Case Study 1:
Blackberry’s Rise in Brand Power
The Dueling Marketing Strategies of
RIM versus Apple
Course: MKTG 1102
Instructor: Jeff Collier
October 20, 2011
Team Synergy
FMGT 1B
Jason Bhala
Dianyu Yin
Susan Xue
Mathew Savage
Denise Chak
Lakhbir Suddi
Daman Bajwa
Introduction
RIM, one the fastest growing companies in the world, was formed in 1984 in Canada.
It created and developed the famous Blackberry smart phone series that is among
the best selling portable phones today. In the past few years, RIM has made a lot of
improvements on Blackberry cell phones. Every generation of the Blackberry smart
phone has some technology innovations that let it to stay at the top of the game. As
of early 2009, over 14 million people use Blackberry products in over 135 countries.
Due to its fast growing market share, this brand has become a global brand.
However, the Apple iPhone, the biggest competitor for Blackberry, is rapidly
growing in popularity. They both have similar features but Blackberry’s market
share becoming smaller compared to Apple iPhone. In addition, a few other
companies are entering the market, such as Sony, Microsoft, Palm and HP. RIM has
to prepare marketing strategies which will reduce the impact when other
competitors enter into the market.
Problem
Who are the competitors now and potential competitors in the future? What kind of
marketing strategies will increase the market share of Blackberry in such as
competitive market? Moreover, what product strategies will let blackberry phones
to adapt new technology and match the changing consumer preferences at the same
time?
Key Findings
Blackberry by RIM is the world’s second most popular smart phone platform in the
world. Apple iPhone is Blackberry’s biggest competitor in the smart phone industry.
Blackberry’s target market is:
 professionals, executive, industrial who needs the features in the phone for
business use
 younger generation who prefer a small portable computer, music and cell
phone all in one
Assumptions


RIM has enough cash flow to put into investment in technology innovation
RIM has enough funds to do a thorough market research based on consumer
needs
SWOT Analysis
Strengths:
 Blackberry is the world's second most popular smart phone platform,
capturing 21% of worldwide smart phone sales in 2009 (Apple Insider)
 The ability to read e-mail that is received in real-time, anywhere
 RIM’s software is well designed and easy to use
 Blackberry line of smart phones fulfill customer needs and wants
 Provides access to time-sensitive information, including email, phone, short
message service (SMS), and internet-based applications
 Provides users with a wireless extension of their work and personal email
accounts
Weaknesses:
 High cost of ownership – most Blackberry devices range from $400-700
without a contract, and monthly data plans cost approximately $70 per
month (Rogers)
 Blackberry devices are catered more towards business people than general
consumers
Opportunity:
 Great product with advance technology
 Blackberry brand is rising in power
 Brand loyalty
 RIM is expanding their target market by producing new visually appealing
phones with many features that appeal to their existing customer base, as
well as students and teenagers
 Lots of room for expansion in North American as well as international
markets
Threats:
 Increasing competition between Apple and their iPhone, as well as HTC, HP,
Sony Ericsson, and Sony smart phones
 Third parties that make phones similar to the Blackberry and sell at a much
lower price
Competitive Analysis
The communication and music device market is extremely competitive, and new
technologies are consistently being released and added to communication devices.
Users want more than just a cell phone. They are looking for mini computers, GPS
devices, traffic information, email, text messaging and more- all in a pocket sized
phone. The smart phone industry cannot just focus on one aspect or another, they
need to improve all aspects from user interfaces to more efficient technology.

Current Competitors of Blackberry:
o
o
o
o
o
o
Apple - iPhone
HTC - HTC Dream
Motorola - Motorola Q
LG - Triton
Nokia - Nokia E71
Palm - Palm Trio Pro
Nokia is the world’s largest mobile headset manufacture and is very strong and able
to compete with Blackberry. Apple is also able to compete with RIM because if the
iPhones positioning with its other various products.
Apple has a very strong brand relationship and most people who purchase iPhones
have other apple products that they use with it such as Mac laptops and iTunes.
Nokia is a also a strong competitor they have similar handsets with qwerty
keyboards at lower starting price points, Nokia phones run on Symbian, which is
very popular amongst the brand. Blackberry though, has one of the best-designed
phones with the QWERTY keyboard that is great for it’s demographic.
The relative price points of Blackberry products start at the low end at $399.99 for
the Pearl Flip 8220, all the way to $649.99 for the new Blackberry Bold series
phone. The iPhone starts off at $699 for the 16 GB model and $799 for the 32 GB
model. Nokia prices their smart phones at $330 to $549.99 for the Nokia E-71.
Preceding information shows that apple’s new product had over taken RIM’s
products. However, in the Q2 of 2009, it shows that RIM is coming back to slightly
over take the market from Apple. Nokia has the largest presence of all because most
of their phones have been labeled as smart phones but not all of their phones have
the same functionality as either the iPhone or RIM products.
Data provided by Canalys.
Target Market
RIM has a main target market of business-oriented consumers, which use the
Blackberry for such things as wireless emails, word, spreadsheet document viewer
and editor. In the past RIM has not ventured far into the regular consumer market in
the past but they are going into that market with their new consumer based phones
such as the peril and curve, these phones have good cameras, wifi, and even app’s
such as the one iPhone has. The price of RIM phones has dropped greatly due to the
more efficient technology that powers RIM’s data offerings, which in turn has given
Blackberry the opportunity to lower the cost of their phones and in turn grab a
larger market share for the regular consumer market.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Alternative 1:
RIM must come up with a marketing strategy to lessen the effect that competitors
will have on them. The goal is to capture market share and dominance over smart
phones.
