Integrated Marketing Communications: Nokia's case - Essay Example

Contents Executive summary 2 External analysis – PESTEL 2 Competition analysis 3 Gaining a Competitive Advantage 4 Product analysis 5 Threats 7 Marketing objectives and Marketing Strategy 7 Recommendations/ Conclusion 10 Bibliography 11 Executive summary Company Nokia is flourishing at a great rate. The company is one of the largest in the telecom sector. The company was established in 1865 as a wood pulp mill by Knut Fredrik Idestam. It was established on the banks of Nokian Virta River in the country Finland. The company first started with its paper products, car tires, personal computers and cables. External analysis – PESTEL Political – As markets are not regulated, both the manufactures and the operators are having no obligation to act without the intervention of the government. It is not true for all countries. When it comes to the Country like India, Partial regulations does interfere into the governing of the business. It means that in a country like India, we cannot expect free working of the companies. Economic – with the rise in the income of the people, and people have more disposable income, which makes consumers to be more specific in making choice of their mobile phones. If we look at the other factors rather than fulfilling the most basic of user needs (text messaging and phone calls) and price being such a key factor. Social – There is a big impact of the type of the society on the type of products created for the consumers by the Nokia. The rise in the information society has made the telecommunications more important to the customers. It is useful both in terms of the leisure and the importance in terms of the work. Now days the users are more knowledgeable of their choices and more advance features which make their choices (Grünewälder, 2008). Technological – The main reason of the change in the techonology also play an important role in the use of the handsets. These technologies make the user more specific about their choices.There have been many global advancements in technology such as MMS, Bluetooth, WAP, GSM, GPRS, cameras etc. It Is seen that the markets of the Asia are more advance in terms of the technology as compared to the countries in Europe. For example in 2002, just 4% of phones had cameras, whereas in Asia 90% did (Prasenjit, 2011). Environmental – The use of mobile phones has made the concernment of the health of the users more important. The concern is that the health can get damaged like tumors being created in the mind due to the waves emitted by the mobiles. Also there is wastage of the mobiles not needed. This is due to the reason that the mobiles are non biodegradable. Legal – Difficult to patent mobile phone designs. Technology Infringement causes a lot of legal issues (Prasenjit, 2011). Competition analysis If we look at the competition of the present NOKIA we will find that it is on the number sixth position as per the information of the competitor analysis of 2005-2006. I am highlighting the position in terms of the competition of the Nokia with the outside world:- Name of the Company Competition Value change( 2005-2006) Coca Cola -1% Microsoft -5% IBM +5% General electronics +4% Intel -9% NOKIA +14% Toyota +12% Disney +5% Mc Donald +6% Mercedes- Benz +9% It is clear from this report that NOKIA is on number sixth position when it comes to the competition (Kumar et al., 2010). Gaining a Competitive Advantage With the effectiveness of the mobile and its technologies, the company has become more affective. There is a improvement in the performance of the overall organization due to the reason that now the workers are able to carry out the routine business processes remotely. The managing of the business gave rise to the overall development of the Nokia. It is also put an affect to operate the Company in the best manner and the company is more quick in responding to any kind of change in the market. This kind of change in the Company made the increase in the sales and the service which actually means greater customer satisfaction and more loyalty The company is able to beat its competitors because it is moving faster than its competitors. the mobile business gains a significant competitive advantage. This advantage comes along with the revenue growth and the market share. Product analysis Nokia is a well known Company for its quality and after sales service. It has a wide products range. Such as /message device system used in military communications and equipment. Second are the ADSPL modems. Then is he digital television-(digital set top boxes). Other is the personal computers which were started in 1980. Some other is the mini laptops. It was started in 2009, Nokia started with high end laptop called Nokia booklet 3G. Then comes the internet tablet and the GPS Products called as global positioning system. I am highlighting some more of the product lines of Nokia. They are:- Carrying and styling including the phone jewelery and carrying cases. Headsets which include the audio adaptors, Bluetooth headsets, wired headsets and loop sets. Memory cards and cables Car solutions which have car kits, car phones and mobile holders. Navigation kits and car navigation Music related products such as speakers. Power products such as batteries, charger adapters and chargers. Home and office equipments like desk stands, wireless keyboards, mobile TV receivers, wireless digital pens and imaging. Chanel SWOT Swot analysis is one of the most important methods of analyzing the weakness and strong points of the Company taken into consideration. The full form of SWOT is superiority, weaknesses, opportunity and threat. It is very common method used by the strategic analysts (Qin, 2009). Strengths: Nokia is having a high quality and professional team in the human resource and development department. Nokia has very big and the largest channel of distribution and selling in competence to the other telecommunications and mobile phone company in the world. The products of Nokia are very much what the users what in their handsets with all the accompanying accessories. In the case of profitability, the financial aspect of the Nokia is very strong. That is why Nokia is beating the great demand and being number in selling mobile handsets in the world. It has wide range of products for all class. The re-sell value of Nokia phones are high compared to other company’s product (Grünewälder, 2008). Weakness: Nokia is a brand when it comes to the handsets. Nokia is having weaknesses in term of the handsets and the products which are less used and not got much promotion by the Nokia. These are the handsets that are not much valued or lower priced. Also the promotion to such products is not done in the best manner