NOKIA’S MARKETING

STRATEGIES
IN INDIA

PRESENTED BY :- Mukesh Kumar

INTRODUCTION AND
OBJECTIVES
 Day by day, mobile phones are turning into more of necessity then a luxury. The
benefits of the mobile phone are far too many. Ease of communication, the
anywhere, anytime contact - with friends, relations, colleagues and in theory at least
the efficiency brought to busy lives (Web 21). Nokia’s growth in India has been
substantial. They have led the market with 70% share for long time now. What is
interesting is that there is further scope of improvement in sales. It is a high
technology market and India being developing country, will see more and more
subscribers to this technology in the future. As noted by, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, the
president and chief executive of Finnish telecom giant Nokia “India is now Nokia's
second-largest market, displacing the U.S. and behind only China” (Web 22).
 This research aims at studying the strategies applied by Nokia in India, and analyzing
the effects of these strategies on the sales of the company. For this purpose,
secondary data in form of case studies and news articles have been used to gather
the information about the marketing strategies that were applied by Nokia in India.
Then dealers on Nokia in different parts of India were interviewed with semi-
structured interviews to check the impact of these strategies. The objective was to
study the main reasons of success of the market leader Nokia, and also to study the
drawbacks of the company. It was intended to study the areas where there was scope
of improvement and note down some recommendations.
 7
INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
 Mobile telephony was introduced in India in 1995. The first call was made by
Nokia 2110 on its own network. The start to this industry in India, however,
was very slow. The Indian government was not supportive to the new
companies of the industry. As a result of unfriendly telecom policies, high
licensing fees and absence of a proper telecom regulatory body lead to exit
of these private players in the next few years.
 The industry got a new life in 1999, when the Government of India
announced a new telecom policy. The plan was to provide telephones on
demand by 2002. A major point of the policy was to allow unrestricted
private entry into almost all mobile service sectors. The mobile service
providers were allowed to share their infrastructures with other operators. It
also helped the private operators to break even faster by allowing them to
migrate from fixed license to one-time entry fee with revenue sharing.
 However, by 2001, there was steady increase in the demand for mobile
services. The private companies concentrated on providing basic telephonic
services to consumers. By 2002, the industry was on a high, and with the
popularity of mobile phones the customers started demanding better
services and lower prices. This led to new innovations and come out with
better products and phone industry in India
 Growth of mobile phone subscribers No of
mobile subscribers Time taken
 0 – 1 Million 1995-1998
 1 – 5 Million 1998-2001
 5 – 10 Million 2001-2002
ABOUT NOKIA
 In 1865, engineer Fredrik Idestam established a
wood-pulp mill in southern Finland and started
manufacturing paper. This company was named
Nokia. Nokia soon became successful, this was due to
the European industrialization and the growing
consumption of paper and cardboard. In 1895, Gustaf
Fogelholm, son in law of Fredrik Idestam, took over
the reins of the company. Nokia started exporting
products to Russia and then to the UK and France
(Web 1). In the early 1900s, the companies grew in
spite of external threats. In addition to the
traditional forestry industry, the other industries also
achieved a good position on the Finnish market (Web
2).
NOKIA IN INDIA
 Nokia has been the pioneer of mobile telephony
in India, the existence here is from 1994. As
noted above, the first ever GSM call in India was
made on a Nokia 2110 on its own network.
Although the conditions in Indian telecom
industry were not very conducive, Nokia
maintained an aggressive strategy. Import of
mobile phones was not easy and the tariff applied
on them was as high as 27%. Consumers too were
not interested in purchasing mobile phones as call
rates were as high as Rs16 per minute ($0.40).
 38
SWOT ANALYSIS
 Strength
 -Is a dominant player in the smart phone market
via its majority ownership of Symbian and its
proprietary Series 60 user interface which are
projected to represent majority of the 100M
smart phones sold in the next 4 years.
 - Huge market share
 - Size should enable Nokia to amortize Research
and Development costs and to get cost
advantages
 - Brand position: second most popular brand in
India
WEAKNESSES –

 The Ngage is considered a flop.

 - Being the market leader, its increase role
in Symbian is giving Nokia a bad image, much
like Microsoft in the PC industry.
 - Slow to adopt new ways of thinking: a good
example is clamshell phones which are
preferred by many customers. Nokia was
reluctant to produce a clamshell until this
year, when it launched its first model.
OPPORTUNITIES –

 Increase their presence in the CDMA

market, is still dominated by LG, also
concentrate on 3G.
 New growth markets where cell phone
adoption still has room to go, including India
and other countries. - Leverage its
infrastructure business to get preference and
a stronger position with carriers
THREATS –

 Delayed entry in 3G sector creates a risk to be

displaced by leaders like Motorola, LG, NEC
and others. - Asian OEMs who are entering the
market very aggressively (TCL, nGo Bird)
 - ODMs (HTC and others) enabling carriers to
leverage their customer power bypassing the
handset vendor. Operators want to lessen
their dependency on handset vendors and the
dominance of Nokia. Orange, O2, and many
other operators globally are selling their own
brand of phones (Web 9)
MARKETING STRATEGY
 Marketing strategy of a company in a new country plays a
vital role in determining its future in that country.
Knowing that Indian market is very different from other
markets it was already operating in, Nokia came up with
an India–specific strategy or a glocal strategy. It adapted
the to Indian conditions by launching new products and
enhancing the products with features designed
specifically for local customers, as well as promotional
campaigns targeted at Indian audience to gain a foothold
in the market. To capture the widespread Indian market,
it developed an extensive distribution network which also
helped it take its products to rural markets in India. Here,
to discuss the strategy, we consider the simple concept of
4 P’s, namely; product (customization), price, place
(distribution) and production.
PLACE (DISTRIBUTION)
 Mobile phones in India are considered as to
be consumer durable, hence they are not
just sold through exclusive telecom retailers
but also through general retailers. Nokia
designed modeled its distribution strategy on
lines of FMCG business.
PROMOTION
 Nokia entered India with one for mobile services to start, and had
to establish its non-popular brand. To build credentials the
company used both print and television campaigns. In the early
days, print media concentrated on Nokia’s status, global R&D and
international awards won to establish brand awareness. Even after
the market grew, Nokia’s advertisements concentrated on product
attributes.
 Gaining acceptance of Indian consumer is not as simple as other
countries. India is a multicultural country, where people have
strong believe in their mythology, nationality and cultures and to
add to it, their purchasing power was not as high as other
countries where Nokia was operating. Hence, to achieve approval
of the mobile consumers in India, Nokia decided to localize its
products heavily. For the purpose of developing the products
specifically for markets with high population and low penetration,
Nokia developed a team called Mobile Entry Business Unit
SUCCESS AND THE BRAND
 Not surprisingly, when asked about the market
leader, every respondent had no doubts that it was
Nokia all the way. In a way, reconfirming Nokia’s
status in the market with almost 70% share in GSM
handsets. However, they believed that companies
like Samsung, Motorola and Sony Ericsson are giving
Nokia good competition and have seen major increase
in sales. When asked about reasons of Nokia’s
success, the respondents believed that features of
the phone were main driving force for the sales of
handsets. Other important reasons included, brand
image due to past experience, long battery life, user
friendliness, sturdiness, number of models offered
FUTURE AND SCOPE OF
IMPROVEMENT
 Any market with high technological
environment goes through rapid changes.
There are many changes taking place in
mobile phone market in India. The demands
of consumer are changing. They prefer
purchasing phones with most features. The
idea was to carry a gadget with everything in
it, from camera to mp3 player to internet
surfing to office support.