“Motorola exists to invent, build and
deliver the best mobile device on the planet, improving the lives of millions
of people”
-Vision
Statement of Motorola
1. RESEARCH OBJECTIVE:
This research
project is carried out to evaluate the Brand Equity of Motorola mobility.
2. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:
The research was
carried out in two stages. The first one is secondary research, followed by the
in-depth interview with the Moto G users. 10 in-depth interviews were conducted
where the questions are asked about the brand identity of the Moto G and about
the customer perception.
3. ABOUT MOTOROLA MOBILITY:
Motorola is an American telecommunication device
manufacturer based at Chicago. They created the world’s first commercial
portable cellular phones. On August 2011 Google acquired Motorola mobility
division for US$12.5 billion. During 2003 to 2007, worldwide Motorola was one
of the leading mobile phone manufacturer. But due to lack of product
innovation, continuous improvement, Motorola lost its significant market share.
Apart from Moto Razr, Motorola failed to cater the changing need of the
customers. But in the late 2013, the introduction of moto G, moto E and moto X
(the android versions) resulted some eye-catching results for Motorola. Moto
Razr was the biggest success for Motorola. Around 130 million units of moto
Razr was sold during 2003 to 2006.
4. GLOBAL MOBILE PHONE MARKET:
The global mobile phone market is one of the most
competitive and highly volatile market. And in the era of smartphone, technologies
change very rapidly as well as the customer preferences. The current valuation (2014)
of the global smartphone market is around US$150.3 billion. And the following
shows the market share wise breakup for the major brands:
A current report on the ranking of smartphones as per the
brand preferences reviles that Apple stands out as most preferred brand for
smartphones followed by Samsung and Nokia. Motorola is the number eight in the
brand preference list.
Once pioneer and market leader of mobile phones, Motorola is
way behind its competitors to attract the tech savvy customers. The following
figure shows the perceptual map (by June 2013) for the global smart phone
brands:
We can clear observe that Motorola is catering to the mass
market and the durability is unquestionable but it lacks the feature end as
well as style and design to attract the youth. Whereas Sony, Nokia and Apple
phones are more stylish and trendy and the market leader Samsung is highly
equipped with many features.
To analyze the problem, let’s look at the consumer buying
journey for any budget smartphone.
5. CONSUMER BUYING JOURNEY:
The following shows the funnel for consumer decision journey
for any product.
It
all started with customers awareness set of brand, followed by Familiarity set
of brands, then the consideration set and purchase set. Finally the consumer
moves to loyalty. If we follow the above funnel method for any budget
smartphone buying, then a hypothetical funnel may look like as given below:
The
awareness set of budget smartphone contains eight models from Samsung,
Micromax, Nokia, Motorola, Asus, Xiaomi, HTC and Lenovo. Moving along the
funnel, the purchase set contains three brands: Nokia, Samsung and Motorola.
The
customers always consider any brand in their purchase set when they have a
clear and strong imagery for the brands.
6. NEW MOTO SERIES:
The new moto series of smartphones are launched in the later
part of 2013. Moto X was unveiled on August 2013, followed by Moto G on 13th
November 2013 and Moto E was launched on 13th May 2014. The sole
objective of introducing these low end budget smartphone is to tap the growing
price sensitive young segments. These models are initially launched in
developing market like Latin America and South-East Asia, subsequently they are
launched in the developed markets.
7. THE TRINITY OF BRAND STRATEGY:
The current brand strategy of Motorola can be analyzed by
using the trinity of brand strategy.
7.1 VALUE PROPOSITION:
“Value for money” is the value proposition for Moto G.
7.2 POSITIONING:
The Brand Mantra for Moto G is “Exceptional Phone,
Exceptional Price”. Like many other smartphone it has various common features
like Android OS, Dual SIM, Feature loaded, google play enabled etc. The PODs of
Moto G is the only phone as of now provides latest android OS (ver.
4.4.2/KitKat) Ergonomic design and Google OK in a very attractive price. If we
look into the substantiator: 1million Moto G are sold in India in 5 months.
