Blackberry Q5 Consultation Project - Term Paper Example

Brand Consultation Project I. Executive Summary The prime objective of this paper is to investigate a particular brand, which influences the purchasing behavior of the customers towards purchasing this brand at large. In this present day context, the customers have become quite modernized and seek to obtain quality as well as stylish brands having cheaper price. In this regard, one of the brands of Blackberry i.e. Q5 has been taken into concern. In order to carry out this investigation and make appropriate consultation, a detailed analysis has been made regarding the success of the brand along with its criticisms and also certain appropriate ways for addressing such criticisms have been suggested. It can be apparently noted that the Q5 brand of Blackberry faces intense business market competition due to the presence of big players like Apple and Samsung amid the prime ones. It is worth mentioning that the consumers buy the Q5 brand of Blackberry due to its excellent display and clean user interface (UI) among others. One of the strengths of this brand is recognized as that it belongs to one of the most successful product lines of Blackberry, which attracts the customers at large. However, raising criticisms regarding the product attribute and medium-pricing strategy are certainly the weaknesses of the Q5 brand. Several recommendations have been made in order to make this brand going forward that encompass developing product attributes through investing substantially in R&D segment and most vitally redesigning medium-pricing strategy. II. Background Information and Brand Success After facing criticism regarding the price of Q10 and Z10 models of smartphones, Blackberry Limited introduced another mid-range smartphone model i.e. Q5 for its customers worldwide. In this present day purview wherein the tastes, demands along with the preferences of the people are incessantly changing, the mid-range smartphone model Q5 of Blackberry has raised its sales in the worldwide business market segments due to its cost-effective pricing and most vitally possessing numerous attractive features (IBNLive, 2014). The brand i.e. Blackberry Q5 was launched in the year 2013 keeping in mind the purchasing behavior of the customers. It was generally founded after experiencing criticisms concerning the prices of other two similar kinds of models that entailed Q10 and Z10. It is worth mentioning that the fast as well as the smooth browsing experience, which is offered by the company, is regarded as one of the latest developments of Q5 brand. In addition, the other latest developments of Q5 encompass enhanced social networking along with messaging features, developed mobile computing functionality and marvelous design among others. With regard to determining the latest development of Q5 brand, it has been apparently observed that the brand has been launched with the incorporation of latest technological advancements and powerful functional settings (Blackberry, 2014). Specially mentioning, the direct competitor of Blackberry Q5 is identified to be Apple’s iPhone 5 as it possesses the features similar to Q5 brand. These features include high-resolution camera along with display, processor of dual core, better screen quality and fast support of mobile data among others. Apart from this, the indirect competitors of Q5 brand can be apparently noted as Samsung Galaxy S4 and Nokia Lumia 520 among others. Drawing on various consumer behavior-related issues, it can be affirmed that the consumers buy Blackberry’s Q5 brand frequently through visiting retail stores or purchase the same in online mode. The brand i.e. Q5 possesses certain attractive features that eventually make the customers to buy this brand extensively as compared to others. These features comprise huge storage capacity, better resolution of the images along with videos and a hardware QWERTY keyboard among others. Notably, the medium-ranged pricing of the brand is one of the prime reasons for which the customers purchase Q5 at large in comparison with others (IBNLive, 2014). After reviewing Blackberry’s Q5 brand, it can be stated that the brand needs to live upto the expectations of the customers belonging to this modern day context in terms of providing them with the opportunity of accessing huge figure of online applications and also watching videos at a larger screen. Thus, in this regard, there exist certain conditions based on which the consumers select other brands belonging to diverse categories. These conditions include incapability to perform any sort of activity, which requires greater access towards opening varied online applications and inability in making presentations by the business professionals due to smaller screen among others (Vasile, 2013). The current tactics of Blackberry’s Q5 brand concerning its product attributes have eventually raised the sales of this brand by a considerable extent as compared to others. It has been apparently identified in this regard that the brand possesses certain attributes based on the requirements of the customers that include text messaging, fast web browsing and multi-touch interface among others. Relating to pricing tactic, Blackberry introduced its Q5 brand as a medium priced one, which is quite affordable to huge figure of customers. Identifiably, Q5 brand is available at various retail outlets that are located in major cities or towns and is promoted through various marketing tools such as advertisements, personal selling and sales promotion amid the prime ones (Slideshare Inc., 2014). It can be stated that the above discussed current tactics ultimately leverage the behavioral attitudes of the customers towards purchasing Q5 brand through having a clear and distinguished framing as well as perception of this brand as cost-effective in nature and updated with the current technological trends. These tactics are strongly believed to contribute in making the brand exist sustainably in this competitive setting. III. Criticism of the Brand (Blackberry Q5) Blackberry’s Q5 brand has been introduced in the worldwide business market segments in the year 2013 as a cost-effective one, which has attracted the customers to buy the brand at large. However, several criticisms of Q5 brand have been witnessed particularly concerning its product attributes and pricing strategy among others. Relating to the aspect of product attributes, criticism has been made regarding the keyboard of Q5, which is found to be quiet problematic while typing any text. In this similar context, most of the users strongly believed that the physical keyboard, which was incorporated in other smartphone models such as Blackberry Q10, was quite better as compared to Q5. Thus, the uncomfortable keyboard eventually left the brand to face criticisms, affecting its brand image by a certain extent. Apart from the product attribute regarding uncomfortable keyboard, the users criticized that the Q5 brand possesses small display screen without having the presence of panorama or macro mode, which disappointed them to use this device while capturing special moments in any particular situation (AOL Inc., 2014). By taking into concern the above