Executive Summary
This Marketing Plan Audit provides an analysis of the brand situation, current strategies and provides suggestions and implementation plan for Nokia Corporation. Nokia is a Finish manufacturer of mobile devices, which makes a full range of cellular phones for all major consumer segments worldwide, including Internet-enabled devices enable people to experience music, maps, media, messaging and games. Company has over 132,000 employees in 120 countries, sales in more than 150 countries and global annual revenue of over 60 billion dollars and operating profit of 2.86 billion dollars as of 2010. Nokia is the world's largest manufacturer of mobile phones: its global device market share was 31% in the fourth quarter 2010, but dropped below 30% in the first quarter 2011. In June 2011, Nokia was overtaken by Apple, as the world's biggest smartphone maker by volume.
For many years Nokia enjoyed an overwhelming domination on the market of personal mobile devices. The company managed to build the strong brand, easily recognizable style of it’s devices and consumer favorite. Due to serious mistakes in product and distribution strategy, as well as growing competition from companies like Apple, Samsung ,Motorola and others, Nokia started to experience serious problems with its sales, market share and consumer loyalty.
Presented Audit defines Nokia’ current issue with the Brand positioning, that caused the diminishing of the brand popularity and lowered competitive strength of the company. The perceptual map demonstrates current

situation with Nokia’s This project also reveals some gaps in the Product strategy that caused company’s alarming lagging in the smartphone market, analyze the strategic mistakes in the Distribution strategy, that lead to the loss of the North American share of the market. The Marketing Mix section also identifies pros and cons of the current Communication strategy.
Suggestion section lists recommendations, that are aimed to improve Nokia’s brand awareness, provide recommendations towards modifications of the company’s brand-product mix

Section I. Brand Situation
A. Brand Positioning A. Characteristics of Nokia’s current constituents

i. Behavioral segmentation
Most of the cell phone users carry them most of the time, mobile devices became an essential part of people everyday lives.
The benefit of Nokia’s products is that they allow users to contact each other easily, it‘s even embedded in the company‘s slogan “Connecting People”. .
Unfortunately for the Company, Nokia phones in general are no longer a consumer favorite. Other devices, including the Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy S Smartphone, among many others, have captured consumers attention. Consumers remained loyal to Nokia for a while, but after they realized that the company wasn’t reacting enthusiastically, they left, and they might be reluctant to come back. Consumers around the world have lost trust in Nokia brand. There was a time when they could count on the company to deliver the latest and greatest platform on the market. But over the last several years, it has been slow to react, and when it did offer products, they failed to appeal to the new and existing customers.
Ii. Demographic The variety of Nokia products is designed to satisfy all age groups, genders, income levels and occupation categories.

