19 June 2001
Club Nokia Clubs You on the Head
From Simon Buckingham of Mobile Lifestreams
In the UK and many other European markets, Nokia is heavily advertising its Club Nokia portal. This is the customer facing front of Nokia's consumer strategy- they are going direct to the mobile phone end user and interacting, offering services, charging and building a services relationship with the consumer- something that network operators and independent portal companies have previously tried.
Nokia is running a high profile television campaign with several different ads. These adverts involve the concept of making music with objects such as with squeaky rubber ducks. The campaign is not that great but that is an aside. This is an integrated marketing campaign so the next thing to happen is that I get some direct mail because I signed up for Club Nokia a couple of years ago. I get a giant open up poster showing the same guy in the bath doing something- the envelope reads "Club Nokia: Squeak, quack, drip". Again, the concept is unclear and quite poor- the cover lets gets lost because of the poster but that's OK- there is a mail back offer for 20 free credits. There is a tiny footnote saying that the idea behind the service is to buy credits from participating retailers that can then be used presumably to purchase ringtones, logos and other services. I know this is the case but it is not clear at all from the direct mail or the TV ads- Nokia have tried to educate people on ringtones and the services but there is no information on why select Nokia and where to get these credits from. All my details are correct on the mail in form but I send it in anyway at Nokia's expense.
But all this is a total aside- Nokia have spent millions that they will never recoup on a confusing and low impact marketing campaign. No worries, this happens all the time- helps build the brand and raise overall awareness of these services. But the worst part is still to come when I visit the website www.club.nokia.com. Suddenly I am faced with huge confusion- the website is incredibly difficult to use for several reasons:
1. You have to select and go off to your local club Nokia website to register- in other words, Nokia used one URL rather than including the local URL in the ad.
2. I am actually a Club Nokia member but I certainly don't have my details anymore- it has been years since Nokia sent me anything. The mailing they spent so much on does not give me my details. Nokia would have been far better sending out another membership card. People that want these services already use them from other suppliers. Helping them to use Nokia's services and telling them why and how they should the service would be a better idea.
3. As part of the log in process, you are expected to enter details including your "Serial / IMEI number: (Press *#06# on your phone keypad)". This is a very long number.
I got an error message reading "The serial number is incorrect. Please check and re-type it without slashes, spaces, or special characters. The serial number is printed on the white label inside your phone (under the battery) and on the white label on the outside of the sales package or on the yellow label marked A inside the sales package".
I finally got in after a few minutes of problems with my IMEI. It congratulated me on having a Nokia 6210. I am uncertain that all of this effort was worth it just so that they know what phone model I have. I am now registered twice and not sure that I can remember my membership number and login details for either account.
I did get a brief email though with a few typos reading:
"---------------------------------------------------------------
Your password is:
---------------------------------------------------------------
Best Regards Club Nokia Administration
Please don't reply to this e-mail. Thank you! Should you want to contact Club Nokia, please go to the Ask Nokia section of the Club Nokia site or call Club Nokia Careline."
On the website, there is some content. There is a wave magazine (static) and some error messages when you try to get to the special event or the ringtones services and some offers from partner companies, and very little else. Community, interactivity, unique content (other than new WAP games levels that few will want) are all lacking.
In sum, Nokia has not thought out or executed its consumer strategy very well in this first iteration. I am sure continuous improvement will ensue. Nokia will make a huge loss on this business to start with because the margins do not add up for consumer services to be advertised in this way. I am off down to Carphone Warehouse to buy a scratch card now- I heard a rumor they are selling them. The website that the services are driven should be starting point of the overall campaign- here it seems to the last thing and underdeveloped.
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