asgnm2 (autosaved) competitor analysis for marketing Nokia

Introduction:
Any organization that wishes to succeed in their market, needs to analyze their
competitor's strategies. Competitor analysis is a vital part of the marketing
planning process. A strong competitor can hinder business success, even lead to
business failure. Competitor analysis helps firms to anticipate their competitor's
actions and exploit competitor's weaknesses. It also helps firms to identify their
unique selling points, so that these can be promoted in marketing campaigns.
Competitor analysis is an ongoing task, as successful competitors will continuously
develop their marketing strategies, in response to change in the marketplace. The
Competitive Profile Matrix (CPM) is a powerful tool that helps firms in general,
and Nokia in specifically distill a vast of data into a single numeric score so that
they can identify their strongest competitors as well as the areas they most need to
improve.
Critical success factors (CSF) are those factors in which influence the capability of
industry players to flourish in the marketplace. On the basis of these factors, a
customer decides between competing brands of rivals. By identifying your critical
success factors, you can create a common point of reference to help you direct and
measure the success of your business or project. As a common point of reference,
CSFs help everyone in the team to find out exactly what's most important. And this
helps people perform their own work in the right context and so pull together
towards the same overall aims. There are some important key factors of Nokia.

Insert table below,
then explain

The most important factor is price/platform. Because when users want to buy a
smartphone, they will think what they want to spend on their next smartphone? Is it
worth it to use all their salary or is it perhaps appropriate to limit themselves and
choose something cheaper but equally powerful and in steps with the times? So,
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what they need is a good smartphone but the price also has to be reasonable. Nokia
has many products for medium market segmentation which will make users satisfy.
Next is the brand name. Organizations will always find ways to differentiate them
from the others especially in the smartphone industry that keep always changing
the technology. The organizations have to find new technology that not available in
the market and meet demand the customers. The brand name can be an identity and
exclusivity that represent the organization. The brand name can be a name, term,
symbol, and design to differentiate the organization from the competitors. For
example, the brand of Samsung, BlackBerry, Apple HTC, Nokia, and LG are
smartphones mostly purchased by the customers.
Then, we have the advertising. At a basic level, advertising is a form of marketing
communication that promotes and spreads awareness about an entity that could be
a service, product, or even an ideology. In the same vein, mobile advertising
reaches out to audiences from a similar promotional perspective. However, instead
of approaching your market on the streets in the form of posters, or on the Internet
in the form of banner advertisements, mobile advertising takes advantage of the
quickly-growing popularity associated with mobile devices. In other words,
advertising is the fastest method help firm access the market. A unique commercial
can have the strong impact on the customer or even people who have not intended
to use the product, yet.
The qualities of cameras in smartphones play an important role so, at present time
when somebody thinks of purchasing a smartphone, the first thing that comes into
his or her mind is the quality of the camera installed in the smartphone. Nowadays,
when people go, maybe to a concert, a wedding, a picnic, an even, a gathering with
friends or with family members, taking photos have become something like a
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fashion. Then again when these photos are taken, nobody uses cameras like in the

old days but instead with their smartphones which are installed with high-quality
cameras. So, it has become essential for phone manufacturers to install highquality cameras on their smartphones. Then there is selfie which is a self-portrait
photograph taken with a digital camera or a smartphone camera. Selfie has become
so popular, and smartphones also need to have a function where selfie photos can
also be taken.
The new feature is also needed. In today’s fast-paced world, the mobile feature
market is expanding by leaps and bounds. Consequently, mobile marketing is
becoming more competitive. To ensure the visibility of your smartphone’s feature
in such a complex scenario, you need to be very particular about the approach
being followed for mobile phone feature development. It’s what makes you
become different from other smartphone rivals.
Customer service is what a manufacturer needs to have. It is often believed that the
key to loyal customers is after sale service. While a smartphone can be the best in
its price range, if the company has a relatively poor after sale service record,
customers tend to deviate to potential alternatives. As a manufacturer, you need to
have enough number of service centers to cater your customers, and if we take the
numbers for today, this is where Samsung easily knocks off everyone else on the
list.
The design is just as important as any other aspect of a smartphone. If cell- phone
design didn't matter or mattered only to make the sale, the phone-makers wouldn't
spend hours on ethnographic research in people's homes, and piles of money
delving into exact manufacturing processes and materials chemistry to get the
color, build, and coatings just right. The size, shape, button placement, color, and
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other decorations are what a lot of consumers use to make a snap decision right
away on whether they think they'll like the device or not.
Beside of those above factors, factors that relate to technology like display, battery,
and operating system are critical, too. For viewing images and videos, or visiting

