Nokia 2012 and Beyond

1) In the past (till 2007), Nokia knew its customers. It held the dominant position in the mobile handheld device market(40% market share) and out produced and outsold its competition. Apple's and Samsung's new improved products ensured that customer needs and preferences changed. But Nokia refused to reinvent its product line. As customer needs evolved, Nokia first lost significant market share and then the plot. A prime example in its failure to understand the customer was Nokia's lack of development of touch screen technology and dual sim functionality when its competitors incorporated these designs in their phones. The writing well and truly made its way onto the wall when Nokia backed its unimaginative and cumbersome Symbian technology while Apple and Samsung were building software ecosystems that had innumerable apps and hooks to reel in the customer, Nokia's customer!

And so as a result of its lack of proactivity, Nokia found itself facing a definite brand confusion. While in the emerging markets( China, India etc), it still stands for reliability, value for money and its "Connecting People" image, in the developed markets(North America), its brand position and image lacks definition. The Lumia series is built on an ecosystem that is very fresh and new, one that is still not established. The brand confusion also stems from the fact that the average smartphone user is hooked to not just the iPhone or the Galaxy S but also the ecosystem that accompanies it. So while the Lumia could very well be a better phone, the marketers at Nokia are struggling to pull the customer away from his/her current comfortable ecosystem. So Nokia is at a crossroad where with the Lumia series, it is targeting everyone from a consumer who has never owned a smartphone to one who is an innovator, one who strives for personal identity. In an attempt to eat into the blackberry user market, the Lumia is also targeting the professional consumer who leads an active social life. While the problem lies in the operating system, so does the solution. The Windows Phone (WP) platform has only one major player, Nokia and therefore Nokia will have a major say in how the WP platform evolves.i Hence, moving forward there needs to be a clear vision. In the past Nokia had long stood for innovation and the Lumia is its second coming. That message has to be clear in its marketing and brand imaging strategies. The product is fresh, its for the innovators and so the innovatory concepts that it entails has to be extensively advertised. The Lumia's Image Stabilization softwareii is path breaking, its City Lens appiii is revolutionary and with Offline mappingiv, Nokia is taking a step forward where Apple has faltered. The radical advances that the Lumia series encompasses requires far-reaching marketing exposure.

Since the Nokia brand once again needs to grab a foothold in the developed market, the Lumia Series cannot be a high margin brand.