Marketing Management -Black Berry Marketing Problem.
Assignment Question
“Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large” (AMA, 2007).
With reference to the above statement, read Five (5) update (2008-2013) and related journal articles. Apply findings of articles to evaluate, describe, analyze and illustrate the particular marketing problem in your chosen company and recommend feasible and viable solutions. Indicate the phases that need to be taken to ensure that it is used in realizing the client’s aspirations of your chosen company.
With reference to the above statement, read Five (5) update (2008-2013) and related journal articles. Apply findings of articles to evaluate, describe, analyze and illustrate the particular marketing problem in your chosen company and recommend feasible and viable solutions. Indicate the phases that need to be taken to ensure that it is used in realizing the client’s aspirations of your chosen company.
POSSIBLE SOLUTION
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report was carried out to examine the marketing problem with Blackberry and recommend solutions while indicating phases which need to be taken in order to realize client aspirations. The research report draws the attention that Blackberry a Giant and leader in the Smart Phone market suffered a blow from other mobile competitors and experienced a drop in its Global Subscription in recent years also losing its Market Share. Further investigations reveals that this problem is caused because other mobile providers are concentrating more on the user experience and not on the business perspective in which Blackberry concentrate more upon.
Wide range of innovative applications which supports both businesses, multimedia, social and entertainment users are readily available on other mobile device such as the iphone and Android devices while Blackberry users only get access to very limited applications which the customers are not satisfied with. These factors appear to be the main causes of customers avoiding Black Berry product in recent years and cause a decrease in sales. The report also include reviewing articles relating to the problem faced by Blackberry and applying the findings which include customer satisfaction lack of innovative product and targeting a particular class of people which are the business class in most of their advertisement campaign.
It is recommended that Blackberry take immediate measures to understand their customer wants by involving customer in their product development alongside creating innovative products which meet customer needs. Black berry need to redefine its marketing concept to ensure that the young, old and all classes of people whether Business Class, or heavy entertainment and Multimedia users see the benefits and advantage in buying and using their products.
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Blackberry limited which was formerly known as Research in Motion design, service and market a line of wireless hand held devices which is known as the Blackberry (RIM, 2013).
The company is a Canadian company headquartered in waterloo Ontario Canada and was founded by Mike Lazaridis they deal mostly with telecommunication and wireless equipment and are best known for their devices the Blackberry smart phones and tablets. The first Blackberry device is a two way email pager introduced in 1999 (Davis, 1999) at Munich Germany, and the name blackberry was chosen due to the resemblance of the keyboard buttons to that of drupelets which composes of Blackberry fruits (Zachary, 2013). In 2003 the more commonly known Smartphone Blackberry was released, the device supports push email, text messaging, mobile telephone web browsing and lots of other wireless services.
Blackberry gained and increased its market share in the mobile industry by concentrating on email services, they also offer email service through blackberry connect software to other devices such as the palm Treo which is a non blackberry device. Black berry subscribers increased significantly since the release of the Blackberry smart phone in 2003 with 534,400 globally to 79,000,000 in (2012), (please see appendix A). Blackberry has struggled to compete against the Apple iphone and Android line of devices in recent years this however affected its sales significantly and with the release of iphone 5 in 2012 the global subscribers of Blackberry reduced from 79,000,000 in (December 1, 2012) to 72,000,000 in June 1, 2013 (Blackberry, 2013) The competition is a disaster to the market leaders and this document gives more information about the entire Blackberry marketing problem.
The company is a Canadian company headquartered in waterloo Ontario Canada and was founded by Mike Lazaridis they deal mostly with telecommunication and wireless equipment and are best known for their devices the Blackberry smart phones and tablets. The first Blackberry device is a two way email pager introduced in 1999 (Davis, 1999) at Munich Germany, and the name blackberry was chosen due to the resemblance of the keyboard buttons to that of drupelets which composes of Blackberry fruits (Zachary, 2013). In 2003 the more commonly known Smartphone Blackberry was released, the device supports push email, text messaging, mobile telephone web browsing and lots of other wireless services.
Blackberry gained and increased its market share in the mobile industry by concentrating on email services, they also offer email service through blackberry connect software to other devices such as the palm Treo which is a non blackberry device. Black berry subscribers increased significantly since the release of the Blackberry smart phone in 2003 with 534,400 globally to 79,000,000 in (2012), (please see appendix A). Blackberry has struggled to compete against the Apple iphone and Android line of devices in recent years this however affected its sales significantly and with the release of iphone 5 in 2012 the global subscribers of Blackberry reduced from 79,000,000 in (December 1, 2012) to 72,000,000 in June 1, 2013 (Blackberry, 2013) The competition is a disaster to the market leaders and this document gives more information about the entire Blackberry marketing problem.
2.0 PROBLEM STATEMENT
Blackberry a business leader in smart phone market has recorded tremendous success in its early years of operation most users of Blackberry are very addictive to their mobiles and popular among business class people and at a point it was often called the business mobile.
Blackberry success can be traced back to 1998 where its strong focus was on innovative wireless solutions for the mobile communications market. Blackberry won several industry awards for its innovation and many accolades for its usefulness.
Blackberry positioned itself as a business oriented mobile and focuses on the business oriented customers neglecting the fact that while the customers know that their mobile was more towards business they also want to have a good feel and use of their mobile. One of blackberry greatest problem understands their customers. Customer value takes into consideration what an organization customer believe they get by buying and using a product (James, 2005). Customers normally go for a product base on the extent it satisfy their need. Blackberry assumes that all customers that purchase their product are business oriented and want to use the mobile for the sake of business only.
