Nokia Brand Analysis

ContentsExecutive Summary.....................................................................................................................................3

1. Nokia Corporation...............................................................................................................................4

2. History.................................................................................................................................................4

2.1 Pre-telecommunications era...........................................................................................................4

2.2 Telecommunications era.............................................................................................................5

2.3 First mobile phones.....................................................................................................................5

2.4 Recent history.............................................................................................................................6

3. Awards and recognition......................................................................................................................7

4. Core Competency of Nokia.................................................................................................................7

5. Brand Analysis.....................................................................................................................................7

5.1 Brand Elements............................................................................................................................7

5.1.1 Logo:.......................................................................................................................................8

5.1.2 Brand Slogan:...........................................................................................................................8

5.2 Brand Personality.........................................................................................................................9

5.3 Brand Knowledge.........................................................................................................................9

5.4 Brand Loyalty...............................................................................................................................9

5.5 Perceived Quality.........................................................................................................................9

5.6 Brand's positive associations.....................................................................................................10

5.7 Brand Equity Analysis.................................................................................................................10

5.7.1 Brand Salience...................................................................................................................11

5.7.2 Brand Performance............................................................................................................11

5.7.3 Brand Imagery....................................................................................................................12

5.7.4 Brand Judgments..............................................................................................................12

5.7.5 Brand Feelings...................................................................................................................12

5.7.6 Brand Resonance...............................................................................................................13

5.8 Branding Process.......................................................................................................................13

5.9 Branding Decisions....................................................................................................................13

6. Positioning and Differentiation........................................................................................................13

6.1 Greater brand equity through Pricing........................................................................................14

6.2 Factors contributing to high brand equity of Nokia...................................................................14

Nokia Brand Analysis Page 1

6.3 SWOT analysis of the brand NOKIA...........................................................................................14

6.3.1 Strength.................................................................................................................................14

6.3.2 Weakness..............................................................................................................................14

6.3.3 Opportunity...........................................................................................................................14

6.3.4 Threats...................................................................................................................................15

6.4 Corporate Social Responsibility activities for better brand building..........................................15

7. Recommendations.........................................................................................................................16


Executive SummaryA brand is not a by-product, an ad campaign, a logo, a spokesperson or a slogan. It is a differentiating identity and the most important reason for employees, investors and customers to come and to do business with you. In a real sense, it is a firm’s most important asset, the trust that will the business and make it increasingly profitable over time.

Nokia's solid and reliable brand has true authenticity and heritage. Nokia has a vision and foresight to define the brand, develop products with a clear product and design strategy. Nokia is synonymous with cell phones. Today it has a strong market presence, strong brand and above all a product that is surely very easy & intuitive to use. The sticky thing about Nokia is the user-friendly, all familiar menu. An average Nokia entry level phone possesses the marvelous consumer insights, cool design and everything that builds a "Nokia", and this makes it popular among the customers.

Nokia today is being challenged by companies like apple, Google’s Android, Htc, Sony-Ericsson, Motorola, Samsung, LG, etc. Despite all the new innovations that other phones bring, it is hard to catch up with the sheer pace of innovations, designs and styles that Nokia is famous for. With the double digit growth of this market from America to Pakistan to the UAE, it is inevitable that a few shifts in share will occur, but Nokia inevitably will retain its place at the top by sheer momentum.

In these papers, we attempted to address different aspects and paradigms of the Nokia brand, starting with a brief history and company profile, going through its brand analysis encompassing Logo, slogan, band personality and Brand Equity Analysis, Positioning and Differentiation, and some SWOT Analysis. We finally had mentioned some recommendations that we find are suitable for Nokia to adopt, in order to maintain its respectable market presence, and even to leverage it.


1. Nokia Corporation

Nokia Corporation is a multinational communications corporation headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighboring Helsinki. Its principal products are mobile electronic devices, primarily mobile telephones and other communications devices. It also offers Internet services such as applications, games, music, maps, media and messaging through its Ovi platform, and free-of-charge digital map information and navigation services through its wholly owned subsidiary Navteq. Nokia has a joint venture with Siemens, Nokia Siemens Networks, which provides telecommunications network equipment, solutions and services.

Nokia has 130,000 employees across 120 countries, sales in more than 150 countries and annual revenues of around €38 billion1. As of 2012 it is the world's second-largest vendor of mobile phones (after Samsung), with a global market share of 22.5% in the first quarter 2. Nokia is a public limited-liability company listed on the Helsinki, Frankfurt, and New York stock exchanges. Since February 2011 Nokia has had a strategic partnership with Microsoft, as part of which all Nokia smartphones will incorporate Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system. On 26 October 2011 Nokia unveiled its first Windows Phone handsets, the WP7.5 Lumia 710 and 800.

