by Mike Coates
FBP
Yesterday, Research in Motion (RIM) announced the appointment of
Thorsten Heins as the new President and Chief Executive Office. RIM, most famous for its Blackberry smart telephones has fallen on tough times as consumers stampede to purchase Apples iPhones and iPads.
Mr Heins believes that the secret to gaining back the American consumer is to hire a top drawer Chief Marketing Officer who with the proven talents of a pied piper will lure the people away from Apple and back to Blackberry.
Oh if only it were that easy Mr. Heins!
Source: The National Post
20 comments:
In my Tuesday night Marketing Class I asked students to offer their opinion on whether or not RIM can reverse its decline simply by hiring a chief marketing officer? Or is there something else that RIM has to do to earn the customer's business?
I don't think RIM is totally hopeless. They still have a group of loyal consumers. By simply hiring a Chief Marketing Officer won't be able to reverse their decline. They need to take out what doesn't work and focus on what works on their product, and what their target market wants. Innovation will be what helps them, and not simply just a good marketing plan.
Thorsten Heins must be dreaming if he thinks that by hiring a Chief Marketing Officer will fix RIM's problems. RIM needs to reach out and find out what it's consumers and potential consumers want, and give them it. RIM needs to tell us why we should switch to a Blackberry phone rather than an Iphone, also known as a category need. They need to outline the benefits of owning a Blackberry vs an IPhone for new consumers and remind it's current consumers why they purchased their Blackberry in the first place.
When people think of RIM's Blackberry phone, the first thing that comes to mind is BBM (Blackberry Messenger). Apple is to smart for their own good, because they knew that the reason people chose Blackberry phones over IPhones was because consumers loved the idea of instant chatting (BBM). Therefore, Apple created a program called IMessenger - an instant chat program for IPhone users with all the same benefits of BBM. This put both phone companies head to head, why wouldn't people switch to an iphone now that it has all the same benefits a Blackberry has and more? Apple did their research, now it's time for RIM to do theirs.
RIM still has a massive market for their products, they are losing many customers and declining drastically to Apple because they are not successfully marketing their product. I never see advertisements for Blackberry on tv, magazines, anywhere. Apple has been very successful at this, thus people switching to purchase their product. Like Mike says, we even need to be reminded to brush our teeth apparently so why wouldn't we need to be reminded to be loyal to our phone companies?
Dear Unknown
Is it RIM that should be telling aka convincing the consumer why a Blackberry smart phone is a better choice than an iPhone smart phone? Sounds like your advocating a "push strategy." Would not developing a "pull strategy" be a better option?
Totally agree with you, I kind of got carried away I mentioned a pull strategy in the first couple sentences - "RIM needs to reach out and find out what it's consumers and potential consumers want, and give them it."
PS. I have never used a blog so I didn't know how to publish my name, It's Marah Berezowsky.
I do not agree that a Chief Marketing Officer is what RIM needs at this point in time. I don't believe it will have a negative effect (as marketing a product more can never harm a company), but do not find it necessary. RIM has already established a substantial, yet loyal customer base. Their marketing team has done an exponential job at promoting the advantages of blackberry versus their competition. The problem that RIM is facing in recent months is backing up what they are promoting in their products. The main issue at hand is that RIM has always supplied a reliable product for their customers. In recent months, however, there have been numerous outages in their network. Consumers that heavily rely on their Blackberry's for not only personal, but business use, are finding it difficult to depend on the product as substantially as before.
With recent competition in the Smart Phone industry, RIM's main focus should not only be on the continuous promotion of supplying a reliable product; but backing this up, and ensuring that what they promote is what the consumer experiences. Otherwise, consumers will be more likely to stray away from RIM products and continue to switch over to networks that have proven their reliability, such as Apple.
While I might be crazy to say the following as part of assignment from a marketing class. I honestly think it’s too late for marketing alone to save RIM even a guru.
While RIMS marketing of the BB brand hasn't been amazing it has never been horrible either and they got a good amount of mileage out of the BBM campaign. Any marketing that can convince people to use an archaic and badly designed number id system is to be complemented.
But ultimately people our buying apple's and various htc's, Samsung’s not because of their marketing. Sorry marketing class i know the commercials help A LOT! But you got to back that up with a worthwhile product. RIM's competitors have been constantly advancing and innovating while to be quite honest RIM rested on its laurels confident in its business monopoly.
A monopoly which thanks to a successful "pull" marketing campaign by apple and security advances is being eroded, and quickly.
All that being said there is always hope. Blackberry needs to refocus on its strengths while RIM actually finishes some new phones instead of consistently rushing them out before completion ala "Playbook".
Apple's commercials always show all the cool apps they have. RIM can do something similar, they don't even have to be things only blackberry's do! Show bbm, show some cool apps. And they need to address a fairly common problem that i see with the image regarding their phones which is for lack of a better term "sex appeal" they have done too good a job at securing the business market so it’s very difficult for non-business people to think they are cool and show them to their hipster friends without blushing.
RIM's survival is in the long-term going to depend on emerging markets in my opinion. But in order to secure those new markets it needs to at the very least buy some time in current markets NA, Europe.
@ Neila Tong
Got to agree with the essence of Neila's comment. You can't have an effective marketing campaign without an at least passable product especially in the ultra competitive cellphone market. The Brand loyalty these companies have borders on disgusting. The last two classes one student has shouted out how Samsung is better than apple! That kind of loyalty is not currently held by BlackBerry and while a good new marketing plan can help you need a sexy, cool and good product to build that with.
Rim is in a difficult spot but nothing that would put the company out of business. A new marketing director should focus on the one thing they have created. The sub-culture that is BBM. Maybe a campaign that main focus is how relevant instant messaging is.