identified criticisms linked with product attributes, it can be affirmed that the launch of Blackberry’s Q5 brand did not go off to a strongest start. The criticisms made in relation to the product attribute of Q5 brand ultimately reveals that the sluggish operational performance, generic brand design and cost-effective pricing do not appeal the brand to be a quality smartphone in comparison with other related brands like Z10 and Q10. Apart from these product features related issues, criticisms have also been made regarding the slow operational performance of the brand and being much expensive for the provided features as well as applications that it provides to the consumers. It is quite obvious that the users are not able to access various online applications as per their desires and conveniences due to slow operational performance and uncomfortable keyboard, which eventually has resulted in raising criticisms about the product attributes of Q5 brand (AOL Inc., 2014). In terms of the tactic of pricing, it can be apparently recognized that Blackberry’s Q5 brand was launched in the business markets as a medium-priced one after facing criticisms concerning the price of Q10 and Z10 models of smartphones. The company strongly believed that by offering this particular brand at a medium-sized price and modifying or updating certain features of Q10 and Z10 models, it can be able to attract the customers in buying Q5 brand as compared to others by a considerable extent. In relation to the pricing tactic adopted, criticisms have been made showcasing that the price of Q5 brand is not cheap as superior Android based brands such as Sony Xperia SP can be purchased with the similar price. By taking into concern its small display screen and uncomfortable keyboard, the users critiqued that the price of Q5 brand is not cheaper as it should be (Dennis Publishing Limited, 2013). From the above discussion, the brand’s failing strategy in relation to pricing and product attributes can be illustrated, which eventually led towards poor perceptions about the brand quality amid the customers. It is expected that this would eventually impose adverse impact on the sales and the entire performance of the brand at large. IV. Recommendations Based on the above discussion and analysis, it has been quite apparent that Blackberry’s Q5 brand has been loaded with numerous criticisms that eventually made the company to face declined sales of this product. According to the report published by The Globe and Mail Inc. (2014), the performance of Blackberry’s Q5 brand during the years May’ 2010 to May’ 2014 has declined extensively (see Appendix), however, it experienced rise in this similar aspect only during the year 2011. With this concern, certain mutually exclusive changes in strategy by which the brand i.e. Q5 can address most of the critical criticisms have been suggested. In this similar context, one of the changes in the product attribute tactic of Q5 brand might be developing its features. It has been earlier mentioned that the brand does not possess comfortable keyboard and large display screen, due to which it faced numerous criticisms. It would be vital to mention in this similar concern that the development particularly in these product features would ultimately aid in addressing the critical criticism, which is related to the product attribute of the Q5 brand. It is suggested that Blackberry must modify as well as standardize its above discussed product features similar to other brands like Q10 and Z10 through investing substantially in the segment of research and development (R&D). Notably, these models of smartphones belonging to Blackberry i.e. Q10 and Z10 supported Blackberry to enlarge its customer base through offering satisfactory services to the customers in accordance with their respective requirements and preferences. Apart from investing substantially in R&D segment for developing the product attributes of Q5 brand, another exclusive change needs to be inculcated in terms of the pricing strategy. As earlier mentioned, Q5 has been introduced in the market as a medium-priced one, which can be afforded by every level of customers. However, with the changing technologies and the persistence of modernized trends, the preferences and the desires of the customers are also incessantly changing by an increasing rate. Thus, as per the perception of the customers, the brand i.e. Q5 is quite expensive as its product features are not up to the standards of excellence that can be found in other brand categories belonging to varied competitive brands. It has been apparently noted that the medium pricing strategy of the Q5 brand did not prove to be quite effective in influencing the consumers towards buying this particular brand. It is worth mentioning that though the Q5 brand is available at a medium price range to the customers, the product features need to be standardized so that the brand is worth to pay for. On top of making mutually exclusive changes particularly in product attribute and pricing strategy, the brand needs to be designed in such a way so that the criticisms encircled within the Q5 brand can be addressed and mitigated by a certain extent. In this similar context, the probable ways can be measured in terms of possessing the ability to maintain an optimum balance between information technology (IT) and demands of the consumers and improved connectivity towards accessing varied online applications. Thus, based on the above discussion, it can be affirmed that out of the three proposed alternatives, two of those such as developing product attributes and redesigning pricing strategy or charging medium-price with updated product attributes would be recommended to the Q5 brand. These alternatives in the form of strategies would eventually make the brand to attract huge figure of customers, resulting in improved profitability along with aiding it to sustain in this competitive landscape. References AOL Inc. (2014). BlackBerry Q5 review. Retrieved from http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/18/blackberry-q5-review/ Blackberry. (2014). BlackBerry Q5 smartphone launches in Canada. Retrieved from http://press.blackberry.com/press/2013/blackberry-q5-smartphone-launches-in-canada.html Dennis Publishing Limited. (2013). BlackBerry Q5 review. Retrieved from http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/smartphones/1300981/blackberry-q5 IBNLive. (2014). BlackBerry Q5 review: small screen, average camera spoil the party. Retrieved from http://ibnlive.in.com/news/blackberry-q5-review-small-screen-average-camera-spoil-the-party/415510-11.html Slideshare Inc. (2014). Marketing mix. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/parabprathamesh/blackberrymarketing-strategy The Globe and Mail Inc. (2014). BlackBerry takes huge loss as sales collapse. Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/trading-in-blackberry-halted/article14440386/ Vasile, C. (2013). BlackBerry Q5 review – BlackBerry 10 for the masses. Retrieved from http://news.softpedia.com/news/BlackBerry-Q5-Review-BlackBerry-10-for-the-Masses-377166.shtml Appendix 5 Year’s Performance of Blackberry’s Q5 Brand Source: (The Globe and Mail Inc., 2014) Read More