Communications & Telecom

Best Practice: Motorola

Seeing that its world-wide, and substantially larger handset competitor, Nokia, had critical aspects of advantage in "platform" oriented manufacturing and in its distribution system, Motorola chose to drive both its business and marketing strategies into two areas where Nokia has proven to be less willing or less able to succeed: (1) "clam-shell" handset forms, and (2) breakthrough design, in tight partnerships with U.S. carriers.

Based on the success and the inherent efficiency of its prime "candy-bar" single-piece phone form, Nokia has been reluctant to aggressively pursue the more complex, folding clam-shell design, and has largely missed out on the popularity of this form to date in the U.S., Japan, Korea, and China. This has enabled Motorola to disproportionately benefit from the popularity of this form and more than offset the originally increased cost of manufacturing.

Moreover, Motorola’s decision to focus a key business thrust behind high-risk design—such as the groundbreaking and ultra-slim RAZR and the offering of temporary carrier exclusives for prime promotional support—has only helped reinforce Motorola’s customer value proposition of  "magnetic phones that consumers really want," and helped them gain the #1 handset share position in the market.

If you are in a market dealing with a dominant provider, perhaps you’d benefit from a discussion with MCAworks on how to better strategically drive your Marketing efforts to better align with,
and take advantage from, the points of strength resident in your business and market position.

Contact John Hawkins for more information.