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 The company has retained Ogilvy & Mather in Ireland to devise a campaign around a new global branding theme that Motorola calls "Moto." In the UK and Ireland STG8 million will be spent on marketing and advertising for "Moto" over the next six months.
"It's hard to describe what Moto is, but if I had to put it down to one word, I'd say it's about individualism," explained Ric Williams, Motorola's consumer marketing manager for the UK and Ireland, who explained the company's new branding in a briefing for Irish journalists this week.
Motorola's focus will be on what it has defined as three separate segments of the market: youth, stylish adults and early adopters (high end business users). Within these three segments, different phones and devices will be released in Ireland to accommodate different kinds of users. "It's really all about style," Williams said. "The first thing people ask when they go into a shop is, 'What looks cool? What fits my style or my clothes?' We will have the phone that matches their style," he added.
Stylish or not, Motorola's new range of phones certainly shows a departure away from the plain but reliable image that Williams admits the brand has had in previous years. Many of the phones are nothing like the handsets that Motorola has released in the past: the unusual V70, for example, has a 360-degree rotating keypad cover.
Some of the accessories are just as cool. Users will see sleek-looking speakers and MP3 players hit the market. But Motorola is also releasing an "ultramoto" bluetooth-enabled earpiece that will let users speak on the phone without taking it out of their bag or pocket and with no connection wires. What's more, if users have a voice activated handset, they will be able to make call on the earpiece without touching the phone itself.
The company's advertising campaign, which will include outdoor advertising, print advertising and radio ads, will also see the firm team up with MTV across Europe to help attract that all-important youth market. Motorola is sponsoring MTV's "Isle of MTV" campaign to "find the next Ibiza," Williams explained.
Nokia, still the market leader both in Ireland and in Europe, may have some serious competition ahead as the US wireless company ramps up its advertising. But Williams admits, "We need to be realistic. In the short term we hope to become a clear second choice." Motorola is already the number two seller of mobile phones in the world, and it too has competition from below. Sony-Ericsson, with its latest line of phones, is obviously attacking the same youth markets.
As the companies battle it out, new technologies are finally beginning to emerge. GPRS is already available in all of Western Europe, but handset sales for the service have been slow. Williams says this is because the new devices offered users nothing new in terms of style or experience, but Motorola's new "Moto" phones aim to help change this trend. All but one of Motorola's new handsets are GPRS enabled.
"GPRS has been slow on the take-up, whereas 3G will offer a completely different experience," Williams said. "Style will drive the sales of those phones, too. The challenge for Motorola is to make sure the best applications and the good experience comes with that style."
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