“STUDY ON PROCESS REFERENCE FOR PRODUCT INNOVATION AND LIFE CYCLE

MANAGEMENT WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO NOKIA MOBILES”

CHAPTER-1

INTRODUCTION

STUDY ON PROCESS REFERENCE FOR PRODUCT INNOVATION AND LIFE CYCLE

MANAGEMENT WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO NOKIA MOBILES

INTRODUCTION:

All products and services have certain life cycles. The life cycle refers to the period from the product’s first
launch into the market until its final withdrawal and it is split up in phases. During this period significant
changes are made in the way that the product is behaving into the market i.e. its reflection in respect of sales
to the company that introduced it into the market. Since an increase in profits is the major goal of a company
that introduces a product into a market, the product’s life cycle management is very important. Some
companies use strategic planning and others follow the basic rules of the different life cycle phases that are
analysed later. The understanding of a product’s life cycle can help a company to understand and realize
when it is time to introduce and withdraw a product from a market, its position in the market compared to
competitors, and the product’s success or failure. For a company to fully understand the above and
successfully manage a product’s life cycle, it needs to develop strategies and methodologies, some of which
are discussed later on.

The product’s life cycle - period usually consists of five major steps or phases: Product development,
Product introduction, Product growth, Product maturity and finally Product decline. These phases exist and
are applicable to all products or services from a certain make of automobile to a multimillion-dollar
lithography tool to a one-cent capacitor. These phases can be split up into smaller ones depending on the
product and must be considered when a new product is to be introduced into a market since they dictate the
product’s sales performance.

DR. AMBEDKAR INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT OF STUDIES

“STUDY ON PROCESS REFERENCE FOR PRODUCT INNOVATION AND LIFE CYCLE
MANAGEMENT WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO NOKIA MOBILES”

Having a properly managed product life cycle strategy can help extend the life cycle of your product in the
market. The strategy begins right at the market introduction stage with setting of pricing. Options include
‘price skimming,’ where the initial price is set high and then lowered in order to ‘skim’ consumer groups as
the market grows. Alternatively, you can opt for price penetration, setting the price low to reach as much of
the market as quickly as possible before increasing the price once established. Product advertising and
packaging are equally important in order to appeal to the target market. In addition, it is important to market
your product to new demographics in order to grow your revenue stream. Products may also become
redundant or need to be pivoted to meet changing demands. An example of this is Netflix, who moved from
a DVD rental delivery model to subscription streaming. Understanding the product life cycle allows you to
keep reinventing and innovating with an existing product (like the iPhone) to reinvigorate demand and
elongate the product’s market life.

DR. AMBEDKAR INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT OF STUDIES

“STUDY ON PROCESS REFERENCE FOR PRODUCT INNOVATION AND LIFE CYCLE
MANAGEMENT WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO NOKIA MOBILES”

STAGES OF THE PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE

The four major stages of the product life cycle are as follows: -

Introduction Stage: The Company is new to the market at this point and few potential customers are
aware of the product's presence. Typically, the price is high. The product's sales are small or may be limited
to early adopters. Profits are often small or losses are made due to the high cost of ads and recovery of
development costs. The product is unknown at the introductory stage: - ∙ The product is new to the Market ∙
The price is generally high, ∙ The placement approach is selective, and ∙ The promotion is informative and
more over personalized.

Growth Stage: The product becomes more widely known and acceptable on the market at this point.
Marketing is done to promote the brand and create a product image. When rivals enter the market, prices can
begin to fall. Profit will begin to be received with the increase in sales, but advertising costs remain high. In
the stage of growth: - The product is now established in the market and consumed by the consumer, ∙The
price started to decline with the entry of new competitors, ∙ The placement network becomes more widely
spread, and ∙ The company is more focused on creating the brand image

Maturity Stage: The product competes with alternatives at this stage. At its peak are sales and profits. When
adding both with and scope, the product range can be expanded. The price reaches its lowest point with the
rises in competition. To order to increase frequent sales, advertisement is performed to enhance the product
brand in the minds of the buyer. At the point of maturity: - ∙ The product is competing with its alternatives
and rivalries, ∙ The sales are at their top. ∙ The prices reach to its lowest level ∙ the placement is intense, and ∙
The promotion is focused on re- purchasing.

