It’s a theme that has come up frequently in these Friday BlackBerry musings posts. While RIM might indeed have a killer product in BlackBerry 10, the product itself will not be enough. We’re long past the point where the BlackBerry sold itself. In order to reenter the smartphone competition, RIM will need a combination of killer device and killer marketing tactics. They recently hired a new man for the job, CMO Frank Boulben, and according to a recent New York Times blog post, he has a “secret weapon”: us. The idea, as he put forth in an interview, involves sympathetic BlackBerry users spreading the message to others. RIM is going to engage us with online video and other promotional materials, and we’re supposed to spread the word. As Boulben puts it, they want us to, “in effect, do the marketing through a word-of-mouth approach.” This process will have to begin early for it to be successful. If they plan to launch in February, for example, they might want to start in November or even October. These kinds of campaigns can take a long time to develop, especially when they involve markets as competitive as smartphones. Getting started early will hopefully ignite the BlackBerry fanbase and get them talking about the product well ahead of launch. (And, perhaps, prevent them from switching during the deal-heavy holiday season.) RIM will also have to go beyond online video to engage its fans. Boulben did mention this in his interview, saying that RIM will use device access to help spread the word. Getting pre-market versions into the hands of influential people will play a large role in the marketing, it seems. That is to say, you can bet people like Kevin from CrackBerry will be among the first to have a BlackBerry 10 device. It’s through huge and dedicated communities that RIM can start the word-of-mouth process. (Hey, why not send one to BBGeeks as well? We might not be as big as CrackBerry, but we’re all about dissecting BlackBerry devices and figuring out how to best use them.) Thankfully, the dust has settled a bit after my crisis of faith. Delays can be disheartening, especially when so much rides on a product. RIM does appear to have a plan — or at least they’re developing a plan — to hammer out the most difficult issue with BlackBerry 10: marketing it to new customers. Without that even the most killer product could fall flat.
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This all sounds a bit out of touch to me. Fan loyalty can keep long-since-cool musical acts on the touring circuit or cult actors in a job. But the smartphone market is quite dogmatic and it’s hard to see how BB is going to steal away more than a sliver of business from Android and iOS. Meanwhile they will continue to hemorrhage users who get sucked in by the glitz of the top two players.
“it’s hard to see how BB is going to steal away more than a sliver of business from Android and iOS.”
This is what I’ve been saying for a while now. It’s going to take not only the product, but an otherworldly marketing campaign.
If RIM thinks they are going to get anything from me in the way of fan loyalty to pump the next release anywhere they are sadly mistaken. I was/am a hardcore RIM device user. But I’m not about to look like a fool again pushing their stuff publically. It’s been a disaster, embarassment, bordering on comical for the last 2 years and I for one have had enough. I’m laying low, wait and see, and then I’ll decide if I’m carrying on w/ them. I’ve had the rug pulled out from under me too many times in the last 2 years now. They are going to have to work d*** hard now to keep me as a customer when my contract expires in the spring. If BlackBerry 10 isn’t a freakin’ bombshell OS and device, I’m off to iPhone where the grass probably isn’t greener, but there will be a brigher future.
Wow, they are even more out of touch of reality than I thought. This is terrible.
Anyway, really looking forward to iPhone 5 release.