This affects the business tremendously because these customers see other products from other mobile companies where they have several functions while they can also still keep in touch with their daily business this however made most of the customers switch to the mobile devices which provide them with several functionalities and interesting interface because such mobile focus on the users. What the users want on their mobile is very important and Blackberry fails to put this into consideration hence making their marketing bad and also customers feel that there is no value for them using product that do not satisfy their need.
On May 7 2012 RIM released its bold marketing campaign "Wake up be Bold" (Vlad, 2012)
this campaign was attacking iPhone and Android directly claiming Blackberry is the only device for serious business. The truth is most of the Black berry users do believe their blackberry was best for business; they only changed their mind when they saw the capability of other mobile phones such as Apple I-phone and Android Mobiles.
Blackberry keep using the marketing strategy that their mobile is dedicated for business minded people this allow their product to be admired by a particular class of people mostly among the business Class, young people that use their mobile mostly for social and entertainment do not see any reason to get a blackberry since it's not meant for them.
Even the business class they target with their market strategy want their mobile to serve them as a faster means of communication while enjoying new technology so they rather go for other mobile device that provide them with this features. Blackberry is missing several elements critical to its survival as an independent brand this include exciting new technology which they fail to provide and brilliant marketing strategy.
Blackberry fails to work on innovative technology to keep its customer loyalty with the release of instagram software. Blackberry fails to integrate and allow for this software to be used on a Blackberry phone. The instagram software was loved among people ranging from young to old and for business class and entertainment class users of mobile devices.
This allow many users to change to iPhone and android mobile devices which support the application ,and blackberry fails to see that they losing customers based on the failure to adapt new technology and innovation.
The Marketing strategy adopted by Black berry targeting the business class is a failure Blackberry also fails to understand what their customer wants and will like to see on their mobile phone. Blackberry failed to make innovative product and integrate latest trends and applications in their mobile devices in order to be keep customer loyalty and avoid dissatisfaction from the devices performance.
Blackberry success can be traced back to 1998 where its strong focus was on innovative wireless solutions for the mobile communications market. Blackberry won several industry awards for its innovation and many accolades for its usefulness.
Blackberry positioned itself as a business oriented mobile and focuses on the business oriented customers neglecting the fact that while the customers know that their mobile was more towards business they also want to have a good feel and use of their mobile. One of blackberry greatest problem understands their customers. Customer value takes into consideration what an organization customer believe they get by buying and using a product (James, 2005). Customers normally go for a product base on the extent it satisfy their need. Blackberry assumes that all customers that purchase their product are business oriented and want to use the mobile for the sake of business only.
This affects the business tremendously because these customers see other products from other mobile companies where they have several functions while they can also still keep in touch with their daily business this however made most of the customers switch to the mobile devices which provide them with several functionalities and interesting interface because such mobile focus on the users. What the users want on their mobile is very important and Blackberry fails to put this into consideration hence making their marketing bad and also customers feel that there is no value for them using product that do not satisfy their need.
On May 7 2012 RIM released its bold marketing campaign "Wake up be Bold" (Vlad, 2012)
this campaign was attacking iPhone and Android directly claiming Blackberry is the only device for serious business. The truth is most of the Black berry users do believe their blackberry was best for business; they only changed their mind when they saw the capability of other mobile phones such as Apple I-phone and Android Mobiles.
Blackberry keep using the marketing strategy that their mobile is dedicated for business minded people this allow their product to be admired by a particular class of people mostly among the business Class, young people that use their mobile mostly for social and entertainment do not see any reason to get a blackberry since it's not meant for them.
Even the business class they target with their market strategy want their mobile to serve them as a faster means of communication while enjoying new technology so they rather go for other mobile device that provide them with this features. Blackberry is missing several elements critical to its survival as an independent brand this include exciting new technology which they fail to provide and brilliant marketing strategy.
Blackberry fails to work on innovative technology to keep its customer loyalty with the release of instagram software. Blackberry fails to integrate and allow for this software to be used on a Blackberry phone. The instagram software was loved among people ranging from young to old and for business class and entertainment class users of mobile devices.
This allow many users to change to iPhone and android mobile devices which support the application ,and blackberry fails to see that they losing customers based on the failure to adapt new technology and innovation.
The Marketing strategy adopted by Black berry targeting the business class is a failure Blackberry also fails to understand what their customer wants and will like to see on their mobile phone. Blackberry failed to make innovative product and integrate latest trends and applications in their mobile devices in order to be keep customer loyalty and avoid dissatisfaction from the devices performance.
3.0 ARTICLE REVIEW
In order for marketing strategy to be considered good a lot of requirement ranging from the marketing plan, customer view and several other factors should be considered. Articles reviewed which are related to the problem statement.
3.1 Article 1 : MEASURING CUSTOMER SATISFACTION: MUST OR NOT?
Dr Emrah Cengiz illustrated the importance of customer satisfaction and measurement of customer satisfaction in this Article. Organization must be aware that, measuring customer satisfaction is not one time process. Organizations have to learn that in order to achieve ultimate success, customer expectations are always required to keep long term success (Emrah Cengiz, 2010).
Customer satisfaction is a key factor in formation of customer’s desires for future purchase (Mittal & Kamakura, 2001). Satisfied customers always talk to others about the good experiences they get from the product and on the other hand dissatisfied customers also share their bad experiences with others.
This influences other customers to buy or avoid that product. So customer satisfaction is very essential because a satisfied customer easily bring more customers for an organization. Customer satisfaction has vital roles for businesses in providing and maintaining a competitive advantage. It is recognized that the businesses forming components of marketing mix by acknowledging the customers’ expectations, receive customer loyalty and profit in return. Every organization should know customers as well as competitor’s information. It is very important to know what competitors are offering to their customers. By measuring customer satisfaction, companies easily get the customer knowledge and also have competitors’ knowledge in the market (Emrah Cengiz, 2010).
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