Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC)

This report provides an overview of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) and its significance in the marketing mix. It includes a brand audit of Nokia and its direct competitors, focusing on the core proposition of the brand and the thoughts of stakeholders. The report also explores the marketing mix and promotional strategies of Apple iPhone X and Samsung S9.

Running Head: IMC
Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC)
Report
System04104
12/30/2018

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Table of Contents
PART-1: Proposal...................................................................................................................................2
1.1 Company overview......................................................................................................................2
1.2 Product........................................................................................................................................2
1.3 Product’s Marketing Mix.............................................................................................................3
1.4 Product Category.........................................................................................................................4
1.5 Direct competitors of Product.....................................................................................................4
PART-2: Introduction to Product’s Brand Audit.....................................................................................5
1. Core Proposition of the Brand...................................................................................................5
2. Thinking of Stakeholders about the brand.................................................................................5
3. Marketing Mix and Promotional Strategies of Direct Competitors............................................7
3.1 Marketing mix and promotional strategies of Apple I-phone X and Samsung S9..............7
PART-3: Brand Audit..............................................................................................................................8
1. Broad Target Market of Nokia...................................................................................................8
2. Differentiation Points.................................................................................................................9
3. Positioning.................................................................................................................................9
4. Relevance, Identity, and Relationships......................................................................................9
PART-4: Conclusion................................................................................................................................9
1. Strengthening Brand Equity.......................................................................................................9
2. Improving Integrated Marketing Communications Strategy........................................................10
Referencing.........................................................................................................................................11

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PART-1: Proposal
1.1 Company overview
Nokia Corporation (commonly known as Nokia) is one of the leading mobile phone
manufacturing companies of the world and manufacturing its mobile phones from the late
1980s. Actually, Nokia was founded by Fredrik Idestam, Leo Mechelin, and Eduard Polon on
May 12, 1865, but the company started its operations in mobile phones in 1984, when the
MMobira Talkman launched by Nokia, which was one of the world’s first transportable
phones. Nokia is a Finland based company and is the biggest manufacturer of mobile phones
in the world and selling phones over billions. Initially, they launched their phone on
Windows operating system, but due to tough competition given by Samsung and other
Chinese mobile phones through android phones, Nokia also entered in Android phone market
as well (Muller & Bevan-Dye, 2017).
When Samsung and Apple entered in smartphone industries, Nokia faced strong
competition in the market, and with some extent, it can be said that these two competitors
forced Nokia to exit from market because of the increasing demand of Android phones.
Nokia failed to recognise such demands of the customer and they were running their
smartphone based on Windows operating system. While Samsung and Apple were
introducing the latest technology and features in their phones by upgrading their android
phones, at that time Nokia was working on Windows phone. At the end in 2016-17, Nokia
came with its first Android phone Nokia Lumia 800 (Ciesielska, 2018).
1.2 Product
Currently, Nokia is manufacturing three types of products. These are Android phones,
Classic phones, and Accessories. The latest Nokia phones are Nokia 3.1 Plus, Nokia 5.1 Plus,
Nokia 6.1 Plus, Nokia 7.1 Plus, and Nokia 8, Nokia 8 Sirocco, and Nokia 8.1 etc. These are
android phones of Nokia with the latest technology and best quality products. Apart from
these android phones, Nokia is also manufacturing classic phones such as Nokia 130 Dual
SIM, Nokia 216 Dual SIM, Nokia 105, 106, 150, 3310, and Nokia 8110 4G phone etc. Nokia
is also manufacturing android charger, car charger, earphones etc. (Rezza, 2018).

