Emirates Aviation College

BlackBerry:
Marketing Planning
to its Edge
The marketing planning process

Utkarsh Ganesh
Contents
COMPANY PROFILE......................................................................................................................................3
MISSION STATEMENT..................................................................................................................................4
CORPORATE OBJECTIVES.............................................................................................................................4
MARKET AUDIT............................................................................................................................................5
External factors........................................................................................................................................5
The Market..........................................................................................................................................5
Competition.........................................................................................................................................5
Extent of diversity................................................................................................................................6
MARKET OVERVIEW....................................................................................................................................6
SWOT ANALYSIS...........................................................................................................................................7
STRENGTHS..............................................................................................................................................8
WEAKNESSES...........................................................................................................................................8
OPPORTUNITIES.......................................................................................................................................9
THREATS................................................................................................................................................10
ASSUMPTIONS...........................................................................................................................................10
MARKETING OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGY..................................................................................................11
FRAGMENTATION..................................................................................................................................11
MARKETING MIX....................................................................................................................................12
THE FOUR Ps......................................................................................................................................12
IX. BUDGET................................................................................................................................................17
Web Marketing......................................................................................................................................17
X. Conclusion and Recommendations.......................................................................................................18
XI. APPENDIX.............................................................................................................................................19
COMPANY PROFILE

Founded in 1989, Research In Motion (RIM) is a leading designer, manufacturer and

marketer of innovative wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications
market. Based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada the company develops integrated
hardware, software and services that support multiple wireless network standards.
Through these services, RIM provides platforms and solutions for seamless access to
time-sensitive information including email, phone, text messaging, online
communication. RIM technology also enables a broad array of third party developers
and manufacturers to enhance their products and services with wireless connectivity to
data.

Today, the company has moved into a new generation of communication, hosting a
variety of features in its latest and most sensational product, the BlackBerry series of
smartphones. While including typical smartphone applications (address book, calendar,
to-do lists, etc., as well as telephone capabilities on newer models), the series is
primarily known for its ability to send and receive Internet e-mail wherever it can access
a mobile network of certain cellular phone carriers. It commands a 20.8% share of
worldwide smartphone sales, being only second to the Symbian-OS based Nokia
series.

Throughout its history, BlackBerry has renewed its core businesses and created
innovative businesses in entirely new areas. BlackBerry's venturing activity has created
independent businesses, contributed to the growth and profit of the core businesses of
BlackBerry, provided financial returns on investments, and has produced intangible
assets and insights.

MISSION STATEMENT
BlackBerry is committed to provide the finest experience of mobile communication
worldwide. Blackberry is the becoming the Middle East’s leading smart phone allowing
people to connect easily across the globe with one another. It is the leading wireless
enterprise solution that allows users to stay connected with secure, wireless access to
email, corporate data, phone, web and organizer features. BlackBerry is a totally
integrated package that includes hardware, software and service, providing a complete
end-to-end solution.

CORPORATE OBJECTIVES
Blackberry’s main corporate objectives include:

 To take over the market share by 20% by the end of the year
 To enable people to get connected always, and everywhere
 To take over the already strong hold of Nokia over the mobile market
 To set up Research In Motion (RIM) in the Middle East
MARKET AUDIT
The marketing audit is said to be a systematic appraisal of all the factors that affect the
commercial performance of a company. Here it is important to note that a company,
especially like RIM which is the parent company of Blackberry, may have several
factors that slightly differ from the traditional pattern of external and internal features
that a conventional company considers for its appraisals.

The factors here are classified into two parts:

External factors
The Market
RIM’s marketing of BlackBerry in the United Arab Emirates is done according to the
same principle as that of any other country where BlackBerry is distributed: through a
selected set of telecom agencies. While the selection of telecom agencies for
distribution is generally limited, due to the special condition in UAE’s telecom industry of
having only two telecom providers, BlackBerry is being distributed through both and the
competition is maintained between the two through announcing of different subscription
packages instead of inducting competing brands to BlackBerry.

