RESEARCH REPORT ON

BRAND POSITIONING

BY

NOKIA

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

SOURAV SINGH

AMITY UNIVERSITY, LUCKNOW

2010 - 2012

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The research report will be incomplete without acknowledge giving

my sincere, gratitude to all persons who have helped me in the

preparation of this dissertation.

First of all, I thank “GOD ALIMIGHTY” for the blessings

showered on me throughout this research project work, which has

helped me in the successful completion of the training.

I take this opportunity to extend my sincere gratitude and

profound obligation towards my guidance for

giving me valuable suggestions & his inestimable help rendered to

me throughout the research project and all other persons for without

their encouragement and continuing support, this research project

would not have been possible.

Sourav singh

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Theoretical concepts

Introduction of NOKIA group

Scope of study and Importance of study

Objective of study

Research Methodology

Introduction of industry / organization

Data Presentation

Data Analysis

Findings of study

Recommendations

Bibliography

Annexure

THEORETICAL CONCEPTS

Meaning of Marketing

Marketing is a societal process by which individuals and group obtain

what they need and want through creating, offering and freely

exchange the products and services of valve with others. For a

managerial definition, marketing has often been described as “the art

of selling products’’, but people are surprised when they hear that the

most important part of the marketing is not selling! Selling is only tip

of marketing iceberg.

The American marketing association offers the following

definition : marketing is the process of planning and executing the

conception ,pricing , promotion and distribution of ideas , goods and

services to create exchanges that satisfy the individual and

organizational goals.

Marketing Research System

Marketing managers often commission formal marketing studies of

specific problems and opportunities. They may request a marketing

survey, a product performance test , a sales forecast by reason, or

an advertising evaluation. It is the job of marketing researcher to

produce customer insight into problem. we define the marketing

research as the systematic design ,collection , analysis , and report

of data and findings relevant to specific marketing situation facing

the company.

Branding

Branding is a major issue in product strategy. As Russell

Hanlin, the CEO of Sunkist Grower, observed : ”An orange is an

orange………is an orange. Unless……that orange happens to be

Sunkist, a name80% of consumers know and trust. ”well-known

brands command a price premium. Japanese companies such as

Sony and Toyota have built a huge brand loyal-market. At the same

time, developing a branded product requires a great deal of long-term

investment, especially for advertising, promotion, and packaging.

What is a brand?

Perhaps the most distinctive skill of professional marketers is their

ability to create, maintain, protect, and enhance brands. Branding is

the art and cornerstone of marketing. The American Marketing

Association defines a brand as a name, term, sign, symbol, or design,

or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods or services

of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those

of competitors. Thus a brand identifies the seller or maker. Under

trademark law, the seller is granted exclusive rights to the use of the

brand name in perpetuity. Brands differ from other assets such as

patents and copyrights, which have expiration dates.

A Brand is a complex symbol that can convey up to six levels of

meaning.

1. Attributes : A brand brings to mind certain attributes. Mercedes

suggests expensive, well-built, well-engineered, durable, high-

prestige automobiles.

2. Benefits : Attributes must be translated into functional and

emotional benefits. The attribute “durable” could translate into the

functional benefit. ”I won’t have to buy another car for several years.”

The attribute “expensive” translates into the emotional benefit “The

car makes me feel important and admired.”

3. Values : The brand also says something about the producer’s

values. Mercedes stands for high performance, safety, and prestige.

4. Culture : The brand may represent a certain culture. The Mercedes

represents German Culture organized, efficient, high quality.

5. Personality : The brand can research research project a certain

personality. Mercedes may suggest a no-nonsense boss (person), a

reigning lion (animal ),or an austere palace(object).

6. User : The brand suggests the kind of consumer who buys or uses

the product. We would expect to see a 55-year-old top executive

behind the wheel of Mercedes, not a 20-year old secretary.

Companies need to research the position their brand occupies in the

customer’s minds. According to Kevin Keller, “ What distinguishes a

brand from its unbranded commodity counterparts is the consumer

perceptions and feelings about the product’s attributes and how they

perform. Ultimately, a brand resides in the mind of the Consumers”.

Importance of a Brand

As we know brand plays a very important role in leaving the image of

its product in the mindset of the consumer and some of the important

points about brand importance are as follows:-

1. It helps in recognizing the product in unique manner or it

distinguishes the product from others.

2. It helps consumer to search or to remember the product which he

wants in a very ease and quick manner.

3. It helps in creating the personality or image in the eyes of the

consumer regarding the product.

4. It helps in conveying the values regarding the product.

5. It helps in suggesting the kind of consumer who buys or uses the

product.

Brand perceptions

Perceptions of brands in the same category are not necessarily

equal. We can have a richer and more complicated set of

associations for “Pepsi” than we do for “Cott" or “Mitsubishi". A richer

set of associations can increase the ease with which we recall a

brand, affect our feelings towards it (increasing trust or confidence,

for instance) and affect our price sensitivity. It is hard to justify a price

premium for a brand about which we know little. And, also, even

brands with the same associations can be perceived differently

because the vividness of those associations differs. Both Levi's and

Lee jeans are “American", rugged, associated with American West,

and are similarly designed and priced. Yet perceptions of Levi's are

likely to be more powerful and more vivid. These differences are the

results of brand strategy. The process of acquiring brand perceptions

have important implications for the marketing concept and for the

nature of competition. If consumers know what they want, then they

establish the perceptual dimensions along which they perceive

brands and all brands are subject to them. On the other hand, if the

buyer perceptions are learned and if that learning depends on the

strategies of brands, then marketing has a completely different

objective: to influence the evolution of perceptions in a way that

competitors cannot effectively imitate. The aim is to create vast

inequalities- in the richness of perception - between a brand and its

competitors.

Brand preferences

Buyers may sample a number of brands, liking some more than the

others. This experience triggers the process of consumer inference:

“what are the characteristics of the ones I like and one I like not."

Obvious differences in brands or attributes are assumed to be the

“cause" of such differences. It may be concluded that one has

preference for a brand or some combination of attributes. If you prefer

Starbucks coffee to other brands, you might judge that you do so

because of the darker roast and particular blend of beans. In reality,

of course, the source of a satisfactory outcome can never be

precisely determined. Nevertheless, buyers form a naïve theory

relating brand features to satisfaction which is reinforced by

advertising and repeat purchase. In the process, preferences are

formed and evolved, based on the interaction of buyer experience

and brand strategy. This suggests that what customers want depends

on what customers have experienced. Brand strategy plays a defining

role in this evolution and can have enduring consequences.

Decision making Buyers learn how to choose brands. The

conventional view is that buyers consider all the alternatives, evaluate

the differences - making the necessary trade-offs - and ultimately

choose the brand that maximizes self-interest. In fact, people make

decisions in many ways, responding to the situation and the need.

We draw on a repertoire of decision rules. In purchasing a battery we

use a very different decision process that we would in buying jeans.

In case of buying a battery, we only consider brands we have tried or,

at least, our acquaintances have and put aside lower-priced

alternatives as too risky. In the case of jeans, we may compare all the

brands to Levi's, not one to each other. The decision rules buyers

learn depend on the strategies brands pursue. If all brands deliver

value with respect to the same goals and comparisons between

brands are easy, buyers may simply exhaustively compare

alternatives. In more complex situations, buyers may resort to simplify

matters by using simpler decision rules. They may buy the one on

special offer or the one recommended by a friend. Competitive

advantage Consumer learning has got profound implications for the

nature of competition and competitive advantage. If buyers learn what

they want, competition is less a race to meet consumer needs than a

battle over how perceptions, preferences and decision-making will

evolve in a market. It is a battle over the rules of the game. And

following are the ways to gain competitive advantage on others:

Pioneering advantage in many markets, the pioneer or the first

entrant outsells the others in its category, in some cases for decades.

