ericsson's strategy revolves around
ART where A signifies first-time users, R stands for techno-savvy
users who want to replace their handsets with feature-rich colorful
ones and T denotes style-lovers. In keeping with this strategy
Ericsson has launched A1018, R320, R190, T28 and T10. Ericsson
is also banking on ever reducing lifecycle of handsets. As Singh
says, the average lifecycle of a handset has already come down to
7-8 months. With simultaneous global launches and competitive
pricing becoming the order of the day, the grey market will have
problems with ever more finicky customers.
Similarly, as a result of a global study commissioned by Motorola,
the company has concluded that there are four broad segments - (1)
the techno-savvy, who like to be at the cutting edge of technology
and so want features like e-mail and WAP on the handset, (2) the
productivity-focused, normally onto their second phone, who like
features such as stock-market quotes on the cell phone, (3) the
people focused on style and glamour, the status-conscious who
flaunt their handsets as if they were fashion accessories and (4) the
security-conscious, who would have a cell phone to know if the kids
and the wife are okay. Motorola also plans to appoint dealers in
crucial cities. This is aimed to help the service retailers keep well
stacked with handsets, so that customers no longer complain about
the scarcity of their favorite model.
Hopefully, the handset vendors will be able to outwit the grey
market. Whether they can marginalize it for good, in spite of the
government and the smug service-providers, still remains to be
seen. Till such time, the bells will continue to toll for the grey market.
FINDINGS OF STUDY
Position of Nokia Brand in consumer mind
The world of parity has hit the mobile phone market just as it
has many other technology product categories. The products range
from the simple to the complex, but every manufacturer offers, of
course, the latest features. Leapfrogging in sales between brands
frequently occurs based on design. But overall the market is
predictable, with Nokia, Motorola, and Ericsson fighting it out at the
top and several less successful brands like Samsung, Philips,
Siemens and Panasonic trying hard to make inroads into their top
competitors' market share. So what makes the difference between
the most successful and less successful brands? It certainly is not
what product features are offered. How, then, do consumers choose?
The answer seems to be what the brand names mean to them.Nokia
Group the Finland-based manufacturer of mobile phones, has been
steadily working on its corporate brand name and the management of
consumer perceptions over the last few years. Its efforts have paid
off, because it is now the number one brand in many markets around
the world, effectively dislodging Motorola from that position. The
brand has been built using the principles described above, and has
been consistently well managed across all markets. Nokia has
succeeded in lending personality to its products, without even giving
them names. In other words, it has not created any sub-brands but
has concentrated on the corporate brand, giving individual products a
generic brand personality. Only numeric descriptors are used for the
products, which do not even appear on the product they. Such is the
strength of the corporate brand. Nokia has succeeded where other
big brand names have so far failed, chiefly by putting across the
human face technology-taking and dominating the emotional high
ground. It has done so in the following way.
Nokia Brand Image
Nokia has detailed many personality characteristics for its brand, but
employees do not have to remember every characteristic. They do,
however, have to remember the overall impression of the list of
attributes, as you would when thinking about someone you have met.
As the focus is on customer relationships, the Nokia personality is like
a trusted friend. Building friendship and trust is at the heart of the
Nokia brand. And the human dimension created by the brand
personality carries over into the positioning strategy for the brand.
Nokia Brand Positioning
When Nokia positions its brand in the crowded mobile phone
marketplace, its message must clearly bring together the technology
and human side of its offer in a powerful way. The specific message
that is conveyed to consumers in every advertisement and market
communication (though not necessarily in these words) is "Only
Nokia Human Technolgy enables you to get more out of life"
In many cases, this is represented by the tag line, "We call this
human technology". This gives consumers a sense of trust and
consideration by the company, as though to say that Nokia
understand what they want in life, and how it can help. And it knows
that technology is really only an enabler so that you-the customer-can
enjoy a better life. Nokia thus uses a combination of aspirational,
benefit-based, emotional features, and competition-driven positioning
strategies. It owns the "human" dimension of mobile communications,
leaving its competitors wondering what to own (or how to position
themselves), having taken the best position for itself.
