Introduction
The marketing plan for Nokia was aimed at regaining agility and leadership in the mobile market (Mktg-Plan Blogspot, 2010). The market plan entailed the supply chain and its management, a description of the company’s features, and the three V’s of variation, volume, and variety. Their marketing plan also included the SIPOC processes, which entailed supplier, inputs, processes, output, and customer (Daga, 2007). However, due to the narrow focus on both operational success and ensuring renewal and upgrading of their systems, their strategic sensitivity was jeopardized.
Quality
The marketing plan, however, appears flawed, especially in their strategies for marketing and also in their value proposition. In terms of quality, the products could be of good quality but the marketers at Nokia did not have an idea on what the company’s value proposition was. They also do not seem to have a solid reason to back the quality of their products in terms of the reasons why people should buy them (Sandeen, 2015).
Thoroughness
The company could be implementing all the marketing plans right but they are not thorough. The marketing strategy lacks consistency. As a result, the customers will have no idea as to why they should prioritize the Nokia brands as compared to others in the market. The message passed to the customers is not thoroughly crafted. The company tries to throw around random messages to see if any of them will change the company’s future in a magical way (Sandeen, 2015). The company’s marketing plan does not also consider having a team that assesses the major competitors to ensure that there is thorough coverage of the loopholes in their competition strategies.
Action Plans
The company does not include in its marketing plan a way of differentiating its services from the competitors. For instance, it does not offer video calling, call restrictions for outgoing calls, and free roaming subscriptions. The company remains restricted to urban phone users just like other mobile companies failing to take up the business opportunity offered by the rural area customers who have needs to be satisfied (Sandeen, 2015). Nokia also has no plan on how to face the price wars that worsen daily with the competitors due to the high pressure in price arising from the Asian market. Their marketing plan does not also include an action plan to counter the launching of new models that are innovative from their rivals in the mobile company. Finally, there is no plan to improve their street presence. As such, customers have no reference point in case they have a problem with any of the company’s products.
Recommendations
The company should realize their value proposition and acknowledge that their products are superior compared to others in the market. As such, they should identify why their products are superior and use it to compel customers. The marketing plan should ensure that there is a shift from the random factors that fail to create any compelling message in order to achieve tangible results. The Nokia Company should have an after-sales service to cater for the customers. Such services result in significant impacts in achieving marketing objectives. The after sales services would also increase the value of their wide range of products in terms of variety by reducing the confusion among the consumers (Daga, 2007).
In addition, the marketing plan would only work if the company understands the message that their marketing will deliver. For instance, use of TV adverts should be made consistent for it to achieve results (Mktg-Plan Blogspot, 2015). Nokia also needs to have some diversification in the mobile market by using the loyalty among its mobile users to attracting the customers to purchase their SIM cards and as a result, increase its market share. Finally, Nokia can initiate tie-ups with existing mobile company players such as Aircel, Airtel, and Vodafone who have a larger market share.
References
Daga, N. (2007). Nokia’s Marketing Strategies in India (Masters Dissertation). The University of Nottingham. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download;jsessionid=ECD2083B2160F4EA9C75DCC5ADD2287A?doi=10.1.1.455.4165&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Mktg-Plan Blogspot. (2010, December 14). Marketing Plan of Nokia [Web log]. Retrieved from http://mktg-plan.blogspot.co.ke/
Sandeen, P. (2015). Why Nokia’s Marketing Strategy Failed. Retrieved from http://www.petersandeen.com/nokia-marketing-strategy-fails/