Brands like Wrigley chewing gum, Gerber baby food and Kleenex

tissues have retained the largest shares of their markets despite

numerous competitive entries. The traditional view of the marketing

concept suggests that pioneers have higher shares because they

have pre-empted the best position in the market leaving less

attractive positions for later entrants.

A central characteristic of competition is that companies are mutually

dependent – the outcome of a company's marketing action depends

to a great extent on the reaction of its rivals. The little research that

has been conduced in this arena suggests that, across product

categories and marketing mix instruments, there is significant

variation in the type of interaction that takes place. The techniques is

to confirm leader-follower relationships estimated by the other

approaches.

Type of interaction

Previous research has attempted to classify or categorize competitive

interaction, specifying three basic forms. First, independent behaviour

implies a lack of competitive response. Second, cooperative

behaviour implies that companies' actions move together in a

coordinated fashion. Finally competitive behaviour implies that

companies maximize their own profits by responding competitively to

rivals' actions. Such interactions are not always easily inferred from

actual market data. For instance, while simultaneous price increases

might be evidence of cooperation, simultaneous price cuts may be

indicative of retaliatory behaviour. Recently, a more detailed set of

interactions - comprising of three forms of symmetric and two forms

of asymmetric behaviour - has been specified. Forms of symmetric

competitive behaviour Co-operative promotions imply that

promotional decisions are made in a co-coordinated function, i.e. if

one company increases its promotional intensity the other reduces its

promotional intensity to accommodate. Instances of this type of

interaction might include the alternating promotions run by Coke and

Pepsi. Alternatively, non-cooperative promotions imply that an

increase (or decrease) in one company's promotional intensity is met

by an increase (or decrease) in that of its rival's. Two companies

competing for end-of-year market share with extensive coupon drops

will be an example of such behaviour.

Finally, a lack of response of both the rivals is also symmetric.

Such a detached behaviour might be expected in markets where

demand substitutability is weak. Since there will be little or no cross-

promotional response, the competitive response is also expected to

be quite small.

Forms of asymmetric competitive behaviuor

Leader-follower behaviour occurs when one company (the follower)

reacts to the other's actions, whereas the other (the leader) does not.

For instance, private labels are often found to follow national brand's

marketing efforts. In dominant-fringe interaction, two companies'

competitive strategies take opposite directions - one company may

behave cooperatively while the other behaves non-cooperatively. To

site an example, a weaker of “fringe”.

Company may simply not be willing to tackle a dominant

company directly and may thus accommodate its larger rival's

promotional efforts. But a company with a dominant market share

might fiercely defend its position, adopting a non-cooperative stance.

There is no one pattern of competition between companies in any

industry in any setting. The pattern of competitive interaction in any

category is the result of a complex set of variables. Several issues

like demand-side factors, market and industrial structure, company

“personality" and category characteristics interact in a complex

fashion to determine strategic behaviour. Thus, managers ought to

consider the direction and size of the competitive response when

evaluating the likely impact of a change in their firm's marketing mix.

Changing rules: colluding with a competitor

Collusion is a hated word in many countries like the UK, US,

Australia, New Zealand, Canada and certain EU institutions. In the

US a manager can be jailed for colluding with a competitor. Yet

elsewhere collusion is not a crime and is regarded as a natural

business practice. Based on a study of over 7,000 cases of collusion

over the past five years across a broad spectrum of industries, four

factors can be singled out to make collusion work - the four Cs viz.

Communication, Constraints, Co-ordination and Confusion. They are

managed using “facilitators" who ensure that the Cs can survive in

the long run. The ultimate goal for colluders is a covert cartel. A cartel

is a publicly known agreement among companies selling substitutes.

A covert cartel is the same thing except that the public is unaware of

the arrangement.

Communication

To collude effectively, companies must send information to each

other. Or else the cartel falls apart. Managers can simply call a

competitor on the telephone or meet in an office or some other

discreet location. Companies have also used a number of less

obvious means of communication which include announcing pricing

plans over online networks (US airlines were caught doing this using

their reservation systems): using “meet or beat" pricing

announcements over public broadcasting media - these serve to

establish price floors; organizing joint trade events, symposiums,

workshops and association meetings.

Constraints

In order for the cartel to survive, it is essential that all of the players

have a similar sense of constraints. Consider the simple case where

the actual sales potential for a given market is $500 million. Company

A correctly perceives the potential as $500 million but Company B

perceives the potential to be at least $ 900 million. Each of the two

companies starts with a 50 percent market share. Company B will be

erroneously tempted to engage in aggressive marketing in order to

expand its total revenue to absorb some of the perceived excess

demand. While doing so, it will cut into the share of Company A.

Company A will, surely, retaliate and the covert cartel will crumble. A

number of facilitators help to ensure that market constraints are

similarly perceived by competitors. This include the formation of trade

associations, workshops, seminars, industry-level training courses

and other forums open to all players within the same industry. These

lead to discussion of historical and future industry prospects and even

in some cases to the publication or sharing of data among cartel

members.

Coordination

Coordination of research and development activities, distribution,

production, positioning or even pricing can help companies split the

market, block further entrants or obtain cartel-level prices despite the

being multiple suppliers. A good example is provided by the two soda

companies that were caught in the famed “Cola Payola" case, in

which they used retailers to help co-ordinate promotions so as to

block a third entrant. Brand A would be on promotion at retail from

January 1 to February 23; Brand B would be on promotion from

February 24 to April 16 and so on. Since retailers promote only one

brand at a time there was simply no room in the calendar for a third

party to be promoted. Other facilitators include having board

members sit on several companies competing in the same industry.

Cross-ownership also facilitates co-ordination.

Confusion

Confusion requires that consumers, employees, regulators and

potential entrants should not fully understand the working o the cartel.

This involves elaborate use of peripheral cues or signals. One of the

most common coordination schemes - Round Robin collusion -

generates such signals. This scheme works as follows. Let us

suppose there is a covert cartel of seven companies in the chemical

industry. Al the companies sell to clients around the Pacific Rim. This

is a case of multi-market contact. The same companies compete

against each other at different, rather disparate locations. Suppose all

the seven companies meet and decide to increase prices throughout

the region to monopolistic levels. Company A will volunteer to

increase its price in, say, Indonesia, citing a plausible reason. Its own

market share will fall in Indonesia and everyone else's share will rise.

The other competitors will use the same story in other Pacific Rim

countries, each taking its turn as the “bad guy" in order to help the

others out. With the four Cs in place, a number of companies have

been able to maintain the illusion that there is no collusion in their

sector for a long time. They have been so successful that citizens in

countries where no price-fixing laws exist often do not realize that

price-fixing is a daily event for most of the products they purchase.

The above article has been abstracted / condensed from the views of

the following professors in Mastering Marketing published by

Business Standard in partnership with Financial Times. All rights of

the authors and publishers are reserved.

* Philip Kotler, Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg

Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University

* Gregory Carpenter, Professor of Marketing at the Kellogg Graduate

School of Management, Northwestern University

* Venkatesh Shankar, Assistant Professor of Marketing and director

of Quality Enhanced Systems and Teams (Quest) at the Smith

School of Business, University of Maryland

* William Putsis, Jr, Associate Professor of Marketing at London

Business School

* Philip Parker, Professor of Marketing, Insead

Changing rules: Where to be marketing headed?

