FINAL PROJECT

INDEX
1.RESEARCH PROPOSAL AND FRAMEWORK
DESIGN
1.1.BACKGROUND ON NOKIA
1.2.RESEARCH PROPOSAL
1.3.OBJECTIVES
1.4.EXPLORATORY RESEARCH DESIGN
1.5.DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH DESING
2.EXPLORATORY RESEARCH
2.1.SECONDARY SOURCES
2.2.QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH
GROUP)

(FOCUS

Porters, PESTEL, SWOT

3.DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH
3.1.DEVELOP A QUESTIONNAIRE
3.1.1. TYPE OF OBSERVATION
3.1.2. QUESTIONNAIRE
3.2.SAMPLE STRATEGY
3.3.DATA
ANALYSIS/PREPARATION
PROCESS
3.4.TIME AND COST BUDGET
4.CONCLUSIONS
5.RECOMMENDATIONS
6.WORKING IN GROUPS

1. PROPOSAL AND FRAMEWORK

DESIGN

1.1. BACKGROUND ON NOKIA

Nokia is a multinational which was founded in the country of Finland
in the year 1865. It actually started as a pulp mill (paper producer),
and as an electricity generator. It wasnt until the years 1970s/1980s
that it actually got involved in the telecommunication industry.
In 1987 they had their first mobile phone service, and five years later
in 1992 they created their first digital handled device.
In 1998 it became the clear leader in the mobile phone industry.
Somehow, recently (started in 2002) NOKIAS sales have been in
downfall, and their market share has decreased notoriously. The
demands and the continuous and rapid innovation in telephones,
caused Nokia some problems when keeping up with their customer
demands. Sales started to decrease, and consumers where switching
to other brands that were advancing more rapidly, innovating, and
offering everything consumers asked for.
Microsoft acquired Nokias phone business, in order to re-enter the
phone market again, strongly. Consumers may trust the name of
Microsoft better than Nokia.

Ballestn, A. ,(2014) Las ventas de telfonos Nokia caen un 30%,

Quesabesde,
1/1
[online]
available
from
http://www.quesabesde.com/noticias/las-ventas-de-nokia-caen-30-porciento_11699 [accessed 13/04/16]
This article shows how the sales of Nokia have decreased notoriously
lately, therefore, Microsoft will be now taking care of the mobile
phone sector of Nokia, and try to enter the market and gain a market
share with a new name (Microsoft, not Nokia, which customers will be
likely to trut more). For that, they need to see the features that will
give them success instead of focusing on the basic components.
Phone market is very innovative and customer demands need to be
attended.

Henry, A. ,(2011) Rumor: Microsoft to buy Nokia, Geek, 1/1, [online]

available from http://www.geek.com/mobile/rumor-microsoft-to-buynokia-1379555/[accessed 13/04/16]
Microsoft will keep using Nokias hardware and techonology.

1.

2. RESEARCH PROPOSAL

In order to properly carry out a research project, the first thing that is
needed is to identify a clear problem to start working from there.
Sometimes there are times where the research is conducted and it is
either useless because there is not a real problem, or there are not
enough resources to carry it out.
The following steps would be stating the objectives, determining the
research design. Data collection method, selecting a sample and
collecting the data analyzing and interpreting the data, and finally
preparing the research report which will be finally used to implement
the decision.
-

We have a clear problem, since Nokia decreased the market

share (which is the symptom) and the sales. There should be
underlying reasons as to why that happened. Trust should be
regained, and the damaged image should be improved, and this
is what we will be researching about.

Marketing Research Problem: it is information oriented, and it will tell

us what information needs to be collected in order to find out about
underlying causes.
MRP: What are the most important features (consumer
preferences) in a mobile phone, customers care about?
This will help us know which type of information we will need to
search for.
On the other hand, the management decision problem is action
oriented, what should be done?
MDP: Which elements of the marketing mix need to be
changed to regain brand equity and image?
Marketing mix elements:
-

Product: main element in marketing mix. What do customers

want?
Price: it goes through many changes, depending on pricing
strategies, demand

Place: accessibility of the product. Monitorize sales.

Promotion: through advertising and media, help
customers with new offers.

reach

Hypothesis: what do consumers value? We think they value

technological features and quality the most.

1.3. OBJECTIVES
RESEARCH
-

OF

MARKET

Find out clear reasons for decline in sales of NOKIA

Clarify customers attitudes towards NOKIA , and their purchase
intentions
To find insights and behavior towards NOKIA
Find who are the main competitors, and how to enter the
market to compete, how they adapt to new environment
conditions.
Understand current market strategy in reaching new customers
with new product offers and targeting new groups
Find consumers preferences when purchasing mobile phones
Why are consumers switching to other brands?
Customer expectations and perception.

After the research, it will be facilitated to enter the market and regain
market share in the mobile phone industry.

FRAMEWORK

HOW WILL
WE ACHIEVE
OBJECTIVES

Exploratory
Research

Primary
data

Qualitative
data
(exploratory)

Secondary
Data

Quantitative
data
(descriptive)

Information we will search for

-

Profile of buyers
Money
Preferences of customers

This will help us choose questions for a later questionnaire if

necessary.

1.4. EXPLORATORY
FRAMEWORK

RESEARCH

Exploratory research includes primary data (qualitative data), and

secondary data sources.
It is important to know the information needed to achieve all of the
price objectives. This information we will find will help us in identifying
the most important variables and how to analyze them. Exploratory
research is intended to help us have initial information and
understanding of the consumer behavior we want to know about. It
will also help in the developing of a hypothesis relevant to the
research project.

This part of the research is known to be more flexible and

unstructured with smaller samples, because it will later be shaped
and defined with the descriptive research.
Qualitative data (type of primary data): we will use it in order to find
out about the insights and deep thoughts inside customers minds.
This will help us gain understanding on our current situation about
NOKIA, and how it will go from there since the acquisition by
Microsoft. We will find more about the reasons as to why the sales
decline. The method we will use will be a direct type, focus group. We
think this is a great method, because even if it is difficult to moderate
it, if done well, we can get tons of useful information and data to draw
conclusions from.

