Nokia And Microsoft To Spend $200 Million On US Marketing, Sales Incentives Of $10-15 Per Phone

January 4, 2012 | By Liwen Guo

Paul Thurrott, who always has excellent information about Microsoft’s internal plans, revealed that Nokia and Microsoft will spend $200 million on marketing for the upcoming Nokia Ace. This is two times as much as the $100 million figure BetaNews claimed earlier today.

In any case, this will be the biggest marketing initiative Nokia has ever attempted, and hopefully lead to “millions of Windows Phone handsets” being sold in the US in the first half of 2012, according to Microsoft’s internal goals.

Part of the $200 million will apparently be used for retail staff, who are set to receive $10-15 for each handset sold, which should provide ample incentive for sales persons to recommend Windows Phones over iPhones and Android devices. At least, it should go a long way to prevent sales persons from actively talking people out of Windows Phones, as it has historically been the case.

The Nokia Ace is rumored to be the codename of the Lumia 900, essentially a bigger version of the Lumia 800 with a 4.3″ display and LTE, set to launch exclusively on AT&T on March 18.

Source: winsupersite

About Liwen Guo

I've been tinkering with smartphones since the old Windows Mobile days, creating the popular Livven Themes series. Since then I've moved on to an HTC HD2, running Windows Phone 7.5, and Galaxy Nexus, running Android 4.0. I also have an iPod touch. Visit my website and follow me on Twitter.

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http://www.facebook.com/ellis.w.brown Ellis W. Brown Jr.

GAME ON!!! “Rolling Thunder” is starting to step on deck. This is going to be a great year. The interesting thing is, if they are spending 200 million now. Just think what they are going to do when later in 2012 when they bring out ther heavy hitting high ends phones. People forget about how Microsoft does thing, time for them to make them remember!!
Anonymous

This is going to be amazing. I really hope it leads to better sales and sales reps should start recommending windows phone now. I cannot wait to see the lumia 900.
http://twitter.com/Heron_Kusanagi Heron Lim Shi Shun

I will say Microsoft and Nokia has no choice. It needs the user base. And this will work, if nothing else.
http://twitter.com/laserfloyd Lewis McCrary

Queue the reps trying to use “the force” to persuade customers. That’s great stuff and about time they started pushing it. Really, if this doesn’t work then I’m not sure what will. MS can’t rest though. WP8 needs to be huge and taken to the next level. Marginal improvements won’t cut it.

Jimbo

I do agree that if this doesn’t work, then nothing else will, and it would be probably be curtains for Nokia, while Microsoft could just go back to the drawing board.

Martin Kynningsrud Størbu

WIll the 900 be US only?

Joe Atkinson

It was previously revealed that the 900 will be pentaband with AWS frequency on 1700 which is TMo! Whether it will be two different 900 models or one with both radiuos in the same phone is a question I hope its the latter!
rsgx

Supposedly global, according to the rumours.

I hope it is.

Joe Atkinson

This is twice a s good news as leats maybe a bigger impact than that with multipliers and sales of a million or more phones will definitely boost marketshare as well as mindshare!
Anonymous

I think is really is a shame that Microsoft has to pay the carrier’s personnel to do their jobs professionally. And by professionally, I mean actively probing the customer to assess their needs, and then recommend the appropriate device; today, it’s just ‘get this Android device’ or ‘get the iphone’ – no other platform is recommended or even considered by telecom personnel as viable options for their customers. The telecoms should be the ones to offer the incentives to their employees, if for nothing else but to try to mitigate the bias against WP (and any other OS that isn’t Android or iOS). And there have been plenty of employees of some of these telecoms that say that they don’t get incentives to sell iPhones – that their ‘bonuses’ come from selling extra add on services. So, clearly, these salespeople have their favorite OS and gladly push it whether they are paid extra or not.

So, when sales skyrocket, the blogs and commenters will attribute it to, and say, ’Microsoft has to pay people to use WP devices’; proper credit will not be given to the WP OS or Nokia for actually making a device that people ‘desire’; in other words, the perception of the uptick in sales will not be based on WP/Nokia’s own merits for creating quality service and devices.

Hopefully, these ‘incentives’ will only be temporary. What will be even more pathetic than paying incentives is, if incentives are offered, consumers still choose Android or iOS!

I just don’t like the idea of incentives being paid by Microsoft.

rsgx

I was under the impression that Android sales paid incentives too… which is why the salesmen push them?