Decline Stage: Sales start to fall steadily at this point as a result of a decrease in the product range. As
many players have left the market, the company faces reduced competition, and no new competitors are
expected to enter the market. There is also a drop in advertising costs. As some price stability is anticipated,
focus is on the remaining niches of the market. As development costs, each product sold could be profitable
the product faces low competition, the sales volume decreases, the price is likely to diminish, the placement
is selective, and the promotion is focused on market presence.

FOUR STAGES OF PRODUCT WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO NOKIA

DR. AMBEDKAR INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT OF STUDIES
“STUDY ON PROCESS REFERENCE FOR PRODUCT INNOVATION AND LIFE CYCLE
MANAGEMENT WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO NOKIA MOBILES”

∙ Introduction Stage: Nokia is a Finland -based multinational company that was once introduced by
Fredrik Ides tam at in the year 1865. Not many of us know this, but Nokia started to make wires, pulp and
rubber. It's Dig handheld GSM handset, Nokia 1011 launched in 1992. The company didn’t introduce a
range of products because it is much less demanding.

∙ Growth Stage: Nokia Launched phones without external antenna with better features like games, alarm,
ergonomic keypad, display etc. Models like Nokia 3310/3315 marked beginning of growth stage launched
models like N95 to compete with Apple’s i-phone product.

∙ Maturity Stage: Launched a lot of touch screen models Dropped Mobile Prices. Launched QWERTY
touch model N-97 Most Profit Gained.

∙ Decline Stage: Nokia’s bad product layout and having its main centre of attention on Windows as its
OS, lead to its decline. Nokia is going thru this stage now. ∙ Microsoft Nokia Deal: Microsoft buys Nokia
phones, patent for $7.2Billion Proposed price consists of $5 billion for the Nokia unit that makes mobile
phones. Another $2.2billion will be paid for a 10-year license to use Nokia’s patents, with the option to
extend it indefinitely. About 32,000 Nokia employees will transfer to Microsoft, which currently has about
99,000 workers. ∙ Reasons for Selling Its Assets Net Operating Loss Losing Market Share.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

More demand for Android phones and Android as a software, made Nokia rethink its strategy of window as
software. Nokia was slow in responding to the market trends. In India, Local market has been captured by
that mobile phone industry which was offering High battery life, high speed and Low end of QWERTY
keypad. Nokia stuck to its high-quality sturdy phones without looking into what other brands are offering in
terms of touch screen advancement. Nokia entered very late in the android phones segment as it was already
captured by the ¾ phone industry. As Android and IOS became more popular, Nokia and its windows
phones failed to attract any attention.

NEEDS AND RELEVANCE OF THE STUDY

should focus more on advanced technological aspects a well as innovative straggles which led it to compete
with top brands like Xiomi, Samsung, Company should incorporate various Attractive features in its product
which can increase its demand in market Product should be user friendly and should be able to fulfil
consumer requirements like better storage ,better pixel density, camera quality, Battery backup, In this
present era youth is the main target market for the mobile industry so company should manufacture phones

DR. AMBEDKAR INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT OF STUDIES

“STUDY ON PROCESS REFERENCE FOR PRODUCT INNOVATION AND LIFE CYCLE
MANAGEMENT WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO NOKIA MOBILES”

according to the preferences After sales services is also one of the major factors for the success in the
market so it should not be neglected.

CHAPTER -2

METHODOLOGY

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study has been taken into the consideration of different stages which were available into the market. The
problem of every enterprise irrespective of its vicinity is comparable in nature so the solution given at the
cease of the study to common troubles may also be relevant even in other phases of the country. The scope

DR. AMBEDKAR INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT OF STUDIES

“STUDY ON PROCESS REFERENCE FOR PRODUCT INNOVATION AND LIFE CYCLE
MANAGEMENT WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO NOKIA MOBILES”

of learning is vast as it will assist to recognize in important points the market position of Nokia company and
its product lifestyles cycle.

OBJECTIVES OF STUDY

❖ To study the current practice in product offering of Nokia.

❖ To explore the product life cycle management process of Nokia.
❖ To recommend some innovative practices to bring robustness in product life cycle management.