Secondary data: it is referred to data which has been collected for

other purposes but can be perfectly used to help in other market
problems than the one it was intended for. It is quick, with low cost,
and it does not take a long time to search. It is important that we find
data useful to the project, and not too hard to locate. It helps to better
identify the problem, to define it, and help interpret primary data and
hypothesis.
-

Comercial databases, will be used to find this useful

information.
(direct approach). Important to measure the
reliability.
Computerized databases: number of buyers per region, to
analyze competitors sales and compare.
Academic journals and specialized magazines reliable and
accurate.

Analyze how the market strategy should be. NOKIAs mission is

Connecting people, and help enjoy more of what life has to offer.
Was Nokia satisfying only basic needs of customers instead of only
innovating?
Graphical models will be searched in order to see the change of
market share throughout the years and have a better overview of the
companys situation throughout the years.

1.5. DESCRIPTIVE
FRAMEWORK

RESEARCH

It includes quantitative research. Quantitative Research is a way of

generating numerical data or data that can be transformed into
useable statistics.
We will do the quantitative research based on the results we obtained
from the qualitative research attitudes, opinions, behaviors, and other
variables identified we can use. Usually descriptive research has a
larger simple size than qualitative research.
Quantitative data collection methods are much more structured than
qualitative data collection methods.
Our quantitative data collection methods will consist of a survey
questionnaire, which will include a number of questions related to the
problem, and the objectives. The data we obtain, will be classified,
and used in the data preparation process. It will be shown in different
graphs, in order to be able to read more clearly the information
obtained, so basically easier to interpret it, once the data has been
grouped.
The questions asked will be directed towards the consumers profile,
what their perception is about NOKIA, what are their most preferred
features, their levels of satisfaction or dissatisfaction, and anything
that can be helpful in achieving objectives and arrive to a conclusion
etc. We will try to find out about the size of the market, profiles and
preferences.

2.

EXPLORATORY RESEARCH

2.1. SECONDARY SOURCES

The main secondary sources that will be used in this research are:
FIRST
Huang R. and Sarigll E., (2011). How brand awareness relates to
market outcome, brand equity and the marketing mix. Elsevier:
Journal of Business Research. 65, 92-99. [online] Available from:
Elsevier B.V [Accessed 12 March 2016].
This article is useful for our research because it lets us know how
brand awareness works for consumers and how it affects their
thoughts on a specific brand. In our research we wanted to see what
customers thought about NOKIA and their reactions when asked about
the brand. We can check the brand awareness by carrying out a
survey, which gives us a clue of which descriptive method is useful to

support our hypothesis. It also tells how brand awareness affects the
marketing mix elements which is part of our research problem.
Brand awareness is the level of consumer consciousness of a
company. It measures a potential customers ability to not only
recognize a brand image, but to also associate it with a certain
companys product or service. According to Huang R. And Sarigll E.
study, there are three perspectives of brand awareness resulted from
combining survey data with real-market data.
The association between brand awareness and market outcome is one
of them, where the well-known brand performs better in the
marketplace than to a lesser known brand. There are few studies
about this perspective, where most of them are exploring the service
industry and more than that, some of them they find brand awareness
as an antecedent to brand market outcome (measured as profitability
and sales).
The findings indicate a positive correlation between them, where the
correlation between brand awareness with sales is lower than its
correlation with customer mindset and as well revenue premium is
lower than its correlation with customer mindset. Therefore, the study
findings suggest brand awareness closely relates to customers overall
attitude toward a brand.
The second association in the study is between brand awareness and
overall brand equity, where consumers may link the related brand
knowledge to the brand name, which finally constitutes brand equity
(according to Aaker, 1991; Keller, 1993) . There are previous research
which already demonstrated a positive association between them.,
but the results were confirmed from only surveys information and
more than that, this study explores the association between brand
awareness including revenue premium, share premium and price
premium.
The method of this work confirms the importance of brand awareness
on market outcome metrics for low-involvement, consumer-packaged
goods and generalize the past literature beyond the context of the
service industry and survey methodology. This study finds that
consumers brand usage experience contributes more to brand
awareness than the opposite.
Lastly, the current study also confirm the importance of distribution
and price promotion in building brand awareness in a consumerpackaged goods category. Most of the past researches focuses on
advertising impact, or distributions intensity on brand awareness and
not focusing on how to build and enhance brand awareness.

Advertising is measured as brands advertising expenditure from

media intelligence. Price, price promotion, and distribution data are
obtained from Information Resources, Inc.(IRI). Average regular price
(e.g., the non-promotion price) measures the price. Percentage of
sales made on price promotion assesses price promotion. Finally, the
average percentage of ACV measures distribution intensity. The
research finding contradicts theoretical literature. The product
category in this study is mature and includes brands with high
awareness. Increasing advertising likely has little effect on increasing
brand awareness. The market share leaders have higher advertising
expenditures and may experience diminishing returns unless their
advertising provides some unique/new information about products,
such as new product development.
In conclusion, brand awareness includes both brand recall and brand
recognition (according to Keller, 1993) but this research did not
examine them separately. For future research should develop
separate measures to assess brand recall and brand recognition
respectively-further exploring their relationship with market
outcomes. For other product categories, the impact of brand recall
and brand recognition on market outcome may be different. The
effects of marketing mix elements may also show differences
on brand recall and brand recognition constructs.