Iii. Psychographic Nokia’s psychographic segmentation is based on targeting all social classes of people, from working class to celebrities, and varieties of lifestyles, such as urban and rural .
There are Nokia 1650, Nokia 1200, Nokia 1208, Nokia 2610, Nokia 2626, Nokia 2310, Nokia 1112, Nokia 1600, Nokia 1110 mobile phones that fall into the lowest price group and target mainly workers and contractors . Mobile phones falling in this category are simple phones who only meet the purpose of messaging and calling. These phones do not have additional features such as camera, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. The only feature available in this phone is FM radio, which is most preferred by laborers, security and drivers. These consumers work in places like factories, construction sites and houses etc. They have no special hobby, as they don’t get spare time for themselves.
There are several models offered to middle class category, such as Nokia 2630, Nokia 6080, Nokia 6070, Nokia 6020, Nokia 7360, Nokia 3110. The main users of this segment are lower managers, entry level engineers because they have limited and average salary and cannot afford to spend it on unnecessary expenses. The core feature of this segment is Audio Video Player, FM Radio, Video Camera, GPS and Expandable Memory and limited Internet browsing capability. Consumers are mostly industrial middle managers and office clerks. They earn a limited amount of money and spent on their personal and daily use. They tend to spend their free and leisure time with their friends and family and spend their vacations in their homes. Models like Nokia 5200, Nokia 6151, Nokia 6111, Nokia E50, Nokia 6230i, Nokia 6131, Nokia 5300 are oriented to satisfy the needs and preferences of university students on the budget. These cells have a stylish look and have all the essential features such as Audio Video Player, FM Radio, Bluetooth, Camera, EDGE, GPS. They are also popular among this group because they have high resolution camera. Consumers from this group like to take pictures of family, friends, parties and themselves to show off their personality and attitudes.
Music/video lovers will find their model among Nokia N70 Music Edition, Nokia 5310, Nokia 6288, Nokia 3250, Nokia 7390, Nokia 5700, Nokia E51i, Nokia N73, Nokia 5610. These mobile phones are specifically optimized for entertainment, music and games. They offer dedicated music or gaming keys, expanded memory, large LCD screen and extended battery performance to provide quick and easy access to entertainment content. They spend their free time surfing on net, watching TV and listening to music, socializing in the shopping malls, on the streets by the meeting places, like Dunkin’ Donuts and Quick Check. They are most fashion conscious people; they are trend followers and like to adopt fashion that is most popular and unique.
Another range of the social class consist of young and enthusiastic business men fall of age from low thirties to low forties. The cell phones designed for this group are Nokia E65, Nokia N73 Music Edition, Nokia E61, Nokia 9300i, NokiaE70, Nokia 6500 slider, Nokia 7900 Prism, Nokia E61i, Nokia N76.
These people are fairly young and adapt new changes quickly. They are busy most of the time, so they want quick solutions for their requests. The cell phones falling in this category are business phones enabling their users to communicate with each other via social sites, like Facebook and Linkedin, and easy access to Internet browsing. Users of these phones tend to do a lot of office work and work-related communications trough their phones. Their on-the-go activities are surfing on internet and finding news about latest technology, business reports, stock quotes, watching Youtube videos, exchanging latest trends about style and fashion etc. Due to busy lifestyle, they make a lot of their purchases on internet market spaces like Amazon.com, Newegg.com, Buy.com. They mostly buy branded products, but stay price and value conscious. These consumers like to go on the exotic vacation where they can spend some time away from work and relax, but stay connected at the same time. Consumers from this group are usually very health, nutrition and physical activity conscious. This is the most potent group from the purchasing standpoint.
The last group belongs to educated establishment, such as businessman, politicians and celebrities. It is represented by the cell phones, like Nokia N95, Nokia N93i, Nokia 8600, Nokia N82, Nokia 95i, Nokia E90, Nokia 8800 and Vertu luxury phones. These are both a mobile phone and media player rolled into one. Features include HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, Wi- Fi, integrated GPS, FM radio, microSD. Features of these phones are not as important as their looks and styles. Many of the models are made using precious materials such as gold, sapphire (for the mobile screen), rubies (for the bearings) and fine leather. Their owners often spend their vacations in foreign countries, where they often shop in fancy boutiques that sell branded, exclusive and most expensive products. Consumers from this category take high interest in media and keep themselves up to date with the latest news related to politics, business and society. They have highly reputed ranks in the society. Hi-class dwellers change themselves as the society progresses and trend changes.
The most remarkable product from this category is Vertu phone. Vertu is a British-based manufacturer and retailer of luxury mobile phones. Formerly a wholly owned subsidiary, the business is now an independently run division of Nokia. It designs and manufactures luxury mobile phones in the same fashion as luxury watch manufacturers like Rolex, IWC and Patek Philippe. The most expensive model it has ever made is the Signature Cobra, at £213,000 ($310,000); the most expensive regular model is the Signature Diamond at £55,000 ($83,000). Prices start at £3500 for the Constellation model.
Vertu mobiles are only available in its own branded stores, concessions in leading department stores such as Harrods and Selfridges in London, and other authorised retailers. Vertu’s flagship store opened in 2002 in Paris and then soon after in Singapore. There are now over 600 retail outlets, including one at Wynn Las Vegas.
One of the services acquired with a Vertu mobile is a year's free concierge service called "Vertu Concierge", operated by a number of providers worldwide. It is accessed through a special button, the "Concierge key", on the side of every phone. This "hot key" puts the user through to a team of lifestyle managers who can book services such as gourmet dining, luxury travel or accommodation around the clock.