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1.3 Product’s Marketing Mix
Nokia is one of the leading cellular phone providers in the world and competing with
dozens of phone manufacturing companies such as Apple, Samsung, Oppo, Xio-mi, and
Motorola etc. The marketing mix of Nokia discusses the 4P strategies of Nokia.
a. Product
Nokia provides a variety of quality phones. The variety of mobile phones gives many
options to the customer to choose the appropriate mobile phone according to their need and
within the budget. They provide android based phone and classic phones that are
comparatively cheaper in the market. Apart from this, the quality of Nokia phones is also
beyond reproach. This has made a possible for them to acquire 35% of the market in mobile
phone industry (Sánchez-Casado, Confente, Tomaseti-Solano, & Brunetti, 2018). The other
aspects of Nokia phones are design and quality that attracts customers and give them options
to select their Nokia choice among different other options available in the market.
b. Price
This is the second element of the marketing mix of Nokia where price is reasonably
low of Nokia products in comparison to Samsung and Apple phones. Nokia set the price of
their products in such a way that is affordable for all income class. They also charge high
prices for their top products that depend on skimming price strategy. It means there is
something for everyone in the mobile market irrespective of their budget and financial
capability. The price skimming strategy of Nokia is ensuring that people purchase their
products from different periods once they involve in purchasing of Nokia products in the
market. The company initially set their product prices at a higher rate and then after company
gradually drops their product prices.
c. Place
Nokia ensured that they provide their products to their customers in collaboration and
partnership with different vendors and dealers all around the world. Through the help of their
dealers, they ensure that customers get easy access to the Nokia phone of their own choice.
They also establish a strong supply chain network that helps in the supply of handsets in both
urban and rural areas despite being the remote location. Nokia work with many Small and
Medium Enterprises (SME) that is related to phone and accessories supply and give them a
commission based on the number of sales they made (Mishra, 2018).

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d. Promotion/Marketing Communication
Advertising is the key medium through which Nokia ensures that products are
reaching to their target market. They use all available platforms for promotion such as TV
ads, print media, electronic media, social network, billboards etc. In their promotional
campaign, they give more emphasis on customer satisfaction and their quality products
(Huang & Shih, 2017).
1.4 Product Category
Nokia provides a variety of quality phones. Currently, Nokia is manufacturing three
types of products. These are Android phones, Classic phones, and Accessories.
Android phones: Nokia 3.1 Plus, Nokia 5.1 Plus, Nokia 6.1 Plus, Nokia 7.1 Plus, and
Nokia 8, Nokia 8 Sirocco, and Nokia 8.1 etc.
Classic Phones: Nokia 130 Dual SIM, Nokia 216 Dual SIM, Nokia 105, 106, 150,
3310, and Nokia 8110 4G phone etc.
Accessories: Android charger, Car charger, Earphones etc.
1.5 Direct competitors of Product
For the analysis point of view, one of the best smart mobile phones of Nokia 8 is
competing with two other brands of products that are Apple I-phone X and Samsung S9.
These are the some latest mobile phones in the mobile industry. Nokia is comparatively
cheaper than other two products in the market, but still, Nokia 8 working on Android v7.1.1
(Nougat), while Samsung S9 is working on Android v8.0 (Oreo). If we consider Apple i-
phone X, then it has its own operating system called IoS v11.0.1 (Jiang, Hu, Zhao, Yang, &
Yang, 2018).
(Source: Phone Scrutiny.com, 2018)

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PART-2: Introduction to Product’s Brand Audit
1. Core Proposition of the Brand
The Nokia Lumia 800 is one of the first windows phones of Nokia. Nokia is known
for their innovative technology and has assisted in the development of GSM, 3G, and LTE
(and currently in 5G) and also known for its bulk manufacturing of mobile phones. In 2012-
13, Nokia was totally dominated by Samsung because of the android phones and Apple
dominating in upper-class segments (Vandic, Aanen, Frasincar, & Kaymak, 2017). But in
2017, Nokia came back with its Android phones based on Nougat android Operating system.
Nokia is known for their quality products and they mostly focus on quality at the cheapest
price (Kumar & Menon, 2017). The core propositions of Nokia are as follow:
1. Nokia provides quality and reliable products to its customer.
2. Low pricing products with great quality are the key proposition of Nokia, where they
also prefer skimming pricing strategies.
3. Nokia core business practices and philosophies re providing their customers with
stylish, usable, and superb quality with ease of use.
4. Nokia provides a variety of mobile products in the different price range, which targets
all income group people. While Nokia classic phones are suitable for poor and lower-
middle-class income group people, the Nokia Android phone like ‘S8 or S9' series are
targeting fashionable and upper-income class of people (Zhai & Zhao, 2017).
5. After the comeback in 2016-17, Nokia uses a variety of product-related strategies and
strengthen their supply chain network to supply their products in both urban and rural
areas all over the world. The company has many competitors such as Apple,
Samsung, Oppo, Xiomi etc.
2. Thinking of Stakeholders about the brand
Nokia left its image in mind of its stakeholders as a quality mobile phone manufacturing
company. The stakeholders of Nokia still believe in the products of the company that Nokia
has good quality in terms of lasting materials such as their quality of products including
camera and sensors. The stakeholders hold the opinion that Nokia has full potential to make
strong comeback in the market because of its popularity and quality. Another advantage with
Nokia phones that mobile phones of Nokia are cheaper than other brand phones such as
Samsung and Apple (Giachetti, 2018). The popularity of Nokia Phones decrease when they
failed to identify the customer choice in terms of demand for Android phones. They were