SECOND
Alhabeeb M.J., (2007). On consumer trust and product loyalty.
International Journal of Consumer Studies. 31, 609-612. [online]
Available from: Business Source Premier [Accessed 12 March 2016].
This article we found would be useful to understand how NOKIA could
regain the trust of their consumers, after they start producing again.
This is linked again with brand awareness. It says trustworthiness is a
two way relationship where both sides have to put something into it.
This research recognize the dynamic relationships between consumer
trust and product loyalty and explores the mechanism, by using a
multidimensional conceptualization and drawing on previous
theoretical frame-works.
The underlying assumption has been that product quality and
its service characteristics would naturally pave the way to a
consumer, bringing about his satisfaction and ultimately, gaining his
loyalty.
Recent theoretical and empirical evidence illustrates that the
nature and direction of the consumerfirm relationship can be as

powerful as the characteristics of the product in the formation of both

consumer satisfaction and loyalty.
This paper offers a new perspective on understanding the formation
and evolvement of consumer trust and product loyalty. Such a
perspective pivots around shifting the focus on what the firm can do
in the pre-consumption phase to pull in consumers, along with
keeping up the traditional task of offering the product that can gain
consumers satisfaction in the post-consumption phase by the means
of perfecting the products service characteristics.
Using a multidimensional conceptualization and drawing on previous
theoretical frameworks, this paper sets out to identify the dynamic
relationships between consumer trust and product loyalty, and
explores the mechanism, by which these constructs are formed and
linked.
A viable consumerfirm link cannot be established unilaterally. For
each side, the link has to extend based on certain feedback from the
opposite side, where a consumer cannot offer his trust to a firm that
does not contribute into the building of the bridges on which
consumer confidence and content would advance.
Operational competence in this model is distinguished from
competence in general. While competence refers to a static stock of
ones human capital characteristics such as knowledge, skills and
adaptability, operational competence on the other hand refers to the
dynamic aspect of those characteristics, where service in action
means putting that knowledge and skills into practice to serve
customers.
In a parallel logic, operational kindness and generosity are
represented by the actual behavior that reflects an underlying
motivation to place the consumers interest ahead of self-interest (p.
18). This implies that possessing kindness and generosity by a
salesperson or manager would not automatically bring about
consumer trust unless such kindness and generosity are utilized and
put to test to unequivocally advance consumer interests to the
forefront
Another dimension of trustworthiness is the problem-solving
orientation, which is best justified by Hart et al. (1990) who suggest
that all customer problems, including those for which the firm cannot
be blamed, represent valuable opportunities for firms to prove their
commitment to service and to building a higher consumer trust.

The before mentioned analyses suggest that consumer trust can no

longer be blind in terms of being an expected automatic reaction to a
good product reputation. Although it is still essential for a successful
product to prove its worthiness and demonstrate its ability to earn
consumers hearts, trust and loyalty remain conditioned, not only by a
mere satisfactory use of a product, but also by a net positive value
that can be obtained as an outcome of a whole experience, which is
based on the reciprocity of the firms trustworthiness through a
combination of the behavior and practices it exhibits. Consumers
therefore can quickly conclude that their trust is built on that
reciprocal relationship, where it should not be extended to a firm
unless the firm proves its trustworthiness.
THIRD
Driggs W. and Stier J., (2014). How to Grow Customer Trust. CRM
Magazine. 18, 10-10. [online] Available from: Business Source Premier
[Accessed 12 March 2016].
As we saw before in the previous article, it is important to build
consumer trust, and in this article it shows steps and advices to take
in order to success in it. This is good to know in our project to give
later recommendations to NOKIA on how to be as successful as it was
before. We dont only need to build trust for consumers but also for
other stakeholders of the company such as suppliers, shareholders
and such because without them the company does not work as a
whole. First objectives have to be set, think of a strategy/ plan,
execute it and focus on maintaining that good trust relationship over
time.
This research is offering some advises for companies that are
interested in investing resources in building and maintaining trusted
customer relationships enjoying long-term and sustainable success.

Using the language of trust, companies can more quickly establish a

foundation upon which to build a trusted organization. Across around
the world, leaders of companies are simplifying their brand messaging
and inspiring stakeholders by aligning their companies around a
simple statement of purpose. Activating a purpose builds trust
among stakeholders, employees trust leaders who do what they say
they will, customers trust companies that have a core belief that they
also believe in, and partners and suppliers trust businesses that deal
with them with transparency, authenticity, ant integrity.
A good purpose statement includes the following characteristics:
it is aspirational and belief-driven;
it is humanistic;
it is derived from and resonates with the companys values;
it is applicable to and shared with all stakeholder groups;
it is simple and easy to understand;
it states a long-term objective; and
it is action-oriented.
Companies can take four simple steps to begin a purpose-led, trustpowered journey:
1. Create a clear, well-constructed purpose. Define a clear purpose
and commit to activating it.
2. Activate the purpose. Look at how stakeholder experiences are
perceived versus how they are executed.
3. Focus on building trusted customer interactions and experiences.
Engineer experiences that are transparent and authentic and
consistently meet customer expectations.
4. Sustain relationships over time. Measure the effects of activating
purpose and trust and hold people accountable for achieving them.
Todays competitive environment requires more than a good product,
price, or service to sustain long-term commercial success.
FOURTH
Savitz E., (2012). Nokia On The Brink. Forbes. 190, 60-62. [online]
Available from: Business Source Premier [Accessed 12 March 2016].
This source gives us some very useful information on how the position
of our company has changed overtime, since iPhones came out to the
market. It gives us an overview as to why this happened. We know
Nokia tried to regain market share, but failed to do it because it did

not announce key details, or pricing details of their new mobile

phones, so people did not trust the project.
The new Lumia phones are boldly designed, have great maps (unlike,
say, Apple) and vastly superior camera technology compared with the
iPhone and Android models. And the Windows Phone "Metro" user
interface is as fluid as any OS out there.
In 2007 Nokia had a 37.8% share of the global handset market ahead
of Motorola with 14.3% and Samsung 13.4%, according to Gartner.
Then came the iPhone and Android, showing
up Nokia's software as well behind the curve
In 2010, Nokia announced the abandoning its Symbian
operating system in favor of Windows Phone software for all
future smartphones. Nokia chose to get the jump on Apple by
showing the press and Wall Street the new handsets a week before
the debut of the iPhone 5. When they saw the phones Wall Street
chose to jump out of the way. Nokia plunged 15% that day, as it
failed to announce key details, like carrier partners and
pricing.
The Nokia Siemens Networks equipment business will also be
gone if Elop can find a buyer. Nokia's 30,000 patents could be used
more aggressively were the firm to be more litigious. Freeing up more
cash could buy the company time to see if there really is a desire for a
number three smartphone company.
FIFTH
SLev-Ram M., (2012). Can this smartphone save Nokia?. Fortune. 166,
53-54. [online] Available from: Business Source Premier [Accessed 12
March 2016].
As we thought initially, NOKI had a problem in adapting to consumer
needs which is an important base for a successful brand, in the
marketing sense. It seems that NOKIA got stuck on very simple
features and did not develop the new technologies on their devices.
The ruling will push handset companies to differentiate their products
from the iPhone. But can beleaguered Nokia, which largely
missed the consumer shift to smart devices, deliver phones
that are innovative enough to unseat Apple?
Harlow, who was tapped in July 2010 by Stephen Elop to run the
smartphone business, certainly thinks so. She offered Fortune an
inside look at the steps she has taken to bring Nokia's newest
smartphone line to market. "Becoming cool again means having great
products," she says. Her first step: to show Microsoft some love. To

