Category: Nokia

Executive Summary

Communication is an integral part of human life; with increase in technology more communication methods are devised. Mobile technology has taken center stage all over the world. There are many companies that are targeting the increased market. Nokia is one of the leading world producers of mobile phones.

China has the world largest population and this makes the country a fertile market for Nokia phones. As a leader in phone industry, the company has to devise a marketing plan that can penetrate Chinese market despite competition from other international phone companies and Chinese local phone manufacturing industry.

Business strategies involve all measures that are aimed at creating awareness and developing a competitive edge of a company’s product. It includes internal and external audits, market segmentation, developing product differentiation mechanisms and having an effective marketing mix.

Introduction

Nokia is an international company which has an international recognition. It has a strong brand all over the world; the company’s positioning statement is “technology connecting people”. Its positioning statement is rooted to the people to develop a close connection with the people that it targets with its products. The company is favored by a pool of experience that has been built over a period of time.

Nokia entered Chinese market in 1985, when its first company was established in Beijing. Since then the branch has expanded and has now employed over 600 employees. The company implements different strategies in its move to dominate in the Chinese market. In the country there are two research centers to ensure that they assist the company in its implementation of programs (Nokia Official website, 2010).

This marketing plan will be divided into segments that discuss different marketing issues administered by the company. The first part discuses the marketing strategy adopted by the company in Chinese market, it will look into market segmentation done by the company. The second part will concentrate on competitive strategy adopted by the company. In conclusion the paper will give a general view of Nokia Chinese business strategies.

China

China is a Middle East country that has undergone rapid economic growth rate in the recent past. The economic growth is a major determinant in making decision on whether to make an investment in the country. China has highly modern developed infrastructures; these are both of transport and those of communication.

The systems are advanced so well that asses to the country from any corner of the world is highly enhanced, the airports, the sea port, and internal transport are well managed and assessable.

The communication network within and without is of high-tech. This is an asset to the business since it reduces the cost of doing business, on the other hand the international market are enhanced at all lengths. The sectors have seen the private and public participation, this boosts the efficiency of the systems and thus one can trade with approximate assumptions.

China has well developed financial sector with the privatized and government participation in the sector. The banks are stable enough to sustain the growing economy. On the other hand, although this may not have a direct impact on our business there is the emergence of micro finance institutions in the country, the institutions are giving a lot of support to the small scale trader evident in the country.

Thinking of the economy from that angle, it means that the manufacturing businesses will eventually benefit. Insurance companies are also a backbone of investment sector of an economy and China is not left behind. The insurance companies are stable enough and can handle big losses without going under. At the same time, there are reinvestment insurance companies that help in maintaining stability even further. The banking sector has enabled firms to get loans at favorable rates.

The insurance and the banking sectors will thus have a direct and indirect effect. From a direct point it means we stand to benefit the efficiency of these institutions and from an indirect point is that as the other sectors get empowered the benefit trickle down to my business (Zi-Lin, Kwanghui and Pho-Kam 2006).

Nokia’s Marketing Objectives in China

The company has gained recognition all over the world and aims to enlarge its leadership in telecommunication industry in the competitive Chinese market. It targets to be the leader in mobile technology in the country. To attain this noble general objective, the company aims at analyzing the market, and segmenting the market into smaller units.

From its positioning statement, the company aims at creating a human-technological interface where it approaches its strategies from a psychological angle. It poses to give solutions to people and by so doing it is able to market its products effectively.

Considering the future, the company aims at continually improving its business strategies and products so that they can remain competitive. The most recent development in phone industry, which the company has adopted is I-phone, touch screen phones and I Pods technology (Nokia Official website, 2010).

The Target Market Strategy of Nokia in China

One duty of a marketing manager is determination of a market segment. Market segmentation is a continuous process used by marketing managers to determine the markets for their products. A segmented market is a homogenous subset of the main market. It has some similarities in characteristics; they demand similar goods.

To be able to sell, there is need to simulate the mind of potential customers to buy ones products. A segment is also stimulated by similar factors. After developing a marketing segment the next step is to develop mechanisms to enable selling in the segment; one of the ways is to ensure that there is a target market in the larger segment whose can be directly targeted. One of the ways to enter in the target market is marketing mix.

An effective marketing mix ensures that goods are available to the target customer, when they need them and they are affordable. In china before the company decides on the particular market, the first point is to collect adequate market data and analyze the data. The company uses business intelligence tools to collect a wide range of data essential for its operations.

The data is interpolated in terms of age, sex, region, education, income, and lifestyle. This assists the company in knowing the products that it will develop if it has to remain competitive. Its research centers offer great assistance in ensuring that all is set in terms of data available for decision making (Earl, 1996).

Generally the company has divided markets in four different segments, they are improving market segmentation, the products of Nokia have been more and more mature. This ensures that the company is able to reach all categories of people in the country. In china, which is the second largest economy in the world only after United States of America, there are all levels of life (Nokia Official website, 2010).

There are peasants and well to do in the society. When such an approach is taken, it does not limit Nokia’s market but it cuts across all classes in Chinese market.

SWOT / TOWS analysis

Strengths

Nokia strength is ventured in its strong brand name that is internationally recognized. There is a wide recognition of these products in all parts of the world. The strength of the company is undoubtedly engineered by its internal managerial mechanisms. In order to have a competitive edge in selling its product and services, it will be advisable for the company to take advantage of its ability to compete favorably with equal players in the market. A strategic marketing plan is the only way out.

Through this arrangement, Nokia-China will be able to adopt different modalities and outreach programs of reaching out to its consumers. In a market mostly controlled by the efficiency and the affordability of the products as well as quality, it will be an open strength for the company to explore more on innovations. In retrospect, strategic marketing plan should be in a position to explicitly document the various channels that can be used by the company to allocate more resources towards improving quality.

Weaknesses

There is no one company that is perfect; there is always an area that offers a weak point. One of the weak points that the company will undergo through are internal while others are from the external environment. Weaknesses refer to stumbling blocks that may deter the company from progressing towards a particular direction.

One of the weaknesses is attitude that customers have upon new things introduced in the market. Phones are expensive commodities which no one would be willing to have a try and test method. When discussing the concept of strategic market planning, we discover that resources are vital for an organization to effect significant changes. Another area of inevitable weakness is an expansion plan which entails diversifying the level of the company activities.

This may take different forms. A critical look at geographical expansion depicts a glaring possibility of other stringent market uncertainties. Right at the onset, strategic planning will demand strategic resources, both human and financial, to make any significant move.

Besides, implementation of the proposed market research will require mutual consent from all the affected divisions in the company. This will not only consume time as decisions are being made, but a lot of uncertainties abound especially on the verdict of the company (Michael 1997).

Opportunities and Threats

Opportunities and threats are external forces that a company has minimal control over. These are outside factors which may work to the benefit or danger of the company. Opportunities for the company are dependent on both the internal and external assessment criteria of the company’s profile of operation.

Similar to the weaknesses discussed above, the company can still optimize on the various opportunities available to bring about sustainable growth through effective competition. Some of the underlying opportunities for this company in regard to the macro environment are the diversification of its activities.

The company may opt to not only run on large scale, but also produce variety of products. This concept of variety may be approached from different angles like micro lending’s via collaboration with local banks. In striking for the right opportunities, the company will have to analyze its main market rival.

The strategies being employed by the competitor should be critically assessed and evaluated for necessary counter action. In addition, the general plan of the competitor in a bid to control the market is a vital toolkit which this company can use to estimate the competitive edge of the market (Oster, 1994).

Pricing Strategy

Phones are priced differently depending on the level of technology that has been adopted in them. Most modern and expensive ones are the touch screens which are as high as $1000. On the other hand, there are phones with as low as $30. The difference is meant to target all the category of customers.

The price of a commodity is an element of total cost plus a profit margin. When a target market has been established, there is need to determine the price affordable to the customers. A marketer should be aware of consumers’ trends and their potential. The social class that the product is targeted will influence the price of the products.

The price parameter can be approached from the actual product price or the possibility that the product can be divided into smaller parts, not necessarily cheap, but to enhance affordability. From a broader point of view the market can be divided into three sections; the high class, the middle class, and the lower class. The high class is not interested on how expensive a product is, but their point of interest is the utility that the product is going to give.

When they are buying things they are looking for something extra that can make them feel special and different. To target this group, the product should try to show how it is different from others, the price can be set high since the possibility is this group will think that the higher the price the higher the utility.

The middle class buy the common goods in the market. When they are the target group, the price should be harmonized with competitor’s prices. When the target is the lower class, price is the determinant of the market, the lower the price the better. The products can be packed in smaller quantities at “lower prices”. Understanding of the market segment is thus crucial (Peter, 2006).

Product/Service Description, Situation Analysis

Nokia has different types of phones and thus will target different markets using the four marketing approaches adopted (methods discusses in the first statement). The market segment that the marketer want to target, will influence the distribution that he is going to use. Where the customer is more likely to be found should be the place that the goods are provided.

If the target customers are people who value recognition, most of them are in the high class, they are more likely to be found in the shopping malls and “designer” shops. The products should be displayed on these stalls. The possibility that these kind of client will be in the back street shops is unlikely and thus the products should not be there.

The common market is also a place that they are unlikely to go. If the products are targeting the lower class, they should be distributed in the supermarkets that are expected to be less expensive than the shopping mall. There are also some places that are regarded to be the high class estates. These are found in the areas that people of a certain class live.

If the target is the low class the goods should be available in the local slum and suburbs’ shops. If the target is for the middle class where the competitor products are, the focus should be more on strategies to persuade them. The middle class are known to be looking for something extra at the same price. There will be no harm if the products are distributed in the competitors’ area; efforts should be the way we display what we are offering extra (Kotler & Armstrong, 2001).

Promotional strategy

Promotions are done in the effort to either introduce a new product or increase the market segment. To engage in a promotion, the first thing to understand is the availability of the target customers. Where are they likely to be found? Are they free in the mornings, is it in the afternoon? After realizing their availability and when they can give you time, and know the age of the market.

The promotion for the youth should be designed to target the youth. The behavior of the youth is that they don’t want something that feels so common, let the promotion give a different good-feel on the customer. If the promotion focuses on introducing a new product, then a lot should be invested in assuring the client of better quality than what is offered by the competitor. The existence of opinion leaders should be evaluated.

Customers are likely to follow the opinion leaders in making their decisions. The existence of groups in the society and their matching lifestyles can also be of great use. If the promotion is for an already existing product in the market, the approach should be from the angle that we are thanking our customers. If the customer feel appreciated and recognized he will develop loyalty and influence other to follow his way (Reid, Plank & Richard, 2004).

Promotion Budget

To create awareness the company will adopt various promotional/advertising/marketing strategies. The budget can be as follows;

Advertising tool cost in $ in millions

Television – 120

Radio – 32

Internet – 12

Newspapers (Weekly and Daily) – 34

Magazines – 10

Outdoor Advertising – 44

Yellow Pages – 8

Miscellaneous other advertising – 8

Social Media – 8

Advertising Agency services

Public Relations services (publicity, etc) – 12

Sales Promotion (what you have created, e.g., magnets, coffee mugs; Trade show participation) – 23

Direct Marketing program (Direct Mail, “Permission Marketing,” etc – 23

Personal Selling – 10

Total – 334

Channels of Distribution

When a company is developing a product or entering a new market, there is a need that the product is supposed to fulfill. The higher the utility the customer gets, the higher the demand for the product. When products are developed, the team should always invest in offering something extra to the consumer.

If target customers are aware of the expected ingredients, the campaigns should have a lot of emphasis in the ingredient used. On the other hand, if the customers are not much interested in the ingredients, or they even are not aware of the ingredients, the focus should be the outcome that the product will give.

The marketing campaigns should explain to the customer what benefit he will derive from using the goods. What does the target customers expect, what are they likely to be moved by? What is the age of the target customer? If the target customer are children- by extension the parents, the products should have attractive bright colors that are more likely to attract children. If the target markets are the youth, then the fashion should be of emphasis.

Packaging should give a sense of superiority to the product. The youth will always want to have a better product than their peers. Effort should be made to ensure that the product is portrayed to give the impression of superiority. The language on the product packaging should be targeted at the desired group age.

If the prices have reduced and are lower than the market prices, it is important to include them on the package. In all the marketing of the products whether they are target to the high class, middle class, low class, the old, and the youth, the marketer should assure the customers of the availability of the products at all times. Understanding the target market segment cannot be overlooked (Sadler, 2003).

Marketing Channel Strategy of Nokia

The company has different marketing channels that are aimed at ensuring that there are available products at one particular point when they are needed. Distribution of good may be from a central point or the company can establish a manufacturing channel in the country. This will assist in ensuring that those products required are made at relatively cheap price since the cost of labor in China is low.

Nokia has a vertical, horizontal, and hybrid marketing strategy where it aims at having a just in time method of delivery of both finished and raw materials.

The company uses 5C principle as its marketing channel strategy; 5C principle refers to;

Capital

This is both to dealer of the companies produce and the internal capital. The company ensures there is adequate capital to finance its projects at any one time. It ensures that dealers are able to market the company’s product and are located at strategic points of sale to ensure they tap a large population base.

Credibility

There are a number of counterfeits products in the market; the company aims at ensuring that the integrity of its products has been maintained. This is through making secret codes that a customer can know whether a product is genuine or not.

Channel

Channels are both distributional channels and raw material supply chains. The company ensures at any one point it has all the resources required to remain competitive. Goods must be delivered where they are required in the right time.

Cooperation

There is facilitated communication between company employees (internal communication) and external communication. Business communication is vital for success in all businesses. Success in this context means, being able to accomplish a particular task or to achieve a specific objective.

Good business communications in relationships either with fellow staffs or customers is needed in order to prosper. Business success can be measured in terms of the practicability of business relationships which is directly proportional to the quality of communication. When there is a well coordinated communication, the company will be able to attain its targets (Ketels, 2006).

Management

Management is the driving force of an organization the kind of approach that they give to different issues dictates the success of an organization. Decisions are the driving force in an organization. The quality of decision that managers make give their organization direction and focus.

The growth and competitiveness of an organization is influenced by the quality as well as acceptability of decisions made by managers at all levels. To come up with a good decision there are three main stages that a manager should follow they are; defining the problem, data collection, and choosing the best alternative.

Always a good manager considers the urgency of the decision before making one. Nokia has a central management at the head quarters but give power to various branches to make decision pertaining countries needs. This will not be different in this China branch. It will ensure that they understand trends in the market and make decisions with that light in mind (Hooley Saunders, 1993).

Competitors & Substitutes

Competition in China will be from two angles. Competition from local phone making company and from international markets, however, every situation or opportunity has its own unique potential that an entrepreneur must capture if he will be successful. This will be in consideration of business risk; business risk is the uncertainty on to whether the kind of business that one has engaged in will be of success.

This is in both existing business when they want to extend their business to other areas of a start up business. Businesses are driven by market for good produced; thus an entrepreneur must ensure that there is potential in the chosen location. When investing in some kind of a business there is the initial and subsequent running expenses.

In a business environment the proceeds from the business should cover all these and there remain a portion that is the profit of the investor. Before Nokia making a decision to venture in Chinese market, it must have seen a potential market than it targets. This is what the company should focus on (Arch, 1975)

Competition is a good element in the business arena since it ensures that quality of goods and services are provided; it is the one that keeps the business men on their toes to ensure that they earn customer loyalty. This calls for continuous improvements of its products and services.

Two things must be considered then, whether the Nokia Company will be able to enter the market and whether she is capable to improve his products always. However, there are areas that competition is so high that an entrant will risk so highly and possibility of entering the market effectively becomes a problem, all this are factors that should be considered before making the go-ahead decision (John & Mowen, 2004).

The following are companies that will offer competition to Nokia Company in China;

Motorola China

The company was established in Beijing in 1987 with two main agendas; tap the Chinese market and benefit from cheap labor and high technology in the country to produce products for exports. Since its incorporation in the country the company has acquired wholly owned companies and 9 joint ventures and 24 subsidiaries.

The following are the nine ventures that it has joined hands

• Guangzhou Jinpeng Cellular System Co., Ltd.
• Shanghai Motorola Telecom Products Co., Ltd.
• Beijing Huamin Smartcard System Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
• Hangzhou Eastcom Cellular Phone Co., Ltd.
• Leshan-Phoenix Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
• Huamin Smartcard System Co., Ltd.
• Hangzhou Eastcom Cellular Equipment Co., Ltd.
• Shanghai Zhongmei Automotive Electronics Co., Ltd.
• Motorola Qiangxin (Tianjin) IC Design Co., Ltd.

It employs more than 12,000 employees; these employees are mostly Chinese and thus the company is able to penetrate the market as a local company. After making its goods, there are some which are exported and sold at relatively lower prices (Motorola official website, 2010).

Marketing strategy of Motorola China

The company uses the joint venture as its marketing points alongside other marketing strategies. Also to ensure that it dominates the market the approach is from developing efficient low priced goods; this will be as a result of enjoying the benefits offered by the country. The company also uses the bottom of the pyramid strategy; Bottom of the pyramid is people who are not well to do in the society. It should be noted that they also have expenses just like the very fortunate.

They are important in two aspects i.e. as laborers and the consumer of the products. China has the biggest population in the world. Thus, the availability of labor is good. The labor market takes two angles the highly skilled and the low skilled people. For expertise purpose the skilled and experienced will be of great help and the semi-skilled can be deployed for manual work.

The higher population is available for cheap labor; however the labor union of the country is advocating for better terms the truth is the labor still remains favorable. This favorable rates of labor has made several multinational companies to have export producing zones (popularly called assembling points) in the country, this is a proof of favorable rates of labor. On the other hand, the population provides the market for the manufactured goods.

The company also adopts 4Ps marketing mix as its strategy. The company has a number of social corporate responsibilities which include; Higher education scholarships, disaster relief, sports sponsorship, environments, and West China Development (Motorola official website, 2010).

ZTE

This is a Chinese local company that was established in 1985 and has the lion’s shares in phone market in China. It produces a variety of phone products aimed at fulfilling the needs of different customers. Since its inspection it gained an A status in Shenzhen Stock Exchange since 1997.

It was the first Chinese company to hold an A and H status in The Stock Exchange in Hong Kong. To remain competitive the company operates in different names which are China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom in China. It also has developed a long term relation with other established companies to assist it in marketing its products. Such companies include France Telecom, Vodafone, Telstra, Telefonica, among others (ZTE Official website, 2010).

Marketing Strategy of ZTE

The company is favored by having a strong brand name in the country; the fact that it is a local company makes the population see it with a positive point of view. The government in the effort of encouraging local investments gives subsidies and tax holidays to local companies and thus the company benefits reduced costs in production.

Being a local company, it understands the markets betters and thus it has devised products that fit the entire population. There are very cheap phones and some which are expensive depending with the target customer that the company aims to get.

In its implementation of 4Ps marketing mix, it has concentrated more on Chinese market. It ensures that there are products at a particular point when they are required. There are areas that have low class people and the company has embarked on social corporate responsibilities in such area. These responsibilities include providing pumped water, electricity, and environmental conservation mechanisms (ZTE Official website, 2010).

Recommendation

Chinese market is a potential phone market for Nokia phones. There is need to develop effective marketing strategy to ensure that there is continuity in business and the company can venture and dominate the market.

China has the world largest population which offered two opportunities that need to be tapped; local market and cheap labor. When products are produced at relatively low price they can be exported to other countries and this will facilitate general business of the company. One of the problems that the company faces is language barriers; this is between the top management and Chinese market.