websites, an extra large screen might work for a user. And it can’t deny that larger
phones have the advantage with their ability to host larger batteries as well. It is
said that battery life is what users concern about most when coming to mobile
phone features. A long life battery will make them satisfy so the manufacturer must
care about it. One product feature is of essential significance for any smartphone is
the mobile OS. The mobile OS is a piece of essential software for any smartphone
and acts as an interface between hardware resources and applications. Deciding on
a mobile OS therefore also determines essential aspects with regard to
performance, security, and applications available to the user with respect to the
smartphone so it’s the reason why OS in the critical factors.

Analysis statistic table:
The table on the next page will indicate more about the situation of Nokia and find
out what should Nokia do to boost their product sales

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The Competitive Profile Matrix of Nokia

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According to the CPM matrix, we could see that there are around 5 main
competitors which are swiftly increasing their market share in the market of
smartphone.
Overall, the Sam Sung j7 pro seems to be the smartphone that customers prefer to
use most and the Huawei Nova 2i is unpopular than others; however, we should
consider more specifically in each of CSF, to find out where is the position of
Nokia in the mid-range segment.

First of all, let’s see the latest product of Nokia_ the Nokia X6. Nokia X6 is rated
highly with the state of the art operating system_ the Android 8.1 (Oreo), at 4;
however, the highest score is the price based on the platform of Nokia X6, at 0.6
points. In the other words, with the price around 5.200.000 VND, the performance
of Nokia X6 is out of expectation with the dual camera, elegant design with the
notch display, and smooth operating system. However, the customer service and
the durability of the battery are the weaknesses of the latest Nokia’s smartphone
with the score of 0.1 and 0.05 appropriately. The total points for Nokia X6 are 2.
25.
Next, the Sam Sung J7 pro is considered to be the best choice in the mid-range
segment. Clearly, the high rating in brand name, advertising, and long- life battery
leads to total score is 2.9. There also have some minus point for Sam Sung J7 pro
connected with the new features or functions of the device, as well as the ability to
update the new operating system.

Ko cần phân tích

From the table, obviously, Huawei has no strengths to compete with other
competitors. Nevertheless, by using effective advertising, Huawei somehow
attracts more and more audiences who will be their target customer in the future.
This makes the Nova 2i of Huawei be more popular with low-income people who
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are looking for a low price smartphone. Apart from 0.4 points of the price and
0.375 points of advertising, there is no emerged factor can be the strength of the
Nova 2i.
Vivo V9 and OPPO F5 are 2 smartphones having the same level of price, at 7
million VND. However, there are some differences between the Vivo V9 and the
OPPO F5. Having been made in China, the quality of the camera is the unique

feature of both V9 and F5, both of them using AI technology to improve the ability
to snap the photo of the user. This helps them have brilliant photos with no defect
on the face and this strength is applied in their own advertising strategies. With 0.5
points in advertising, OPPO F5 defeats Vivo V9 (0.375 points) by 0.143 points,
becomes the strongest rival in the advertising field, together with Sam Sung J7 pro.
More specifically, in each market, OPPO uses the national celebrities who have the
strong effect on citizens, to be their face representation or brand ambassador. For
example, in Vietnam, OPPO invites Son Tung MTP, Isaac or Ho Ngoc Ha, Toc
Tien to be their agent in a specific product. When people see the advertising, they
will be curious whether OPPO is good or not, why do these celebrities use it?
Besides, the eyes- catching design of OPPO is also one of the critical factors that
make F5 be more attractive than Vivo V9. With the same price, but Vivo V9 and
OPPO F5 also have a low score in price. The OS of 2 kinds of a smartphone are
poor as well, the V9 is scored at 0.15 and 0.1 with the F5
And last but not least, the Sony XA1 Plus which is rated 4.5/5 star by users on
Gadgets now [ CITATION Son \l 1033 ]. We could see that, the XA1 Plus has
strength in customer service and the performance of XA1 Plus is suitable for this
price level, nearly 6 million VND. Sony has their own reputation, their own
technology, but their XA1 Plus, as well as the product line, is not popular with
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users. Advertising and design are 2 main reasons that lead to this problem.
Contrary to others, the commercial of Sony used to get bored and familiar, go
along with this is the unchanged design. These obstacles make XA1 Plus of Sony_
a big guy in the smartphone market have to stand behind OPPO F5 which the total
score is 2.875.
Among 5 competitors of Nokia, Sam Sung is the strongest one and Huawei is the
weakest; however, other competitors also have their own strengths which take
them to be the market leader of the particular field.

