- Situational Analysis
Blackberry is a Canadian company dealing with telecommunication and wireless devices. The company is mainly renowned of manufacturing some of the most outstanding devices in the mobile industry. Following the improvements being witnessed in the modern technology, mobile phones are extremely critical as they had their equal share of influence. However, as time elapses changes are being witnesses in the technology world. Devices are being improved from time to time (BlackBerry, 2013).
The extensive exposure of modern technology in mobile development has been critical in defining competition in the market. The mobile industry has experienced extensive duplication of devices through similar programming of devices. There are many mobile manufacturers with the same types of devices in form of smart phones and Ipads making it difficult for blackberry to penetrate the global market (BlackBerry, 2013).
- Opportunities / Issue Analysis - SWOT Analysis
Blackberry being one of the main players in the mobile companies industry and with long time experience in sales and marketing mobile devices, has extensive potential in conquering the industry.
Weakness
The company lacks adequate knowledge to develop equally competitive smart phones as they are in the market (BlackBerry, 2013). It lacks adequate technical knowledge to assist in making the company one of the most competitive manufacturers in the market.
Opportunity
Blackberry has been in the industry for an extremely long period of time and most people find their devices extremely outstanding. This means that with minimal improvement in devices production Blackberry would be the leading company in mobile devices production (BlackBerry, 2013).
Threats
The main threat to the Blackberry is the extensive competition in the mobile manufacturing industry. The rise of Smartphone in the industry has been critical in defining competition (BlackBerry, 2013). This has been the major threats to thriving business for Blackberry.
- Objectives
Following the extensive challenges that may face Blackberry Company if proper marketing was not done, a marketing plan needs to be developed. There are various objectives of the marketing plan.
Attracting more customers; this means that the company has to develop new strategies that will attract more customers to the company. The company must identify with the needs of the customers and work towards achieving them (Kendrick, 2006).
Countering extensive competition in the industry is the other objective of marketing plan. The company must be able to understand the tricks that competitors use in extending their lead in the market (Kendrick, 2006). The strategies must be developed with the aim of eliminating competition.
The other objective is proposing most outstanding strategies to attract more business for the company. The company must be ready to transform its operations with the aim of extending its business to the global market (Kendrick, 2006).
- Marketing Strategy
Following the challenges that the company has been undergoing in trying to reach its global clients a set of action needs to be undertaken. This means that several marketing strategies need to be employed if the company was to remain relevant in the market. The overall strategy that the company may choose to undertake is undertaking the leader’s role in industry. This may be achieved through involvement of critical steps. Being a leader in the market means being the first one to make extensive innovations. Blackberry should be the first company to be approached by Apps developers in making extensive changes in the mobile industry (Kendrick, 2006).
Also, the company must extensively invest in advertising as well as sales. Advertisement is usually the most outstanding strategy of reaching customers. The company should approach the most renowned TVs in the world, which have a global view to place adverts. This would make it to counter the challenge that is being fostered by the competitors (Kendrick, 2006).
Also, the company should develop mobile Apps that will assist in making the devices more useful in the industry. The ability of the devices to support most of the Apps makes them easily marketable.
- Action Program (the operational marketing plan itself for the period under review)
First year
The company should develop a program that will assist it in making most of the innovations in the mobile industry. This should also be the chance to develop new Apps for the mobile devices that will be easily marketable. Also, during this year, the company should be carrying out the cost analysis of the marketing agent they would like to use to access the best TVs in the world. Also, the most outstanding promotional strategies should be proposed and pilot projects carried out by the company.
Second year
This is the year of extensive application of the first year’s plan. The Apps should be installed and some sales already made. The best marketing agent should have been appointed and the process of advertising must be taking place. The company should be in a position to collect feedback from customers which will be useful in further marketing strategies.
- Forecast
With the plans executed above, the company should experience extensive change in its sales volume as well as its income. It is highly possible that the sales will have increased by approximately half of the annual sales made per year in the first year of marketing. In the second year, sales are expected to have increased from previous year’s performance by approximately half of the previous improvement.
- Barriers in implementing the plan
Implementing the above marketing plan is not an easy task. It is countered by extensive challenges that may be aiming at ensuring failure of the company. One of the barriers is incompetence of the personnel. The company may have poor performers as the leaders of the marketing department. This means they will not be able to implement the proposed strategies in the best way possible. They will not be ready to sacrifice all that may be required of them (Paley, 2005). They may be unable to understand all that it takes to bring to the table excellent performance for the company.
The other barrier is inability to forecast innovations that are likely to take the industry by storm. This means the company will not be prepared enough to deal with competitions that will be bestowed by other companies (Paley, 2005).
Also, tastes and preferences for customers change and the company should accurately meet with the tastes and preferences. However, this is not always the case.
- How the marketing manager can overcome the barriers
The first step is hiring highly motivated individuals. These are the people willing to undertake challenges and implement changes as required. The manager should be able to identify talented individuals who should be assigned the various roles defined in bid to improve the productivity of the company (Paley, 2005).
The manager should also hire technically qualified individuals with excellent skills to handled technological issues as they arise. There should be a bench of experts who emphasize on technological Apps necessary to counter competition in the industry (Paley, 2005).
The manager should also hire individuals with extensive experience in forecasting changes in preferences that will help the company in making exclusive sales when that time comes.
References
BlackBerry. (2013). Choose your device specification. Free & Paid BlackBerry Apps for Smartphones & Tablets. Retrieved January 11, 2014, from http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/
Kendrick, T. (2006). Developing strategic marketing plans that really work: a toolkit for public libraries. London: Facet.
Paley, N. (2005). The manager's guide to competitive marketing strategies (3rd ed.). London: Thorogood.
