The Role of Marketing at BlackBerry - Assignment Example

1. In attempting to outline and critically evaluate the role of marketing within the context of the organisation’s overall business as well as its market position, it is imperative to start by giving a brief historical outline of the organisation’s core business and how it relates to other rival competitors in the industry. Basically, information obtained online posits to the effect that the BlackBerry suite of smartphone systems was launched in 1999 by the company Research in Motion (RIM). It was originally founded in 1984 and RIM is at the forefront of design, manufacture and marketing of innovative wireless solutions for the global mobile communications market and it is headquartered in Waterloo, Canada. A clear understanding of marketing as well as market positioning would help identify the distinctive features characterising the organisation’s success story. According to Smith (1999), the UK Chartered Institute of Marketing defines marketing as, “the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.” By virtue of its unique features such as the integrated wireless handheld solution, BlackBerry is able to support a range of activities such as push email, mobile telephony, text messaging, internet faxing, web browsing and additional wireless information services (Moro, T. 2007). As such, by integrating hardware, software and other specific services, the BlackBerry is distinctive in that it provides end-to-end solutions for users seeking access to email, voice, messaging, and both internet and intranet applications which makes it clearly different from other rival competitors in the market. Given that the industry itself is highly competitive with companies such as Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and Apple all competing for the same customers; BlackBerry has sought to establish itself as a force to reckon with in terms of its market position thereby giving itself a competitive edge over other competitors. Basically, positioning is all about how a brand or company is positioned or perceived in the minds of a target group of customers (Smith 1999). Thus, research information obtained online shows that RIM’s strategic positioning of BlackBerry is mainly based around productivity and utility. According to this research which was conducted in 2007 by Ipsos Reid and RIM, “BlackBerry users are on average 60 minutes more productive per day employees compared with those comparable workers that do not use BlackBerry technologies. This equates to over 10 days of downtime recovered annually.” Therefore, personal productivity is regarded as a strong source of BlackBerry’s positioning strategy which makes it quite distinct from other competitors. It can as well be noted that with the use of BlackBerry technology, workflow efficiency goes hand in hand with personal productivity (Moro 2007). The payback period for BlackBerry is approximately 4 weeks and it is possible for those employees who use mobile technology to work on behalf of other workers who might not happen to be at work. Therefore, the strength of the workflow numbers according to this research suggest that companies without an effective wireless solution are seriously undermining their competitiveness which is one major reason why Blackberry has a distinctive market position over other rival competitors in the market. These unique features characterising BlackBerry technology gives it a competitive advantage compared to other competitors who cannot access the software or hardware that is uses for mobile email. In this regard, BlackBerry has sought to establish a clearly distinct marketplace position by way of stressing its position on the need for communication, efficiency, effectiveness and productivity. BlackBerry differentiates itself from rivals in attracting the enterprise users and consumers who are career focused people driven by new as well as user friendly technological features. Apart from handsome features such as improved productivity, BlackBerry’s systems also offer crucial security settings for businesses and at the same time, offering cost savings to users. According to the research that was conducted in 2007, “unlike rival push e-mail offerings, BlackBerry does not require outbound ports to be opened on an enterprise’s firewall to operate and each data packet is compressed and encrypted with unique encryption keys and by compressing data, BlackBerry devices use less bandwidth and so cost less in data calls for the user.” It is also against this background that BlackBerry is often regarded as dominant in this enterprise market segment where all the competitors are seen trailing behind it in terms of technological advancement. It can as well be noted that according to the research that was conducted in 2007, immediacy remains a strong contributor to BlackBerry. In this case, according to the above mentioned report, immediacy refers to the “unique, often one-off gains that can be achieved because of the speed of BlackBerry voice and data awareness.” The immediacy benefits include client acquisition and retention through improved responsiveness and transaction gains due to improved speed of sending as well as receiving data or any other information with the aid of Blackberry devices. It can as well be concluded that BlackBerry is regarded as a major contributor in assisting people in reaping significant financial gains and winning and holding clients as a result of the customised features characterising its devices that make communication effective and efficient at the same time. 2. In an effort to evaluate BlackBerry’s niche strategy, it is equally important to highlight the meaning of the concept of niche markets as a way of gaining a clear understanding of how the strategy is beneficial to the organisation. Basically, niche marketing has its roots based in market segmentation which is defined as, “the process of dividing a total market into market segments of consumers with common needs or characteristics and selecting one or more segments to target with a distinct marketing mix,” Strydom et al (2004:61). On the other hand, organisations