or if we compare it to the high end mobiles it will have the last place. This shows that Nokia is less concerned about the lower class of the society people as its not targeting promotion towards them. Some of the products are not user friendly. The price of the product is the main issue. The service centers in those areas are also less and scare. This means the after sales service will also reflect less. Opportunity: Nokia is a company that has provided the world with the variety of innovative products. These products reflects the hard work of the Nokia’s research and development team, they are working consistently towards providing the wide variety of products to us. They have the ample of the opportunity to enhance their business. The kind of wide variety of products, different price range for different people and features, it has an advantage as compare to the competitors around the world. Nokia has an opportunity to increase its sales as well as the market share. As the standard of living in India has increased the purchasing power of the people as increased as well, so Nokia has to target right customer at right time to gain the most out of the situation (Grünewälder, 2008). Threats The company is a supreme power in the mobile technology field. It has gained so much height that now beating Nokia is very difficult. The threats company can face is the leak in consistency of the quality of its products and also incorporating the kind of new technologies which the other competitors are bringing in from time to time. This means that nokia has to deal with the basic threats no big threats. But maintaining the quality is a big thing for any company and then providing the adequate support to the services like after sales service. Then we can also say that Nokia needs Marketing objectives and Marketing Strategy Marketing strategy is very good concept of the Business as it is people driven and not stagnant at any point of time. It is a kind of strategy which is having both aspects of art and science. One needs to determine how to create effective impact on the people which means understanding their psychology and motivating them to choose the products. Marketing strategy is all about serving people and as the needs and thoughts and aspirations of the people keep changing thus we can say the strategy can never be static. Let’s learn about the market strategy of the Nokia. Nokia has built many methods of attracting its clients. The Nokia marketing strategies are as under:- Focused on only handset manufacturing: - This is the key factor of earning so much speculation and success. Nokia is focusing on the manufacturing of the handsets from the beginning. Its single focus on the manufacturing of the handsets creates a lot of impact on gaining the kind of attention it has currently from the clients and end users. Enhance product portfolio: - Nokia is having a big range of product line for the same product. It has invested into the variety of products in order to earn a good range of income. Increase distribution channels: - The channels distribution is increased by the Nokia in a lieu to earn profits and manage the kind of demand for its product. The Nokia is having big sales and to manage that Nokia has opened a variety of distribution channels across the parts of the world in order to manage to supply and meet the demand of its products worldwide. Adjust preferences for specific market: - Market is never the same for any part of the world. This means that if Nokia needs to focus on Chinese market then the kind of market will affect the design, color and the price range of the products. It is known that the prices are never same for any part of the world. Customer satisfaction: - customer satisfaction is another thing which Nokia is having it as its prime priority. The customers are the only asset for the Company’s like Nokia. Customer satisfaction is one of the main things for the Company to have profit in its pocket. But if the Companies do not earn the customers satisfaction then it’s very hard to get the profit in line of the expectations of the Board of Directors. Focused on replacement: - Nokia is having a worldwide known service centre. People know it very well that Nokia is the kind of company that replaces the Handset upon finding any kind of error in it rather than erecting the error. This remove any chance of getting more problems to the customer after the handset is replaced once. They consistently approach this method to reduce the irritation of going to the service centers etc. Its large database of the service make this sure that the problems are checked the first end whenever arrived. Increase commitment to emerging market: - Commitment to the customers is one of the main factors for any of the Company. They need to be same throughout the period of the service in order to be there in the competition. Nokia has been able to be consistent in its commitment to the emerging market which means whether there is any change in the market situation; Nokia has managed to be more and more committed. Ensure accountability and quality: - Nokia is a brand label. It has managed to maintain the accountability in front of its customers and maintain the same quality which does not reduce with time. It is the main reason why the customers choose the Company over others. The handsets are so reliable that they run for more than 2 years, we are talking about the basic handset not the high end ones. This is the reliability of the Nokia. Aggressive pricing:- The pricing is also one of the key factor for the Nokia which has lead to the beating of the competition. Nokia has managed to beat the competition by not progressing unnecessary in terms of the prices (Ferrell & Hartline, 2008). Recommendations/ Conclusion With the company advancement in terms of the technology the company is making a remark for other companies. It should promote the diagonal alliances. The company should also focus on the lower cities and rural areas. We can also say that it should focus more on the youth. Bibliography Ferrell, O.C. & Hartline, M.D. (2008). Marketing Strategy. OH: Thomson Corporation. Grünewälder, A. (2008). Analysis of Nokia's Corporate, Business, and Marketing Strategies. Germany: GRIN Verlag. Kumar, R., Banthia, R., Sharma, R., Mishra, R. & Verma, R. (2010).Nokia Marketing Strategy. [Online]. Available at: http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/rohit7jan-238784-nokia-marketing-strategy-plan-business-finance-ppt-powerpoint/. Accessed on 22 May 2011. Prasenjit, C. (2011), Nokia’s Strategy. [Online]. Available at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/13202555/Nokia-Strategy-Final. Accessed on 21st May 2011. Qin. Z. (2009). Introduction to E-commerce. Berlin: Springer. Read More