As the marketplaces are changing at an accelerating pace and

corporate boundaries are blurring, companies are striving hard to

access quick and reliable intelligence about their customers,

competitors, distributors and products. Marketing, which will continue

to remain the key to company adaptability and profitability even in the

new millennium, will have a mutated look in the future years, opines

Philip Kotler, the distinguished Professor of International Marketing.

And, as suggested by him, the major developments in the evolving

marketplace/market space will be as follows:

There will be a substantial disintermediation of wholesalers and

retailers owing to electronic commerce. Virtually all products will be

available without going to the shop. The buyer will be able to access

pictures of any product on the Net, get the much-needed information,

shop online for the best prices and terms and click order and

payment over the Internet. Expensively printed catalogues will

disappear from market. Business purchasing agents will also shop on

the Net, either advertising and waiting for bidders or simply surfing in

their “book-marked" websites.

* Shop-based retailers will find the numbers of buyers dramatically

diminished. In order to combat this, more entrepreneurial retailers will

build entertainment and theatre into their shops. Shops selling books,

food and clothes will also have coffee bars, for instance. The sellers

will crave to market an “experience" rather than an assorted product.

* Companies will build proprietary customer databases containing rich

information on individual customer preferences and requirements that

they might use to mass-customize their offerings to their buyers.

Business will be able to retain customers through finding

imaginative ways to exceed customer expectations. Thus the rivals

will find it increasingly difficult to acquire new customers and most of

the organizations will spend time figuring out how to sell more

products and services to their existing customers. Companies will

focus on building customer share rather than market share.

* Organizations will persuade their accounting departments to

generate real numbers on profitability by individual customer, product

and channel and will soon come up with reward packages and

incentives for their more profitable customers.

* Companies will switch from a transaction perspective to a customer

loyalty-building perspective. Many will move to customer lifetime

supply whereby they will offer to deliver a regularly consumed product

on a regular basis at a lower price per unit. They can afford to make

less profit on each sale because of the long-term purchase contract.

* Most of the companies will outsource over 60 percent of their

activities and requirements. A few will outsource 100 percent, making

themselves virtual companies owning over very few assets and

therefore earning extraordinary rates of return.

* Many sales people will be franchisees rather than company

employees. The organization will equip them with the latest sales

automation tools, enabling them to develop individualized multimedia

presentation and customized market offerings and contracts. Buyers

will prefer to meet salespeople on their computer screen rather than

in their office. They shall interact with each other on their computer

screens in real time. Sales people will have less of traveling and

airlines will shrink.

* Mass TV advertising will greatly diminish due to several viewing

channels. There will be very few printed newspapers and magazines.

On the other hand, marketers will reach their target markets more

effectively by advertising through specialized online magazines and

news-groups.

* Companies will be unable to sustain competitive advantages. Their

rivals will be quick to copy an advantage through benchmarking,

reverse engineering and leapfrogging. Firms will believe that their

only sustainable advantage lies in an ability to learn faster and

change faster.

Hence, according to the marketing Guru, the global marketplace will

evolve at an unthinkable pace. And the key to competitive success

will be to keep ones marketing changing as fast as ones marketplace.

Changing rules: the evolving concept of marketing

Hounded by nerve-wrecking competition and increasing awareness

and sensitivity of the buyers, the corporate players are yearning to

get close to the buyers. To woo them better the organizations are

going to any extent by initiating/resuming dialogue with customers by

scrutinizing market research, by coming up with new ideas to add

value to their products, by bolstering customer relationships and by

adopting innovative measures to speed products to market. All these

abide by the classic definition of the marketing concept: Giving

customers what they want. While their benefits have surely been

enormous, this race to embrace the marketing concept has given rise

to some unanticipated consequences. In many a case the

competitors are conversing with the same customers, analyzing

similar market research data, trying to come up with new ideas from

the same sources and benchmarking the same companies. Thus they

are approaching market with the same perspective and are offering

products that, while offering high value, are completely

indistinguishable. This lack of differentiation presents an important

challenge to the concept of marketing. Ergo, the concept of marketing

itself is evolving.

The core assumption of the current view of marketing that is all about

“giving customers what they want" is that the buyers know what they

want. The evolving marketing concept is challenging this view.

Increasingly strategies are been framed on the assumption that, at

least at the very start, the customers do not know what they want. On

the contrary, they learn to want and to aspire. Under the conventional

view of customers, how they perceive, value and select brands are

the “essential rules of the game". The rules of the game ought to

evolve as buyers learn. The evolution depends on what the sellers

teach the buyers to ask for. For instance, Motorola, Nokia and

Ericsson are shaping buyer perceptions of cellular phones. Thus

brand strategies play a pronounced role in defining the rules of the

game.

The emerging concept suggests that marketing is part learning -

gaining an understanding of what buyers know now and of the

process of buyer learning - and part teaching - playing a role in the

buyer learning process. It is about being market driven and market-

driving.

Consumer learning

At the root of much consumer learning are the goals that motivate.

Over time, the goals associated with product categories and brands

grow from a simple set of functionally oriented goods to a more

elaborate set of functionally and emotionally oriented goals. The

goals associated with brands differ from brand to brand in the same

category. For instance, among sport-utility brands, Mercedes-Benz

provides safety and prestige, Range Rover enables its owners to

portray themselves as refined individuals who are sensitive to

tradition and Lexus provides peace of mind and a more modern,

smart self-image. Thus links between brands and goals are nurtured

over time. And these brand-goal links are fundamental results of

consumer learning. The concept of brand-goal links has important

competitive implications. The conventional view is that the customer

compares brands along only one dimension, making comparisons

across brands simple. In formal economic terms, the consumers seek

a single goal-utility.

The emerging view is that buyers seek many different goals

and that within the same category some brands can be linked with

multiple goals in unique combination. Volvo has, for example,

successfully linked both “be a responsible parent" and “add

excitement to life" to the Volvo brand through its new V70 station

wagons, which combine a high performance engine, suitable racing,

with a family car, blurring the age-old distinction between a family car

and a sports car. By successfully linking these goals - along with the

“safety" so long associated with the brand - Volvo has defined the

brand as delivering value that none other can. Brand-goal links such

as these built through strategy and learned by consumers prove

themselves to be unique.

INTRODUCTION

The research project I have completed is all about the market

research regarding Brand Positioning by one of leading company

Nokia in Cellular phones Market. My research projects give a brief

scenario about how brand is created and leaves an impression in the

eyes of the user and force him to buy that product. The research

instrument which I have used during the research is questionnaire

and for that I surveyed 100 people.

If we talk about Market research It is a function which links the

consumer to the market through information use to identify and define

marketing opportunities.

I don't think that the signals in the last two years mean that Nokia lost

the leading role in the mobile market. Probably there is another truth

behind it: Nokia, as a lot of other brands, is still trying to digest the fall

down of mobile forecast. The problem is always the same people talk

enough using the mobile and all the sector needs is something that

has real value for customers (business and consumer) and for

corporate and that speeds up market growth. If you see the numbers,

you will see that just Samsung grew in last two years. Motorola,

Ericsson, Sony Ericsson, Panasonic and others are still floating in the

market. I think that without an answer to the main question (what will

make the value's market speed up?), leaders like Nokia will have

some problems to increase the leadership. 

In this report I have analyze that Nokia is having a very great position

in present scenario and in the coming years as well and other

companies have to do very well to remove the Nokia brand from the

customers mindset.

OBJECTIVE OF STUDY

The purpose of research is to discover answers to questions

through the application of the scientific procedures the main aim

is to find out the truth which is hidden and which is not been

discovered yet .

Our main objective is to find out the problems which are the main

barriers in the promotion of NOKIA in market. Our others objective

are:

To find out the sources of promotion in market.