Nokia Product Design
Nokia is a great brand because it knows that the essence of the
brand needs to be reflected in everything the company does,
especially those that impact the consumer. Product design is clearly
critical to the success of the brand, but how does Nokia manage to
inject personality into product design? The answer is that it gives a
great deal of thought to how the user of its phones will experience the
brand, and how it can make that experience reflect its brand
character. The large display screen, for example, is the "face" of the
phone. Nokia designers describe it as the "eye into the soul of the
product". The shape of phones is curvy and easy to hold. The
faceplates and their different colors can be changed to fit the
personality, lifestyle, and mood of the user. The soft key touch pads
also add to the feeling of friendliness, expressing the brand
personality. Product design focuses on the consumer and his needs,
and is summed up in the slogan, "human technology."
Nokia now accounts for over half of the value of the Finland stock
market, and has taken huge market share from its competitiors.
According to one brand valuation study carried out in mid-1999, it
ranked 11th on the world's most valuable brand list, making it the
highest-ranking non-U.S. brand. As has been pointed out, it has
unseated Motorola. Nokia achieved its brilliant feat through consistent
branding, backed by first-class logistics and manufacturing, all of
which revolve around what consumers want.
Some Nokia Phones with latest features
One of the most impressive handset is the Nokia 9210i
Communicator (Price: 37,599), a phone cum personal digital
assistant (PDA). At 244 grams it is almost obese compared to other
PDAs but it has an awesome range of features. The company bills it
as a portable office which includes phone, fax, e-mail, calendar,
contacts, Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Presentation viewer, WAP,
WWW. You can edit and send Word Processor and spreadsheet
documents, view MS PowerPoint slides in full colour.
It has a high quality 4,096 colour screen. Photos can be transferred
from a compatible digital camera, viewed and then forwarded by fax
or e-mail. You can also view streaming videos on the Internet and
flash animations
There is however a snag, Worksheets can be created on it but the
presentation tools can only view previously loaded PowerPoint
slides. As if to make up for these, there is the streaming software
from Real Networks (audio and video player) to view internet media
content. The 9210i Communicator effectively serves as an office in
your pocket.
Another latest in the Indian market is the Nokia 6610 (Price: Rs
16,399). One of its main features is the multimedia messaging
service (MMS) which allows users to incorporate sound, images, and
other rich content into their messages. The model also has an
integrated FM radio. Its triband GSM access means ability to
connect anywhere in the world, anytime. Plus there’s pre-installed
Java applications on the Nokia 6610 which include a Converter (for
currencies, temperature, weight and other measures) and a Portfolio
Manager (to track stocks and other securities). The calendar notes
can take up to 250 entries and the Phonebook Memory (phone +
SIM) up to 300 entries.
Another model selling well in the Indian market is the Nokia 7250
(Price: Rs 26,299). It has an integrated digital camera allowing you
to capture, store and share pictures. Plus there’s MMS, triband GSM,
an integrated stereo FM radio, downloadable personal applications
via Java technology, WAP 1.2.1 Browser. Memorywise, the phone
book supports up to 300 entries, SMS up to 150 text messages and
calendar notes up to 250 entries. Thanks to an ultra thin battery, the
Nokia 6100 (Price: Rs 20,099) is one of the slimmest full featured
phones on display in Indian shops. Features include MMS,
downloadable Java games, WAP 1.2.1 browser, delightful
polyphonic ring tones, triband GSM support. The 6100 even has an
electronic wallet, though it will be some time before people start
using this feature in India. The 6100 sports a 4,096-colour, 128x128
pixels resolution screen and its large display is handy, whether you
are typing SMS messages or viewing an MMS message.
The Nokia 3650 (Price: Rs 23,399) is equipped with an integrated
video player and a RealOne Player to download video clips. Also, its
integrated digital camera can capture images at 640 x 480 resolution
and the phone display can be used as a viewfinder. It has high-end
features like Bluetooth9 and Infrared capabilities which allows
wireless connectivity to your PC and laptop. You can download new
Java games and applications. Data transfer can be as fast as 43.2
kilobits per second.
The Nokia 8910 (Price: Rs 35,499) is heavy on looks with a titanium
casing and chrome finish keys. Activating the side triggers sets the
phone in motion, rising from the handgrip cover to put the many
phone functions at your fingertips. Features include Voice
Commands, Bluetooth wireless connectivity to other compatible
devices, mobile Internet connectivity, Organiser and To-Do lists, on
top of your pre-requisite phone functions.
Nokia 7650 (Price: Rs 26,999) is a phone and colour camera rolled
into one with MMS capabilities. It has 3.6 MB of memory to store
files and applications. The 7650 comes with only a WAP (Wireless
Application Protocol) browser, limiting you to text-based content. It
has infrared and Bluetooth capabilities for connecting to PDAs and
notebook computers.