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continuously working on Windows phone, while Samsung and other phone companies
successfully recognize the need of customers and work on android phones.
(Source: MobileScout.com, 2018)
Although Apple I-phones are so costly, in comparison to these phones and only target
those people who belong to the upper-income class. Apple phones are treated as a fashionable
tool for the youths and upper-income class of people. However, when Microsoft buy their
Microsoft business in 2013, people think that Microsoft definitely able to doing something
different which increase the popularity of Nokia phones and increase the profitability of the
Company. But when Microsoft comeback with Android phones in market Samsung and
Apple almost cover most of the mobile phone market. Although, the current customers,
suppliers, employee, and shareholders still are expecting that Nokia will rise and comeback in
mobile phone industry so quickly and give a strong competition to its competitors Apple and
Samsung (Gardere, Sharir, & Maman, 2018).

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3. Marketing Mix and Promotional Strategies of Direct Competitors
Both Apple and Samsung are two close competitors of Nokia. They both spend a huge
amount of money on promotion and advertising campaign. Currently, they both together
cover almost 50-60% of the mobile phone market. The marketing mix strategies of both the
competitors of Nokia can be elaborated separately considering their new products. While
Apple promoting its product Apple I-phone X and Samsung promoting its superior product
Samsung S9, Nokia gives them tough competition with Nokia 8 mobile phones (Giachetti,
2018).
(Source: Shoutech.com, 2018)
3.1 Marketing mix and promotional strategies of Apple I-phone X and Samsung S9
Both Apple and Samsung are two close competitors of Nokia. They both spend a huge
amount of money on promotion and advertising campaign. Currently, they both together
cover almost 50-60% of the mobile phone market. The marketing mix strategies of both the
competitors of Nokia can be elaborated separately considering their new products.
Product: Apple is known for their innovative products and design in their phones. Apple
is regularly focusing on new product design and development. The product and safety
features of Apple products are very different from Nokia and Samsung because its I-phone
runs on its own operating system called IoS. That is why it builds a unique image in the mind
of people (Lakshmi & Kavida, 2018).

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Place: Apple mainly targets those urban areas where people are more fashionable and
trendy. Apple supply chain is not too strong as compare to Samsung and Nokia because they
supply high price products and target only upper-income class people.
Price: If we consider Samsung S9 and Nokia 8 phone with Apple I-phone X then we
found that these phones are cheaper than Apple I-phone. Apple I-phone X is almost three
times costlier than Nokia 8 phones.
Promotion: Apple spends a huge amount on its advertisement and promotional campaign.
However, Samsung also spends a huge amount of money on their products, especially on S
series. Samsung S9 is one of the superior products of Samsung and gives a tough competition
to Apple I-phone. However, Nokia is not too far in this race and they also launch various
promotional videos and advertisements about their Nokia 8 products. If we compare the
promotional strategies of Samsung, Nokia, and Apple, then we found that they almost cover
all the channel of promotion such as print media, electronic media, social media, and even
they launch regularly new videos on You-tube (Shah, Li, Das, Ullah, Shah, Khan, & Al
Qudah, 2018).
PART-3: Brand Audit
Nokia is one of the oldest players in the mobile phone industry. Nokia is known for
their cheap and quality mobile manufacturing. No doubt, Nokia was producing world’s best
smartphones but the company is still struggling to find out the profitable way after their
comeback in mobile manufacturing industry (Trifilova, 2017). The main reason behind this is
the lack in productivity and low profit of Nokia. Competitors of Nokia are continuously
eating their market shares with superior market practices and innovative products.
1. Broad Target Market of Nokia
Nokia's currently focuses on various age groups of customers, but the major focus of
Nokia is on youths and customers between 19-39 years old people who are looking for
entertainment. Nokia also targets the middle-class people having low income and provide low
price cost products. To attract new customers and youth generations Nokia provides latest
and innovative features in their smartphones and now Nokia is also manufacturing their
products on Android OS that competes with other competitor’s brand products. The
psychological variables of Nokia include personality characteristics, motives, and lifestyle to
segment markets (Carlsson-Wall, Håkansson, & Kraus, 2018).

