The Blackberry boys: A failed repositioning strategy in the mobile phone market

Blackberry used to be synonymous with corporate -workhorse devices known for security and reliability . But the iPhone and Android smart phones with large app stores look like the best business models in the fast moving telcom industry. My estimate is that Blackberry has  lost the battle to iPhone and Android market. (The chief marketing officer Keith Pardy has left the company in mrch 2011. Not a good sign.)

People do not want an affordable corporate mobile phone, they rather want a sexy new one. No matter if you are corporate or not. The competitive advantage of Blackberry in the corporate world has gone and Blackberry is not sexy enough to compete in a consumer market. That is why they are forecd to start a world wide repositioning strategy, downgrading the brand image by offering it to consumers.


Repositioning Blackberry
In South Africa Blackberry is repositioning the brand as a consumer and business brand instead of only a corporate brand. They have a 4% mobile phone market share, but consumer intention to buy a blackberry is high.  Suggesting a strong growth the next period. At least according to Rudolf Muller in http://mybroadband.co.za/news/cellular/19363-why-blackberry-rules-in-sa.html If this approach will work remains too be seen.

 

 
In India the Blackberrie mobile phone brand also follows a repositioning strategy . The youtube viral movie (sort of bollywood style) is nice to watch.

How effective is the repositioning strategy?
A critical review of this move by kaustav sengupta
http://ingene.blogspot.com/2010/10/we-are-blackberry-boys-blackberry-is.html
If moving to a mass market and losing the elite image is a smart move of blackberry remains too be seen. It can be seen as a downgrading. It could dilute the value of this brand and the elite will no longer use Blackberry. They will switch to the next big thing. Blackberry will have difficulty competing against mass market mobile phone brands and app platforms like Iphone and android based phones.

As the brand grows there is always that temptation to make some more bucks by repositioning your brand and targeting the unconventional prospects. Many brands fall prey to it and most of them fail, because one thing in a human brain can occupy one association at a time, in most of the cases. Going against this basic law about how humans percieve and then act and react leads to so many failures in re-positioning attempts by brand managers across the globe. Blackberry is trying to do something very "cheap" in terms of re-positioning a brand; just a communication facade and wrap up to enforce the Boy thing. It might give them some more boys and girls singing to their tune but more importantly and more likely, it can take away that loyal class of Executives which build the brand Blackberry.This is not at all an impressive move by the strategists and brand people at RIM."...



Blackcherry, an indian Blackberry clone.
This BlackBerry rip-off is available to you at just INR 2799. (around $60,-)
Features: Dual SIM, Dual Battery, Dual Memory Card Slot

If your brand is copied you must have been good. But I doubt how long this clone will be around considering the downgrading of the Blackberry brand.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/28/rim-sexy-blackberry/

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703580004576180721135993118.html

Lecturing during the International Week at the University of Katowice in Poland

Recently I had the opportunity to lecture at the University of applied sciemces in Katowice in south west Poland. Together with 11 collegueas from different countries we gave lectures centered around the theme Internet Communication Management My topic was "building brands on line". 4 student groups consisting of 4 students each had to choose an interesting consumer product and develop an online marketing communication plan. Considering they were mainly first year students and had no experience with marketing they produced some really good results. The students were surprisingly good at english and worked really hard to achieve the best results. Working in groups and immediately applying the theory in a practical assignment was something completely new to the Polish students. They were really enthousiastic about this form of teaching because it allowed them to work in groups and discuss pro's and con's among each other. The evaluations were really very good; 90% would recommend this course to other students. You can find the results of their work on their blogs and judge for yourself.

Iphone	http://intweekkatowicegroup1iphone.blogspot.com/
Nissan quashqai	http://intweekkatowicegroup2nissanqashqai.blogspot.com/
3D tv Panasonic	http://www.group3panasonic.blogspot.com/
m&m's	http://intweekkkatowicegroup4mms.blogspot.com/

Besides lecturing we had time for a very nice social programm including a visit to the town hall and a meeting with the major. Who gave an impressive presentation of the growth and entrepreneurial spirit of the region around Katowice. Several Western multinationals have a subsidiary in the Silezian region. The unemployment rate is below 3,5%. Which made me realize I had to adjust my perception of this region.