Iv. Geographic segmentation Nokia is a worldwide manufacturer and distributor of the cell phone devices with the presence and influence on all continents. While the company has managed to maintain its share of the worldwide smartphone market, it has not managed to do that in some regional markets that were once strongholds.
In the key Western European region, for example, Nokia’s share fell from 59.4 percent in the June quarter of 2008 to 39.8 percent in June 2010–a decline of nearly 33 percent. In the Asia Pacific market, the company’s share slipped from 74.8 percent in June 2009 to 64.5 percent in June 2010–a decline of more than 10 percent. Nokia announced it will begin offering hi-end handsets in Asia, as the company tries to regain market share now dominated by Apple and Android. Over the next five years Asia's mobile market is projected to expand by 40 percent, totaling nearly one billion devices in the region.
Nokia Corporation is abandoning the Japanese hi-end market, after a brief success with luxury cell phones Vertu costing as much as 20 million yen ($250,000). The company is closing by the end of July its last store selling high-end cell phones in Ginza. Previously, it had four such stores in Japan.
Nokia’s North America smartphone market share accounts for only 4 percent. This is the result of the company’s few years old decision to focus on emerging markets instead of US. Nokia has also procrastinate with the plans to enter the touch screen smartphone market in the United States. The X7 would have been the first Nokia smartphone offered exclusively in the U.S., and would have been offered only on the AT&T network. The company had been aiming the phone to catch up with Apple, Research in Motion and Google Android-powered phones, which dominate the market here.
A failure to bring such a phone to U.S. consumers exposes a major weakness for the Finnish mobile-phone giant. For years, Nokia has been able to treat the United States as a second-class market because of its dominance abroad. But the rapid rise of the mobile Internet in the United States means just about any mobile maker is leaving huge share of the market if they refuse to compete.
B. Competitive frame of reference Nokia is obviously struggling to maintain it’s leadership in the mobile market, but clearly not succeeding. Company used to hold the top position in the market and was easily dominating the space. But over the past few years, the company lost its way as more aggressive alternatives continue to penetrate the market.
In the mobile market, much of the focus is placed on Apple and Google, two companies that have proved over the last few years that with the right idea and powerful software, companies can enter the market saturated with competitors and still win supremacy. For years, Symbian was the dominant operating system in the mobile market. But its market share has shrunk even though it’s still hanging on in some parts of the world. Symbian can’t compete any longer with Google’s Android platform and Apple’s iOS, which are the operating systems that have grabbed customers attention. Now Nokia finds itself in a difficult position with an aging operating system and no viable successor technology of its own.
On 11 February 2011, Nokia's CEO Stephen Elop, a former Microsoft employee, unveiled a new strategic alliance with Microsoft, and announced it would replace Symbian and MeeGo with Windows Phone 7. Nokia will, however, retain Symbian for use in mid-to-low-end devices. It will also invest into the Series 40 platform and release a single MeeGo product in 2011. This news has not been approved by consumers, and has contributed to the decline in the stock market by 11%. As Nokia is the largest mobile phone manufacturer worldwide, it is suggested the alliance will make Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 a stronger contender against Android and iPhone. In June 1, 2011 Nokia shares dropped to their lowest in more than 13 years. Nokia shares fell as much as 10 percent, extending their previous day's by 18 percent fall.
Handset market share for 4th quarter 2004

Brand Units Sold
(in millions) Market share
4th quarter 2004 Market share
3rd quarter 2004 QoQ Change (%)
Nokia 66.1 34.07 % 30.6 % 3.47 %
Motorola 31.8 16.39 % 13.87 % 2.52 %
Samsung 21.1 10.88 % 13.51 % -2.63 %
Sony Ericsson 12.6 6.49 % 6.01 % 0.48 %
Siemens 13.5 6.96 % 7.56 % -0.6 %
LG 13.9 7.16 % 7.02 % 0.14 %
Others 35 18.04 % 17.08 % 0.96 %

Handset market share for 1st quarter, 2009

Brand Units Sold
(in millions) Market share
1st quarter, 2009 Market share
4th quarter, 2008 QoQ Change (%) Market share
1st quarter, 2008 YoY Change (%)
Nokia 93 40.43 % 41.93 % -1.5 % 41.1 % -0.67 %
Samsung 45.8 19.91 % 14.54 % 5.37 % 16.48 % 3.43 %
LG 22.6 9.83 % 7.44 % 2.39 % 8.68 % 1.15 %
Motorola 14.7 6.39 % 6.51 % -0.12 % 9.75 % -3.36 %
Sony Ericsson 14.5 6.3 % 7.6 % -1.3 % 7.94 % -1.64 %
Blackberry 7.8 3.39 % 0 % 3.39 % 0 % 3.39 %
Apple 3.8 1.65 % 0 % 1.65 % 0 % 1.65 %
Others 27.8 12.09 % 15.32 % -3.23 % 17.1 % -5.01 %

This data demonstrates when and how LG, Blackberry and Apple started their breakthrough rally for the dominance of the market. In year 2004 Nokia’s market share had been increasing by approximately 3% a quarter. In 2009 Nokias’ success is going in reverse. It is reflected in 1.5 % decline in worldwide market share.