Nokia was the world's 143rd largest company as measured by revenue in Fortune Global 500 list of 2011.3

Recently it has faced major competition with the growing use of smartphones mainly from Apple Inc. with its iPhone and also Google Inc. with its Android phones. As a result it share price has fallen from a high of $40US in 2007 to under $3 in 2012. 4

2. History

2.1 Pre-telecommunications era

Nokia's history started in 1865 when mining engineer Fredrik Idestam established a groundwood pulp mill on the banks of the Tammerkoski rapids in the town of Tampere, in southwestern Finland in Russian Empire and started manufacturing paper. In 1868, Idestam built a second mill near the town of Nokia, fifteen kilometres (nine miles) west of Tampere by the Nokianvirta river, which had better resources for hydropower production. Toward the end

1 "Annual Results 2011", Nokia Corporation. 26 January 2012. Retrieved 2 March 2012.2 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-178651173 "Global 500 2011". Fortune. 2011. Retrieved 12 November 2011.4 https://www.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=NYSE:NOK


of the 19th century, Mechelin's wishes to expand into the electricity business were at first thwarted by Idestam's opposition. However, Idestam's retirement from the management of the company in 1896 allowed Mechelin to become the company's chairman (from 1898 until 1914) and sell most shareholders on his plans, thus realizing his vision. In 1902, Nokia added electricity generation to its business activities.

2.2 Telecommunications eraThe seeds of the current incarnation of Nokia were planted with the founding of the electronics section of the cable division in 1960 and the production of its first electronic device in 1962: a pulse analyzer designed for use in nuclear power plants.5 In the 1970s, Nokia became more involved in the telecommunications industry by developing the Nokia DX 200, a digital switch for telephone exchanges. The DX 200 became the workhorse of the network equipment division. Its modular and flexible architecture enabled it to be developed into various switching products. For a while in the 1970s, Nokia's network equipment production was separated into Telefenno, a company jointly owned by the parent corporation and by a company owned by the Finnish state. In 1987, the state sold its shares to Nokia and in 1992 the name was changed to Nokia Telecommunications. In the 1970s and 1980s, Nokia developed the Sanomalaitejärjestelmä ("Message device system"), a digital, portable and encrypted text-based communications device for the Finnish Defence Forces. The current main unit used by the Defence Forces is the Sanomalaite M/90 (SANLA M/90).

2.3 First mobile phonesThe technologies that preceded modern cellular mobile telephony systems were the various "0G" pre-cellular mobile radio telephony standards. Nokia had been producing commercial and some military mobile radio communications technology since the 1960s, although this part of the company was sold some time before the later company rationalization. Since 1964, Nokia had developed VHF radio simultaneously with Salora Oy. In 1966, Nokia and Salora started developing the ARP standard (which stands for Autoradiopuhelin, or car radio phone in English), a car-based mobile radio telephony system and the first commercially operated public mobile phone network in Finland. It went online in 1971 and offered 100% coverage in 1978.

In 1979, the merger of Nokia and Salora resulted in the establishment of Mobira Oy. Mobira began developing mobile phones for the NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephony) network standard,

5 "Nokia – First electronic dept – Nokia's first century – Story of Nokia". Nokia Corporation. Retrieved 16 March 2009.


the first-generation, first fully automatic cellular phone system that went online in 1981. In 1982, Mobira introduced its first car phone, the Mobira Senator for NMT-450 networks.

Nokia was one of the key developers of GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), the second-generation mobile technology which could carry data as well as voice traffic. NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephony), the world's first mobile telephony standard that enabled international roaming, provided valuable experience for Nokia for its close participation in developing GSM, which was adopted in 1987 as the new European standard for digital mobile technology.

2.4 Recent historyNokia launched its Nokia 1100 handset in 2003, with over 200 million units shipped, was the best-selling mobile phone of all time and the world's top-selling consumer electronics product. In May 2007, Nokia released its first touch screen phone, the Nokia 7710, which was also a huge success. In November 2007, Nokia announced and released the Nokia N82, its first Nseries phone with Xenon flash. At the Nokia World conference in December 2007, Nokia announced their "Comes With Music" program: Nokia device buyers are to receive a year of complimentary access to music downloads. The service became commercially available in the second half of 2008.

Nokia Productions was the first ever mobile filmmaking project directed by Spike Lee. Work began in April 2008, and the film premiered in October 2008.

