Final Marketing Work

8/8/2019 Final Marketing Work

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Emirates Aviation College

BlackBerry:

Marketing Planning

to its EdgeThe marketing planning process

Utkarsh Ganesh

Natasha Mehta


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Contents

COMPANY PROFILE ...................................................................................... ............................................ 3

MISSION STATEMENT .............................................................................................................................. 4

CORPORATE OBJECTIVES ................................................................................. ........................................ 4

MARKET AUDIT ........................................................................................................................................ 5

External factors ..................................................................................... ............................................... 5

The Market ...................................................................................................................................... 5

Competition ..................................................................................................................................... 5

Extent of diversity .................................................................................. .......................................... 6

MARKET OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................................. 6

SWOT ANALYSIS....................................................................................................................................... 7

STRENGTHS.......................................................................................................................................... 8

WEAKNESSES ....................................................................................................................................... 8

OPPORTUNITIES ................................................................................................................................... 9

THREATS ............................................................................................................................................ 10

ASSUMPTIONS ....................................................................................................................................... 10

MARKETING OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGY ............................................................................................... 11

FRAGMENTATION ........................................................................................ ...................................... 11

MARKETING MIX ................................................................................................................................ 12

THE FOUR Ps .................................................................................................................................. 12

IX. BUDGET ............................................................................................................................................ 17

Web Marketing ........................................................................................ .......................................... 17

X. Conclusion and Recommendations .................................................................................................... 18

XI. APPENDIX ......................................................................................................................................... 19


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COMPANY PROFILE

Founded in 1989, Research In Motion (RIM) is a leading designer, manufacturer and

marketer of innovative wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications

market. Based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada the company develops integrated

hardware, software and services that support multiple wireless network standards.

Through these services, RIM provides platforms and solutions for seamless access to

time-sensitive information including email, phone, text messaging, online

communication. RIM technology also enables a broad array of third party developers

and manufacturers to enhance their products and services with wireless connectivity to

data.

Today, the company has moved into a new generation of communication, hosting a

variety of features in its latest and most sensational product, the BlackBerry series of

smartphones. While including typical smartphone applications (address book, calendar,

to-do lists, etc., as well as telephone capabilities on newer models), the series is

primarily known for its ability to send and receive Internet e-mail wherever it can access

a mobile network of certain cellular phone carriers. It commands a 20.8% share of

worldwide smartphone sales, being only second to the Symbian-OS based Nokia

series.

Throughout its history, BlackBerry has renewed its core businesses and created

innovative businesses in entirely new areas. BlackBerry's venturing activity has created

independent businesses, contributed to the growth and profit of the core businesses of


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BlackBerry, provided financial returns on investments, and has produced intangible

assets and insights.

MISSION STATEMENT

BlackBerry is committed to provide the finest experience of mobile communication

worldwide. Blackberry is the becoming the Middle Easts leading smart phone allowing

people to connect easily across the globe with one another. It is the leading wireless

enterprise solution that allows users to stay connected with secure, wireless access to

email, corporate data, phone, web and organizer features. BlackBerry is a totally

integrated package that includes hardware, software and service, providing a complete

end-to-end solution.

CORPORATE OBJECTIVES

Blackberrys main corporate objectives include:

y To take over the market share by 20% by the end of the year

y To enable people to get connected always, and everywhere

y To take over the already strong hold of Nokia over the mobile market

y To set up Research In Motion (RIM) in the Middle East


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MARKET AUDIT

The marketing audit is said to be a systematic appraisal of all the factors that affect the

commercial performance of a company. Here it is important to note that a company,

especially like RIM which is the parent company of Blackberry, may have several

factors that slightly differ from the traditional pattern of external and internal features

that a conventional company considers for its appraisals.

The factors here are classified into two parts:

External factors

The Market

RIMs marketing of BlackBerry in the United Arab Emirates is done according to the

same principle as that of any other country where BlackBerry is distributed: through a

selected set of telecom agencies. While the selection of telecom agencies for

distribution is generally limited, due to the special condition in UAEs telecom industry of

having only two telecom providers, BlackBerry is being distributed through both and the

competition is maintained between the two through announcing of different subscription

packages instead of inducting competing brands to BlackBerry.

The distribution of BlackBerry handsets in the country had also been initially restricted

to special outlets from the two telecom agencies.

Competition

Currently BlackBerry retains a virtual monopoly in the field of offering 3G

communication services in the UAE. However, when it comes to an overall 3G package,

BlackBerry currently faces only one competitor in the form of Apples iPhone 3G series

of smart-phones. Though officially this has been considered worthy of a debate,

BlackBerrys constant introduction of many more types of handsets has shown a more

positive response from the people (kindly refer to appendix for questionnaire) ascompared to Apples iPhone. While according to some users iPhones aesthetic

offensive has resulted in an increased infatuation for its sleeker application based

services, BlackBerrys communication 3G services remain nearly unmatched.