The distribution of BlackBerry handsets in the country had also been initially restricted
to special outlets from the two telecom agencies.

Competition
Currently BlackBerry retains a virtual monopoly in the field of offering 3G
communication services in the UAE. However, when it comes to an overall 3G package,
BlackBerry currently faces only one competitor in the form of Apple’s iPhone 3G series
of smart-phones. Though officially this has been considered worthy of a debate,
BlackBerry’s constant introduction of many more types of handsets has shown a more
positive response from the people (kindly refer to appendix for questionnaire) as
compared to Apple’s iPhone. While according to some users iPhone’s aesthetic
offensive has resulted in an increased infatuation for its sleeker application based
services, BlackBerry’s communication 3G services remain nearly unmatched.
Conversely, the BlackBerry has faced a setback when they attempted to achieve
complete dominance of the iPhone in the touchscreen market with the introduction of
the BlackBerry Storm.

This has specifically been achieved through a two-way distribution diversification: one,
focusing on introducing a variety of models both low as well as high end as suited for
different users and two, introducing numerous packages for subscription which enables
greater flexibility for BlackBerry as compared to its American counterpart.

Extent of diversity
The factor that would differentiate BlackBerry from its competitors is its ability to churn
out innovative models out of the same limited set of handsets that it is able to come up
with. For example, the famous Curve series of BlackBerry phones has been able to
come up with the 8300, 8500 and 8900 series of the same handset type, while
promoting and additional key feature in each of these releases.

Despite being unable to churn out as many variety of phone models as that of other
smartphone makers such as Nokia and Sony Ericsson, BlackBerry still continues to
dominate the market in terms of 3G and wireless internet communication providers in
the region, distantly being rivaled only by Apple’s 3G series of iPhone, which is the
alternate 3G wireless countrywide internet-based phone provider.

MARKET OVERVIEW

BLACKBERRY’s strategy positioning is unique. The value added dimension

differentiates BLACKBERRY from its competition. BLACKBERRY offers full customer
assistance. A summary of the competitive situation provided by a manager at another
firm “we can’t do what BLACKBERRY does, and BLACKBERRY doesn’t want to do
what we do.”
Market Share of BlackBerry 1

SWOT ANALYSIS

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES

- Strong presence in the business - Specializes more in

market communication and messaging
- R&D is a key success only
- Excellent services provision - Limited aesthetics
- Wider options of handset - Less dynamicity in terms of
- Versatility services
- Effective and efficient marketing - Less application oriented
strategies - Advanced technology is more
useful to business user

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS

- Increasing number of business - Biggest competitor is iPhone due

users to its user friendliness
- Good per capita income - Nokia is the largest cell phone
- Lack of significant competitors provider in Dubai
for smartphones - Nokia has strong brand
- Brand loyalty appreciation
- Leading-edge radio technology - Several upcoming smartphones
with a combination of features
STRENGTHS
 Strong specific market presence:

o BlackBerry has a strong presence in the business market with RIM

focusing on the business user. This specific focus enables them to
churn out offers that are lucrative for potential customers.

 Excellent R & D:

o Research and development is a key success to RIM. Despite its tunnel

focus on one sort of orientation, constant research and development
enables innovation in the same sector of service specialization.

 Specific service:

o BlackBerry always focuses on excellent communication and mailing

capabilities that enable more mobile services.

 Comparative Diversity:

o Wider options of handsets and features are available as compared to

its competitor(s).

 Versatility brings in flexible options to buy as compared to the uniform.

 Effective and efficient marketing and advertising strategy allowing it to gain

wider market share.

WEAKNESSES

 Limited Service Focus:

o Limited in fields of communication and messaging. This means that

BlackBerry has limited capabilities in terms of multimedia and
 entertainment as compared to other set of smartphones available in the
market and therefore can consider only few smartphones as competitors.