7.3 BRAND IDENTITY:
The above depicts the brand identity prism for Moto G. The rallying cry for Moto G is “Good things come in small packages”. The Capabilities of Moto G are the aesthetic, up to dated OS, good user interaction. The personality (human traits) of Moto G are young, resourceful and honest. The shared values are “value for money” and “Express Yourself”. The aspirational self-image that Moto G has smart, up to date and efficient. The Noble Purpose is “Access to all” and the Internal Culture and Value is “Uncompromised value & quality”
8.RAND ELEMENTS:
The above shows three brand elements of Motorola. The slogan “Intelligence Everywhere” the brand name and the new logo.
A recent survey reviles that the association of Motorola
with Google created a hype in the market and positive response from the market.
9.
VERDICT:
Brands are intangible. They are difficult to isolate, hard
to measure. There are no simple formulas for measuring a brand’s “return,”
or—when cared for poorly—measuring its drag on financial performance. But a brand’s
intangibility is also what makes it so valuable (and in turn makes a sensitive
measurement tool for brands all the more valuable).
Differentiation
is the catalyst for action in brand development. It’s the first step to the
other Pillars of the Brand. Motorola believes in making fewer-but more
differentiated-Android devices
The second step in brand development is Relevance. If a brand isn’t relevant, or personally appropriate to consumers,
it isn’t going to attract and keep them. Differentiation
can lead to a fling, but without a belief that there is a relevant
connection to one’s own life, a consumer won’t engage in a serious long-term
loyalty. Relevance means Motorola standing for something. Rather than trying to
become everything to everybody with a “game changer” handset as per old
Motorola’s strategy, the new strategy is to be relevant to the consumer’s
everyday needs .Motorola currently focuses on giving consumers better tools to
tell their own story. Motorola’s mantra currently is “Doing common things uncommonly well”.
The third key measure identified is Esteem— the extent to which consumers like a brand and hold it in
high regard. Esteem relates to how well a brand fulfills its implied or overtly
stated consumer promise. It doesn’t occur without Differentiation and Relevance
having preceded it, but it can outlive those Pillars by many years. In regards
to this dimension being one the oldest brand in the field and being known for
its uncompromising quality puts
Motorola on a positive stead.
If a brand has established its Relevant Differentiation and
consumers come to hold it in high Esteem, brand
Knowledge is the outcome. High Knowledge means consumers understand and
have internalized what the brand stands for. Motorola has reached this stage in
the mind of the customers.
10. REFERENCES:
- Chawla, D. & Sondhi, N. (2011). Research Methodology Concepts and Cases. New Delhi: Vikash Publishing House Pvt. Ltd.
- Kotler, P. & Keller, K.L. (2012). Marketing Management. Fourteenth Edition. New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.
- Motorola (n.d.).Company Profile. Retrieved August 21, 2014 http://www.motorola.com/us/About-Motorola/Corporate-About-Motorola.html
- Motorola (n.d.).Company Profile. Retrieved August 20, 2014 http://www.motorola.com/us/consumers/about-motorola-us/About_Motorola-Corporate_Overview/About_Motorola-Corporate_Overview.html
- TOI Tech. (2014, Feb 07) Moto G vs top three rivals Retrieved August 19, 2014, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/slideshow/moto-g-vs-top-three-rivals/itslideshowviewall/30003600.cms
- http://www.flipkart.com/motorola?otracker=hp_nmenu_sub_electronics_0_Motorola
- http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/smartphones-market.asp
- http://phys.org/news/2014-02-nokia-blackberry-motorola-lost-glory.html
- http://www.labbrand.com/knowledge/labreport/brand-positioning-strategies-rising-chinese-smartphone-brands
- http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/the_consumer_decision_journey
- http://www.brandamplitude.com/blog/item/value-proposition-brand-identity-and-positioning-why-your-brand-needs-all-three
- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/Flipkart-sells-1-million-Motorola-phones-in-5-months/articleshow/38093792.cms
- http://www.amzer.com/blog/2013/06/motorola-mobility-gets-colourful-new-logo-with-official-google-association/
- http://web.pdx.edu/~sbaweb/faculty/ahutinel/Read/5.pdf