In 2008, Nokia released the Nokia E71 which was marketed to directly compete with the other BlackBerry-type devices offering a full "qwerty" keyboard and cheaper prices. Nokia announced in August 2009 that they will be selling a high-end Windows-based mini laptop called the Nokia Booklet 3G. On 2 September 2009, Nokia launched two new music and social networking phones, the X6 and X3. The Nokia X6 features 32GB of on-board memory with a 3.2" finger touch interface and comes with a music playback time of 35 hours. The Nokia X3 is a first series 40 Ovi Store-enabled device. The X3 is a music device that comes with stereo speakers, built-in FM radio, and a 3.2 megapixel camera. On 10 September 2009, Nokia unveiled the 7705 Twist, a phone sporting a square shape that swivels open to reveal a full QWERTY keypad, featuring a 3 megapixel camera, web browsing, voice commands and weighting around 3.44 ounces (98 g).


3. Awards and recognition

World’s 5th most valued brand (Interbrand, 2007) #1 brand in Asia (Synovate 2006 and 2007), and #1 brand in Europe (European Brand Institute, September 2007).

The Brand Trust Report published by Trust Research Advisory has ranked Nokia in the 1st position among the brands in India.6

4. Core Competency of Nokia

Nokia’s technical and designing capabilities, innovativeness and customers trust in these capabilities is Nokia’s biggest core competency. Its global reach, work culture, partnerships and internal branding are other distinctive advantages.

5. Brand Analysis

Nokia has thus far managed to establish a powerful brand that has been widely recognized as the key to its recent successes. Nokia brand is an asset that has been carefully built and managed by the Nokia brand managers during the past ten years. In addition to a superior design, Nokia developed its expertise to mobilize its R&D efforts coupled with market research to bring about a winning product.

A cross functional team consisted of engineers, graphic designers, sociologists, psychologists, market researchers and product managers. Nokia has successfully segmented the market to target specific demographic groups. For example, in the year 2000, different phones were marketed to appeal to the “rugged” user, the “sophisticated” user, and the youth market, among others. With all these product innovations, designed to satisfy customer preferences, Nokia has reinforced its brand image of providing cutting-edge communications technology.

5.1 Brand ElementsBrand elements are those trademark able devices that serve to identify and differentiate the brand.

6 "Nokia is India's most trusted brand : Brand Trust". profit.ndtv.com. 19 January 2011. Retrieved 21 November 2011.


5.1.1 Logo:

5.1.2 Brand Slogan:“Connecting People”

“Know our past. Create the future”


5.2 Brand PersonalityAs a person, Nokia stands for competence, which means reliable, intelligent and successful. It also stands for sincerity, which means down-to-earth, honest, wholesome and cheerful. Analysts have positively characterized the company by describing it as “young, sophisticated, hip and generally ‘with it.’ Subsequently, Nokia leveraged its superior marketing strategies and powerful brand to avoid the price wars that have recently afflicted its key competitors.

Nokia focused on building customer relationship and trust. Building friendship and trust is the heart of Nokia brand. Logo shows their brand personality. It has created a distinct image in the minds of the customer by the latest ring tones.

5.3 Brand Knowledge• Brand Awareness

Nokia has the highest top of the mind recall compared to its competitors. Hence it has high brand salience. The aided recall (brand recognition) for Nokia is also higher compared to its competitors

• Brand Image

Nokia has significant positive brand associations compared to neutral or negative associations. Customers acknowledge Nokia for its reliability. The perception of the customers towards the brand is also positive.

5.4 Brand LoyaltyCustomers who already have a Nokia mobile phone are ready to re- purchase a Nokia mobile phone by paying a price premium. This means that Nokia users are loyal towards their brand. The loyalty factor of customers having other brands is less as compared to Nokia. Loyalty factor helps in attracting new customers by creating awareness and reassurance in the brand (Aaker, 1991). Nokia can also use this factor to respond to threats posed by competitors.

5.5 Perceived QualityNokia is positioned at the top of the mobile phone category in terms of perceived quality factor. The brand-positioning map positions Nokia high both in terms of Price and Quality. This factor


differentiates Nokia from its competitors and affects purchasing decisions of potential customers as well as builds positive associations with its channel members.

5.6 Brand's positive associationsWhat is it about Nokia that people within the company - and outside of it - most admire? People tend to be attracted to Nokia's distinct way of operating and clear values of customer satisfaction, respect, achievement and renewal. Additionally customers perceive Nokia a fast innovator, reliable and hi-tech product. There is a strong band of loyal customers who have trust and take pride in buying Nokia's latest models as soon as it is introduced in the market.