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2. Differentiation Points
Nokia provides the best quality products at lower prices and this is the advantage of
Nokia products. This can be also treated as a differentiation point that they mostly consider
the need for a different segment of people and manufacture their product according to their
needs. Although, the trust of people with Nokia is still same that create a strong
differentiation point for Nokia. Apart from this, Nokia differentiates its products by
producing multiple colour products that attract customers that differentiate its products from
other rivalry brands such as Samsung and Apple (Grzybowski & Nicolle, 2018).
3. Positioning
Nokia’s positioning statement is “connecting people” through which company want to
target their customers. They psychologically create a place in the mind of people that
company helps them to connect with their dear ones by providing them quality mobile phone,
which assist them in communication with their family and friends (Mishra, 2018).
4. Relevance, Identity, and Relationships
Nokia has established a strong relationship with their customers. In initial days of
their mobile manufacturing they mostly focus on the requirement of customers, but after
failing to adopt the change in form of Android OS, they had to again settle their self as a
brand in the mobile manufacturing industry. The relevance of Nokia mobile production is
most relevant to the need of customers. Nokia is known for their quality and they have
already established a good brand image in the mind of their customers in past, so they do not
have to work hard in future to establish as a brand image. They are not new in this market.
Thus, they should have only focused on producing those products that are more relevant to
user needs and requirements (Hu, Lin, Qian, & Sun, 2018).
PART-4: Conclusion
1. Strengthening Brand Equity
The brand audit of Nokia proves that Nokia has strong brand equity. The customers of
Nokia are aware of the Nokia products and brands. Therefore, it can be said that Nokia has
high level of brand awareness. After the comeback in mobile manufacturing with Android
handsets, Nokia can quickly recall their brand name in the mind of their customers and there
is proper recognition which customers can retrieve at ease. The above study also suggests that
people have trust in Nokia and in their quality products. Therefore, company only need to

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focus on those products that fulfil user requirements to create its brand equity again. Another
fact that is found to be true that people who are using other smartphones still have a passion
for Nokia phones because they identify different key attributes of Nokia products that are
beneficial for them to enhance their brand equity and place their products in the mind of
customers.
2. Improving Integrated Marketing Communications Strategy
To enhance the brand equity of the company Nokia focuses on its mission, which is
regain its leadership position in the market in the manufacturing of mobile phone industry.
Nokia sees their greatest potential for achieving its objective in collaboration with Microsoft,
but the major problem which influences the performance of Nokia is a large number of
competitors already are operating their business in the smartphone industry. The new Nokia 8
is giving tough competition to Apple and Samsung but still, the company is too far to recover
their lost markets. There are dozens of competitors giving strong competition in the market.
These mobile phone companies almost cover all the channels of promotion and pass the
relevant message about their products to their customers, and create an image in their mind
about what they are offering to them and how it is different from other competitors brand
products.
From the above conclusion, we can say that Nokia should focus on its innovation and
branding to maintain its leadership image in the highly competitive market because they
already a brand and people know about their quality. The only thing they should focus on
innovative technology and should differentiate their products from other competitors in terms
of innovation and quality.

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