Nokia Corporation Marketing

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Table of Contents

Executive Summary
Introduction
The nature of the industry
Role of marketing management
Nokia S.W.O.T. Analysis
Recommendations to improve Nokia Marketing policy
References

Executive Summary

To remain competitive in modern contemporary markets, companies need to have effective marketing strategies. An effective marketing strategy assists a company segment the market effectively and reaches the target market on time. With development in technology, changes in the electronic industry are fast; the industry is dominated by innovation and invention.

Marketing managers have the role of aligning their companies with the needs of customers; there is need to have policies that are responsive to the changes in the industry. Nokia Corporation has been ranked among the leaders in the industry, in 2010; the company was second from Apple Inc. in sales and electronic products production.

To maintain the leadership the company adopts strategic management styles that assist it add value to their target customers. Despite the company dominance both need to adopt “Blue Ocean” strategy to enlarge their market base (Rakesh, 2005).

Introduction

Amidst the changing business environment, the role played by marketing, advertising, and communication continues to take centre stage in strategic management arenas. Strategic marketing has gained much advocacy from management gurus as a way of improving ones business and retaining competitiveness; Nokia is international company in the telecommunication industry that have different approaches to marketing.

Its marketing team lead by marketing managers/leaders at different level determines the strategy the company adopts; the effectiveness of their marketing programs makes the differences in their operation level. This report evaluates the role played by marketing managers within an organisation; it will use Nokia Corporation as a sample company.

The company looks at how marketing is used to create competitiveness among companies in the same industry and will offer best approaches to marketing considering their internal and external environments (Barney, 2007).

The nature of the industry

Advancement in technology has facilitated the growth of mobile and telecommunication industry. On the other hand company’s electronic products are on the rise; the sector is dominated by leading world producers who depend on their operational management decision to remain afloat in the competitive industry; some of international companies in the industry include Samsung, Nokia, Sony-Ericson, Apples, and Google Android-powered phones. To remain competitive companies in the sector must adopt effective marketing strategies (Kerin and Peterson, 2009).

Historical background of Nokia

Nokia is an international phone company, with its headquarters in Finland; according to the company’s website, the company currently enjoys a market share of about 37% and aims at increasing the market share to over 40% by the end of 2011. It has a strong brand all over the world, the companies positioning statement is “technology connecting people”.

The company’s headquarters are located in Keilaniemi, Espoo. Currently it has a total number of employees over 123,000 distributed in various countries. It has it presence as a selling point of full branch in over 120 countries. In the year 2009, the company was able to make a profit of €1.2 billion this was over 10% than what it had recorded the previous year. The idea of the company was started in 1865 however; it became a telecommunication company in 1960’s.

Nokia PESTLE Analysis

P.E.S.T.L.E. analysis is a strategic management tool that analysis the external environment that a company operated; the analysis assists in making informed decision about the influence that the company is going to get from the outside environments as the technology and other variables change.

When making marketing decisions, management should ensure they understand what the external world wants in terms of service and products. There is very little that a company can do to avoid the effect of the outside world; however its influence can be felt across difference; P.E.S.T.L.E. stands for political, economical, social, legal and environment. Let’s analyze the above each at a time;

Political

Nokia has to face changes of global environment; the world is in the process of employing free trade policy whereby the market is the one that determines the price in the market as well the products to be supplied. The global financial crisis has compelled countries of the world to relax their trade barriers; when making marketing decisions, Nokia management has to consider the effect of the global environment; his is good for the company since it can expand to other many countries. This will increase the market base.

Economical

In the past decade, the economy of the world has been on the low pace with other countries recording a negative rate; in this time, Nokia Company has to develop products that meet the living costs of the current population. Even if the rate today is not so good there is hope and thus a risk taker can as well diversify his business; Nokia should ensure that it develops with the current economic trend

Social

The attitude the people has towards Nokia Products is that they are of high quality and are reliable. Despite the appreciation, people are willing to trade with current technologically improved products so the marketing team should ensure that products are continually improved. There are no threats as far as the social environment is concerned if the correct technology is adopted.

