MARKETING MANAGEMENT: GROUP PROJECT

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PROJECT OBJECTIVE:

TO ANALYSE THE RISE AND FALL OF BLACKBERRY ORGANISATION IN THE

GLOBAL PRODUCT MARKET AND PROVIDE RECOMMENDATIONS BY USING
THE APPLICATION OF MARKETING STRATEGIES AND TECHNIQUES LEARNT.

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Contents

Short Introduction & Background............................................................................................... 1 - 4

SWOT AND PEST ANALYSIS .......................................................................................................5- 10
Segmentation:.................................................................................................................................... 11 -12
Targeting:............................................................................................................................................. 13
Positioning:.................................................................................................................................................14
Product .......................................................................................................................................................15
Placement................................................................................................................................................16
Pricing...............................................................................................................................................17
Promotion...............................................................................................................................................17-18
Social Media ........................................................................................................................................... 18-22
Product Giveaways................................................................................................................................23
Charity & Fundraising Campaigns......................................................................................................24
Redefining Sales & Marketing Strategy - Suggestions for Improvement...25-28
References:.....................................................................................................................................29

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SHORT INTRODUCTION ABO & BACKGROUND ABOUT BLACKBERRY: ( WHY IT FAILED ?)

Research in Motion introduced BlackBerry in 1998 in Smartphone Business, which became a $20
billion company within less than a decade. Then four or five years later, it was back down to a $3
billion company, gasping for breath. It’s not only a disruption story; it is a story of the speed of the
technology race today. There has not been a technology that has so quickly penetrated the consumer
market as the smartphones did with the BlackBerry being the innovator.

BlackBerry was the producer of the world’s first widely-adopted premium smartphone brand. At its
pinnacle, Blackberry owned over 50% of the US and 20% of the global smartphone market, sold over
50 million devices a year, had its device referred to as the “Crack Berry”, and boasted a stock price of
over $230. Today, BlackBerry has 0% share of the smartphone market and has a stock price that has
fluttered in the high single digits for last many years. What led to Blackberry’s downfall?

Talking about history. BlackBerry was founded in 1984 (as Research in Motion) and was originally a
developer of connectivity technology like modems and pagers. In 2000, the company introduced its
first mobile phone product in the BlackBerry 957, which came with functionality for push email and
internet. Over the ensuing decade, the BlackBerry became the device of choice in corporate America
due to its enterprise-level security and business functionality. Even after the competitive entry of the
iPhone in 2007 and Google’s Android OS in 2008, BlackBerry was certainly not destined for failure. In
fact, BlackBerry continued to dominate the smartphone market through 2010, when it still held over
40% of domestic and nearly 20% of global market share.

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Ultimately, however, it was a combination of slow market reactions, focusing on the wrong end
market, misunderstanding the smartphone’s value proposition, and poor execution that sealed
BlackBerry’s fate.

“Slow market reaction to competition. BlackBerry’s leadership initially dismissed Apple’s touch
screen iPhone, insisting that users preferred their physical keyboard. When the iPhone sold well,
BlackBerry hastily released a touch screen device (BlackBerry Storm), which often didn’t work
properly and was met with horrendous reviews. Subsequent devices reintroduced the keyboard in a
combo touch screen-keyboard setup (e.g., BlackBerry Bold), which momentarily stopped the
bleeding (changed the trend positively for a temporary period), but would eventually prove
misguided as the market continued moving toward larger screen real-estate.

Focusing on the wrong end market. As Apple and Google made smartphones accessible to the
mass consumer by creating slick user interfaces and attractive apps, BlackBerry remained firmly
focused on its enterprise customers and their security and connectivity requirements. This was the
traditional innovator’s dilemma at work – BlackBerry catered to its most important customers that
generated most of its revenue and profits, and hence neglected the end market that would
ultimately become the most important. When enterprises adopted “Bring Your Device” policies, it was
no surprise that employees began replacing work BlackBerries with personal iPhones or Android
phones en masse.

