Nokia: Overview Current Data on Brand Performance

Nokia: Overview Current data on brand performance of Nokia The Finnish mobile phone company Nokia once dominated its industry, but its market share has recently been experiencing a precipitous decline. "The year Apple launched the iPhone, 2007, was Nokia's best-ever year: it sold 436 million handsets -- nearly 40 per cent of the total purchased worldwide. (Its nearest competitor, Motorola, sold 164 million.) That year, Nokia made £6.7 billion in profit. Five years later, Nokia's share of the global handset market has almost halved, to just 23.8 per cent. Last year, Samsung sold more smartphones.

So did Apple. In 2011 Nokia made a pre-tax loss of £1 billion. The company currently holds cash and liquid assets of just £4.7 billion" (Kirwan 2012). Thus, within the span of less than five years, Nokia has gone from industry leader to a company whose future existence is in doubt. Nokia is no longer Finland's most profitable company and there are serious questions as to whether it can remain relevant in the Apple and Android era. Positioning (positioning maps can be used) Nokia traditionally positioned itself as a low-cost company.

For example, last year, Nokia sold 340 million no-frills phones for an average £30 each -- but now, Chinese Android-based handsets sell around £25 each at retail (Kirwan 2012). The company has just released a new smartphone which it hopes to be competitive with the most damaging product on the market in terms of its target demographic, that of the Google Android. Although competition from Apple cannot be ignored, in general, loyal Apple consumers have a far higher price point than those of Nokia's target demographic.

Nokia's current CEO believes that the company has several competitive advantages. "First, there's its prowess in camera technology, highlighted with the recent launch of the 808 PureView, a Symbian handset capable of taking 41-megapixel pictures. Similar technology is on its way to Nokia's Windows handsets" (Kirwan 2012). Nokia's hardware has also been substantially improved: "On the N9 and in Symbian handsets already, if you want to listen to music, you just tap the speaker and music starts playing" (Kirwan 2012).

Nokia hopes to offer an alternative that is both better and cheaper than either Apple or Android and reduces the user's dependence on touchscreens which have been deemed "treacherous" because they "cram icons into their screens and the touch targets are awkwardly small" by the CEO (Kirwan 2012). Nokia also offers superior mapping technology, offering "turn-by-turn driving instructions in 50 languages in 100 countries" while Google only offers 28 countries in English (Kirwan 2012).

Promotional strategies and communication themes currently incorporated This linguistic diversity and stress upon value signifies Nokia's focus on selling its product in the developing world. This is of the most promising market areas for growth, given that unstable landline service and small living quarters means that most developing world consumers are almost entirely dependent upon on mobile phones for their computing needs. Selling low-cost phones that are alternatives to.