Group Term Project

On
NOKIA

Submitted to:
Dr. Mohan Lal Agarwal

Submitted by: (Group 5)

Pranay Sachdev (Smba 09049)
Siddharth Verma (Smba 09069)
Vaibhav Khurana (Smba 09077)

Institute of Management Technology, Dubai

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 ACKNOWLEDEMENT

We are grateful to our Marketing Professor at IMT Dubai, Our Project

Mentor and Guide, Dr. Mohan Lal Agarwal for his continuous
encouragement and support throughout the course of the project. We
are thankful to him for trusting our capabilities to handle the creative
work and for giving his valuable inputs to improve it even further. It
was a pleasure and a true learning experience working under his
guidance and support.

Group 5
Pranay Sachdev (SMBA09049)
Siddharth Verma (SMBA09069)
Vaibhav Khurana (SMBA09077)

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 Executive Summary

The primary objective of this study is to analyze the B to B marketing study of

Nokia in the Middle East. Specifically, the study sheds lights on the size,
structure and competition in the market and the factors that are most likely to
influence growth of the market in the coming years.

The research covers analysis’s to Nokia’s competitors in market and also

reasons leading to downfall of its market share. Since Year 2007 Nokia
witnessed a tremendous downfall in its share and it was only till recent that it
was able to launch N8. However it still leads global market but in comparison to
market in UAE it has shown considerable downfall.

N8 is the new product of Nokia that runs on Symbian^3 Operating system with
unbelievable and exceptional features. For past 3 years Apples I phone had
captured the market with its techno and unique features but with N8 into play,
Nokia hopes to revive to its top position.

The study also enunciates Nokia’s basic Marketing principle to overcome its
challenge and strategy that it has inculcated so as come out of its downfall. For
this purpose SWOT/PEST Analysis in relation to Nokia market in UAE is
performed. A complete analysis of the product life cycle for a product is hereby
performed and list of resellers is also annexed.

Taking other reasons into account with which Nokia can tap possible market
share in UAE particularly could be the recent ban imposed on blackberry
handsets by UAE government. Possible other reasons could be that Nokia has
recently sued Apple for Patent Infringement due to which Apples Market share
has tumbled down.

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 Table of Contents

S.No. Contents Page

1. Introduction to Nokia 5

2. Nokia History 5

3. Competition in the Market 6

4. Market Challenge 7

5. Response Strategy 7

6. Marketing Principles- Nokia 8

7. PEST 9

8. S.W.O.T 10

9. Marketing Research 11

10. Sources of Marketing Information 12

11. B2B Market Segmentation 13

12. The Marketing Mix 14

13. The stages of marketing: The Product Life Cycle 15

14. Application of Internet to B2B marketing by B2B

Marketer 17

15. Useful Information 18

16. References 20

17. Annexure 21

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Introduction to Nokia:

Nokia is a communications based company, which focuses on mobile telephone

technology. When mobile phones first became available on the market, the
models were very basic with the best technology being SMS messaging (send
written “text messages” from one phone to another). Then the next advance in
technology was being able to put different faces on your phone (different style
covers for the front and back of your mobile device) and after that the
technological advances have come thick and fast, with advances such as:

 MMS
 WAP (Internet)
 Polyphonic ringtones
 Predictive SMS
 Camera recorders

Nokia History:

Nokia is known today as the largest manufacturer of mobile phones, having

about 40% of the share in the second quarter of 2008. This company is even the
reason why Finland is a prosperous country in which it is accounted for about
30% of the Nation’s market capitalization. But Nokia had a really humble
beginning it all started in 1865.

In 1895, Fredrik Idestam established a wood-pulp mill, which is now known as

the Nokia Corporation. It was first based in south western Finland town called
Tampere but was later relocated to Nokia town so that the company can use the
Nokiavirta river. This river is where the company’s Nokia, originated.

In the beginning of the 20th century, Finnish Rubber works began establishing
its factories. This company acquired the Nokia wood mills and also acquired a
company producing telegraph and telephone cables, the Finish cable works. The
merging of these three companies in 1967 led to the creation of the Nokia
corporation.

