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SWOT Analysis of Nokia

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This marketing plan is developed in relation to Nokia and the main emphasis in this marketing plan is mainly towards analysing the external and internal environment conditions of the company through PESTLE and SWOT analysis so that appropriate recommendations for the most efficient marketing strategies can be provided to achieve better overall performance. The marketing plan also includes a competitor analysis including that of distributors and suppliers. This will be followed by an analysis of the marketing strategy of the company and finally, based on the marketing strategy selected, appropriate marketing mix will be developed.

External and Internal Environmental Analysis

An analysis of the internal and external environment facing Nokia Corporation is essential for the purpose of determining efficient marketing strategies in achieving higher growth. The external environment through PESTLE and internal environment through SWOT is performed as follows:

PESTLE: The PESTLE analysis examining the external environment facing Nokia Corporation is performed as follows:

Political: The actions taken by the government and their impact on the industry mainly indicated the political actions, and the mobile phone industry in the context of UK is affected by the governmental actions to a greater level. The governmental requirements indicate that the mobile phone industry create self regulation control in relation to content. The government also affects the mobile phone industry by way of charging taxes from the mobile phone companies and also charges for the licensing of networks (Smith, 2013).
Economical: The mobile phone industry is also affected by the economical growth in UK, as the rising per-capita income has enhanced the purchasing power of people and this in turn has opened up potential for the smart phones in the industry. The GDP growth rate in UK also shows a rising trend which implies a good market conditions for the mobile phone industry (Allen, 2001).
Social: The social trends with respect to customers in UK implies that there has been a higher level of preference among the UK consumers with respect to smart phones, as people prefers to use smart phones as per the current prevailing trends. As per the estimations made by Oftel, 2/3 of the UK house hold runs active mobile phones. This provides significant level of growth opportunities to the mobile phone in the economy (Carlock and Aronoff, 2001).
Technological: The performance of the mobile phone industry is also affected by the technological condition, and the customer preference with respect to mobile phones indicates that they prefer technologically advanced products. The technological advancement in the form of 3G and 4G has also necessitated the mobile phone companies to consider for the development of new devises that supports such 4G networks.
Environmental: The environmental effect is also crucial over the performance of mobile phone industry, as there are certain major issues related to health and safety hazards from the radiations that take place in the mobile phones. The Health Protection Agency is responsible for the issue of health and safety related to mobile phones in UK (Mobile Operators Association, 2013).
Legal: The impact of legal factors over the mobile phone industry indicates that there are laws and regulations that are required to be abide by the mobile phone companies in successfully performing their operations. Ofcom is responsible for performing the regulation of telecommunication industry in UK and this is mainly ensured through a number of regulations (Mobile Operators Association, 2013).

SWOT Analysis: An analysis of the internal environment through SWOT analysis is performed as follows:

Strengths: An analysis of the strength position of Nokia is that the company has huge reputation as a mobile leading company and it has wide range of network all across the world. Nokia has the largest distributor network in the entire mobile phone industry and it also accounts for high qualified and experienced personnel at the top management responsible for taking strategic decisions. The products as offered by Nokia are user friendly by nature and it also enjoyed the leading position in the entire mobile phone industry.
Weaknesses: In respect to weaknesses of Nokia are concerned, it has the major weakness in terms of lack of appropriate innovation ability to change its strategies as per the changing external environment requirements. Another major weakness is that Nokia did not have access the latest software system i.e. Android for longer period of time which has been the buzzword among mobile phone users. This has significantly affected the market share of the company because of its inability to introduce newer products and services.
Opportunities: In terms of opportunities are concerned, the recent performance of the mobile phone industry indicated that the smart phones have covered up the expectation levels of majority of the customers, and there has been significant rise in the demands for smart phones among the users. Thus, a mobile phone company offering innovative smart phones that offers advanced technological features have good potential to serve large customer groups and thereby it can achieve higher growth rates. The opportunity to Nokia is that it can recoup its declined market share by offering innovative mobile phones (Brown and Lambert, 2012).
Threats: The threats facing Nokia is mainly the from the industry players such as Samsung, HTC, Sony, Apple etc as these companies have covered up the entire mobile phone industry segment with their innovative offerings and this has created extreme level of pressure on Nokia in sustaining its market share. Thus a stiff competition level from all these market players have been the major cause of concern to the company as it affected the leadership position of the company (Bowman and Gatignon, 1995).

Thus, an analysis of the internal and external environment conditions facing Nokia indicates that there has been good level of opportunities to the company in achieving higher level of growth in its operations by considering appropriate marketing strategy.