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Misunderstanding the smartphone’s value proposition. In part due to its enterprise focus,
BlackBerry innovated primarily around feature improvement – faster email, better security, etc. In
doing so, it missed the value proposition of the smartphone as a platform for personal productivity
and entertainment. While Apple and Google built a moat around their third-party app ecosystems,
BlackBerry’s insistence on first-party development made its devices far inferior. Even its most popular
app, BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), was leveraged ineffectively – by mandating that BBM be installed
only on BlackBerry devices instead of building up a larger user base across platforms, BlackBerry
missed the opportunity that third-party messaging apps like WhatsApp eventually took advantage
of.

Poor execution. Even when it did try to adapt, BlackBerry couldn’t execute properly. The launch of
the touch screen Storm in 2008 was a colossal failure. The 2010 release of the Playbook tablet was
largely derided for a lack of native email, calendar, and contacts applications. Even its more recent
incarnations, like the BlackBerry Priv in 2015, suffered from ineffective product launches, poor
functionality, and incoherent value propositions.

It’s not surprising that BlackBerry lost the smartphone war. But BlackBerry’s story may have another
chapter that is yet to be written. Since bringing on turnaround veteran John Chen as CEO in late 2013,
BlackBerry has given up on producing phones and has rejuvenated itself as a software and services
business. Leveraging a portfolio of enterprise security products and riding the wave of automotive
innovation with its QNX system, Chen seems to have righted the ship. In its most recent quarter (Q3
2017), BlackBerry reported 7% growth in software and services and guided to 10-15% growth for the
year. In the autonomous vehicle space, BlackBerry has partnered with Baidu, Nvidia, and Qualcomm
to secure their software. Investors have rewarded the company – its stock price now sits around $13
per share, a level not seen since mid-2013. “

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“Strengths

 The biggest strength of Blackberry is that it enjoys top of the mind recall and has a good
reputation among corporate users of mobiles because of its proprietary technology that scores
over its competitors especially where corporate users are concerned.
 The Blackberry devices can be used with any mobile carriers anywhere in the world and
indeed, this is a key strength for the company as it goes along its business with easy mobility
and portability.
 One of the main strengths of Blackberry is that its devices are more secure than its competitors
and indeed, the security features inherent and embedded in the devices are unmatched by
any other mobile maker including Samsung and Apple. This is the reason why Blackberries are
so popular with corporate users who use it to link it and integrate it with their VPNs or Virtual
Private Networks.
 These strengths have made Blackberry the Smartphone of choice for many governmental
agencies in the United States including the FBI, CIA, The White House, and the State
Department. Given the fact that Blackberries come with an encrypted military grade security
platform makes it the ideal phone of choice for agencies dealing with sensitive information.
Even Obama and most of the Global leaders, use Blackberry Mobiles.

Weaknesses

 The key weakness that Blackberry has is that it went on a single-track focus on the corporate
users and enhanced its security features as a USP or a Unique Selling Proposition. While this
aspect held it in good stead as far as the corporate clients are concerned, once Samsung and
Apple came out with Smartphones for the consumers and the everyday usage, Blackberry was
unable to keep up with the competition. Indeed, both Samsung and Apple have cornered the
market share by enhancing the security features in their Smartphones.
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  Given the fact that small business owners using Blackberries now had to install expensive
enterprise software, they began to switch to the rivals instead of using Blackberries. Further,
the company lost ground as the proprietary operating system used by Samsung and Apple
provided more benefits to this customer segment leaving Blackberry out of the race.
 As mentioned earlier, Blackberry was essentially a single pony trick with its obsessive focus on
the corporate users. With the large consumer base untouched by it, Samsung and Apple
quickly garnered this segment and by providing an easy to use user interface and apps that
were simple and effective, these companies soon began to take away even the corporate
customers of Blackberry.

Opportunities

 Concerns about Data security related to Chinese firms-( Huwaei case)

 5G introduction – Scope for Innovation will leverage existing customer base of 100 Million
users.
 The recent moves by the company are very aggressive as it has rejected a sale offer and a
buyout offer as well as accepted fresh infusion of capital from an Angel Investor. By
appointing a new CEO and revamping its organizational team and structure, Blackberry has
signaled that it is serious and is going all out to reinvent itself.
 The company has a lucrative opportunity as far as leveraging its existing customer base of
over 100 Million users is concerned. Given the fact that the company can tap into this customer
base for its future products, there is a significant opportunity waiting for the company.
 By integrating the third party apps and features into its phones, the company can mimic the
strategies followed by Apple and Samsung and the increase in the business partnerships with
third party providers can prove to be a key opportunity for the company as it prepares to
take on Samsung and Apple.