Nokia started producing military as well as commercial mobile radio

communications technology in the 1960’s. It was in 1964 when the company
started to create VHF-radio. The two companies started to develop mobile
phones for the NMT network standard. In 1982, they introduced their first car
phone called the Mobira Senator, which weighted 9.8kg.

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Then Nokia introduced one of the world’s first handheld phones in 1987 and
this was called Mobira Cityman 900. During those days, the Cityman is one of
the most light-weight phones having only about 800g. But this tag price was
approx 4,500 Euros. Although that was very expensive, Cityman was still
considered a success. After that many advancement in technology goes on and
now Nokia is still on the success path.

The company has finally elected a new CEO to replace OPK, Olli-Pekka
Kallasvuo. 43-year-old Stephen Elop’s bona fides are in order: As President of
Microsoft’s Business Division (since January 2008) he was in charge of the
Microsoft Office money machine and was part of the company’s “Leadership
Team”

Competition in the Market

With all this technology available in the communications market it is obvious

that Nokia will have lots of competition, they include:

• Apple I-Phone-

It was founded in April 1, 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and

Ronald Wayne. It has been on the top charts for its new product I phone.

• Blackberry-

It is a device developed and designed by Canadian company Research In

Motion since 1996. Recent release is Blackberry curve.

• Sony Ericsson-

It was founded in October 1, 2001 with headquarters in London, U.K. 

• Samsung-

Has head quarters in South Korea with products in market like Mobiles,
MP3 Players, Laptops etc.. 

• Motorola:

Motorola, Inc American Based multinational telecommunication

company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It is a manufacturer of wireless
telephone handsets

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 • Siemens:

In 2005 the Taiwanese company BenQ acquired the financially bleeding

mobile phone subsidiary from Siemens and gained the exclusive right to
use Siemens trademark for 5 years. 

With all of these competitors in the market Nokia must keep ahead of the game
by running successful marketing strategies, to do this Nokia must focus on the
principles of marketing. At the moment Nokia are the world’s best selling
Phone Company.

Market Challenge:

 Nokia once a mobile market leader has been losing market share while
Apple, Google and others re-define the smart phone which are giving
tough competition to Nokia.
 Companies like Samsung, Motorola are providing phones having same
feature at much cheaper prices.
 The handset giant is particularly vulnerable in the high-end smart phone.
With Nokia failing to upgrade mobile processors, companies like Apple,
Google have taken the lead.
 Nokia needs to gain traction in the U.A.E market as well as globally by
encouraging its own high-end smart phone sales.
 Software issues: Updating of software platform is a struggle. Nokia has
been using outdated software which is affecting not just global market but
also UAE market.

Response Strategy:

 In order to re gain its market share which dropped like dead stone after
year 2007 when Apple’s I phone captured entire market with its latest
technology. Nokia’s response to this effect was very slow and the year
2010 only that were they able to launch high end smart phone when I
phone had already damaged their reputation.
 Multimedia Usage: Until year 2010 Nokia was unable to enter the market
of smart phones. With N8 into play, Nokia has already started to advertise
and promote it with huge bang. To this effect the response so far has also
been positive.

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  Integrate Offline and Online Advertising: Nokia has started to create
awareness for its brand by publishing advertisement on to different web
sites.
 Local Social Networks: Nokia in order to promote and create awareness
among customers of its new product has started a pop up advertisement.
This method is generally used in social or interactive web sites or online
social networks.
 Contests and Discounts: It has already started to promote its old models
in discounted rates so that customers as well as resellers demand shall
increase.

Marketing Principles that Nokia follows:

Customer Satisfaction:

Nokia keeps its customers on top and gives top priority to them. The thinking of
Nokia is that if the customer is happy, the company will automatically climb the
ladder of success.

Customer Perception:

The Company believes that if the customers are happy which will be measured
by customer satisfaction, the perception will be automatically good.

Customer needs and expectations:

Nokia understands the needs of its customers and makes products according to
them, eg. N8 against the Apple’s I Phone.