To overcome this there is need to learn the language by the top management. There is a marketing strategy that the company adopts, however, it should be appreciated that each country is different from another and thus offers different need. The approach may be the same but the plan set different. One of the tasks that a marketing manager should undertake effectively is to develop a team of experts to address various issues.

This will assist in offering solutions to problems as they arise. It is not always the case that a business set up will be successful, there are times that it may fail; when starting a business this should be taken into consideration. Business dynamics cannot be predicted with a 100% certainty. If the trends fail to favor a business, then the business is more likely not to meet its obligation.

It may be a failure in the market, change of fashion, calamities or negative goodwill created; they may hinder continuity of a business. To cater for this in eventuality, there is need to have an exit plan. Mitigating any loss that is likely to result from loss of business is one of the common ways to have an exit strategy that will not hurt the entrepreneur.

Conclusion

Mobile technology has taken center stage all over the world. There are many companies that are targeting the increased market. Nokia is one of the leading world producers of mobile phones. China has the world largest population and this makes the country a fertile market for Nokia phones. To venture in the market the company has to embrace an effective marketing strategy. Generally, Nokia has divided markets in four different segments, they are improving market segmentation.

The products of Nokia have been more and more mature. This ensures that the company is able to reach all categories of people in the country. Competition in China will be from two angles. Competition from local phone making company and from international markets, however, every situation or opportunity has its own unique potential that an entrepreneur must capture if he will be successful.

There are different opportunities that the country offers to the company, they include cheap labor, market (both local and as an international), developed technology, good infrastructure (both institutional and physical), and positive economic growth rate. However, phone industry competition in the country is high.

Reference List

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Earl, P. (1996). Management, Marketing and the Competitive Process. Williston: American International Distribution Corporation.

Hooley J., Saunders, J. (1993). Competitive Strategy: the Key to Marketing Strategy. New York: Prentice Hall.

John, C., & Mowen, M. (2004). Consumer Behavior-A Framework. Beijing: Tsinghua University Press.

Ketels, C. (2006). Michael Porter’s Competitiveness Framework: Recent Learning’s and New Research Priorities. Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade. Vol.6, no.2, 115-136.

Kotler, P & Armstrong, G. (2001). Principles of marketing, 9th edn., Prentice Hall, London.

Michael P. (1997). Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. Beijing: Hua Xia Press.

Motorola official website. (2010). Motorola Inc.

Nokia Official website. (2010). Nokia.

Oster, M. (1994). Modern Competitive Analysis. New York: Oxford University.

Peter, D. (2006). Marketing Management and Strategy. London: Post & Telecom Press.

Reid, A. Plank, Richard E. (2004). Fundamentals of Business Marketing Research. New York: Best Business Books

Sadler, P. (2003). Strategic Management. Binghamton: New Down Press.

Zi-Lin, L., Kwanghui and Pho-Kam, W. (2006). Entry and Competitive Dynamics in the Mobile Telecommunications Market. Research Policy. Vol.35, no.8, 1147-1165.

ZTE Official website. (2010).

The Firm and its Products

Nokia is a global firm within the communications and information industry. The firm is headquartered in Espoo, Finland (Grünewälder, 2008). Also, the firm deals with mobile phones, mobile computers as well as networks. Also, the corporation offers internet services comprising music applications, games, and media as well as messaging services.

Core to the operations of Nokia is the client-driven marketing tactic. Essentially, the model of marketing enables the firm to fragment its world market in terms of economic situations. Besides, the firm utilizes product and service differentiation as well as the provision of innovative and standard products with unique attributes.

In reality, the firm’s major undertakings continue to utilize innovations in the production of products to augment the client base. In other words, Nokia remains to update its products with speed, efficiency, and quality, thereby attracting numerous clients across the globe.

The SWOT Analysis

Strengths

The firm’s trademark forms its major strength. Being among the world’s largest producers and manufacturers of mobile phones, the firm has branched out its operations in different nations around the globe causing an increase in its distribution network.

Additionally, the corporation’s originality, innovativeness, and resilience along with reliability are major strengths. Besides, the firm enjoys greater yields on equity, proceeds on assets along with higher net profit margins and a strong financial position, thereby making it a leader in the international mobile phone industry.

Further, the enterprise has strong research and development facilities leading to its dominance in the mobile phone market. The increased expansion of the firm’s stores in several nations is also added strength.

Nokia’s own-branded products ranging from the high-end finest to low-price value have proven useful in covering diverse classes of products including mobile phones, internet services comprising music, applications, games, and media. For instance, Nokia’s high-end Lumia line is designed for individuals with higher incomes, whereas low-end Asha phones are for clients with lower budgets (Grünewälder, 2008).

Weaknesses

The economic depression currently experienced affects the soaring expenses associated with livelihood and diminishing earnings in the hands of the public. Nokia is likely to experience a reduction in the demand for its products due to reduced earnings. Further, in maintaining its status as a global leader in the mobile phone industry, the firm has to charge lower prices, which in effect squeezes its margins.

The other weakness that Nokia encounters arise from the fact that numerous retailers are merging and offer stiff competition. Another weakness of the firm is illustrated in Nokia’s financial records characterized by diminishing returns. The reason is that the firm’s share of the market in the US has been decreasing. Nokia also undertook cost-cutting of staff, thereby losing the status as a good establishment (Grünewälder, 2008).

Threats

The ever-changing expertise has greater effects on the client purchase tendencies. Nokia has a responsibility for regular appraisal of its products to meet the expectations of the customers. Further, the slump in the economy is likely to initiate joblessness and decreased proceeds. The outcome would divert the firm’s attention from lower-priced products to higher priced commodities leading to restructuring the pricing system.

Nokia faces the threat of competition from Apple Inc., Intel Corporation, LG Display and LG Electronics, Sony Corporation, Texas Instruments Inc., Lenovo Group Limited, Hewlett-Packard Company, Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd., Toshiba Corporation, SK Hynix Inc., Samsung Electronics Co., and Western Digital Corporation companies that have been penetrating the market (Grünewälder, 2008).

Moreover, the emergence of cheap China phones also poses a threat to the operations of Nokia.

Opportunities

Nokia has the prospect of expanding into the tablet market, leading to an enlargement of its global operations. In reality, the transactions involving tablets have realized augmentations recently. Also, the firm has a prospect of developing various new lines of Smartphones with novel operating systems through the application of technological prowess.

Further, there is a prospect of forming conglomerates with other firms such as Google that could lead to the generation of exceptional Nokia-Android Smartphones. As a result, the firm will be able to achieve increased revenue margins. Besides, developing markets such as China present wonderful opportunities in which Nokia can invest (Luther, 2011).

Marketing Objectives

The firm pursues many objectives with the marketing plan. The objectives will be specific, measurable, attainable, and timely. In other words, Nokia will follow the SMART model in developing and implementing its objectives. The marketing objectives of the firm include

• To improve customer engagement and relationship with the firm and its products by 50%
• To attract clients between the ages of 25-55 years since the segment constitutes over 70% of the firm’s mobile phone market.
• To achieve a 50% augmentation in market share within the next three years.
• To take advantage of the rapidly growing retirees aged over 55 years of the market subdivision through the provision of simple and comprehensible mobile phones.

The objectives must be attained within three years. However, increasing the presence of the firm’s brand is expected to be attained within the first year of the plan. The presence of the firm’s brand will be attained by increasing the number of times the products are mentioned on social media. The objectives are attainable given the set targets against the period. Also, given the past trends, the results can be achieved within the given time.

How the secondary Research was Conducted

Most information was retrieved from the firm’s website. However, other related marketing journals also provided valuable information concerning the marketing plan. Most importantly, the marketing researches that have been conducted provided invaluable information applied in this plan. Moreover, the reports from the promotions, conference presentations, as well as other events, provided significant information on the firm’s performance.

In essence, the external sources of information such as the websites comprising of the applied social media websites as well as the search engine websites, articles written concerning the corporation and journals both academic and non-academic regarding the firm and its brand products.

Further, marketing research reports that have been conducted concerning the enterprise and its products, reports from the firm’s marketing activities including promotions, presentations, and events along with blog posts regarding the firm’s products, brand and activities were also utilized.

Besides, press releases concerning the brands as well as products, video records on the firm’s events, text messages and e-mails received by the firm regarding the products were also used.

Networks

Depending on the objectives and the target clients, Nokia Company explores various innovative social media platforms to promote its services to reach its targeted users. The social sites have offered new opportunities for the firm to promote its products and services as well as reach the target users at reduced costs.

Facebook

The main social networking site that the firm will utilize is Facebook. Currently, Facebook is the largest social networking site in the world. Facebook will allow the firm to reach the target market through users’ profile information such as different age brackets as well as their attention altitudes. For example, most of the younger generation use of phones and iPad for online socialization.

Studies show that people between the ages of 21-24 are the biggest users of Facebook at about 17%. Because of this popularity, the social site provides a good site for the firm to increase its presence as well as the brand to the target market.

Twitter

Twitter provides the best platform for the firm to increase its presence among the users of its products. Twitter is currently developing self-service commercial methods targeting an array of people, particularly the firm’s target group. Also, twitter target enthusiasts of the open and common social site handlers.

Twitter mostly target users within the age bracket of twenty-five and above. Therefore, Nokia Company that intends to attract the age groups will embrace the use of Twitter to increase its presence.

Marketing Goals

To reach the target market, Nokia intends to take advantage of and penetrate the rapidly growing segment of retirees aged over 55 years. As such, the firm is capable of utilizing the high disposable incomes as well as the capability to dedicate time to novel lifestyle attributes of such clients.

Consequently, the firm is capable of increasing profits. The firm also targets clients aged between 22-55 years to augment sales since the segmented forms the bulk of Nokia phone users.

Marketing Mix

The firm will apply the marketing mix that includes the product strategy, distribution strategy, promotional strategy as well as the pricing strategy. All these strategies are in line with the firm general marketing mix (Luther, 2011). The product strategy will focus on the merchandise quality as well as the specifications of the customers. The enterprise will be manufacturing phones in accordance with the clients’ specifications.

On the distribution strategy, the phones will be marketed on the firm expanded stores around the world as well as in the distribution channels. The firm will also utilize its well-developed sales promotion strategies to advertise the products.

The products will be priced depending on the average income of the consumers as part of its wider pricing strategy. Other sections of the marketing plan such as the financials, the set targets, marketing strategies are integrated within the general strategic marketing plan of the organization.

The methodology of Implementing the Marketing Mix

Nokia’s marketing mix includes its product, price, place, and promotion variables that it combines to realize the response it aims to achieve in the market. In this regard, the firm should embrace the cost leadership strategy. Under this tactic, the firm can offer its products at lower prices across diverse locations around the globe.

The strategy is most suitable for Nokia since it is capable of controlling the operation expenditures as well as offering prices that are competitive in the global market, which in effect leads to increased proceeds. Through the strategy, the firm can apply promotional techniques that are highly valued by the customers. In other words, the firm offers products that have special attributes required by the consumers (Luther, 2011).

As such, the firm can create product devotion among its customers, thereby ensuring inelasticity in prices on the part of purchasers. Further, embracing the cost leadership strategy enables the firm to improve interior operations to be more efficient, enabling the organization to endure the external demands. Therefore, Nokia is presented with the prospect of regular relations with the diverse sectors in the macro-environment.

References

Grünewälder, A. (2008). Analysis of Nokia’s corporate, business, and marketing strategies. Munich: GRIN Verlag.

Luther, W. M. (2011). The marketing plan. New York, NY: AMACOM Division of American Management Association.

Introduction

Strategic realignment is often perceived as a requisite ingredient for survival in a tumultuous environment. Hence, all aggressive organizations strive to capitalize on their potential and amass a large market share while retaining the existing customers.

Ideally, many firms opt to design new product as a competitive tool. Thus, most innovative firms find it easier for them to out do their rivals. Although innovation is vital for success, the process adopted to develop new product has bearing on the final product. Most organizations and firms use varied processes in developing a new product.

The method used depends on the level of technology that is available. When producing a simple product a simple procedure is adopted compared to the procedures used when developing sophisticated products. This report will therefore compare the process that is used by Nokia Company against the process that was proposed by Crawford (1994). Crawford (1994)’s New Product Development (NPD) process is perceived as a universal one upon which other manufacturers derive their processes.

Objectives

This report provides information on how Nokia develops its new products. Therefore, the objectives of the report include;

• To understand the method used by Nokia in developing new products.
• To evaluate the existing gaps between Nokia NPD process and the Crawford (1994) process.
• To evaluate Constraints that influences an organisation’s NPD procedures.
• To understand the adjustments that Nokia can employ to improve its production.

Research Methodology

The research methodology is a comparative analysis of the procedure that is used by Nokia Company against the processes that are suggested by Crawford (1994). Both processes are or present some similarities as well as differences that characterize the diverse perspectives employed to meet similar objectives. The data from Nokia’s R&D is supplemented with information obtained from secondary sources to decipher the approaches that are assumed by the organization.

This report is a comparative case study that covers the Nokia new product development process against a Crawford (1994) process. A case study was opted for since it provides in-depth information pertaining internal operations of the organization. Since the information that is needed is confined in a single organization, a cases study helps narrow the focus and scope hence enhancing a speedy achievement of the results.

Many scholars have used this method in assessing the internal welfare of the organization as well as comparing some competencies.

All the data that has been used in this report is obtained from secondary sources. The main source of data was the internet, books and journals. It is widely known that some information that is deemed as organization’s secrets are withheld from the public and therefore it was difficult to obtain the fine details of each process. This limitation was circumvented by consulting divergent sources.

Literature Review

Many academicians and scholars have suggested criteria, which organizations should use to develop new products. The process of developing a new product begins when a firm identifies the need to generate a new product line to meet the needs of the customers. Chesbrough (2003) asserts that all firms operating in an open innovation paradigm are compelled to always produce superior products compared to their rivals.

They do this to acquire or to maintain their market share. With such aspirations, organizations devise ways and means to meet the existing gaps by producing new products. Management in most organizations bases their new product development strategies on process described by Crawford (1994). Below is an elaboration of the linkages existing between Nokia’s eight tier models compared to Crawford (1994)’s five tier NPD processes.

Idea Generation

Nokia has well elaborated NPD process that commences with ideal generation. The Research and Development (R&D) department has the responsibility of generating ideas deemed relevant in generation of new ideas. Since obtaining information is such a tedious task, the R&D engages in brainstorming session to obtain internal information (Cravens, 2000).

On the other hand, where need arises, the organization carries out outreach information collections to obtain the ideas of suppliers and customers. This process is a rigorous activity that requires enormous information to design the best product. Nokia’s three-fold information is more reliable given that different ideas are incorporated in the project. Hence, deficiencies of staff’s ideas are supplemented by customers and suppliers ideas and, therefore, the R&D has a better beginning point.

Bruce et al (1995) contend that the R&D need a large pool of information to begging with in order to accommodate a diverse scope of customers needs. On the other hand, Crawford (1994)’s NPD process commences with overview and opportunity identification.

This approach stems back from where the Nokia process starts. Nokia overlooks this stage since it first identifies the problem and immediately it starts directly working the solution. The Crawford (1994) approach is a step behind the Nokia’s approach in almost all the steps but the ultimate model is similar.

Idea Screening

Once the ideas are generated, the R&D assesses the suitability of the ideas obtained to eliminate the less useful ones. It is worth highlighting the value of information simply because inclusion of erroneous information would spoil the final product (Cravens, 2000). Therefore, the R&D needs to work tirelessly to eliminate any unwanted information from leaking to the product development process.

Idea screening is done by appraising each concept against criteria, less fit information are dropped while the most viable information is considered for the next step. Crawford (1994) asserts the importance of working with less but useful information rather having voluminous and less important data. Nokia incorporates external partners as well as experts in screening information to ensure only the most important information is considered.

Conversely, Crawford (1994)’s second step entails concept generation and it requires obtaining of relevant information from all viable sources. Once the concept is generated the information is subdivided to form several alternatives. Each alternative is then evaluated to asses its usefulness. He further proposed the use of analytical method in evaluation of information to ensure a scientific measurement is used to weigh the outcome.

Concept Development and Testing

Kuczmarski (1988) contends that all information needs to be tested against the predetermined goals and expectations. Nokia meets this obligation by ensuring that all information and ideas are expressed in a meaningful end user terms. Stating concepts according to the consumer terms not only retain the product focus but it also enhances a mental picture of the product design (Bruce, Leverick and Littler, 1995).

At this level, Nokia uses some target customers to assess the product concept. Customer inclusion plays a vital role in maintaining the product development retails customers’ satisfaction. At this stage, Crawford (1994)’s approach coincides with the Nokia concept but with few inclusions.

According to Crawford (1994), once information and concepts are assessed against expectations. The valid concepts are screened against the market factors to ensure compliance and validation. Moreover, the focus shifts to sale projections to assess the expected outcome. Once the marking evaluation is done, the organization should strive to extract projected financial reports to determine the worthwhile of the project. Finally, the product protocol is determined to make sure prior marketing and distribution channels are set in place.

Marketing Strategy Development

To avoid a marketing dilemma, Nokia makes prior arrangement on the marketing criteria that would best suite the new product. At this point, the target market is determined and at the same time, the distribution channel is set. Burt (1992) argues prior marketing arrangement enhances competitive advantage over competitors who may opt to make replica of the product.

In addition, Burt (1992) points out that a competitive organization should always maintain a visionary eye to be able averse risks while capitalizing on future opportunities. Nokia has done well in meeting this expectation as it usually set prices in advance as well as carrying out projected market survey both in the short run and in the long run. Precautionary measures are also set in place in case the actual marketing fails to match expectations. This is done by designing a marketing mix to sell the products.

Business Analysis

Business analysis is a deliberate act that developers take towards understanding the scope and challenges that awaits the new product. At this point, the management should endeavor to pinpoint all the challenges and limitations that face the new telephony products. Suggestions on how to cope with such limitations are also recommended.

In addition, an in-depth assessment of the costs and sales are projected to help meet the future demands. Finally, the organization keeps a profit margin as the target for the future sales. Thomas (1993) supports prior planning as a means of avoid shocks and surprise turn of events. All these projections allow the management to evaluate the progress of the market according to the estimated product sales.

Product Development

Both Nokia and Crawford (1994)’s processes have project development in their NPD process. This highlights the importance and the significance of this stage. The Nokia Company develops prototypes before producing commercial products. Urban and Hauser (1993) postulate that prototype is the best way of actual market test since it also allow fine adjustments of the product before the commercial release.

For Nokia, prototypes are used to measure product acceptability and final customer observation about the product. The prototype is also used to test the functionality of the products to evaluate how well it meets the predetermined goals and objectives. However, in Crawford (1994) NPD process, prototype is placed in the third step. According to Crawford (1994), prototype is used to assess the market situation as well as determining the quality of the product.

Once the prototype is evaluated, the Nokia Company makes fine adjustments to ensure that the final product is ideal. All the amendments are based on the feedback received from the consumers, suppliers, distributors; as well as ideas generated from within the organization. However, in case the discrepancies between the actual performance and expected performance should surpass the set limit; the management may opt to restart the entire process.

Test Marketing

Nokia carries out three types of market testing; standard test markets, controlled test markets and simulated test markets. Standard test market is the natural market that is governed by market forces of demand and supply. When testing by this method, the product is subjected to the stiff competition that would affect any normal product.