Anonymous

its the oems who provide incentives. usually they have a promo for a certain phone. sell this many of this device,and get for example $200 visa gift card. so the salesperson will push that device hard to get the incentive.

http://twitter.com/big_slim750 LaMar aka Big Slim

If anything, I’m sure the incentive will make the sales reps learn even more about the WP OS so they will be able to effectively show off what it can do vs competitors.
Anonymous

I know for a fact that swedish representatives get $10 per sold android-phone.
http://twitter.com/Heron_Kusanagi Heron Lim Shi Shun

There are always incentives around, and it works. That’s why Nokia and MS are willing to play ball with the carriers.

No matter how they will get there, the result of more users is the only thing the 2 companies care about. Then they can start to reduce a bit of incentives when Apollo kicks in. Hopefully before iOS6 and Android 5.0 starts to play.
http://www.twitter.com/wixostrix WixosTrix

Who gives a crap about what the bloggers and their commenters will say because even if Microsoft has to shell out incentive dollars to sell the phones, the phones themselves will be adored and WP7 will continue to out beat Android in customer satisfaction. Obviously, the incentives aren’t going to go on forever as the phones will eventually sell due to customer demand.

rsgx

That’s the basic idea.

They just need a kick-start to get the sales moving along.

Malcolm Williams

The more and more I write and speak to other bloggers (engadget, wpcentral, theverge), I realize that there are a lot of bloggers that enjoy the windows phone 7 experience and UI. In fact, I say for certain with exception of a few, the majority of main blogging sites enjoy the Windows Phone experience and will congratulate Microsoft on releasing a product in a timely manner and getting OEMs on board. The contention that many (including myself) have is rate of adoption of new hardware, and carrier adoption.

It is the latter that should be on everyone’s mind, and not the rate of adoption or how some bloggers see Windows Phone. Carriers carry a large bearing on which phone sells. Unfortunately, two key things make carriers leery of Windows Phone. The first is the Skype acquisition. Fundamentally, in the view of carriers, Skype potentially has the ability to encroach on carrier charging, decreasing carrier capital, and as a result, make the carrier far less money. I think any company will be cautious for a product that is essentially taking their sales by offering a competing service. As much as I enjoy Skype and Windows Live, Skype may not be a good idea if the purpose is carrier adoption.
The second point is raised by Charlie Kindel and sadly those points are equally valid. The fact remains that unlike Android, it isn’t cheap to sell, Microsoft can be seen as a bully. That isn’t to say that Apple hasn’t bullied carriers, because it has and especially AT&T. However, the iPhone has made a lot of money for the carrier and has given Apple a lot of freedom. Android has also given a lot of money to carriers because it is cheap, affordable and it gives dumb phone users the high premium price for smart phone plans (e.g. more $$$).

This isn’t the first time that Microsoft has mentioned that they would increase their advertising revenue in America as we all know. But, let’s think back to last year. Sure the New York display was wonderful for New York and gave a lot of awareness. The problem is, the fan fare wasn’t extended to any of the other launch countries. Sure there was a party, but if you didn’t have a facebook or weren’t actively engaged in Microsoft affairs, not many knew about it. It even got to the point to where Microsoft substituted the press registration with user registration at the end. Simple aspects like that are unacceptable and makes me, someone that both has invested in the Microsoft ecosystem and reports about it, wonder what message Microsoft is sending for both users, press, and people interested in the platform.

Further, questions become pretty salient when taking into consideration the Nokia horse. Again I wonder what makes Nokia different if Nokia is releasing a device on many major networks in the United States. Andy Lees stated at one point that carriers in America was different and it had to be an individual carrier that was to sell product. Granted I see the Samsung Focus Flash receive a lot of fan fare, but no love for the marketing from the “major” devices offered. Howe is Nokia different if it is up to the carriers that indicate which advertising is sold?

There are a lot of issues with advertising and carriers of Windows Phone. And yeah 200 million seems like a lot, but is it? Let’s be real. Some of the emphasis that Nokia has been given by Microsoft probably makes a lot of people angry about the contention of the real windows phone contender. I don’t think it is spurning competition but division. Frankly its getting dicy to me

http://www.mainstreetchatham.com/ JimmyFal

That concept would work for every sales person in the world. The first time I had a job, where the harder I worked the more money I made, I never even considered doing it any other way, EVER again. I used to get $50 for every Gateway computer I sold. That pissed off the Gateway salesman I used to make all my purchases through because it was more then he made on each sale! All I can say is I sold a LOT of Gateways when they had that incentive program. Smart.
Anonymous

i dont see whats the problem with providing incentives, whether they buy it or not atleast more people would know about WP7. MS needs help with people to atleast know the OS exist, if all the carrier personel are only pushing android or iphone how will they know about MS WP7? having people know it exist will give MS a better fighting chance than not knowing at all, if all the stories are true that customers are only shown android or iphone and dont even mention MS then i say the incentives are a def plus. every one of these phones has their flaws none of them are perfect, but if the salepersons are tech enthusiast like some of the members on this site and others they would explain all options and not just what their told to sell because of incentives. by MS providing incentives i think will hopefully level the playing field, atleast now WP7 will get mentioned and be strayed away from, whether they buy or not atleast the know theirs a third option. its a start
Anonymous

