Leader: Nokia believes the children are our future

Nokia today announced it is bringing in a big-shot marketing type from the Coca-Cola empire to turn around its brand image and help increase its market share.

No prizes for guessing what demographic it is targeting.

Nokia has long enjoyed youth appeal - sometimes accused of pursuing a form over function approach and displaying a reliance upon games and similar distractions for the younger thumb. The N-Gage - which is more Game Boy than phone - was the ultimate realisation of this trend. Now also we see the move towards the MP3 player/phone combo.

These products fill a space of their own - somewhere between toys and serious adult mobile phones.

But it seems the handset maker still craves the kind of youth appeal enjoyed by Coke - especially with an increasing percentage of ever-larger pocket moneys being spent on mobile phones.

And never underestimate pester power.

Mobile phone manufacturers ramp up their activity and their marketing efforts in the run-up to Christmas aware that Santa is delivering more and more high-tech handsets with the passing of each festive season.

We therefore shouldn't be surprised to see somebody from Coke brought into the fold. It could just as easily have been someone from Mattel or McDonalds. The disciplines are the same - creating a must-have product the children will be prepared to drive their parents to distraction just to get hold of.

How long will it be before a mobile phone is talked about as 'this year's Buzz Lightyear' as parents fight to buy it? Or before a phone launch is talked of in such 'stop the press' terms as the launch of Cherry Coke, Tab or even the new flavour of Coca-Cola?

If Nokia gets its way it won't be long.