Once the product is assessed under natural conditions the management can be able to evaluate the way of improving product. The second market testing is done under the controlled environment. One way of doing this is by eliminating competition and assuming a monopolistic atmosphere. The third test market i.e. the simulated market testing is done where customers are exposed to stage advertising and then their purchasing decisions are monitored.

For accessing a new market, Nokia’s quest to include collaborations from partners is an added advantage. Hamel and Prahalad (1994) gave a similar opinion or suggestion of strategic alliances and partnership as a means of reaching out to the unexplored territories. This market testing method is only applied to new products.

Urban and Hauser (1993) have reiterated the need to conduct market tests to evaluate the behavior of consumers toward the new product. Nokia has been using these three tests to most of its new product. Before launching any product, an intensive market promotion is usually conducted to popularize the product before the actual production. Conversely, Crawford (1994) has set the market-testing phase as a constituent of the final phase. Nokia decided to carry out market testing as a strategy for promoting the products.

Commercialization

Commercialization is the last step that Nokia uses in developing a new product. This phase involves large-scale production of new products. Since all the amendment and fine-tuning have already been done, the organization expects minimal obstacles limiting the products limitations.

However, according to Crawford (1994) the final stage is dubbed the launch phase. This step encompasses several activities such as market testing, the launch strategic planning as well as public policy issue. By setting the commercialization process independently, Nokia concentrates all the efforts in commercializing the product without having any competing priorities as is the case in Crawford (1994) system.

Existing Gaps

Although both processes bear some similarities, some sharp differences exist. In Crawford (1994) model, five processes are used whereas Nokia uses a more elaborate process that comprises of eight steps. The two approaches harbor all the steps in new product development but Nokia model is a more elaborate hence reducing chance of errors occurring in the process. However, the Nokia model is time consuming due to the large number of participants that are involved, which delays agreement.

Therefore, it is upon the organization to reconsider altering the NPD process; focus should be on reducing the duration that it takes. Conversely, its worth to critic Crawford (1994)’s final step i.e. the launch phase, which has so many things that ought to be done in preceding the stages. Testing market with the final product may prove a misplaced action especially when the action fails to meet the expected result. Such a backfired mission would force the organization to start the entire process from the scratch.

Results and Discussion

The adoption of an eight-tier production generation system, by Nokia, has proved clearer, more inclusive and accommodating format as compared to the Crawford (1994)’s five-tier model. The Nokia model disintegrates the several processes into distinct activities hence making it easier for the management to deal with each item with the overlapping effect as in the case of Crawford (1994) model that overcrowds.

When items are evenly spread, the management is able to analyze each item exhaustively without being force to subdivide their focus on competing opinions. The flexibility of Nokia model to accommodate networks has helped the organization in reaching out to the marginalized groups hence increasing chances of product acceptability.

The Nokia model consumes more time before the final product is generated compared to the Crawford (1994) model that takes relatively shorter time. Since the need to develop a new product emanates from customer survey reports, delayed production of the product is likely to get a negative response from the market.

Thus, the organization strives to merge several activities or reduce the time that each activity takes. It also worth noting that since Nokia operates in a perfect market, some of its competitors may realize to produce telephony with features that are needed in the market only for Nokia to realize the market is already occupied.

Core competencies

The terms core competencies are repeatedly used in business writings although few authors give adequate definitions of the same (Duysters & Hagedoorn, 2000).

According to Nokia management, there are three main competencies that the organization is anchored on; the handsets, network technology and middleware. As the organization develops new products, it is always important to maintain a clear consideration on the three issues. This is where the firm uses an elaborate intermittent process to ensure adherence to its core principles.

Since Nokia is a world leading telephony producing firm, the management and the R&D department enjoys the liberty of operating without pressure in terms finances and technology. Hence, the organization has ample time to carry out intensive research as well as forging partnerships with other members to ensure quality in the product development process. However, longevity in the product development process has often affected the products produced negatively.

On the other hand, Crawford (1994) process is a congested approach and may be difficult to be followed by ordinary managers. This problem can be addressed by further subdividing these activities into independent sub-activities to enhance clear understanding as well as reducing mystification. Giving clear-cut sub-activities facilitates easier identification of the problem and this may save the management the agony of tracing the problem.

Recommendations

It is important to an organization to keep re-inventing its new product development processes and procedures. Such re-invention is important because competition is only best handled with through product offering.

A product offering is only enhanced through innovation and product development. Innovation helps towards meeting customer desires or needs as expressed through feedback on existing products. Further, it helps create new markets as new products attract new clientele. Finally, innovation keeps organizational brand fresh and appealing.

After a critical analysis of all the steps that Nokia follows in New Product Development, a number of issues that are worthy addressing. The following recommendations are suggested for future considerations.

There is need to keep improving the process so that the organization benefits from having a reliable product development process. The kind of products developed is largely dependent on the process employed. Therefore, improving the process would definitely translate into improving the new product development exercise and final products developed.

Nokia should consider reducing the time that is used in idea generation but increase more time in developing the product. A lengthy process means responding to market characteristics too late. It also means organization has to do much forecasting given product launch is only possible after a long time.

Nokia should also encourage out sourcing of some phases of product development to competent product developers to enhance faster development of new products. Outsourcing can come in handy, or as it has done elsewhere, bring on board independent developers with creative ideas.

Using independent developers or scouting for creative works by such and adopting them can shorten new product development in the organization. Finally, the R&D should also consider carrying out benchmarking activities to identify the criteria used by its main rivals to understand the strategic adjustments that can be applied.

Conclusion

From the comparative analysis that was carried on Nokia’s new product development procedure and the one presented by Crawford (1994), it is clear that Nokia’s trajectory process is more superior and more conclusive. The entire processes are systematic in nature and well interlinked thus covering any loophole that may exist between one phase and the other.

However, Nokia’s processes are time consuming due to the many parties involved in the decision-making process. On the other hand, Crawford (1994)’s new product development process is a well-designed process that expertly interlinks some processes to reduce the duration required before the final product is launched.

From this research, it is clear that Crawford (1994)’s process serves best as a benchmark tool against which organizations may design their NPD processes. Finally, the stiff competition, which firms across the globe are currently facing, requires that firms improve their new product development mechanisms in order to fit in an open innovation paradigm.

References List

Bruce, M. Leverick, F. & Littler, D. (1995). Product Development; Meeting the Challenge of the Design and Marketing Interface. New York: Willey.

Burt, R. S. (1992). Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press.

Chesbrough, H. R. (2003). Open Innovation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Cravens, W. D. (2000). Strategic Marketing. 6th Ed. Boston: Irwin McGraw-Hill.

Crawford (1994), M. (1994). New Product Management. Chicago: Irwin.

Duysters, G. M. & Hagedoorn, J. (2000). Core Competence and Company Performance in the Worldwide Computer Industry. The Journal of High Technology Management Research, 11, 75-91.

Hamel, G. & Prahalad, C. K. (1994). Competing For the Future. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Kuczmarski D.T. (1988). Managing New Products. New Jersey: Prentice Hall

Thomas, J. R. (1993). New Product Development; Managing and Forecasting for Strategic Success. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Urban G. & Hauser, J. (1993). Design and Marketing of New Products. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.

Introduction

Human resource function plays an important role in any organization. It is one of the factors that determine the direction a business takes and therefore a key driver to the success of any business.

As any other business function, human resource function is never static but instead tends to change with the change in the global trends affecting business organizations (Steinbock, 2010: 97). Bearing in mind the trends experienced in the world in general, it is clear that the world we live in will undergo transformation in the near future due to environmental forces at play.

The world has experienced redistribution of wealth, change of power guards, uncertainties in the global economy, and instability.

The business environment and the status quo have been challenged through technological changes, entrants of new players with unique way of doing business, and intense business competition for the market. There is increased diversity in the generations in the workplace due to the rise in the life expectancy which raises the question of management of human resource across a range of age groups.

Social attitude has also experienced revolution and is also under the forces of evolution. These factors have led to the constant change of expectations and needs of the global workforce (Marmolejo, 2012: 374).

As a result of these human resource managers are faced by the challenge of defining human resource functions of their organization in order to fit in the ever changing business environment in the global work place. Therefore, what should be role to be played by human resource function in Nokia Company in order to fit in the global workplace in the future?

Human Resource Trends

A number of researches have been conducted on the functions of human resource in future, in the ever changing business environment. In these studies a number of factors have been identified as key drivers for the change of human resource functions in the future.

In these studies the drivers were analyzed and their implications on the human resource strategy in the future indentified. Two main drivers were identified to be the force behind the change. The drivers fell under forces that shaped operating business environment and those that led to the evolution of trends within human resource function.

In the studies carried out, social demographic factors were identified to play a role in the evolution of human resource function. The forces behind the reshaping of the composition of age, structure and culture of the workforce were identified to be generated by widespread migration and increased aging global population. The workforce needs were also identified to be on a rise.

These workforce needs and expectations are determined by the growing middle class with divergent needs and global representation (Steinbock, 2010: 156). There is also the glowing population of educated middle class from the emerging markets and who now control a great amount of wealth. However, on the other hand there is financial stress on the part of their counterparts in the developed countries.

Therefore, the major factor that will differentiate organizations in the future in their search for talent will be their ability not only to anticipate social demographic trends but also to respond to the key factors appropriately. Rate of population growth, rate of aging of the population of the world, wellness and diversity of the workforce will play a major role in defining roles of a business in the future.

The main challenge that will face emerging markets economies and human resource managers will be to ensure employment of the growing pool of talents through improvement of standards of education and health services provided to the population.

The world has experienced rise in the rate of life expectancy with the rate expected to rise even further in future. Dependency ratio is expected to increase due to the increased population of the ageing people. This is likely to raise issues on age of retirement, provision of work for older generation and provision of pensions.

This increased ageing population has the potential to exacerbate shortage of talent and can cause huge financial liabilities to business organizations and governments as they struggle to meet financial obligations associated with pension fund and other commitment to employees (Stolle, 2006: 414). A mature population on the other hand has the advantage of providing essential experience needed in the business context.

The response of business organizations in the integration of this ageing and diverse workforce will directly determine their development in the global workplace, delivery of services, operations of the business and the ability meet the ever changing needs of the consumers and the employees. Effective response to a workforce diversified by generations will be required to be localized and with a personalized perspective.

Cultural mix in organizations both in emerging and developed countries will be shaped by migration of the workforce. Therefore human resource managers will be required to developed management skills able to maximize on the contribution of the diverse workforce both in the local and international markets.

They will also be required to understand the needs and expectations of the workforce consisting of various ethnic groups, races, culture among others (Losey and Meisinger, 1998: 170). Another issue that will face human resource managers will arise from transition of middle class. The expectation, aspiration and wealth level of the middle class is expected to rise.

This will not be the case in the developed economies where the middle class is expected to struggle financially for sometime. In most of these developed economies, standards of living and wealth levels have been badly affected by the financial global crisis experienced recently and the fiscal measures put in place to address the financial crises by the governments of the affected economies (Steinbock, 2010: 159).

There have also been negative effects on prices of assets, levels of personal debt and the levels of household’s income.

Another source of drive for future human resource functions will arise from the economic environment. The main challenge of business with international operations such as Nokia will be to compete in the emerging markets economies. The main challenges for human resource function in these emerging market economies arise from the need to recruit and develop talents in these markets.

The world will also experience the convergence of the emerging and developed market economies as a result of divergent rates of economic growth between the emerging and the developed market economies (Gitman and McDaniel, 2008: 221). This convergence of the world economy will be the source of the availability of labour in the emerging markets.

This will result from increased domestic opportunities in the emerging economies and economic challenges facing the developed market economies. Therefore, the need for further studies and job search in developed countries will diminish and as a result most of the talent will prefer to remain at home, thereby impacting on the capacity to innovate.

Human resource mangers are therefore faced by a complex situation of responding to the anticipated human resource needs in these emerging markets. In some countries such as those in Asia, the demand for talent is high due to the fact that the rate of business growth is more than the rate of talent development.

Also, it is considered unviable to transfer employees from west to east leaving human resource mangers with only option of developing talents in these countries. Therefore, the competition that arises in these economies poses a human resource challenge that calls for the review of the system of education in these countries.

With the world economy facing various challenges that include prevention of any future financial crises, recessions in the short term and balancing long term fiscal policies, consumer confidence on businesses may be hampered (Stolle, 2006: 416).

As a reduction of slowed down business and reduced revenue, business organizations are likely to employ cost reduction strategies in the operation of the businesses. These strategies may lead to reduction of human resource functions and the increased use of technology to carry out functions previously done by humans. Outsourcing will also be considered as an option to reduce costs of operation.

The rate of globalization in emerging market economies is high. Together with development of international companies from emerging markets, there will be a rise in the demand of talented workforce and additional challenge for human resource function to offer services with a global touch (Gitman and McDaniel, 2008: 224).

Therefore business will be required to develop leaders who will be able to understand operations of free markets in relations to the regulated capitalism markets. Human resource functions are also facing influence from business practices in the emerging markets.

There is emergence of new management styles and different cultures. Therefore there is a need to develop an understanding of these factors given the need for partnership between emerging and develop economies and increased collaboration and joint ventures in these two types of economies.

Business organizations require new models to support their operations as they grow into the global business environment. As they do so, complex structures to direct their internal and external operations develop. The complexity of the structures can be a source of risk to the business organization (Rothwell and Prescott, 2010: 556).

This complexity can be traced from regulations, development of procedures internal to the firm, offered products together with systems employed by the firm and reporting needs of the firm. This complexity is a source of challenge for human resource function.

The first challenge arises from the need to mobilize business organization’s ability to handle the complexity and to set up framework for uncertainty tolerance. In additional to this challenge, another challenge lies in the need to look into the complexity that may exist in activities of human resource function.

Human resource plays an important role of establish business trust within an organization through employment of proper ethics. Therefore ethics and trust are two major critical factors that differentiate organizations in terms of recruitment of employees and subsequently their retention by the organization (Losey and Meisinger, 1998: 173).

They also play a critical role in defining the relationship between an organization, government, and society in general. Human resource function will also be challenged by the manner in which employees will prefer to work.

There is decentralization of business functions and emergence of technologies that allow a worker to work away from the conventional work station. These have been the forces that have shaped the approach of employees to work and it is the force that is still shaping future workplaces.

There is also the concern for the environment, home offices and the increase of ageing employees in many organizations. Personalization desire, social change and expectations that differ, have also led to the restructuring of work processes (Kirkbride, 1994: 485).

Together, these factors have resulted into the need to restructure business operations and the working environment to include specific aspects such as team work, flexibility of working hours, design of the work place, change of management style and the layout of the work place.

There is also the view that suggests that self employment that has experienced exponential growth in the recent past and the increased use of contracts will give human resource functions an opportunity to working conditions that are different from the conventional ones.

Collaborations between business organizations and network of people will be a force that will lead to the formation rise of team work and identification of opportunities by individuals. These new methods of work will be challenging to human resource function. A question of collaborative technologies and social media is likely to impact on the future of human resource function.

These two have gained wide acceptance in the business environment which has led to their wide usage (Honeywell, 1982: 234). Social media has the ability to lead to the engagement of employees. Social media can also perform as a tool for acquisition of talent as it has the ability to facilitate communication and collaboration within an organization.

Tools of collaboration on the other hand have the ability to open up the process of innovation and to improve the way work is executed within an organization and across organizations between different partners. Despite these factors, human resource function is considered to be lagging behind in the employment of these new technologies.

Most organizations as a matter of fact do not allow their employees to use social media tools such facebook while at work (Honeywell, 1982: 245). This is despite the claim by these business organizations on their engagement of customers through social media. The contradiction that arises may result into conflicts and confusions within the organization and therefore raise a major challenge to human resource.

There are large numbers of social media users in the emerging markets and therefore a company stands a better chance to engage existing and potential employees, by adapting these technologies in their work places.

Innovation processes can be enhanced by open collaboration. The success or failure of this is determined by the cultural factors, style of management employed by the organization, the mindset of the employees and the reward system within the organization. The main idea here behind this open innovation is the fact that external ideas are required to complement those present within the organization (Walker and Perrin, 2001: 342).

Human resource function will be required to accept the fact that employees will require not only to contribute to ideas on research and development but also to the formulation of strategies that will give the organization a direction.

Another challenge that the organization will face in the execution of human resource functions is to maintain pace with the rapid evolution of the expectations of the employees. Technologies and personalization will have an effect on the manner of interaction between people and the information system and applications.

The availability of many points of information accessibility to customers and employees will lead to the adaptation of these technologies by human resource functions. The most challenging technological development for human resource function will involve the application of those technologies that have impact on the performance of employees.

Business environment is characterized by stiff competition. Therefore there is the need to come up with business models to set the basis for the funding of operations (Kirkbride, 1994: 489).

There is also a shift to collaborative consumption which has led to the sharing of most of resources, which is preferred over buying them. This, from the perspective of human resource function calls for a fundamental shift in the thinking and cultural behaviour of the company.

To add to the environmental factors, various human resource factors have led to the evolution of human resource functions. These factors will have a major impact on the execution of human resource functions in the future. Human resource has always faced the challenge of choice between focusing on the transaction elements of its functions or to take strategic partnership with the business (Rothwell and Prescott, 2010: 560).

However, with the rise of demand for talent, uncertainty in business environment and intense competition, human resource is expected to play more strategic roles. Therefore the human resource is faced with the challenge of shifting its focus on service delivery to strategic management.

Human resource focus on a large scale on the transactions can lead to their outsourcing and the strategic management being exercised by specialists external to the organization. Therefore the chances of success on strategic roles for those who prefer transaction roles are minimal.

Human resource department has the mandate of supplying an organization with the best possible talent (Kumar, 2011: 23). There is the existence of talent gap in the world which in most countries in the developing world is as a result of education standards.

The shortfall of talents can also be blamed on differences in culture and expectations (Honeywell, 1982: 265). Human resource management will have more responsibility of developing a model that can help the firm to tap talents from the global workplace.

As organizations increasingly employ metric, measurements and other analytical approaches to measure performance of business operations, the analytic of human resource performance will be crucial in the determination of the health of the company (Walker and Perrin, 2001: 345).

The implementation and subsequent adoption of these metrics by human resource will lead to success as a consequence of availability of continuous information together with the clear knowledge of the intention of the metrics and their meaning.

The world has embraced the idea of management of employee lifecycle which involves a total view of an employee’s career from recruitment through performance appraisal, progression of the career, and training and development. (Rothwell and Prescott, 2010: 564) Employers have found themselves involved in the early stages of employees than they used before as a result of technology.

This technology has made it possible to view the total lifecycle of an employee for a company like Nokia working across different countries. The use of these technologies has also made it possible for employees to access personal information easily across different geographical areas.

Conclusion

Organizations will be faced by a challenging workforce environment in future due to forces currently in operation which eventually will change the way business operate.

Therefore a company will be successful to compete in the global business environment only if it will be able to maximize the contribution of its human resource functions in the future. To achieve this, a company will be required to align its strategies with its core business operations and to employ talents necessary for the demands of the future workplace.

First the business will have to fully understand its clear purpose and then develop human resource strategies that will help the company to develop manpower able to meet the demands of the company. In developing human resource strategies, a business will be required to take into account demographic business environment, economic environment and factors specific to human resource.

