
Nokia: We depend on uninformed customers and deception preserves brand value - lotusleaf1987
http://www.asymco.com/2011/03/01/nokia-we-depend-on-uninformed-customers-deception-preserves-brand-value-and-uncompetitive-software-will-keep-us-competitive/
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yason
Nokia said that most people don't care about their announcements but rather
follow the brand primarily. That's all good and probably quite true. Probably
works so for most companies.

However, the thing with brands is that the value of a brand is _gradually_
built from good products and informed customers.

Conversely, a good brand also usually gives a decade of free running time
while _gradually_ losing its value at the same time, even if the original
level of quality and innovation is cut to a fraction of what it was.

During this death slope the brand won't attract many new customer while the
existing customer base slowly shrinks. After the brand has been been pumped
dry it becomes kind of ethereal and slowly ceases to mean anything to anyone
except for the most die-hard fans who refuse to face the change.

As for Nokia, they were still going somewhere in the early 2000's so Nokia
probably have maybe 2-3 years left of 'Nokia' if the company is lucky. By 2015
they're dead for any relevant sense unless they have showed something that
both interests people _and_ differentiates them from the rest.

By itself Nokia would probably linger till 2025 if it wasn't for some big
company who buys them out before that. The scavenger will feast on any Nokia
IP that still has some value and finally sells and buries the rest of the
pieces.

For now, their tangent is pointing downward and continues to do so if they
don't start focusing. If they do, they might have some chance.

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contextfree
Nokia's strategic announcements do spell doom for the Nokia Symbian app
ecosystem, so if customers were buying Nokia phones for the Symbian apps,
continued sales would indeed be based upon a kind of deception.

However, in reality, customers don't buy Nokia phones for the Symbian apps. So
the spokesperson is correct that it shouldn't affect sales much.

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Travis
wow, what a misleading headline. My take on the situation is that Nokia just
said that their customers don't rely on press releases, but instead have
loyalty to the brand.

It's kind of the anti-Apple. Their big announcements are HUGE and people
follow them because they are an event, not because they are "informing
customers".