Threats

 Though Blackberries were the original Smartphones, both Apple and Samsung beat it to the
race to build the Smartphone of the future because they provided the flexibility and ease of
use that Blackberries lacked and hence, were able to corner market share and take away its
competitors. Also, the Low Pricing Strategy of the Chinese Market is a big threat.
 Apart from the threats posed by its competitors, Blackberry had to fight the slack and the
gloomy internal environment, which because of the troubles that the company has been
through in recent years has resulted in lower employee morale and a general lack of direction.
Given the fact that the Smartphone industry thrives on innovation, Blackberry has to
rejuvenate itself and reinvent itself apart from rescuing itself from the sagging momentum
and motivation of its employees.”

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 “Political Factors that Impact BlackBerry Limited

Political factors play a significant role in determining the factors that can impact BlackBerry
Limited's long term profitability in a certain country or market. BlackBerry Limited is operating in
Diversified Communication Services in more than dozen countries and expose itself to different types
of political environment and political system risks. The achieve success in such a dynamic Diversified
Communication Services industry across various countries is to diversify the systematic risks of
political environment. BlackBerry Limited can closely analyze the following factors before entering
or investing in a certain market-

 “Political stability and importance of Diversified Communication Services sector in the country's
economy.
 Risk of military invasion
 Level of corruption - especially levels of regulation in Technology sector.
 Bureaucracy and interference in Diversified Communication Services industry by government.
 Legal framework for contract enforcement
 Intellectual property protection
 Trade regulations & tariffs related to Technology
 Favored trading partners
 Anti-trust laws related to Diversified Communication Services
 Pricing regulations – Are there any pricing regulatory mechanism for Technology
 Taxation - tax rates and incentives
 Wage legislation - minimum wage and overtime
 Work week regulations in Diversified Communication Services
 Mandatory employee benefits
 Industrial safety regulations in the Technology sector.
 Product labeling and other requirements in Diversified Communication Services
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Economic Factors that Impact BlackBerry Limited

The Macro environment factors such as – inflation rate, savings rate, interest rate, foreign exchange
rate and economic cycle determine the aggregate demand and aggregate investment in an
economy. While micro environment factors such as competition norms impact the competitive
advantage of the firm. BlackBerry Limited can use country’s economic factor such as growth rate,
inflation & industry’s economic indicators such as Diversified Communication Services industry
growth rate, consumer spending etc to forecast the growth trajectory of not only --sector name--
sector but also that of the organization. Economic factors that BlackBerry Limited should consider
while conducting PESTEL analysis are -

 Type of economic system in countries of operation – what type of economic system there is
and how stable it is.
 Government intervention in the free market and related Technology
 Exchange rates & stability of host country currency.
 Efficiency of financial markets – Does BlackBerry Limited needs to raise capital in local
market?
 Infrastructure quality in Diversified Communication Services industry
 Comparative advantages of host country and Technology sector in the particular country.
 Skill level of workforce in Diversified Communication Services industry.
 Education level in the economy
 Labor costs and productivity in the economy
 Business cycle stage (e.g. prosperity, recession, recovery)
 Economic growth rate
 Discretionary income
 Unemployment rate
 Inflation rate
 Interest rates

Social Factors that Impact BlackBerry Limited

Society’s culture and way of doing things impact the culture of an organization in an environment.
Shared beliefs and attitudes of the population play a great role in how marketers at BlackBerry
Limited will understand the customers of a given market and how they design the marketing
message for Diversified Communication Services industry consumers. Social factors that leadership of
BlackBerry Limited should analyze for PESTEL analysis are -

 Demographics and skill level of the population

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  Class structure, hierarchy and power structure in the society.
 Education level as well as education standard in the BlackBerry Limited ’s industry
 Culture (gender roles, social conventions etc.)
 Entrepreneurial spirit and broader nature of the society. Some societies encourage
entrepreneurship while some don’t.
 Attitudes (health, environmental consciousness, etc.)
 Leisure interests

Technological Factors that Impact BlackBerry Limited

Technology is fast disrupting industries across the board. Transportation industry is a good case to
illustrate this point. Over the last 5 years the industry has been transforming really fast, not even
giving chance to the established players to cope with the changes. Taxi industry is now dominated
by players like Uber and Lyft. Car industry is fast moving toward automation led by technology
firm such as Google & manufacturing is disrupted by Tesla, which has stated an electronic car
revolution.