In particular, the issue of workforce diversity will need to be addressed. This is because a diverse workforce brings in challenges to an organization ranging from differences in values, cultural beliefs and the manner of communication.

There is also the issue of the ageing workforce due to the rise in the expectancy level in the world. The main challenge to organizations in this case is to handle this generational diversity, with the main source of challenge arising from the values held by members of different generations. In terms of economic factors, businesses will be required to consider the effects of the emerging markets on the practices of human resource.

In these markets economies, there is the growth of the middle class who command a great deal of wealth. These people are guided by their aspirations for wealth as compared to their counterparts in developed economies who have just emerged from financial crises experienced in the world. These are some of the factors that will have to be considered in future.

Works Cited

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Kumar, Niranjan. (2011). Nokia: Channels of Distributions: Digital Media Marketing. Munchen: pp.23-47 GRIN Verlag.

Losey, Mike, Meisinger, Sue and Ulrich, Dave. (1998). The Future of Human Resource Management: 64 Thought Leaders Explore the Critical HR Issues of Today and Tomorrow. pp.170-196. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Marmolejo, Martin. (2012). Globalization: Opportunities and Implications. pp.374-401. Indiana: iUniverse.

Rothwell, William, J, and Prescott, Robert, K. (2010). Human Resource Transformation: Demonstrating Strategic Leadership in the Face of Future Trends. pp.556-564. Boston: Nicholas Brealey Publishing.

Steinbock, Dan. (2010). Winning Across Global Markets: How Nokia Creates Strategic Advantage in a Fast-Changing World. pp.97-167. John Wiley & Sons.

Stolle, Sarah. (2006). The History of the Nokia Company. pp.414-478. Munchen: GRIN Verlag.

Walker, Alfred, J., and Perrin, Towers. (2001). Web-Based Human Resources: The Technologies and Trends That Are Transforming. pp.342-388. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional.

Abstract

This paper examines the developments that have been witnessed in the mobile phone industry with particular attention to those witnessed at Nokia Corporation. A brief history of the Nokia Company and the products it has produced are given in the paper. The operations of Nokia Company in the developed nations and in the developing countries are examined with a focus on the probable course of action.

The paper examines the internal and external factors that can affect the operations of Nokia both at the local and at the international level. The necessary reinforcements and developments that are likely to be adopted by the company are also presented briefly.

Introduction

The current local and international markets are characterized by a lot of competition. The organizations that strive to have a large market should be sensitive and responsive to the changing trend in the market. The understanding of the forces within an organization and those external to the organization are of importance in developing a strategic marketing plan for the organization.

The management of an organization should be in a position to identify the strengths and weaknesses within its premises. It is then important that the management find a way of overcoming the weaknesses as well as capitalizing on the identified strengths of the organization. The management should also focus on the external forces that will influence the operations in the organization.

The competition that is got from other companies providing the same products and services becomes a threat to the organization. On the other hand, what appears to be a weakness on the competitors is an opportunity that an organization should use to gain competitive advantage over the others.

The needs of the customers often change making the market a very dynamic environment that requires constant monitoring. The companies that wish to capture a larger share of the market need to embark on inventive and innovative practices so that they always match the changing needs of the customers. There is a continued need of provision of better quality products and services at considerably lower prices.

Companies are therefore sandwiched between two opposing forces of the need to maximize revenue and that of lowering the prices to capture the customers. Keeping up to-date track of the developments in the market and extensive market and marketing research through innovations will enable an organization to maintain its share in the local and international level.

The mobile phone industry

Various developments have been seen in the mobile phone industry since the use of the first mobile devices in the early 1980s. The early phones that were an improvement on the radio calls were heavy, bigger, and very expensive. Motorola launched the first mobile handset in 1983. This was very bulky, weighing about one kilogram and costing about $4000.

Few individuals could afford this and thus there were not so many subscribers in the world. The mobile phones during this period are termed as the First Generation devices.

They were characterized by analogue technologies with the products developed according to the standards in a particular country (Alcacer et al, 2010, p.3). More developments were seen and towards the end of the decade, there were companies that provided both the mobile network equipments and the handsets. Much of the operational procedures in the mobile industry were under the control of the mobile operators.

The 2^nd generation mobile phones developed in the early 1990s as a shift from the analogue technology to the digital technology. There were additional services like messaging, call forwarding, and geographic positioning.

The devices were now developed not according to the local standards in a given region but according to the two internationally recognized standards namely the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). The introduction of these two standards would later dictate the course of competition in the market.

It turned out that GSM became more popular than CDMA and the companies that first adopted CDMA like Motorola found it had to maintain their position in the market since GSM provided services that were more current (Alcacer et al, 2010, p.2).

This is where Nokia overtook Motorola that had dominated the market in 1980s. The legal provisions by various governments also catalyzed competition in the industry. A significant global growth was recorded in the mobile industry during this period.

The third generation (3G) phones included voice calls as well as data transmission through the mobile devices. It involved the use of internet, sending or receiving videos, pictures and music. This resulted into other developments in the industry. The mobile operators now charged the individual services that were offered rather than the usual monthly fee they used to levy on the users.

There were further regulations from the governments that were reflected onto the users. The introduction of internet-enabled mobile phones attracted the attention of software developers like Google and Microsoft that embarked on developing programs that are compatible with the mobile handsets.

Currently, the mobile phone industry is the second fastest growing industry in the world after the Internet, with mobile phones that were sold in 2008 globally being estimated at 1.3 billion (Lippoldt & Stryszowski, 2009, p.183). The introduction of modern technology across all the sectors of economy has made the ownership and uses of mobile phones become a necessity.

Parents purchase phones for their children to provide an efficient means of communication when the children are away e.g. in school. The industry has undergone significant development in the last two decades. For instance, it has been observed that the market size in the US has grown from 24 million users in 1994 to around 180 million users by 2006 (Chan et al, 2006, p.1).

The industry has continued to grow following the technological advances witnessed in the related sectors. It is highly competitive and characterized by high level of innovations to counteract the ever-emerging technology.

Essentially, the competition in the industry is generated by certain fundamental factors. Firstly, there is need to lower the prices of the products while improving their quality. The customers in the industry would always desire improved services by the company provided at lower costs. Secondly, it has been observed that most mobile phone users use other applications apart from talking.

Incorporating several functions into a single gadget attracts more customers and is thus a source of the competition seen in the industry. The uses of e-mail, instant messaging, or the internet are some of the desirable applications that attract more customers in the current mobile phone market.

Other applications like camera and radio also add flavor to a given brand. The mobile phone industry is currently in its Mature Life Cycle stage. Almost all the potential customers of the mobile products are in possession of or use the applications (Chan et al, 2006, p.2).

There are several manufacturers in the mobile phone industry with a few companies having the lion’s share of the market. In 2006, Nokia had a third of the world market share with a growth rate of 39.6%. Motorola came the second with 20.3% of the international market (Chan et al, 2006, p.11). Samsung and LG came third and forth respectively with the latter only claiming 6.9% of the total market (Chan et al, 2006, p.12).

The market share of Nokia continued to expand especially in the emerging market and in 2009 the company was the leading in India and China recording 60% and 40% of the market respectively (Alcacer et al, 2010, p.1). The company produces about 500 million mobile handsets annually (Lippoldt & Stryszowski, 2009, p.183).

A brief history of Nokia

The current company Nokia Corporation traces its roots back to a company that was established in the second half of the nineteenth century. The company first started as a paper mill and it was developed into an energy generating company (Alcacer et al, 2010, p.1). The company later acquired some Finnish companies and embarked on the manufacture of rubber and further generation of energy.

The acquisition of the two Finnish firms led to the establishment of the present day Nokia Corporation in 1966. By 1970s, the company had taken a different course in its products and it was mainly concentrated on the electronic products.

The company developed its first computer for industrial use towards the end of the 1970s. Various developments have been registered in the company’s operations and it is currently the largest producer of the mobile phones in the world.

Developments that have been registered at Nokia Company

The kind of developments that have been witnessed at Nokia Corporation since the late 1970s are greatly attributed to the leaders who had the leadership potential and were sensitive to the changing market trends. The company originally confined its operations to four European nations namely Finland, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway (Alcacer et al, 2010, p.2).

As the CEO of the company between 1977 and 1992, Kari Kairamo spearheaded various developments. He saw the company expand its operations within the four European nations and into the other nations within the continent.

The company acquired a larger stake in the telecommunication company managed by the Government of Finland in 1981 and continued to acquire more telecommunication premises throughout the decade (Alcacer et al, 2010, p.2). The large establishment in Finland saw it suffer a great deal from the recession that occurred in the country between 1990 and 1993.

Jorma Ollila took over the leadership in 1992 and channeled his knowledge and expertise towards the further development of the company. A good understanding of the economic principles and background knowledge in engineering enabled him to initiate research and development programs in telecommunications (Alcacer et al, 2010, p.2).

A substantial proportion of the human resource and a significant percentage of the company’s total revenue were set aside for research and development. Ollila saw the company being internationally recognized especially after being the first to realize that mobile phones could also be used to signify an individual’s identity.

Mobile phones were increasingly being attached to the fashion industry. Ollila extended the initiatives developed by his predecessor of foreign establishments that saw the revenue obtained from non-European nations rise from 20% in 1992 to 60% in 2006 (Alcacer et al, 2010, p.2).

The company faced more challenges when Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo took over as the CEO in 2006. Various companies brought into the market mobile devices that had multiple applications integrated in a single device and coupled with lower prices to win more customers.

The introduction of more integrated models by competitors like Motorola, Samsung, Apple and LG and the financial crisis witnessed in 2008 saw the sales at Nokia decline by a substantial percentage (Alcacer et al, 2010, p.2). This prompted the management of the company under the leadership of Kallasvuo to redesign the operations at the organization.

The CEO pointed out that there was an urgent need to set up transformation programs. He asserted that the solutions to the problem that the company was experiencing involved not only an improvement on the quality of the devices but also the introduction of other services that would help attract and retain more customers (Alcacer et al, 2010, p.3). Several changes were made in the organizational structure at Nokia.

The traditional business groups were replaced by functional units that would work together towards the improvement of services. A proper coordination would be ensured so that all the functional groups like the marketing, supply chains, and brand management are closely associated in every decision making in the organization.

Nokia partnered with another company Siemens to form Nokia Siemens Network, a joint venture that was aimed at providing better quality services owing to the technological advances that were emerging.

Nokia in the developed markets

The sales of the products of Nokia have been seen to decrease in the developed countries. For instance, it was observed that in the United States, the company had lost the market and could only sell 10% of its mobile gadgets in 2009 as compared to about 33% that had been recorded in 2002 (Alcacer et al, 2010, p.1).

The company also recorded a significant decrease in sales of its product in the European nations in the last quarter of that year. It had also stopped two-decade operations in Japan owing to the emerging competitors leading to a decrease in sales.

Nokia has been receiving stiffer competition in the developed nations since the subscribers in these regions can afford high-end devices manufactured by competitors like Apple and RIM that had registered significant increases in the market share in the US.

Nokia in the emerging markets

The markets in the developing countries are competitive as most organizations strive to utilize the arising opportunities. In doing this, the organizations often apply different global strategies namely Aggregation, Adaptation and Arbitrage commonly referred to as AAA Triangle. Aggregation refers to the attempts by an organization to improve its economy of scale through standardizing its operations.

This is achieved through extensive research and development (Ghemawat, 2007, p.4). Adaptation refers responding to the needs of the local markets by providing the relevant products and services. It is aimed at gaining competitive advantage and thus improving the market share.

It is then facilitated through advertisements and promotions to increase the awareness among the consumers (Ghemawat, 2007, p.3). Arbitrage involves examining the differences that occur between regional or national markets and noting regions that have low cost of production. Parts of supply chain like those that require much labor can then be located in the regions that have cheap labor (Ghemawat, 2007, p.4).

There is need to consider not only the internal integration but also external integration with other partners. The application of the three strategies my not be practical but a combination of two is often achievable. The differences that are witnessed across the borders will be very essential in determining which strategy to apply.

Nokia has been doing pretty well in the emerging markets due to the application of the above mentioned strategies at different times, as the business progresses. Adaptation to the changing market conditions has enabled Nokia to survive in these emerging markets.

According to Anderson and Markides (2006), consumers in the emerging markets have relatively low incomes and therefore low-priced products are more favorable to them.

In addition, such consumers have challenges accessing conventional advertising media, so they may not be aware of new products, and in the event that they are made aware of the new products, most of them are reluctant to change, as they are always suspicious of products that they do not have prior experience on (Anderson and Markides, 2006, p. 10).

Nokia has also applied aggregation as a strategy at certain points. The market research and the research and developments carried out on the products enable the company to produce goods and services that meet the local and international standards. This was evidenced earlier through the adoption of the GSM standards. Its strategy of providing products of all prices has enabled it survive in these emerging markets.

In the emerging markets, the company has been sensitive on price-performance ratio by producing phones that are culturally acceptable; this is through eliminating some features or producing relatively smaller phones that will be delivered at low prices in order to boost acceptability and affordability (Anderson and Markides, 2006, p. 3).

This reduced competition from other companies like Apple and Samsung that produced middle to high-end devices (Alcacer et al, 2010, p.7). External integration like the joint venture with Siemens also enabled the company to proceed well in the emerging markets. Over the last decade, much of the revenue was derived from the emerging markets and the trend is likely to continue.

The capability of Nokia in the global context

The capability of the Nokia Corporation can be examined through the analysis of the internal and external forces that influence its operations.

Strengths at the company

One of the challenges that can face any organization is lack of enough capital. The inventive and innovative procedures necessary for the developments of products and services that meet the growing needs of the customers often require a lot of funds that may not be available. However, Nokia has managed to escape such a financial bondage through the large market share that it has recorded in past.

The consumers are the most precious assets and so the most important capital that an organization has (Chan et al, 2006, p.10). The availability of capital to carry out inventive and innovative research will enable the firm to meet the timely needs of the customers.

The other strength of the Nokia Company is the presence of qualified professionals in the Human resource department. There is, therefore, the expertise that is necessary during the product improvement. The organizational structure that allows for communication and consultation between departments is fundamental to the success of the organizational operations.

The management has been able to respond to the changes in the market trend and mitigate the recurrence of any such misfortune. Coupled with the financial assurance, the presence of the qualified personnel enables the company to develop business that is more profitable.

Besides, the company provides products that are user-friendly with most of the applications that attract many potential users. The products are also available in a wide range of prices thereby accommodating different categories of customers within the market. A proven record of brand positioning has also been witnessed as one of the key contributors the developments seen at the Nokia Company (Alcacer, 2010, p.1).

The organization has been seen to develop marketing strategies that allows its product be evaluated by the customers above the other available products. The company has been seen to redesign and reinvent new products since its establishments depending on the market needs (Alcacer, 2010, p.1).

This ability to respond to the market forces and develop new products is likely to enhance the survival of the company in the local and global market. The adoption of the slogan “Connecting People” was an effective brand positioning strategy that saw Nokia being among the top five highly valued brands in the world by 2000 (Alcacer et al, 2010, p.2).

Its weaknesses

Even though the company provides a variety of products with a wide range of prices, some of the products that have desirable features and application are not affordable by many individuals in the societies. Besides, some of its modern applications are not friendly to a common man with low education level.

The company is not well established in some of the emerging markets. There are no well-established service centers in these regions creating an opportunity for the competing organizations in these regions.

The opportunities

The company has enjoyed the greater portion of the market and it is still set to have the advantage owing to the wide range of products and different prices recorded. The economic developments that are witnessed in the developing countries like India provide the company an opportunity to expand its business operations into these areas since the growth recorded in the developed nations is very slow (Ewing, 2008).

The economic growth witnessed in these developing countries has led to an improvement in the living standards of the people thereby increasing their purchasing power for the mobile phones.

Threats

The industry is characterized by high rate of competition. Nokia receives stiff competition from other companies like Motorola and Samsung. Competition is catalyzed by lowering of the prices of products, providing after sales services like a one-year product warranty, and integrating new modern features in the mobile devices.

An example of competition as a threat was witnessed in 2004 when the company’s sales reduced significantly due to the introduction of clamshell phones in the industry.

The management at Nokia did not foresee that the model first developed by Motorola would be popular in the market and be the favorite model of the majority in the market (Alcacer et al, 2010, p.2). The organization is thus required to be updated on the current trends in the market and make the appropriate adjustment s they are needed.

Conclusion

The developments that have been seen at Nokia Corporation correspond to that observed in the entire mobile phone industry. The challenges that have been met are typical of the challenges that are encountered in a competitive market.

Besides, the management at the organization has shown a commitment to carrying out research and product development to meet the changing needs of the customers. It is also observed that Nokia is likely to experience more competition in the developed markets as compared to competition in the emerging market.

Therefore, the organization needs to continue operating in the developed and the developing countries but with much emphasis in establishment in the emerging markets and encourage further research and developments in order to provide quality services that are affordable by the individuals in the developing companies.

The organizational structure that has been developed by the leaders is likely to promote this innovative research and the company will be able to compete with others even in the developed markets. Meanwhile, the management should be focused on utilizing the opportunities that are constantly created by the developing economies.

The products offered by the companies will range from the low-end to high-end devices. They need to incorporate several favorite features in one device for all the categories of customers.

Other than the price consideration, the organization will have to develop products and services that are appropriate in different conditions. There is likely to be a large drift into the information services other than hardware productions.

References

Anderson, J. and Markides, C. (2006). Strategic Innovation at the base of the Economic Pyramid. Web.

Alcacer, J. et al. (2010). Emerging Nokia. NY: Harvard Business School.

Chan, J. et al. (2006). Cell Phone Industry Analysis. Web.

Ewing, J. (2008). Nokia Brings the Web to Emerging Markets. Business Week Online. Web.

Ghemawat, P. (2007). Managing Differences: The Central Challenge of Global Strategy. Harvard Business Review. Web.

Lippoldt, D. and Stryszowski, P. (2009). Innovation in the Software Sector. Paris: OECD Publishing.

Executive Summary

Fundamentally, this paper seeks to do an in-depth critique of Nokia 808 Pure View Smartphone, which was just released into the market recently.

In doing so, central focus will be on giving an evaluative analysis of a marketing strategy that can be adopted by Nokia in marketing the 808 Pure View Smartphone such that it not only accrues profits for the company but it also manages to edge-off the strong competition from other phones in the market—including those from Nokia as well as from other competing companies like Samsung and Apple.

In 2010, Nokia had the largest market share in the world. To support this, Abry, (2011a) reports a market share of 36.3% by Nokia in 2010 followed by Samsung at 25.3, Apple iPhone at 16.6% and Blackberry at 15.4%. However, over the recent time, Nokia has been facing a downward spiral in its profits and it global dominance has been replaced by Samsung.

Reports by Abry (2011a), which were based on tabulations at the end of the year, indicate that Samsung’s market share increased by more than double to 52.5% while Nokia’s market share reduced by more than half to 16.9%.

These statistics, combined with the dismal performance of Nokia’s phones when compared to the likes of Samsung Galaxy S2, indicate that there is something direly wrong that needs to be corrected by Nokia. It is with all these in mind that the marketing plan below is proposed for the newly released Nokia Pure View 808 Smartphone.

Organizational Background

Nokia is a global communication company that has been operations for over 100 years, having been founded in 1865. In essence, Nokia mainly deals with these sales of mobile phones, electronic devices and many other electronic services such as the internet, games and other applications.

