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Nokia

The Potential

Nokia is the largest manufacturer of mobile phone handsets in the world, but increasingly the market was being driven by product design and aesthetics rather than functionality. Competitor handsets were outperforming many Nokia models on this characteristic and the Nokia brand was beginning to lose its design cachet. In response to this trend Nokia were considering the introduction of a supplementary youth positioning to engage and recruit the vital youth audience into the brand.

We were asked to run a global qualitative research exercise working alongside Grey Worldwide to examine several potential youth oriented expressions for Nokia.

The Outcome

We tested four alternative youth positionings in 15 countries globally to assess their relative appeal and to draw insights about the communication style that might appeal to this diverse and changeable market.

A fundamental learning emerging from this is that Nokia is a brand whose maturity and ubiquity mean that an overt youth positioning would be a surprising move and one that might risk alienating certain audience groups. The market testing also allowed us the opportunity to map the Nokia brand against other selected brands to help us understand their peer group Whilst no single positioning was preferred we used the feedback and insights to inform communication style guidelines for the brand and have continued to work closely with the central brand and consumer insights team.

The Reality

Nokia continues to pursue the important youth market through the more motivating area of product, and our recommendations from the brand research has informed both the way products are designed and the tonal characteristics of communications to a youth audience.

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