make sure the teams were in sync, she rearranged her organization to
match her partner's Windows Phone unit structure
Harlow says Nokia can play to its strength and differentiate Lumia
smartphones with innovations in location-based services (it owns
mapping provider Navteq), imaging, and hardware design, including
the use of new materials.
Nokia's biggest ally in its turnaroundMicrosoftis also its potential
Achilles' heel. Nokia's exclusive relationship with Microsoft makes life
a lot simpler for the device maker. It needs to build phones for only
one platform, and there's no question that Microsoft gives Nokia
special treatment.
Microsoft is paying Nokia quarterly "platform support" payments that
started with $250 million in the fourth quarter of 2011. (It helps that
Elop spent almost three years at the software giant.) And there's
evidence that the strategy works: Motorola Mobility revived its
smartphone business by committing to Google's Android platform.
Then it got bought by Google.
But unlike Android, which has a robust following among developers
and consumers, devices that run on Windows Phone account for
just 3.5% of the global smartphone market, according to
research firm IDC.
And there are many analysts who believe a device maker needs its
own operating system (think of it as the brains of the phone) la the
iPhone and the iPhone OSthat's the only way to control quality and
make sure the product is truly differentiated from rivals.
Indeed, while Nokia has a tight relationship with Microsoft, it is far
from exclusive: Other phonemakers, including Samsung and HTC, are
expected to launch their own Windows 8 phones in the coming
months. And more may jump on the Windows bandwagon as a "safer"
alternative to Android while the market sorts out the impact of the
Samsung ruling.
Nokia made a very conscious choice to outsource its operating
platform when it killed off Symbianamazingly, at Harlow's
recommendation. In fact, Harlow was running Symbian at the time,
and her willingness to sacrifice her own business was one of the
things that impressed Elop.
Other secondary sources:
Report about the Industry Profile of Global Mobile Phones done by
MarketLine in September 2012. [online] Available from: Business
Source Premier [Accessed 12 March 2016].

2.2. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

Focusing now on the qualitative data, for this research it is necessary
to make use of any of the existing qualitative research methods in
order to find the key insights that will allow Nokia (Microsoft will take
care of it) to have a look inside the consumer so that the company
can bring back the brand image and market power that it has lost
over the years.
For that purpose we decided to focus on the direct qualitative
research procedures rather than the indirect: Depth Interviews and
Focus Groups. Given that we did not have the resources or contacts to
make possible a depth interview with someone (Nokia top managers,
suppliers, etc.) given the effort and money that that kind of interview
implies, we decided to focus our efforts on developing a Traditional
Focus Group composed basically by average customers. This will allow
us to explore the young phone-consumer market (their needs, brand
relationships...)
The Focus Group was composed by 9 students (from 19 to 24 years)
and had a duration of 1 and a half hour. We selected a moderator that
fulfills all the basic requirements such as involvement, flexibility,
sensibility, encouragement... We also carried out a semiotic analysis
during the focus group, taking a look to the different social
assumptions, corporal language, responses to different situations and
images.
In the focus group, brands were a very common topic among
customers. Being in the year 2016 and most of them of a young age,
they were used to the new technologies. Most of them said that they
were indeed familiar with the brand Nokia, but that they hadnt heard
of it lately, nearly nothing at all. This clearly shows how Nokia has
been disappearing little by little, even if some years ago was probably
the most recognizable brand around the globe. They are not
succeeding at creating brand awareness, and at advertising their new
products in the market. But we found that it is not advertising that
increases brand awareness, but the new product development and
features they show.
What are the reasons? Some of our focus group members, agreed
that it was a matter of very good competitors in the market. Apple
and Samsung were two brands mentioned when talking about this
topic. Even if they are expensive, people are willing to pay for good
technology and good features. They agreed that Nokia got stuck with
the basic needs, but was not going the way the demand was going.

No customer satisfaction means no brand loyalty. Windows will have

to take this into account if they want to enter this competitive market.
We concluded this was accurate because we later showed the
participants a picture with two different mobile phones without the
brand written on it and they associated the simplest one to NOKIA.

Some of them also said that social relationships affected the

purchasing behavior and decision. Having the coolest phone was seen
better in a social context.

Market share of Nokia

This graph shows the market share of Nokia in 2007 which was 48.05
percent, and it was the year when the first iphone was launched. After
the iphones launch, the market share of Nokia decreased down to
3.5 percent in the year 2013.
Info.
Nidhi, S.,(2015)Nokia sells HERE in another quest to transform itself;
is
it
succeeding
yet?
DNA
1/1[online]
available
from
http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report-nokia-sells-here-in-anotherquest-to-transform-itself-is-it-succeeding-yet-2110638
[accessed
14/04/16]

It seems that nokia has not managed to innovate very well, and has
paid the price. Added to that the amount of competitors have
increased. With the descriptive analysis we will quantify data to
statistically check this findings. It seems that it may do good for the
phones not be branded nokia but Microsoft instead. They will try to
differenciate, but communication with the customers will be very
important to create brand awareness.

ANALYSIS OF NOKIA
NOKIA PORTERS ANALYSIS
The micro environment is the internal factors that are affected by the
customers, staff, shareholders and competitors. The best model for
evaluating the micro environment of Nokia is Porters 5 forces as this
takes into consideration the competitors, customers, suppliers and
new entrants.