In spite of witnessing huge challenges in 2011, reports from various quarters indicate that Nokia is the 14 best global brands as of 20011. This, essentially, underlines the factor that Nokia is a large company and just like it has been in the past, the company will find a way of sailing through the usual deep murky waters of phone sales. The diagram below gives a brief glimpse of the nature of operations at Nokia and its outlets.

An interim report released by Nokia in January 2012 shows a sharp drop by the company when compared to the previous year. This, probably, is the reason the company decided to venture into the diversification of its business endeavors.

For instance, Nokia’s website indicates that the company recently got into an inter-cooperation with Microsoft so that they can be able to release better Smartphones in the Market. Also, a cutting down of expenditures was necessary based on the underperformance of the company going by their high expectations in 2011. Whether or not the company succeeds is yet to be known.

Portfolio Analysis

As was earlier mentioned, Nokia is currently the second strongest brand in the world following Samsung. Having suddenly gone down in its market share has been able to raise several questions from various scholars.

To most scholars, the increased adoption and demand for Smartphones and phones operating using the Windows OS has, over the recent times taken the world by storm. However, Nokia, on the other hand, was slow to create Smartphones while using the Windows OS.

Companies like Samsung, who had already started incorporating, were therefore bound to have the upper hand. Nonetheless, turn-around plans have since then been made by Nokia with huge changes expected in the near future. The 808 Pure View Smartphone is just one of the many surprises that are yet to be unleashed by Nokia. The diagram in Appendix I gives a succinct summary of the focus product portfolio and its key areas.

Situational analysis

In conducting a situational analysis, the main area of concern is usually the establishment of the key aims and objectives of a project or report. In essence, marketing objectives simply refer to the key issues that need to be achieved by the end of the report. In this case, the following are the main aims and objectives of the study:

• To analyze the nature of Nokia Pure View (41 Megapixels) on the market
• To show the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the 808 Pure View phone while doing a situational analysis so that we can know strategies in which the product can be bettered.
• To propose ways in which Nokia Pure View (41 Megapixels) can be marketed in a better way so as to defeat its competitors
• To find the market response (opinions and ideas) on the Nokia 808 phone then grope for ways in which the product can be tailored to meet the needs of these consumers.

In order to achieve the above objectives, other key issues such as the geographical environment where the Nokia targets to market the phone, the target population and the competitors in the market will also have to be analyzed. In doing so, the situational analysis will be divided into the macro-environmental and the micro-environmental analysis then discussed.

Macro-Environmental Analysis

In doing a macro-environmental (situational) analysis for this product, two key marketing tools will be used. These are the PESTEL analysis and the SWOT analysis.

PESTEL Analysis

Essentially, the PESTEL analysis involves doing political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal assessments of the product in questions. In the case of Nokia 808, the PESTEL analysis is as follows.

In PESTEL, the factors are taken into consideration in the following manner:

Political Factors

In UAE where the product is mainly targeted, there is a strong political system which accommodates liberalism, conservatism, democracy and independence, all at the same time. This is more-or-less representative of the key ideologies in an international, thus making it relatively easy for the product to penetrate the market both locally and internationally.

However, in order to be cooperative with both the local and international political environment, the product’s marketing should be tailored such that it meets embraces a good number of the existing political ideologies. It is also worth noting that UAE is mostly dominated by Muslims.

Consequently, the political environment is mostly run using Islamic principles like Sheria laws. Reports on the ground indicate that Islamic principles do not have anything against mobile phone sales.

However, the prevalence of terrorist and jihadist activities, which tend to disrupt smooth running of businesses, pose potential threats. In marketing the Nokia 808, caution should thus be taken by the marketers with relevant strategies being put in place for such occurrences (Darowski et al., 2006)

Economic Factors

According to a report by Euromonitor (2012), after a down-ward spiral of sales in consumer electronics witnessed in 2008 and 2009; the years 2010 and 2011 recorded healthy growths courtesy of the improvement of UAE’s economy which, in turn, improved consumer confidence in the consumer electronics.

As of today, the economy of UAE is very strong with Dubai being the strongest and most reliable county in terms of capability in providing capital for consumer electronics. Yet still, UAE has room for developing products and services. This offers good economic prospects for a developed company like Nokia and the need to increase the reputation of the Nokia 808 phone.

Additionally, most of the people in the areas targeted by the 808 phone are financially capable and maintain a luxury life, which makes it easy for them to afford buying the phone without breaking a sweat. In addition, Nokia has been able to maintain its good brand name in spite of the market challenges like the 2008 economic crisis.

However, over the recent times, there has been strong competition from companies such as Samsung (majorly through android products) and blackberry. For this reason, in order for the Nokia 808 phone to perform well and edge out its increasingly strong competitors; Nokia will have to find a way of overcoming the challenges and hiccups expected in the near future.

Social Factors

Socially, the UAE, as a region, is famous for their great hospitality. This hospitality has been accorded to both the people from the localities and the visitors to this region who come in for various aspects ranging from trade to tourism (Cherrayil, 2012c).

The people of this region are also known for their adoration of luxurious technological items such as phones and computers. These good social aspects prospect an amiable environment for the 808 Smartphone.

Also, as it has been previously discussed, the UAE is one of the richest regions in the world with love for luxurious lifestyles. Having a new phone like the 808 Pure View phone will therefore be viewed as a great plus in someone’s social status thus encouraging people to buy it.

Technological Factors

Technology is making a lot of jobs much simpler and faster, and in UAE, the situation is no different. In fact, technology is a key part of UAE’s companies and the fact that Nokia has introduced the 808 phone which has immense technological capabilities is a key reason it will be easily accepted in the UAE.

The other crucial aspect in which technology is bound to play an important role is in regard to the use of social marketing avenues such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn in promoting the phone.

Environmental Factors

Apparently, the climate, environment or the geographic conditions of the UAE, or any country for that matter, does not have a huge influence on the sale of phones.

However, going by the recent concerns of eco-friendly products, a few concerns are bound to arise if the 808 phone is not eco-friendly, However, so far, there have not been any complaints voiced to this regard so it is safe to say that, environmentally, the 808 Pure View is a safe phone.

Legal Factors

If Nokia is to succeed in marketing the 808 Pure View phone in an effective way, the company must follow all the legal laws that are currently in place with regards to telecommunication gadgets.

For example, they should ensure there is no discrimination in their shops for the employees and clients while engaging in their business endeavours. Also, they should also ensure that any customer grievances are solved rightfully.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

To begin with, the Nokia has been in the telecommunication business long enough to be able to identify the indicators of success or failures of the operations.

Being that the Nokia is the second-best market brand in phone sales after Samsung, the company is well-placed in terms of sales when compared to their competitors (Abry, 2011a).

Again, the company has professional marketing system which has been able to help it in launching the new branches and products while intermittently identifying new marketing avenues and trends relevant to their telecommunications business. Examples here include Nokia’s reportedly increased sales in Middle East and Africa.

Weaknesses

There is never any plan that has no weaknesses or challenges that are foreseen. As was earlier mentioned, there are some technologies and modern-day phone essentials that are yet to be incorporated in the 808 phone. This gives an advantage to its competitors.

Also, recent reports indicate that the 808 Smartphone is set to be shipped at 450 Euros. Even though this figure is manageable to some people, the money is not affordable to financially challenged individuals. The phone, is therefore seen as a gadget meant for the elitists in the societies and not for the common person.

Additionally, the key to Nokia’s success has been their regular and error-free supply from its vendors. However, there certain times that delays occur in their supplies and distribution systems thus greatly affecting their clients. Also, unlike the likes of Samsung Galaxy S2, which already have client bases, the 808 Smartphone is yet to establish one.

Opportunities

To begin with, the recent boom in Smartphones presents a good demand for accessories such as the 808 phone (Cherrayil, 2012a). In addition, the introduction of the 808 phone will definitely help in increasing Nokia’s market share, thus helping the company to progress in a myriad of ways.

Threats

The main threat for Nokia and the launch of the 808 phone is the ever-increasing competition from companies like Android (Samsung) and iOS (Apple iPhone) which have been reportedly gaining increased market shares (Cherrayil, 2012b).

To sum up the SWOT analysis, it is very important to take note that Nokia has made has, in the past, been able to deal with the threats and weaknesses just like the ones mentioned above. It can, therefore, be expected for them to handle these strengths and weaknesses while augmenting the strengths and opportunities.

Micro-environmental Analysis

Porter’s Five Forces

The use of Porter’s five forces in analyzing the business plans is something that is today almost synonymous to the process of strategic marketing planning. These five forces, advanced by the renowned macroeconomist and Harvard scholar;

Michael E. Porter in 1979, essentially helps in guiding business planners on what to expect in their new business ventures and how they should handle their challenges as well as opportunities. A more circumspective analysis of these forces, in relations to the Nokia Pure View phone, is done below.

New Competitor’s Entry

Reportedly, Nokia plans to widen the scope of its businesses such that the entry of new competitors will not have much effect on them.

Substitute Product or Service

In essence, the diversification plan which entails venturing into other regions while bettering its product (Nokia 808) will duly ensure that this force is taken care of.

Increase in Bargaining Power of Buyers

With the rise in the number of outlets similar to Nokia, customers will have a wide range of options to choose from thus resulting into price war and ultimately favouring customers. They will have a higher bargaining power. In regard to our case, Nokia is known for having good prices for its buyers, and the same principle will be replicated in the 808 Pure View phone so no difficulty is expected.

Increase in Bargaining Power of Suppliers

If the Nokia Pure View performs well as anticipated, then more suppliers will be required. Nokia will, therefore have to increase the number of suppliers so as not to be affected by any market fluctuations.

Intensity of Competitive Rivalry

Reports from various quarters indicate that Nokia is reputed for having good relations with other market players, so very minimal challenges are expected. But even more importantly, the existing players only act as a motivation for the company to work extra hard—something which is bound to ensure that continuous progress ensues.

Competitor Analysis

In today’s fast-growing and highly competitive market of phone sales, there is need for organizations to adopt an effective strategy for marketing in order to gain revenues and gain competitive advantage as well as meet its operational goals (Porter, 1985). This is driven by the presence of competition among companies, for the limited market of the companies’ similar products.

However, a company that has a strategy that is ineffective rarely attains success or survives in the market (Perrey & Riesenbeck, 2009). This occurs since those companies that have effective marketing strategies win a large pool of customers in comparison to those companies that have weak marketing strategies.

In a competitive environment like mobile phone sales, success is normally measured in terms of gains (market share, revenues), and meeting operational goals.

Whereas positive competition is encouraged and recommended among market players; some companies resort into unethical acts such as blackmail, copycatting of products and corruption just to stay above the rest. Over time, Nokia has witnessed such issues but, in one way or another, they have always found a way of travailing.

According to Cherrayil (2012b), In UAE, Nokia faces stiff competition from companies like Samsung, Research in Motion, Apple and blackberry as shown in Appendix II. Other competitors like LG, HTC, Sony Erickson, Huawei and Motorola are said to be significant competitors. In 2011, Cherrayil reports that Nokia sold a total of 95.83 million devices in the year 2011.

On the other hand, Abry (2011b) reports that Samsung sold over 300 million. The dominance of Nokia being replaced by Samsung, according to Abry (2011a), is based on reasons such as the increased acceptability of Smartphones which, over the recent times, have been available in low prices.

Also, the models Galaxy S and Galaxy S II which have comparably superior features to those of most Nokia phones are said to have immensely contributed to Samsung’s (Android) dominance (Abry, 2011b). A brief comparison table of the Nokia 808 Pure View and Samsung Galaxy S2 on some key aspects can be found in Appendix I

Based on that comparison, it is worth taking note of the following pointers. The Galaxy S2 is better than Nokia 808 pure view in terms of Price (it is cheaper), Operating system (Increased dominance and relevance of the Android OS), Processor (Dual-core is better than single-core), Display (large screen with big resolution), and Memory/Storage (it has more RAM and internal memory thus faster).

The only instance that the 808 Nokia is better is in terms of Camera (no phone in the market has camera features even mildly close to it). Probably, this superiority of the Galaxy S2 is the reason Samsung performed very well in 2011—as was earlier mentioned.

Even more worryingly, Cherrayil (2012d) says that, in the coming years, the Symbian market share is expected to drop with the Android phones being expected to increase. Even more importantly, most UAE clients have been less keen on windows phones with most clients looking for the luxurious phone capabilities offered by phones such as Android.

This, essentially, is the reason why Android’s market share has been going up at a high rate—with more sales and market share being anticipated in the future. If progress is to be made by Nokia, more improvements should be made in their products so as to measure up other competitors like Samsung (Bodzash, 2012).

Also, if Nokia is to spread its market tentacles beyond the gulf region, more marketing endeavours should be directed in Arabic countries and regions Cherrayil (2012e). Commendably, such initiatives have already commenced with recent reports by Cherrayil (2012d) projecting sales totalling to $1.2 billion in 2012.

Stakeholder Analysis

In order to know the role of stakeholders in marketing a product like the 808 Smartphone, were must preliminarily know their categories. To this regard, Darowski et al. (2006) say that “These stakeholders are categorized into three groups: the primary, secondary, and tertiary stakeholders.”

Darowski et al. further advance these categories by saying that primary stakeholders basically consist of “managers, investors, customers, creditors, suppliers, wholesalers/retailers, employees and competitors.”

The secondary level of stakeholders consists of “the natives, local community, government, social activist and the media” while the tertiary stakeholders is comprised of the group formed by the merging of primary and secondary stakeholders.

Regardless of the category, Darowski and his fellow authors argue that all these stakeholders must ensure that they all play the roles that are assigned to them in order to orient success.

In the case of Nokia, stakeholder cooperation has been one of the major strong-points in the company with several examples being in place to exemplify the cooperation amongst stakeholders. For instance, in making the Nokia Pure View Smartphone, Catanzariti (2012) says that several technologies sourced from various companies had to be used.

On top of that, many co-operations had to be done with stakeholders such as the government, managers, retailers and even social media houses in order for the 808 Smartphone to be released into the market.

Nonetheless, there are still many issues that are yet to be put in place, in regard to stakeholder cooperation, if the 41 megapixels phone is to have a lasting impact on the market (Cherrayil, 2012e). For example, more retailers and wholesalers have to be supplied with the product so that they can easily outlet the phone to the targeted populations.

Organizational Analysis

Nokia is a global company with major specialization in mobile communications. According to Nokia’s website, the company has a global outreach with over 1.3 billion people using Nokia products to share experiences, key in data, access information, send texts, speak to each other or even capture day-to-day events.

Based on their vision to be a globally respected brand name with diverse products and services; Nokia has been able to release several products and services that have made it stay relevant to its ever-increasing clients. It is, however, worth noting that Nokia’s dominance is mainly felt in Europe and America—with other regions coming up slowly but surely.

In assessing whether or not a company is effectively serving its purposes, Boone (2001) says that the market should be identifiable or measurable, accessible, meaningful, and substantial. These characteristics are normally divided into four segmentations, namely geographic segmentation, demographic segmentation, psychographic segmentation, and behavioural segmentation of the market.

Among these, demographic segmentation is the most fitting option for Nokia. In essence, demographic market segmentation subdivides the market into units based on nationality, education, income, religion, family life cycle, gender, and age.

This type of segmentation forms the most common means of customer groups’ segmentation. This is due to the ease of measuring demographic variables, and various needs, usage, and wants of consumers vary intensively with respect to demographic variables.

The reason this method would be most befitting for Nokia is because the company products have sensitivity to various demographic groups. However, this should take place after an effective analysis of customers’ behavioural variables is conducted (Cherrayil, 2012d).

These preliminary market researches aid in the identification of the various factors that may impact effective demographic segmentation of the company’s product.

Moreover, demographic segmentation of the company should occur through integration with the psychographic segmentation. This is because the Nokia 808 phone is more of a luxury than a basic need. As such, people of the same age may have different psychographic makeup, which will influence their buying characteristics of the product.

Therefore, adoption of demographic market segmentation is an effective strategy for the company to make more sales, as well as attract and retain a rich customer base, for its products as shown in Appendix II. This will aid in an effective growth and development of the company while it serves its clients effectively.

STP Analysis

Segmentation in Nokia 808 will be based on three factors. First, we will have demographic segmentation. This will basically include the product packed with features such as music, social network apps and games which can be used by teenagers for entertainment, networking and communication.

On the other hand, features like news, sports, real-time access to stock exchange markets will help satiate the needs of business-minded individuals. All these will be provided in various colors to appeals to the various aesthetic needs of men and women.

Second, we will have geographic segmentation whereby the needs of the UAE region will have to be incorporated in the product. For instance, since majority of the people in UAE are Muslims, the phone and advertisements will be tailored to reach this audience effectively.

Third, psychographic segmentation will be duly incorporated in marketing the product. Current information from most studies indicate that UAE is a booming business center with various social events, entertainment arenas and keen eye on sports.

For this reason, the 808 phone will be perfect since it already has good social connectivity, access to maps and business applications, among other factors. In addition to all these, issues such as prices and location will also have to be keyed in. The more affordable the phone is, the easier it will be to sell it just in the same way the phone will be probably perform better in urban centers than in rural ones

Strategy analysis

The strategic marketing of Nokia 808 phone will be done entail various aspects as summarized in the diagram below:

Product Strategy

It is inherent to state that solving the problems of the new Nokia 808 Pure View requires a multifaceted approach where several strategies will be combined together.

For instance, in order for improvements to be made on the phone so that its relatively small display resolution (640 x 340) requires for more funds to be pumped in by the stakeholders while the Nokia’s engineers find a way of increasing the resolution while maintaining the uniqueness of the phone in that a number of stakeholder groups must be duly incorporated in to ensure the smooth running and sustainability of the educational system.

On a general level, I would give the following in the bid to help better the Nokia 808 Pure view camera.

To begin with, the Nokia can coordinate with other phone-companies in the market to help them revolutionize the phone in a better way. Secondly, the phone was just launched recently; thus many people do not know about the phone’s existence and in instances that they do, very few people have been able to buy it.

As a marketer, I would encourage more advertisements to be placed in print and electronic media (both local and international) as well as in social network sites. In effect, it will not only help the targeted population get to learn more about the phone, but it will also encourage more people to purchase it.

In essence, Product lifecycle decisions can sometimes be complex and challenging—especially in the Telecommunications industry where several market players with a myriad of products exist. With the presence of such players, competition can sometimes be very stiff, thus making it difficult for supply chains to align themselves adequately.

To make matters worse, the advent of globalization has forced multinational companies like Nokia not only to make products that suit the needs of their local clients but also serve their international audiences as well. Such challenges in product life circles, supply chains and target markets duly call for effective PLC strategies to be put in place.

In this case, Nokia’s management should create better supply chains and marketing strategies that will widen the scope of their newly launched Nokia Pure View phone.

On a specific level—regarding the core, actual and augmented product strategies to help ensure competitive advantage of the 808 Pure View phone; I would give the following recommendations:

Core

In essence, the 808 Pure View phone’s body design is based on the Nokia N9, which was reportedly introduced in the year 2010. Even more importantly, the N9 phone has several functionalities and technologies that are similar to the Nokia 808 model.

This phone will therefore help in furthering the already well-established target market. During problems in the 808 phone (especially those problems related to the N9 phone), it would be recommendable for users to seek professional help from ardent N9 mechanics.

Actual

The 808 phone has been reported to use several interfaces such as the windows phone design system commonly referred to as Metro. The availability of such an interface encourages the use of applications such as Facebook and Gmail.

