In a bid to dissociate itself from its popular image and encourage company growth, Nokia Corporation announced a brand revamp on Sunday and revealed its redesigned iconic logo.
The 5G equipment maker has announced its revamp plan, starting with a new logo, in order to stop people from associating the company with their mobile phones—an industry the company left almost a decade ago. The brand makeover focuses on encouraging growth through new sets of strategic pillars.
A persistent dissociation from Nokia mobile phones
Nokia is a Finnish multinational IT, telecommunications, and consumer electronics corporation. Though it is famously known for its mobile phones.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Nokia Corporation, Pekka Lundmark, said in an interview, “In most people’s minds, we are still a successful mobile phone brand, but this is not what Nokia is about.”
He further added that the company is focusing on launching a new brand that deals with networks and industrial digitalization, both of which are totally different things from “legacy mobile phones.”
For many years, Nokia dominated the mobile phone market. The company launched the first internet-enabled phone in 1996. By 1998, it had become the largest mobile phone maker in the market, overtaking Motorola.
But the evolution of smartphones ultimately led to the downfall of Nokia mobile phones. The company struggled to adapt to the new market, which shifted completely towards smartphones, and eventually lost its market share to smartphone giants such as Apple and Samsung.
In its new effort to dissociate itself from its previous image, the company will focus on adding market share in its business of providing wireless service providers with network equipment.
Although Nokia Corporation is no longer in the business of producing phones, Nokia-branded phones are still sold by HMD Global, which got the license for the brand name after Microsoft stopped using the name.
The goal to increase market share
In the same interview, Lundmark stated that the company now has the ammunition and tool to increase market share without sacrificing margins. The company also wants to increase market share by selling private 5G networks to companies.
The enterprise, which reached an 8 percent share of Nokia’s top line last year, is focusing on entering double-digit territory. It hopes to achieve this goal through organic growth and smaller acquisitions.
The company has recently regained a crucial investment-grade BBB- rating from S&P Global Ratings. This rating marks a decade long drag in junk territory.
The aim of increasing market share is also helped by the restrictions placed by many European governments on the company’s Chinese rival, Huawei Technologies Co from selling parts for 5G networks.
The new logo
The new Nokia logo consists of five different shapes forming the word ‘NOKIA’. The company has decided to let go of its iconic blue color and instead go for a range of different colors depending on the application.
Pekka Lundmark, who joined the company in 2020, laid out a three stage strategy for the company: reset, accelerate, and scale. The CEO said that with the brand revamp announcement on Sunday, the first stage is complete and that now it’s time to focus on the second state, i.e., focusing on the growth of the company.
Lundmark made it clear that the company only wants to focus on global leadership and will consider alternatives, such as divestment, for its businesses that do not show global potential.
As the company moves toward factory automation and data centers, it will become increasingly involved with tech behemoths such as Microsoft and Amazon.