 Limited aesthetics:

o As well known, BlackBerry has the patent QWERTY keypad format with a
wide conventional screen that has been suffering from redundancy since
the very first models. The first variation that came into being as a
differentiation from the regular models is the Storm series.

 Limited versatility:

o Less dynamicity in terms of services due to lack of telecommunications

services in Dubai.

 Less application oriented:

o When it comes to challenging today’s line of smartphones, the BlackBerry

falls far behind in terms of variety of life applications that tend to be the
forte for their main competitor in the region—the iPhone.

OPPORTUNITIES
 Rising business market in UAE:

o There are an increasing number of business people in Dubai making it

easier for Blackberry to find their place in the market.

 Excellent economic conditions:

o Due to good per capita income in Dubai, people other than business users
can afford it too.

 No Competitors:
 o Lack of significant competitors appealing to business users giving
Blackberry an edge over other smart phones.

 Brand imaging possible:

o Brand loyalty, lots of exclusive features such as MS Word, MS Excel etc,

and leading-edge radio technology.

THREATS

 Innovative Competition:
 iPhone is their biggest competitor in Dubai which is more user friendly and
can be used by the general public, rather than just business users.

 Emerging competition:

 Nokia largest cell phone provider. With the constant innovation and
emerging as a technological challenger in the market of cell phones, Nokia
has gained a large amount of customer appreciation and is a significant
threat to BlackBerry.
 With the upcoming of many brands into the world of smartphone and
wireless communication and mailing services, many brands such as the
HTC, Sony Ericsson, Google etc, are rapidly gaining access to the
lucrative and cash-rich Middle Eastern markets.

ASSUMPTIONS
There are a certain set of assumptions that every company has and foresee.
Blackberry’s assumptions are:
 - The introduction of the iPhone 4G will be a major threat for the Blackberry market
because it may take over their market share due to the new technology
enhancements.
- Sales are predicted to grow by 20% in the coming year.
- RIM will most likely be setting up their own office in the UAE soon.

MARKETING OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGY

BlackBerry strategy positioning is unique. The value added dimension differentiates
BlackBerry from its competition, in the sense that the series of handsets provide
more practical services that are applicable as compared to other smartphones.

BlackBerry is created with the idea that it should be catering to every business and
work-oriented need and ensures customer satisfaction. Their main focus revolves
around business and working customers. Thus the presence of extremely brand-
loyal subscribers/customers is explicitly visible. BlackBerry has numerous
researches it conducts to study the market and its customers in order to fulfill its
objectives, in order to fulfill its vision and realizing that in order to be the market
leader you have to be market oriented and understand your consumers.

FRAGMENTATION
Considering the multi-tier market present in today’s economies around the world, RIM
has designed the product with the view of being able to cater to this multi-tier platform of
economies. Considering the situation in the United Arab Emirates, RIM has specifically
taken the effort to launch multiple models of BlackBerry phones with a variety of
different offers from the two telecom companies that deal with the country’s telecom
industry. This sort of fragmentation approach enables BlackBerry to assert its presence
in all strata of communication markets.
Despite initially focusing on the primary business customer market, RIM seems to have
stumbled across another fragment or segment of the market that has especially been
noticed in the United Arab Emirates—the young adults and teenagers who have found
BlackBerry as a method to stay connected all day long.

Therefore, BlackBerry has decided to further utilize this market fragment and divide its
customer class into two.

MARKETING MIX
As with all he products in the market that compete with RIM, the marketing and ultimate
share of BlackBerry mobile phones is a delicate balance between the forces of
marketing mix. Consisting of the 4 Ps, the focus here is on specifically the Curve series
of BlackBerry.

THE FOUR Ps

PRODUCT
The company intends to sell smartphones that follow the latest 3G technology trend of
mobile internet communication around the world. The concept of the product
encompasses cutting edge mobile communication technologies that enable convenient
global communication at some of the most competitive prices. The BlackBerry lineage
of smartphones comprise primarily of the following features:

 Wireless e-mail

This is the main feature that BlackBerry prizes itself in. With constant wireless
connection of the internet, the user is constantly connected to his/her contacts.
Managing e-mails and receiving instant prompt on sending/receiving mails
becomes easier without the need of any dial-up or connecting processes.