Market leaders, who are they? And what can Nokia learn
from them?
 Price/Platform: The Sony Xperia XA1 Plus might only be a mid-range
handset, but it offers good specs, like the introduction of the fingerprint
sensor and a huge battery that should more than see you through the day,
especially if you take into account Sony's previous battery reputation. This is
really a product that satisfies most popular needs in the mid-range handset as
agility, good performance, a battery can use all day with the high-end
camera, quality display, lightweight software which closes to native
Android. Especially the Sony brand is still very popular in the world
compared with the others brand from China.
 The lesson can be learned is that Nokia’s mid-range products should
provide a good mobile experience. Because customer wants the midrange smartphone can really give users a great experience with an
affordable price.
 Brand Name: Samsung has become one of the most popular Android
smartphones of all time, with an incredible camera's and sleep designs such
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as the Samsung Galaxy Edge... while Sony is known globally for their wide
range of consumer electronics including a smartphone. Both of them have a
lot of loyal customers. So that customers just hear this is a Samsung
smartphone or Sony smartphone they auto want to buy it.
 Advertising:
OPPO focuses extensively on promoting itself as a global brand and takes its
public relations very seriously and has adopted a geo-localized strategy for
its brand promotion and uses local talents for celebrity endorsements of its
products. In case of India, OPPO has acquired rights to sponsor Indian
national cricket team for the duration of 2017-2022. “OPPO Mobiles India,

the smartphone manufacturer, has won the Indian team sponsorship rights
for a five-year period, starting April 1, 2017” [ CITATION Aru17 \l 1033 ].
OPPO is also an official partner of the Spanish football club- FC Barcelona.
“The company chose FC Barcelona not only because of their status as a
global iconic football club but also because they represent the art of
football. The partnership with FC Barcelona will be an important step in
OPPO’s global marketing strategy.”-Tony Chen, CEO, OPPO [ CITATION
Ala15 \l 1033 ]. Further, since it uses a multi-domestic strategy it uses
different marketing communication methods according to various regions.
As in case of OPPO Vietnam, it hired celebrities such as Son Tung MTP as
their brand ambassadors for promoting their products in Vietnam. On the
other hand, for OPPO digital products, the brand doesn’t rely on the
aggressive marketing techniques used for its smartphone business as it is
catering to a very niche segment of users in those categories. OPPO also
advertise through digital media such as TV, Radio, and advertise on online
portals and e-commerce websites such as YouTube and Facebook.

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 Samsung does this by investing heavily in traditional advertising just like
companies such as Coca-Cola and Nike. This is evident from ads coursed
through traditional mediums such as print and broadcast as well as new
mediums including social media. Samsung also does push marketing using
celebrity endorsements and spot placements on major events including
sports and entertainment shows. For example, in Vietnam upcoming singer
Isaac has been used for the promotion of Samsung Galaxy J7. The company
has also maintained accounts on social networking sites such as Facebook,
Twitter, and YouTube to purchase ad spaces while also maintaining the
online presence. Using social media, the company tries to build and maintain

the relationship with consumers through an online presence. The social
networking accounts of Samsung also serve as a venue for discussions and
announcements.
 Barraging the public with marketing messages will definitely stir
interest until the company converts some portion of the general
audience into loyal consumers does create a mechanism for
supporting future pull marketing strategies. So, Nokia should use a
multi-domestic strategy it uses different marketing communication
methods according to various regions
 Camera: OPPO, Vivo are from the same Chinese parent company, BBK
Electronics and both of them have a good camera. They focus on the selfie
feature which is the strength of the OPPO and Vivo line product so that
Camera Vivo V9 and F5 not only high in resolution or dual camera
technology, but it is also supported by AI_ artificial intelligence with many
different features. Aside from taking amazing selfies, the front-facing
camera also has the Face Unlock feature.