Technological

As stated earlier, there is a change in technology in the world; when making products, Nokia should ensure that its internal processes and products are of high technology as this will increase their demand and thus their competitiveness. The technology is not stagnant and more is expected in the future. The competitiveness of the company will be dependent on the efficiency of technology that it will implement.

Legal

The important thing is to comply with the particular country it invests in laws and regulations; when developing marketing strategies, Nokia marketing team ensures that it works within the legal frameworks of the country where the marketing campaigns are likely to take place.

Ecological

The world values its environment; Nokia marketing manager needs to advice the company on the right methods to protect the external environment. There are policies that are target to compel companies to respect nature; on the positive note, since the country policy makers realize that no production can be made without emission of waste, it has embarked on waste recycling technologies as well as adopting environmental friendly technologies.

Role of marketing management

Marketing is an integral part in a product cycle; marketing manager is given the responsibility of developing effective marketing strategies for their companies. Management gurus have agreed that how well a company markets its products has an effect on the success of the product; with this notion, marketing team should be in the forefront shaping products, services, and customer management policies.

In contemporary team leadership strategies, marketing is undertaken using task forces/team management; team leaders to address different element in their area of study (Couturier and Davide, 2010). The roles of marketing manager can be classified according to the nature of the business segment its self, they are:

Instilling a marketing led ethos throughout the business

Marketing is a science that needs to be gotten right from the start of the campaigns; marketing is a management term used to define the methods that a company should use to improve its market base; to sell effectively and be able to beat once competition.

In an organisation is important to have strategies and enact measures that that favour the company, marketing managers are responsible of enacting such competitive strategies. In the case of Nokia the marketing manager needs to establish the market they are going to sell their products to then come up with policies that manage the market segment effectively (Huang, 2000).

Researching and reporting on external opportunities

The world is adopting different approach and demands keep changing; with these understanding, marketing managers have the role of researching and reporting/advising their company on the right opportunities they can adopt; when developing a marketing strategy, the first thing that marketer should do is to perform a marketing research. Marketing managers should ensure that marketing research starts before a company has created the products required in the market and continues through the product cycle (Fred, 2008).

Nokia Boston Matrix

Boston Matrix is an international marketing decision tool that determined the state and level of a company as far as marketing needs are concerned. Nokia has been doing well in the domestic and international market; it can be seen as a star in the global market. At its level the company ensures that it keeps improving its products for the benefit of the company (Möller, 2006).

The chart below shows a Boston Matrix analysis:

When developing a marketing strategy it is important to understand internal and external factors likely to affect the strategy, the factors are the line through which the strategy operates, thus an effective understanding is crucial.

From an internal perspective, Nokia aims at understanding its strength and weaknesses, whereas an external perspective the company understands the position that it holds in the market as well as the effects of competitors. In the case the company is adopting new products; the marketing manager ensures that the company is able to understand the market dynamics operating in certain industry for future marketing related decisions like marketing entry mechanism.

The nature of Nokia business line is that that requires and understanding of external environment facing the industry; external environment trend is likely to affect the behaviour of consumers so when well understood better strategies will be made effectively.

When undertaking marketing research, marketing managers have the main aim as gaining an understanding of psycho-dynamics of the market and the underlying factors that can be used for the advantage of the company and developing mitigation measures against those factors that are likely to affect the business negatively.

It aims at answer the following questions:

What is going in the minds of target customers mind?
What need in the market is not met by the current products and offers an opportunity for the company?
What need is not met but is pressing in customers life?
What persuading terms and tools can be used effectively for a certain category of market segment and
What can be used as association in the advertising strategy?

The marketing manager has the role of ensuring that there is an effective market research; with an effective marketing research, a company is not able to segment its market effectively for the betterment of competitiveness in the market; Nokia marketing manager need to understand best marketing research to be undertaken for effective marketing.

