Nokia looks to Sky to reward advocates
Nokia is to take inspiration from Sky’s long-running recommend a friend scheme as it explores a similar initiative to reward consumers that encourage people to buy their products via social media.
Speaking to Marketing Week after his presentation at Chinwag and Our Social Times’ Facebook Marketing conference this week, Nokia’s global editor in chief of social media Thomas Messett said the brand still has a problem where consumers do not necessarily consider Nokia in the high-end mobile market.
He said it “would be stupid” not to explore methods that have worked well in the past to tackle this problem and Nokia wants to encourage more consumers to trial its smartphones by leveraging its advocates on social media.
“Refer a friend with Sky has worked incredibly well for a number of years. For us it’s now looking at what we offer and the market we work in and making sure we get the delivery right,” he said.
The “reward” may not be monetary, like Sky’s introduce a friend deal, which currently offers customers £75 worth in retail vouchers. Messett did not reveal further details because Nokia’s scheme is currently only being trialled “couple of markets”.
Generally, Nokia is also looking to social media to ensure owners of its devices share stories about how they use the phone with their friends.
“We want to make it really easy for that person who just turned on their new phone to like Nokia on Facebook and share on the site that they just bought this new phone and love it,” Messett said.
Elsewhere, Nokia is also making its social media and wider marketing activity more lifestyle-focused as it looks to appeal to consumers beyond the early technology adopters and influencers it targeted when it first embarked on its turnaround strategy last year.
Messett said: “Some people in the tech space struggle to get past this attitude of saying ‘is it the fastest?’, or ‘does it have the biggest screen?’. We are great overall and we need to find the people who appreciate that.”
The recommend a friend trial comes as Nokia reported it made a loss of €1.41bn (£1.1bn) in the second quarter of this year, despite doubling sales of its flagship Lumia smartphone series, which it is bidding on for its turnaround as it looks to be a top player alongside Apple and Samsung once again in the mobile device market.
Chief executive Stephen Elop said in Nokia’s second quarter financial report that the company is facing “greater than expected competitive challenges” as it struggles to make its brand as appealing to consumers as its rivals.