I think paying incentives will be to the determent of the consumer in the end, no matter who’s offering the incentives. I remember the days where reps would listen to your needs, and offer you a phone based on that. Hell I can’t blame them for leading people to the phone that pays the most kick back to them. In the end, only the consumer loses.
Anonymous

This is what I would do I would setup a dedicated stand just for Windows devices. The stand will feature 4 sides 1 side for touchscreen devices, another for keyboard devices, another for tablets and one more for a laptop which markets LTE rocket sticks.

The two sides with phones will have TV’s which show a video of all the WP features. All units are interactive and will come with a preloaded OS similar to the demo units online so consumers can try the feature set.

I would also include perks buy a Windows phone/tablet and get 3 months free of Xbox Live and Zune pass.

I will showcase this stand to AT&T and say hey its all paid for by MS and slowly deploy it nationwide the most popular locations will get it first and so on. Then I would use the same tatics for other carriers.

A plain WP on display is very boring in order for WP to sell it needs to showcase all the integration and the features which makes it a amazing experience.

Just my 2 cents

Anonymous

@based_graham…I think a dedicated stand, in a prime location within the store, and with working WP devices, would better than offering sales staff extra money for doing something they should be doing anyway. And the perks you mention, although it’s money out of MS’s budget, the ROI is huge as these are Microsoft’s services.

The carriers paid money for these devices, and it is the responsibility of their staff to ensure that these devices are sold. If that means incentives and extra dough for their employees, fine; but the incentive dollars, in my opinion should come from the carrier, not from Microsoft.

Anonymous

I would sell Windows Phone handsets for free.

Anonymous

I already do. Not professionally, but I always show people my Windows Phone and what it can do, focusing on the integrated features and how seamlessly parts of the OS work together, eliminating superseding the need for many apps.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_UWVRPJYQFEG7ZCHPD7LDPBR2CM LWSJR

Does Google pay incentives, or is it the carrier? Does Apple pay incentives, or is it the carrier? Does RIMM pay incentives, or is it the carrier? I think the OP’s point is that the maker of the OS shouldn’t have to pay the incentive – the incentive should come from the telecom to help move devices off the shelves and into the hands of the consumer.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_UWVRPJYQFEG7ZCHPD7LDPBR2CM LWSJR

But who pays the incentive – Google, or the Swedish carrier?
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_UWVRPJYQFEG7ZCHPD7LDPBR2CM LWSJR

Sounds nice. But it would be even nicer for a product to sell on it’s own accord, and not be accused of only being in the hands of consumers because of paid employees ‘pressuring’ consumers to buy the device.

Yeah, let’s hope the incentives are temporary. But how about seeing how well the device sells on it’s own ‘without’ the incentives being a caveate? This would lend a lot a credence to this device being a winner.

Anonymous

Its probably temporary MS needs to do whatever they can to have sales push their platform. Reviews and blogs say WP7 is a great phone the only problem is at the retail level. By doing this will have people try the phone buy the phone and recommend the phone especially if they are entry level smartphone users or low end Android users. This is can be a snowball effect for MS down the road. I hope WP gains atleast 5 – 10 percent this year lets hope!

Ajong Ekokobe

Three words: Super.Bowl.Commercial.
http://twitter.com/Interlingua_TV Interlingua TV

The biggest problem with Windows Phone 7 is the core of the OS is common with Windows and there are many reports around with Windows Phones virused. A virus can come into the phone as easy as a jpg image or any other email or attachment.

While for Android and iOS this is not a problem, Windows Phones have big time trouble with viruses. Once infected by a virus, the phone can be a simple brick and AT&T or Microsoft or Nokia will not accept your phone back for a replacement. Once it is bricked it is hard to prove the cause was a virus. This is why people recommend good anti-viruses to buy for Windows Phones. Think spending another $50 for a good anti-virus that does the job. Then again new viruses come in. There are reports the anti-virus blocked with the firewall all the ports, then the 3G internet connection stopped, only Wi-Fi would work. There are guides to make the firewall to not block all the ports. Bluetooth connection is not affected.

Malcolm Williams

Do you know what you’re talking about? There has been NO virii reported on Windows Phone…AT ALL

thebigdogg-ep

That’s awesome I’m a sales rep I refuse to sell windows Cus I know it will comeback so I sell iPhone or android easy sale but u ofer me 15 bucks per sale I’ll be pushing nothing but windows all day genius idea I just hope Verizon or AT&T don’t skimp us and change that number to 5 bucks and pocket the rest. Greedy