A firm should not only do technological analysis of the industry but also the speed at which
technology disrupts that industry. Slow speed will give more time while fast speed of technological
disruption may give a firm little time to cope and be profitable. Technology analysis involves
understanding the following impacts -

 Recent technological developments by BlackBerry Limited competitors

 Technology's impact on product offering
 Impact on cost structure in Diversified Communication Services industry
 Impact on value chain structure in Technology sector
 Rate of technological diffusion
 5G Introduction

Legal Factors that Impact BlackBerry Limited

In number of countries, the legal framework and institutions are not robust enough to protect the
intellectual property rights of an organization. A firm should carefully evaluate before entering such
markets as it can lead to theft of organization’s secret sauce thus the overall competitive edge.
Some of the legal factors that BlackBerry Limited leadership should consider while entering a new
market are -

 Anti-trust law in Diversified Communication Services industry and overall in the country.

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  Discrimination law
 Copyright, patents / Intellectual property law
 Consumer protection and e-commerce
 Employment law
 Health and safety law
 Data Protection “

Environmental Factors that Impact BlackBerry Limited

Different markets have different norms or environmental standards which can impact the
profitability of an organization in those markets. Even within a country often states can have
different environmental laws and liability laws. For example in United States – Texas and Florida
have different liability clauses in case of mishaps or environmental disaster. Similarly a lot of
European countries give healthy tax breaks to companies that operate in the renewable sector.

Before entering new markets or starting a new business in existing market the firm should carefully
evaluate the environmental standards that are required to operate in those markets. Some of the
environmental factors that a firm should consider beforehand are -

 Weather
 Climate change
 Laws regulating environment pollution
 Air and water pollution regulations in Diversified Communication Services industry
 Recycling
 Waste management in Technology sector
 Attitudes toward “green” or ecological products
 Endangered species
 Attitudes toward and support for renewable energy

STP Analysis:

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 Blackberry in a nutshell

Segmentation

According to the mobile communication market’s features, Blackberry combined the occupation,
behaviour and income three factors as the multiple segments to describe the consumers of
mobile communication market.

Business
Occupation · Quickly access sales, product and organizational data in any database
professionals

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 · Access Key Performance Indicators (KPI) while on the go
· Remove the requirement to be near a desktop to view critical data
· Support decision-making with automatic alerts and automatically refreshed data
· Provide at-a-glance performance monitoring for accelerated action and decision making
· Be willing to pay more for the newest products that provide the function they need

VALS:
behaviour Innovators :
segmentation
· Successful, take
· Pursue the most fashionable products with advanced technology
charge people
· Change
· Like the fashionable design
leaders
· Very active
· Like to purchase the products of leading brand
consumers
· Purchase reflect
cultivated taste for · Be willing to pay more for the newest products
finer things

Income Above $70,000/year · Purchase the expensive personal products

· Pursue the fashion products

Targeting

Blackberry provides the solution to target market combined with the business
professional, innovators and high income segments.

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Below is the picture which depicts that Blackberry targets the mix of all three categories mentioned
above.

Positioning

The place a product occupies in consumers’ minds relative to competing products.

Blackberry is a smart phone that ensures consumers to receive all kind of information instantly, and
be able to browse the Web, make or receive phone calls, organize the day and much more.

“To busy mobile professionals who need to always be in the loop, Blackberry is a wireless
connectivity solution that allows you to stay connected to people and resources while on the go more
easily and reliably than the competing technologies.”

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PRODUCT & FEATURES:

 Superior reception. Higher RAM & Internal Storage space.

 High speed processor

 Decent camera.

 Support for remote administration.

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 Message encryption.

 Push email.

 Built-in personal digital assistant (PDA) with an address book and personal schedule.

 Can be configured for use as a pager.

