What I Would Like To See From BlackBerry
There seems to be a kind of time lag at the moment in terms of a marketing and BlackBerry, with the general response on Crackberry (from individuals including myself previously) being:
"BlackBerry are waiting to have a 'perfect' product in terms of hardware and software before they start a big marketing push.." I want to present an issue here..
But after some thought and discussions with various individuals, I say;
BlackBerry needs to first have a major yet cost effective campaign to get rid of the Z10 , and the Q5 or Q10 (to make space for the new keyboard based devices)
Cost Effective = as well as the increased labelling they have been putting on F1 , use it's popularity to make a competition e.g. get a chance to sit down with Hamilton and take a lap on a track with every BlackBerry phone purchase, even make a whole day out of it..
Even though BlackBerry doesn't have big marketing bucks, they have a lot of strong business connections that they can make use off..
I can see and understand them refocusing on enterprise customers to make sure they don't get away as this is their strength .. but if they are to remain relevant they need to (as in Jubei's recent article) tap into the consumer markets emotions, be creative and make some noise..
Also on the store front they need to invest in people , good BlackBerry reps can go a long way and good policy too.. right now the situation is a bit dismal I'll give a quick e.g.:
A Carphone Warehouse manager sells a lot more blackberry's than the average... he is given a Z30 by BlackBerry and this allowed him to sell even more blackberry's because he could right away show customers what the Z30 could do (they don't currently have it on display).
On the BlackBerry reps last visit, the Z30 is taken back, and instead the manager received a pouch to keep glasses in(bb branded) .. considering that even the rep is surprised at how many BlackBerry s were being sold at his store and yet policy means he takes away one of the factors which is contributing to this.. I understand the need to reign in spending but in this scenario you definitely need to spend money to make money..(note I'm not blaming/accusing the rep, just questioning the logic/system)
Before BlackBerry updates its phones (hardware) it needs to get rid of the current ones or it will find it difficult to sell the new phones to carriers (who can subsidies the phones for customers, something BlackBerry doesn't yet do to the same extent)
My dream is to see BlackBerry stores everywhere offering direct support etc, innovative stores in themselves in terms of layout etc but that's a long term investment that requires a lot of money coming in, which is what Chen is trying to do (well, break even at the very least)
So.. BlackBerry.. don't wait .. continue work with enterprise customers but utilise your connections to make some noise in the consumer market... get the discounted phones selling... heck.. use bbm channels to promote the competition and get download rates increasing again..
I know the people at BlackBerry must be under a lot, a lot of pressure right now to get things right... but i think there is a balance between being conservative, and playing a hail Mary, find that balance BlackBerry, for all our sakes...
Let the comments begin
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