Commercials should focus on group activities, with group chat keeping friends connected.
Without BBM Rim would be truly bankrupt but they can still keep themselves relevant beyond just the business crowd.
Regardless if they're hiring the best in the Marketing field or not, it is quite clear that they need to revamp the brand's personality. At present, people don't really know what they are trying to offer their consumers. Is it for the younger crowd in terms of being connected with their friends via BBM? Is it geared towards the working class in terms of accesibility to their workplace?
In my opinion, they should not even try to compete with the marketshare that Apple has for the younger age group because it will probably be a lost case. Redirecting and strengthening their marketing campaigns towards the working class will be a better option for them.
I think Neila, Corey, and others have made good points. This is more than just a marketing problem for RIM. They need to get together and focus on research and development to try and improve their products first. One of the reaons why the playbook resulted in a disaster was because it was rushed out onto the market before it was ready and critics gave it a horrible review. With apple holding a 80% market share on the tablet market with the iPad, it is unlikely that RIM can come up with any new products in the short run to challange apple, thus they should focus on their flagship product, the blackberry phones. With improvements on the blackberry phones and its network and proper marketing plans, blackberry should be able to rebound.
I agree with Nelia, Courtney, Corey, and others. Blackberry has done a decent job at marketing their products but the reliability of those products has not stood up to the test of business professionals. I switched from Blackberry to iPhone in the fall and I have never been happier. My blackberry was always operating slow and crashing, the server would go down and BBM wouldn't work, and most importantly, I was unable to open large Excel spreadsheets. Blackberry needs to work on making their product exceptional as well as their marketing plan.
I dont believe that RIM is going away so soon due to the fact they have such loyal users.However RIM's market value has certainly dropped off in the past year, comsumers enjoyed that they could istant messege so easily. Apple has now recently just come out with a simliar feature called the imessege making some blackberry users switch over.They need to focus on what their customers love about blackberrys and expand in that direction.
I agree with most of what is being said here.. RIM doesnt need a new CMO they need a new product if they want to stay in the North American mainstreem market. Blackberry's are perfectly fine as a business phone (when RIM's system isn't crashing) but for the general consumer BB has fallen behind. The phone it's self is slow and has less options and apps than its competitors. The only thing that BB has going for it is BBM and now with most other phones there's an app for that. If BB decides that this is the market that they want to stay in they had better improve their software and come up with something that no other phone has yet.
I am personally not a Blackberry user, so my knowledge of them is limited. However, based on some research I believe that in the long run, RIM definitely needs to focus on research and development and become more innovative.
Take the time to strategize how to get ahead of the game instead of chasing the heels of their competitors. However, for the here and now, I don’t believe it’s as simple as ‘hiring’ a new Chief Marketing Officer, but more so, what will he do to recapture the attention of RIM’s target market?
Marketing is knowing your audience! The first thing RIM needs to do is to get reacquainted with their target market. Who are they, exactly? What is their current perception of RIM and how can RIM change it? What do consumers want and need? What do current users like about Blackberries compared to others? What would they change? What would convince new users to try using a Blackberry? Once they know all of this, it’s essential to market to these wants and needs. Blackberry and Apple users are different markets. Rim has strengths; Apple has just drowned them out with different strengths. RIM needs to reintroduce “their” pros. The qualities that set them apart from Apple, along with those strengths that are comparable. Although these are few, they still carry weight among business professionals.
I think there is still hope for RIM. They may not take Apple out for a decade or so, but they can pull out of this if they are wise in their research and development while strategically marketing their current Blackberries.
Corey Davis' comment about Neila Tong's comment: (well that was a mouthful!)
As I mentioned in my original post, I am not a BB user, however.....I have many friends who are faithful BB users and would shout it out in class or from the rooftops! They have no shame in their preference....only pride in their Blackberries! RIM has a solid market that is faithful to their product as does Apple. It is a different market than Apple, however, Apple has simply been louder and smarter in their marketing strategies. RIM needs to get on the ball and do some smart and creative marketing! And yes, while doing so, start working on their product (research, research and then development!)...making certain they are ready BEFORE sending it out to the public! No cutting corners...do all the proper tests first. Work out all the kinks and concerns...then let it loose!
As Belch, Belch & Guolla point out, “if liking or preference is low the advertising goal may be to change the target audience’s image of the brand” (p.133). Blackberry should highlight new features for current smartphone users, showing them that a Blackberry has the benefits needed to meet their needs. Blackberry may also want to try to increase, modify or change brand attitude. Also increase communication with its current consumers. As communication is increased, target audiences will grow stronger ties with the Blackberry brand attitude. The focus should be on their brand attitude; repositioning that in the consumers mind will hopefully increase popularity of Blackberry.
I have been using Blackberry for almost 3 years and I was really happy when I purchased it. Now I feel like I should wait for my contract to end and change it for a modern phone with better quality and more features. Like me, I find lots of people changing from Blackberry to Iphone’s or Androids looking for a better cellphone. I agree with most of the comments that point out Apples imessage, but I can add What’s app to the list. It allows any phone to add this app and text message for free between different phones that download the application. What initially brought me to Blackberry is now pushing me away, and there is nothing that gives me reasons to go back. I agree with some opinions and I think that to survive they should work on repositioning the brand only after they develop new and improved phones that are technically able to compete in quality and innovation.
I feel that hiring a cheif officer is not going to help blackberry at this time. I agree on one of the posts that they are in a slump and simply marketing is not going to help them any. I think that many products have phases and Apple could possible just be a phase. If blackberry wants to get back into the market they would need to have something planned and launch it as soon as Apple is in their slump. It would have to be a product that their target market needs, and wants. If Apple never goes into a slump or any kind of downfall, i think blackberry may be a little hopeless, other then their loyal buyers.
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