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 Customer service: Sony has played by its greatest strength – volume. By
having a large number of customer support centers and by building a strong
self-service portal, Sony has continued to be one of the best in terms of
customer service. With innovation often comes glitches and problems that
previously have never been encountered – meaning tech companies need to
be extra diligent when it comes to providing their customers with solutions
to common issues.
Instead of waiting for customers to encounter these glitches and contact
customer support, Sony has implemented a system of predictive diagnostics,
allowing the company’s tech gurus to monitor equipment around the world

in order to proactively identify possible pitfalls and technical issues. If one
consumer has an issue with a piece of equipment, Sony will work to ensure
no one else encounters this problem in the future.
 The lesson to be learned here is that it’s much more beneficial to fix a
problem at its root once, rather than to fix individual problems
multiple times over. Nokia should work to notice trends in customer
complaints – and get to the bottom of the company’s largest problems.
 Display: The OPPO F5 comes with a 6-inch tall 18:9 LCD panel of
2,160x1,080 pixel resolution[ CITATION Joe17 \l 1033 ]. That's fine for the
price point and in day-to-day use, it never feels like it's lacking in sharpness.
Its corners are rounded and that is just one of the many aspects of the phone
that make it feel more expensive than it actually is. The colors are vibrant
enough and while the temperature is set in such a way that whites are too
bluish, it's not as extreme an effect as we've seen on other phones, especially
mid-rangers from the competition. People seem to prefer whites that are
more bluish than they should be anyway, so it's unlikely you'll have a

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problem with this unless you can't stand a screen that isn't properly
calibrated.
 Battery: Powering the OPPO F5 is a 3,200mAh Li-Ion battery that actually
gets quite a lot of mileage[ CITATION Joe17 \l 1033 ]. In real-world usage,
you can comfortably last a whole day on a single full charge from the
previous night. As for charging, empty to full will take you slightly under
two hours.

What should Nokia do to improve their performance?

The end nhé)
phần dưới là t
làm rồi

Nokia still lacks foothold in Android market. Despite it being a veteran among the
smartphones, it has only recently adopted the Android operating system.
In order to know what to improve, they first need to identify what they are lacking.
First of all, it's the design. Not only can you compare the current Nokia flagships to
the high-end smartphones like Samsung Galaxy S9 or iPhone 10, but it also
somehow looks less slick than the cheaper (or similarly priced) Asus, HTC, Oppo,
and Xiaomi phones.
Secondly, marketing, almost everyone now has the impression of crappy phones
with Windows Mobile Operating System when they think of Nokia. Now Nokia
needs to bump up the marketing to completely renew their image. We are seeing
nowadays some marketing events by Nokia such as Nokia friend day or something
like that, but that's not enough.
Thirdly, they need to improve their features and strengthen what makes them
unique. Apple has its own Operating system iOS. Samsung uses Android, but they
heavily modified to make it distinctive enough from other devices, and sleeker
Google uses Android, but they also modified it significantly for their Pixel Phones.
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Now, Nokia has its Zeiss-branded camera, but it still lacks some parts in image
quality compared to other major brands.
Therefore, we would like to give business strategy suggestions base on the
improvement of the failure of Nokia in the past.
In the first place, for the design, between two options of trendy design or a unique
one, we would like to suggest that Nokia put both options into its different product
lines. Because each choice has its strengths and weaknesses, flexibility in design

will help it reduces the gap in each choice. In more detail, an attractive unique
design will be a priority on the company’s strategy mobile devices, and trendy
design will be used on low-cost and mid-range devices. The reasons for these
choices are as follows:
The strengths of multi-format design and trend are helping the company expand
the market, the product reaches users more quickly. However, in the past, the
company set out a segmentation strategy in favor of users with the hope of
promoting growth in the mobile business. This strategy was successful at the
beginning when customers were always able to find the product they liked, but
over time, the idea was exhausted and the market segmentation was unclear which
made Nokia did not have many differences between its products. In addition, not
being able to create a trend in design but focusing on the design of products
running the trend is not a good idea, for the product will not be able to impress the
customer and quickly be forgotten in hundreds of other copy designs.
A unique and charming design can create the trend and impression of the customer.
In addition, this can help the company gain amount of loyal customers. As
mentioned above, it is important to prioritize the unique design of the flagship
devices so that these products are designed to fit the interests of the majority of
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customers in that segment. For instance, it is easy to realize the design of Sony’s
strategic mobiles targets at male customers with relatively stable income through
the manly luxury square design. The back of the luminescent glass; emphasize the
quality of the camera and sound.
The truth is, a unique design can limit the market, but ultimately, being marketbound in one segment is better than not giving the impression of agent design, and
can lead to unstable customer due to continuous design changes.
We would like to emphasize the combination of the two design styles on the
different product lines of Nokia, first, a unique design will belong to the flagship
product line to create the brand impression and satisfy loyal customers'