Conversely, the BlackBerry has faced a setback when they attempted to achieve


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complete dominance of the iPhone in the touchscreen market with the introduction of

the BlackBerry Storm.

This has specifically been achieved through a two-way distribution diversification: one,

focusing on introducing a variety of models both low as well as high end as suited for

different users and two, introducing numerous packages for subscription which enables

greater flexibility for BlackBerry as compared to its American counterpart.

Extent of diversity

The factor that would differentiate BlackBerry from its competitors is its ability to churn

out innovative models out of the same limited set of handsets that it is able to come up

with. For example, the famous Curve series of BlackBerry phones has been able to

come up with the 8300, 8500 and 8900 series of the same handset type, whilepromoting and additional key feature in each of these releases.

Despite being unable to churn out as many variety of phone models as that of other

smartphone makers such as Nokia and Sony Ericsson, BlackBerry still continues to

dominate the market in terms of 3G and wireless internet communication providers in

the region, distantly being rivaled only by Apples 3G series of iPhone, which is the

alternate 3G wireless countrywide internet-based phone provider.

MARKET OVERVIEW

BLACKBERRYs strategy positioning is unique. The value added dimension

differentiates BLACKBERRY from its competition. BLACKBERRY offers full customer

assistance. A summary of the competitive situation provided by a manager at another

firm we cant do what BLACKBERRY does, and BLACKBERRY doesnt want to do

what we do.


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Market Share of BlackBerry 1

SWOT ANALYSIS

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES

- Strong presence in the business

market

- R&D is a key success

- Excellent services provision

- Wider options of handset

- Versatility

- Effective and efficient marketing

strategies

- Specializes more in

communication and messaging

only

- Limited aesthetics

- Less dynamicity in terms of

services

- Less application oriented

- Advanced technology is more

useful to business user

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS

- Increasing number of business

users

- Good per capita income

- Lack of significant competitors

for smartphones

- Brand loyalty

- Leading-edge radio technology

- Biggest competitor is iPhone due

to its user friendliness

- Nokia is the largest cell phone

provider in Dubai

- Nokia has strong brand

appreciation

- Several upcoming smartphones

with a combination of features


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STRENGTHS

y Strong specific market presence:

o BlackBerry has a strong presence in the business market with RIM

focusing on the business user. This specific focus enables them to

churn out offers that are lucrative for potential customers.

y Excellent R & D:

o Research and development is a key success to RIM. Despite its tunnel

focus on one sort of orientation, constant research and development

enables innovation in the same sector of service specialization.

y Specific service:

o BlackBerry always focuses on excellent communication and mailing

capabilities that enable more mobile services.

y Comparative Diversity:

o Wider options of handsets and features are available as compared to

its competitor(s).

y Versatility brings in flexible options to buy as compared to the uniform.

y Effective and efficient marketing and advertising strategy allowing it to gain

wider market share.

WEAKNESSES

y LimitedService Focus:

o Limited in fields of communication and messaging. This means that

BlackBerry has limited capabilities in terms of multimedia and


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entertainment as compared to other set of smartphones available in the

market and therefore can consider only few smartphones as competitors.

y Limited aesthetics:

o As well known, BlackBerry has the patent QWERTY keypad format with a

wide conventional screen that has been suffering from redundancy since

the very first models. The first variation that came into being as a

differentiation from the regular models is the Storm series.

y Limited versatility:

o Less dynamicity in terms of services due to lack of telecommunications

services in Dubai.

y Less application oriented:

o When it comes to challenging todays line of smartphones, the BlackBerry

falls far behind in terms of variety of life applications that tend to be theforte for their main competitor in the regionthe iPhone.

OPPORTUNITIES

y Rising business market in UAE:

o There are an increasing number of business people in Dubai making it

easier for Blackberry to find their place in the market.

y Excellent economic conditions:

o Due to good per capita income in Dubai, people other than business users

can afford it too.

y No Competitors:


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o Lack of significant competitors appealing to business users giving

Blackberry an edge over other smart phones.

y Brand imaging possible:

o Brand loyalty, lots of exclusive features such as MS Word, MS Excel etc,

and leading-edge radio technology.

