Business

Case Study Analysis:

Nokia Corporation is a public limited liability company in Finland that is multinational. Nokia manufactures mobile phones and their accessories. There are more than 123,000 employees in the different countries that have been authorized to sell Nokia phones. The company makes a profit of about 1.2 billion pounds, making it is the world’s largest manufacturer of mobile telephones (Lindholm, 2006). Due to its big influence on the Finland economy, it appears in the stock exchange markets of New York, Helsinki and Frankfurt. Nokia produces mobile devices for several communication networks for example-: GSM, CDMA, and W-CDMA. It offers Internet services through features like games, music, maps, media and messaging through its Ovi mail.  Nokia can provide free digital map information and navigation services through a geographic information system called Navteq.

For a long time, Nokia Company has been trying to come up with handsets that have more features like-: Multiplayer Games, Maps, new ways to exchange Music and Photos, and more. Unfortunately, Europe mobile operators shunned that idea of adding other services because they had tried but failed. The reason given is that instead of customers downloading music from the airwaves, they preferred getting it from their computers. This made the mobile operators incur huge losses because of the much money they had invested in offering those services. For instance, British Vodafone Group had invested thirty eight billion dollars to provide data services for its customers but only thirty two million out of two hundred and six used these services. These services had to be offered either way because they were a way of raising funds to meet the charges that a data company is supposed to meet.

It seems that as much as the mobile companies are offering these services, they do not reach out properly to the expected customers. It is noted that there are problems of launching products into the market. There has to be reasons hindering the lack of performance in the market for this data services (Maskell, 2002). The mobile operators were not able to formulate proper marketing strategies that would have saved them the losses they were incurring. It also shows that they never used to come up with tactics or innovative ideas that would make the customers embrace their data services. The reason for this conclusion is that Nokia Company would have succeeded in introducing the services when they figured out that they could sell the phones when they were data enabled. This way, the customer would get the data services already in the phone. Unfortunately, mobile operators objected this idea because they wanted to launch the services themselves. In addition, Nokia bought a company called Loudeye that made a platform for them in distributing music. The tactics used by Nokia were very wise because at the end of the day, they will have achieved their goal without incurring much effort. The mobile operators had not come up with a strategy that would have sailed them through.

Mobile operators should use some possible alternatives if they wish to launch a product in the market. They should improve on the way they introduce products to the market. According to marketing, it is always advised that for a new product to be introduced, samples should first be used to study the reaction of the subscribers. If British Vodafone would have sampled some subscribers then introduced the services with the outcome being poor, then they would have rejected the idea of adding services. Another way would have been using advertising and other promotion strategies. There is a possibility that some subscribers did not understand the importance of the services hence ignore them. The promotion strategies should be accompanied by making the subscribers aware of the benefits of the data services. For those companies that suffered losses, they could consult others willing to help companies like Nokia, which says it has several alternatives of helping operators in increasing revenues from data services (Pederson, 1988). One is a location-based service that was started earlier in the year. Nokia Maps could also help because they are found on the high-end Nokia N95 phone available in many authorized outlet.

The most recommended method of launching a product into the market is using the marketing strategies of having a target group that one is almost sure it will not backfire. That is, studying the group of consumers that would be most interested in the services offered. Once the product has been launched and it has absorbed well in the selected parts, then the company can introduce the product to other segments in the market but use of caution must be observed to minimize losses that would be incurred, incase the product is not accepted well in that segment. As much as the company would want to increase their revenues and profits, they must make sure that the services offered must be affordable. It is also advisable to borrow a leaf from companies that have successfully launched new products several times. Promotional strategies would also be of help because they are a path of creating awareness to the customers.

Companies that are related to providing mobile handsets and complementing services aim at always introducing efficient ways of making mobile phones better and more helpful. Due to this objective, these companies work extra hard to put up with competition just like it is the case of Nokia Company and other mobile operators. When the mobile operators considered Nokia as a rival, they objected the ways in which Nokia was intending to launch the data services (Lindholm, 2006). According to the case study, it shows that the mobile operators were having problems in launching the data services hence make big losses. These companies should use training seminars that will enlighten them on how to improve their marketing skills. Today, Nokia has been able to offer these services and offered to assist other mobile operators in maximizing their revenues.

References

Lindholm, C. (2006). Mobile Usability: How Nokia changed the Face of the Mobile Phone. Penn Plaza, NY: McGraw-Hill Professional.

Maskell, P. (2002). Competitiveness, Localized Learning and Regional Development: Specialization and Prosperity in Small Open Economies. Madison Avenue, NY: CRC Press.

Pederson, J.P. (1988). International Directory of Company Histories, Volume 77. Newark, NJ: St. James Press