Nokia. Going Overboard.

I was in Mumbai over the weekend on official work. The biggest news of the previous day was all over the papers – Michael Jackson’s untimely demise.

As expected, it hogged the headlines everywhere nationally and internationally. Two newspapers though caught my attention for a different reason. Times of India and DNA had a Navi bar (strip ad) running below their masthead and above the headline. (This is one of the new premium positions apart from the Front page solus (FPS) that attracts a lot of eyeballs because of their clutter-less positions.)

The ad in question is of Nokia. I had blogged about them a couple of days ago on the good stuff that they had done with the battery fiasco.

Unfortunately, the ad tries to capitalise on a topical story with poor results for the following three reasons.

1. It tried to cash in on a emotional and tragic story
2. Though they did not advertise a product of theirs, the words in the headline clearly brought in the recall for their N series brands
3. The position of the ad above a editorial was too much to digest.

Unfortunately, you cannot blame Nokia alone for this. The culprits in this case are also the agency who suggested the idea, the media agency who bargained with the publication for space and also finally the two newspapers in question who greedily agreed to place this ad above the editorial thereby trying to link the tragic story with the ad!

Disgusting!

Nokia. Connecting with People helped

Nokia has been ranked No1 in the Brand Equity Most trusted brands of the year 2009. Nothing alarming, given the immense popularity that it enjoys among people. But what’s surprising and heart warming is this has happened in less than one year of its battery recall fiasco in India.

On 13th August 2008, Nokia issued a product advisory (not a recall) on its BL-5C battery. It stated that the battery could potentially experience “overheating initiated by a short circuit while charging, causing the battery to dislodge”.

Fuelled by the media, panic gripped the nation. I remember, the Hindi News Channels – Aaj Tak and Star News were competing with each other to show people ‘affected’ by this. The reporters fanned out across India especially in the hinterland and ‘broke’ the news of people flocking to Nokia Store centre to get their battery checked.

What will the company do in such a situation? How will it react to the media bombardment?

Nokia was geared up and armed to its teeth. The web and toll free number were used effectively to inform and interact with the customers. An interesting point was the use of the toll free number. Among the phones affected by the battery included the low range and immensely popular 1100, 1108, 1110, 1112, etc right up to the N series (N70, N72, etc)

Given the fact that they broke new ground with the low end phones, most of the customers were not the net savvy crowd. It ensured that the call centers were beefed up and could handle any number of calls in all the possible languages.

Nokia Care and Nokia Priority dealers were told to handle customers with utmost care. Most of them were open till late night and were only doing this job.

What’s interesting to note and something that needs to be applauded is the fact that Nokia did not come out with a corporate campaign (with their CEO as brand ambassador) to talk to the customers (nation in our case!). This reminds of the classic case where in after the pesticide controversy, Pepsi and Coke came with their own versions to assure the people that their products are safe. Cadbury’s went one step further and roped in Amitabh Bachchan to do the talking in their corporate ad after the worm controversy!

Nokia believed in connecting with people on ground. It strongly believed in rolling up their sleeves and taking the issue head on and on ground. And the result paid off. And it’s there for everyone to see. Indeed the public memory is short and they do give you a second chance to prove your worth.

One of the very rare and I really mean a very rare case of a brand truly believing and living its brand promise of Connecting People