often use niche marketing to concentrate on sub groups within the market segments. Thus, “a niche is a small group of the market segment which can be narrowly defined as and identified by dividing a segment into subsegments,” Strydom et al (2004:62). According to the definition given above, segments are fairly large and may attract several competitors; niches are often small and attract normally one or few competitors. As noted in the case of BlackBerry, whilst there are so many rival competitors in the market at large, there is little competition in terms of specific needs of the sub segments such as specialised features in the technological advancements made in communication devices offered by different organisations. By virtue of solving the “two mailbox” problem, the situation in which users required both a wireless mailbox and a business mailbox, the BlackBerry solution needed only “one mailbox” whereby email is retrieved and “pushed” to the wireless connected devices (Moro 2007). However, BlackBerry managed to penetrate a niche market by way of smartphones integrated with software that enables access to a variety of data and communication services which cannot be accessed by users of rival handsets. In this way the organisation managed to identify and fill a void that exists in a niche market which has been overlooked by other rival competitors in the market segment at large which gives it competitive advantage over others. More often than not, the benefits of implementing the niche strategy involve the fact that marketers of organisations that use the strategy are particularly aware of the of the needs of their target market so well that even their customers would be willing to pay premium prices for the services offered since they would be unique in a certain way and full of satisfactory benefits to the consumers targeted. Services offered to a niche market are specifically tailored in such a way that they would be characterised by certain unique features that would have been especially tailored in such a way that they would satisfy the needs of the unique needs of the consumers that are often overlooked by other competitors. It is against this back ground that BlackBerry is dominating the market as a direct result of its ability to satisfy the needs of a niche market. In most cases, niche marketing offers other organisations the opportunity to compete meaningfully by focusing their limited resources in some instances on serving the markets that are often overlooked by other large organisations. It can be seen that in some instances other organisations are primarily concerned with providing what they often view as the basic services or needs which often undermine other small but equally important features of a product or service. One other advantage of niche marketing is that there are likely chances of creating loyal customers in the long run as they would be accustomed to specific features that characterise their product or service which would not be found on other similar products in the market. Niche marketing often involves in depth knowledge about all the specific needs of the consumers though they may be regarded as minor in some instances. Market segmentation at large is primarily concerned with identifying the needs of the segment at large while niche marketing looks specifically at the needs of the sub segments which is why it is advantageous and beneficial to be implemented by any given organisation. 3. Given that that there is no ceiling or any limitations that may hamper technological innovations as well as advancements characterising the communication landscape during the contemporary period, there are certainly quite numerous market opportunities that are possibly available to BlackBerry in the future if properly harnessed. Whilst BlackBerry is seen as taking a leading role in mobile email, it can as well venture into some other business that would try to integrate its current operations with something new such as leisure. The youths in particular are also interested in specific features which may not be available in fairly priced gadgets hence the need to always constantly visit the particular needs of especially targeted market segments. By successfully improvising other gadgets that may also encompass the combined effect of using pictures as well as videos on its devices, it can penetrate new markets which can be of paramount importance as far as growth is concerned. Other players in the market do have devices that can be used to access personal files such as pictures as well as musical folders which can also be used to attract more clients given that the current devices offered by BlackBerry as well as its technology are a bit expensive and beyond the reach of many people given the economic decline currently bedevilling the global economy. Such a move to integrate leisure aspects with its devices would appeal to low or middle income earners or even attract a new set of consumers altogether such as college or even high school students. The youths in particular should not be a forgotten market as they can also contribute immensely to the market growth of the above mentioned organisation. The youths are particularly interested in fancy things hence diversifying into producing something similar to their requirements would ensure future market opportunities. The youths of today are particularly interested in devices where they can enjoy music hence anything in the mould of something that can play music would be greatly attractive especially to this specific target market. A fairly priced device with all the handsome features is likely to appeal to specific crop of consumers and will open new opportunities for market growth. By venturing into something that attempts to retain the scope and focus of business while introducing new features will certainly open up other opportunities for growth. In this case musical devices such as MP3 or MP4 players with unique features integrated with already existing technology would bring a new lease of products already existing in the market and likely to appeal to even more consumers in different niche