 Document management.

 After sales service set up

 Industry specific features – Healthcare, Banking, FMCG

 Support for multimedia and most communications modes, including Web browsing, text
messaging and wireless faxing.

The BlackBerry was originally known as "Leapfrog." RIM (Research in Motion ) consulted with
Lexicon Branding Inc. to choose a new name. Someone at Lexicon suggested "Strawberry" because
the tiny keys resembled the seeds on a strawberry. That idea was nixed, however, and "BlackBerry"
was chosen as an alternative. The device is often referred to as the CrackBerry because of its
compelling nature.

As of December 2008, BlackBerry subscribers numbered approximately 21 million.

BlackBerry offers a range of products under the following broad categories:

 Blackberry Messenger
 BlackBerry Playbook
 BlackBerry 10
 BlackBerry Enterprise Server
 BlackBerry Internet Service
 QNX

BlackBerry’s Smartphones are the most widely known product of the company. The devices became
popular because of its excellent ‘email on- the- go’ feature with security that is unmatched by other

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 competitors’ offerings. BlackBerry Classic and BlackBerry Leap are two of their most popular
Smartphone models though there have been other models too.

BlackBerry 10 is a proprietary operating system for their own line of Smartphones whereas
BlackBerry Playbook is a mini tablet.

BlackBerry Enterprise Server Version 5 is their latest Enterprise Server offering and provides the
middleware software that is a part of Wireless platform that is supplied by BlackBerry Limited. The
software and its services connect to collaboration and messaging software on enterprise networks.

Place in the Marketing Mix of Blackberry:

Blackberry stores are available in North America, Mexico, Thailand, Indonesia, and the United
Arab Emirates. In 2007, a Blackberry store opened in Michigan USA. There are blackberry stores
operated at airports in several parts of United States like Atlanta, Boston, Newark, Houston to
name a few though most of them will be closing soon. In 2015, the company opened its first pop-up
store in Germany. BlackBerry had 85 million subscribers around the world till 2013. However, with
the popularity of Android and ios platforms, it has lost much of its following. Today it only has 23
million subscribers worldwide. Therefore Blackberry has to revive it’s experience centres and also tie
up with E- Commercial Giants.

Price in the Marketing Mix of Blackberry:

BlackBerry Smartphones became most sought- after due to its e-mail access on the go feature. The
company strategized on focusing largely on enterprise sales and enabling corporate to thrust the
brand within their own employees. To capture the market, BlackBerry made its smartphones
affordable to also middle-class professionals. The brand’s steep prices had hampered fast growth in
the beginning. But later their strategically placed phones in every sort of price ranges that starts
from Rs.4, 410 and goes up to Rs.53, 200 with different attributes in order to suit different needs,
which has enabled them to cut across a wider target segment. Some of its models are available at
throwaway prices in e-commerce sites in India.

The prices of some of their models available in India are:

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  Blackberry Porsche Design P9983 Rs. 53,200
 Blackberry Passport Rs.26,330
 Blackberry Classic Rs. 21, 990
 Blackberry Priv Rs. 43,999
 Blackberry Bold Touch 9900 Rs. 7,999
 Blackberry Curve 3g9300 3g Rs. 7,500

Pricing Strategy: Blackberry has to drive the following strategies with regard to pricing:

 Width & Depth Strategy

 Niche pricing for high end phones
 Entry model pricing targeting middle class professionals

Promotion in the Marketing Mix of Blackberry :

Blackberry is making the best attempt possible to recapture lost ground. For one, it is focusing on its
Smartphone segment to gain much of its lost glory. The current strategy of the company is to focus
on their business customers. Smartphones like BlackBerry 10 are perfect for business communication
with unique features like centralized messages and notification of new messages with a blinking red
light. For their new Passport Smartphone, they are targeting professionals in the healthcare
industry. The company is leveraging on the excellent security features of Blackberry Smartphones

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 and therefore branding them as the perfect phone to be used in industries such as healthcare,
insurance, and banking.

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY :

Overall Strategy:

All the Social Media channels of Blackberry India are Globalized except Twitter. Blackberry India has
overtime built a huge community of rabid fans on the Social Space. It is noticeable that recently it has
been investing a lot of time and money on Social Media. At present, the whole marketing of
Blackberry India has embarked an aggressive promotional strategy.