preferences. Second, trending design will be in the lower-cost and mid-range
product lines to expand the market and reach new customers.
At the second place, the market is expanding with more and more new competitors
and new features, especially the fierce competition of Chinese agents in recent
years. Therefore, above, when we are not too keen on changing the product in part
because of the design that is important when it comes to making a visual
impression on the customers, but the factor which makes customers buy and stick
with that product is the desire to experience new features and good performance.
For example, Sony products are always considered conservative when they have
not changed the design over the years, yet their products are not being dumped out
of the market because they keep creating new features and make them become the
trend, or do not stop improve abilities to support users.
In the past, when Apple and Google launched two operating systems, iOS and
Android, the mobile industry was redefined. While Nokia, as the leader in the
mobile phone market, was not able to compete with these competitors at this time,
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it was still focused on simple models and loyal with an out-of-date operating
system, Symbian[ CITATION Dil13 \l 1033 ].
Therefore, Nokia should learn from its own mistakes. Pay attention to creativity
and invest in creating new features on products.
A sluggishly designed product line can be offensive to a number of customers, but
if a sleeky, trendy product line does not possess any new feature, it will easily be
overshadowed by competitors. And cannot stay long in the competitive market.
In the third place, one another thing Nokia should improve is customer service. In
the past, one of the failures of Nokia lied in being weak in customer service. There
are many customers in India complaining about slow service in Nokia centers,
although Nokia has placed about 300 service centers there. [ CITATION Ico14 \l
1033 ]

Although the company succeeded in resonating in the new product lines, they
could still lose customers due to its neglect in customer caring for sales.
If after buying products, customers gain quick help when needed, they will have a
better impression on the agent because they feel appreciated. Therefore, in order to
create smoothness in the sale of products, they should set a detailed and complete
business strategy at every stage. Their business plans do not stop even products are
purchased. Providing a care service is necessary because that may be the people
who can help the company acquire new customers.

Conclusion:

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Nokia was an admirable company when it built a giant mobile phone empire before
the smartphone was born. Of course, the company did nothing wrong when still
operating the business in the old successful way.
Nevertheless, the world is changing so fast and the rivalry of Nokia is too strong.
Obviously, this production group had not learned, improved and changed.
Consequently, they missed the opportunity to go further.
During the peak, Nokia almost occupied the cellphone segment. The company has
launched new models with different designs. When the first smartphone series was
developed, Nokia still did not recognize the change of appearance is not enough
and missed the opportunity to invest in the smartphone. This miss made Nokia not
only lose money but also create opportunities for other competitors to rise.
Currently, Apple with iPhone and Samsung with Galaxy are the main players in the
market, not Nokia.
The story of Nokia shows that if the business does not change, they will be
eliminated by the market and the competitors.

References
(2014). Retrieved from Icomplaints.in: />Access on: 26/05/2018
Dilger, D. E. (2013). How Apple's Iphone rapidly destroyed Nokia's world leading
Symbian platform. Retrieved from appleinsider:
/>Access on: 26/05/2018
F, A. (2015). OPPO agrees to 3 years partnership with FC Barcelona. Retrieved
from phoneArena.com: />Access on: 27/05/2018
Maceda, J. (2017). OPPO F5 Review. Retrieved from YUGATECH:
/>Access on: 27/05/2018
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Sony XA1 Plus rate. (n.d.). Retrieved from Gadgets Now:
/>Access on: 26/05/2018
Venugopal, A. (2017). OPPO wins Indian team sponsorship rights till 2022.
Retrieved from ESPN cricinfo:
/>Access on: 28/06/2018

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