Introduction:
Today’s organizations find themselves operating in an environment that is changing faster than ever before. The activity of studying the implications of theses transformations and adjusting the way that organizations reply to them is known as business strategy.
PESTEL
Political factors
The first political decision which have chances to affect Nokia in the UK is ‘the rate of tax’ .This has the ability to affect both the primary line of the company because of corporation tax but also the ability and power of customers to spend with Nokia and its services, linked to income tax. Today, level of ‘corporation tax’ in the UK has been decreased to try encourage and vitalize economical activities [1]
Second Key the decision considers ‘interest rates’. For the present time UK interest rate is stagnates at a relatively low level of 0.5% [2].This may be represents a huge chance for firms like Nokia which is able to borrow large amount of money to realize the ambition of Capital expansion .
In a global perspective, the UK political system based upon parliamentary democracy may provide Nokia with relatively low risk political environment in which to operate within.[3]
Economical Factors
It is capital that Nokia knows about the economy background and position of host country such as the rate of currency exchange, inflation ”.etc to boost the investment to reach financial, comical and personal security with future plans.
Where they may be less clients who have the ability to buy the product and get various services of Nokia due to a dramatically increase of unemployment in the UK ( 0.86 m in 2007 to 1.53 m in 2011) , potential or current customers who remain in employment have in the general case become richer . Even if the number of customers keeps falling down, thanks to these economic patterns Nokia may be able to record an increase on its average spend per customer.
By analyzing the graphs above which indicates the annual UK GDP growth from 1948 to 2012 we can easily distinguish that:
The lowest levels of growth have been seen in 2012[ GDP growth of 1.8%] and 2011[ with GDP growth of 1.8 % ][4]
These figures seem to cause a quite negative repercussion on retailers such as Nokia which is profoundly attached to the UK economy and source of revenue.
Social Factors
Today mobile phone is not just a simple communication gadget, but become a companion in the day-to-day life and work friends. All the social levels of our society use different types of phones on different frequencies to satisfy their personal needs and wants, against their differences in race, nationality, religion, beliefs or income.
What does Nokia do to improve its reputation and social’s image inside and outside the UK?[6]
Mobile phones become a fashion element , a decoration a way to show personal identity and that’s why Nokia has launched more and more fashion phone such as ‘Lumia series mobile phone’
Nokia has been a part of a number of industry organizations and scientific forums
The company Nokia is currently supporting the ICNIRP ( International Commission on Non Ionizing Radiation Protection ) and the World Health Organization ( WHO)
Nokia exercise the Code of Conduct Globally in its procedure and require the same standards from its suppliers.
Nokia has been promoting the farm and its new products on social network such as Facebook and Twitter and provide customers with ongoing promotional activities that the company has produced.
Nokia has established a website to help consumers read about the features articles, and help them to acquire knowledge about Nokia products.[5]
Technological Factors
Technology is able to diminish costs, upgrade quality and lead to enhancement.
Key technological development such as the internet have allowed firms such as Nokia to develop online business models which complement traditional bricks and mortar retail establishments.
Having Microsoft as partner Brings a vast range of technological advantages like Windows phone mobile platform .
Latest innovation in camera technology (PureView) and Location and Commerce ( L&C) platform has enabled Nokia to keep an edge on the rivals to get competitive advantage
Nokia has really weak hardware components ( expect for camera)
Legal Factors
Intellectual property is the fundamental element to any technological business and must be cared for and protected to the entire extent to secure the fact that the business does not lose out to rivals .
What does Nokia have to do in the legal field?
Nokia is required to design corporate policies which facilitate equality
Following the UK’s registration , Nokia has to pay its employees a minimum of 6.19 ?? per hour for those aged over 21 [7]
When Nokia releases a product with an innovative capability it is vital to protect the rights to it through patents, copyrights, trademarked or design.[8]
Environmental Factors
Nokia carefully tries to limit and reduce its energy consumption and make sure to garantee that materials are ethically sourced.
Nokia is one of the world’s companies when it comes to climate change disclosure
Nokia gives access to Nokia Store Green channel in its application store which are resposible for collecting all the green-minded apps in one initial place.
Nokia also provides multiple applications that focus on environment e.g Nokia energy profiler , WWf , EcoGuru,Climate Mission 3D
SWOT
STRENGTHS:
One of the big Strengths of the Nokia company is their large network of selling and distribution it has the largest distributor of mobile phone in the mobile phone industry, their strong brand name also is a big point and also experience they’ve been there for 142 years and their products are user friendly and very durable and have high re-sale value.