LITERATURE REVIEW

1. Funk, J. L. 2004 The objective of this paper is to applies the product life cycle theory to
product line management with two purposes: 1) to explain how product line management
progresses over an industry's lifespan and 2) to equate Klepper's model (1986), which
emphasizes economies of scale, with the conventional product life cycle model, which
emphasizes dominant designs. He considered that Klepper's product life cycle theory model,
combined with the principle of product line management, provides a better explanation for the
growth of competition in the mobile phone industry than the conventional product life cycle
model.

2. Mohanty, V., Mati, K., 2015 the objective of this paper was to study plc of nokia form and
he analysed that analysed that Nokia tried to keep up with the product life phases and strategized
well, but Nokia was unable to react to the requirements with the changing technology and the
changing needs of customers, although it strives hard to bounce back to the numero uno place.

3. Santavaara I, Paronen N., 2013 the author concludes in this study that in order to be able
to perform an LCA for an ICT product, together with in-depth knowledge about LCA, a lot of
expertise and knowledge about the specifics of the sector is required. As presented in this paper,
evaluations of different producers are not comparable due to the characteristics of LCA. The
methodologies based on the life cycle are suitable for high-level policy purposes, such as
recognizing key stages in the life cycle of a company, but are not appropriate for measures that
affect fair competition between companies or market access due to the precision and ambiguity
necessary.

DR. AMBEDKAR INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT OF STUDIES

“STUDY ON PROCESS REFERENCE FOR PRODUCT INNOVATION AND LIFE CYCLE
MANAGEMENT WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO NOKIA MOBILES”

RESEARCH DESIGN

This is a descriptive research. This research is usually defined as a research method that describes the
characteristics of the population or phenomenon studied. This methodology focuses more on the “what” of
the research subject then the “why” of the research subject. The descriptive research method primarily
focuses on describing the nature of a demographic segment, without focusing on “why” a particular
phenomenon occurs. In other words, it “describes” the subject of the research, without covering “why” it
happens.

DATA COLLECTION

It is a process of gathering and measuring information on the problems or situations which then allows one
to answer relevant questions and evaluate the outcomes or the results. It is a component of research in all
fields of study like physical and social science, humanities, business etc. while the methods vary by
discipline, on ensuring accurate and honest collections of data which has to remain the same.

SOURCE OF DATA COLLECTION

⮚ Primary data

Primary data is a type of data that is collected by researchers directly from main sources through interviews,
surveys, experiments, etc. primary data are usually collected from the source-where the data originally
originates from and are regarded as the best kind of data in research.

Observation

Observation method is mostly used in studies related to behavioral science. The researcher uses -observation
as a scientific tool and method of data collection. Observation as a data collection tool is usually
systematically planned and subjected to checks and controls. There are different approaches to the
observation method structured or unstructured, controlled or uncontrolled, and participant, non- participant,
or disguised approach.

Group discussion

Focus groups are gatherings of 2 or more people with similar characteristics or who possess common traits.
They seek open-ended thoughts and contributions from participants. A focus group is a primary source of

DR. AMBEDKAR INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT OF STUDIES

“STUDY ON PROCESS REFERENCE FOR PRODUCT INNOVATION AND LIFE CYCLE
MANAGEMENT WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO NOKIA MOBILES”

data collection because the data is collected directly from the participant. It is commonly used for market
research, where a group of market consumers engage in a discussion with a research moderator. It is slightly
similar to interviews, but this involves discussions and interactions rather than questions and answers. Focus
groups are less formal and the participants are the ones who do most of the talking, with moderators there to
oversee the process.

⮚ Secondary data

Secondary data is second-hand data that is already collected and recorded by someone. It means that the
information is already available, and someone analyses it.

In this study, I have not used primary data due to the current COVID-19 pandemic scenario. I used
secondary data only. The relevant secondary data is collected from social media: retrieved from
http://en.m.wkipedia.org social media and academic performance of students retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/. Impact of social networking sites (SNS) on the youth of India.
Secondary data were also collected from published and unpublished.

Books,

Journals

Websites,

Reports

And from other resources.

Data analysis tool

The data analysis process is nothing but gathering information by using a proper application or tool which
allows you to explore the data and find a pattern in it. Based on that information and data, you can make
decisions, or you can get ultimate conclusions.