Here, the strategy I would recommend would be for the company to continually work appropriately as it has always been the case. Moreover, the Nokia’s relatively good brand name together with the 808 brand features such as the 41 megapixels camera sensor and 4in AMOLED display with a resolution will greatly help in the marketing of the phone.

Augmented

Being the first phone to ever run the Windows OS, the 808 does indeed offer immense potentialities to its users. However, if more progress is to be facilitated, more applications that can easily utilize platforms such as Symbian and Meego—even if it means paying some extra cash to the sellers.

Pricing Strategy

The Price strategy in the 808 phone is to begin by selling the phone at a relatively high, yet affordable price, then as time goes by; the phone’s price will be reduced. This is based on the fact that designing and making the phone took a lot of time and money.

By selling it at a relatively high price will thus help in compensating for the immense effort put in making the phone. However, once the phone has already cut out a niche in the market, the price will be reduced with profits to be realized through the economies of scale—whereby selling many phones at a cheap price will result in small but lasting profits.

Also, this will help in edging off the competition from companies like Samsung. Again, one of the key strategies that could be used by marketers of the 808 phone would be to release it into the market and let it compete against Samsung’s Omina, Apple’s iPhone 4S which are more-or-less priced similarly to it. In doing so, key considerations should be made on the price of the 808.

Being a new phone which took a lot of time to be made and uses various high-profile technologies; it is expected for the phone to be priced highly (Catanzariti, 2012).

Nonetheless, in order to attract customers while bettering its image, marketers of the 808 phone should give certain discounts to its buyers so that the phone can be afforded by low, middle and high-minded people. Other promotional strategies, such as involving people in competitions which can be won even by people who are not rich enough to afford the full price of the phone, should be put in place.

Place Strategy

Despite the fact that all facets of a business are important, the external environment we work in is the most vital aspect. The points below support this argument. The external business environment has numerous influences on a business unit’s strategic planning.

The external environment essentially refers to the outside considerations like the government regulatory framework, the technological advances, state of the economy, the changes in cultural environment and tastes, and the state of political affairs, among others.

Of course, the internal environment also has a huge part to play in strategic planning and making sure that the firm’s objectives are met. These include matters to do with the personnel management, internal processes like sales and deliveries as well as the resource availability and modes of raising capital for long and short term goals.

However, the external factors—to, a great extent, determine what is to be done internally. For instance, the government may limit business ownership by foreigners to a certain percentage and this mostly affects companies who are seeking to spread their business tentacles.

This is because they may fail to meet the shareholding threshold they need to control the decision-making organ in the foreign subsidiary. Effectually, this affects strategic business planning in terms of finance because the business has to adjust its requirements to conform to the required regulatory concerns.

Again, technological advances and developments in information, communication, and technology have also greatly affected internal business processes in that businesses have been able to replace human capital with computers to hasten the processes or reduce system errors.

Finally, cultures also go through transformations and these changes in tastes and preferences contribute to effective drafting of strategic management. This has a big impact on companies that are involved in the direct sales of products. A product meant for a definite market has to reflect the cultures of the place for it to be accepted effectively (David, 2009).

Bearing all these in mind, a multifaceted place strategy will be implemented such that both internal and external environments will be duly considered—with emphasis being on the latter. The fact that different places offer different forms of marketing will have to be considered.

For instance, the different markets in the United States, United Kingdom and Eastern Europe have developed their niche market in terms of the service and product provision. The markets have perfected in developing brands that are preferred in the different countries tom improve their sales.

For instance, products that are popular in the United States could be unfamiliar to the market in UAE. Before venturing into any place, an in-depth market research in the targeted places in UAE will have to be done to determine the best brands that will be appreciated. Also, issues such as the expected challenges will have to be researched.

In addition, the types of promotion differ from market to market, as shown in Appendix II. An example to this, over 75% of households in the United States have access to computers and internet (Solomon, 2009). In this regard, it is better to advertise over the internet in the United States as opposed to other nations which are not conversant with things like computers.

Finally, according to their official website, Nokia had to decentralize its distribution to end-users in china, going from three sales offices to seventy to counter the sales efforts of local phone producers. It also introduced china-specific phone models with special software.

These initiatives gained Nokia a strong preference over Motorola and Samsung. If such place-based strategies can be continued, immense progress can be realized by Nokia. See Appendix II for information on Nokia’s current performance compared to other companies.

Promotional Strategy

In today’s world, the use of technologies in conducting public relations campaigns is greatly pronounced and preferred by most audiences. It is for this reason that online promotional tools will be used. More specifically, social media campaigns (through social forums like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) will be conducted with messages specifically tailored to meet our aims and objectives.

Other than the use of social forums, promotional or advertisement materials will also be placed in selective newspapers and magazines in form of banners and short captivating messages to target people who love print media messages.

In addition, marketing messages will also be spread through popular radio and televisions networks in the targeted regions. Finally, the use of roadshows and word of mouth advertisement campaigns will be relevantly used. By combining all these tools, a good blend of information spread is bound to happen to the targeted audiences.

Customer Perceived Value

Generally, the use of a customer relationship management system has been found out to give several advantages to a company. These include:

• Quality and efficiency- a customer-focused relationship management will ensure the quality of the goods and services offered are the best ever. Because a customer-focused culture will thrive on producing the best for the customers, the quality will be improved to match the needs of the customers hence efficiency.
• Reduction in wastage of resources- a customer-focused culture will ensure that only the things that customers want are produced and offered. This implies that the company will not have a lot of goods and services that will not be consumed by the customers hence reduction in wastage of resources.
• Decision support- decision making will be simpler. This is because as the process of making decisions is started, the customers’ needs will guide direction and hence ease in decision making.
• Enterprise agility- the organization because will be equipped with the tools that aid in decision making and that guide in what is produced will be faster in its processes.

It is with such advantages in mind that the marketing of the 808 Nokia phone will be customer-oriented. In fact, reports from Nokia’s website indicate that several market research was done before designing the phone. And even at the moment, more studies are still being made in order for the company to know how the phone will perform in various markets.

Even more importantly, various phone apps will be duly incorporated into the phone on top of the ones that currently exist. This will be purposely done to orient customer satisfaction. In most occasions, mobile phone customers usually want to socialize, do business in a secure way, surf the net and interact with others through social forums, among many other issues. Such considerations will thus be vital in Nokia’s proposed plan.

Budget

Much of what is entailed in the budget to be used in achieving the objectives of this project are yet to be representatively disclosed by the finance experts to the relevant parties. Nonetheless, at least 7% of the Nokia’s reported 2011 net sales of 38.7 billion Euros would be required for expenditure purposes. Additional support from the management and willing donors/supporters will also be appreciated.

The highly confidential nature of the budget is the reason it will only be sent to the relevant leadership in the company—as well as to those people who have affirmed their interest in participating in soliciting funds for this project. A highly detailed and informative budget will be sent or hand-delivered by our financial personnel to such people.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it can be said that the concept of marketing entails the placement of customers needs in the decision-making process of an organization. This is driven by several factors; such as, increment in competition for products, presence of a myriad dynamics in the demand of products, and better educated, as well as informed customers.

Market segmentation is driven primarily by the dynamics in demand of the products. The process of marketing segmentation involves subdivision of the market of a given product into smaller markets that represent a given target market.

According to Porter (1985), customers that have similarity in demand preference should be categorized together in a given segment. This will aid in the formulation of effective strategies to meet the demand of these segmented customers.

This occurs after an effective market analysis of the company is conducted. Regarding the process of segmentation, it is normally assumed that customers within a given segment have equal demand, or similar buying characteristics of the company’s products.

To this regard, it is recommendable for Nokia to assess its marketing endeavours, define its targets markets then design ways in which they can be reached easily. If this is done in marketing Nokia 808, then there will be more chances of them accruing success.

It is, however, worth noting that, in some cases, companies do not effectively satisfy the market segment. As such, these companies resort to the establishment of target markets within the various segments that the company has. Target markets are established through consideration of the buying behaviour of customers in these markets.

The accrued benefits of target marketing allow the company to sell more of its products. Appraisal and identification of unfilled “gaps”, as well as marketing opportunities forms one of the significant benefits of target marketing. This aids the company in formulating an effective strategy in product improvement, as well as marketing.

Again, such marketing enables a company to manipulate marketing mix effectively, in order to meet customers’ needs. Finally, since target marketing may be concentrated in a given locality, the company stands a better chance of maximizing its profits.

Consequently, the company achieves its goals effectively. This is attributed to the ability of the company to make more sales in the same market segment, as well as identification of inherent problems within the market segment.

However, this is possible if effective market segmentation takes place. Advertising is one of the most crucial measures that companies adopt in order to address the issue of marketing opportunities. By finding a way of controlling market elements such as products, services, competition or even marketing; success will be greatly enhanced (Rust et al., 2004).

Finally, offering an innovative array of fashionable and functional cell phones is a continuing challenge faced by Nokia, and many other companies as well. In addition, the company also faces a tough global competition.

Nokia is, therefore, charged with the unavoidable obligation of continually changing its operations while adapting to new trends. It is only by keying in such issues that the company may be able to outwit its competitors and regain its dominance in the market

List of References

Abry, V., 2011a, ‘Android leads world Smartphone market with 52% market share’. Web.

Abry, V., 2011b, ‘Samsung sold 300 million handsets in 2011’. Web.

Bodzash, D., 2012, Nokia 808 pure view smart phone packs 41mp camera. Web.

Boone, M. E, 2001, Managing interactively: Executing business strategy, improving communication and creating a knowledge-sharing culture, McGraw Hill Professional, New York.

Catanzariti, R., 2012, ‘Nokia 808 pure view review’ Web.

Cherrayil, N. K., 2012a, ‘Smartphone boom drives accessory demand’. Web.

Cherrayil, N. K., 2012b, ‘Nokia retains top spot’. Web.

Cherrayil, N. K., 2012c, ‘BlackBerry still a big seller in the UAE’. Web.

Cherrayil, N. K., 2012d, ‘Mideast, Africa sales will hit $1.2b’. Web.

Cherrayil, N. K., 2012e, ‘The camera-phone game-changer’. Web.

Darowski, L., Strilchuk, J., Sororchuk, J., & Provost, C 2006, ‘Negative impact of tourism on hawaii natives and environment’, Lethbridge Undergraduate Research Journal, vol. 1 no. 2.

David, F. R., 2009, Strategic management concepts and cases, Prentice Hall/Pearson, Upper Saddle River, NJ.

Euromonitor, 2012, ‘Consumer electronics in the United Arab Emirates’. Web.

Perrey, J., & Riesenbeck, H, 2009, Power brands: Measuring and managing brand success, Wiley, New York.

Porter, M., 1985, Competitive Advantage, Free Press, New York.

Rust, T. R., Zeithaml, V. A., & Lemon, K. N., 2004, ‘Customer-centered brand management’, Harvard Business Review.

Solomon, M. R. 2009, Marketing: real people, real decisions, Prentice Hall PTR, New York.

Appendices

Appendix I

Appendix II: Sale of Smartphones Based on Regions in 2011

History and Background of the Company

Nokia Corporation is a Finland based company that primarily deals with the manufacture of mobile telephones. The company’s brand product is the Nokia phones. The success of the Nokia Company is largely attributed to its best management in supply chain practices.

This project will tend to analyze the supply-chain management practices at the Nokia Corporation. It gives a vivid description of how the company is enhancing its efficiency in a supply chain so as to counteract the impact of reduced market demand of mobile phone handsets.

Nokia is the number one producer of mobile phone devices in the world, and its supply chain has been rated as number six in the ranking of world’s top 25 companies in the world in terms of their supply chain. Nokia Company was founded in 1865 as a paper milling plant, and it was until 1982 that it began producing mobile phones.

Nokia Corporation has 15 mobile manufacturing plants that are spread in nine countries. Their plants are found in the following countries: Brazil, Romania, South Korea, Finland, China India, Mexico, Hungary and Great Britain. Its mother depot is located in Gurgaon.

The mother company provides help in the selection of market partners like distributors and dealers; it also provides monetary privileges to its priority dealers in order to assist in promotion of the Nokia products on a larger scale (Scribd, 2011).

Supply-chain management is defined as the totality of all activities that are involved in the delivery of company products to the customer. This process involves the sourcing of raw materials, assembling of the raw materials to form the finished products, warehousing, distribution and delivery of the final product.

Nokia operates two business groups, Nokia mobile phones and Nokia networks. The company provides wireless communication products and services. Nokia supplies equipment and communication services all over the globe. Nokia is considered as a leading international communication company which focuses its operations on wireless and wire line telecommunication areas (Shah 2009).

It is the pioneer of digital technology and wireless data communications network; its innovativeness enhances its competitiveness and telecommunication network growth. Nokia is listed in four stock exchange markets (Nokia Website, 2011).

Overview of its Supply Chain

Supply chain of an organization is the system of all the activities and resources that are involved in transferring a product from the supplier to the consumers, it is the transformation of the raw materials and the components into finished goods, which are ready for use by the customer. Market analysts associate the success of the Nokia Corporation to its best supply chain practices.

The supply chain of Nokia Corporation is an integrated one with “intertwined suppliers, manufacturing plants, contract manufacturers, sales and logistics service providers and the ultimate consumers” (Kalra, 2011, p. 3). The company has entered into a relationship with its suppliers while supporting them in their processes.

Nokia has been in a better position to keep the prices of its products low due to its efficient manufacturing system and production processes. Nokia Corporation has adopted a hybrid system of manufacturing, which is a combination of both in-house and outsourcing manufacturing. To enhance its competitiveness, the company has incorporated smart manufacturing techniques in its manufacturing facilities.

The company’s distribution network is wide, and this has enhanced its ability to reach the majority of its consumers. Nokia stands far much ahead when compared with other companies, particularly in regional outsourcing and its unique feature of collaborating with the suppliers to form an organized design of the supply chain (Cavinato, Flynn, & Kauffman, 2006).

Nokia has a complex supply chain which has the capacity to handle approximately 100 billion components, together with sixty strategic suppliers and ten manufacturing plants globally.

Nokia Corporation established its supply-chain management (SCM) transformation in the year 1995, and it was aimed at replacing its inventory with information, which could create a pull driven supply chain that was integrated to link the suppliers, production plants, telecommunication operators, distribution partners, sales offices, financial institutions, contract manufacturer logistics providers and ultimately, the consumers.

This was aimed at creating an efficient network of supply that can provide solutions to customer expectations (Nokia Website, 2011).

The secret to the success of Nokia Corporation lies in its creation of value-oriented partnership with the suppliers, which is guided by true information, trust and better leadership, which are realized through its principle of collaboration. Nokia has suppliers all over the world and its base suppliers are in countries like Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Italy, Japan, Morocco and Canada among other many more countries.

Nokia embraces supplier diversity, which ranks top on its corporate responsibility. The company only spends on those suppliers who can contribute to the economic prosperity of the company. The company has developed its set of Nokia Supplier requirements that encompass environmental and social demands and are based on international standards (Kalra, 2011).

Supply chain is an important operation area for Nokia. It is considered as an instrument towards the realization of the competitive nature of the company. Nokia places emphasis on the efficiency of the demand and the supply network which may be significant in the achievement of ever increasing demand for the Nokia products.

Proximity of cooperation between the customers and the suppliers is a central organ of its development principles. Cooperation also promotes diversity in the supply chain (Burt, Petcavage & Pinkerton, 2010).

Organizational Structure

The organizational structure of Nokia is that of four business groups and two horizontal groups. In this kind of organizational structure, the four business groups are: mobile phones, multimedia, enterprise solutions and its networks while the two horizontal groups are customer and market operations and the technological platform.

This organizational structure is illustrated by the diagram below.

(Nokia Website, 2011)

Overview of new-product development Process

The development of new Nokia product in the market can be demonstrated in the following stages:

In Nokia Corporation, it is believed that the life cycle of a market product is two years after which another product is originated and hence the development of a new product is carried out concurrently with the research and the design of the new product.

Stage one: generation of the idea; the idea may be from internal or external source. Internal ideas may emanate from the research and development department, while the external sources of ideas may originate from competitors, customers suppliers or distributors.

Stage two: screening of the idea; in every preceding stage in product development, the price may be high, and it is therefore imperative that any idea that is poor should be eliminated. It is at this stage that all the ideas are evaluated to allow for elimination of unworthy ones.

Stage three: generation and testing of the concept; concept development enhances the creation of the exact version of the idea as explained in meaningful terms. It is at this stage that the consumers are asked to evaluate the concept.

Stage four: marketing strategy; this stage involves mapping out the target market as well as positioning the product in readiness for the market. Consequently, the price of the product, distribution strategy and marketing is mapped out at this stage. All analysis regarding the product is undertaken at this stage.

Stage five: business analysis; at this stage, the sales, costs and the projection of profit are analyzed.

Stage six: product development. The typical development of the product and its testing are done at this stage.

Stage seven: marketing test; three market tests are undertaken at this stage. These are: standard test marketing, simulation marketing and the controlled test markets.

Stage eight: commercialization; this stage involves the presentation of the product into the market (Scribd, 2011).

Nokia Corporation places a lot of interest on the transformation aspect of its production. The Corporation emphasizes on the production of new and diverse products so as to make them competitive in the market. There are circumstances where a phone can be available in more than 170 different kinds.

The operations’ philosophy that has supported the complex nature of its production is to think locally and acts globally, which implies that the company balances localized decision-making with its objective of global planning.

How the Organization Manages Quality of its Products

Quality is at the heart of Nokia products. It is their objective to provide quality products for its customers. Quality brand is a characteristic of the products and services of Nokia Corporation. Nokia Company is linked with the passion for the pursuit of constant improvement to an extent that it will exceed the expectations of the customers.

Since Nokia is a leading telecommunication company in the globe, it is necessary that high-quality standards should be upheld in all aspects of its operations. Nokia has the desire to achieve quality in the following fields: customer services to enhance customer loyalty, products through constant innovation and improvement and quality in its operations by ensuring effectiveness and efficiency in its management.

Analysis of when and how the company can determine whether to outsource or make product in-house

As a global company, Nokia sources materials and components as well as services from all over the world. Its sourcing can be classified into two, namely, direct and indirect sourcing. Outsourcing is considered as one way of reducing costs while enhancing performance. A company can only outsource that service which is not central to the business of the corporation.

Direct sourcing: this is responsible for the material supply of Nokia’s products; these may include the components, product parts, packaging and software as well as research and development of new products.

Indirect sourcing: this is responsible for the capital equipments like furniture and computer. It also encompasses the sourcing of catering and consultancy services.

To be competitive in the market and for profitability, Nokia outsourced its IT services to Capgemini, which is an IT consultant firm of France origin. Outsourcing is necessary to enable the company focus on the supply chain as well as the need to address market efficiency, which has the potential of saving costs and transforming the production process in the chain of supply.

Consequently, the company has also outsourced the production of Symbian software development to a company called Accenture, as part of the deal, Nokia was to transfer 2, 800 of its workers to Accenture. Accenture was to provide software services to Nokia operations in Britain, US, India, China and Finland. In this scenario, outsourcing was necessary since it was used as a measure to minimize the labor force and costs to be able to remain competitive in the market and to catch up with its rivals like Smartphone manufacturers.

How the Organization deals with Issues of Contract

Under its contract with Capgemini, the IT firm was to provide management services like the delivery of goods and making of customer order management as well as invoicing. In this contract, matters facing customers are not entered or covered in the contract. Matters of contract are listed in the supplier requirements.