Perceptual Map
This two-dimensional perception map is the intuitive map that is created by marketer based on his understanding of the industry and attempts to visually display the perceptions of customers or potential customers towards the major players on the market of smartphone manufacturers. Vertical axis represents brand popularity among the customers and horizontal one reflects the level of satisfaction with the features of the phones from the biggest manufacturers. Apple with it’s iPhone clearly posses the leadership in the category. Nokia is still a strong brand with a lot of credibility and potentials, but it’s current offers are lagging because of outdated Symbian operating system and mistakes in distribution strategy.


Current brand positioning and core competencies
The main strategy of the Nokia Corporation is based on growth, efficiency and profitability . It also emphasizes on sustainable environmental development. Nokia has several resources and core competencies that can be used to offer the best product to the final consumer. The biggest resources are its knowledge, research and development, and production. High investment in R&D is one of Nokia’s success factors.
Nokia’s core competencies consist of their brand name/brand development. Nokia’s brand is associated with well-designed high quality and technologically advanced products and user-friendly customer service.
These core competencies give the company a competitive advantage in what it makes a significant contribution to perceived customer benefits. It is important to note that downturn in telecommunication industry in 2001 did not have much impact on Nokia. The strength of its brand can be considered attributable to its solid performance in early 2000-th, despite difficult market conditions. The perceptual map presented above also confirms the strength of Nokia’s brand but points out at the weakness of the current appeal of it’s phone features to the current and potential customers.

Nokia SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis, is a Strategic planning tool used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats that effect the company marketing strategy. A SWOT analysis conducts an external and internal scan of Nokia's business environment, it is an important part of the strategic planning process. Environmental factors internal to the firm usually can be classified as strengths, or weaknesses, and those external to the firm can be classified as opportunities or threats. Company has the control over strength and weaknesses, but is impacted buy opportunities and threats. The SWOT analysis provides information that is helpful in matching the firm's resources and capabilities to the competitive environment in which it operates.
Strength
Nokia is the major contributor to the mobile phone market as far as value of production and expansion and penetration of the global market;
Powerful R&D gives the company significant, long term advantage when it comes to developing new products and creating popular trends in mobile technology;
Super large production volume enables Nokia to achieve the lowest possible production cost and carry on effective pricing strategy;
Strong, established brand is easily recognizable, has lots of potential and provides cushion for the mistakes in some company’s strategies;
Company’s slogan (straight forward and short) brings together the technology and human side of its offer in a powerful way. The specific message that is conveyed to consumers in every advertisement and market communication is " Nokia connecting People”;
Company’s long time active involvement in the global environmental projects gives it strong leverage in brand and product promotion;
New strategic alliance with Microsoft that would replace Symbian and MeeGo with Windows Phone 7 might strengthen the Nokia’s position:
Nokia phones usually carry the reputation of high quality products;

Weaknesses
Nokia’s Symbian OS is considered outdated and lacks applications;
Because of its overwhelming presence on the market and huge production volume, Nokia earned an image of the “mammoth” of the cell phone industry, that is slow to adapt and conservative;
Weak presence on US and Japan markets effects the company finances and stock attractiveness and diminishes the company image as the “global” player;

Opportunities
Nokia’s distribution strategy needs serious improvement. It’s necessary to increase company’s presence on North American and Japanese markets since they still posses tremendous earning potential, despite all the attractiveness of the emerging markets. Therefore, it’s significant to develop a “global” phone that can operate in two major standards: CDMA (North America) and GSM (Europe and Asia);
Recent US mobile provider’ price hike on their data plans open up an opportunity for Nokia to reintroduce its developed, high quality and decent reputation non-smartphones into the American market. It’s projected to experience an elevated interest to these phones, since providers like Verizon Wireless, T-mobile, AT&T and Sprint constantly shrink their inventory of such phones in attempt to lure customers into the smartphone contracts with it’s expensive data plans;
Asian and Eastern European technology markets still have huge potential to grow, especially their smartphone and “luxury” cell phones. There is a big opportunity for Vertu in these regions;

Threats
Android and iOS platforms started to dominate across the globe.
Apple, HTC, Samsung, LG and Motorola moving aggressively into the segments traditionally controlled by Nokia;
Asian own brands become influential within their “home” markets;
Possible decrease of spending on smartphones and accessories around the world;
Consumers get better access to the information and become more price sensitive;
To better visualize the results of the analysis, there is the SWOT Matrix presented below.

