Nokia doesn’t seem to learn from its mistakes and while the company has now enabled prebooking of Nokia N8, there are basic flaws that I see in the entire launch strategy.
First lets go back in post history and let me share what I wrote in an earlier article (Launch Strategy of iPhone and one damn GTM lesson Nokia/Blackberry can learn)
So while N900 has been officially launched, it is still not for public view. Unless you really want to look for more information on N900 and end up visiting the N900 page, you will have no clue about the official launch, about the new killer phone Nokia has launched.
Compare this with Apple, who in turn ensures that all the hype created gets consumed in the most actionable form. Enough information is shared and device information is announced only and only when Apple is ready to talk about it (even mailers are sent the same day).
Nokia does it again with N8 and here is how.
– Creating a new website
You can prebook N8 using this link : http://www.getnokia.in/n8/ (and not from the Nokia’s official site, i.e. Nokia.co.in). No official mention of Nokia N8 on the official site! (Nokia is marketing C3, but ‘lack of real estate’ is hardly an excuse to not market the most awaited Nokia product).
Fun starts when you visit the http://getnokia.in site (“Directory Listing Denied” error!) – so much so for landing page optimization.
I do know that this a LMS (Lead Management System), but shouldn’t this be an internal integration rather than launching a website for every product?
Qn What really happens to such microsites?
A: They die.
One of the most advertised product, N97 Mini’s site (http://getN97Mini.com) now looks like a parked domain for Nokia (sql error when you hit the login/password button). Somebody just forgot to do something to this site, because Nokia marketing team decided to throw money on some other products. Lack of Accountability?
Prebook – Without Launch Details?
What’s the N8 launch date? What’s the price of N8 in India? No information has been shared and it seems that Nokia’s senior management team is being fooled by their digital media partners? There is a difference between ‘leads’ and ‘qualified leads’; and with such a vague form filling, they will get nothing but high volume junk – maybe that’s what pleases the senior management.
But this is nothing but a super mediocre launch strategy. Here is another one:
Launch Price
Nokia always gets it wrong.
Take the example of N97, N900 launch price and how it changed within a month (5K drop in some cases). Given Nokia’s learning curve, expect N8 to launch at an exorbitant price and that means, Nokia will fail to capitalize on the generated buzz.
Why? Because once the buzz dies, sales team will look at the sales numbers and then will flow another set of press releases/media outreach program to announce the slashed price.
Why can’t they get the pricing right with smartphones – they have the best sales/consumer analytics data available.
What I am trying to say is that a company which is going deep down the drain needs to get its act together – they need to get more focused and orchestrate product launches, especially when future depends on some of these key products.
Maybe, Nokia needs a leader and not a professional CEO.
Maybe, they need an internal mission ‘Connecting People‘ – i.e. connecting employees across engineering/sales/marketing/PM and most importantly, vendors (like retailers).