Data analysis consists of the following phases:

Data requirement gathering

Data collection

DR. AMBEDKAR INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT OF STUDIES

“STUDY ON PROCESS REFERENCE FOR PRODUCT INNOVATION AND LIFE CYCLE
MANAGEMENT WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO NOKIA MOBILES”

Data cleaning

Data analysis

Data interpretation

Data visualization

Data requirement gathering

First of all, you have to think about why you want to do this data analysis? All you need to find out the
purpose or aim of doing the analysis. You have to decide which type of data analysis you want to do! In this
phase, you have to decide what to analyze and how to measure it, you have to understand why you're
investigating and what measures you have to use to do this analysis.

Data collection

After requirement gathering, you will get a clear idea about what things you have to measure and what
should be your findings. Now it’s time to collect your data based on requirements. Once you collect your
data, remember that the collected data must be processed or organized for analysis. As you collected data
from various sources, you must have to keep a log with a collection date and source of the data

Data cleaning

Now whatever data is collected may not be useful or irrelevant to your aim of analysis, hence it should be
cleaned. The data which is collected may contain duplicate records, white spaces, or errors. The data should
be cleaned and error-free. This phase must be done before analysis because based on data cleaning, your
output of analysis will be closer to your expected outcome.

Data analysis

Once the data is collected, cleaned, and processed, it is ready for analysis. As you manipulate data, you may
find you have the exact information you need, or you might need to collect more data. During this phase,
you can use data analysis tools and software which will help you to understand, interpret, and derive
conclusion based on the requirements.

DR. AMBEDKAR INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT OF STUDIES

“STUDY ON PROCESS REFERENCE FOR PRODUCT INNOVATION AND LIFE CYCLE
MANAGEMENT WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO NOKIA MOBILES”

Data interpretation

After analyzing your data, it’s finally time to interpret your results. You can choose the way to express or
communicate your data analysis either you can use simply in words or maybe a table or chart. Then use the
results of your data analysis process to decide your best course of action

Data visualization

Data visualization is very common in your day to day life; they often appear in the form of charts and
graphs. In other words, data shown graphically so that it will be easier for the human brain to understand and
process. Data visualization is often used to discover unknown facts and trends. By observing relationships
and comparing datasets, you can find a way to find out meaningful information.

Methodology:

This paper mainly based on secondary data. The articles which are published on the Nokia and from website
of and Nokia Marketing Strategies of Nokia

1. Focused on handset manufacture only

2. Enhanced product portfolio

3. Large distribution channels

4. Adjust preferences for specific markets

5. Customer satisfaction

6.Focused on replacement (Recycling) MARKETING

LIMITATIONS

1. Time constraints: Obtaining the data and analyzing the same and interpreting data within the time
available.

DR. AMBEDKAR INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT OF STUDIES

“STUDY ON PROCESS REFERENCE FOR PRODUCT INNOVATION AND LIFE CYCLE
MANAGEMENT WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO NOKIA MOBILES”

2. Money constraints: Since there are no funds allotted for the same research study, all expenses
relating to travel, printing, stationary, communication, expenditure, consultancy etc. will have to be spent by
students. This affects the quality of inputs and results.

3. Sampling constraints: Sampling, by itself has certain contains which can’t be avoided. It may
not be a true representation of all categories and qualities of population. However, as the population is large,
random sampling is unavoidable.

CHAPTER-3

SWOC ANALYSIS

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The Indian mobile industry is the fastest expanding in the world and India carries on to add more mobile
communications every month than any additional country in the world. The telecom boom in the country
provides great opportunity to handset manufacturers and the hottest segment for these producers is the entry
level segment. Among the fastest expanding sectors in the country, telecom has been zooming up the growth
curve at a fiery pace. The last few years saw India adding many firsts to its list of achievements. Some of
these are -the world's very low call rates, fastest growth in the number of subscribers (15-20 million per
month), fastest sale of a million mobile phones, the world's cheapest mobile phone, and the world's most
economical 3G phone the product life cycle is a significant concept in marketing. It describes the stages a
product passes through from when it was first thought of until it finally is removed from the market. Not
every product attains this ultimate cycle. Some continuously grow up while others rise and fall.in this paper
we compare the product life cycle of Nokia and Samsung.

PRODUCT

DR. AMBEDKAR INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT OF STUDIES

“STUDY ON PROCESS REFERENCE FOR PRODUCT INNOVATION AND LIFE CYCLE
MANAGEMENT WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO NOKIA MOBILES”

Shedding its non-telecoms divisions, the company focused on pushing its first digital handheld, the Nokia 1011. But
the model it launched in 1994 would surf the wave of mass demand for this new technology. Nokia had set a sales
target of 400,000 for its 2100 series; it went on to sell 20m of the handsets worldwide.

