Executive Summary
Blackberry is one of the leading and most accepted smart phones in the world. It is considered to be the best software for business dealings. These mobile phones are used by millions of business professionals all over the world. It helps them to stay connected to each other by informing about daily matters and routines. Blackberry is in the mobile phone industry since almost 10 years. It has a 42% market share. They firmly believe that their customers deserve to have the latest technology and most innovative navigation systems.
In the modern times, the customers are very technological savvy. They are demanding such mobiles phones which are equipped with all latest innovations. The purpose of this report is to study and evaluate the marketing strategy which is being used by Blackberry. External and internal factors which make up the SWOT analysis are also mentioned. This will help the firm to maximize their profitability. This report gives an in-depth study and evaluation of Blackberry’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the market and how they should overcome it.
In order to sustain and expand the market share for success, Blackberry needs to alter its marketing strategies. This will enable them to have a control over the next generation of their target markets. If they fail to satisfy the needs of customers, they may face huge losses. They must always come up with new strategies to increase brand awareness and positive brand image among its customers. This may add up to the costs of marketing, but somehow it shall be beneficial for them in case of long term success.
Corporate Connection
Blackberry needs to focus on improving their performance. Their sole intention should be to build long lasting relationships with their corporate customers. They should try their level best to satisfy their customer’s needs and wants. If a consistent struggle of developing long term relationships with its employee’s remains there, then Blackberry will be able to work on the product specifications, increase their product line and achieve a competitive advantage over its competitors (Hiebing & Cooper, 2000)
Environmental Analysis and Forecasting
Swot Analysis
The SWOT analysis of the Blackberry is given below (Piercy & Morgan, 1994)
Strengths
Blackberry enjoys the highest brand recognition among its competitors. It has a positive image in the minds of its users. The corporate users of Blackberry prefer using it as compared to other smart-phones. Another strong point of Blackberry is that it can be used in any location. The company is offering a great advantage of easy portability to its customers.
Users find it to be more secure and safe than others. This is the reason why these mobile phones are really popular among corporate users. They need to travel a lot along with their highly private and confidential documents which are usually stored in their mobile phones. Many governmental agencies also prefer to use it. These include the CIA, FBI and other investigation departments. These phones have an internally built, encrypted security. Due to this it is used by agencies to handle sensitive information cases.
Weaknesses
Blackberry always focused mainly on one target market. They have always tried to attract a huge market share from the corporate industry. For this purpose, they had to come up with an absolutely unremarkable security quality as its unique selling proposition. But unfortunately, when other competitors like Samsung and Apple introduced their smart phones with enhanced security features, Blackberry could not cope up with their booming popularity.
Besides this, Samsung and Apple took full advantage of Blackberry’s target market. When they observed that they were only paying attention to their corporate customers, they introduced easy-to-use interface and simple applications. They started producing for the customers other than the corporate world.
Opportunities
Blackberry has a profitable and well-rewarding opportunity regarding controlling their huge customer base. They can move into targeting another market segment instead of corporate employees only. This will help them to have a strong customer share before introducing any new products.
The management should consider the option of imitating the strategy which is already being followed by Samsung and Apple. They should start the process of assimilating third party applications and features into their own Blackberry sets.
Threats
Initially Blackberry was considered to be the unique and innovative smart phone. But gradually both its competitors, Samsung and Apple, moved forward and won the race of introducing a user-friendly smart phone. They were able to do so by cornering a good amount of market share.
Nowadays the advancements in technology are rapidly changing. Consumer preferences also change due to technological adaptations. The mobile phone industry is an extremely volatile market. Blackberry needs to revitalize itself from the wilting momentum of competition.
Market Potential
Blackberry has a target market of business professionals. These customers prefer to have such a phone which may assist them in timely decision making. They want to have automatic alerts and updated data. Such customers are even willing to pay more for the latest technological change.
Corporate employees who use Blackberry are often assumed to be very active leaders. They have a high income and like to purchase expensive products for personal use. They are more satisfied by using products which are fashionable and considered to be the must-have gadget (Hiebing & Cooper, 2000)
Competitive Analysis
Recently, Nokia has also launched its most up-to-date variety of touch screen smart phones. Their phones are now offering faster internet, multimedia messaging, GPRS and games. Apple’s I phone is a world-shattering innovation in the mobile industry. It is considered as one of the most sought device ever. It has very creative internally built applications. It has the best high-technological multimedia variety, cameras, music collections and other features (Piercy & Morgan, 1994)
It is important to consider the Porter’s Forces model. It discusses the five competitive forces of potential threats from the external environment. These competitive forces may include the threats of new entrants and substitutes, power of buyer and suppliers and the level of existing competition.
Threats of New Entrants
Blackberry has a strong supply chain from manufacturers so they have a comparatively secure position in the market. But they must cope up with the threats of new entrants like I Phone 5 and Samsung S3.
Threats of Substitutes
Blackberry has a well-established and reputable position in their market. Due to price variations within the industry, the customer may be prompted to use some other substitute. If any Samsung or I Phone is being offered at a cheaper price, then customer will be willing to buy it.
Power of Supplier
A reliable supply chain helps the manufacturer to develop a close business relation with them. This also reduces the costs of distribution.
Power of Buyer
Customer’s satisfaction is very important for the success of any business firm. Blackberry caters to the technologically savvy target market. Many business professionals and young-blooded people have an increased salary and they can buy better mobile phones of their own choice.