Platform-wise Strategy

FACEBOOK:

Blackberry is nicely leveraging the globalization feature on Facebook for a localized targeting with
an integrated global experience.

Facebook page of Blackberry India was solely focused on promoting the all new Blackberry Z10. Its
overall branded content has been receiving a very good response, maybe because of the paid
avenues. However, it is not following the 80/20 rule. Most of its content is self-promotional.

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The permission to post on Blackberry India’s Facebook page is denied. Blackberry forgot that Social
Media is a two way communication unlike traditional media. This restricts the interaction with the
audience.

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TWITTER:

Even on Twitter, the response Rate from Blackberry team has not been upto the mark, which is a
failure of Marketing Strategy by their team through Twitter inspite of the Big Brand Name. Although
Nokia has a smaller community compared to Blackberry, Nokia has a higher engagement rate due
to better response on Twitter by Nokia with the consumers.

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“BBM love stories campaign:

Thiis is a perfect user generated story telling campaign!, which has been an amazing Marketing
Campaign in Facebook by Blackberry. Users have to share their love stories that blossomed over
BlackBerry Messenger and transformed into real tales.

The campaign identifies the emotional touch points of its target market and connects to their stories
first. It then integrates its product feature within the story. It emphasizes on how their love story is
incomplete without BBM. Such user generated content has a great scope of virality. It fosters brand
association and loyalty.

After all Social Media is not about product stories, it is about people stories “

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BLACKBERRY PRODUCT GIVEAWAYS:

The Crackberry contests organised by Blackberry team, provides opportunities to the consumers on
special occasions such as festivals, special days etc, to participate and win Latest Blackberry Gadgets
for free and subsidised prices.

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CHARITY AND FUND RAISING CAMPAIGNS:

Blackberry is active in charity and fund raising campaigns, addressing various issues in the society and
also creating awareness and helping the people. This will improve their connect with the consumer
base.

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REDEFINING BLACKBERRY’S SALES & MARKETING STRATEGY: SUGGESTIONS FOR
IMPROVEMENT

“More Leads:

The best way to generate more leads is to focus on the marketing methods that work best. The
marketing methods for small business with the best return on investment are Cross promotions,
RFPs, a website, search engine optimization, email marketing, bing ads, google adwords and
telephone marketing. If we are able to generate more leads and maintain the closing ratio, there
will be increase in the number of customers and total sales for their business. The most effective
marketing methods and how Blackberry could use them better are listed below for improvements:

Website Content Creation and Search Engine Optimization – Currently Blackberry is doing
some search engine optimization and they are doing a pretty good job of adding content to their
website. They have a Blackberry blog, support blog and a Blackberry developer forum. All things
that are constantly adding content to their website and getting them more traffic. Adding
content regularly is key to increasing the rankings, traffic and sales from a website. The one thing
they may not be doing with their website is doing conversion tracking, which will help greatly. The
one place for SEO they may be able to improve is by writing better meta descriptions. This text is
critical to enticing people to click and get traffic to a website. For example, currently for their
Blackberry 10 page the meta description is "Experience the new Blackberry Z10, BlackBerry
Q10 & BlackBerry 10 for Business. - Global".

The text is not bad but more could be done to generate interest, communicate a point of difference
and entice clicks. Any example might be "Experience the new Blackberry Z10, BlackBerry
Q10 & BlackBerry 10 for Business. The only mobile system with face to face
communication. Learn more now.”

Email Marketing Blackberry is starting to get better at email marketing since writing the
article Where RIM's Blackberry Mobile Fusion For Business Went Wrong. They are starting to create
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segmented lists and send information to these lists. By now they are starting to generate lists of
existing customers and prospects of people looking to buy their phone as well as list for contacts at
retailers like Verizon, etc and sending marketing emails to all of these groups.

