[Anadi Athaley]

After the OS update, I think BB10 has reached an all new level...and it is time for BlackBerry to stop shying away from advertising and reforming their market strategy.

Some of my suggestions:
1. BUY BACK: To encourage existing BBOS customers to switch to BB10, BlackBerry needs to give their loyal customers some special discounts, like exchanging their old phones with a BB10 device at a discount rate, and a proper orientation towards what has changed. Email the customers with some sort of coupon codes to initiate the exchange, make them feel special and get them on BB10.

2. INSTALMENTS: BlackBerry should sell phones on instalments, sign deals with carriers around the world, specially in the developing nations where the contract system does not exist. Build special blackberry plans to substantiate that.

3. ADVERTISING: Newspapers should have huge ads saying the all new revamped blackberry is here, giving a clear cut signal that BlackBerry is here to stay and for long. Tell them new features of this amazing OS.

4. BE VOCAL: a lot of people are not buying bb10 phones as they believe BlackBerry is going to be bankrupt, publicise the truth, react to negative news, clarify the facts...it needs to be aggressive towards informing people how BB10 is so so much different from BBOS and how it still retains the goodness of the old platform. Announce it to the world that it's time to learn again from the inventors of smartphone...without really mocking any of the competitors.

5. CARRIER SUPPORT: I Guess carrier support has definitely improved after Mr. Chen took over, but it needs to go full throttle up, coax them into displaying blackberry 10.

These are just some ideas I have, please add your own or correct me if its too far fetched.

Posted via CB10

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

MONEY? We are talking Billions with an S to do the marketing to overcome their current reputation, and to get the word out about BB10.2.1. In 2012 Microsoft spent 1.8Billion on marketing, Apple was right around 1 Billion and these guys are strong and well known. I have no idea what Microsoft spent last year with the launch of Windows 8, Surface Tablets, new Windows 8 Phones and the XBoxOne...

While BlackBerry has Billions on the "Books", that doesn't not mean that they can afford to spend Billions with no guaranteed results. Not much has really changed since the launch of BB10 and it failures.... sure the OS has matured some and a couple of new devices have dropped, but is it really that different? does it have some never before heard of feature that will capture the imagination of users?

Chen has to be very careful with the limited (and borrowed) resources he has. I think they will do more marketing, but at a time and in the markets where it will do the most good.

[Anadi Athaley]

I'm talking about channelising the spending they are already doing.

Very few people know that you navigation on a BB10 is done WITHOUT button/s.

Use these features of the OS. Hub is something which needs to be advertised. Time shift. They need to be spoon-fed. And aggressively.

I see blackberry doing heavy advertising of BBOS in India, but not BB10..these are the things I'm talking about.

Posted via CB10

[early2bed]

That's not the focused marketing that Blackberry is going to do in the future for their hardware. The biggest difference between JC and his predecessors is that the previous CEOs and other leadership were undoubtedly smartphone guys. That's no longer the case. Spending all of that cash to try to sell more smartphones? Not a chance.

[Anadi Athaley]

I am talking about reaching out to customers, and optimizing the advertising expense. A lot of people on this forum say, stop making the BBOS devices and selling them. Guess that may be another way.

As far as the new strategy is concerned, which diversifies the company into four core sections, QNX and Enterprise Solutions are more towards the prosumer, per se. They are more indirect, more controlled. Besides, QNX needs to be buckle up too, Apple and Google are both venturing into the market.

Devices for BlackBerry is somewhat a dicey section, but that's what connects them to the mass and builds their BRAND VALUE. They need to reach out.

Posted via CB10

[Troy Tiscareno]

The reason BB doesn't do the things you listed is because all of them would cost BB a BUNCH of money they don't have.

Banks are not going to loan BB money to offer device financing, and BB needs the up-front revenues from those phones in order to have money to make new ones. Advertising is VERY expensive, even targeted advertising, and their target customers in mature markets (enterprises) don't buy because of advertising, but because a BB rep worked with their IT department to get them sample devices and to answer their deployment questions.

BB is doing the right thing considering the extremely poor market position they are in, the serious lack of revenues they have, the fact that they had a $4+ billion LOSS the last quarter alone, and the damage to the brand. You're still expecting them to go after the consumer market, when they've said clearly that they tried and failed, and aren't going to be going after that market anytime soon. They simply don't have the resources needed to succeed, and making a half-hearted effort would just be a waste of more money.

It's still not clear that BB10 is going to be successful in the market long-term. Just because you have a good product doesn't guarantee its success - many other good, workable products that had certain advantages still failed. Remember HD-DVD? Toshiba lost a few billion dollars on that format war (which Blu-Ray won), and the tech wasn't terrible or anything. VHS vs. Beta is another example - Beta was better quality, but the tapes were only 60 minutes, while VHS had lower quality but 120 minute tapes.

The truth is that BB needs to prove that it can win and win big in the markets it has the best chance of winning in: regulated enterprises. If it can't compete there with great success, then BB10 will probably be abandoned, because without a strong win to build from, no one will be able to justify spending money trying to get back into the consumer space, which, at best, has a low chance of success anyway.

Smartphones are no longer just smartphones - it's the ECOSYSTEM that matters in the consumer market today, and BB has the weakest ecosystem, by far, of any platform, and not much hope of growing it.

[ccbs]

Well said.