Threat of new entrants:

The threat of a new entrant is quite low, as the technology

needed to rival the devices already available is quite advance if
they want to differentiate from them

The barriers to entry in the mobile phone industry is high

because any new entrants will need high investments in R&D,
technology and marketing in order to compete with the
established organisations.

New entrants want to take market share from the larger

organisations

Power of suppliers:

Although Nokia rely on its suppliers to supply equipment for

their advanced mobile phones there are actually a number of
large equipment makers, which Nokia could switch to.

The software suppliers for their Smartphones are now Microsoft,

who will have a very high bargaining power.

Big companies like Nokia (Microsoft) have a very strong position

when bargaining with their suppliers.

Powers of buyers:

The power that customers have is rising because of the

increasing number of choices in the mobile telecommunication
industry.

Many of the consumers will also be tied into long term contracts
so switching from one handset to another will be difficult and
expensive for the consumer

Threats of substitutes products

Mobile phones are an everyday essential in peoples lives today

and people would find it hard to replace.

Customers would be able to contact people through others

types of media such as social networking websites ( this would
be hard in customers day to day life)

Competitive rivalry:

Nokia rivals have moved to smart phones and androids while

Nokia have only just recently released their first smart phones
leaving them trailing their rivals such as Apple and HTC.

Intense competition from large companies such as; Apple, HTC,

Blackberry, Sony Ericcson and LG, ect.

PESTEL NOKIA
In order to have a better understanding to Nokia's macroenvironment
and the different factors that affects the company, let's apply a
PESTEL Analysis to Nokia.

Political Factors: Nokia develops it's activities under the Finnish

regulations and as well as other regulations from governments
where the company does business. As it is normal when it
comes to big companies, Nokia has productions facilities on this
different countries. However, this is a very special case given
that it is well known that actually the Finnish government has
refused to give special treatment to Nokia over the years.

Economical Factors: Nokia has been one of the most affected

companies by the European economical downturn in the recent
years. In relation to competitors, there is a lack of economic
resources.

Social Factors: The general social adoption of the smartphone

and the use of apps specially developed to be use on operating
systems that Nokia does not work with has negatively affected
the company.

Technological Factors: Main cause of the fall of Nokia. As said

before, in relation to competitors, there is a lack of economic
resources, which translates in a lack of research and
development capabilities.

Environmental Factors: There has been a general (and forced by

governments) change of attitude in the different electronics
manufacturers towards the eco-friendly development of their
business in the last years. This has as main consequence the
increase of production costs, but of course it helps to fight
environmental issues.

Legal Factors: Nokia works under the UE laws, and under the
laws of the different places where the company does business.

SWOT MICROSOFT
In order to see if the Microsoft acquisition will be actually good for
Nokia, let's apply a SWOT analysis to Microsoft.

Strengths: High brand reputation on the technological industry,

large clientele, global product offer, high economical power,
diversified product portfolio, strong distribution channels, good
relation with customers (brand loyalty).

Weaknesses: The main weakness that Microsoft has in relation

with the acquisition of Nokia is the lack of experience that
Microsoft has in the mobile phone sector and lack of mobile
market share.

Opportunities: Such acquisition of Nokia could be translated into

an opportunity to grow in the mobile phone sector and also with
other further acquisitions.

Threats: Intense competition, new and unknown technologies

for the company, less computer users, potential lawsuits
(Microsoft is well-known of for been sued for many times
because of different issues, which suppose waste of time and
money).

3. DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH
3.1. Develop a questionnaire
3.1.1. OBSERVATION
The point of choosing the appropriate observation method for our
research is to go farther deep into our consumer minds and try to
understand them a little bit better. That is why we chose to carry out
disguised observation, by hiring qualified workers to hang around any

possible mobile phone selling point. We want the results reported to

us, on how consumers behaved in the stores, and what questions they
asked the personnel if possible. By doing this we can know what
consumers are influenced by and they do not have to know they are
not being observed, so the results should not be biased.
3.1.2. QUESTIONNAIRE
By all the data we have collected so far in secondary research, we
concluded that survey seems the most useful descriptive method to
collect information for this research project. We want to ask specific
questions that will support or hypothesis, and that will help us
understand more deeply about the thoughts consumers have, which
has been taken as the base to formulate the questions. We want to
reach younger people from ages to 18 to 35 because we have seen
that this part of the population is most interested on mobile phones.

QUESTIONAIRE
If willing to, please fill all the questions shown in the questionnaire
showed below not minding if you own a mobile phone or not. Thank
you for your time we appreciate it.
This is a survey to analyze consumer behaviors and most important
factors that consumers have when purchasing mobile phones. This is
an anonymous survey and will only be used for research purposes.

Part 1
1. Do you currently own a mobile phone?
Yes__
No__
2. Which brand is your mobile phone?
Samsung____
Apple_____
Nokia_____
Bq_____
Other_____

3. How long ago did you purchase your current mobile

phone?
1year ago __

2 years ago__
3 years ago__
+3 years ago__
4. How much are you willing to spend on a mobile phone?
0-149 euros___
150-299 euros___
300-450 euros___
+450 euros___

Part 2
5. Please, rate the following attributes of phones in a scale
of 1 to 5, 1 being not important and 5 being very
important for you. (round up the chosen number)

Style
Price
Color
Features
Brand
Quality

1
1
1
1
1
1

2
2
2
2
2
2

3
3
3
3
3
3

4
4
4
4
4
4

5
5
5
5
5
5

6. In case you could choose color, which one would you

choose?
White___
Black___
Red___
Gold___
Silver___
Blue___
Orange___
Other___
7. Which of these do you think are most important for the
image of a Brand?
a. Product development and technology
b. Pricing
c. Advertising campaign

8. Do you think it is indispensable to own a mobile phone?

Yes___
No___
9. What size phone do you prefer to have?
Small__
Medium__
Big___
Part 3
10.
In which of the following brands do you perceive
the most quality?
Apple ___
Samsung ___
bq ___
Nokia ___
Other ___

11.
Please, rank the following phone features, 1 being
the best and 7 being the worst.
Camera
Messages
Calls
Music
Internet Access
Screen quality
Memory
12.
You need to purchase a phone, where do you buy
it?
- Shopping mall____
- Individual stores____
- Online web pages____
- Service provider store___
Part 4

13.