Referrals - Blackberry is doing some good work here but there is room for improvement. What has
worked well to generate referrals is the free BBM between all blackberries. There are ways to
increase referrals even further though. One great idea might be to offer $25.00 in free apps to both
the referrer and referee. Another idea would be to periodically push a survey out through the
blackberry devices asking users to rate their satisfaction in a quick 3 questions survey. One of these
questions would be "Would you recommend Blackberry to a friend or family member". Having
them answer this question will do two things. One, consumers will let you know if they are
happy with Blackberry and two, if they say yes, it reminds them to refer Blackberry to people. It
acts as a psychological reinforcement to refer Blackberry.

Free Model - A great way to generate more leads is to offer a free product with only some of the
full product features or that ends after a certain time period. Blackberry is currently using a version
of this model with offering a free 60 day trial of Blackberry Enterprise Service 10. This is the product
that used to be Mobile Fusion. This could be improved though by going to a free forever model that
would up sell clients to additional needed services. A great option for Blackberry might be to offer a

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basic version of Blackberry Enterprise Service 10 that for additional features that the consumer
needs to pay. This would allow them to capture a high percentage of the mobile enterprise
management market and develop those customers into paying customers over future years. In
addition this would create a communication channel with those organizations to sell them other
Blackberry products.

Google Ad words & Bing Ads - Blackberry is doing advertising on Google Ad words. When we
type in blackberry, an ad from Blackberry comes up. Blackberry is most likely not advertising on
Bing. Ideal recommendation is that they advertising on both Google and Bing.

More New Customers:

Sell a new product to a new target segment - Blackberry has done a fairly good job of doing
this recently. By launching into the tablet market quickly and launching mobile fusion for the
mobile device management. Blackberry’s expansion into the mobile enterprise management is
excellent. Blackberry need to really be pushing Blackberry 10 enterprise and focusing on it, this
product has great potential and will also be a key strategic piece that can give them lots of
valuable information on businesses to help them excel in the business segment. The only idea for
them is to expand to provide full device management services in addition to their device
management product BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10. By doing this they would better understand
some of the challenges of their customers and help them better understand how their products
compare to Apple and Android in the eyes of the customer. In addition this would play on their
strength and image of being the best solution for businesses.

Enter a new segment with an existing product - The one area where, Blackberry would have
great opportunity would be to enter the school boards with Blackberry Enterprise 10. This would
give them valuable information on school boards for if and when cell phones are used for teaching.

Enter a new geographic area with an existing product - Blackberry has done a very good
job, expanding their presence in the key region of Latin America, which now accounts for about 19%
of their sales. They have also done a good job expanding into Asia. What we would be suggesting to
Blackberry is to find a plan to get Blackberry 10 distributed to all provinces and regions in China
given it is such a large country and Mexico given it is such a business focused country. It is also noted
that Blackberry 10 is still not available yet in South America. They should eye the South American
Market.

Invent a new usage for one of the existing products – Here, the idea is to market their
tablet as a sales force tool, developing applications that would aid sales people in closing sales when

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meeting with customers. If they can come up with a new usage for any of the their products though,
this would be a sure fire way to increase sales.

Capture a greater market share in current market - For Blackberry to do this they need to
improve their marketing. It is clear from the statements from the company that they are aware of
this and they have made good strides recently to improve in this area. The only further
recommendation is to make sure they are putting the most focus on the most effective marketing
methods and that they are tracking the sales results from each campaign and marketing medium
to better understand what is working and what is not. Not just looking at metrics like awareness
and purchase intent but tracking actual sales results.

Social Media to interact with the Consumers: Blackberry has to improve the interaction with
its consumers, majorly through Social media, to understand the consumer and introduce new
products based on consumer requirements. This will also help them to boost their sales as well
improve service facilities. Blackberry should allow users to post on their Facebook Pages, and be
more responsive on their Twitter Pages to ensure Customer Retention and Satisfaction. “

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REFERENCES :

1. https://www.managementstudyguide.com/swot-analysis-of-blackberry.htm
2. http://fernfortuniversity.com/term-papers/pestel/nyse4/3368-blackberry-
limited.php
3. http://blackberrystp.blogspot.com/
4. https://digit.hbs.org/submission/the-rise-and-fall-and-rise-again-of-blackberry/
5. https://www.marketing91.com/marketing-mix-blackberry/
6. https://profitworks.ca/blog/marketing-strategy/346-sales-model-how-to-
increase-sales-blackberry-example.html

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