The core purpose of this marketing plan is to provide comprehensive guidance in the promotion of an environment friendly Nokia mobile phone in the Australian market. The Nokia c6-01 is the phone that will be the subject. The introduction will provide an overview of the Nokia c6-01 as well as the Nokia Corporation at large. Through the internal analysis, it will be possible to understand internal operations of the corporation. The external analysis provides a comprehensive review of the factors affecting the brand that are not under the corporation’s control. This paper also provides the market segmentation approach incorporated as well as the positioning strategize adopted to ensure that Nokia c6-01 becomes a leading phone in the country. The marketing strategy outlines how the company will increase awareness regarding the Nokia c6-01 to both the individual consumers as well as the corporate customers. An action plan is also outlined clearly in this marketing plan.
Introduction
Nokia Corporation has an international footprint with over 150 years of operations. The mobile phone to be marketed through this marketing plan is the Nokia c6-01. This device has been developed to be one of the most environment conscious approaches. Its production and the materials used to manufacture it have been put into consideration to ensure minimal environmental impact. The phone’s cover incorporates bio plastics. Moreover, almost all of its components can be recycled. With all its packaging material being made from recycled materials it marks the significance of the recycling policy in Nokia. The Australian mobile phone market is crowded by a number of players. The healthy competition amongst the players has helped the industry to meet the needs of the society successfully. Communication needs within the Australian population has been the basis for the rapid technological development in the industry.
Internal analysis (SWOT analysis)
Strengths
1. The company has the largest market share in the mobile phones business in the country
2. There is no other company offering environment friendly mobile phones.
3. Endorsement from environment conservation organizations entities
4. Robust existing Nokia distribution network of retail outlets
5. Nokia has adequate financial capacity to implement the marketing plan.
Weaknesses
1. The product is relatively expensive.
2. The product development process is time consuming.
3. Organizational culture does not appreciate diversity.
Opportunities
1. The rising concern of business entities to be environment conscious
2. Regional diversification of organizational products
3. Introduction of new products
Threats
1. Existing competitors like Samsung and apple
2. Government regulations and policies
3. Decreased volume sales due to economic downturn
External Analysis
The political landscape in Australia has a significant impact on the mobile phone industry. Political will in changing the policies governing the industry is influenced by several actors. The dominant service provider Telstra has enjoyed significant preference from the political class with policy implementation being seen to favor the entity. However, in the recent years policies to encourage fair competition have been initiated. The interests of the Australian completion and consumer council are tasked with ensuring that the market is fair. The council is supposed to oversee the implementation of the fair trade and trade practices acts.
The Australian government also provides authorities responsible with protecting intellectual property. Moreover, the legal expectations that guide advertising in the mobile phone industry ensure that ethical practices are upheld. The market has changed over the years with the current players in the mobile phone industry in Australia facing competition of different types. The most notable players in the industry include Nokia, LG, HTC, blackberry, Sony Eriksson, Samsung, palm, Garmin Asus, Alcatel, as well as apple. The changes in the cost of owning a mobile set has also significantly reduced with mobile sets going for as low as $ 35. The current estimate of mobile phone services in Australia are 22 million according to 2011 statistics (Budde.com, 2011).
The economic environment of the Australian market also has a role to play in the business operations of mobile phone distributors and marketers. It is pertinent to note that the economic conditions in a market are the key indicators to the spending trends in different industry. After the world economic crisis, Australia has been able to establish checks and balanced that help in controlling the implications of the crisis. As a result, the country economic performance has been relatively better than some European countries.
Technology in the mobile phone industry is a key aspect that influences the final product that the consumer will choose while faced by a purchase decision. The purchase decision process is based on either logics or emotions. Technology can be used to evoke emotions and develop a logical justification for choosing a mobile phone. . In the Australian market, the initial technology used for the first mobile call made back in 1987 was the advanced mobile phone system that was based on the 1G platform. Later in 1993, the Telstra implemented the 2G networks. This demanded that new mobile sets be developed to match the expectations of the market. The network grew to accommodate about 2.5 million subscribers across the country. About a decade, later the rollout of the third generation networks demanded mobile phone manufacturers to come with devices that had the 3G capability.
The Australian mobile phone use is also influenced by several social cultural forces. The use of mobile phone was in the past considered a status symbol. It signified that an individual belonged to the high social class. However, as the changes in the society has continued to influence the perception of the individuals a mobile phone is a device considered to be a necessity in the day to day activities of every Australian.
Competitor analysis
Nokia has the largest market share in the mobile phone sales in Australia. Nokia accounts for a 38 percent of all the mobiles phones in the country. Samsung follows this with a 25 percent proportion and then apple, which accounts for about 13 percent. Technological war in the mobile phone industry seems to dominate the industry unlike many industries where brands play a significant role. However, there is some consumer dissatisfaction arising from the rapid change in the mobile plans offered by network operators. In the smart phone front, the company still leads with 33 percent of the market share closely followed by apple with a proportion of 27 percent.