Understanding current and potential customers and Managing the customer journey (customer relationship management)

Businesses can only prosper if the management has policies that ensure that the products and services produced address the need of their customers, marketing managers plays a crucial point ensuring that customer needs have been met effectively.

To ensure that customer needs have been addressed, the management has the responsibility of undertaking wide and comprehensive research on the target market and making responsive business decisions.

To undertake such efforts marketing managers plays an important role; according to management gurus, customers are the most important segment of an organization; they need to be managed effectively and their loyalty developed. Organizations that have enacted effective customer management approaches have remained competitive amidst challenging business environments they are engage in.

Nokia has managed to be second world largest electronic industry in sale volumes and production due to its effective customer management procedures; the company adopts a customer relationship management (CRM) approach to attract and maintain customers.

In the definition of the company CRM is a management strategy where a company creates healthy relationship with the suppliers, customers and the public. At Nokia customers are the most important stakeholder and all processes are aimed at increasing customers’ welfare.

The following are the main objectives that effective customer management programs endeavors to fulfill:

Determine, develop, nurture, and develop mutual satisfaction of the organization and customers, this notion means that the customers’ needs are aligned with business goals and objectives
Create, develop, and maintain good customer rapport, the customer rapport will be an effective tool that will create customer loyalty. When an organization has attained high customer loyalty , it is able to sell its products at relatively low cost of marketing, the company is self marketing
Customer relation management have the goals and objective of creating a positive feelings in the organization and the customers

The most important parameter that Nokia marketing management consider when enacting customer relation management policy within its frameworks is the target market who will be consuming the products and services of the company. In contemporary competitive business arena, companies need to management the relationship they have with their customers.

When customers are well managed, an organization benefits from loyalty and self marketing notion of their organization; customers are the backbone of a company; they are the sources of finance and the reason why a certain business exist.

CRM’s main objective is satisfying customers and developing close relationship that facilitates customer loyalty; to attract customers and persuade them buy ones products takes a combination of business processes; effective marketing and sales strategies have a direct effect on customer’s attainment and development of customer loyalty.

In customer acquisition and creation of loyalty, there are two main theories that a company needs to understand and decide the best approach to use; the theories are customer retention and customer acquisition (Keramally, 2003).

Customer relation management policies link a company to its target customers; if this link is not effective, there will be a breakdown of communication between these two parties. Information is power; marketing offers much needed information for strategic decisions. When producing goods, there is a target market that company aims. Human beings are not static; their needs change with time and space. Understanding of customers’ trend is important for an effective business.

Customer relation management assist, a company to compete effectively and probably win the competition. How well a company persuades its customers goes a long way in determining whether customers favor it or not.

To satisfy customers, marketers provide much needed information on which products are on demand, to assist the company make products that meet customer-changing needs. For example, it advises a company when designing distribution channels, supply chain, and retiling systems (Wheelen and Hunger, 1998)

Developing the marketing strategy and plan and Management of the marketing mix

To sell its products, Nokia has to develop effective market segmentation methods; they divide their markets according to the following four methods:

Geographical approach

Since the company is in the international market it has its market divided according to the market that they will be selling their markets. If they aim at moving to the Caribbean or African market their marketing teams will be sent to collect data and research the markets to come up with a concrete report on the best strategy to sell in the economies.

Demographic/ income strategy

When using this approach the company considers the income, age and the locations that the people will be found; the youth are likely to be in search for products that are highly updated in technology yet they are affordable, when noting this, the companies embark on strong innovation for better products to satisfy their clients.

Behavioral segmentation

With current changes in human tastes and needs the company ensures they understand what their customer really wants. With changes in tastes and preferences the marketing department are mandated with the role of understanding the needs of their customers and advising the production teams to come up with the best products for a certain market (Pickton and Broderick, 2005).

Target markets

Nokia products are made to target certain markets in the world market; phones which is a product that they share targets all classes of people with Nokia seeming to have access to the very low in the economy; it also has focus on people who are interested in efficiency and are technologically sensitive.

When coming with products, the company ensures that they improve on the current product to increase the utility that customers derive from the use of the products.