COMPETITORS

The top 2 competitors of Nokia are 1. Samsung and 2. Sony Ericsson

Competitor 1. Samsung India:

Samsung entered India in December 1995, initially to develop it as a hub for the parent company’s West
Asia regional operations which included, apart from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives and
Bhutan. Samsung, being a large consumer electronics group, is also into manufacturing TVs, washing
machines and refrigerators. It has a manufacturing facility at Noida, from where it manufactures GSM
handsets. It controls a total market share of 7.5-8 per cent. For 2008, Samsung has achieved 15 per cent
market share, thus achieving sales of 15 million handsets.

Competitor 2.  Sony Ericsson in India:

Sony Ericsson India was established in October 2001 as a 50: 50 joint venture between Sony Corporation
and Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson. The company has a market share of around 8 percent of the Indian
mobile handset market.

DR. AMBEDKAR INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT OF STUDIES

“STUDY ON PROCESS REFERENCE FOR PRODUCT INNOVATION AND LIFE CYCLE
MANAGEMENT WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO NOKIA MOBILES”

STRENGTHS:

The first part of SWOC analysis of Nokia which is strengths:

● The biggest strength of the company is their brand name. Many consumers often opt for Nokia more
than any other brand because of the reliability, durability, and creativity their phones provide.
● Most of Nokia’s highly qualified personnel have teamed up with Microsoft’s experts as a part of the
acquisition deal.
● The phones provided by Nokia have a much higher re-sale value compared to other mobile phone
brands.
● Many of Nokia’s products are easy to use and are usually coupled with a variety of handy accessories.
● Products offered by the company are available in all price ranges.

DR. AMBEDKAR INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT OF STUDIES

“STUDY ON PROCESS REFERENCE FOR PRODUCT INNOVATION AND LIFE CYCLE
MANAGEMENT WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO NOKIA MOBILES”

weaknesses:

The next part of SWOC analysis of Nokia is their weaknesses:

● The company, though, is often criticized for poor after sales services.
● Took a long time to enter the highly productive and booming smartphone market. As a result, the
company lost a lot of its once huge market share.
● Some of Nokia’s products are not affordable for middle- and lower-class consumers, which often
affects their searches negatively.
● The Finnish mobile company has made comparatively lower profits due to drop in sales that result
from tough competition. According to statistics, the company’s profits have fallen by 7% in the second
quarter of 2014.
● There are slumps in the company’s development with its Windows Lumia range of smartphones
because of constant competition from rival’s Android and iOS.

DR. AMBEDKAR INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT OF STUDIES

“STUDY ON PROCESS REFERENCE FOR PRODUCT INNOVATION AND LIFE CYCLE
MANAGEMENT WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO NOKIA MOBILES”

OPPORTUNITIES

After discussing the factors of SWOC analysis of Nokia, let’s shift our focus towards factors:

● The Microsoft-Nokia deal is a win-win situation for both companies. The deal possesses great
opportunity if both utilize resources in a proper way.
● Opportunities to expand the range of products and their prices. Also bring in new features and
applications onto Windows OS.

DR. AMBEDKAR INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT OF STUDIES

“STUDY ON PROCESS REFERENCE FOR PRODUCT INNOVATION AND LIFE CYCLE
MANAGEMENT WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO NOKIA MOBILES”

CHALLENGES:

The final part of SWOC analysis for Nokia is the challenges:

● Strong competition from other smartphone companies will make it hard for Nokia to maintain and
expand their market share.
● Low-cost threats by China mobile companies and others can cause big problems.

So, after proper SWOC analysis, we have come to the conclusion that Nokia is going through a tough time in
the market due to a variety of factors. However, with Microsoft and Nokia personnel teamed up, there is no
doubt in saying that many of these problems can be overcome if Nokia strategizes, plans and uses its
resources properly.

DR. AMBEDKAR INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT OF STUDIES

“STUDY ON PROCESS REFERENCE FOR PRODUCT INNOVATION AND LIFE CYCLE
MANAGEMENT WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO NOKIA MOBILES”

DR. AMBEDKAR INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT OF STUDIES