Level of Existing Competition
Major competitors of Blackberry include the Samsung S3 and I Phone 5. They have managed to establish a huge market share. With the advancements and rapidly changing technology, it is difficult to have up-to-date mobile phones. Blackberry is going through a tough and fierce competition from its rivals; I Phone 5 and Samsung 3.
Segmenting and Targeting
Market Segmentation
Blackberry’s market segmentation can be done according to various perspectives. They are discussed below briefly (Hamka et al, 2014)
Demographics
Blackberry is aimed for both genders; whether male or female. They may be above 20 years of age. The demographics of its customers may help the management to understand what type of people they are actually targeting. They need to develop the product according to their needs and wants.
Geographic
Customer needs may vary from one region to another. Blackberry is not being specific to a particular region. It is available for customers all over the world. It can be used easily anywhere.
Psychographic
Blackberry wants to satisfy the needs of corporate employees who are conscious about their public image. These customers like to spend more on their personal use products. They have to influence others by their lifestyle. They are easily bound to come under the peer pressure. They have a huge circle of friends and family members.
Lifestyle
Business persons and corporate employees tend to travel very frequently. They need to have their important documents with them all the time. At the same time, the confidentiality of these private documents is also necessary. Blackberry is the solution to all their problems. This is why the business professionals rely on these mobile phones.
Target Market
Blackberry is internationally known as the ‘business phone’ rather than the ‘smart phone’. It is not particularly targeted towards a specific age group or gender, but its only target segment is of business professionals. Variations among social classes are ignored. It does not matter that whether the businessman is famous or a small-scale one. These phones offer easy instant messaging through wireless internet. It also offers the most remarkable feature of the ‘Blackberry Messenger’. By using this feature, a person can send and receive messages totally free of cost anywhere and anytime. This is the most distinctive feature of Blackberry phones. It can also be said as its unique selling proposition. Any Blackberry phone can be connected with any other Blackberry phone by using a secret PIN number. When the connection has been established, the person can send and receive messages very quickly (Hamka et al, 2014)
Next Year’s Objectives and Quotas
As it has been mentioned above that Blackberry targets the business professionals, we can see that our target market is interested in buying a mobile phone that offers much more variety of features than just a phone. It should serve their purpose completely but should not be complicated to use with lame distractions. From this perspective, Blackberry is the only mobile phone that helps to get things done quickly and professionally.
Blackberry has to achieve a few important objectives I order to sustain its current position. The objectives have been discussed below briefly.
Increase Market Share
Currently Blackberry has around 43% share in the local market of mobile phones. Now the first objective for them is to increase their market share to at least 55% within the next two years.
Become Socially Responsible
Blackberry has an enormous positive impact on the environment. They need to become more active in social work and ethically responsible. This will also affect positively on their sales because customers who are conscious about their environment will be delighted to purchase Blackberry.
Boost Up Revenues
Another objective should be to continuously increase their revenue. They should aim to increase it by 22% within next year. This can be done by having a proper well planned, effective advertising campaign. This will help raise awareness about the brand which will ultimately increase the sales.
Enhanced Profits
Blackberry should focus on their level of profitability. It is unclear to say that Blackberry is financially healthy or not. It is difficult to say that it is making high profits. So another objective will be to raise the profit levels by 20 to 25%. This shall help in maintaining a position of being the most upright and most reputable mobile phone.
Action Plans: Strategies and Tactics
Blackberry’s Future Plans For 2015
It is important to have an overview about the future strategic plans of Blackberry. We shall be discussing Blackberry’s projections for the year 2015. Nowadays the organizations require that their employees should be able to manage their tasks safely and privately by using their mobile devices. For this purpose, Blackberry is introducing a new technological change of Blackberry mobile fusion. This will be an internet-based interface where the user can audit and protect the data under its mobile phone. It is going to provide numerous new features such as a shield and guard the stolen mobiles, asset management, centralized console, Wi-Fi, application and software management, VPN and high scalability.
This new technological innovation is currently going through its testing phase. It is being experimented on few selective customers. It will be available for general public by the end of May, 2015.
Introducing New Models
Blackberry will launch 5 new handset models in 2015. There will be a variation in Blackberry Curve 9900, a new design in Pearl and a striped new set of Blackberry will also be introduced. According to some unofficial resources, it is being said that Blackberry will also be launching a mobile phone which will be of the same size and shape like Apple’s I phone.
Long Term Success Plan
Blackberry’s major sole competitor is Apple. To achieve long term success for the upcoming years, it is better for Blackberry to come up with such an innovative and world-shaking product that people are forced to react surprisingly.
Blackberry also needs to extend their product line. Currently, they are just focusing and paying attention on product modifications. If they continue to do the same, they cannot end up being successful. They need to think differently. They should emphasize their plans to find such a way that people start going crazy after a Blackberry phone. If some day, they are able to find an ideal solution for this problem, then they will be able to have a continuous success.
References
- Hiebing, R. G. & Cooper, S. W., 2000. The successful marketing plan. NTC/Contemporary Publishing Group.
- Hamka, F., Bouwman, H., De Reuver, M. & Kroesen, M., 2014. Mobile customer segmentation based on smartphone measurement. Telematics and Informatics, 31(2), pp. 220-227.
- Piercy, N. F. & Morgan, N. A., 1994. The marketing planning process: behavioral problems compared to analytical techniques in explaining marketing plan credibility. Journal of Business Research, 29(3), pp. 167-178.