Nokia divide their markets on the line of price, location and age; depending with the level of technological advancement that a certain phone has, then the price will vary with the same range. The main target market that Nokia has can be seen as the old, the low earners, high earners, illiterate, and the literate (McFarland, Bloodgood and Payan, 2008).

Nokia has been a leader in the electronic industry however current innovations and venture of other international companies have hindered the companies continued leadership; the companies strength and innovativeness has made it world’s largest manufacturer of mobile phones.

In the first three quarter of 2010, the company enjoyed a market share of approximately 31% on average; however, the market share reduced to 30% in the last quarter of the year. The drop of the market share can be attributed to aggressive marketing and selling approaches adopted by its competitors mostly Apple Inc and Google Android-powered phones. The company is also diversifying rapidly in laptops, IPods and I phone to enable it share a large market in the electronic industry.

The results of 2010 were lower to those recorded in 2009 of 35% in the fourth quarter; so far, the marketing approach that the company has adopted is doing well in the markets however, the trend is alarming and calling for something extra to be done if the company has to remain in the forefront of the market (Kurtz, MacKenzie and Kim, 2009).

Nokia S.W.O.T. Analysis

S.W.O.T. analysis is a strategic management decision-making tool used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats involved in a business undertaking, project or activity.

Nokia has an advanced technology that assists the company make products that are responsive to its customers need; its products are respected for their reliability and quality. The advancement offers high strength to the company; on the other hand the company is commanding a high market share.

The company has effective cost minimization procedures. The main weakness that Nokia has is that the company lacks to have a marketing team that focuses on improving the products of the company. It has been evident that there are some upcoming companies that are offering better products than Nokia, they include Apple Inc. the main opportunity that Nokia’s has is development of free trade in the globe and development of global economy.

The main threats facing Nokia is high competition from other companies like Sony, Ericson, Apple, ZTE, and Samsung Corporation. This high competition limits Nokia’s in attaining its goals and objectives.

Recommendations to improve Nokia Marketing policy

Despite the success that Nokia Marketing team has attained, the company can do better. One area that the company should address is the link between the production team and marketing team. The marketing team should not be seen as sellers of products already made but should be involved when making a decision of what to make.

When developing products, the inputs of marketing team department should be considered. Consideration of the inputs should be based on the notion that marketing team is closer to consumers thus they are better positioned to give quality decisions. The segment of making laptops is of late improving fast; Nokia has not ventured optimized the opportunity offered by the global environment. The marketing team should research for information that can assist the company develops such new products.

References

Barney, J. B., 2007. Gaining and sustaining competitive advantage. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Couturier, S. and Davide, S., 2010. International market entry decisions: the role of local market factors.Journal of General Management, 35(4), PP. 45-63.

Fred, D., 2008. Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases. New Jersey: Pearson Education.

Huang, L., 2000. Choice of Market Entry Mode in Emerging Markets: Influences on Entry Strategy in China. Journal of Global Marketing, 14(2), P. 83.

Keramally, S., 2003. Gurus on Marketing. Thorogood: London.

Kerin, R. A. and Peterson, R. A. ,2009. Strategic Marketing Problems: Cases and Comments. London: Pearson Education.

Kurtz, L., MacKenzie, F. and Kim, S.,2009. Contemporary Marketing. New York: Cengage Learning.

McFarland, R., Bloodgood, J. and Payan, J.,2008. Supply Chain Contagion. Journal of Marketing, 72(2), pp. 63-79.

Möller, K., 2006. Marketing Mix Discussion – Is the Mix Misleading Us or are We Misreading the Mix?. Journal of Marketing Management, 22(3), PP. 439-450.

Pickton, D. and Broderick, A.,2005. Integrated Marketing Communications. London: Pearson Education.

Rakesh, J., 2005. International Marketing. New Delhi: Oxford University Press

Wheelen, L. and Hunger, J., 1998. Strategic Management and Business Policy: Entering 21st Century Global Society. Massachusetts: Addison Wesley

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