5.7 Brand Equity AnalysisBrand Equity is the added value endowed to products and services. This value may be reflected in how consumers think, feel and act with respect to the brand, as well as the prices, market share, and profitability that the brand commands for the firm. Brand equity is an important intangible asset that has psychological and financial value to the firm. The recall and recognition of Nokia brand is well established as compared to others. When Nokia positions its brand in the crowded mobile phone marketplace, its message clearly bring together the technology and human side of its offer in a powerful way. The specific message that is conveyed to consumers in every advertisement and market communication (though not necessarily in these words) is" Only Nokia Human Technology enables you to get more out of life" In many cases, this is represented by the tagline, "We call this human technology". This gives consumers a sense of trust and consideration by the company, as though to say that Nokia understand what they want in life, and how it can help and it knows that technology is really only an enabler so that you-the customer-can enjoy a better life. Nokia thus uses a combination of inspirational, benefit-based, emotional features, and competition-driven positioning strategies. It owns the "human" dimension of mobile communications, leaving its competitors wondering what to own (or how to position themselves), having taken the best position for itself.


5.7.1 Brand Salience• Awareness aspects of the brand-Nokia scores very high on this. Whenever customer

thinks of mobile phones, the first name that comes to the mind is Nokia.• Linking the brand through brand name, logo, symbol etc to certain associations• The better the customer understands which need the brand satisfies, the better the

salience. Here the need is the need to communicate.• Breadth and depth of awareness:

The depth of awareness is huge because of many variants of the mobile phones which Nokia has brought in the market. However the breadth of awareness might be limited because of the fact that the brand has not many extensions into other product category.

• Nokia N series launched in 2005 needs no introduction now. It is a single device to enjoy entertainment, access information and to capture and share pictures and videos, whenever and wherever they want.

5.7.2 Brand Performance• Product itself is at the heart of brand equity-Nokia comes with easy to use product.• Variety of the product:

In every series of Nokia there are large numbers of sets thus large variety. E.g. entry level include 1200, 1208, 1100, 1110, 1110i, 1112 etc

• Does the brand satisfy utilitarian, aesthetic, and economic needs and wants?Nokia satisfies the human needs of connecting to others i.e. it may be categorized under the need to socialize.


• The strongest positioning involves performance advantages of some kind. Opening of many Nokia priority centers in all part of the country helps in increasing the brand performance in the customer minds.

• Five important factors: primary ingredients and secondary features, product reliability, service, style and design, price

5.7.3 Brand Imagery• More intangible aspects of the brand. Nokia has the image of reliability and quality.• Nokia gain brand personality and market shares because of its quality• Imagery can be formed directly (from a consumer’s own experiences) or indirectly

(depiction of same considerations in ads)• Four categories: User profiles, Purchase and usage situations, Personality and values,

History and heritage• Most of the people think that Nokia would be friendly if it comes to them as a Human

being and also many considers Nokia would be excitement if it comes as human being. Some people say that it would be energetic. So we can say that the Nokia brand image is very well in the mind of the consumer.

5.7.4 Brand Judgments• Customer’s personal opinions and evaluations – a result of brand performance and

imagery• Four important criteria

o Brand quality-Nokia stands for innovation and cutting edge technology.o Brand credibility-Any model launched by Nokia would be good.o Brand consideration-Satisfied customers of Nokiao Brand superiority-Nokia being the largest selling mobile phone in the market.

5.7.5 Brand Feelings• Customer’s emotional responses and reactions• Six important types of brand-building feelings:

1. Warmth 2. Fun3. Excitement---These are experiential and immediate 4. Security5. Self- respect6. Social approval---private and enduring

• Nokia sets are of various designs such as Flip sets, Flat sets, Slide sets, Sets with rotating camera etc. which creates excitement.

• The feeling of owning a Nokia mobile provides that self-respect and social approval.


5.7.6 Brand Resonance• The ultimate relationship and level of identification that the customer has with the

brand. The level of engagement with the customer is very high by means of various latest ring tones and games provided.

• The depth of the psychological bond• Resonance can be broken into 4 categories: Behavioral loyalty (loyalty value), Attitudinal

attachment, Sense of community, Active engagement• Nokia is associated with great behavioral loyalty as understood from the fact that the

customers wait for a Nokia set to come in the store and not buy anything else. Also the percentage of repeat purchase is great, which proves that the customer is satisfies with the performance,

5.8 Branding ProcessNokia built its brand at both ends of the market, with high-end multimedia handsets for upscale buyers and low-priced phones for emerging countries.