It is very obvious from 2010 on that smartphone is going to evolve more like an computing platform, Windows, Mac, Linux, etc rather than appliances or car. People buying a smartphone are now looking at the whole ecosystem, type of accessories, apps, and future support available. There is only limited resources available in the developer community and normally they gravitate towards two to three platforms max. MS won the desktop computing platform war and now they are lacking behind and is very concerned to be left out. BBRY has its low hanging fruit in the regulated market where they should concentrate their effort to capture that market and then extend their enterprise offering. This is the best way to ensure their survival in current situation.

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

Smartphones are no longer just smartphones - it's the ECOSYSTEM that matters in the consumer market today, and BB has the weakest ecosystem, by far, of any platform, and not much hope of growing it.

beg, borrow, or steal.... maybe?

[RubberChicken76]

5. CARRIER SUPPORT: I Guess carrier support has definitely improved after Mr. Chen took over, but it needs to go full throttle up, coax them into displaying blackberry 10.

I like your ideas, but not sure about this one. I see BlackBerrys in a lot fewer stores now than when Thorsten was in charge actually.

[nt300]

Microsoft spent Billions in marketing and advertising for the USA market, yet between Sept 2013 to Dec 2013, there smart phone market share declined. Androids market share declined and BlackBerry's market share declined. Apple's on the other hand increased a bit.
This information does not include the Enterprise according to the info.
BlackBerry's U.S. Market Share Keeps Sliding - Somehow Still in 3rd Place, According to comScore - N4BB

So has the BlackBerry bleeding stopped? Perhaps a lot more now that Mr. Chen has taken charge. But there's still many carrier workers spreading BS about BBRY and now its time to educate the masses that BlackBerry 10 is here to stay and open for business.

[Troy Tiscareno]

now its time to educate the masses that BlackBerry 10 is here to stay and open for business.

Educating the "masses" costs a TON of money. BB doesn't have it, which is why they've made it crystal clear that they don't plan to "educate the masses" about BB10 anytime soon. Not in 2014 certainly - it won't even be considered until mid-2015, once they see how they did in the enterprise.

[Anadi Athaley]

Educating the "masses" costs a TON of money. BB doesn't have it, which is why they've made it crystal clear that they don't plan to "educate the masses" about BB10 anytime soon. Not in 2014 certainly - it won't even be considered until mid-2015, once they see how they did in the enterprise.

Then when they release Jakarta, would they not advertise, if they don't have money? If they can't advertise, how will they sell the phones? Why sell the phones even? Why make them, if there is no money left to advertise? So, its all left on hope, that some customers might buy it? Isn't that an expensive strategy?

[Troy Tiscareno]

They'll advertise Jakarta in the primary markets they plan to sell it in, of course. Granted, in those markets, BB doesn't have the brand damage that it has in mature markets, and the carriers already have a lot of in-store BB advertising.

But those markets are not the mature markets that people here want BB to advertise in (the ones BB has already said they weren't going to spend money on for at least 18 months).

BB doesn't have the money to advertise everywhere, so they have to limit it to the few places where they have the best chance for success. That's still a very small chance, but it's the best they've got.

[Anadi Athaley]

And that's what these ideas are for...rework the advertising, specially where there is still chance...and where BlackBerry is still advertising...

Posted via CB10

[RubberChicken76]

Then when they release Jakarta, would they not advertise, if they don't have money? If they can't advertise, how will they sell the phones? Why sell the phones even? Why make them, if there is no money left to advertise? So, its all left on hope, that some customers might buy it? Isn't that an expensive strategy?

You're treating advertising as "all or nothing". It's not that way. It's like the people who say, "BlackBerry doesn't advertise in the US" because they haven't personally seen it where they go. Yet other americans report things like commecials, ads in the subways etc. They will advertise but they have to be choosy, which was the point ... because their marketing budget is more finite than Samsung or Apple's or Microsoft's

[FeitaInc]

I really think that John Chen is going at the right way. If they can re-establish and solidify their position as the market leader, which they arguably all ready are by a long way, in enterprise and regulated industries they can come at the consumer market from a position of strength ad opposed to being the underdog the media has stopped liking.

Had Torstein Heins had 10.2.1 at his disposal at the launch of BB10, BlackBerry would probably be doing better now. But that's neither here nor there.

Posted via CB10

[SDTRMG]

You gotta spend money to make money.

I agree they should offer a good trade up program for bbos devices and customers. Maybe even old iphones?

Even though they can't afford to market like apple or Microsoft they should (I know they wont) still put a good 100 million into an actual marketing campaign and commercial, not the none sense they were releasing last year. Microsoft has learned to advertise with a message, hopefully BlackBerry can to.

They need to up the specs on one device to have a phone to compete against these high spec android devices. I love my z30 and it's smoother then my android devices but if all people car about is specs, don't ignore them.

Z30 - The Final Destination - Winnipeg Mb Clothing|Footwear|Headwear|Headshop|Tobacconist|Ta ttoos

[micha301290]

In Munich last year during the launch they had a few banners at the subway for 2 weeks or so and bad TV commercials in Germany. Nobody knows the great benefits of BB 10 and what separates it from other OS. Now the product is great but marketing fails completely at the moment!

Posted via CB10

[chrisro]

Well, if you don't have enough cash to market properly, you have to let others market for you Just set up a proper corporate sales force and put a lot of BB10s in corporate hands. That's how BlackBerry grew in the first place, everybody wanted to have what the big boys were using.

Go Europe, it's easier to conquer than the US.

Just my 2?.

Posted via CB10 from my exquisite Z10 on Cosmote Romania