What is your age? ____

14.

Gender? (mark the correct one)

Male __
Female__

15.

What is your education?

Less than Bachiller___

Finished high school___
Partly university___
University graduate ___
16.

What is your current income?

0-1000 euros___
1000-2000 euros___
2000-3000 euros___
+3000 euros___

Thank you for your time

In the survey we start with basic questions about mobile phones, if

they own one, which brand etc. because we want to know as much as
we can from them. The second and third part are quite more dense,
with more specific questions, about ranking specific features of
mobile phones, their likes and dislikes, preferences and so on.
Finally the last part of the questionnaire is composed of basic
personal questions such as age and income, because we are more
interested in younger people and we want to know what they are
specifically answering.

3.2. Sample frame and sample strategy

It is normally quite difficult to study a large group of individuals due to
time problems, budget constraints and things as such. That is the
reason to why as marketing researches, they have to learn about how
to draw conclusions and statements from analyzing only a portion of

that population, which should be somewhat representative for it to

have a better accuracy.
Sampling is a very useful tool although having samples involves a
certain degree of risk. That would later result be in a sampling error.
Sampling consists of selecting part of a population in order to draw
conclusions based on them about the entire population. Because of
budget and time constraints we will be reaching 800 sample units to
participate in the completion of the survey. We will be more likely to
obtain accurate reliable results if sample chosen properly, which is a
task that needs a lot of thought in order to be successful. Collection
will go from May 1st to May 15th of 2016. (two weeks).
There are different types of sampling. Probability sampling and nonprobability sampling. Probability sampling is when all members have
the same probability of being chosen in the sample. Nature is
conclusive research. Non probability sampling is when population
members do not have the same probability of being in the sample.
The nature is exploratory. In our research project we will be using
probability sampling and more specifically cluster sampling.
In cluster sampling, we have to divide population in subpopulations.
The different subgroups in our case will be based on age. We will only
carry the survey out in Madrid, We will choose people between ages
of 18 and 35 preferably. We chose the sample based on All we can
afford cost.
Probability sampling: We will carry out a survey which is one of the
most popular methods for gathering primary data, and the researcher
interacts with the consumers in a way. (Specified later on the field
work) We will be able to obtain facts, opinions and attitudes. It will be
a standard questionnaire done on a sample of consumers (below we
will specify how we chose it). It will be carried out online, as an
internet web survey and a mall intercept survey. With a web survey,
costs associated with other types of surveys are eliminated. Time
required to implement it is reduced. It is also easier to collect data in
computers because it is already saved on an online platform. Easy for
everyone to access. One disadvantage is that some people may
choose not to respond the questions. We will combine it with mall
intercept since we assume people go out to buy their phones to malls.
Also it will be easier to target our ideal age.

3.3. Describe the types of analysis you would run

in order to test your hypotheses. Explain the

data preparation process and the methods

used to prepare raw data for analysis
Our main hypothesis is: What do consumers value? We think mobile
phone consumers value technological features the most, especially
young people.
To reach such recovery, Nokia would have to take a deeper step into
the update of the different features that current customer value the
most in mobile phones, as well as improve some elements of
marketing mix.
To test this hypothesis, we used exploratory and descriptive research.
During the exploratory phase we used sources of raw data that were
originated during the research: secondary sources (academic
journals) which are listed above, the focus group which was extremely
useful to hear about. In the descriptive phase we used disguised
observation and most importantly a questionnaire.
The survey was our main tool to test our hypothesis. The
questionnaire was composed by 16 questions handed out to some
customers of the mobile phone sector (test units) by which we
analyze consumer behaviors and most important factors that
consumers have when purchasing mobile phones.
For us it was important the age and the consumer preferences they
had when purchasing phones. Now a days phones are a big part of
our lives, and we want to know how people feel about them.
We included multiple choice questions, rank questions, and scaling
questions, and we tried to make it as comfortable for our consumers
to answer as possible. It deals with four different parts. With these
we expect to get a clear outlook on consumer thoughts and facts. Our
questions are aimed at the insights and thoughts of consumers of the
brand, different brands, mobile phone features, and also their
personal information in order to know the consumer profile and to see
if it is related with the type of answers given by the respondents.
-

How many people of the sample own a phone?

Which are the most preferred brands?
What features are valued the most?
Personal information; how old? Income?

Most survey questions are based on the questions we have as

researchers regarding the problem.
Data preparation
Data preparation is the process of after having all the data collected,
it is classified in order to be easier to interpret it for beginning

purposes. Depending on the type of data we will classify it in

numerical or qualitative data, and will use a statistical program as
SPSS which we have learned to use, to code data and find more
statistical measures that can help us in the drawing of conclusions
from it. It is useful also to see if any data is missing, the questions
that were left blank etc. it has many different possibilities as to how to
graph results etc.
.

3.4. Do

an estimation of the amount of time

necessary to conduct the study, along with the cost
estimate (budget) for the research.
As we mentioned above, online web survey which is the one it will be
carried out in this study, has the great advantage over telephone,
personal, paper etc. interviews, because it saves time and money.
Also mall intercept surveys.
It saves the time of getting paper work ready, and the costs that all
the others have to get set up. Doing a web survey is quicker, and
later the results are collected way more easily.
First, the survey has to be created. The appropriate questions have to
be asked, and also the order of them has to be taken care of, starting
with easy answer questions, then the ones with more effort needed,
afterwards some other few questions that are close to the end of the
interview, and lastly the last section that are questions much more
personal such as age, gender, job etc. 1 week
Afterwards get the survey to our sample population chosen so they
can answer it as soon as possible. 2 weeks
Lastly the data has to be collected in order to be analyzed. 1 week
Therefore taking into account all stages, we estimate that the time it
will take to do this will be a month approximately, but might vary
depending on other factors that are not controllable by us, such as
respondents not answering questions (response rate) etc.
Amount necessary to carry out survey and cost
For web surveys, as said before, costs are lower since you dont have
to do paperwork or as much administration as in other type of
surveys.
In mall intercept it is a bit more costly since we also have to take into
account the wages that have to be paid to the interviewers.

