When considering Nokia’s effort to launch their new phone–the N8–in 2010, I think there are some things Nokia did right in their campaign. First, Nokia was smart to target only one niche group of snowboarders as its main audience for their marketing messages. Second, I thought it was wise for Nokia to use national marketing to target their selected group at an event that matched that group’s lifestyle (Blakeman, 2015, p. 1-23, 106-107; Dubois & Mastak, 2015, p. 1-10). These were good ideas because they allowed Nokia to more personally connect with one specific community of people to market their product. As a result, Nokia was able to reach 290 million people during its campaign and sell “more than 4 million units” of their phone within a year after it ended (Dubois & Mastak, 2015, p. 6).
However, there were some parts of this campaign that were poorly thought out. For example, Nokia didn’t go into this campaign with any solid objectives. Sure, they had the goal to strengthen their brand and to increase their sales (Dubois & Mastak, 2015, p. 1-6). However, I didn’t notice any statements in this reading that prove Nokia’s campaign was “specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and time-specific.” All I noticed were the strategic and tactful actions they took and the end results of their campaign (Shaffer, 2019, p. 3-5). It sounds great when the article states that Nokia improved people’s brand preference for them by 3.25% or that they sold “more than 4 million units” of their phones in the year following this campaign, but what other statistics is Nokia comparing these numbers to (Dubois & Mastak, 2015, p. 6)? Almost anything sounds good when you compare it to zero.
I think this lack of objectives actually hurt Nokia in the long run. This is evidenced by the fact that Nokia only sold about a third of what its largest competitors–Apple and Samsung–sold in the year following the N8’s campaign (Dubois & Mastak, 2015, p. 10). Additionally, Nokia has actually declined in sales since 2010. In 2010, Nokia was averaging sales of around $57 and $58 billion per quarter. Today, they’re only averaging around $26 to $27 billion per quarter. That’s less than half of what they made per year in 2010 (Macrotrends LLC., 2010-2019, bar chart).
There were also some decisions Nokia made during their campaign that I agree with. For example, I thought it was smart that they used social media as their main method of communication during the U.S. Open. I liked this choice because it was an innovative decision for the time period. Most other businesses during this time were afraid of using social media because it was so new. This strong focus on social media was probably another contributing factor to Nokia’s ability to reach 290 million people during their campaign (Dubois & Mastak, 2015, p. 2-6).
On the other hand, Nokia made some decisions that I disagree with. For example, I think they chose to focus on the wrong target audience. I think Nokia should have marketed their phone to college students instead. Snowboarders could cover a large age-range of people. Some of these people might not be as tech savvy as others. However, most college students are likely in their 20’s and 30’s, and probably use technology on a regular basis to connect with their friends and to study for their classes. Because of this, I think Nokia’s campaign would’ve fit a college student’s lifestyle better.
If I was in charge of a follow-up campaign, I would build off of Nokia’s attitude of openness and their desire to connect people with each other. However, I would drastically alter the target audience, as I’ve just described (Dubois & Mastak, 2015, p. 4-5). I would do this to get Nokia’s phone in the hands of more people who would actually use it to communicate with others on a regular basis. I would also do this because I think a younger target audience would make Nokia’s brand feel more modernized.
References:
Blakeman, R. (2015). Integrated marketing communication: Creative strategy from idea to implementation(2nd ed.). Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Dubois, D., & Mastak, P. K. (2015). The Nokia NI8 ‘Push Snowboarding’ Campaign: An Avant-Garde Social media Strategy from Engagement to Sales. Harvard Business Review.
Macrotrends LLC. (2010-2019). Nokia Revenue 2006-2019 | NOK. Retrieved July 1, 2019, from https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/NOK/nokia/revenue.Shaffer, D. J. (2019). How I Write Communication Goals, Strategies, Objectives, and Tactics. 1-9.
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