Over the past few months, I started thinking about how Microsoft could build brand equity with Lumia. It wasn?t until a few days ago when I walked into an AT&T store to have my wife?s number get ported to AT&T from StraightTalk. An AT&T representative asked my wife, ?What phone do you have?? She responded, ?A Samsung?.uhh?. I interrupted and told the rep, ?She has a Nokia Lumia 920?. My wife felt completely embarrassed and I?ve been teasing her about it ever since. But honestly, this is a problem. My own wife, who has used a Lumia 920 for two years and has heard the name spoken countless times around the house, could not remember the name of her phone. This isn?t her fault, it?s Nokia. Call it however you want, but this is a problem that Microsoft has inherited.
As we all know, Windows Phone is almost at a standstill especially when there is no true flagship announced for the holiday season. We all know that the next model will have Windows 10 and this is truly an exciting time to speculate on what?s coming. What I would like to focus today is how Microsoft can actually reach out to the U.S. market and beyond with great brand equity. In my opinion, one of the reasons that Windows Phone hasn?t done so well is that Windows 8/8.1 was a disaster in terms of market share. Windows 10, on the other hand, has a lot of promise and represents an openness of Microsoft to truly listen to customer feedback. I expect that we will see positive responses from the mass to Windows 10. Because of this, this is a tremendous opportunity to ?reintroduce? Windows Phone and it all starts with building brand equity of the Lumia name.
It?s time to introduce the new Lumia family.
I?ve looked at the various Lumia models and there?s one thing that needs to be fixed. The numbering scheme needs to go. The Lumia 920, 925, 928, 929 all create confusion for the average consumer if you ask them the difference among these models. Not one person that I asked in the past few days thought the 929 was all that much different from the 928. Every one of them thought the 930 was superior to the 929 because of the increment in the tens digit. The same goes for the 1320 when they all believed that it represented a flagship device in comparison to the 930. There?s too much confusion and this does not build brand equity well. Look at the iPhone and the Galaxy series and you?ll see consistency among them and people understood that the numbers represented the generation of the brand. It?s easy to understand, which leads to consumer confidence in how they use their buying power.
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By looking at the entire Lumia family, I initially saw six possible groups of Lumia models. However, six was too high a number so I kept at it and got myself down to four distinct Lumia groups. They are Freedom, Lifestyle, Pure, and Pro. These are names that I came up with to distinguish the Lumia models into groups that may make sense for the average consumer.
The Freedom group represents the budget phones such as the Lumia 535 and 635 where people are free from contracts when they purchase these phones. It also has a sense of freedom that people might feel when they move from a budget Android phone to a Windows Phone, knowing that their experience would be different.
The Lifestyle group represents the phones that would appeal to people that like to use their phones beyond the basic set of features they would find in the Freedom line of devices. Features such as a high quality front-facing camera to express one?s self or the myriad of colors they can use to extend their identity among a crowd. The Lifestyle line of devices features mid-range devices and would include the Lumia 730/735, 1320 and the Lumia 830 even if it is billed as an affordable flagship.
The Pure line of devices is where the flagship resides in. This represents the best of Lumia in terms of overall experience. We all know and love the Lumia with awesome features such as Pureview, PureMotion HD, etc. Models such as the Icon, 930, 1520 would fit into this group.
The Pro group is a bit of a tough one for me. I thought about this one and honestly this could easily be tossed out but then I thought about it long enough to convince myself that this should stay. There is only one model that should be in this group and that is the successor of the 1020. A lot of times, I hear people refer to the Nokia phone with the 41 megapixel camera but never hear anyone say the 1020. To make this model stand out, it should be called the Lumia Pro in the sense that one can use this device as a pro with quality app such as Lumia Camera to make them better than they really are.
Now there is obviously some distinction between the 1320 and the 730 in the Lifestyle group and this could easily be fixed by adding a descriptive word to describe them such as Max and Dual respectively. Below is how I would label them based on the four groups I discussed above. The number in the parentheses represents the current models in the market and will not be part of the branding.
Lumia Freedom (Lumia 535)
Lumia Freedom LTE (Lumia 635)
Lumia Lifestyle (Lumia 735)
Lumia Lifestyle Dual (Lumia 730 Dual)
Lumia Lifestyle Plus (Lumia 830)
Lumia Lifestyle Max (Lumia 1320)
Lumia Pure (Lumia 930, Icon)
Lumia Pure Max (Lumia 1520)
Lumia Pro (Lumia 1030)
It?s time to get rid of using numbers as part of the brand. Use it as a way to identify which model where customer support is concerned, but keep it away from marketing. If Microsoft could find a way to unveil the entire family all at once, this would be a tremendous way to capture attention at all price points.
Anyway, I thought I would get this out since it?s been running around in my head for days. Any suggestions you have about this would be most welcome. Thank you.
TL;DR: The numbering schemes is a mess. Break it down into four identifiable groups so consumers understand the difference among Lumia models. The four groups I recommend are: Freedom (low-end), Lifestyle (mid-range), Pure (high-end), and Pro (high-end w/ 41MP camera).
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