[massari81890]

Dear CrackBerry members,

I would like to share a story with you guys. These past couple of weeks at my university, Windows had people promoting their new OS, Windows 8, and the Surface tablet. Fortunately, I knew one of the guys at the stand. I took my time testing out both products and I can't say that I was impressed, but this post isn't about Windows, it's about BlackBerry. Even after I finished testing the products, I hung around and chatted with the guy I knew and some of the other students interested in the products. Long story short, at one point, a crowd of about 10 people gathered around the stand. The crowd started an argument about which mobile platform was better, the choices being either Android or iOS. I am proud, yet somewhat disappointed at the fact that I was the only one to mention BlackBerry. Not surprisingly, the crowd began to laugh and mock by saying, "What's BlackBerry?!" So I asked if any of them have seen the new OS, namely BlackBerry 10. All of them said no. Not hesitating for a second, I turned to the Asus PC running Windows 8, went on YouTube, and showed all of them videos of BlackBerry 10. Obviously, I showed off the keyboard, camera, BB flow, and BB hub. As my presentation concluded, the crowd was shocked, especially at the camera (I couldn't believe my eyes the first time I saw RIM showing it off either lol). Suddenly, the crowd began to speak differently about BlackBerry. Some shared stories about how much they loved their BBs and some even said that they miss them.

This experience taught me a very important lesson. RIM should really invest in good marketing for BB 10. For example, doing promotions at universities is awesome because there are a lot of young people. Overall, I believe that RIM should concentrate on the younger generation because I feel like they have the business consumers on their side. I understand that RIM isn't chasing people who want to use their phones to play games all day. BlackBerry is for people that DO! I'm just saying it would be nice to have something catchy to attract more people.

I also want to give a shout out to Thorsten Heins for being awesome. He's never hiding, never embarrassed, never apologizing. He's always in the media answering questions, and defending and promotiong BlackBerry. I watched a few of his interviews and almost died laughing about how stupid he makes the interviewers seem when they ask questions like, "Do you think it's too late?"

GO THORSTEN and GO RIM! Getting the BB 10 as soon as it comes out

[PedroBorgas]

Good post

I always advocate for the BB(and the PB) even with their flaws.

As you said, BB is for people that DO, and i'm doing it a lot faster with my BB

Sent from my BlackBerry 9800 using Tapatalk

[James Nieves]

yeah! When BB10 comes out I'll be in my Student Union showing off Playbooks, Music Gateways, and the new phones! Can't wait I agree, grassroots marketing is very important and RIM cannot overlook the power of BBM to that end. My BBM contact list has growth purely from other BB lovers getting together and talking shop. RIM needs to come hard with BB10 and put their money where their mouth has been for SO very long.
Thanks for the insight OP

[w0lfgang]

I've said the same thing many times before....from my Playbook, to my 9850 (when I show it to others, they say, "Oh....I thought a BB had only keyboards." Yet another marketing FAIL)
I'm sure the marketing team has salaries in the millions....yet, NO ONE....NO ONE....beyond already BB users know anything about BB 10....it is a huge FAILURE of the marketing team....without a doubt, the WORST, most incompetent gaggle of fools in the entire tech industry

[raino]

They know...I hope.

[Harry_III_UK]

Very good point Massari.

Grass roots and viral marketing is very important - I'm not seeing a lot of RIM marketing at the moment - although they are sponsoring TV shows.

Then again, perhaps they are saving their advertising budget for the big BB10 push?

[aragone79]

Very good point Massari.

Grass roots and viral marketing is very important - I'm not seeing a lot of RIM marketing at the moment - although they are sponsoring TV shows.

Then again, perhaps they are saving their advertising budget for the big BB10 push?

They will spend more for mouth to mouth marketing way. Use blackberry community to speak up about BB10 and in return, RIM will support their activity too. Also, RIM will spend more for devs and R&D which collaborated with local university and institute.

And RIM is already starting it. Mass Media campaign will be the punch for others platform when a blackberry defender says to his/her friends "can your phone do this and that? Wanna taste it? I can teach you how to use BB10. and at last, you can buy it from nearest store.

[massari81890]

I'd like to thank everyone for their feedback. I hope RIM realizes not everyone follows technology like us. As w0lfgang said, there are still people that don't know about the Torch 9850/9860 and that device has been out for a year. I'll do my part by showing off my BB 10 to all Android and iPhone users as soon as I get it.

#BB10Believe

[timmy t]

RIM is going to start releasing more and more information leading up to the Jan 30 release date. Not sure when they will start but I am sure it will ramp up.
Maybe it will start in a month. 6 weeks at the latest, I would think.