THREATS

y Innovative Competition:

y iPhone is their biggest competitor in Dubai which is more user friendly and

can be used by the general public, rather than just business users.

y Emerging competition:

y Nokia largest cell phone provider. With the constant innovation and

emerging as a technological challenger in the market of cell phones, Nokia

has gained a large amount of customer appreciation and is a significant

threat to BlackBerry.

y With the upcoming of many brands into the world of smartphone and

wireless communication and mailing services, many brands such as the

HTC, Sony Ericsson, Google etc, are rapidly gaining access to the

lucrative and cash-rich Middle Eastern markets.

ASSUMPTIONS

There are a certain set of assumptions that every company has and foresee.

Blackberrys assumptions are:


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- The introduction of the iPhone 4G will be a major threat for the Blackberry market

because it may take over their market share due to the new technology

enhancements.

- Sales are predicted to grow by 20% in the coming year.

- RIM will most likely be setting up their own office in the UAE soon.

MARKETING OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGY

BlackBerry strategy positioning is unique. The value added dimension differentiates

BlackBerry from its competition, in the sense that the series of handsets provide

more practical services that are applicable as compared to other smartphones.

BlackBerry is created with the idea that it should be catering to every business and

work-oriented need and ensures customer satisfaction. Their main focus revolves

around business and working customers. Thus the presence of extremely brand-

loyal subscribers/customers is explicitly visible. BlackBerry has numerous

researches it conducts to study the market and its customers in order to fulfill its

objectives, in order to fulfill its vision and realizing that in order to be the market

leader you have to be market oriented and understand your consumers.

FRAGMENTATION

Considering the multi-tier market present in todays economies around the world, RIM

has designed the product with the view of being able to cater to this multi-tier platform of

economies. Considering the situation in the United Arab Emirates, RIM has specifically

taken the effort to launch multiple models of BlackBerry phones with a variety of

different offers from the two telecom companies that deal with the countrys telecom

industry. This sort of fragmentation approach enables BlackBerry to assert its presence

in all strata of communication markets.


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Despite initially focusing on the primary business customer market, RIM seems to have

stumbled across another fragment or segment of the market that has especially been

noticed in the United Arab Emiratesthe young adults and teenagers who have found

BlackBerry as a method to stay connected all day long.

Therefore, BlackBerry has decided to further utilize this market fragment and divide its

customer class into two.

MARKETING MIX

As with all he products in the market that compete with RIM, the marketing and ultimate

share of BlackBerry mobile phones is a delicate balance between the forces of

marketing mix. Consisting of the 4 Ps, the focus here is on specifically the Curve series

of BlackBerry.

THE FOUR Ps

PRODUCT

The company intends to sell smartphones that follow the latest 3G technology trend of

mobile internet communication around the world. The concept of the product

encompasses cutting edge mobile communication technologies that enable convenient

global communication at some of the most competitive prices. The BlackBerry lineage

of smartphones comprise primarily of the following features:

y Wireless e-mail

This is the main feature that BlackBerry prizes itself in. With constant wireless

connection of the internet, the user is constantly connected to his/her contacts.

Managing e-mails and receiving instant prompt on sending/receiving mails

becomes easier without the need of any dial-up or connecting processes.

y Complete services of a phone

y Instant messaging


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This is also the forte of BlackBerry. With the advantage of constant internet

connection, BlackBerry offers special instant messaging services.

y Multimedia

With the emergence of a high demand for features such as multimedia, BlackBerry line

of smartphones encompass various features such as video recording, better camera,

photography with flash and ability to instantly upload media directly to various social

networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter etc.

BlackBerry Curve 8900 1

PRICE

The pricing policies BlackBerry has adopted are with the consideration of the region in

question.

United Arab Emirates boasts one of the most prosperous and stable economies in the

region, fueled by strong oil export sector and one of the highest per capita earnings

around the world. Coupled with the rapid economic growth and transition of the

countrys economy, this excellent condition of an economy automatically indicates

towards demands for products that are towards luxury goods that is perhaps not so

widely been marketed and sold in other parts of Asia and Pacific. With high per capita

income levels, the demand has seen a sharp rise.


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However, keeping the view of the aforementioned points and the possibility of attracting

too much of competitor attention in the near future, the prices of each of BlackBerrys

models have been setup in such a way that the company is able to retain is revenues

and at the same time, make a deal attractive enough for a prospective customer not to

be able to refuse.

Due to the multiple production models of BlackBerry smartphones, the mention here

would be specifically ofBlackBerryCurve models 8900 series that is the highest end

product in the Curve family.

The present cost of the BlackBerry is AED 1,899. This reflects the current trend of focus

on psychological factor when a potential customer takes a look at the pricing. The 99

method of pricing is believed to play with the buyers psyche that he or she would likely

be paying lesser than the rounded amount.