Segmentation
As the leading market player, Nokia has a number of segmentation strategies to adopt. A psychographic market segmentation approach will be applied in this marketing plan. This is where the environmental consciousness of individual mobile users as well as corporate entities will be put into perspective. The target market will include the corporate mobile phone users who make the decisions on purchasing based on logical evaluations. Another target group will be environmentally conscious individuals. In the Australian mobile phone market, classification can be done in terms of corporate or individual mobile phone users. It is pertinent to note that the individual consumer is highly driven by emotions. Therefore, an emotive marketing strategy would be applicable to attract this market segment. On the other hand, the individual consumer market category can be further be segmented into age based segments.
There are multiple players in the mobile phone market in the Australian scenario. The multidimensional nature of the market has made it to be highly dynamic. Different marketers have segmented the market using different criterions. Regional segmentation as well as age segmentation has been used in this market. Mobile operators such as Telstra, Optus, and Vodafone have engaged in business-to-business engagements with leading mobile phone manufacturers such as Nokia and Samsung to infiltrate into the Australian market. Moreover, the existence of leading mobile phones brands in the world makes it more complicated. Nokia has used comprehensive market research in the past to position different brands in the Australian market. The positioning process incorporates developing a competitive advantage over their competitors.
Nokia enjoys cordial relationship with most of the corporate entities in the country. In the Australian market, mobile phones have enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with the social websites. Research by Telstra reveals that mobile phones form a central part of the consumer life. Nokia has been in the forefront meeting customer needs. However, because of the economic downturn the consumer purchasing power has significantly reduced. With lower purchasing power as well as disposable income, consumers have become reluctant to buy new phones. It is pertinent to note that regardless of the existence of the checks and balances to minimize the implications of the economic downturn the country is not fully insulated from the effects.
Marketing plan objectives
1. Increase the market share of the organization.
2. To enhance mobile phone environmental awareness practices to two-thirds proportion of the products market segment nationally within the next one year.
3. To create new product awareness among 90 percent of the identified market segment within a year.
Product
Nokia c6-01 has been developed to be one of the most environment friendly mobile phones. It is highly differentiated from other mobile phones since it is environment friendly and yet stylish. Its production and the materials used to manufacture it have been put into consideration to ensure minimal environmental impact. Bio plastics have been used make its cover. Environmentally friendly mobile phones across the world have become increasingly noticeable. The involvement in both governments as well as non-governmental organization to elaborate to the population the importance of environmental friendly practices cannot be ignored. Energy saving features in a mobile phone helps in conserving the environment in many ways.
Nokia c6-01 has a high energy saving capacity with a long battery life. Consumers are keen on identifying the capability of phones internet speeds. The incorporation of multiple applications that can be redeveloped on open source platforms is another consideration the geek consumers will put into perspective. A mobile phone is personal device that should meet the expectations of the users and help them attain higher efficiency in their daily activities. Mobile webs access seems to be the next frontier for technology companies as the mobility becomes a key thing in both the world of business as well as social encounters. A highly differentiated and diverse mobile phone will be exciting to both the corporate users as well as the individual mobile phone users.
The product will conveniently support mobile commerce applications. In the world of business, mobile money transfer has been a key technological revolution in the way of small business engagements. Mobile commerce is supported by the rollout of the highly efficient packet data networks as well as enhanced mobile devices. The architecture of the different mobile phone operating systems open up opportunities in technological development of mobile phones. In the Australian market the most notable mobile devices operating systems include android, palm, blackberry, windows mobile, and the Symbian. Each of these operating systems has their set of advantages and disadvantages. Technology can also be used to monitor issues related with service quality in the mobile communications industry (AEDT, 2011).
Pricing
The pricing strategy used for the Nokia c6-01 in the Australian market will be the marginal-cost pricing. Since the product is highly differentiated, the price of one product will be at the cost of producing an extra mobile phone. There are multiple pricing strategies used in the Australian mobile phone industry, which incorporate but not limited to multiple pricing and bundling arrangements. In a multiple pricing arrangement, the different business engaged in the transactions enters in an agreement where a specific mobile phone manufacturer will supply phones to all the employees of the organization. Mobile operators on the other hand have developed specialized bundles where a consumer is offered a phone as well as an agreement where they get talk time based on the agreement (Australian IT, 2011).
Place
The products will be available in different network operator’s retails shops as well as Nokia retail outlets. It is pertinent to note the technological development in the Australian communication led to the rise of the mobile phone users with a mobile device becoming a necessary device in everyday life. By mid-2005, more than half the population was mobile phone users. This would dramatically change in the next half a decade to indicate the total number of subscribers registered by the different mobile operators is more than the population. This implies that many subscribers have multiple subscriptions. The subscription to different mobile operators is mostly motivated by the technological differences across the networks. In the recent years phone manufacturers have faced increasing demand to increase the number of applications available in this devices. This help to cater for a wide variety of needs of mobile phone users. Enhancing the availability of Nokia c6-01 to all Australian mobile phone users will be important.