Generating income profit:

Nokia also aims at generating profits so that its stakeholders/shareholders are all
happy.

Making satisfactory progress:

As we can see that Nokia is been in the market since a very long time and has
retained its position despite many competitors it is able to firmly hold its top
position until 2007 when its shares started to tickle down. The continuous
success is because of constant revision of its strategies & ideas.

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Aware of the Environment:

Nokia is a very Eco friendly Company. They use recycled paper for their
packaging and protect the environment however they can.

PEST:

Political factors:
Nokia always takes care & intensely considers fair means of practices as per the
political factors. With stringent rules and regulation of UAE government Nokia
trade has seen slight downfall.

Environmental Social and Ethical factors:

Many companies may view profit as more important than ethical practice and
this can lead them to making illegal decisions and this has been a big
contribution to many companies going out of business or losing all their market
share to eco-friendly companies. Nokia is a company which complies with the
environmental social and ethical factors around itself.

Technological:

In the communications market this is probably the most important external

factor in affecting a companies development of their marketing strategy as they
must always keep up to date with every change within the market if they are to
be successful and hold on to their market share and hopefully gain more.
Nokia's current marketing strategy by launching N8 to counter Companies like
Apple and Blackberry is one its move.

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S.W.O.T:

Strengths:

 Still maintains the highest Market share in the telecom industry.

 Goodwill of Nokia in the Middle East.

Weaknesses :

 The costs (labour and material) are on the rising trend.

 Lack of Technological expertise.

 Leadership issue.

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Opportunity (external factor):

This is the area in Nokia can make profit, or gain market share, by 2 ways:

1. Technological advancement.
2. More and more mobile phone users.
3. With recent ban on Blackberry by UAE government Nokia has
chances to capture market again.
4. With Nokia suing Apple for Patent Infringement which has caused
Apple’s share to decline, Nokia has an upper edge to tap market.

Threat (external factor):

Major threat to Nokia is from its competitors who have been introducing latest
handsets and upgraded software’s and technologies. Apples iphone recently
introduced iphone 4 to which Nokia introduced N8. But since Apple’s I phone
in 2007 market share of Nokia has fallen tremendously which is one of the
biggest concerns of the company all around the globe.

Marketing Research:

Rightful success behind every business is based on how any business reacts to
customer demands and how they are able to fulfil these demands by providing
what they want and when they want. Our analysis quantifies secondary data
collected by us. Market research also involves the collection, collation, and
analysis of these data relating to the consumption and marketing of relevant
goods and services. The market for mobile phones is humongous and the
current market gap which is saturated in case of Nokia products need to find a
new market segment or launch new products.

Nokia's business strategy: (statement taken from www.nokia.com) 

"Our business objective is to strengthen our position as a leading 
communications systems and products provider. Our strategic intent, as 
the trusted brand, is to create personalised communication technology that
enables people to shape their own mobile world.

Nokia is currently creating innovative technology to allow people to 

access Internet applications, devices and services instantly, 
irrespective of time or place. Achieving interoperability of network 

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environments, terminals and mobile services is a key part of companies intent. 
Nokia need to capitalise on leadership role by continuing to meet the 
target and enter segments of the communications market that
will experience rapid growth. With appointment of new CEO it shall be bit
more difficult task when he has many objectives to cover especially rapidly
falling Nokia’s market share. Focus should be on targeting segment as well as
launching new innovative products so as to compete with competitors like
apple, blackberry.

Nokia has established itself as one of the world’s leading player’s in wireless
communication and has significantly influenced the way in which voice and
other services can been transferred to a wireless, mobile environment.

As demand for smart phones have been increasing Nokia’s plan to lead and
capture market share shall only be possible by inventing and pooling new and
innovative technology far better than its competitors. In this process Nokia shall
be able to offer customers unprecedented choice, speed and value. Nokia has a
time and again contributed to the development of new 
technologies, products and systems for mobile communications. Recent 
examples include: the launch of N8 with symbian^3 and symbian^4 operating
system.