 Complete services of a phone

 Instant messaging
 This is also the forte of BlackBerry. With the advantage of constant internet
connection, BlackBerry offers special instant messaging services.

 Multimedia

With the emergence of a high demand for features such as multimedia, BlackBerry line
of smartphones encompass various features such as video recording, better camera,
photography with flash and ability to instantly upload media directly to various social
networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter etc.

BlackBerry Curve 8900 1

PRICE
The pricing policies BlackBerry has adopted are with the consideration of the region in
question.

United Arab Emirates boasts one of the most prosperous and stable economies in the
region, fueled by strong oil export sector and one of the highest per capita earnings
around the world. Coupled with the rapid economic growth and transition of the
country’s economy, this excellent condition of an economy automatically indicates
towards demands for products that are towards luxury goods that is perhaps not so
widely been marketed and sold in other parts of Asia and Pacific. With high per capita
income levels, the demand has seen a sharp rise.
However, keeping the view of the aforementioned points and the possibility of attracting
too much of competitor attention in the near future, the prices of each of BlackBerry’s
models have been setup in such a way that the company is able to retain is revenues
and at the same time, make a deal attractive enough for a prospective customer not to
be able to refuse.

Due to the multiple production models of BlackBerry smartphones, the mention here
would be specifically of BlackBerry Curve model’s 8900 series that is the highest end
product in the Curve family.

The present cost of the BlackBerry is AED 1,899. This reflects the current trend of focus
on “psychological factor” when a potential customer takes a look at the pricing. The ‘99’
method of pricing is believed to play with the buyer’s psyche that he or she would likely
be paying lesser than the rounded amount.

This pricing strategy has been adopted today by almost all the companies that sell
smartphones worldwide including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Apple, Samsung, LG and so
on, and has also the same strategy is being applied to the other categories of
BlackBerry range of smartphones such as the Bold series, Pearl series and the latest
and the high-end Storm series of touchscreen-focused smartphones.
BlackBerry Storm series 1
PROMOTION
In Dubai, Blackberry has managed to gain a strong foothold in the telecommunications
industry due to their various effective and efficient marketing strategies. Blackberry has
gone all the way by advertising on various mediums to promote their product all across
the city.

Some of the mediums they have used include:

- Billboards: these are across the city on the streets and they advertise the various
promotions that Blackberry is offering to its customers. This can be considered to
be one of the most effective means of promotion because it is guaranteed to be
seen by every person walking past the billboards
- Newspapers: this is another effective mode of advertising because in this case
too, there a lot of readers be it any newspaper Khaleej Times, Gulf News, Al
Bayan etc.
- Etisalat: it is one of the main telecommunications providers in UAE and provides
different services for the Blackberry Curve in the market. Some of these services
include the AED185 unlimited internet access, AED139 with unlimited email
access to 10 accounts, 90dhs with limited access of upto 50mb and the 49dhs
only social networks package. This medium was chosen because it was the best
 way to encourage everyone from business users to teenagers to buy the Curve
and getting the package alone with it.
- DU: this is another telecommunications provider in Dubai which provides its own
set of services to DU users in the UAE. On purchase of the Blackberry Curve you
can make avail of the different services provided by du including the 85dhs
unlimited internet access and the 135dhs unlimited access.
- Internet: RIM Middle East has also decided to conduct rapid advertisement
campaigns online through posting advertisements on popular search engines
local to the country such as Google, Yahoo! and Ask.com. BlackBerry has also
gone onto a campaign that would enable to advertise new offers and newer
models of the company’s flagship smartphone in the UAE, namely the Curve
series to its existing users who desire to upgrade their

Depending on the providers used by customers, they can choose which package they
would like to go for. Hence we have ensured that we have made services available to
both the service providers. Some people may be brand loyal to Etisalat due to the fact
that they have been in the market for longer, however others might prefer dU due to
their lower calling costs. According to the choice of the customers, they can choose
which promotion they would like to go for.