To find out perception of people about NOKIA brand

To locate the potential market for NOKIA

To find out the sources of promotion in market by NOKIA.

To find the awareness of nokia among public.

To find out the brand loyality of consumer.

To know the competitive advantage of nokia.

What should be the new strategies to be adopted by NOKIA.

Brand image of nokia

The research program is designed for the promotion of NOKIA in

market and overcome the main barriers for brand in market , the

work which is being done for this is described as fallows .

To find out the areas where perception is positive and where is

negative ; initially we see that how many areas are positive and

how many are negative responded . Problem faced in the market

because they are in the in the direct contact of consumer and know

their liking and disliking in a better way, Problems and their solution

in market ; ultimately we have to increase the sale of Nokia in this

areas for this it is mandatory to remove the problems like

consumer awareness . These problems could be find out by doing

survey of that particular area .

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research in common parlance refers to a search for knowledge. One

can also define research as a scientific and systematic search for

pertinent information on specific topic. In fact research is an art of

scientific topic. Some people consider research as a movement, a

movement from the known to unknown. Research is an academic

activity and as such the term should be used in a technical sense.

Research comprises defining and redefining problems, formulating

hypothesis or suggested solutions ; collecting ,organizing and

evaluating data making deduction and reaching conclusion ; and at

last care fully testing the conclusion to determine whether they fit

the formulating hypothesis . social science define the research as

the manipulation of things , concepts or symbol s for purpose of

generalization to extend ,correct or verify the knowledge aids in

construction of theory or in the practice of an art .research is thus

an original contribution to t existing stock of know ledge making for

its advancement . The systematic approach concerning

generalization and the formulation of the theory is also research.

Defining the Problem:

Quite often we all here that problem half solved. This statement

signifies the need research problem properly is a perquisite for any

study and is a step of highest important. In fact formulation of

problem is mire essential than its solution. In Brand Positioning by

NOKIA our main problem is how to create the brand image of NOKIA

in market and strengths the roots of NOKIA Company in the industry.

A part from this we have it cores the national capital region in a

peoples way in terms of approach.

Objective of research:

Our main objective is to find out the problems, which are the main

barriers in the promotion of NOKIA in market. Our others objective

are:

To find out the sources of promotion for market.

To find out the Brand perception on people.

To locate the potential market for NOKIA.

Research design

A research design is the arrangement of conditions for collection and

analysis of data in a manner that aims to combine relevance to

research purpose with economy in procedure. Here we have used

descriptive research design. Since the aim is to obtain complete and

accurate information in the said studies.

The process had to be started from the grass root level and it

was very important to understand the market for this IT product,

which is very fast in production, distribution and consumption.

The entire process was more of a Descriptive Research type

and incorporated a formal study of the specific problems faced by

most IT companies an exploring the opportunities in the untapped

market. The survey was conducted on the basis of NOKIA’s product

preference and evaluation of sales forecast in the new and

underdeveloped market including the evaluation of the advertising

and promotional measures. The data collected had to be

systematically arranged, analyzed and reported in a form congenial to

take on the spot decisions

The entire set of various segments in the population comprises

all the retail store and outlets each retail store in the sampling frame

constitute the sampling unit in brief we can say overall sampling is

based on 100 people.

Sampling design

A sample design is a definite plan for obtaining a sample from a given

population. If it refers to the technique or the procedure the

researcher would adopt in selecting items for the sample. Sample

design may as well lay down the no of items to be included in the

sample. The researcher must prepare the sample design which

should be reliable for research study.

Sampling unit

Decision is taken after concerning the sampling unit, sampling unit

may be a geographical one such as state district village etc or a

construction unit such as house flat or it may be a social unit a club or

school. Here selected sampling unit for study is outlet of NOKIA.

Source list

It contains all the items of universe in case of infinite universe it is

also known as sampling frame.

Size of sample

It refers to the no. of items selected from the universe to constitute a

sample. The size of sample is 100 people.

Collections of primary data

The task of data collection begins after a research problem has been

defined and research plan chalked out. The primary data are those

which are collected a fresh and for the first time and thus happen to

be original in character.

We collect the primary data during the course of doing

experiments. In given problem the descriptive research is used so we

can obtain primary data either through observation or through direct

communication with respondent or through personal interviews.

For collecting primary data we used observation method,

interview method and interview through questionnaire.

Fieldwork

The entire project was divided into five phases and each phase had

its individual significance and supplemented each other.

The four phases into which the project was divided were:

1. Retail Tracking

2. Each Distributor survey

3. Each SD survey

4. Analysis of finding and observations

INTRODUCTION OF NOKIA GROUP

Nokia is a world leader in mobile communications, driving the growth and

sustainability of the broader mobility industry. Nokia connects people to each

other and the information that matters to them with easy-to-use and innovative

products like mobile phones, devices and solutions for imaging, games, media

and businesses. Nokia provides equipment, solutions and services for network

operators and corporations. Nokia is a broadly held company with listings on four

major exchanges.

The world's first international cellular mobile telephone network NMT was opened

in Scandinavia in 1981 with Nokia introducing the first car phones for the network

Or, that the world's first NMT hand portable, the Nokia Cityman, was launched in

1987?

History of Nokia

Year 1969

Nokia introduced the world's first 30-channel PCM (Pulse Code

Modulation) transmission equipment conforming to the standards of

CCITT (Consultative Committee on International Telegraphy and

Telephony).

Year 1981

The world's first international cellular mobile telephone network NMT

opened in Scandinavia with Nokia introducing the first car phones for

the network.

Year 1982

Europe's first digital telephone exchange, the DX 200.

Year 1984

The world's first portable NMT car telephone, the Nokia Talkman.

Year 1987

The world's first NMT handportable, the Nokia Cityman.

Year 1988

The world's first ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) exchange

conforming to CCITT standards, manufactured by Nokia, was brought

into use in Finland.

Year 1989

The world's first Actionist trucking mobile radio network was brought

into operation. The world's first fast-poll 14,400 bps (bits-per-second)

modem.

Year 1990

The world's first Radio Data System (RDS) and Mobile Search (MBS)

text pagers.

Year 1991

The first manufacturer to have a large-scale production-ready GSM

phone.The world's first genuine GSM call made using Radiolinja's

network, supplied by Nokia.

Year 1992

The Nokia 1011, the first digital handportable phone for GSM

networks.The Nokia 100 series, the first family of handportale phones

for all analog networks.

Year 1993

The first Personal Communications Network based on GSM 1800

standard delivered by Nokia.The world's first SMSC (Short Message

Service Centre) taken into commercial use in Europolitan's Nokia

network.The world's first credit card size cellular modem card

developed with AT&T Paradyne.

Year 1994

The first offical GSM call in the People4s Republic of China made on

a Nokia phone on Beijing TA4s network, supplied by Nokia.The first

European manufacturer to start selling mobile phones in Japan.The

world's first Data Communications Server (DaCS), providing fully

digital, fast access to corporate LANs.The world's first digital cellular

data products, including the Nokia PC Card and the Nokia Cellular

Data Card.Inmarsat made the world's first satellite telephone call with

Nokia's pocket-size GSM handset.The first manufacturer to launch

series of handportable phones for all digital standards (GSM, TDMA,

PCN, Japan Digital). The Nokia 2100 was the world's smallest and

lightest family of digital products.

Year 1995

The world's first integrated wireless payphone.The new joint venture,

Beijing Nokia Mobile Telecommunications Ltd., was established: the

first factory to manufacture large scale GSM systems and equipment

in China.