It is therefore, the duty of the suppliers to best decide whether they can meet the demands and the terms of the contract. When Nokia enters into a contract with suppliers, the following issues are put into consideration; what they are supplying, what they require in order to supply, how long the suppliers will be obligated to supply, their price of supplying it and what they will be held liable in case things do not flow as expected.

All the above factors will define how the supplier will handle the commercial agreement and how business will be consulted under the agreement. It will also make it easy for the supplier to operate under the terms of the agreement. With regards to Nokia’s contract with the customers, the customer would want to be guaranteed of the flexibility of the product to be supplied and the price to be paid for the product.

A short-term of Nokia’s contract with the customers is the bonus factor. Generally, confidentiality is important in contract negotiations and there is also need for boiler plate clauses in the contract.

Production and Inventory Control Measures

When compared with its competitors, Nokia utilizes the life cycle concept of the production process. This involves the manufacturing of mobile phones in two main phases; first is the building of the innards of the phone while the second stage is labeled as fast turnaround, and it is referred as the assembly to order.

Nokia Company has almost ten production units with high productivity and a big production capacity. These units are only in those countries that Nokia has operations. Consequently, Nokia has a better production technology savvy which can produce the products at an amazing speed as well as sustaining mass production.

Nokia Company enjoys very big economies of scale. It is estimated that it averages at $88 making a phone and $129 retailing it; this is an indication that Nokia’s gross profit margin is very high.

The production department of the Nokia Corporation is a central competency of the Company. The company has the potential and the capacity to meet the increasing market demands for mobile phones while enjoying economies of scale because of the massive production of mobile phones. It is the production technology that is utilized by the company that makes it rank as the best and the largest mobile manufacturing in the world.

Nokia Corporation is the leading mobile phones’ manufacturer in the market based on its volume of sales and the quality of its products. This is due to its ability to select best suppliers in the market and also its large production capacity.

Nokia Corporation has one of the best and wide networks of product distribution, which stems from the village market to the remotest parts of the globe where they have stalls to the most advanced markets in Europe and America where they have concept stores.

Joint ventures and cooperation with the supplier has enabled Nokia to utilize its inventory levels. Nokia suppliers who are at times contracted to be Nokia partners take part in the product-development process to satisfy the demands for the future production.

The effective and efficient management of inventory in the Nokia Company is backed up by diversification of supplier location. Consequently, Nokia built its inventory based on demand but there is always minimum levels inventory that should be kept constant.

Relationship between Demand, Supply and Logistics in the Organization

Though it is necessary to match supply and demand in every organization, there are often some difficulties that are encountered in the efforts to match demand and supply. This may include the uncertainties in demand and supply, variations in consumer requirements and the fragmentation of the supply chain.

Logistics is understood as the flow of materials, money and information from the suppliers to the consumers while demand, on the other hand, is defined as the flow of operations from the supplier to the manufacturers’ locations and finally to the consumers. The logistics costs that are attached to the demand supply include the freight costs, warehousing and the interest rates levied.

It is the responsibility of the logistics to find the cheapest and most affordable way of producing a product and the best method of reaching to the consumers. The logistics department must establish the most economical element of supply (Scribd, 2011).

Conclusion

The shortening of the product life-cycle poses problems to the development of a new product by Nokia. Several companies no longer comply with the demand that a product should undergo all the stages from design to launch for it to be made available to the market. This has, however, facilitated faster and active procurement in companies.

Nokia Corporation acknowledges the importance of outsourcing to realize high profitability. Consequently, the company requires its sub-contractors and suppliers to adhere to the stipulated terms of contract to prevent unnecessary legal complications, which might spoil the reputation of the company.

Like any other company, Nokia has suppliers from all corners of the world, and it is the duty of the company to define its requirements for suppliers in wherever they are situated. To ensure efficient and reliable product supply, Nokia has devised a Nokia Supplier Requirements (NSR) that its suppliers must subscribe and comply with.

Nokia stresses the need for openness and trust in its transactions with the suppliers; it is thus two phrases that drive compliance and improvements of performance. This can be assessed through supplier assessments by the company. To enhance supplier confidence and reliability, Nokia undertakes supplier training, which makes it a unique company in the globe.

References

Burt, D. N., Petcavage, S. D., & Pinkerton, R. L. (2010). Supply management (8th Ed.). New York, NY: McGraw‐Hill.

Cavinato, J.L., Flynn, A.E. & Kauffman, R.G. (2006). The supply management handbook. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Professional.

Kalra, D. (2011). Global supply-chain management of Nokia. Slide Share net. Web.

Nokia Website. (2011). Supply chain. Nokia Corporation. Web.

Scribd. (2011). Supply-chain management in Nokia. Web.

Shah, J. (2009). Supply-chain management: texts and cases. India: Pearson Education.

Introduction

Nokia Company was started in the early 1860s by Fredrik Idestams; its potential in terms of productivity became vivid in early 2000, with its ability to the production of 3G, multimedia devices, and mobile games. Nokia Company is made up of four diverse groups, namely; Mobile Phones, Enterprise elucidations, multimedia, and Networks. Its success relies on the customer relationship with the marketing policies it offers. Currently, the Nokia Company is the leading in terms of diversity in mobile phone production.

Constitutes of Nokia Top Management

Nokia Company governance constitutes of Board of Directors, Group Management Team, chairman and President. The role of the Board of Directors includes being answerable to corporate leadership and the apposite behavior of ordinary activities. The Board of Directors apart from holding the overall juridical power in company-related issues is responsible for the appointment of the President and the Chief Executive Officer. (Nokian Tyres plc, 2011).

The president controls the Group’s business processes and executes company governance in agreement with the guidelines and instructions presented by the Board of Directors, whereas the management team aids him in providing effective administration. The chairman of the Board of Directors presides the general meetings held by the members of the organization.

Chief characteristics of Top management officials

Stephen Elop, a 48 years old man, has a degree in computer engineering and management. Before joining Nokia Company as a Chief Executive Officer, was ahead of Microsoft’s business division. He also contributed immensely to worldwide field functions at Adobe Systems Inc. His many years in the field of Microsoft and Juniper Networks granted him enough experience that is enabling him to govern Nokia Company.

Risto Siilasmaa, current chairman of Nokia, was the former Chief Executive Officer of Data Fellows Company, a company that dealt with computer security. He also served, and presently serves on the Board of Directors of many companies. (Hill & Jones, 2012).

Top management international experience

Apart from having leading product executives with broad international know-how in geospatial skills, Nokia Company has deployed over 130,000 employees in 120 countries that are answerable to executive members.

Top management executives from acquired companies

For it to have effective administration Nokia Company includes executive officials from the acquired companies in the top management. These executive members aid in marketing Nokia products worldwide.

Responsibility of top management for the Corporation performance

Nokia Company has currently failed drastically from its position as one of the competitive companies in the world. Its failure is due to the poor leadership of top management officials. For instance, since the joining of Stephen as the Chief Executive Officer of the Nokia Company, the company has recorded many losses leading to its incompetence and the resignation of executive members including Ollila, the former chairman. (Market Segmentation of Nokia, 2010).

Managers serving in their current position for less than three years

Among the top managers who have served for less than three years in their posts are, Stephen Elop, Wilkinson, and Risto. Elop is the current Chief Executive Officer that substituted Olli-Pekka in late 2010, Simon Wilkinson, former CEO of Purple Labs Company that joined the top managerial position of Nokia Company in April 2012, and Risto Siilasmaa is the current chairman of Nokia that presided Ollila in May 2012. Of the three named top officials, only Simon was promoted internally whereas the other two, Elop and Wilkinson were externally hired into the company.

The role played by stock options in executive compensation

Stock options act as motivation compensation, they are used to hearten and retain individual talents in companies. Apart from stock options encouraging the executives into working industriously to meet the requirements of the shareholders, they also enhance the success of the company. (Aboody & Kasznic, 2010).

Top management skills

Nokia’s top management personnel are well-skilled, for instance, they respond to future challenges by setting five key priorities. The set priorities include effective customer relations, competitive product offering, amicable measures towards demand-supply management, offering immediate solutions to problems, and ensuring Research and Development efficiency. (Nokian Tyres plc, 2011).

References

Aboody, D. & Kasznic, R. (2010). Executive Compensation and Financial Accounting. New York: Now Publishers Inc.

Hill, C. & Jones, G. (2012). Strategic Management: An Integrated Approach. New York: Cengage Learning.

Market Segmentation of Nokia. (2010). Web.

Nokian Tyres plc: Corporate Governance. (2011). Web.

Introduction

As competition in the markets intensifies and the consumers become increasingly sophisticated and selective in their consumption behaviors, companies have no option than to improve their innovation strategies and management techniques (Duncombe 2006).

Companies are nowadays seeking new ways to enhance the characteristics of their products to make them more appealing to the consumers.

The Wall Street Journal reveals that mobile phone companies are some of the major industries that have witnessed remarkable growth in innovation (Gecevska, Chiabert, and Lombardi & Cus 2010).

As a multinational communications company, Nokia has improved its product innovation and is continually producing products that attract the consumers in the telecommunication industry.

With its focus nowadays turned to the manufacturing of smartphones, Nokia has set its aims at ensuring that the company uses modern technologies (Kirshin 2014).

This paper examines the market performance of the Nokia Lumia smartphones and explains the reasons for their outstanding performance.

Overview of Nokia Lumia Smartphones

One of the technological wonders that surprised the consumers of the 21^st century was the integration of hi-tech operating systems into the mobile phones (Cagan & Vogel 2002).

After being superior in the business of computer technology for quite sometime, Microsoft Corporation collaborated with Nokia Corporation and entered the smartphone market (Anwar 2014).

Nokia Corporation managed to introduce a new form of mobile technology that uses Windows 8.1 operating system rather than Android.

Smartphones, being the trend and the most popular among communication technologies, have spurred a new wave of anxiety among the majority of the youngsters, which means investing in them is a worthy idea nowadays.

Since 2013, Nokia Corporation has been radical in its innovation that has resulted in the development of the Nokia Lumia 435, Nokia Lumia 730, Nokia Lumia 535, Nokia Lumia 620, Nokia Lumia 830, Nokia Lumia 520, and now the Nokia Lumia 920.

Smartphones are small laptops that people have found reliable and convenient in their communication, use, and maintenance (Grieves 2009). What makes the Lumia smartphones amazing is that they offer a new platform that includes the use of the innovated Windows operating system.

Nokia and Microsoft experts have integrated mobile firmware that allows handset users to install and uninstall Windows mobile apps, access the Internet with ease, and surf there with the fastest speed (Kirshin 2014).

The Nokia Lumia smartphones come in varieties of different colors, and consumers can choose the color they prefer, within the available range of colors.

The powerful high definition front and back cameras allow the smartphone users to take photos of their colleagues, or take personal photos, which they can use for their social media activities (Hussein 2012).

Global technological reports claim that Nokia Lumia smartphones are increasingly becoming popular and steadily dominate the Asian, African, and American markets.

The Theory of Diffusion of Innovation

Innovation is a realistic subject that began reshaping in its practice and literature back in the 1960s, when industrialization became a significant growth aspect for the modern towns (Bernard & Tichkiewitch 2008).

Towards the end of the 1960s, E.M. Rogers came up with an innovation theory known as the diffusion of innovation model. Born by a father who loved electromechanical innovations, E.M Rogers got interested in understanding the process of the diffusion of innovation (Chigona & Licker 2008).

In 1962, Rogers published the theory of Diffusion of Innovation that had changed the modern perceptions about innovations. In his view, Rogers claims that there are five main categories of innovation adopters, as the process is pragmatic and with various sections of transformation (Webb 2000).

Rogers presumes that in an innovation process, there are five major categories of adopters, which include innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and the laggards. The five main categories of adopters have unique definitions that are relative to their innovation roles.

According to Rogers, innovators are the kind of people who initiate the innovation idea and invest in it regardless of its risky factors and other preliminary problems.

The early adopters are a group of people that represent the opinion leaders (Molla & Licker 2005). These kinds of adopters often enjoy associating with leadership roles and embracing change opportunities.

The third group of the adopters is the group of early majority, which is the group of people that needs to see substantial evidence that the innovation is really working for them to venture into the business of adopting or working with it (Chigona & Licker 2008).

The fourth group of people is the late majority, who are the kind of persons, skeptical about an innovative change and trying the innovation only when the majority population have tested it (Stark 2004).

The last group of the adopters is the laggards group of individuals who are naturally conservative people. Unless highly persuaded, laggards can hardly adopt an innovation.

With regard to such theoretical assumptions, most of the users of Windows handsets across the world have had their own opinions concerning the three mobile phone operating systems (Rigby 2014).

When Microsoft and Nokia merged efforts to produce the Nokia Lumia handsets, the first impression was that Microsoft was trying to regain its lost market dominance in the telecommunication industry (Rigby 2014).

Nevertheless, the company has been very resilient about the criticisms that the two companies have failed to produce innovative smartphone designs that will influence the international mobile consumption trends.

When they first announced their debut in 2011, after successful market trials, consumers had already familiarized with Android phones as well as iPhones (Rigby 2014).

Creating a plan to enter the competitive market was a challenge for the investors of the Nokia Lumia smartphones. The initial process of venturing into these Windows mobile phones was tiring and challenging for these creative investors.

While figuring out the billions of money that the companies were to invest and the amount that was to come as returns, the investors understood that there would be early adopters, the early majority consumers, the late majority consumers, and the laggards (Rigby 2014).

To beat the market odds and maneuver with a new brand of smartphones, the Nokia Corporation and the Microsoft Corporation designed a strategic production and marketing strategy that has supported their continual survival in the handset business.

The companies understood the need to incorporate the 4Ps marketing mix strategy to increase their market share and product revenues in the presence of the established Android smartphones and Apple iPhones.

To provide an all-round strategic move, the Nokia Corporation and the Microsoft Company focused on the 4Ps (Von 2003). The 4Ps that formed the aims of production were the Product (Nokia Lumia smartphone), the Price (low pricing), the Promotion (strategic marketing), and the Place of distribution.

With the 4Ps as their marketing strategy, high technological innovation and unique and user-friendly smartphone design are some of the product development initiatives that Nokia Lumia began adopting.

The pricing strategy of Nokia Lumia delved on the low pricing technique to win the business partners and new groups of consumers (Anwar 2014). Low pricing meant that the investors would sell more and earn low but regular profits.

As their places of distribution, the Nokia Lumia marketers began targeting the most populated nations, such as China, Russia, and most of the Sub-Saharan Africa regions. These regions form the group of developing nations.

These developing nations have a lot of late majority and the laggards groups of consumers and investors (Cooper & Edgett 2009). These groups of people may have been skeptical about Androids and iPhones because Androids were relatively new and iPhones were extremely expensive. Such strategies have made Nokia Lumia suceed.

The Current Market Performance of the Nokia Lumia Smartphones

Nokia Corporation has generally been successful in the handset business. In 2006, Nokia generated an income that for the first time in Finland’s history, seemed to be excess.

Based on the assessment report of the Wall Street Journal, which is the leading business and innovation magazine, Nokia Lumia has been performing incredibly well as the demand for smartphones increases.

In this $7.2 billion deal, Microsoft and Nokia Corporations have been ripping some extensive profits from the manufacturing and distribution of the Lumia windows smartphones (Fakhrutdinova, Fakhrutdinova, Kolesnikova, & Yurieva 2015).

The Nokia Lumia smartphones targeted the American smartphone markets, the Asian smartphone markets, and the African smartphone markets, which had been growing rapidly over the past five years (Fakhrutdinova et al. 2015).

In a 2013 report about business innovation, it has appeared that Nokia possesses approximately 40% market dominance, with the Lumia smartphones contributing to about 16% in the increase of its market share.

Perhaps, what remains unknown to most of the consumers is that the Nokia Lumia phones have been increasing their market reputation in a steady process.

The estimated profit returns are slowly regaining momentum and the process of dominating the major markets is on a gradual development (Fakhrutdinova et al 2015).

Just before the end of two years after its launch, Microsoft’s quarterly financial report revealed that the Nokia Lumia smartphones had generated about $23.20 billion worth of profit.

In the subsequent year on 23 August 2014, Microsoft announced a growth of its profit margin to approximately 26.5 billion, which was a 10% increase in the net profits (Fakhrutdinova et al 2015).

In a separate financial report that Nokia released independently on 24 Oct 2014, Nokia Lumia smartphones had a sales record of $9.3 billion, even though the overall sales for Nokia phones had decreased by 14%. These statistics indicate an incredible performance of the Nokia Lumia smartphones.

The above statistical facts stress the essence of the Nokia-Microsoft partnership in the smartphone business.

It is important to consider that although majority of the ordinary consumers may not have the overall knowledge on how the Nokia Lumia smartphones have spurred a unique competition in the world of smartphones; the performance of the smartphone is incredible (Rigby 2014).

The Nokia Lumia smartphones have blended well with the creatively designed windows-operating systems.

The major sectors that may have caused an incredible market performance that has come within the shortest period of the investment are the management sectors, the production sectors, and the marketing departments (Fakhrutdinova et al 2015).

The three sectors were important in the product development and distribution because there was innovation in the management, innovation in the production, and innovation in the marketing departments.

The ability of Nokia and Microsoft to provide an enabling environment for the existence of the partnership was a noteworthy idea.

Reasons for high Performance of Nokia Lumia Smartphones

The success or failure of a certain tech product relies on several aspects of production, management, and marketing (Eisenhardt & Martin 2000).

With the changing market demands, the complex consumer behaviors, and the increasing market competition, the performance of technological products has to rely on the stability of the management, the suaveness of the marketers, and the design of the products (Garcia & Calantone 2002).

Core innovation strengths, strategic management techniques, and efficient marketing skills are some of the major performance determinants that determine the performance of tech products (De Wit & Meyer 2010).

Since its debut into the smartphone business in 2011, Nokia Corporation has developed several strategic moves to enable the telephone products to maneuver in the smartphone market.

To make a sensational market dominance, the Nokia Corporation has enabled a smart strategy that entails the strategic use of mobile designing technologies, the strategic planning of the management systems, and the strategic development of the marketing techniques that match the market demands.

Innovation in the Product Designing

An important factor that makes a mobile phone worthy and appealing to the modern consumers, who are nowadays very knowledgeable, is the techniques used in designing the phones (Eisenhardt & Martin 2000).

The innovation that Nokia Corporation has used in manufacturing of the Nokia Lumia smartphones is exceptional and outstanding.

Nokia Lumia smartphones use the famous windows operating systems, although mostly the windows 8 operating system that has numerous tech features that are appealing to the phone users (Fakhrutdinova et al 2015).

Although windows 8 operating system initially recorded a diminutive market performance in the computer technology, the operating system has boosted the selling of the Nokia Lumia smartphones.

Nokia Lumia phones are 3G and 4G compatible, have powerful photo-sharing capabilities, and have features that enhance social media communication (Carlson, Walden & Bowman 2006).

Nokia Corporation collaborated with Google and Skype to allow consumers to enhance their access to social media communication in the Lumia smartphones. Nokia also collaborated with Yahoo Corporation to allow photo sharing through their Flicker service.

Innovation in the Marketing Strategies

The marketing technique of companies is one of the foremost determinants of the market performance for any new product that is seeking a quick market penetration (Roman 2003).