markets. Other attempts to venture into specific market opportunities such as targeting the youths also involve developing devices that would allow the youths to chat or access other telephony or internet services at a little bit affordable rate. BlackBerry specifically focuses on the people at the work places with its special technology in mobile email but concern should also be given to the youths since they would also be particularly interested in carrying out the academic researches using affordable technology. Leisure users would also need to be given due consideration in this particular case as they would only be intending to get in touch with their loved ones though they would not necessarily be involved in any particular commercial business. There ought to be a distinction between the devices that are meant for business and those meant for leisure and this can open up a big opportunity for Blackberry since it would have ventured into a diversified business entity that would survive even under harsh conditions since any one of the products offered would likely to succeed in the event that any of the products has performed badly in the market. Whilst other rival competitors do not have the push email facility, BlackBerry should further capitalise on this advantage by further entrenching itself as a formidable force to reckon with in terms of mobile email. Whilst there would be need to make it affordable to the majority of existing and potentially new customers, this particular service should be regarded as the cornerstone of BlackBerry’s core business hence the need to be spruced accordingly each time so as to be able to meet the latest demands of global communication technology. Indeed BlackBerry has the competitive advantage of having unique software which ought to be fully utilised as a specific market opportunity. 4. In the event that I am privileged to be the Marketing Director at BlackBerry, I would certainly take quite a number of considerations to reposition the organisation’s offering in an attempt to appeal to students as well as leisure market users. It should be noted and taken into consideration that the targeted consumers are not particularly into commercial business hence they just need mobile communication especially for leisure and to get in contact with their friends. Given such a scenario, the Marketing Director ought to take into consideration the needs of this particular target audience as they would just need something that would keep them happy and occupied at the same time. Students in particular and leisure users would anticipate to get something which would give them pleasure and this would include something they can lively interact with their peers or friends. New technology these days allows people to interact face to face regardless of distance through the aid of web cams or video cameras. Mobile technology especially during the contemporary period is capable of having these features and as a Marketing Director at BlackBerry I would work flat out to try and introduce smart technology which would appeal to both the students and leisure users. The targeted category of users would basically need something that is affordable while at the same time possessing attractive features such as web cams which allow them to interact face to face. Whilst this technology is available through the use of telephone services, mobile email in particular can prove to be very efficient while at the same time saving the costs. Access to the internet is generally cheaper compared to the use of phone hence the need to make this technology accessible using the internet whereby the leisure users can lively interact seeing each other regardless of the distance between them. Leisure users as well as the students would also need to have affordable ports where they can access the internet with relative easy while at the same time paying affordable rates. The internet is regarded as the most viable platform where any information can be accessed hence the need to design devices which have such services at an affordable rate considering that the targeted users would not be benefiting financially where they would engage in transactions that would reap themselves reasonable profits like other workers who are fully employed. Students in particular would immensely benefit from such technology that would allow themselves to get access to information that may be needed in their day to day studies. The current technology used by BlackBerry may prove to be costly since it is designed for commercial purposes hence the need to have something with equally good features that would also be attractive to leisure users who would not be earmarking to reap immediate profit through the use of such technology. One other important aspect would include the effort to try and integrate all the technology into one single entity. Students and leisure users would expect to get something that would also offer entertainment facilities such a music or videos. As the Managing Director, I would try and incorporate something that would have all the features whereby the users can access telephone services, access the internet, music, and photographs as well as videos from one single gadget. In most cases when one is on a long journey, he or she would require the need to use the above mentioned services hence the need to integrate them into one single entity. As the name actually states, leisure users are in actual fact interested in getting something that would keep them going without getting much stress from such things like boredom hence the need to have something that is all encompassing. Over and above, it can be note that BlackBerry is actually taking a lead in global as well as mobile technology by virtue of its improved devices which possess extraordinary features that are not found in any other device offered by rival competitors. However, there is need to look further for possible target markets such as none commercial users like leisure users as well as students by incorporating the features they would expect to get especially from mobile technology. 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