SWOT MATRIX FOR NOKIA

Strength M I R
Production volume 3 2 6 and presence on the market
R&D 3 2 6
Low production cost 2 2 4
High quality 2 2 4
Strong Brand name 3 3 9
Company’s powerful slogan 2 2 4
“Green” image 2 2 4
Strategic alliance with Microsoft 2 1 2 Opportunities M I R
Appeal of the US mobile market 2 2 4
Projected demand for 1 1 1 non-smartphones in US
Development of emerging 2 1 2 markets and luxury niche
Demand for CDMA and GSM 1 2 2 “global” phone
Online cell phone sales are 2 2 4 growing
Weaknesses M I R
Outdated Symbian 3 3 9
Company’s size makes it vulnerable 1 1 1
Weak presence in US and Japan 2 2 4 effects Nokia’s “global” image Threats M I R
Android an iOS platforms 3 3 9 conquer the market
Apple, HTC, Samsung, LG and 3 3 9 Motorola competition
Asian brands gaining power 1 3 3
Consumers become more 2 1 2 educated and price sensitive

Based on Brand Situation Analisys and according to the “Marketing Management” textbook, written by P.Kotler and K.Keller, Nokia has all the components of the Brand Strength Formula:
Leadership;
Stability;
Market
Geographic Spread;
Trend;
Support;
Protection;
Obviously, Leadership component needs serious reinforcement, as well as Market and Trend parts. It can be done with the careful and intense improvements to the current Marketing Mix.

Section II. Marketing Mix
Since Nokia phones don’t have significant presence on US market, some of the company strategies are analyzed on the examples of the foreign countries, Ukraine in particular.
A. Product Strategy Nokia provides it’s customers with both products (mobile devices) and services (customer service, tech support). According to the company statement, it’s wireless services almost equally between:
Media and content;
Consumer Messaging;
Business Mobility;
Games;
Music;
Navigation

As it has been described in Psychographic part of Nokia’s Brand Positioning Analysis, the company offers the wide variety of the cell phones for all the categories and social classes of the mobile users worldwide.
Nokia’s distinguishes five self-explanatory product/service lines for its devices:
Achieve;
Explore;
Live;
Connect; Entry
For Ukrainian consumers , there are 61 model offered through the www.nokia.com/ukraine . The design varies from classic to modern, hip. Most of the phones, especially smartphones, carry the urban image so that it can appeal to the biggest target market. Some models feature Internet browser, Bluetooth, FM radio, MP3 player, 3G capability, touch screen, full QWERTY keyboard, etc. All the phones sold through the authorized dealers are covered with the limited warranty and lifetime customer and technical support. There are more than 250 authorized Nokia dealers in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine.
Nokia products belong to the Shopping classification (except Vertu, that belongs to the Specialty), since they require moderate repurchase planning, numerous comparisons, infrequent purchases, and those purchases are made in the areas with many similar products.
It is important to note, that Nokia positions itself as the environmentally responsible company. Hence, it started to package it’s phones in ultra-light, flat package (sometimes without the bulky charger and paper manual), that has lower impact on the environment.
Overall, Nokia phones have a reputation of the quality-made, technologically advanced devices. However, the outdated Symbian OS posses the biggest thread to the Nokia success. Company obviously adapted the incremental product innovation, which reflected in slow development of the smartphones with touch screens. Most company products are in the dangerous Maturity/Decline stage of the Life Cycle. Company’s sales leveled off or decline, brand is loosing it’s loyalty, the company is abandoning some traditional markets and shows weak promotional activity. In order to sustain, Nokia must apply new strategies to extend it’s product Life Cycle. In this case, the most applicable approaches would be reverse and stealth strategies.
B. Pricing Strategy
Cellular phones, like most of computerized gadgets, are made now in developing countries, where manufacturers enjoy low labor cost and weak presence of unions and environmental protection from local governments. Therefore, mobile phones became the commodity and this prevent the manufacturers to use a cost leadership strategy in Pricing .
Overall, Nokia tries to follow the differentiation strategy, with the competition based, optional product and skimming approaches. For developing markets, not saturated with many competitors, such as Eastern Europe, company also uses penetration price strategy, as offered prices are quite low and promotional effort is high. The reason for this is to gain share and to gain economies of scale.
In general, Nokia marketers determine the prices on their products based on the targeted groups, described in psychographic segmentation of this audit.
Ukrainian major cell phone distributor www.shoplive.com sells Nokia phones, with the price ranging from $54 for Nokia 1112 (simplest phones with limited features for the low class) to $708 for Nokia N93 (latest Internet enabled hi-end device with lots of features for the establishment). These prices are valid without the service contract. It is important to note that in Eastern Europe prepaid /rechargeable phones (no wireless plan) are common, as users like to pay ”as you go” and conveniently change their SIM-cards when its necessary to change the phone number or provider.
Mobile phones sales in Ukraine in Q1, 2010 totaled 1.28 million phones, which is 48.8% up year-over-year, according to a report of Unitrade Group. The average price of mobile phones in Q1, 2010 fell by 4.7% against January-March 2009, to $121. The share of smartphones and communicators fell by 1%, to 11.2%. A total of 143,000 smartphones worth $44.6 million was sold in Q1, 2010. In the mobile phone segment, the leader in sales was Nokia, the market share of which went down by 3%, to 47%. Samsung with 34% was next (a 7% rise), and then LG with 14%.
The share of smartphones and communicators produced by Nokia that were sold was 84%, Samsung's 5%, HTC's 3%, Sony Ericsson 2% and other producers 6%.
Share of the low price segment (up to $130) in 2009 was 56% of total sales (in Q1, 2009 it was 51%), including a rise by 7% in the share of up to $70, to 37%. The share of the medium price segment ($130-$300) fell by 6%, to 33%, and the share of the upper segment (over $300) went up by 1%, to 11%.
Nokia also makes money by providing relatively expensive accessories and software for the phones. Memory cards, as well as headsets, car phone holders, USB cables etc., are optional, and can be purchased from the dealers or the company web-site.
Due to the nature of the product (technologically advanced, lots of different features) it is almost impossible to compare the prices from the different companies. As it has been mentioned before, cell phones became a sort of commodity. Therefore, most of the competing manufacturers bear similar cost of production. Despite the Nokia’s huge production volume that allows it to keep it’s manufacturing cost low, retail price is not what gives Nokia an edge.