All lecturers and the international team during the visit of the town hall of Katowice.  

I was surprised by the exceptionally good promotional coverage of the international week.
The trailer at the top gives a nice example of how universities can promote important events in a modern way with social media.  Facebook, Youtube picassa all modern media were used to communicate the story of the international week. 
If you are interested check out the following websites.

http://www.intweek.ue.katowice.pl/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/University-of-Economics-in-Katowice/145274722181780

Battle of the imported beer brands: Heineken strikes back with brilliant campaign

Every beer drinker is convinced he can taste the difference between his favorite and other beers. The beer industry knows this is not true. Constant product / taste quality, good distribution, distinctive positioning supported by solid online and off line communication campaign does the trick.

In the USA there is a battle going in the imported beer category. Corona, the imported mexican beer, has "beer on the beach" positioning.


The Corona Beach from Big Spaceship on Vimeo.


It is under attack from Dos Equis with a brilliant "the most interesting man " campaign. Last year this campaign scored high on the viral video charts.






Advertising agency Wieden and Kennedy has developped a very appealing viral for Heineken.
They owe much to the campaoign of Dos Equis but gave it a modern and more refined twist in tune with Heineken´s positioning as a premium European import beer.  For people with a more cosmopolitan urban style.  Heineken shows correct way of entering a party.




Interesting to see what this new marketing campaign will do for sales and market share of the Heineken brand in the USA.


Source:
http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=148178

Banner blindness

Today I came across an relatively old study (2007) but stil very relevant. It shows why Search Engine Marketing is not too effective and click through ratios are usually very low.

The most prominent result from the new eyetracking studies is not actually new. We simply confirmed for the umpteenth time that banner blindness is real. Users almost never look at anything that looks like an advertisement, whether or not it's actually an ad. (Indeed, banner blindness is moving beyond the online realm, for example into ballot design.)

On hundreds of pages, users didn't fixate on ads. The following heatmaps show three examples that cover a range of user engagement with the content: quick scanning, partial reading, and thorough reading. Scanning is more common than reading, but users will sometimes dig into an article if they really care about it.



Heatmaps from eyetracking studies: The areas where users looked the most are colored red; the yellow areas indicate fewer views, followed by the least-viewed blue areas. Gray areas didn't attract any fixations. Green boxes were drawn on top of the images after the study to highlight the advertisements.

The following video clips show a gaze replay of one user's eye movements while looking for advice on how to invest for retirement. (The moving blue dot shows where the user is looking.) The page contains an ad for retirement accounts at Fidelity Investments, a site that offers good advice on the target topic and might therefore help users who click the ad.

Video advertising-fixation-gaze-replay  (.wmv)
Regular-speed gaze replay (19-second video, Windows Media format, 0.6 MB)

Video advertising-fixation-slowmotion (.wmv)
•Slow-motion gaze replay (1-minute video, Windows Media format, 2.2 MB)

As the replay shows, the user did fixate once within the ad, but at that moment, the ad is obscured by a pull-down menu. In reality, the user couldn't see the message; the fixation was clearly a mistake that occurred while she was trying to reacquire the menu after briefly looking away from the screen. All of this occurs so quickly that you probably need to review the slow-motion replay to follow the action. (This is typical for eyetracking: the eye moves so fast that our best insights come from watching slow-motion replays.)

Smart advertisers should therefore be looking at other ways to engage the consumer.

Original post: Banner Blindness old and new findings

BannerBlindness.pdf

A new target group "Online mums"

As the internet becomes more a standard household facility like a telephone or a washing machine mothers can be reached online. This nice infographic gives some details of how mothers in the UK spend their time on line. 

What Social Media Means for Beauty Brands




http://eurorscgsocial.com/2010/06/30/what-social-media-means-for-beauty-brands/

 








What Social Media Means for Beauty Brands

Stacy Mackler June 30th, 2010
Social media isn’t just a way for friends to stay in touch—smart PR professionals and marketers know that SoMe can be the answer to their prayers. Though beauty is the rare—and lucky—industry that may have bucked the trend of dwindling budgets (because women want to look good no matter how much the economy is suffering!), it still benefits resourceful pros to understand how employing social media in their strategies can have a great impact with a small budget.