Promotion
The national environmentally friendly Nokia c6-01 phone campaign will incorporate a series of activities. . In the recent years, the type of phone and the capability of Nokia c6-01 is what are used to determine the social status of an individual and not just owning a phone. Newspaper adverts and brochures providing a brief history of mobile communication in the country will be instrumental in enhancing the product message. The aim of the mobile networks is to make life easier to humans and not complicate it by contributing to environmental degradation. The base reason why the phone was considered a status symbol in the early years of its development was the inhibiting cost price, which stood at about $ 4000.
The physical environment is an aspect that Australian put into high consideration when making purchase consideration. Human activities have continued to be harmful to the environment. This continues to happen in disregard of the intrinsic intentions of human beings to protect their environment. Awareness radio shows will form the critical consumer engagement forums. The campaign will negotiate with regional radio for a talk show aimed at enhancing the public awareness of being environment vigilant (ACTEW, 2009).
Evaluation and control
The marketing plan implementation has to be continuously reviewed to monitor the progress as well as the effectiveness of the strategies adopted. A Gantt chart will be instrumental in the evaluating and monitoring process. The evaluation process involves checking the proportion of the project that has been implementing. The monitoring process helps in holding the project implementers accountable in terms of time and activities. Each of the regional radio shows promotions are designed to fit into one month. However, the days of the selected talk show varies from one region to another. As a result, some of the activities will take longer than the projected time. However, this should be closely monitored through the monthly review reports. The monthly review reports will also incorporate the activities that were not effectively completed, and elaborate the reasons for the variance from the planned activity.
Action plan
The action plan provides a comprehensive description of the yearlong national marketing campaign for the environment friendly mobile phones. After a comprehensive consumer, behavior survey in the first month of the year the radio shows will commence. The weekly radio shows will run for six months. The radio shows as well as show sponsorship will be synchronized with intensive branding at the local network-operator retail outlets. The radio shows will be instrumental in increasing awareness of the environment friendly mobile devices. During the poster, distribution activities in the different retail outlets on national mobile network operator’s pamphlets will also be distributed.
1. New south wares radio shows –February
2. Northern territory radio shows- March
3. Queensland radio shows- April
4. South Australia radio shows- May
5. Tasmania radio shows- June
6. Victoria region radio shows- July
7. Western Australia radio shows- August
8. National wide print advertisements through a newspaper with national circulation
9. Distribution of pamphlets containing inspirational messages concerning adoption of environmental friendly practices in mobile communication will be carried out throughout the year.
The Gantt chart below provides a graphical representation of the project implementation process.
Conclusion and recommendation
This marketing plan comprehensively covers the activities to be carried out to carry out a national wide campaign. The campaign aims at increasing awareness concerning the new mobile products that are environment friendly. The marketing plan incorporates radio shows across all the regions of the country. The effectiveness of the radio shows is apparent because the market segmentation used is psychographic. A radio show will be able to influence the attitudes of people who are targets.
The print advertisements in a business oriented daily newspaper with a national circulation. This will help to convince the corporate entities the significance of adoption environment friendly communication devices. The corporate mobile phone users usually depend on logical considerations before making a purchase decision. The corporate entities implement comprehensive cost benefit analysis in their decision making process. The marketing plan should be approved to ensure the organizations exploits the existing opportunities soon enough.
References
ABI Research 2010. Smartphone Downloads from Mobile App Stores to Peak in 2013 History of mobile phones in Australia 2011 (May 6, 2010) ActewAGL. Available at: [http://www.abiresearch.com/press/1651-Smartphone+Downloads+from+Mobile+App+Stores+to+Peak+in+2013].
ACTEW AGL (2009). History of mobile phones in Australia – Available at: [http://kids.actewagl.com.au/education/communications/MobilePhones/DevelopmentOfMobiles/MobileHistory.aspx].
AEDT (2011). Hydrogen cell could power iPhones for 'weeks' - News - Ninemsn (2011). Available at: [http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8395133].
Australian IT (2011). Apple's iPhone leads Australia's huge smartphone growth. Available at: [http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/apples-iphone-leads-australias-huge-smartphone-growth/story-e6frgakx-1226021287594].
Australian IT (2011). Vodafone Australia class action gathers momentum. Available at: [http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/telecommunications/vodafone-australia-class-action-gathers-momentum/story-fn4iyzsr-1226088039230].
Budde.com (2011). Australia - Mobile Communications - Subscriber Statistics. Available at: [http://www.budde.com.au/Research/Australia-Mobile-Communications-Subscriber-Statistics.html].