Since the Nokia Corporation ventured into the smartphone business, the company designed radical marketing strategies that supported a market growth for the Nokia Lumia smartphones.

Nokia Corporation designed a strategic market penetration approach that dwelled on the modern advertising platforms to maneuver (Grieves 2009).

As Anwar (2014) claims, the company used the advantage of the growing influence of the digital televisions, the social media platforms, and the unique printed media.

Concerning the strategic use of social media, Nokia Corporation implemented attractive mobile photos, effective product description techniques, and an easy communication to attract consumers in Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace (Anwar 2014).

The Microsoft-Nokia alliance opened an online marketing website, attractive facebook pages, and several tweeting platforms that constantly updated the users about the new Lumia arrivals. Digital televisions also played a vital role in advertising Lumia Smartphones.

Innovation in the Pricing of the Phones

One of the elements that can make a product in the telecommunication industry to permeate into the market and gain an incredible performance is the idea of strategic pricing (Bailur 2006).

While launching the Microsoft-Nokia partnership of manufacturing and distributing the Nokia Lumia smartphones, Nokia Corporation knew the essence of using a strategic pricing plan that would enable an easy market penetration.

When Nokia merged with Microsoft to develop the Lumia smartphones, the companies agreed on the high-production, low-pricing strategy as their market entry strategy (Anwar 2014).

To compete effectively with the Iphone and the android smartphones, Nokia Corporation endorsed a marketing strategy that concentrated with the low-pricing approach.

Even for the first-time buyers who admired the smartphones, Nokia sold its Nokia Lumia phones at as low as $200 (Rigby 2014).

The focus of Nokia Corporation concerning the pricing of the Nokia Lumia smartphones has been persistent with the issues of regional assessment of the markets and production of affordable smartphones.

Proper Financing of the Product

Financial stability of a company in the marketing and promotion of a recently launched product is a crucial success factor that determines the performance of a product (Gorski 2003).

When Nokia ventured into the business of manufacturing and distributing smartphones, the partnership deal with Microsoft considered the essence of financial stability in the production process.

Since the year 2013, Microsoft has been offering Nokia with financial backing to support the mass production of cheap smartphones (Hussein 2012).

Such an innovative financial strategy assisted the Nokia Corporation to regain market momentum within the large markets like China, Russia, and America. Recently, Microsoft Company has produced an extra of 2.3 billion to support Nokia Corporation to develop low-end Nokia Lumia smartphones (Anwar 2014).

Despite Iphones and Androids having significant market dominance, adequate financing of the Nokia Lumia project has made the Nokia Corporation to expand their market share in Africa, Asia, and parts of America.

Innovation in the Service Sector

Nokia, being a leading brand in the telecommunication industry, understood the need to improve the customer service while marketing its Nokia Lumia smartphones across the nations.

According to Fakhrutdinova et al. (2015), the first service innovation that Nokia thought was essential, was the incorporation of the physical customer care services where consumers could send complaints about the phones, receive an instant assistance on technical problems, and fix the problems associated with the windows mobile-phone operating systems.

In each of the countries that Nokia invested in the marketing of its smartphone products, there were strategic physical offices that consumers could send inquiries concerning the operations of the phones and the challenges that pertained to the performance of the Lumia smartphones (Fakhrutdinova et al. 2015).

Although the Nokia Lumia smartphones needed the physical offices from the Nokia Corporation to enhance their customer care, the phones already had user-friendly interfaces that supported easy phone operations. Such strategic moves made Nokia to perform incredibly fair in the competitive smartphone market.

Innovation in the Management Sector

One of the important factors that support radical innovation is an efficient strategic management (Aspara, Lamberg, Laukia, & Tikkanen 2011). The theory of Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) states that when innovation is in progress, there is a group of people known as the innovators (Hofstede 2003).

In Nokia Corporation and Microsoft Corporation, leaders were the innovators who were venturesome, opinionated, skilful and with creative ideas (Fakhrutdinova et al. 2015).

Most of the leaders from the Microsoft team and from the Nokia Corporation were sure about their dedication and risk taking approaches towards the improvement of the Nokia Lumia ideas.

The two companies found the best innovators who could strategically incorporate the features of windows 8 in the mobile phones (Sell, Mezei & Walden 2014).

The leaders also knew the importance of collaborating with giant Internet companies, such as Google and Yahoo, to incorporate their best features in the mobile phones. The leaders motivated aggressive research and development strategies that supported in the marketing of the phones.

Conclusion

The assumptions of Rogers concerning the Diffusion of Innovation are paramount in understanding the concepts of product development and management. The five forms of innovation adopters help companies design strategic marketing plans.

Product innovation and management are two aspects of the commercial world that continue to pose concerns for the surviving businesses. The mobile phone industry is one of the principle sectors where innovation seems to influence product marketing, distribution, and performance.

With a special attention given to the phones that come with computerized operating systems, innovation seems to affect the presence and performance of the modern smartphones. Nokia Lumia smartphones emerged through a partnership deal between Microsoft and Nokia Corporations.

Despite the dominance of the Android smartphones and the Apple smartphones, the windows-based Nokia Lumia smartphones are increasingly gaining prominence.

This occurs because the two partners focused on understanding the 4Ps of marketing. Innovations in the product marketing, product pricing, and product management have been fantastic.

References

Anwar, M 2014, ‘Voice of Editors: Rationale to the Crisis of Nokia Smartphone Portfolio’, International Journal of Management, Economics and Social Sciences, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 122-124.

Aspara, J, Lamberg, J, Laukia, A and Tikkanen, H 2011, ‘Strategic Management of business model transformation lessons from Nokia’, Management Decision, vol. 49, no. 4, pp. 622-647.

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Introduction

Marketing is defined as a management process that is responsible for the anticipation, identification and the satisfaction of the customer requirements profitably.

Marketing can also be understood as an organizational function and combined set of processes that are aimed at creating, communicating and delivering value to customers as well as the managing of customer relations in such a manner that will benefit the organization and the stakeholders. This essay will analyse the marketing concept of Nokia mobile phone Company in the UK.

Product Brand: Macro and Competitive Environments

Brand analysis

Nokia is considered to be an umbrella brand with a lot of products under it. It is considered to be a predominantly 2G manufacturer. Nokia is divesting its businesses and it needs to add value to its current products as well to shift to smart phone category to tap into the growing market. Nokia company ha various brands.

Macro elements are the uncontrollable variables. This involves the understanding of the new markets while at the same time monitoring the existing markets. In analyzing the macro environment, it is imperative that we place into consideration various environmental forces that have an impact on the Nokia marketing in the UK.

It has been established that Nokia has a strong market base in United Kingdom, and it is largely due to their product base, quality of the products and the powerful brand image. Nokia has the best brand value. Macro environment involves those factors that are beyond the direct control of the Nokia business but have an impact on the success of the business though minimal.

A change in the currency market can have an impact on the sales of the products as it was witnessed in 2007 when the dollar rose by 2 dollars to the pound hence making UK the most expensive mobile market. These macro factors have the capability to alter the business environment of the organization. The macro environment can be analyzed using PESTEL analysis.

Regarding product brand, consumers have maintained personal and permanent relationship with Nokia brand. Nokia has a brand reputation that ensures its market share increases. Nokia pays a lot of attention to their brands and competition in the mobile industry since brand reputation is becoming crucial for the purchasing behaviours of consumers (Forsyth, 2007, p. 71).

Effect of the Industry in General

With the innovations in the technological market, it is obvious that Nokia has several competitors; these include Sony Erikson, Motorola, Samsung, Siemens and Panasonic. With these competitors Nokia must be ahead of others in order to ups its strategies and it has emerged as the number one selling brand in the market.

Mobile technology has provided a platform of the delivery of new products that have been created to complement the existing ones or even to develop a new brand line of business. These advancements can take the shape of optimized website, services delivered through mobile phones and other mobile applications.

The UK mobile sector has drastically been liberated and the rationalization of retails stores, and retail networks has led to a considerable reduction in the number of stores per firm. In the UK, a mobile company has to satisfy the requirements that are established by the scientific and technical knowledge and the requirements of the UK consumer Act (Boone & Kurtz, 2010, p. 124).

PESTEL Analysis

These are the various factors that affect the decisions of the managers of organizations, and they include demographic changes, government policies and changes in taxations. PESTEL analysis concerns the analyzing of various factors, which include technological, social-cultural, economic, environmental, economic, political and legal factors.

Social-cultural

We live in a world of consumption where we only consume products, and the products have served to manifest or act as cultural tools of our materialistic society. These products have both materialistic and utilitarian value and are often sold to reinforce our cultural scene.

It is therefore, imperative to examine the products or the brands that are acceptable or not acceptable to humanity as well as analyze the advertisements that are appropriate and match the products. Changes in the social grounds have a lot of impact on the customers’ demand of the company’s goods and also influence the availability and the willingness of people to work in the company.

In the UK, the population is an aging one, and hence it has increased pension payment by companies because their staffs are living longer. This also concerns on how Nokia will blend with other societal components like social class and culture, lifestyle, demographic and psychological factors that form the society. Nokia produces different phone models into the market to satisfy all the individuals.

Technological

This regards the degree to which the technology is embedded in our society or the technological culture that has the powers to control the technical nature of the products in the market, and it can dictate the extent and the methods of the product communication and the acquisition. The acceptance and acknowledgement of technology in daily life is not just a matter of formal education, but it is also a matter of societal norms.

The change in the needs of the consumers and the preferences of fast technological development has been deemed to have a negative impact on the buying behaviour of the consumer in the Nokia market segment. Nokia has various advantages as compared with its competitors due to their economies of scale and highly innovative and advanced technology. New technologies lead to the creation of new processes and products.

Music, the internet enabled and HD screens are some of the products of advanced technology. Technology has reduced costs, enhanced quality, and it has also facilitated innovation. Technological development has a lot of benefits to the Nokia Company, and it will help provide its products. The success of Nokia products is founded on the constant and consistent innovation of human technology and by exploring various ways of exchanging information Nokia allows its users to get more out of life (Knowledge Base, 2012, p. 1).

Political Factors

These refer to government policies that are implemented like the degree of economic intervention and the extent to which the government wants to subsidize some firms or commodities and also the government’s priorities regarding business support. Political factors have a lot of impact on the health of the nation, workforce education and economic infrastructure. This is critical for Nokia because various governments have different legal and political platforms.

Nokia in UK has abided to the ground rules and regulations that govern the UK market and it has tried to prohibit some actions in order to withstand the demand of international trade. Nokia works with the UK authorities to to gain the competitive advantage of the UK market. The compliance of Nokia to the laws of phone usage and copyright keeps them ahead. Since UK is a deregulated market, Nokia operates free of government intervention.

Economic Factors

These factors include inflation, exchange rate, economic growth and taxation. All these have a lot of impact on the behaviour of firms. High interest rates can, for example, hinder investment because it will cost a lot to acquire a loan. Strong currency makes export business dealings to be harder since it leads to strong increase in price. Inflation has the effect of provoking high employee demands, and it raises costs.

Economy dictates the production and the consumption of goods and services. Concerning Nokia, the economic system is critical since it dictates sales, profits and production. For future planning and financial safety, Nokia should analyse the national economic system of UK. Increase in GDP is an indication that the people will have high disposable income which will make the consumers to be more selective when choosing their phones and price will be a factor here.

Environmental Factors

These include the changes in weather and climate; changes in temperature have a lot of impact on various industries. Consequently, some climate changes have occurred due to global warming, and greater environmental factors have taken place and have developed into a major issue that firms should consider. Most companies are moving towards embracing environmentally friendly goods and processes.

Legal Factors

This concerns the legal environment to which the firms operate in. There have been various legal factors that have influenced business and firms operation in UK. These legal changes include the introduction of age and disability discrimination legislation and an increase in the minimum wage threshold; all these affect the Nokia operations. Legal changes have the effect of affecting a firm’s costs and demand.

Using PESTEL does not inform the managers a lot, and it is upon the managers to think about the factors that are likely to change or affect their business operations or to identify factors for their own environment. In the UK, it is the Confederation of British Industry that serves to represent all British firms in the event of discussion with the government (Lamb & Hair, 2009, p. 56).

Perceptual Map of the Competitive Environment

Perceptual maps indicate the attributes that characterize the consumer decision making which later become focal points when designing the product and making advertising decisions. It also demonstrates the strength of the firm’s brand that makes it score in the mind of consumers. The perceptual market map of Nokia mobile product in the UK appears as demonstrated below:

Marketing Program, Elements Employed

The term, marketing mix is used to describe the set of activities that make up a firm’s marketing programs. Among the various elements of the marketing mix are: place, product, people, process, physical evidence, promotion and price. Marketing mix are the tools that are used to position the product into the target market.

Product

This product decisions begin with the understanding of the product in the market. Product offering is not the only thing but is considered as a total package of benefits that are obtained by customers. The product is analyzed from the perspective of customer value.

This value can be analyzed based on the following aspect of mobile phones: their physical product and shape, brand name, reputation of the company, convenience of operation, convenient availability and financial plans. It is also imperative to answer the following questions with regards to the product:

• Does the product satisfy the intended customers in such a manner that will guarantee profits to the company?
• Does the product provide an opportunity for differentiation from competitors just as the benefits are delivered to consumer and the impact of the product in the market?

It is necessary for the firm to continuously learn about the reactions from the consumers to make suggestions about the repositioning in the market (OECD, 1997, p.12). Summarily, the product deals with the design, features, packaging, variation, brand, quality and quantity. For a product to occupy a distinct place in the market, it should differentiate itself from its competitors.

This can only be achieved by positioning the product in such a manner that the customers can perceive the product differently. Any element of the marketing mix can be used to realize a differentiated positioning. The Nokia mobile phone company sells their products to the entire customers, but their distribution options vary based on the market segment (OECD, 1997, p. 234).

Place

This concerns marketing channels; a marketing channel is understood to be sets of mechanisms or the network with which the firm ventures into the market ranging from the demand generation to the physical delivery of the product.

The distribution of the product to the market can either be direct or indirect; direct distribution does not involve any independent party between the firm and its consumers while indirect distribution involves some third party or the middlemen who might have been contracted to work for the firm (Burnett, 2007, p. 19).

The marketing channels can be actualized through distribution which involves making the product available to the market. Examples of marketing channels are retailer, wholesalers, dealers, agents, franchisees and multiple stores.

Price

This is a monetary value that is attached to a product. Price transmits a message about the value of the product, its status and the perceived quality. Prices can be cost based or demand based.

Process

Process is a critical element of marketing that is applicable in the identification of opportunities, development of strategies and the allocation of resources. The company has established processes that are geared towards handling the complaints of customers and process of identifying the needs of customers and their respective orders. Nokia has a well-planned process that defines how the customers receive their services and check their accounts.

Promotion

These are understood to be activities that seek to expand the aims of the organizations through communication with the aim of eliciting a positive response. Promotions can be physical like offers or visual like advertisement and are only intended to deliver a specific message. It is considered those activities that the company indulges in to further their objectives.

Nokia associates with major mobile providers in the UK like the Orange and T-mobile that have launched their 3G services to enhance their market promotion. They also advertise their new products in the media, i.e. televisions, radio and newspapers. Due to the flourishing football sponsorship business in UK, it is necessary for the Nokia Company to sign sponsorship with major football clubs.

They should also create outdoor advertising like the use of videos and images. Nokia also sends messages, calls and emails prospective customers about its products in the market. Nokia also has adopted door sales strategy that involves visiting customers in their residences or place of work to inform them on new arrivals (Gillespie, 2007, p. 5)

Physical Evidence

Nokia has resorted to write some articles that are aimed at exciting the customers about Nokia prices and service. Nokia also provides after-sale services and support to their customers in order to make them comfortable and develop a better understanding of their products. Nokia has also developed a culture of complying with specific laws regarding their product quality and safety, which are geared towards protecting their consumers.

People

Nokia Company trains their employees to be customer cantered and to enable them to develop good attitudes towards customers. Nokia also has the attitude of recruiting native employees from UK since they know the tastes and the habits of the native customers. Nokia also emphasize training of its dealers to encourage them to serve their customers and clients well (Scribd, 2011, p. 2).

Recommendations

Profitability is the primary objective of various firms, and marketers are well aware that profits are the revenues of the company. Since pricing is one of the conspicuous components of the marketing mix of a company, various businesses may be tempted to apply it in gaining competitive advantage over its competitors.

Nokia, in order to meet price of its competitors, has applied strategies like enhancing the quality of their products, establishing consumer relationships and educating consumers about their products.

For the company to increase its market size and profitability, good marketing strategies and marketing planning are essential. It is imperative that the Nokia Company writes down a perfect marketing plan while examining the business environment. A good marketing plan should contain current and potential marketing points to exploit. The marketing manager should place a lot of focus on the resources of the organization like costs of production, the brand image, employee capability, available technology and financial resources.

Analysis of marketing environment is necessary since they directly affect the organization or might hinder the implementation of the organizations’ marketing plan. This is referred as an environmental scanning, and it serves to identify the market threats and the opportunities that are necessary in the designing of the market strategy.

In the UK markets, the brand or rather the product name is very important in terms of the brand image, and all that accompany it. In the case of Nokia, for example, the brand image begins from the technological design of the phones, and the features that the phone has and also its maintenance costs and the safety standard as well as the way it is presented in advertisement and sales promotions.

To achieve a marketing success, it is necessary for the customer to realize satisfaction, and they should be the company’s number one priority. Effective communication and gathering of information enable a company to develop marketing mentality. It should be mentioned that the primary reason for the existence of a company is the customer.

Marketing also demands that work should be distinct from the other business opportunities and it is considered central to the entire organization. Marketing is a critical aspect of business and if customers find something in their product they do not like then they look for it somewhere else and they may go to the competitors.

The company should also develop a strategy that is unique and consistent with its present circumstance. It is necessary to adopt major marketing principles that are unique to a product of a company.

Building a competitive and sustainable advantage

This means having the advantage and developing the capacity to sustain the advantage. This implies that Nokia should maintain its competitive advantage by producing and establishing quality products and laying stake in a market position that is unique. Nokia should build its own competitive advantages as opposed to imitating their competitors. Marketing managers should develop focus on the skills of the company.

Managers should also identify alternatives; this can be realized by using Ansoffs strategic matrix that exists to match products with the market. Nokia should adopt the following alternatives:

Market penetration: this involves the ability of a firm to increase its share among the clients, and it can be achieved by launching an aggressive advertising and well planned sales promotion.

Product development: Nokia should adopt this strategy of creating new products into the market. Managers should pursue this strategy by following the preferences and tastes of their customers. Managers should have a better feeling of the likes and the dislikes of their customers. Managers should also make use of the existing channels of distribution ((Mobile Beacon, 2011, p. 1).

Diversification: Nokia should endeavour to introduce new products into the market so as to attract new customers. They should introduce, for example, more twin SIM card-phones and 3G enabled phones to tap into the growing demand and to establish a new marketing niche that is dictated by the market trends.

Pricing strategy: this is a fundamental and strategic element, and it is related to the positioning of the product in the market. Pricing affects elements of the product feature, sales promotion and the channel decisions.

An effective pricing strategy can be developed from the following process: developing a marketing strategy, making market mix decisions and calculating of costs. Marketers price their products in a manner that receive fair value since price is the basic parameters by which the customers judge the product, and it also reflects the practices of the organization (Lamb & Hair, 2009, p. 56).

References

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Silk, A 2006, What is marketing?, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, Mass.

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