C. Distribution Strategy
Distribution channel is a set of independent organizations that make a product or service available for purchase by consumers or business. Nokia distribution strategy is based on both direct an indirect configuration.
Internet purchases made by customers directly from www.nokia.com are constantly growing. Web-site offers detail information about the newest models, their features, allows potential consumers to compare up to four different model on the same page. Also, the web-page can be customized to one of six regions of the world: Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, Middle East and, North America. Additionally, web-pages for these regions are presented in all local languages. Company’s web-site offers wide variety of the original Nokia accessories as well.
There are twelve models for business use offered on company web-site. Nokia Eseries smartphones are engineered to deliver productivity, communications and collaboration. Business customers can choose from a wide variety of form factors and price points, all of which offer impressive battery performance, good audio quality, large storage and memory, software maturity and many other features.
Indirect distribution allows Nokia to use the network of the dealers and distributors to enter some developing markets where online purchases didn’t become common yet. Distributors add value to the Nokia phones by providing live product information, customer service, technical support and offering accessories.
Nokia’s distribution intensity is rather selective, except for luxury Vertu phones. Generally, there is a developed network of distributors and official dealers conveniently located to allow them provide efficient customer and technical support.
Most of the time Nokia uses anticipatory model of distribution, which is forecast driven and based on promoting of existing models. Although, with the growing popularity of the online purchases, company tries to use a response-based model, which allows buyers to customize their phones.
The situation with the US market is complicated. As it has been mentioned earlier, Nokia’s North America smartphone market share accounts for only 4 percent. The table below displays the presence of Nokia devices among the American wireless providers. The company had been aiming to catch up with Apple, Research in Motion and Google Android-powered phones, which dominate the market here, but did not experienced much of success.
Nokia’s presence on US wireless market
US wireless provider Number of Nokia phones offered
At&T 1
T-Mobile 0-3
Sprint 0
Verizon Wireless 0
Tracfone 3
Straight Talk 2

Nokia can attempt to fix this mistake, which costs the company a significant share of profit, by immediate improvement to the Product and Communication Strategy towards North America’s wireless market.