WEAKNESSES:
One of the biggest weaknesses of the Nokia Company is their poor after sale service and they have very few service centers, and they took a long time to enter the new Smartphone market so they lost a lot of their market share.
OPPORTUNITIES:
One of the big opportunities the Nokia Company have is their deal with Microsoft because it is a win-win situation for them especially if they cooperate and use their resources to develop and expand the range of products and the prices and to increase their presence in the market.
THREATS:
One of the biggest threats of the Nokia Company is the cheap and the low cost Chinese mobile phone companies that are in the market, and also the big and fierce competition between the Smartphone companies which will be very difficult for Nokia to keep and enlarge their current market.
Porter’s Five Forces:
Nokia is one of the companies that take the Porter 5 forces into consideration in term of its suppliers, competitors, costumers and new entrants.
Threat of new entrants:
Any company in the business industry can face problems and issues from the entry of new companies into the market. Having low barriers for new entrance might affect Nokia in the Mobile phone industry however Nokia is using first large amount of investment which help them to use new technology whenever it takes place, that’s why the barriers for new entrants in the phone market is highly protected because small companies need high capital in order to compete against established organization such as Nokia. Example can be taken is Nokia hold 29 percent of the market share in the industry.
Power of suppliers:
Generally this factor means that suppliers have power to take control of the market or the company itself. In the case of Nokia, it relies on suppliers to provide necessary equipment for their advanced phones for example Microsoft is working with Nokia in term of providing new generation of mobile phones with the use of Microsoft software.
So we could say that Nokia has only one supplier that have good power which is Microsoft, on the other hand Nokia can switch to any hardware suppliers as far as they provide them with cheap material and low cost.
Powers of buyers:
In this force, the company should have well understanding and be aware of it as one of the factor that can easily change the company success from gaining to failing. Buyers have all the power to choose the best company that is providing good products with cheap prices, that’s why Nokia is facing big issue from having many competitors in the market which costumers can easily switch from you to others. As conclusion we could say that Buyers have highly power to choose any company depends on their needs and satisfaction.
Threats of substitute’s products
Mobile phones are very useful in our life today. It would be very hard for people to replace phones with something else; however if we think that substitute is having different companies that can provide similar or different products than the one Nokia is selling or offering in the market, we could said that Nokia has very large number of substitute in the phones industry and its one of the main problem that Nokia is facing such Apple and Samsung are taking place and having good power in the market.
Competitive rivalry:
Nokia has many competitors in the phones markets; it used to be in the first place however it decreases from its position and left the competition to 2 big Companies such as Apple and Samsung. The reason behind this is these companies have been using new technology by providing customers with new smart phones while Nokia stood on normal phones, also Nokia couldn’t find a way to compete again Iphone in smartphones category.
STP Analysis
Segmentation :
I. Demographic Segmentation
High Income Group
Casters to the upper segment of the society with high purchase power e.g Nokia Asha501, Lumia925 ,Lumia920, Lumia720’Etc
Medium Income Group
Caters to the segments which give more importance to the value for money e.g Nokia Asha 206, Asha205′.Etc
Low Income Group
Caters to this segment which have very low income and use mobile phones only for calling purpose e.g Nokia 112,Nokia 103, Nokia113’Etc
II. Psychographic Segmentation
Lifestyle
Market Targeting
Selective specialization
Nokia has selected a number of segments and come out with product for each of them thereby ensuring its presence in the complete market.
Positioning Map
Positioning Statement
Nokia’s positioning statement is: Connecting People.
Nokia wants to be seen in the market as the brand of All purse All purpose All personalities
Mission and Objectives
CORPORATE OBJECTIVES
Nokia’s corporate objectives are as follows.
Become a number one in customer and consumer loyalty
Nokia solve the consumer problem in a more efficient way or provide superior benefits compare to the solutions marketed by competitors. It gains market share through gathering information about consumer needs and then designing product and services to closely meet these needs
Become a number one in product leadership
Nokia offer a wide range of mobile phones, apps, social networks and internet enable features. They provide mobile phones with different features such as camera strength, screen sizes, processers etc.
Become a number one in operational excellence
Nokia have a great after sale service that creates maintain relationships such as warranties, feedback system about the products replacement and repair services.