Competitor Analysis

An analysis of the competitors in respect to the mobile phone industry indicates that there are significant global players that accounts for higher level of competition. The major players accounting for significant level of market shares in the mobile phone industry includes Apple, Samsung, HTC, Sony etc. An analysis of important aspects such as the market size, share, strengths, weaknesses, objectives and strategies of these major players is analysed in this section. As for instance, in the mobile phone market, Samsung has outperformed Nokia significantly, as in the first quarter of 2012, Samsung accounted for shipping 93m phones, whereas Nokia has only been able to ship 83m phones (The UK Mobile Phone Industry, n.d). The introduction of galaxy range of mobile phones by Samsung has allowed it in outperforming Nokia from the mobile phone market. In terms of global mobile handset shipments, an analysis of the major players indicate that the Samsung accounts for leading market share with 25.4% market share and it is followed by Nokia with 22.5% share. The Apple’s market share implies that it holds a market share of 9.5% and the other players account for the remaining 42.6% of market share in the entire mobile phone industry (Williamson, 2012). The market share along with the number of units as shipped by these mobile phone players is indicated as follows

(Source: Williamson, 2012).

Apart from the market share and size, the analysis of the market strategy in respect to these companies indicate that the Apple is highly focused towards providing innovative electronics products to its customers, whereas the strategy of Samsung has been to offer wide range of smart phones with improved versions. These strategies of these companies have proved to be successful in allowing them in capturing the largest market share. However, with respect to the strategy of Nokia, it has realised very late to launch its newer variants of smart phones, and the operating systems as utilised by Nokia is mainly windows which has not proved to be highly efficient to the company.

Analysis of Distributors and Suppliers

An analysis of the network of Nokia indicates that it has significant level of network across the globe, and it serves smaller parts of the market across the globe. The company has tiny retail outlets across the world, and in respect to developing countries, it has its presence in rural areas. As for example, Nokia has 350000 points of presence in rural areas, from small kiosks and corner shops to organised retail outlets. The company has its suppliers accounting for the supply of necessary items and it has access to multiple sources of suppliers for its various items. This indicates the existence of strong distributorship and supplier network of Nokia across the globe (Cheverton, 2005).

Core Marketing Strategy

This section of analysis is now concerned with analysing the core marketing strategy that should be selected by Nokia for the purpose of attaining higher level of success and growth in its performance. The important aspects of marketing strategy are analysed as follows:

Strategic Objectives: The strategic objectives in the context of Nokia after considering its current market position are indicated as follows
- To revive the Nokia brand as it has been losing its market share.
- To create adequate level of innovation in terms of products and services offerings to customers in creating significant impact within target customers.
- To regain its lost market share in achieving the leadership position within organisation (Nokia market share falls but Microsoft deal confirmed, 2011).
Strategic Thrust: Strategic thrust indicates about the high level initiatives that arise from the strategic vision and in the context of Nokia, such high level initiatives as needed are mainly to perform the introduction of newer innovative products in the smart phone division that can attract the customer towards it (The World Bank, 2013).
Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning: The segment that can be covered for the Nokia’s products and services offerings include the middle to higher income group people that can easily afford highly priced smart phones. The target market therefore includes the young and middle aged people that are highly conscious of using smart phones including the business people. The positioning strategy that would best promote Nokia is to position it as the most innovative and the latest designer of new smart phones that inculcates the entire advanced features essential in a smart phone.

Marketing Mix Strategy

The strategy in relation to marketing mix is indicated as follows:

Product: The strategy in relation to the product should be such that it should consider the inclusion of android system in its smart phones and should look for including advanced features with trendy designs that could easily encourage target customers in selecting its product and services offerings.
Pricing: The strategy in relation to the pricing should be such that the latest and advanced technological products should be priced higher because the association of higher price is generally done by mobile phone customers with good quality. As a result, by considering higher pricing strategy, Nokia can look for attaining its strategic goals of leadership position in the industry in a positive manner (DeSai, 2013).
Place: The strategy concerning the place should be such that Nokia should consider the utilisation of its existing strong network in penetrating its advanced distribution network for the purpose of achieving higher level of success.
Promotion: The strategy concerning the pricing should be such that it should consider wide range of media for the purpose of promoting newer introduction by the company in the mobile phone segments. This includes the consideration of TV advertisements, advertisement through paper media such as newspaper, magazines, etc and also the advertising in the form of online media in the form of internet marketing (Hannaway and Hunt, 1995).

The consideration of the above marketing mix would positively allow the company in successfully accomplishing its strategic goals of achieving the leadership position within the mobile phone industry.

Conclusion

In this report, a marketing plan has been presented for Nokia after performing a critical analysis of its internal and external environment conditions. The analysis revealed that the external environment is highly efficient in terms of offering growth opportunities, but the internal environment in respect to Nokia suggests that there is lack of adequate innovation on the part of the company in providing highly innovative products and services. This leads to the development of this marketing plan which revealed about the important marketing mix strategies that need to be considered for the purpose of attaining its strategic goals of leading position within the industry.

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