D. Communication Strategy

Due to the nature of business, Nokia has to position its brand in the highly competitive mobile phone marketplace. Therefore, its message must clearly bring together the technology and human side of its offer in a powerful way. The specific slogan that is delivered to consumers in every advertisement and market communication is " Nokia connecting People".
Nokia have a logo, which looks like two hands that are trying to reach each other.
The hi-end Nokia phones also have an advertising slogan such as "The Right Attitude" and "Body Beautiful" and instead of being called “The Phone“ they are introduced as “The Communicator“.

In order to reach its product awareness, improve perceptions and attachment and improve sales, Nokia uses various IMC components for its communication with the customers. Some of the components include:
Advertising;
Public relations;
Direct marketing;
Sales promotions;
Most advertisements of the Nokia hi-end and smartphones are directed at the selected target market. They also give all the main new features of the phone and how these features can benefit the user. It also describes the phone as a fashion accessory and having an urban image, which is a popular image at the moment with the most target markets. Most of the advertisements for the phone promote it as being the most fashionable phone of the year.
Nokia claims that it is “working to minimize its global environmental impact and helping people make sustainable choices“.

As the part of its PR effort, Nokia has signed on to serve as global headline sponsor of Social Media Week for all of 2011. As part of its sponsorship, NOKIA will power a unique platform that will connect people in real-time across the twenty-plus cities that will participate in Social Media Week in February and September 2011. Another examples include sponsorships of the Finland Speed Skating Team, silver sponsorship of the Games Convention Developers Conference, the largest game design and development conference in Europe.
Another effective way to communicate with the current and potential customers is the company web-site www.nokia.com. This interactive tool provides detail information about the phones and accessories, services, new software, current promotions, interactive demos, etc.
Nokia corporation demonstrate strong and balanced communication strategy that includes effective messages that reach the consumer, are creative, understandable and memorable.
According to the latest Nokia executives, company realized its mistakes and will try to reenter the US wireless market. To do so, there will be necessary do develop aggressive and effective communication strategy to win American costumers.
Section III. Suggestions
A. Brand Revitalization Strategies
a. Suggested changes in Brand Positioning

b. Suggested changes in Marketing Mix
i. Product
1. Nokia’s biggest threat is Android and iOS platforms for the smartphones that started to dominate across the globe. Apple, HTC, Samsung, LG and Motorola moving aggressively into the segments traditionally controlled by Nokia. Therefore, company must reinforce its R&D in the direction of developing new competitive smartphones.
2. Since Nokia’s strategic plan to will be reenter the US market, it is suggested to develop the phones that could work in CDMA standard, used by Verizon Wireless, largest US service provider. Such a phone should have a multiband capability, which would enable them to work with any US provider, as well as worldwide.
3. Due to the rapid grows of the smartphone share in US, most of the wireless providers started to modify their pricing of the data plans. Also, the provider’s inventory of the non-smart phones is constantly shrinking to push consumers towards the smartphones where they make higher profit. Therefore, many price-minded smartphone current or potential users are reluctant to sign a new contract in today’s economic situation. Nokia should use this as the momentum during its comeback on the US market and offer its best phones with the limited Internet capability to the price-cautious consumers. It is projected for such phones to have increased popularity until competitive force will push the prices of the data plan down.
4. To reinforce Nokia’s worldwide product offer it is suggested to develop the bundled product (smartphone and laptop working together to enhance the Internet browsing experience). Several US providers tried this approach and noted great success.
5. It had been announced recently that new strategic alliance with Microsoft that will replace Symbian and MeeGo with Windows Phone 7. Therefore, it’s essential to develop entire start-up package of software that could work with the new Nokia phones. It should include: media playback, consumer messaging, business and financial applications, games, music, navigation. ii. Price
1. Thanks to the large production volume, Nokia phones are sold worldwide for the competitive price that doesn’t need much of the correction.
2. Most of US consumers receive cellular service by signing a term contract with the mobile provider. Therefore, they obtain their devices through the providers for the promotional price. Hence, it is essential to immediately start negotiations with the service providers about future competitive price of the Nokia phones on the US market. iii. Distribution
1. One of the biggest Nokia’s strategic mistakes was to abandon the US market in favor of developing regions. Since the company realized this mistake and committed to fix it as soon as possible, it important to start consultations and negotiations with the major US providers about future distribution of the Nokia phones through their retail network.
2. It is possible for Nokia to take advantage of the fact that there is a rapidly growing number of super rich buyers in regions like China , India, Eastern Europe and Russia. To satisfy their demand for luxury items it is suggested to open very limited number of Vertu boutiques in those countries and regions. iv. Communication
To succeed in its brand revitalization, Nokia must invest in the global mass communication campaign. This should include: advertising, promotion, events and public relations. Since Nokia is returning to the US market, especially careful attention should be paid to this market.
1. TV advertisement is expensive but powerful, when carefully managed. Here is the list of 2011 America’s most popular TV shows:
Most Popular Reality TV Shows