Firstly we need to hire all the people who will be working at the mall
recruiting respondents and workers who will collect the data from
online surveys. We estimated collection process was about two
weeks, we will have eight workers, two for online interviews and six at
malls. In total in salaries we will spend 6000 euros plus materials and
supplies necessary, and transportation to malls for our employees
which will be 1000 euros.
We will also have to pay equipment needed computers, programs,
and pay fees and taxes of carrying out these activities. We estimate
this to be 3000 euros.
This process will take four weeks as we said before and we estimate
will have a cost of 10.060 euros in total. All we can afford.

3.5. Explain how to run a fieldwork and the

collection process.
Field work
It is a process of data collection where we can use survey types and
methods like face-to-face interviews; they can be personal, by
telephone, online surveys etc. or observation. Each of these methods
require different amount of field work and different degrees of skills
and effort to administer the data collection process, execute the task
of actual collection of data, and to finally get the data ready to be
interpreted and analyzed. If interviewer(s) are required to conduct the
actual survey, they need to be trained to do such job and have the
appropriate interpersonal skills in order to get cooperation from
respondents, role of verbal and nonverbal cues in influencing
respondents, and other procedures and skills. They also need to make
sure there is security of data especially to protect the respondent's
privacy and confidentiality, what is to say, anonymous surveys.
Administration of data collection and actual collection of data require
personnel with specialized skills and administrative capacity. Some
firms hire people to do the task of collecting data.
Selection of Field workers
The researcher should:
Develop job specifications for the project, taking into account the
mode of data collection. In our project, we know we want to have a
web survey as we mentioned above, and we know that based on our
exploratory research, the main features in mobile phones,
characteristic preferences

Decide what characteristics the field workers should have. In the

case of web survey, no interpersonal skills are required that much,
but in the mall intercept, our field worker needs to be persuasive in
order to be able to get people willing to fill in the survey, nice, good
observer and patient.
Recruit appropriate individuals. In our project we want people from
age 18 up to 35 more or less, so the field worker could have good
judgement on what people are needed based on observing them.
In the web survey, we would save time in terms of training a field
worker, taking the time to make the interviews etc., since the
respondents simply get on the platform to answer questions and send
it. But in the mall intercept the field worker needs to be more trained.
Training of Field workers
Ours will be trained to be able to attract respondents and have them
fill in the entire questionnaire. Of course the people who carry them
out have to be familiar with the questionnaire in case any of the
respondents have some doubts about the wording of any of the
questions.
Interviewers need to be attentive to see how the respondents are
doing the questionnaire, and check for any type of cheating there is,
and making sure no blank answers are left.
It is important that we ensure our respondent group in both web
survey and mall intercept, that the interviews are completely
anonymous and to make sure the purpose of the research is specified
to them, especially if they ask for information.
Web survey: we will record the answers more easily than in the mall
intercept. One of the advantages of web surveys is that the answers
are automatically saved in the computer database so it is easier to
collect the data and get it ready and more organized for whenever it
has to be interpreted and analyzed.
Mall intercept: make sure field worker is recoding the answers just as
responded by the consumers. Everything has to be included. Later
this data will be introduced in a computer too in order to analyze it
with the data we collected form the web survey.
It is important that an interviewer is honest, and does not bias the
response of any consumer, as the research would be considered null
then. He/she has to be objective and professional and always be
polite.
Terminating the Interview The respondent should be left with a
positive feeling about the interview.

Finally it is important to check that the procedures used were the

proper ones, that the sample plan was accordingly followed, cheating
was avoided, validity and reliability.
Once all the data is collected by the means explained above, the data
will be quantified and put into graphs and such things.

4. CONCLUSIONS
The research issues identified were Nokias declining sales, the
change in consumers preferences and trend, the perception and
positioning of Nokia in the mind of consumers and are Nokia mobile
phone still in demand? Therefore, the objectives for the research
issues were to understand the changes in the target market group
demographics, shifts in product preferences, brand perception and
product awareness.
Nokia has not managed to innovate very well, and has paid the price.
Added to that the amount of competitors have increased. With the
descriptive analysis we have quantified data to statistically check this
findings. It seems that it may do good for the phones not be branded
Nokia but Microsoft instead. They will try to differentiate, but
communication with the customers will be very important to create
brand awareness.
In order to see how Nokia can bring back their brand image and
market power, we decided to focus on direct qualitative research
procedures. Given that we did not have the resources or contacts to
make possible a depth interview with someone (Nokia top managers,
suppliers, etc.) given the effort and money that kind of interview
implies, we decided to focus our efforts on developing a Traditional
Focus Group composed basically by average customers. This
approach allowed us to explore the young phone-consumer market.
Some of our focus group members, agreed that it was a matter of
very good competitors in the market. Apple and Samsung were two
brands mentioned when talking about this topic. Even if they are
expensive, people are willing to pay for good technology and good
features.
People agreed that Nokia got stuck with the basic needs, but was not
going the way the demand was going. No customer satisfaction
means no brand loyalty. Windows will have to take this into account if
they want to enter this competitive market. We concluded this was
accurate because we later showed the participants a picture with two
different mobile phones without the brand written on it and they
associated the simplest one to NOKIA. Some of them also said that

social relationships affected the purchasing behavior and decision.

