[ikerrin]

I think we can all agree that while the BB10 phones are awesome, their marketing needs some work. To my mind, it looks like the same engineers who build the phone were asked to storyboard the marketing over a couple of beers on a Friday night.

What does Blackberry sell? A 4th version of the basic cell phone framework where you can take your pick based on some set of undefined preferences and legacy nostalgia? Personally, I think that Apple sells phones washed in unicorn tears and Android throws a bunch of different phones out into the market in the hopes that they will stick (and they do.) Microsoft is like Blackberry in not having a coherent story other than maybe that their phones work really well with their computers. Here are my ideas for some ways that Blackberry could establish their brand. All of them involve their own pixie dust, but isn't that what marketing is.

1) The Mercedes (Porsche) story. Message: yes our phones are not everywhere you go. Neither are Mercedes. We sell premium phones for people who demand the best. Not everyone can afford a Rolex and not everyone can afford a Blackberry. If you want a bit of the Blackberry magic, buy the Q5 which is an overpriced entry phone but with the same great Blackberry engineering with less expensive components. (This doesn't need to be true. Is a Rolex that much better than a Seiko?)

2) The "We aren't the Americans" story. Message: Every smartphone on the market today, except for Blackberry is built on American software or hardware. Blackberry is Canadian and it allows you to participate in the Canadian brand of fairness and diversity ( of people and of smartphone platforms). Buying a Blackberry means that you support the things that Canadians support - decency, fair play, a good product for a reasonable price and a well constructed smartphone built by people who give pregnant women a year's paid maternity, little kids free dental coverage, refugees a chance to build a better life, and where everyone has a good work-life balance. Basically, this is the Blackberry as organic farm produce model.

3) The "We're now the ones who 'think different'" model. Message: Apple has become the new Microsoft and it would be a Blackberry user crashing the Big Brother TV screen in the old 1984 commercial. Moreover, Google has abandoned their "don't be evil" slogan and Microsoft ... well they are still Microsoft. If you want to stick it to the man, buy a Blackberry. Blackberry is your phone if you don't want a smartphone monopoly, Blackberry is the hipster phone, it's the phone of artists and creative people who don't listen to the Apple marketing. When you buy a Blackberry, you are saying that you want the market to continue and competition to run wild in smartphones.

Note, none of this needs to be true, but all messages at least start to build an identity for the phone and who uses it. Right now, I feel that Blackberry's campaign could basically be summed up as: "Blackberry is the phone that a random group of people use."

What do you think? How could Blackberry market their mission better.

[BergerKing]

http://forums.crackberry.com/general...keting-833441/

We have numerous threads regarding BlackBerry's marketing or lack thereof. Please join in one of those existing discussions. I linked just one that was easy to find. Thanks!