5.9 Branding Decisions• Nokia follows Umbrella7 as well as Company brand name strategy. • Example for Umbrella branding-N Series and E Series• Example for Company brand name –Nokia XXXX series

6. Positioning and Differentiation

Desired image/positioning of brand includes strong, favorable and unique association. A lot of their success is attributable to Nokia's core business practices and philosophies, which revolve around providing their customers with stylish, usable, robust, experiential and relevant devices with Nokia's signature and world famous quality and ease of use. Brand’s should put efforts (ongoing marketing plan of the company) to achieve desired brand knowledge structure i.e. product, price, distribution, and promotion/communication strategies. Providing service at the local level is one of the ways to gain insights into the needs of diverse markets and it is one of Nokia’s strengths.

7 An umbrella branding strategy is a marketing practice that involves selling many related products under a single brand name. Unlike individual product branding, which uses different brand names for different products, umbrella branding uses a single brand name, and in some cases logo, for different products.


6.1 Greater brand equity through PricingNokia followed premium pricing for its N-series models. It helped in creating that aspirational value for N-series. As it progressed on the experience curve, the price started falling in order to increase the market share. For many lower models though, the company adopted penetration pricing.

6.2 Factors contributing to high brand equity of Nokia• Product competitiveness: Nokia profitably competes in all mobile device segments from

entry-level to high-end. It has the broadest product portfolio in the market.• Customer satisfaction : Nokia uses customization to gain greater customer satisfaction • R&D effectiveness: Nokia spent about USD 3.4 Billion on R&D.• Demand-supply network alignment: Nokia captures its potential upside in high-demand

situations by aligning its demand-supply network. • End-to-end capability: Nokia systematically leverages its end-to-end capability by

integrating mobile devices, applications and infrastructure.• Constant innovation: Focusing on human technology; enhancing communication and

exploring new ways to exchange information.

6.3 SWOT analysis of the brand NOKIA

6.3.1 Strength• Nokia has largest network of distribution and selling and is the industry leader.• High quality and professional team in the HRD Dept and a very strong R&D Unit.• The financial aspect is very strong in case of Nokia as it has other profitable business.• Wide range of products for all class and many features.• The re-sell value of Nokia phones are high compared to other company’s product.

6.3.2 Weakness• Few models are expensive when compared to competitive product with comparable

attributes.• Heavy in weight.• The service centres in India are few and scare. So after sales service is not good.

6.3.3 Opportunity• As purchasing power of the people has increased, Nokia has to target right customer at

right time to gain the most out of the situation.


• Increase their presence in the CDMA market, which they are just entering, as well as 3G and Edge.

6.3.4 Threats• The threat comes from emergence of other mobile companies in the market like

Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Cingular (U.S) etc. Threats can be like providing cheap phones, new features, new style and type, good after sales service etc.

• Saturation in Current Market.

6.4 Corporate Social Responsibility activities for better brand buildingHere are some of the CSR activities that NOKIA is engaged in:

• Nokia adopts environment friendly processes for recycling, packaging and transporting.

• Nokia provides helping hands in the following activities:

- Organizing Blood donation camps

- Fund raising for relief measures

- Volunteering at hospitals to help the patients

- Arranging activities for under privilege

• Disaster recovery measures and corporate giving for following events:

- Drought in Euthopia and Southeast Asian Tsunami

- Sichuan earthquake in China and Pakistan

- Cyclone nargis in Myanmar


7. Recommendations• Continue with Product Differentiation. Nokia should avoid commoditization that arises

in mature markets such as North America. Nokia therefore should offer next generation of handsets that work on the concept of convergence with MP3, camera and computing facilities all built in to attract “cool” and “hep” teenagers and young adults. For professional users, Nokia should provide the ability to remotely access their data and files through the handset.

• Nokia can tie up an operator in a long-term contract and use co-branding. Operators can be lured to use the Nokia brand to attract customers.

• Nokia should continue selling to the end user through distribution channel. Nokia should continue with direct-to-consumer advertising, including sponsorships and product placements.

• Leverage Nokia brand in future diversification in other related business such as networking and Internet services. Customers are expected to have positive associations.

• Future lies in the replacement market (European and American markets are fast approaching saturation; the only viable source of growth for the mobile handset industry is the replacement market).

• Come out with new open design to cater to the demand of the innovative light design of phones, which are huge according to our findings.


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Nokia Brand Analysis