Having the coolest phone was seen best in a social context.
The findings indicate how brand awareness relates to market
outcome, brand equity and the marketing mix a positive correlation,
where the correlation between brand awareness with sales is lower
than its correlation with customer mindset and as well revenue
premium is lower than its correlation with customer mindset.
Therefore, the study findings suggest brand awareness closely relates
to customers overall attitude toward a brand.
Another point of view that Nokia should take into account(Huang R.
and Sarigll E., 2011) is the relationship between brand awareness
and overall brand equity, where consumers may link the related
brand knowledge to the brand name, which finally constitutes brand
equity (according to Aaker, 1991; Keller, 1993) . There are previous
research which already demonstrated a positive association between
them, but the results were confirmed from only surveys information
and more than that, the conducted study explores the association
between brand awareness including revenue premium, share
premium and price premium.
It is still essential for a successful product to prove its worthiness and
demonstrate its ability to earn consumers hearts, trust and loyalty
remain conditioned, not only by a mere satisfactory use of a product,
but also by a net positive value that can be obtained as an outcome
of a whole experience, which is based on the reciprocity of the firms
trustworthiness through a combination of the behavior and practices
it exhibits. Consumers therefore can quickly conclude that their trust
is built on that reciprocal relationship, where it should not be
extended to a firm unless the firm proves its trustworthiness.
Nokia made a very conscious choice to outsource its operating
platform when it killed off Symbian-amazingly, at Harlow's
recommendation. There are many analysts who believe a device
maker needs its own operating system (think of it as the brains of the
phone), that's the only way to control quality and make sure the
product is truly differentiated from rivals.
In order to conclude, hypothesis refers to an unproven proposition and
therefore it can be considered as a promising solution generally to the
problem that is defined under problem definition. Our main
hypothesis is that Nokia (by means of the Microsoft Acquisition) can
definitely regain customer trust and get back the market share lost in
the last years. To reach such recovery, Nokia would have to take a
deeper step into the update of the different features that current
customer value the most in mobile phones, as well as improve some
elements of marketing mix.

Another hypothesis is that the main reason of the fall of Nokia can be
explained by causality, being the main cause that provoked the fall of
Nokia the incapability of updating and adapting their products to the
new customer needs.

5. RECOMENDATIONS
Before starting with the research, Nokia must have a clear idea about
what are the main objectives that the company wants to reach by
using the data and information from this research (improve
performance, regain customer trust, improve brand image and brand
awareness...), in order to focus on these issues and not create
confusions that could cause a high waste of time and money to the
company. In order to achieve this, the company should focus the
research on answering questions such as: What are the reasons for
the decline in sales of Nokia? What are the customer's attitudes
towards Nokia and their purchase intentions? Why are consumers
switching to other brands? So, Nokia must do an applied and problem
solving research. Also, and given de wanted output, Nokia should do
develop a longitudinal research design (detecting change in behavior,
large amount of data collection...).
Furthermore, before all of the above, Nokia should be sure that any of
the following problems will not raise during the research, because it
would mean the failure of the research: lack of resources, not useful
final output, bad timing with situation of the market, a decision
concerning the final output of the research has been already made,
among others. Very important to do a good estimation of amount of
time and money needed to develop the research.
The next thing the company should do is to analyze and discuss if the
company should do the research by themselves through the
marketing department or to hire an outside company specialized on
this matter. Our recommendation would be that Nokia should do it by
themselves given that such big company is without any doubt
capable to do this type of research through an also doubtless capable
marketing department, and also, the company would not have to
depend on another company and assume a risk. The best moment to
do the research would be when value of research information exceeds the
cost of generating the information. It would be a smart move to develop a
Backward Marketing Research (with an end in mind).

Focusing now on the research itself, we are going to divide the

different recommendations in two parts: recommendations about the
exploratory part of the research and about the descriptive part of the
research.

Firstly, our main recommendations related to the more exploratory

part of the research are the following:

Make use of good secondary sources. Take time and effort to

find and analyze different theories and thesis about the main
issues of the research (customer trust, brand image, brand
awareness, product loyalty) taken from secondary sources such
as scientific journals or specialized magazines. Also, and even
more important, in order to analyze the industry itself with
specialized information about it, Nokia should make use of a
commercial database (we recommend MarketLine). Before
using any information from any secondary source, the company
should evaluate this data by applying the criteria of assessment
for secondary sources.
Develop a successful focus group. In order to gather useful
qualitative data that will help Nokia to find the key insight of
the consumer, we recommend to develop a few traditional
focus group each of them composed by people of all ages (each
focus group one population sector), in order to analyze the
different opinions and reaction of the different population
sectors.
Take a careful and deep look to social media (netnography).
Comments and opinions in social media, if well analyzed, could
help Nokia to find more about customer insights.

On the other hand, focusing now on the descriptive part of the

research, we recommend:

Develop a useful survey. This is one of the best (if not the best)
way to collect quantitative data in order to generate numerical
data that can be transformed into useable statistics. The
questions that compose this survey should be carefully selected
and must be done with the final objective of a better
understanding consumer behaviors and most important factors
that consumers have when purchasing mobile phones. Nokia
should think deeply how they want to do this survey. We
recommend to develop an survey via e-mail or internet.
Field experimentation rather than laboratory experimentation.
Given the nature of this research, it is not logical to develop a
laboratory experimentation given that we are analyzing issues
related customer behavior. For this, it is very important to
develop a good fieldwork selection, training, supervision,
validation and evaluation processes.

6. WORKING IN GROUPS
Work in groups has been a great experience for us. It has had its
advantages and disadvantages like it happens with everything.
It was good to work with people different from those of your group of
friends, because each one of us could really give different things and
different opinions, with different points of view that really helped our
research project to be objective, and not subjective. Many ideas were
discussed before we finally would reach a final decision.
It was good to get to know new people and learn new techniques used
in different countries to find information due to the difference in
nationality in the group members. We have worked very comfortably
together, each one of us doing the best we could.
Although it has been a good experience, there have been some
difficult obstacles too. We started off being four group members, and
in the middle of the project one of our group members had to drop
out, which is something we did not expect, so we found ourselves
with more work that we expected. This in the end was not really a
problem to us.
Something we found to be the biggest obstacle was that sometimes it
was really hard to be able to set up a time when we could all meet
together. Since we are from different universities and we have
different classes at different times, our schedules did not match at all.
Sometimes we would have to meet several times separately. This
might have affected the quality of our work even if we tried to meet
up as much as we could to share our ideas.
Overall it has been a good experience and we have learned a lot
about how to carry out a market research.

Ana, Borja, Bogdan.