CONCLUSION
As per the research work done by me I concluded that Cell phone
industry is growing with a very great pace and has a very remarkable
prospect in future. Nokia is leading player in the cellular industry and
is very much ahead from its competitors like LG, Samsung,
Panasonic, and Sony who are still trying to compete with it.
In any markets there are market leaders and followers, and in most
cases market leaders lose market share to followers, for many
reasons such as pricing, availability, "user-friendliness", relevance to
the target audience etc. It's inevitable. Can Nokia be beaten? On one
hand, it is up to Nokia's marketing department, and its agencies. So
far the brand has established itself well in many markets, and
consumers have identified with what the brand has to offer. But that
does not mean they cannot lose the brand battle. To remain at the
front of the pack, one must constantly be innovative, the minute you
lose that edge competitors will definitely overtake.
On the other hand it also depends on the competitors. How far are
they willing to stretch? Are they willing to take Nokia head-on? How?
What will the outcome be? For the same reason that Nokia has
managed to gain market share and be ranked number 6 in the Global
Brand Scoreboard, certainly someone else can do the same?
Nokia is a very creative designer. How could it be beat if the creator
is so creative -- unless the competitors could find Nokia threats and
weaknesses In market, it can be seen that most of the young
generation, even the medium-age people, like to use Nokia as it is
user-friendly, with a lot of features that the young generation likes.
But in the future I could not think of Nokia's performance as IT is
unpredictable. If we could predict 100% of what will happen, then
there will be no challenges in the future. Can Nokia be beat? This is a
good question that could not be answered precisely. It only depends
on what humans think of and what they expect.
In short it looks very difficult for every competitor to get the same
position which Nokia is currently prevailing with in the market so it is
concluded that it will be hard to defeat Nokia at present and in near
future in terms of market share.
RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Company should invest money on advertising through media,
Internet and personal selling to promote the products, to
increase awareness in the market.
2. Holdings on outlets and publication in the prominent magazines
help in increasing its awareness among the consumer to evoke
the demand of their brand.
3. Policy of replacing problem arising sets should be done timely
and the retailer should be accommodated immediately.
4. More attention and concern should be given to the highest
selling outlets of NOKIA and the chain should reach to the
consumer as well.
5. Allurement and discount schemes should be given to the
highest selling outlets of NOKIA and the chain should reach to
the consumer as well.
6. More glow sign and broad should be installed.
7. Contests sweep stakes and games should be arranged on
regular basis for the consumer involving incentives and prizes.
8. The sales executive should go to each outlet of their route once
in a week and try to cover outlet that are in a distributor network.
9. The net and free sample scheme should be the same for net
every retailers by the company.
10. Some credit facilities should be given to good sales
providing outlets.
The company should try to influence the wholesalers of NOKIA
in the city offering more profitable scheme and confidence
building measures. In metropolitan areas.
11. Company should make proper schedule or particular days
for hearing the complaints of their customer and retailers.
12. No of outlets and service centers should be open.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Websites:
www.nokia.com
www.cellphoneshop.net
www.cellularfactory.com
www.cellphones.about.com
www.yahoo.com
www.google.com
ANNEXURE
QUESTIONNAIRE
Name:…………………………………………………………………
Age:……………………………………………………………………
Address:………………………………………………………………
ContactNo.…………………………………………………..……….
1. Do you have Mobile Phone? Yes No
2. Which all brands of Mobile Phones have you heard about? Nokia Samsung Sony Ericsson Panasonic LG Others……………………………………………………………
3. Have you ever purchased Nokia Handset? Yes No
4. Among the following of latest Nokia handsets, which all have you heard about? (You can tick more than option also)
Lumia X7 C5 - 03 E5
E6 - 00 X3 - 02 C3 5233 N8
5. Rank the following models of Nokia handsets in order of your preference for personal use.
Lumia X7 C5 - 03 E5 E6 - 00 X3 - 02 C3 5233 N8
6. What is the reason behind your preference for the above particular Handset?(You can tick more than one option also)
Price Quality Technology Design Styl
7 .Which is the most popular market player according to you? Nokia Samsung Panasonic Sony Ericsson Others
8. What is the reason behind your preference for the above particular Market player? (You can tick more than one option also)
Advertising Quality Assurance Price affordability Resale value
Warranty period
9. For how long you are using your handset?
Less than 6 months More than 6 but less than 1year More than 1 year
10. What do you think about Nokia in comparison to other players in the market?
Comment……………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
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