In addition, Nokia have continued to be active in IP convergence. They 

have established alliances with other service providers in order to 
make mobile access services easier for the end user. 

In order to classify the wants and needs of the consuming population, following
are the attributes which we think Nokia must ponder upon and gather
information:

1. Consumer Behaviour
2. Buying patterns and sales trends
3. Consumer preferences
4. Activities of competitors in the market

Sources of Marketing Information:

The information that we collected through market research were of two forms,
qualitative or quantitative data.

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 1. Qualitative data refers to data presented in numerical form, usually
figures.
2. Quantitative data is the information concerning the motives and altitudes
of consumers.

The answer to first part is explained graphically here. It states that Nokia
Corporation market share has been witnessing a steep fall since year 2007, the
time when apple’s I phone was launched.

The two main sources of market research information are primary

research and secondary research:

1. Primary research: where the company gathers information about the

markets themselves.
2. Secondary research: where researchers/us use information that has been
discovered by other companies or via other mediums.

However our information is entirely based upon Secondary research.

B2B Market Segmentation:

In order to plan Nokia’s product, we must target areas where maximum profit
could be generated. There are certain variables that can affect people buying
habits, behaviour and other aspects keeping in view of the following segments:

• Age • Gender • Religion • Lifestyle

• Taste • Taste • Fashion

On the basis of these segmentation the Nokia has in past launched products
suiting the needs and demand that these segments might have. As the main aim
of market research was to develop an idea of market opportunities and to track

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sales in order to identify those products, which are likely to experience a rise in
sales and to look at those in which the sales are likely to fall.

The Marketing Mix:

The marketing mix refers to the combination of elements within a company’s

marketing strategy, these are designed to give the customer what they want and
in the long term are designed to maximise profits.

The marketing mix is based around the idea of the 4P’s:

Product:

The product i.e. Nokia Cell phones is in the centre of the marketing mix and the
other 3P’s are based on it. Consumers purchase goods and services for a variety
of individual reasons and a company must be aware of all of these when selling
a product. In short, there research should not stagnate with having older version
of software or technologies but by creating new advancement in technology.
Time and again launching of new products as per the demand of customers and
in order to have competitive edge over its competitors it should always try to
stay one step ahead in order to tap market share.

Price:

It’s basically a key fact in the selling of a product, and is usually the one that is
open to the most change based on different pricing strategies, for ex: competitor
based, penetration or skimming. Nokia must be flexible to promote discounts or
any incentive plans on older as well as new devices so that customer retention
stays high.

Place:

This refers to the chosen outlets for a product or service, for a product to be
very successful it must be easy to access, mobile phones are very easy to access
now a days, they are sold in supermarkets, specialise outlet and all major
department stores. Nokia is brand well known by every possible man on earth
and this being a key factor it has established various outlets and should
regularly update these stores with its new devices or products.

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Promotion:

This involves information to the customer over a variety of media platforms,

using radio, television and print advertising as well as using other promotional
tools such as “money off deals” and “free give ways”. This is a part of
marketing mix that Nokia has failed is that promotional schemes offered by
Nokia is very low. Even in UAE where electronics gadgets are suppose to be
sold off cheap there is no difference in the price.

List Of Nokia Resellers In Dubai: (See Annexure 1)

The stages of marketing: The Product Life Cycle

1. Market and Product research

 Nokia spends around $50-60 million every year on its technical
needs and Research.

2. Product launch
 Testing – Nokia product is the name with trust and it focuses on
best of best quality. It maintains its standards so as to retain
customer loyalty, product leadership and operational excellence.
 Pricing - Nokia uses a pricing strategy that best suits the product.
With Nokia 1100 it tried to penetrate market which it was very
successful. With Products like N-95 N-series and E-series Nokia
was very successful in skimming market share.
 Branding - Nokia builds its brand with high-end multimedia
handsets for upscale buyers and low-priced phones for emerging
countries. Nokia follows Umbrella branding “N Series” & “E
Series”. There Logo shows their brand personality. It focuses on
building customer, relationship and trust and building friendship
and trust is the heart Nokia brand.
 Packaging - Packaging is important because it protects products
as they make their way from factory to customers. It has
Attractive, Good & Secure Packing. During 2007, 15,000 ton
packaging material has been saved by using smaller packaging.
Nokia have reduced the amount of printed material inside the box,
In 2007 Nokia began to increase the level of recycled content.

