An ex-colleague once told me that the Nokia brand is a state of mind! Yes, it is one that evokes a feeling of authenticity and trust. Globally, Nokia has a special place in the hearts and minds of people everywhere, whether they are consumers, operator and enterprise customers, suppliers, ecosystem partners, employees, ex-employees, friends and family. Nokia has always been (and will remain) a brand that people warmly respect and admire globally. My team and I are fortunate to play a small role in strengthening this brand love and trust via our brand partnering program.

Building relationships on trust

While Nokia has transformed itself a few times in its 150+ years of existence, the Nokia brand has consistently stood for trust and reliability. Our brand has 90%+ global awareness today¹ which very few global technology brands enjoy over an extended period. This strong brand awareness is universal, by that I mean worldwide and across both network and consumer segments.

Today Nokia is a leading innovation and technology solutions company for telco operators and enterprises. Networks have become critical infrastructure and Nokia plays a very key and trusted role in delivering and securing this infrastructure. Nokia is also driving Industry 4.0 transformation with our partners. We are also an industry leader in patents and were recently recognized as No. 1 in granted essential 5G patents.²

To further strengthen our brand, while bringing positive new experiences to consumers, we developed a brand licensing program for product categories beyond our core business, starting with mobile phones. HMD Global is our global brand licensee for phones and tablets. HMD Global is operating in 40+ countries with a 700+ strong team that is passionately working to further strengthen the Nokia brand in the phones category.  It’s a hyper competitive market, and we are proud of HMD’s achievements to date, especially when Nokia branded smartphones topped Counterpoint Research’s Trust ranking for the second year running.³

Brand extensions create new opportunities

We recently extended our brand licensing efforts with new partners and new categories. In India, Flipkart launched the first Nokia branded Android based Smart TV’s last year followed by media streamers six months ago, and a range of six new Smart TVs unveiled these last two months. In fact, during the recent festive season sales in India, Nokia branded Smart TV’s were among the top five best-selling TV’s at Flipkart, which is a testament to Flipkart’s deep consumer insights and strong execution. Well done Flipkart team! Flipkart also just launched Nokia branded laptops in India. Get them while you can!

In China, our brand licensee for audio and power accessories, RichGo, launched an exciting line up of new Nokia branded earphones and headsets a few months ago. Recently, StreamView, our licensee in Europe for Smart TV’s and media streamers launched their new range of Smart TV products on Android, which have been received very enthusiastically by retailers and consumers.   

Growing despite the challenges

While Nokia’s strong brand awareness and brand trust is an essential foundation to the early success we are seeing in our brand partnering program, the key has been strong product and marketing execution from our brand licensees. While my team works closely with them on Nokia brand and quality requirements, the real work is done by our licensees. Despite the current global health and economic challenges, our brand licensees have been relentless in their go-to-market execution, working hard to bring new Nokia branded product experiences to people everywhere. Hats off to their commitment and passion for the brand!

At this point I’d also like to thank all the Nokia fans for joining us on this journey, your enthusiasm and feedback are what enable new Nokia products and experiences to thrive.

Going forward you can expect even more exciting Nokia branded products from both our current and emerging brand licensees. And rest assured that as we enter new product categories with the Nokia brand, we will continue to offer the trusted Nokia branded experiences you’d expect.

Follow @MyNokia on social media and www.nokia.com/shop to learn more about the latest Nokia branded products available now and coming soon!
 

¹ According to Nokia brand survey 2020

² Recent study by PA Consulting concluded Nokia is No.1 for ownership of granted patents found essential to the 5G Standard.

³ The findings are a part of Counterpoint Research’s latest whitepaper titled “Nokia Phones Lead the Trust Rankings based on Software, Security Updates and Build Quality”