An alternative is to increase depth by adding new products within a line. It will help
address changing consumer behavior and increased competition. Blackberry can
add new products with; more applications, added Wi-Fi, and an easy touch screen.
The new product will be more appealing to consumers outside of the Business
world. Expanding the target market of the Blackberry by introducing new products
will boost the sales of their original products.
Advantages:
1. The new product will be more user friendly and easy to use.
2. Tap into the competitors market, who are more impressed with the ease of
use and less with business applications.
3. Getting the Blackberry name out there will increase the popularity of the
brand and help increase the sales of their original products
Disadvantages:
1. Consumers may not respond to the new product because they view the brand
as being more business oriented.
2. Costs for Marketing and Production of new products.
3. Jumping into another venture may lead to profit loss if there is a dominant
product available already (eg. Releasing a music player that will compete
with the iPod).
Alternative 2
In the rapidly evolving cell phone industry, RIM finds itself faced with the difficult
challenge of trying to compete with the Apple Iphone for the cell phone markets.
In the past Blackberries have had the monopoly on the business aspect industry,
most company phones were blackberries and only recently have some started to
switch Apple. If RIM was to either create a new phone with its sole purpose to be
directed at the business market they could expand their product line for the target
market.
Advantages:
1. New phone for specific target market.
2. Phones would be based around the business industry (voice calling,
conference calls, easy e-email reading/writing, easy mass texts, world
features)
3. Could put RIM at the center for business phones again (don't bother with
cosmetic appeal that kids and teens require)
Disadvantages:
1. Other markets might feel neglected if RIM was to roll out a brand new phone
for the business sector.
2. Businesses might be upset that they're already got an entire set of phones for
the employees and only now is this 'business specific' phone being unveiled.
3. The costs of marketing and creating the new phone
Alternative 3
With the purpose of retrieving its market share and taking stable position in the
competitive market, RIM has to figure out some advantageous strategies. One of the
alternatives is doing technology innovation such as adding different functions that
other products do not have. Adding functions that consumers, especially the
younger generation, need both in daily or business lives, will make the Blackberry
unique from other products because technology is the most important and essential
advantage.
Advantages:
1. It’s relatively easier than other strategies to boost market share for
blackberry as long as consumers need those new functions.
2. When the new technology is developed blackberry can capture the market
share at least period of time because competitors have to spend a lot of time
given that they want to come up with similar product.
Disadvantages:
1. Cost of technology innovation is high.
2. Take a lot of time to develop new technology.
Solution:
We believe that while RIM has always been a dominant player in the business
industry market, expansion is essential to continue its steady growth rate. By adding
new products RIM can evolve from the premonition of being ‘all business’ and
become more appealing to consumers outside its current demographic. With these
additional new products and services Rim would be able to compete with Apple’s
share in the smart phone market.
Implementation Plan:
In order to add new products to the Blackberry line that will cater towards business
professionals and general consumers, RIM must:
1. Perform a research based study to find out what specific features consumers
look for when buying a smart phone
2. The research team will then summarize the findings from the study and
provide the top three needs of the consumers
3. Have a product design team develop a prototype for a new product model
that has the new features added that can satisfy the needs of the consumer
4. The technology team can then take over to put all the features into a low-cost
smart phone
5. Have an experimental sale for the new product in select cities and stores
which have a large market mix
6. Make some modifications to the prototype smart phone based on the
feedback from the experimental sale
7. Build the final product that will be ready to be released to a large target
market
8. Launch a full-scale marketing campaign that targets a large variety of
audiences before, during, and after the phone is released
9. Release the final product to general consumers
Plan B:
RIM’s alternative solution would be to keep retaining its dominance over the
business market demographic for their handset sales and services. RIM has been
able to make its impressive dominance in the communication market due to their
high end business communication tools, and services that allow the business
minded user to be share information that is not otherwise able to be transferred on
regular phones. RIM will continue to reign over the business consumer market and
improve its products to attract new business oriented consumers, these features
may include better file compatibility, easier file sharing, or even quicker email
messaging. RIM will introduce new features and improve on older features that that
may have faults or bugs to improve its already great consumer approval standings.
Thus Plan B will allow RIM to save on expensive research and development needed
for new consumer only phones and only research will be needed on is new business
type phones. RIM will continue to advertise itself as a business oriented device that
provides outstanding features and quality not comparable to the consumer phones
of regular users. This will be plan B for RIM to succeed in this very competitive
market.
Course Concepts:
Market Penetration Strategy - For blackberry to have a successful impact on the
non-business demo graph they would have to increase advertising, and have more
promotions where the product is already sold (US, or anywhere else blackberry is
sold)
STP (Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning) - We divided the market into
business orientated and non-business orientated, we then targeted the consumer
market as the demo graph blackberry wants to enter. We will position our product
so that it targets the consumer market, this way blackberry enters a new
demographic. Our marketing objective is to penetrate the consumer market and to
capture the majority of market share for smart phones.
Brand extensions - Blackberry is introducing a more consumer based product with
the same brand name.
Change Product Mix Depth - Increasing depth by introducing more products to the
product line.
Strategic Marketing Planning Process - We identified and analyzed the current
market situation. Blackberry is firmly planted into the business consumer market.
We recognized the threats for Blackberry are; Apple and others such as Nokia. The
opportunity for Blackberry is to try and gain some of its competitor’s market share
by diversifying its product.
Customer Service (macro strategy) - Blackberry is known for its remarkable
customer service. This can make their product more appealing because it’s very user
friendly.
References/Bibliography:
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/08/21/canalys_iphone_outsold_all_wind
ows_mobile_phones_in_q2_2009.html
http://na.blackberry.com/eng/ataglance/blackberry.jsp
http://www.rogers.com/web/Rogers.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=WLRS_Plans&
category=data