Year 1996

The first digital multimedia terminal in the world, the Nokia

Mediamaster.The Nokia 8100 product family, the first with an

innovative, ergonomically comfortable design. Chinese character

short messaging service and Chinese user interface were launched in

the Nokia 8110 mobile phone. Nokia was the first manufacturer to

offer both simplified and traditional character sets in the same phone.

The Nokia 2160, the first available dual mode AMPS/TDMA phone.

The Nokia 9000 Communicator, the world's first all-in-one mobile

communications tool introduced at the CeBIT exhibition.

Year 1997

The world's first four TETRA networks were delivered by Nokia.

A new handset for the NMT 450 standard, the Nokia 540, which is

the world's first NMT phone with Navi Key.

The next generation GSM product family, the Nokia 6100 series.

New standards for operating times and a set of innovative industry-

first features, including audio quality and an entirely new Profile

function which enables users to adjust the phone settings according

to various situations.

Next generation half-rate hand portable for the digital PDC standard

in Japan. With this introduction, Nokia is the first company to

demonstrate an entirely new, innovative feature for PDC handsets,

which enables calling by voice activation.

The world's first GSM dual band base station, the Nokia GSM

900/1800 Dual Band BTS. This provides the possibility to integrate

GSM 1800 transceivers (TRXs) into an existing GSM 900 Base

station(BTS). The first call on the Helsinki City Energy Company's

digital TETRA network was made. The network, called officially Helen

Net by Helsinki City Energy Company, is the world's first network

taken into operative use, according to the TETRA standard.'

The Nokia 3810, the first mobile phone specially designed for Asian

consumers

Year 1998

Nokia delivered world's first ETSI standard ADSL and IP network to

Telecom New Zealand, thereby marking the start of commercial

delivery of broadband data services using the ADSL network.

The Nokia 9110 Communicator, the first hand-held mobile device

supporting wireless imagining.

The Nokia 5100 series, the first mobile phones with user-changeable

covers. The world's smallest NMT 450 phone, the Nokia 650, sets a

new benchmark for NMT 450 technology. As a special additional

feature and first in the market, the Nokia 650 has a built-in FM radio.

Year 1999

Nokia introduced the world's first high-speed data terminal for

wireless networks: the Nokia Card Phone 2.0 brings about a four-fold

increase in data transmission speed.

Nokia completed the world's first WCDMA (Wideband Code Division

Multiple Access) phone call through a public switched telephone

network.

Nokia announced the world's first media phone that is based on the

Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) in Mobile Media Mode. The

Nokia 7110 dual band GSM 900/1800 media phone has been

designed to enable easy access to Internet content from a mobile

phone.

Year 2000

Nokia introduced the world's first IPv6-enabled end-to-end GPRS

network. Operators can use Nokia GPRS networks to provide their

customers with new types of services that bring benefits offered by

IPv6, such as global reachability and end-to-end security.

Nokia introduced the world's first TETRA WAP browser which brings

powerful WAP applications to TETRA professional mobile radio

networks. WAP over TETRA provides a new method of data

communication for professionals. It enables real-time direct access to

various customer and technical databases in only a few seconds.

Nokia has combined the versatility of WAP with the power of TETRA

to introduce the world's first WAP services for digital professional

mobile radio users. The new WAP services have been developed in

co-operation with Finnish companies Helsinki Energy and Tekla

Corporation. Nokia and Sonera have completed tests that bring

roaming capabilities for IP traffic between GPRS networks for the first

time in the world.

Nokia and Scandinavian Airlines Systems announced a partnership

to bring Nokia mobile phones to the selection of goods sold on all

international SAS flights. This is the first time mobile phones will be

sold on airplanes.

Nokia launched the Nokia LiveSite platform, the world's first WCDMA

implementation which is compatible with the latest 3GPP standards

for third generation networks.

Nokia successfully carried out the world's first WAP service over a

trial WCDMA system. The tests were completed in Beijing, China,

where Chinese language WAP services were transmitted via the

WCDMA system and radio network.

Nokia, a founding member of the SyncML initiative, announced that it

had successfully demonstrated the world's first wireless Internet

synchronization using the SyncL protocol.

Nokia is the first vendor in the world to bring full mobile IP packet

data functionalities into TETRA networks. Nokia TETRA IP

significantly enhances access to WAP services and more efficient

WAP service development is possible with new TETRA IP

functionalities.

Nokia announces world's first GPRS roaming between M1 Singapore

and Cable and Wireless HKT Mobile Services, Hong Kong. This is

the first announcement of its kind in the world for GPRS inter-

operator roaming.

Year 2001

Nokia introduces the industry first multimedia messaging solution, the

Nokia Artuse (TM) MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) Center, a

high-capacity platform for the next wave of mobile messaging. The

solution enables operators to introduce multimedia messaging

services combining new rich content, such as audio and video clips,

photographs and images with the traditional text messaging.

Nokia and the Finnish operator Sonera conducted the world's first

Wireless LAN roaming based on GSM technology. Sonera is making

use of Nokia technology that allows mobile operators to offer

broadband wireless Internet services in Wireless LAN access zones.

Year 2002

Nokia succesfully made the first 3G WCDMA packet data calls

between its commercial network infrastructure and terminals in its

laboratories in Finland. The Nokia 3G WCDMA network and terminal

used were based on the commercial standard level known as 3GPP

(3rd Generation Partnership Research research project) Release 99

June 2001 version. This was the first time that packet data has been

transmitted end-to-end on a commercial system based on the above

mentioned commercial standard.

Year 2003

Nokia announced that the world's first cdma2000® 1xEV-DV high-

speed packet data phone call was completed at Nokia's CDMA

product creation center in San Diego. The call, achieving a peak data

rate of 3.09 Mbps, was made between a test set based on a

commercially available Nokia 2285 handset upgraded with a Nokia

1xEV-DV chipset and a Racal Instruments, Wireless Solutions Group,

1xEV-DV basestation emulator. This chipset is the world's first to

support complete 1xEV-DV Release C functionality.

Year 2004

Using Nokia's CDMA Dual-Stack handset, Nokia demonstrated the

industry's first Mobile IPv6 call at the 3G World Congress Convention

and Exhibition in November. The demonstration highlighted real-time

streaming video with seamless handoff between two CDMA access

networks using Mobile IPv6.

Nokia announced the Nokia NFC (Near Field Communication) shell,

the latest step in the development of innovative products for mobile

communications, in November. With the Nokia NFC shell on their

phone, consumers will be able to easily access a variety of services

and conveniently exchange information with a simple touch gesture

utilizing NFC technology.

In October, Nokia and TeliaSonera Finland successfully conducted

the world's first EDGE-WCDMA 3G packet data handover in a

commercial network.

Achieving a first for the Asia-Pacific region, Nokia, MediaCorp

Technologies, M1 and the Media Development Authority of Singapore

jointly showcased a live end-to-end mobile phone TV broadcast over

a DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast - Handheld) network at the Nokia

Connection event in Singapore.

Nokia and Texas Instruments Incorporated introduced the first pre-

integrated and validated Series 60 Reference Implementation based

on TI's OMAP(TM) processor-powered reference design in February.

The Reference Implementation is available immediately to Series 60

licensees.

Year 2005

The Nokia 6630 imaging smartphone has as the first device in the

world achieved global GCF 3G WDCMA Certification. The

certification was achieved based on the requirements defined by

Global Certification Forum (GCF), an independent industry body

which provides network compliancy requirements and testing for

GSM/WCDMA mobile devices. SBS Finland's Kiss FM became the

first radio station in the world to begin Visual Radio broadcasts. This

unique new concept developed by Nokia offers the listeners the

possibility to give feedback and to participate in programs easier than

ever before.