PLACE
The advantage that Blackberry enjoys is the various options available to it to market
their product. With the sharp increase in demand ever since the introduction of the
Canada-based telecom giant into the Middle Eastern Dubai has a number of outlets at
where they can sell Blackberry can sell their Curve series, some of which are listed
below:

 Etisalat
 dU
 Cell-u-Com
  Plug-Ins
 Jumbo
 Sharaf DG
 i2
 Jacky’s
 Global Link
 RadioShack
 Telefonika
 Alltronix

We have chosen the above distribution channels after conducting an intensive market
research as to where we can find potential buyers for the Curve. According to our
research, most of the consumers came to these outlets to buy their electronics and it is
located in easily accessible parts of the city, which gave us the extra incentive to market
our products at the above outlets.

IX. BUDGET
Taking the view of the above points and the marketing planning process for BlackBerry
in general, the following is the estimated budget that has gone in the marketing planning
process of the launch of BlackBerry models. The following divisions have been
calculated. Note that these are estimated figures.

Web Marketing

Advertised Sites Q1 (in AED) Q2 (in AED) Q3 (in AED) Q4 (in AED) TOTAL

Google advertisement campaign  15,000  16,000  19,000 20,500 70,500

Yahoo ad program 14,000  17,750 18,000 18,000  67,750

Ask.com program  12,250 12,500 13,000 15,000 52,750

TOTAL Web Marketing 42,250 46,250 50,000 53.500 191,000
Media Advertising

Advertised Sites Q1 (in AED) Q2 (in AED) Q3 (in AED) Q4 (in AED) TOTAL

Television campaign  20,000  20,000  22,000 23,500 70,500

Radio campaign 14,000  14,750 15,000 15,000  67,750

Telecom campaign  10,250 10,500 11,000 12,000 52,750

TOTAL 42,250 46,250 50,000 53.500 191,000

X. Conclusion and Recommendations

BLACKBERRY at present enjoys the position of being a virtually undisputable leader of
one of its kind of a service in the Middle Eastern market. The company has not only
focused on its competitive pricing capabilities and strategy but also diversified its
services by adding innovative schemes that provide a value for purchase for customers
in the market. Strongly focusing on the quality factor, combined with a commitment
to provide the finest mobile wireless communication services has always ensured
BlackBerry being able to make a great thrust into the new markets around the world
and especially the quality and brand conscious consumer pool of the UAE.

In order to retain their supremacy in the near future with the advent of more and
more smartphones as well as the technological advancement of 3G and onwards
services, RIM would need to engage in possible price-wars and yet manage to retain
their quality edge that they have built up through acknowledging customer
requirements, demands and years of careful market study before entering a market.

***
XI. APPENDIX
Note: This questionnaire sample is created with the intentions of knowing only some of
the critical questions’ answers and is not intended for a full customer service review,
which is not the objective of the assignment:

Questionnaire

NAME:

AGE:

BB MODEL:

1) What made you consider BlackBerry over the previous series of cell phones you
have used? :

 Excellent service
 Brand name
 Innovative attraction
 Multimedia capabilities

2) What feature do you specifically prize in your BlackBerry? :

 All day connectivity

 Mailing service
 Attractive applications
 Excellent planner

3) Which telecom service do you think is a better provider of BlackBerry 3G services in

the UAE?
 Etisalat
 Du
  Neither
 Not sure

4) What do you feel regarding BlackBerry’s current market position and iPhone’s
challenge? In the long run which of these two brands would you likely choose? :

 Continue with BlackBerry, (I am brand loyal)

 Consider taking the iPhone for its multirole capabilities
 Not sure

5) Is your BlackBerry service upto your expectations with regards to the different
package options that both Etisalat and Du provide you? :

 There could be more packages available

 I am satisfied
 Abstain

****