Nokia objectives are reliable with the internal and external environment. It has explicit goals and time frames the Nokia employees can use to guide and evaluate their performance. The objectives are also bendable that they can be applied to a broadening product and service line. This elasticity will be necessary because Nokia operates in a dynamic environment
Marketing Mix 4P’s
Product
Nokia devices have many features that still attract the consumer one of the main and popular feature of it is that they have a long battery life. Nokia module is also built strongly, have strong resistible power. As they are adapting to generation there smartphone uses windows software and some smartphone also have dual sim card which is very new for the market competing with other company. Nokia is very active in developing new product to match the competition on the market. They have recently launched its new tablet called Nokia N1 on its website which uses android OS software.
As they are in introduction phase they are almost extinct in the market but as they grow slowly they take a fast phase but do not remain in its maturity which leads to declination of the product from the market.
Price
Nokia pricing for its product is very unique. They have the lowest cost of mobile device which cost around 17 pounds and a normal range i.e. smartphone cost around 400 pounds on its initial stage and lastly they also have premium product called Nokia vertu on Gold or platinum which cost around 2000 pounds. Nokia also sells its product in cheap on contract basis for example in Europe if we compare Nokia with other big brands such as Samsung or apple Nokia is selling its product in cheapest price per month two year plan . Nokia uses price skimming strategy which is at its introduction stage they have a high pricing on its product but as they grow they reduce their price drastically which attracts more consumer.
Place
Nokia approaches selective strategy which focusing on their best potential market. They know their market and solely focus on them. They also have retail store around the world but recently they have closed down of Eastern Europe and North / South America. But they sell online around the world. In electronic retail store such as Carphone, phone 4u we can find Nokia’s product.. Nokia also have online sellers such as amazon, snapdeal.
Promotion
They keep on reminding the customer about their product and gives information about their new launches as well. They provide gifts and offer such as if a customer buys a Nokia product then they get free accessories like earphones, headphones and many more. They provide holiday offer for example in Chinese new year they reduce the price of Nokia provide in a drastic number. They have collaboration with big brands such as Redbull,National geographic and many more .
3P’S and Evaluation
People
People create product, ensure day-to-day operations of a business and satisfy customer needs. Reputation of a brand is predominately determined by the performance of its people, hence the overall performance of the firm.
Business leaders’ ability to find team players who possess enthusiasm, willingess to learn & positivity, is key to the success of their businesses.. Staffs need to be well trained, improve their soft skills, also with the attitude and team work. The company also need to motivate the staff by compensation (base and bonus salary), and moral motivation which are compliments, field trips, health care and insurance policy.
Process
The process of giving services, the way of its delivered is very important to customer satisfactions. Times and the way of information go through customers are what to keep customers happy and also the first impression of customers about the company.
Therefore, when customers go to a store or they want to reach services, they must not wait more than 5-10 minutes to receive a help. Staffs always need to ask and listen to customers during introducing; offering products or services without any complain and please the customers. Company also need to improve the customer’s services such as help landline 24/7, forum for customers of Nokia.
Physical Evidence
Firstly, Nokia need to place and improve the sample of products in every retail or store. It is also a good thing to share the feedback and recommendation of each product and service of previous customers to new customers. It helps new customers to know about the advantages and disadvantages of that products and services. Nokia should provide new design for store, website and product arrangement as well as maintaining them. Lastly, we need to open retail and online shop.
Control and Evaluation
The control function involves the development and implementation of measurement programs to evaluate progress toward organizational goals.’ (Kokemuller N., 2014)
The control process starts with the establishment of standards of performance against which organizational activities can be compared.
First of all, ‘Market shares’ plays an important role in evaluating Nokia’s performance again its competitors. This chart below shows the global Smartphone market share held by Nokia each quarter from 2007 to 2013 (Statista, 2015)
Q2 2013 Market share Smartphone is 3.1%, down -93.7% on Q1 2007 Market share figure of 46.7%. As the figures have been shown, there is a significant decrease over the last 6 years in market shares of Nokia. Therefore, the company needs to set a target of increasing the market shares by 3% of markets per annum over the next five years. This is a realistic target that which can be achieved by performing of carrying out these marketing strategies. 2014 Sales of Nokia is 12.73 EUR billions, down -70% on 2010 Sales figure of 42.45 EUR billions. This shows that there is also extremely reduction over the last 4 years in sales of Nokia according by the Marketwatch, 2015. Therefore, the company should plan to set a target of increasing by 10% of sales per annum over the 3 years. It is estimated that at this rate of Sales, Nokia can gain back the Sales in the next 5-7 years.