Nokia introduced a new product for secure mobile contactless

payments and ticketing. The world's first Near Field Communications

(NFC) product for payment and ticketing will be an enhanced version

of the already announced Nokia NFC shell for Nokia 3220 phone.

In July 2007, Nokia acquired all assets of Twango, the comprehensive media sharing solution for organizing and sharing photos, videos and other personal media.

In September 2007, Nokia announced its intention to acquire Enpocket, a supplier of mobile advertising technology and services.

In October 2007, pending shareholder and regulatory approval, Nokia bought Navteq, a U.S.-based supplier of digital mapping data, for a price of $8.1 billion. Nokia finalized the acquisition on 10 July 2008.

In September, 2008, Nokia acquired OZ Communications, a privately held company with approximately 220 employees headquartered in Montreal, Canada.

On 24 July 2009, Nokia announced that it will acquire certain assets of cellity, a privately owned mobile software company which employs 14 people in Hamburg, Germany. The acquisition of cellity was completed on 5 August 2009.

On 11 September 2009, Nokia announced the acquisition of "certain assets of Plum Ventures, Inc, a privately held company which employed approximately 10 people with main offices in Boston, Massachusetts. Plum will complement Nokia's Social Location services".

On 28 March 2010, Nokia announced the acquisition of Novarra, the mobile web browser firm from Chicago. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.Novarra is a privately held company based in Chicago, IL

and provider of a mobile browser and service platform and has more than 100 employees.

On 10 April 2010, Nokia announced its acquisition of MetaCarta, whose technology was planned to be used in the area of local search, particularly involving location and other services. Financial details of acquisition were not disclosed.

Nokia phones

Nokia remains the world's number one manufacturer of mobile

phones, although its position is under threat from other

manufacturers, particularly Sony Ericsson and Samsung. Nokia have

the advantage of outstanding loyalty from its traditional customers,

together with a perceived reputation for reliability and user-

friendliness. One of Nokia's problems is its difficulty in competing

against electronics giants like Sony and Samsung with their

unparalleled expertise in technologies like digital photography and

LCD displays. As these technologies become more and more

important in modern phones, the gap between Nokia and its rivals

becomes more apparent. Nokia's response is to focus more on

innovative design and the concept of a "fashion" phone. However, at

the top end of the market, Nokia has a dominant position in the

smartphone market with its Series 60 platform.

DATA PRESENTATION

Competitive Analysis On the basis of the Questionnaire

Q1. Do you have Mobile phone?

Yes 85

No 15

Q2. Which is the most popular Brand ?

No.of replies

42%

28%

13%

4%

2%

11%

NOKIA

SAMSUNG

SONYERICSSON

MOTOROLA

LG

PANASONIC

Q3 Have you ever purchased Nokia handset?

Yes 70

No 30

Q4 What are the qualities you look for in a Mobile Phone?

Percentage in favour

20%

25%10%

20%

20%5%

STYLE

DESIGN

BRAND

PRICE

TECHNOLOGY

POPULARITY

Q5. Among the following of latest Nokia handsets, which all have you heard about and you want to purchase?

Percentage of Choices in favour

13%

15%

14%10%

13%

5%

8%

2%

20%

Lumia 800

X7

C5 - 03

E5

E6

X3 - 02

C3

Q7 What is the reason behind your preference for the above particular Handset?

percentage of views

21%

12%

24%

32%

11% Price

Quality

Technology

Design

Style

Q8. Which is the most popular market player according to you?

percentage of views

47%

29%

10%12% 2% Nokia

Samsung

Panasonic

Sony Ericsson

Others

Q9. What is the reason behind your preference for the above particular Market player? (You can tick more than one option also)

Q10. For how long you are using your handset?

percentage of views

25%

31%20%

16%8%

Advertising

Quality Assurance

Price affordability

Resale value

Warranty period

Percentage of Views

45%

37%

18% Less than 6months

More than 6 butless than 1year

More than 1 year

ANALYSIS OF DATA

Market leaders

A paradoxical situation prevails in the fledgling cellular mobile

services industry in India. On the one hand, the service providers

have collectively brushed aside negative growth of the past two-three

years and are quite gung-ho about prospects. Their combined

subscriber base has crossed the 2.5 million mark last month and

despite threat of local competition from government-controlled

players like MTNL, these service providers are a happy lot. One

would automatically expect the handset providers to be on Cloud

Nine. Things could not have been better for these global players as

an Indian competition is yet to emerge in their territory and every

time a mobile service provider lands a customer, they should benefit

too. Curiously, the euphoria seems to have bypassed them!

Be it the rugged Motorola, the sleek Nokia, the sturdy Siemens or

the highly sophisticated Ericsson, a pall of gloom seems to have

enveloped all these giants in the competitive mobile handset

industry. Make no mistake. It is the large and unruly grey market that

has wiped away the smile from their faces at a time when the

cellular service industry has already gotten on to the high growth

expressway. Says Ranjitjeev Singh, Director (Consumer Products)

at Ericsson India Limited: "Indian subsidiaries of the global cellular

handset brands are finding it difficult to improve their sales. We have

no real estimate of the grey market and are in no position to plan

ahead because of this."

He is dead right. It is almost impossible to measure the share that

the grey market takes way from the cellular handset makers. Singh

hazards a safe guess to peg it anywhere in the region of 65 to 70%.

Naturally the Indian subsidiaries of Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola and a

host of other manufacturers are left scrambling for a nibble of the

already shrunken cake. The overbearing presence of the grey

market has another interesting facet. It has unleashed a price war

where, at the end of the day,the losers and the gainers are one and

the same company. Sounds illogical, isn’t it?

Well, if one were to be aware of the skewed import policies that the

government puts in place, one wouldn’t be surprised at the above

statement. Currently, the price was is not between rival brands, but

between Ericsson and Ericsson, Nokia and Nokia, Motorola and

Motorola, Siemens and Siemens and Samsung and Samsung. While

the Indian subsidiaries of these transnational companies watch

helplessly, their parents make hay on the strength of highly

competitive pricing which is, as compared to the products available

through the Indian subsidiaries, at least 30 per cent cheaper, says

Ajay Sachdev, Head of Marketing, Motorola India Ltd.

The plain fact behind the price differential is that while Indian

subsidiaries are subjected to an accumulated import duty of 26-28

per cent, hiking the price of handsets in that proportion, their parents

are exempt. The mobile handsets from foreign shores are smuggled

into the country by grey market operators.  The impact of this grey

market operation is huge. Frustration has come to stay for the Indian

managers of these global brands.  Queries about the current

scenario solicit the predictable volley of accusations against the

government's import policy. By imposing a high import duty whom is

the government protecting? The handsets are neither manufactured

nor assembled in India.

In fact, government is caught in its own web. Since high tariff level

has resulted in large scale smuggling of handsets, the government

loses almost 70 per cent of the revenue it would have collected. By

a logical extension, a lower tariff would not only enable the Indian

companies combat the grey market, it would also increase revenues.

The recent 5% reduction in basic import duty on handsets is

indicative that realization has dawned. However, in the current

market matrix this tariff cut remains a futile exercise as the grey

market continues to be cheaper by almost 30%.

But then, skewed policies seem to characterize the Indian

government. Barely a year ago the government demonstrated its

strange ways by withdrawing duty exemption on import of wireless-

in-local loop (WLL) to "protect the domestic industry", in full

awareness that there was none to protect. The government’s

frequency allocation policy too adds to market inefficiencies. In the

developed economies, service providers are allowed to operate on

two, even three frequency bands – 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2700

MHz - whereas in India only the 900 Hz frequency band is available

to operators. As a consequence, the handset vendors worldwide

have phased out single band handsets in favor of dual and treble

band phones. The technological backwardness has proved to be a

boon for grey market operators who smuggle the discarded

handsets and dump them in India at a throwaway price, ranging from

Rs.3500 to Rs.5000.

