Nokia Brand Positioning

Nokia Brand’s Positioning

Nokia was named the 5th Best Global Brand in 2007 and has been one of the 10 best global brands for almost a decade. So what makes Nokia Brand so valuable and what is Nokia’s value proposition? As Tam Harbert of Electronic Business magazine has put it: "If Nokia Corp. were a person, it would be young, sexy, sophisticated, hip and generally "with it"". Nokia newly released high-end phones aimed at both the consumer and business user and is showing strength in both emerging and mature markets.
Nokia has been successful in differentiating itself in the crowed and highly competitive mobile communication industry and its newly targeted battle of internet industry. Nokia emphasizes technology innovation, fun spirit, design, and ease of use to build a “trusted relationship” with customers . The brand has lived up to the vision of its “Connecting people” and “Human technology” slogan. Nokia’s strategy can be easily spotted on company’s corporate website: Nokia’s strategy is to build trusted consumer relationships by offering compelling and valued consumer solutions that combine beautiful devices with context enriched services . Example would be Nokia phone’s faceplates and different colors that suit user’s personality, mood and lifestyle. By owing the “human” dimension of mobile communications, Nokia has taken the best position for itself, leaving its competitors behind pondering what to own to position themselves .

According to Pertti Korhonen, Chief Technology Officer, Nokia, a 'consumer-first mindset' remains at the core of everything at Nokia. This approach is communicated down to Nokia’s employees including designers who sketch a new mobile phone concept and hardware engineers who design complex technology enablers such as multiradio and video sharing.
Nokia offers mobile phones in five categories: broad appeal, lifestyle products, entry, CDMA and Vertu. Nokia ensures that every phone it offers can answer customers’ needs of communicating with each other and being stylist regardless how deep their pocket is. The offering spectrum ranges from broad appeal phones which are midrange products with a balance between price, functionality and style; to exclusive Vertu’s handsets including Constellation, a phone available in 18 carat yellow gold or stainless steel; Ascent Collection; and the 2006 Signature Diamond Collection, a limited edition handset in collaboration with French jeweler Boucheron .
Recent marketing event – Consistency with Brand positioning

Nokia has recently launched it “Here & Now” section within its Nokia.mobi website in an ongoing push to reposition itself as an internet company rather than purely a handset manufacturer. The new site offers the latest world news (in collaboration with Reuters), celebrity buzz, music and information on Nokia’ latest services and products. A glance of this mobile site is attached in Appendix 1 of this paper. This new strategy of penetrating and subsequently conquering the Internet industry is consistent with Nokia’s value proposition of being a leader in “human technology” which aims to answer consumer’s need of getting connected, everywhere.
In 2008, Nokia also launched its digital and guerilla “Nokia Connectors” (see appendix 2) marketing campaign in an attempt to re-engage the youth market. Video teasers on Youtube and another youth-focused sites , show street magician Dynamo performing tricks to the public with Nokia handset and deck of cards are some of the activities made used of by Nokia during the campaign. The objective of the campaign is to showcase Nokia handset’s new features which are tied with its brand’s fun spirit and cutting edge technology brand personality . This campaign, again, is consistent with the brand positioning that Nokia has put much efforts in building.

Appendix 1: Here&Now section in Nokia.mobi Appendix 2: Nokia Connectors website