This pricing strategy has been adopted today by almost all the companies that sell

smartphones worldwide including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Apple, Samsung, LG and so

on, and has also the same strategy is being applied to the other categories of

BlackBerry range of smartphones such as the Bold series, Pearl series and the latest

and the high-end Storm series of touchscreen-focused smartphones.


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BlackBerry Storm series 1

PROMOTION

In Dubai, Blackberry has managed to gain a strong foothold in the telecommunications

industry due to their various effective and efficient marketing strategies. Blackberry has

gone all the way by advertising on various mediums to promote their product all across

the city.

Some of the mediums they have used include:

- Billboards: these are across the city on the streets and they advertise the various

promotions that Blackberry is offering to its customers. This can be considered to

be one of the most effective means of promotion because it is guaranteed to be

seen by every person walking past the billboards

- Newspapers: this is another effective mode of advertising because in this case

too, there a lot of readers be it any newspaper Khaleej Times, Gulf News, Al

Bayan etc.

- Etisalat: it is one of the main telecommunications providers in UAE and provides

different services for the Blackberry Curve in the market. Some of these services

include the AED185 unlimited internet access, AED139 with unlimited email

access to 10 accounts, 90dhs with limited access of upto 50mb and the 49dhs

only social networks package. This medium was chosen because it was the best


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way to encourage everyone from business users to teenagers to buy the Curve

and getting the package alone with it.

- DU: this is another telecommunications provider in Dubai which provides its own

set of services to DU users in the UAE. On purchase of the Blackberry Curve you

can make avail of the different services provided by du including the 85dhs

unlimited internet access and the 135dhs unlimited access.

- Internet: RIM Middle East has also decided to conduct rapid advertisement

campaigns online through posting advertisements on popular search engines

local to the country such as Google, Yahoo! and Ask.com. BlackBerry has also

gone onto a campaign that would enable to advertise new offers and newer

models of the companys flagship smartphone in the UAE, namely the Curve

series to its existing users who desire to upgrade their

Depending on the providers used by customers, they can choose which package they

would like to go for. Hence we have ensured that we have made services available to

both the service providers. Some people may be brand loyal to Etisalat due to the fact

that they have been in the market for longer, however others might prefer dU due to

their lower calling costs. According to the choice of the customers, they can choose

which promotion they would like to go for.

PLACE

The advantage that Blackberry enjoys is the various options available to it to market

their product. With the sharp increase in demand ever since the introduction of the

Canada-based telecom giant into the Middle Eastern Dubai has a number of outlets at

where they can sell Blackberry can sell their Curve series, some of which are listed

below:

y Etisalat

y dU

y Cell-u-Com


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y Plug-Ins

y Jumbo

y Sharaf DG

y i2

y Jackys

y Global Link

y RadioShack

y Telefonika

y Alltronix

We have chosen the above distribution channels after conducting an intensive market

research as to where we can find potential buyers for the Curve. According to ourresearch, most of the consumers came to these outlets to buy their electronics and it is

located in easily accessible parts of the city, which gave us the extra incentive to market

our products at the above outlets.

IX. BUDGET

Taking the view of the above points and the marketing planning process for BlackBerry

in general, the following is the estimated budget that has gone in the marketing planning

process of the launch of BlackBerry models. The following divisions have been

calculated. Note that these are estimated figures.

Web Marketing

Advertised Sites Q1 (in AED) Q2 (in AED) Q3 (in AED) Q4 (in AED) TOTAL

Google advertisement campaign 15,000 16,000 19,000 20,500 70,500

Yahoo ad program 14,000 17,750 18,000 18,000 67,750

Ask.com program 12,250 12,500 13,000 15,000 52,750


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XI. APPENDIX

Note: This questionnaire sample is created with the intentions of knowing only some of

the critical questions answers and is not intended for a full customer service review,

which is not the objective of the assignment:

Questionnaire

NAME:

AGE:

BB MODEL:

1) What made you consider BlackBerry over the previous series of cell phones you

have used? :

y Excellent service

y Brand name

y Innovative attraction

y Multimedia capabilities

2) What feature do you specifically prize in your BlackBerry? :

y All day connectivity

y Mailing service

y Attractive applications

y Excellent planner

3) Which telecom service do you think is a better provider of BlackBerry 3G services in

the UAE?

y Etisalat

y Du


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y Neither

y Not sure

4) What do you feel regarding BlackBerrys current market position and iPhones

challenge? In the long run which of these two brands would you likely choose? :

y Continue with BlackBerry, (I am brand loyal)

y Consider taking the iPhone for its multirole capabilities

y Not sure

5) Is your BlackBerry service upto your expectations with regards to the different

package options that both Etisalat and Du provide you? :

y There could be more packages available

y I am satisfied

y Abstain

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Documents

Final Marketing Work