Second innings: Nokia rides on more than just brand recall

When you are in conversation with the global leader of a renowned handsets brand on board a metro in Gurugram, you know this is not a common ride. That is how it turned out this afternoon when Florian Seiche, chief executive officer, and Pekka Rantala, chief marketing officer of HMD Global, makers of Nokia handsets, took a metro ride to introduce a new smartphone.

With the new Nokia 2 on full display in a specially redecorated Rapid Metro train, the Finnish company on Tuesday announced its global launch in Gurugram as the coaches travelled on elevated tracks among the high-rises of Delhi’s satellite town. Given the importance of India for the once-iconic brand that had almost 85 per cent market share here, Seiche says Gurugram is an obvious choice.

Nokia’s reliance on India has not diminished over time. According to Seiche, the new Nokia, which began its journey some 11 months ago and has operations in 80 countries, has seen Indian emerge as one of its three largest markets worldwide. 

According to Counterpoint Research, Nokia has garnered 8.5 per cent of the local feature phone market and is at fourth spot among handset makers in this segment.

“India has the potential to become our most important market. We expect to enter the top five league in smartphones in the next three to five years,” he says. For a brand that has considerable recall among consumers across socio-economic classes, the focus will be on leveraging brand Nokia.