Nokia Lumia 920 Controversy

In September, Nokia launched promo videos for it’s newest upcoming smartphone device, Nokia Lumia 920. These videos reflected one of Nokia’s most eye-catching features: Pure View IOS (image optical stabilization). Pure View IOS “floats” the lens on springs, which allows it to enable video recording that is less shaky and enhancing low-light settings. However, viewers quickly noticed that the video was fake, in terms that the phone’s technology was falsely represented by an actual camera instead. In the background and reflection, there shows a camera man with a DSLR recording the scene and in the commercial, the video quality is labelled as “IOS ON”. Check it out below:

And here’s an image of the camera’s reflection caught in the background:

We’ve talked in class before about how social media marketing can easily benefit you, but also, can just as much damage as well. A simple mistake can lead to a drop in reputation, after it took years and years to develop a strong one in the first place. And it depends how a company handles a controversy, such as this, that determines how well they’ll be able to get back on their feet. Although shortly after, Nokia did release an apology to the public for its misrepresentation of the product’s actual technological capabilities, damage had still been done. Heidi Lemmetyinen, one of the many bloggers of Conversations by Nokia blog site, issued an apology:

In an effort to demonstrate the benefits of optical image stabilization (which eliminates blurry images and improves pictures shot in low light conditions), we produced a video that simulates what we will be able to deliver with OIS.

Of course, hindsight is 20/20, but we should have posted a disclaimer stating this was a representation of OIS only. This was not shot with a Lumia 920. At least, not yet. We apologize for the confusion we created.

(Source: http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/09/06/an-apology-is-due/)

However, in my opinion, I didn’t think that Nokia took the right steps in order to effectively minimize the damage in the best way possible. Below the apology, there are 214 comments, about 60 percent of them negative, speaking in regards to the apology post.

Nokia’s next initiative to minimize the damage was to release a new video, that reflects the true comparison of the Nokia Lumia 920’s Pure View IOS. However, Nokia released it a bit too late and the audience still pointed out the negatives, stating whether this was another “fake” as well. Although it is an attempt for recovery, much of the damage had already been done and although the original promotional video was taken down, there are still multiple user-generated ones lying around the Internet.

Although I’ve seen this controversy, I don’t think any less of Nokia. I’ve looked and researched the phone, and in my opinion, it’s still a great catch. The promotional video is misleading and tampers with the brand’s name, but the phone’s capabilities are still existent and haven’t changed. However, I do believe that there are initiatives that the company could have better taken and utilized in order to simmer the fire around this controversy.

1. Monitor and Respond to Customer Comments: Of the 214 comments on the apology blog post made by a representative of Nokia, not one of the posts were acknowledged and responded to. There were quite a few meaningful posts that showed constructive criticism and Nokia could show a simple recognition that they’ve taken into consideration the opinions and thoughts of their blog followers. It’s the least they could do after the controversy hit.
2. The Nokia Lumia Has Amazing Specs, So Let People Take It To The Test: A promotional video, especially about a phone’s image quality, is very subjective, as it can easily be altered and in this case, be fake. Unlike the call features of the phone, picture quality is a lot harder to appreciate over the web when a user can’t experience it for themselves or look deeply at the prints. I would suggest to immediately send the Nokia Lumia 920’s to influential people, specifically technology product reviewers, that can try the phone out themselves and give an honest opinion out to their followers. By releasing a side-by-side comparison that now showed the “real” Pure View IOS as Nokia did instead, consumers aren’t as willing to believe what they hear after being lied to. Nokia can’t influence these consumers if they’ve already significantly lost their credibility and trust. Without a doubt, the camera quality may be great on the phone, but Nokia can’t broadcast this themselves anymore. They need people, that can relate to their audience, to present a change on their initial mindset after the controversy.