Popular Reality Television Shows
Show Executive Producer(s) Network
America's Got Talent Simon Cowell, Ken Warwick, and Jason Raff NBC
American Idol Nigel Lythgoe, Ken Warwick, Cecile Frot-Coutaz, and Simon Fuller Fox
Dancing With the Stars BBC Worldwide ABC
So you Think you can Dance Simon Fuller, Nigel Lythgoe, and Barry Adelman Fox
Survivor Charlie Parsons, Mark Burnett, Jeff Probst, and David Burris CBS
The Amazing Race Jerry Bruckheimer, Bertram van Munster, Jonathan Littman, Hayma Washington, Elise Doganieri, and Amy Nabseth Chacon CBS
The Biggest Loser J. D. Roth NBC

Popular TV Shows: New Seasons

Popular Reality Television Shows
Show Creators Network
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Bones Hart Hanson Fox
Dexter James Manos, Jr. and Jeff Lindsay Showtime
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Gossip Girl Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage The CW
Grey's Anatomy Shonda Rhimes ABC
NCIS Donald P. Bellisario and Don McGill CBS
The Simpsons Matt Groening Fox
Two and Half Men Chuck Lorre and Lee Aronsohn CBS
House MD David Shore Fox
The Mentalist Bruno Heller CBS
Breaking Bad Vince Gilligan AMC
United Nation of Tara Diablo Cody and Steven Spielberg Showtime

Advertisements in these shows will raise customer awareness about Nokia cellular devices. Some ads should contain references about Nokia’s past popularity in the United States in order to: first bring those American customers back that used to be loyal to Nokia; create an impression among the younger generation that Nokia is not new to the country, can successfully do business here and offer quality and innovative mobile devices.
2. Auditor finds it promising from the communication strategy standpoint to create a strategic partnership between Nokia and another well known Scandinavian giant, IKEA. They both have similar names, come from the same part of Europe, and with the meticulous advertisement can deliver the great Northern appeal, especially during Christmas time. Their combined advertisement campaign can be focused on the coverage of the environmental project, which global and relevant to Scandinavia at the same time. One of the possible projects can be named “Help us save the North Pole”. Nokia can open its boutiques in IKEA superstores and commit to contribute a percentage of the sales, made with the help of this campaign, to the fund that specializes on reducing “greenhouse” gas pollution. Both Nokia and IKEA will get increased consumer attention and improve their image as the socially-responsible companies.
3. To obtain constant awareness among the younger generation, it is necessary to create and maintain the Nokia USA Facebook page. There are many adds and promotions that can be delivered through this increasingly popular social media marketing tool;
B. Implementation
b. Suggested changes in Marketing Mix
i. Product
1. Reinforce its R&D in the direction of developing new competitive smartphones. Starts immediately. Budget: $50 million for 6 month;
2. Develop the phones that could work in CDMA standard. Starts immediately. Budget: $8 million for 3 month;
3. Promotion of non-smartphones. Starts at the beginning of the advertisement campaign. Budget: $15 million for 6 month;
4. Develop the bundled product (smartphone and laptop working together to enhance the Internet browsing experience). Starts immediately. Budget: $15 million for 9 month;
5. Develop start-up package of software and apps for Nokia with Windows Phone 5; ii. Price
1. Price strategy is balanced. No action required;
2. Future price negotiations with the major US service providers. Start negotiations immediately; iii. Distribution
1. Future distribution of the Nokia phones through the US retail network. Start negotiations immediately;
2. Open Vertu boutiques in developing countries. Start research. Budget: $7 million for 6month; iv. Communication
1. TV advertisement campaign. Suggested shows are: “America Got Talent“, “American Idol“, “Dancing With the Stars“. These shows are owned by three different TV netwoks and involve viewers interactive participation. Nokia can become the information and telecommunication sponsor of these popular shows. Starts when Nokia products become available for purchase everywhere in US. Budget: $70 million for 6month;
2. Combined advertisement campaign (Nokia and IKEA) to promote the environmental project. Starts before Christmas time 2011. Budget: $35 million for 3 month;
3. Open an maintain Facebook page of Nokia USA. Starts immediately. Budget: $10 million for 12 month;