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 3. Product promotion
 Advertising - Through TV, Sign boards, Bill boards, Radio, Newspaper,
Broachers, Posters, Dummies and display stands.
 Merchandising
 Publicity and P.R.- Nokia has strong PR. They keep on doing some or the
other new events, programmes and publicity, so as to keep up with the
brilliant image of the company and also to enhance the brand equity.
Nokia does not perform Direct Sales activities on its official website
www.nokia.com but uses DEMO style of Direct Marketing. Nokia does
not use Direct Mail or Telemarketing styles of Direct Marketing. In
recent times for the promotion of its new product Nokia has just sent out
an invitation for a launch event for Nokia N8 for next Week in Dubai.
 Sales promotion

Nokia has hired aegis group as its new media planning group and has
approximately spend around $500 million for promotion and $10 million in last
two years.

 Sales and distribution: From the Manufacturing plant of Nokia located in

Finland, China/India etc., the products are sold and distributed to
different distributors in the middle east, eg: Jacky’s, jumbo, Nokia
Showrooms (8th showrooms-recent one at Mirdif Mall), Malls depending
on the demand.
 Local, national or international sales: The sales as per the graph for the
operating system Symbian which is specifically used by Nokia is approx
25,387 with a market share of 41.2 % in the second quarter of 2010.

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 4. Monitoring and analysis the sales:
 Meeting customer satisfaction?
 Does the product need modifying or replacing?
 Is a profit being made?
 Is the promotion and distribution policy effective?

Application of Internet to B2B marketing by B2B Marketer:

The impact of internet on business is increasing worldwide. Business-to-

business transactions account for over 80 percent of all transactions conducted
over the internet. They are many nations in terms of using the internet in
business-to-business (B2B) settings.

While practitioners are realizing this potential for using the internet to build
profitable, long-term relationships with their trading partners. Essentially, the
relationship quality between trading partners and their business performance is
enhanced through the use of the internet, with the internet affecting technical
bonds more than social bonds.

Among various strategies and policies that Nokia follows one of it is that it does
not sell its products online or through internet marketing. With the current
economic recession many companies are trying to find cost effective
alternatives of buying Nokia cell phone and its accessories. In order to fulfill
these demands the business marketers use websites other than Nokia’s
professional website. These web sites generally contain details of
manufacturers/suppliers/buyers which are far more effective and efficient means
to purchase Nokia’s products and suppliers across the UAE.

In the last five years, Nokia internet marketing through B2B has increased
dramatically as a result of the rapid adoption of the internet in marketing
practice through portal and web sites other than the professional Nokia web site.
Internet is one of the most important marketing tools because it has the potential
to facilitate relationships in B2B contexts. Business-to-business (B2B) internet
marketing of the mobile phones like Nokia includes the use of all three forms of
e-commerce (internet, intranet, and extranet) for purchasing goods and services,
buying information and consulting services, and submitting requests for
proposals and receiving proposals.

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The B2B internet based technologies of Nokia provide effective and efficient
ways in which corporate buyers can gather information rapidly about available
products and services, evaluate and negotiate with suppliers, implement order
fulfillment over communication links and access post-sales services.

Useful Information:
Nokia N8:

Nokia is in process to launch its latest hand gadget sometime next week in
Dubai. The question that poses each geek is that whether it could overshadow
apple’s I Phone and Blackberry and regain its honor in the market or would be
just another mobile in its long list. The word around is people are anxiously
awaiting for it as nokia embarks in the segment of higher-end smart phones.
Nokia has managed to pack a lot into a sleek anodized aluminum case that
comes in several colors, including silver white, dark gray, orange, blue and
green. Central to the N8 is a 3.5-inch 16:9 capacitive touch screen (640 x 360
pixels) showing 16.7 million colors. There’s 16GB of internal memory,
expandable with an additional 32GB using MicroSD card.

