0 PocketPC-equipped phones (such as the LG or Samsung sets) for compatibility with desktop and laptop PC programs. Product: Compatibility with computer operating systems is a constantly-changing universe. As Microsoft more closely integrates its sync software with PDA/cell phone software and that on PC's, it is able to give better integration of the two than Nokia, which does not have a PC basis of strength.

Opportunities

Product: The convergence of computing, PDA's and music playing may make for a new, higher-end handset market in which there are no clear winners as yet.

Promotion: The latest efforts by Google, Yahoo!, Apple and Microsoft to break the cell phone providers in the United States may offer an opportunity for those companies and Nokia to reimpose customer preference for handsets and reduce the bargaining power of the service providers in the U.S.

Product: Nokia's ability to produce products around the world at a lower cost gives it the opportunity to penetrate new markets with higher margins than their competitors.

Threats

Product: The Korean manufacturers, led by Samsung and LG, are upping their price-value offerings in markets which are important for Nokia's continued handset sales, especially Asian and African markets. Nokia risks the same danger as American auto manufacturers against the Japanese and Koreans: lower perceived value-price correlation.

Physical Distribution: Although the U.S. is only the 2nd largest handset market (China is far bigger), the lack of market share and clear product leadership in this market make it possible for new entrants to gain share, then move to other markets (Roberts). This is certainly the case with Apple's new iPhone, first introduced in the U.S. In Summer, 2007, and now being introduced in Nokia's home European market (O'Brien).

Product: The emergence of PDA's in recent years threatens Nokia's hold on handsets, as the convergence of the two markets makes it difficult for handset manufacturers to ignore PDA features.

Product: Nokia's "one size fits all" philosophy allows competitors to do certain things better -- the N95 has a lot of bells and whistles, but each feature may have different benefits for different users. It does not have the advantage of a focused product, such as the BlackBerry (e-mails) or the iPhone (music).

Objectives and Issues

States the marketing objectives that the company would like to attain during the plans term and discusses key issues that will affect their attainment. (Is it mainly a marketing issue or distribution issue or pricing issue or Where do we put weight on?) for example, if the goal is to achieve a 15% market share, this poses a key issue: How can market share be increased?

Nokia's objectives with the N95 line should be to establish the company in an area which differentiates it from other offerings, and increases its market share in an area that will be important to Nokia's future success.

The current N95 is a "dog's breakfast," with a significant number of features which can appeal to different user groups, but may not be sufficient to convince brand-loyal user groups to switch. In order to establish these characteristics, one needs to create a product benefit-target market table which analyzes the potential markets available to Nokia:

Major Features Comparison Chart

Feature/Benefit

How Nokia Appeals

Who's Strongest There?

Camera: 5MP

Best camera resolution of the major manufacturers

Sony-Ericsson

Contacts register

Symbian-based contacts, some sync ability with Microsoft-powered Outlook, others

Microsoft-Pocket PC users

MP3 and similar music/media playback

MP3 player which can sync and download tunes

Apple, previously with the iPod and iMac, now with the iPhone

All major cell phone systems worldwide: Quad-band

Handles all major markets' forms of cell phone reception

Nokia

High-speed data transfer for internet usage

Uses GPRS, Edge, UMTS

Samsung (slider technology) and Apple

Uses Internet access

BlackBerry (RIM)

Office software (PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Outlook)

Symbian sync with calendar and contacts only

Microsoft-Pocket PC users

Source: (PhoneArena.com)

In the above comparison, Nokia emerges as "best in class" only in the ability to be used on all major cell systems throughout the world. This does not suggest that Nokia's efforts in certain areas don't show progress -- the increase to 5 megapixels for its camera makes it one of the leaders in photo quality. The primary concern is that Nokia's feature set appeals to different audiences in different ways. The following table illustrates how each feature may be a strong or weak benefit to different audiences. The following table gives an example of how the cell phone market may be split into segments in some highly-developed countries in Europe, the U.S. And Japan, and the relative appeal to each of those segments: "weak" means that there is little appeal for that psychographic segment, "strong" means that it is a major deciding factor for that market segment.

Relative appeal of features to specific market segments

Feature

Road Warrior

This person is likely to be tempted most by a PDA-like handset with Microsoft PocketPC 5.0 software (Microsoft).
The music-obsessed teen places a strong value primarily on the handset's ability to play music (and now other media). iTunes enjoys a 72% market share in downloaded music worldwide (Borland) (Smith) (Raby). The combination of internet presence, digital rights management software, "coolness" and ease of use argue for Apple's steady march from iTunes to iPod to iPhone.

Marketing Strategy

Outlines the broad marketing logic by which the business unit hopes to achieve its marketing objectives and the specifics of target markets, positioning, and marketing expenditure levels. It outlines specifics strategies for each marketing mix elements and explains how each response to the threats, opportunities, and critical issues spelled out earlier in the plan. Please include positioning, product strategy, price strategy, distribution strategy, marketing communications strategy, marketing research, marketing organization in the marketing strategy.

Nokia needs to choose a market for its product, then pursue it relentlessly. Since the N95 has so many features, it should be relatively straightforward to choose a basket of features for one or more major markets, then promote the product to the psychodemographic segment which it has chosen. This marketing-driven positioning is a departure for Nokia, which tends to focus on features-laden phones and lets the market determine where to place them.

Positioning:

Nokia needs to counter the threats on the high-end, converging PDA and handset telephone market. For this reason, Nokia should position the N95 in Europe, America and Japan as a best-in-class PDA for the road warrior and large-company employee.

Price strategy:

Nokia recognizes, with its recent acquisition of Navtech, the importance of adding services to its hardware and software options. Nokia needs to assure rapid adoption, but then "up-sell" the customer on additional services, which may or may not come through the cell phone service provider. Thus the strategy should be: price under the leading PDA providers, but above cell phones without PDA capabilities. Take additional revenue through add-ons, such as GPS-derived hardware, headphones, keyboards and software to tie the N95 to corporate e-mail networks.

Distribution strategy:

Nokia needs to consider a dramatic move in the U.S. market if it is to be regarded as a global brand, and to combat several competitors, especially Apple, in their home territory. Given that there are four (down from 5 with the merger of Cingular and at&T) major cell providers in the U.S., Nokia needs to choose one and develop a deeper strategic relationship. Verizon has had the most to lose from at&T's link-up with Apple's iPhone, and may therefore be the best candidate. Verizon's market share is second only to Cingular/at&T, so it therefore has the most to lose (Casley). Nokia needs to find a similar relationship in Europe and Japan, where the PDA market is growing rapidly.

Marketing Communications Strategy:

At present, Nokia has a general image without having established strong franchises among certain psychodemographic segments. In this case, Nokia's N95 needs to become "the business phone," in a way that BlackBerry/RIM have done with corporate connections, particularly with e-mail. Nokia needs to develop an ability to talk directly to companies which are looking for ways to control and communicate with their employees, and assist those companies in developing specific solutions. This will require a direct salesforce with back-up technical support and product development, much as BlackBerry did by learning how to talk to corporate e-mail servers.

Marketing Research:

Nokia is perhaps weakest with the businessperson today. It therefore needs to learn who influences opinion in the business sphere. This extends from the specifiers in the it departments of major employers (corporate, government, military, etc.) to those who write about business applications (PCWorld, etc.).

Marketing Organization:

The product will need to be modified over time, from hardware additions and changes to applications development in order to add services and features which appeal to the chosen target segments. As mentioned above, Nokia will need to develop an in-house selling capability to call on the appropriate it managers and begin the task of modifying the product and services bundle in a way which appeals to those departments. The Marketing organization…