If government is aiding grey market by creating inefficiencies in the

marketplace, the service operators are not far behind either. They

themselves restrict the proliferation and popularity of handsets by

refusing to pass on the benefits of falling operational costs to the

customer. Obsessed as they are with the ‘business class’, the

service providers have stubbornly maintained high tariff levels. 

Though after switching over to revenue share, the cost of providing

a mobile connection has fallen to 1/5th of that of a landline

connection, the airtime charges for cell phone users remain 12 times

higher as compared to fixed phone users. In the past, high license

fees justified high airtime rates. At present, the metro cellular

operators need not bring down rates as their networks can hardly

accommodate more customers. But since the high end user

business class is anyway hooked to cell phones, investment in

network expansion is not a priority for most of the operators.

The average middle classes have, as a result, kept away from cell

phones. The loser again is the handset vendor. ''If the turnover

increases, the cost gets amortized over a period of time. In that case

we can afford to lower the prices and still maintain the profit levels",

says Ranjitjeev Singh. That, in turn, will help them compete with the

grey market, albeit from a disadvantaged position.

That scenario appearing remote, the handset vendors have

embarked on other marketing strategies. The buzzwords of this

strategy are ‘replacement’ and ‘segmentation’ of the handset market.

"The point is to outwit the grey market operators by offering tailor-

made handsets to each customer segment," says Ajay Sachdeva.

At the user level the market is maturing fast. Clear segments of

users are emerging which are differentiated on the basis of tariff,

service or handset types.

Nokia was the first to recognize this segmentation. Subsequently, the

company launched a plethora of feature-rich handsets. The strategy

was to tap the replacement market. People were fed up with black

and grey handsets. They wanted something new. Nokia made this

newness visible by introducing many colors as well as shapes. As a

result it was able to corner almost 90 per cent of the replacement

market, which typically accounts for 15 per cent of the total

subscriber base in the country. In the process, it not only beat the

grey market, it beat every other vendor by cornering over 30 per

cent of the market share. Though it has launched handsets for other

segments as well, Nokia continues to focus on entry-level and mid-

level customers, which according to its head of marketing and

strategy, Sanjeev Sharma, are the fastest growing segments.

Ericsson, on its part, was focused more on the technology or on

what was inside the handsets, and so lost its No. 1 position to Nokia

by the end of 1997.  The company has now woken up to the new

mantra. According to Singh, Ericsson's strategy revolves around

ART where A signifies first-time users, R stands for techno-savvy

users who want to replace their handsets with feature-rich colorful

ones and T denotes style-lovers. In keeping with this strategy

Ericsson has launched A1018, R320, R190, T28 and T10.  Ericsson

is also banking on ever reducing lifecycle of handsets. As Singh

says, the average lifecycle of a handset has already come down to

7-8 months. With simultaneous global launches and competitive

pricing becoming the order of the day, the grey market will have

problems with ever more finicky customers.

Similarly, as a result of a global study commissioned by Motorola,

the company has concluded that there are four broad segments - (1)

the techno-savvy, who like to be at the cutting edge of technology

and so want features like e-mail and WAP on the handset, (2) the

productivity-focused, normally onto their second phone, who like

features such as stock-market quotes on the cell phone, (3) the

people focused on style and glamour, the status-conscious who

flaunt their handsets as if they were fashion accessories and (4) the

security-conscious, who would have a cell phone to know if the kids

and the wife are okay. Motorola also plans to appoint dealers in

crucial cities.  This is aimed to help the service retailers keep well

stacked with handsets, so that customers no longer complain about

the scarcity of their favorite model.

Hopefully, the handset vendors will be able to outwit the grey

market. Whether they can marginalize it for good, in spite of the

government and the smug service-providers, still remains to be

seen. Till such time, the bells will continue to toll for the grey market.

FINDINGS OF STUDY

Position of Nokia Brand in consumer mind

The world of parity has hit the mobile phone market just as it

has many other technology product categories. The products range

from the simple to the complex, but every manufacturer offers, of

course, the latest features. Leapfrogging in sales between brands

frequently occurs based on design. But overall the market is

predictable, with Nokia, Motorola, and Ericsson fighting it out at the

top and several less successful brands like Samsung, Philips,

Siemens and Panasonic trying hard to make inroads into their top

competitors' market share. So what makes the difference between

the most successful and less successful brands? It certainly is not

what product features are offered. How, then, do consumers choose?

The answer seems to be what the brand names mean to them.Nokia

Group the Finland-based manufacturer of mobile phones, has been

steadily working on its corporate brand name and the management of

consumer perceptions over the last few years. Its efforts have paid

off, because it is now the number one brand in many markets around

the world, effectively dislodging Motorola from that position. The

brand has been built using the principles described above, and has

been consistently well managed across all markets. Nokia has

succeeded in lending personality to its products, without even giving

them names. In other words, it has not created any sub-brands but

has concentrated on the corporate brand, giving individual products a

generic brand personality. Only numeric descriptors are used for the

products, which do not even appear on the product they. Such is the

strength of the corporate brand. Nokia has succeeded where other

big brand names have so far failed, chiefly by putting across the

human face technology-taking and dominating the emotional high

ground. It has done so in the following way.

Nokia Brand Image

Nokia has detailed many personality characteristics for its brand, but

employees do not have to remember every characteristic. They do,

however, have to remember the overall impression of the list of

attributes, as you would when thinking about someone you have met.

As the focus is on customer relationships, the Nokia personality is like

a trusted friend. Building friendship and trust is at the heart of the

Nokia brand. And the human dimension created by the brand

personality carries over into the positioning strategy for the brand.

Nokia Brand Positioning

When Nokia positions its brand in the crowded mobile phone

marketplace, its message must 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 Technolgy enables you to get more out of life"

In many cases, this is represented by the tag line, "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 aspirational,

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.

Nokia Product Design

Nokia is a great brand because it knows that the essence of the

brand needs to be reflected in everything the company does,

especially those that impact the consumer. Product design is clearly

critical to the success of the brand, but how does Nokia manage to

inject personality into product design? The answer is that it gives a

great deal of thought to how the user of its phones will experience the

brand, and how it can make that experience reflect its brand

character. The large display screen, for example, is the "face" of the

phone. Nokia designers describe it as the "eye into the soul of the

product". The shape of phones is curvy and easy to hold. The

faceplates and their different colors can be changed to fit the

personality, lifestyle, and mood of the user. The soft key touch pads

also add to the feeling of friendliness, expressing the brand

personality. Product design focuses on the consumer and his needs,

and is summed up in the slogan, "human technology."

Nokia now accounts for over half of the value of the Finland stock

market, and has taken huge market share from its competitiors.

According to one brand valuation study carried out in mid-1999, it

ranked 11th on the world's most valuable brand list, making it the

highest-ranking non-U.S. brand. As has been pointed out, it has

unseated Motorola. Nokia achieved its brilliant feat through consistent

branding, backed by first-class logistics and manufacturing, all of

which revolve around what consumers want.

Some Nokia Phones with latest features

One of the most impressive handset is the Nokia 9210i

Communicator (Price: 37,599), a phone cum personal digital

assistant (PDA). At 244 grams it is almost obese compared to other

PDAs but it has an awesome range of features. The company bills it

as a portable office which includes phone, fax, e-mail, calendar,

contacts, Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Presentation viewer, WAP,

WWW. You can edit and send Word Processor and spreadsheet

documents, view MS PowerPoint slides in full colour.