We at Euro RSCG Worldwide PR engage in social media everyday—for our company and for our clients. We know that the Web is not just important, it’s essential to reach consumers in today’s fully connected world. We embrace the opportunity to link up with people on such a micro-level; anyone can follow any (or all) of us at ERWW PR on Twitter, either at the company level (@ERWWPR) or at the personal level; each of us at the agency is a citizen of Twitterville.

Beauty brands may have the most to gain from engaging in social media marketing in all its forms. In the real world, beauty products have long been at the center of social gatherings—BFFs help each other decide the right shade of eye shadow, mothers tell daughters which lipstick color looks best (and vice versa!), sisters help each other do their hair just so…and the list goes on. So when a beauty brand is able to tap into the strength of online bonds, it’s really hit the SoMe jackpot.




http://www.youtube.com/user/juicystar07


Girls (and women) can be intimidated by the prospect of seeking out advice and how-to tips in person. Mainstream fashion and beauty media outlets are already aware of the demand for these services; the clever marketer or PR pro will figure out a way to supply this need via social media. How-tos online in the privacy of one’s home, behind closed doors or with a trusted pal, can be just as good as that magazine page…or even better, since it has the benefit of being multidimensional (in other words, the real deal).


If you look at the places where social media stars and the championing of brands have intersected, you’ll often find beauty products to be the subject. Look at YouTube sensation Blair Fowler, known as Juicystar07: The 16-year-old shares her fashion and beauty expertise (and her shopping “hauls”) with 330,000 subscribers. Her YouTube channel has been viewed almost 18 million times, and she has appeared on “Good Morning America.” Her older sister, Elle (now 21), has another ultrapopular channel, allthatglitters21.

These girls have scored by leveraging the power of social media; but what PR and marketing professionals need to realize is that their brands have scored, as well. The number of YouTube videos of unwitting teen brand ambassadors is astounding—they plug products with on-brand messaging that could make a PR maven weep with joy. They’re using their 15 minutes of fame to advertise their favorite merch, and the marketers who tease out the special sauce of really leveraging these unpaid brand ambassadors may actually revolutionize social media marketing.

Have there been companies that have done it well already? Procter & Gamble may be the closest to really getting it right. Its site and newsletter Vocalpoint engages women not just with free samples (which are always nice!) but also with a forum for women to talk to each other in a nonthreatening, inviting community. Many of P&G’s brands are big players in the social media space. Among them are Olay, which has an active social media presence, and has been able to broaden its user base and demo in recent years; Pantene, which recently became one of the first brands to launch a community manager (the Pantene Beauty Maven); Cover Girl and Herbal Essences.

There hasn’t been one knockout win yet in the beauty arena—but it will happen. The question at this point isn’t “Why not?” The question is “When?”



http://www.glitzy-glam.com/store/



R.I.P. Twitter as a marketing platform.

Twitter is ineffective a a marketing tool, argues the author. He shows some interesting statistics to prove it.
According to the author Dan Schawbel an email subscriber is worth five times as much as a blog subscriber and ten times as much as a Twitter follower. Taking all things into account, he would rather have 5,000 email contacts than 100,000 Twitter followers.


Personal branding not using twitter

International branding. A global or local marketing campaign ?

One of the important questions in an increasing globalizing world. "Should a globally sold  product have a global marketing campaign or does it have to be localized ?"

A nice example of a localised bollywood style XBOX360 Indian TV commercial featuring Akshay Kumar & Yuvraj singh.

Enjoy the ride.

xbox360 bollywood style

How do consumers engage with brands in an increasingly digital world?

How do consumers engage with brands in an increasingly digital world?

This marks a significant shift in focus for the research of Razorfish. Their past studies have been almost exclusively concerned with charting how consumer behavior adapts to advances in Internet technology and web services.

In this report Razorfish is broadening their attention toward exploring how consumers interact with brands online.

What does the future hold for brands when everything is just a click away? If consumers really are in control, what can we learn from their interaction with brands today?

Highly recommended

Razorfish report on consumers and building digital brands

Building brands online

With all the (campaign) metrics available brand marketeers maintain preference for traditional brand impact metrics. An interesting presentation clearly explaining different metrics.

Building Brands Online: An Interactive Advertising Action Plan