With a 12-megapixel sensor and Carl Zeiss optics, the N8 certainly has enough
hardware to impress. Whether the photo quality is there as well remains to be
seen. HD video recording at 720p, 25 fps with H.264, MPEG-4 should mean
high quality video as well. There’s also a HDMI connection so you can watch
photos and video on a compatible TV.

One interesting fact about N8 is the latest version of the Symbian mobile
operating system (Symbian^3). Nokia says there are 250 new features in

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Symbian^3 including real multitasking, multiple personalized home screens,
turbo charged graphics, multi touch and intelligent networking.

Nokia Sues Apple

Nokia Oyj, the world’s biggest maker of mobile phones, filed a patent-
infringement lawsuit against Apple Inc. in its latest salvo over the iPhone and
iPad. The lawsuit, the fifth patent complaint between the two companies in the
past year over smart phone technology, broadens the fight to include Apple’s
iPad touch-screen computer tablet. Nokia’s filing of lawsuit in federal court at
Madison, Wisconsin, helped push Apple shares down 4.2 percent in New York
trading, their steepest drop since Jan. 22
The legal battle began in October, when Espoo, Finland- based Nokia filed
a lawsuit accusing Apple of infringing 10 patents. It demanded royalties on the
more than 51 million iPhones sold since Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve
Jobs, 55, introduced the device in 2007.
The five patents in the newest complaint relate to enhanced speech and data
transmission, and antenna configurations that improve performance and save
space, Nokia said in a statement. The patents aren’t the same ones at issue in
cases in a federal court in Delaware, and before the U.S. International Trade
Commission.

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References:

Books:

 Kotler Keller, “Marketing Management”:

2009, Pearson Prentice Hall, 13th Edition, New Jersey

ISBN -13-978-0-13-135797-6.

 Al Ries and Laura Ries, “The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR”

2004, Harper Business, 1st Edition, United states of America

ISBN - 0-06-008199-6.

 http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=digitally-augmented-
reality.
 http://moconews.net/article/419-mobile-content-bits-admob-family-guy-
app-nokias-ad-spend-ringback-tones/
 http://www.eyeofdubai.com/v1/news/newsdetail-41246.htm
 www.nokia.com
 http://web2.dubaichamber.ae/pdf/reports/Electronics-market-monitor.pdf
 http://www.ameinfo.com/44069.html
 http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=digitally-augmented-
reality
 http://www.nokia.com/NOKIA_COM_1/Corporate_Responsibility/Sideb
ars_new_concept/Nokia_Suppliers_and_the_Environment/env_guide.pdf
 http://ec.europa.eu/environment/ipp/pdf/nokia_st_II_final_report.pdf
 http://www.apple.com/iphone/
 http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/2010/04/nokia-brand-needs-
firm-direction.html
 http://www.docstoc.com/docs/12163706/Nokia-Marketing-Mix
 http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=120850
 http://www.ec21.com/product-details/Unlocked-Nokia-N97-N93-N8--
4773122.html

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Annexure: 1

Nokia Resellers:
• Al Rostamani Group Tel: 04-428-7777
• Burj Dubai Square Bldg 2, Dubai, UAE
• Albwardy Investment Tel: 04-351-1333
• Alphamed Group
• Arabian American Technology -- Aramtec Tel: 04-289-5444
• Lifco Group of Companies
• Maritime and Mercantile International LLC Tel: 04-424-500
• Al Aqili Group Tel: 04-324-8000
• Golden Falcon Chemicals, Ingredients & Specialities Tel: 04-227-4433
• Al Kamda General Trading LLC Tel: 04-266-4200
• Alokozay Group of Companies Tel: 04-887-1155
• Ashraf & Partners Tel: 04-294-0500
• Federal Foods Tel: 04-339-0005
• Jaleel Group Tel: 04-333-9191
• Digi-Key Corporation
• Comtel Telecom

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