It has a high quality 4,096 colour screen. Photos can be transferred

from a compatible digital camera, viewed and then forwarded by fax

or e-mail. You can also view streaming videos on the Internet and

flash animations

There is however a snag, Worksheets can be created on it but the

presentation tools can only view previously loaded PowerPoint

slides. As if to make up for these, there is the streaming software

from Real Networks (audio and video player) to view internet media

content. The 9210i Communicator effectively serves as an office in

your pocket.

Another latest in the Indian market is the Nokia 6610 (Price: Rs

16,399). One of its main features is the multimedia messaging

service (MMS) which allows users to incorporate sound, images, and

other rich content into their messages. The model also has an

integrated FM radio. Its triband GSM access means ability to

connect anywhere in the world, anytime. Plus there’s pre-installed

Java applications on the Nokia 6610 which include a Converter (for

currencies, temperature, weight and other measures) and a Portfolio

Manager (to track stocks and other securities). The calendar notes

can take up to 250 entries and the Phonebook Memory (phone +

SIM) up to 300 entries.

Another model selling well in the Indian market is the Nokia 7250

(Price: Rs 26,299). It has an integrated digital camera allowing you

to capture, store and share pictures. Plus there’s MMS, triband GSM,

an integrated stereo FM radio, downloadable personal applications

via Java technology, WAP 1.2.1 Browser. Memorywise, the phone

book supports up to 300 entries, SMS up to 150 text messages and

calendar notes up to 250 entries. Thanks to an ultra thin battery, the

Nokia 6100 (Price: Rs 20,099) is one of the slimmest full featured

phones on display in Indian shops. Features include MMS,

downloadable Java games, WAP 1.2.1 browser, delightful

polyphonic ring tones, triband GSM support. The 6100 even has an

electronic wallet, though it will be some time before people start

using this feature in India. The 6100 sports a 4,096-colour, 128x128

pixels resolution screen and its large display is handy, whether you

are typing SMS messages or viewing an MMS message.

The Nokia 3650 (Price: Rs 23,399) is equipped with an integrated

video player and a RealOne Player to download video clips. Also, its

integrated digital camera can capture images at 640 x 480 resolution

and the phone display can be used as a viewfinder. It has high-end

features like Bluetooth9 and Infrared capabilities which allows

wireless connectivity to your PC and laptop. You can download new

Java games and applications. Data transfer can be as fast as 43.2

kilobits per second.

The Nokia 8910 (Price: Rs 35,499) is heavy on looks with a titanium

casing and chrome finish keys. Activating the side triggers sets the

phone in motion, rising from the handgrip cover to put the many

phone functions at your fingertips. Features include Voice

Commands, Bluetooth wireless connectivity to other compatible

devices, mobile Internet connectivity, Organiser and To-Do lists, on

top of your pre-requisite phone functions.

Nokia 7650 (Price: Rs 26,999) is a phone and colour camera rolled

into one with MMS capabilities. It has 3.6 MB of memory to store

files and applications. The 7650 comes with only a WAP (Wireless

Application Protocol) browser, limiting you to text-based content. It

has infrared and Bluetooth capabilities for connecting to PDAs and

notebook computers.

CONCLUSION

As per the research work done by me I concluded that Cell phone

industry is growing with a very great pace and has a very remarkable

prospect in future. Nokia is leading player in the cellular industry and

is very much ahead from its competitors like LG, Samsung,

Panasonic, and Sony who are still trying to compete with it.

In any markets there are market leaders and followers, and in most

cases market leaders lose market share to followers, for many

reasons such as pricing, availability, "user-friendliness", relevance to

the target audience etc. It's inevitable. Can Nokia be beaten? On one

hand, it is up to Nokia's marketing department, and its agencies. So

far the brand has established itself well in many markets, and

consumers have identified with what the brand has to offer. But that

does not mean they cannot lose the brand battle. To remain at the

front of the pack, one must constantly be innovative, the minute you

lose that edge competitors will definitely overtake.

On the other hand it also depends on the competitors. How far are

they willing to stretch? Are they willing to take Nokia head-on? How?

What will the outcome be? For the same reason that Nokia has

managed to gain market share and be ranked number 6 in the Global

Brand Scoreboard, certainly someone else can do the same? 

Nokia is a very creative designer. How could it be beat if the creator

is so creative -- unless the competitors could find Nokia threats and

weaknesses In market, it can be seen that most of the young

generation, even the medium-age people, like to use Nokia as it is

user-friendly, with a lot of features that the young generation likes.

But in the future I could not think of Nokia's performance as IT is

unpredictable. If we could predict 100% of what will happen, then

there will be no challenges in the future. Can Nokia be beat? This is a

good question that could not be answered precisely. It only depends

on what humans think of and what they expect.

In short it looks very difficult for every competitor to get the same

position which Nokia is currently prevailing with in the market so it is

concluded that it will be hard to defeat Nokia at present and in near

future in terms of market share.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Company should invest money on advertising through media,

Internet and personal selling to promote the products, to

increase awareness in the market.

2. Holdings on outlets and publication in the prominent magazines

help in increasing its awareness among the consumer to evoke

the demand of their brand.

3. Policy of replacing problem arising sets should be done timely

and the retailer should be accommodated immediately.

4. More attention and concern should be given to the highest

selling outlets of NOKIA and the chain should reach to the

consumer as well.

5. Allurement and discount schemes should be given to the

highest selling outlets of NOKIA and the chain should reach to

the consumer as well.

6. More glow sign and broad should be installed.

7. Contests sweep stakes and games should be arranged on

regular basis for the consumer involving incentives and prizes.

8. The sales executive should go to each outlet of their route once

in a week and try to cover outlet that are in a distributor network.

9. The net and free sample scheme should be the same for net

every retailers by the company.

10. Some credit facilities should be given to good sales

providing outlets.

The company should try to influence the wholesalers of NOKIA

in the city offering more profitable scheme and confidence

building measures. In metropolitan areas.

11. Company should make proper schedule or particular days

for hearing the complaints of their customer and retailers.

12. No of outlets and service centers should be open.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Websites:

www.nokia.com

www.cellphoneshop.net

www.cellularfactory.com

www.cellphones.about.com

www.yahoo.com

www.google.com

ANNEXURE

QUESTIONNAIRE

Name:…………………………………………………………………

Age:……………………………………………………………………

Address:………………………………………………………………

ContactNo.…………………………………………………..……….

1. Do you have Mobile Phone? Yes No

2. Which all brands of Mobile Phones have you heard about? Nokia Samsung Sony Ericsson Panasonic LG Others……………………………………………………………

3. Have you ever purchased Nokia Handset? Yes No

4. Among the following of latest Nokia handsets, which all have you heard about? (You can tick more than option also)

Lumia X7 C5 - 03 E5

E6 - 00 X3 - 02 C3 5233 N8

5. Rank the following models of Nokia handsets in order of your preference for personal use.

Lumia X7 C5 - 03 E5 E6 - 00 X3 - 02 C3 5233 N8

6. What is the reason behind your preference for the above particular Handset?(You can tick more than one option also)

Price Quality Technology Design Styl

7 .Which is the most popular market player according to you? Nokia Samsung Panasonic Sony Ericsson Others

8. What is the reason behind your preference for the above particular Market player? (You can tick more than one option also)

Advertising Quality Assurance Price affordability Resale value

Warranty period

9. For how long you are using your handset?

Less than 6 months More than 6 but less than 1year More than 1 year

10. What do you think about Nokia in comparison to other players in the market?

Comment……………………………………………………………………

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