[chiefbroski]

With many of us feeling like RIM have done a poor marketing job. Maybe by using a "Blackberry" Store, like Apple, RIM could help strengthen their brand in the US(every other country in the world doesn't seem to have a problem). Maybe inside Best buy or something. But preferably as a separate store.

RIM doesn't have as many products as Apple so its more difficult for them to do but I think its worth a try in some big cities. Black vs White. RIM vs Apple. Fruit vs Fruit. Ying and Yang. They could try and position themselves as the proper Apple alternative.

The Apple store does much more than just sell products. It really sells the brand.
RIM could set up ten playbooks(hooked up to 60" TVs), five 9860's, five 9810's, five 9900's, some pearls, some curves, some styles, allow the customers to easily "demo" and touch their accessories like the BB presenter, holster, chargers, bluetooth earphones, headsets, leather cases, music gateway...they really do have quite a bit to show off.

I think the Blackberry brand is suffering because RIM didn't take its marketing into its own hands.

Image how cool it would be to walk into a Blackberry store. Go over to a Playbook hooked up to a 3D TV through HDMI and play a 3D game using the accelerometer. This would draw lots of attention.

Or have two, three or four phones set-up where you can play multi-player games over BBM.

Or stations that show how you can use NFC.

Or how Blackberry Bridge works between a Playbook and a tablet.

Cool stuff like that.

I really think Apple has the right idea with its stores. Even if RIM lost money with its Store. I still believe its worth it as a great marketing strategy and a good investment for their brand and future sales.

What do you think?

[blackjack93117]

Absolutely correct , chief, but they could start by simply having reps on hand at the outlets they have or at least have them check the demos regularly, train employees, etc. - Seems like less overhead. They are doing ZILCH. It is clear that once a properly functioning device is in people's hands with someone to answer questions, people love it!

[bbqkid8]

What would we call the employees? How can we destroy the "geniuses"?

[ignites]

kinda harder to do because rim only has two products... it be like a regular cell phone store that only sells blackberrys............

[bb-bandit]

With many of us feeling like RIM have done a poor marketing job. Maybe by using a "Blackberry" Store, like Apple, RIM could help strengthen their brand in the US(every other country in the world doesn't seem to have a problem). Maybe inside Best buy or something. But preferably as a separate store.

RIM doesn't have as many products as Apple so its more difficult for them to do but I think its worth a try in some big cities. Black vs White. RIM vs Apple. Fruit vs Fruit. Ying and Yang. They could try and position themselves as the proper Apple alternative.

The Apple store does much more than just sell products. It really sells the brand.
RIM could set up ten playbooks(hooked up to 60" TVs), five 9860's, five 9810's, five 9900's, some pearls, some curves, some styles, allow the customers to easily "demo" and touch their accessories like the BB presenter, holster, chargers, bluetooth earphones, headsets, leather cases, music gateway...they really do have quite a bit to show off.

I think the Blackberry brand is suffering because RIM didn't take its marketing into its own hands.

Image how cool it would be to walk into a Blackberry store. Go over to a Playbook hooked up to a 3D TV through HDMI and play a 3D game using the accelerometer. This would draw lots of attention.

Or have two, three or four phones set-up where you can play multi-player games over BBM.

Or stations that show how you can use NFC.

Or how Blackberry Bridge works between a Playbook and a tablet.

Cool stuff like that.

I really think Apple has the right idea with its stores. Even if RIM lost money with its Store. I still believe its worth it as a great marketing strategy and a good investment for their brand and future sales.

What do you think?

Wireless Giant has a store that only sells Blackberries at Newark Airport. I saw it last week before I went to Miami. Seems like a good idea, but no one was in there.

Wireless Giant - News & Views

[lawguyman]

I think there is a Blackberry Store at the airport in Atlanta.

I passed through it a few times. Pretty cool back in the day.

[lorax1284]

I'm all for this, but while stores in airports cater to business travellers, I think RIM needs to focus more on consumers in general, via high-profile stores in high-profile shopping centres / avenues. A BlackBerry store on Rodeo Drive... on 5th Avenue in New York... the Champs Elysee in Paris... Michigan Avenue's "Magnificent Mile" in Chicago... the Eaton Centre or in Yorkville in Toronto... Oxford St. in London... etc. etc.

I think it goes without saying that RIM needs to post an employee in every Best Buy / Future Shop / Staples store on the continent if they want the product properly demonstrated... for at least long enough that the other employees learn the benefits of the device simply from what they overhear, if they're not interested to actually learn about the products they sell.

[Mojoski]

I think there is a Blackberry Store at the airport in Atlanta.

I passed through it a few times. Pretty cool back in the day.

There are actually a couple of them at the ATL airport. I bought a new Playbook case in the one at Terminal B the other day..

[Scrapegoat]

Even if RIM hired "merchandisers" people whose job it is to travel regularly (weekly) between stores maintaining displays and demo products and offering training to the "sales guys". Maybe they already have these "reps" but what the F### are they doing?

[lnichols]

What would we call the employees? How can we destroy the "geniuses"?

Blackberry Brainiacs

[chiefbroski]

Yeah, I think calling the employees "geniuses" is a little condescending to customers. It just implies they are not and that you probably couldn't solve your own problems.

One "genius" thought this ipod shuffle charger I brought in was broken, when actually the ipod just didn't have any songs on it (wasn't my shuffle, I didn't know).

But maybe we can call them "The Blackberry Team" and everyone's name HAS to be either JIM or MIKE. LOL.

But yeah, anywhere where theres a HUGE amount of traffic is best. Like the places Lorax1284 suggested. OH, and RIM does sell quite a bit of stuff:

Bold, Torch Slider, Torch Non-slider, Curve, Pearl, Style, a tablet, bluetooth speakerphone, bluetooth headsets, music gateway, earphones, cases, chargers, cables, cleaning cloths, presenter thingy, docks, holsters...

So I think they could fill a store. Keep it minimal and show lots of devices like Apple. (Apple has really done a good job here)

I think they can pull it off...

[Blacklac]

There is/was a BlackBerry store in Farmington Hills Michigan too.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[LuayS]

They need to rent out those small areas in the middle of shopping centres and just display their stuff for a few months as well as have a rep in BestBuy/FutureShop to help showcase what it is. A brick and mortar approach would fail because like mentioned they only have two products so it wouldn't be feasible.

[Detective M Downs]

They current have stores in the some major airports.

Also, I like the idea of setting up in malls for a period of time to display products and do demos....kinda like Microsoft did with Xbox Kinect and HTC has does this too.

[LewLew23]

I totally agree with you. If we had our own store, I think it would help SO much in terms of sales and also with servicing of devices. As it is now, most cell phone carriers only push what they want to, so they really don't know anything about BlackBerry. Or they're just misleading just to deter you from it. At least this way, you know you're gonna get correct info

[Maiev]

They don't need store, just small booths IMO. They don't have such a big product line but then store is nice, so you can really have a chat... :3

I'd so work there part-time, and I'm sure lots of people do because we just enjoy their product !