Reveal The Strategic Positioning of

Mark XiaoMelissa HidalgoNick WrightWilson Woo

Objectives• Does Blackberry have a distinctive market position?• What are the benefits of a niche strategy?• What Blackberry has done in the past 3 years to

reposition itself in offering and appeal to attract students and leisure market users? To what extent is this strategy viable?

• What specific market opportunities are available for Blackberry going forward?

Background History

• 1984: founded by Canadian company Research in Motion

• 1999: came into the market as a two way pager• 2002: Featured emails, text messaging, web browsing,

voice communications and internet faxing functionality• 2003: first colour model• 2004: first packing wi-fi

http://rim.com

Background History

• Aimed for business people• QWERTY pad and scroll ball for easy access• PTT: push to talk device aka walkie-talkie• Easy connection worldwide• Document viewing software allowing to easily view

and edit all import files.

http://informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2007/02/the_top_five_re.html;j...

Background History

• Does Blackberry have a distinctive market position?

Blackberry is still at the top of the marketsGold Standard for emailing Device management Security lock down “convert downtime into productive time”

http://press.rim.com/release.jsp?id=4696http://www.mobilenewscwp.co.uk/2010/10/re-tales-deal-makers-111010

Market Position:• BlackBerry remains to be the most popular smartphone brand in the corporate

world. In an effort to respond to customer needs, it continues to expand its customer base and diversify, moving from device to network services and widening its product line. It is also opening “BlackBerry App World” – although it is still far behind the iPhone apps store. While all this expansion is a sign of a healthy brand, the latest push from Apple to make inroads in the corporate world continues to put pressure on BlackBerry. It is still the category leader, but it must continue to innovate and push its product line to compete with Apple. Recent conflicts with Middle Eastern governments (although now seemingly resolved) and India regarding concerns over BlackBerry’s data encryption and security concerns may continue to pose challenges for the brand as it expands.

http://www.interbrand.com/en/best-global-brands/best-global-brands-2008/best-global-brands-2010.aspx

Background History

Poter’s 5 - Market Position

Rivalry

Buyer Power

EntrySupplier Power

Substitutes

No power

No power neitherNot strong

Medium influence

The core product and target customer is different from each other, However it is

changing

Porter 1985

PESTLE - Current Situation

• The PESTLE analysis provides an insight in to the factors which will affect the industry which in turn will also affect the companies that operate within the industry (Johnson et al 2008).

• Due to time constrains we choose most relevant 2 factors which are Political and Social

• Political: The fairly friendly political climate helps (businessweek 2010)

• Social: Education, lifestyle, income levels have great impact on the demand patterns (RIM 2009)

SWOT 2006 – RIM’s strategic positionStrengths

• Highly reliable• Functionally Versatility & Uniqueness • Continually delivering award- winning products

Opportunities

• Differentiated offerings for several categories of mobile workers• Extend the range of third-party BlackBerry devices• Market Expansion especially in health and security.

Threats

• Tougher competition

Weaknesses

• Scalability and global coverage• The BlackBerry architecture• High total cost of ownership

S W

TO

Source: OVUM 2007

Advantages of a Niche Strategy

Explain rim’s strategic marketing goals - Nicher to leader

• 1 Generates higher profit margins• 2 Niche strategy could be more suitable (either cost leadership

or differentiation strategy)

However: The danger of being 'stuck in the middle• Fail to achieve the approaches cause your organization gets stuck

in the middle without a competitive advantage

Source: EBSCOhost – “Niche strategy - merging economic and marketing theories”

Famous Users

Instant Messaging on BlackBerry (IM)

• A familiar user interface• Availability status• Contact access and management• Notifications to tell you when you receive a

new message• Emoticons that help you express yourself

BlackBerry App World Launched Apr 2009

• Encourages users to get the most out of their BlackBerry

• Wide range of Apps to suit use in personal life, work life or both

Updated Advertising Campaign

• Move away from business focused advertising• Focus on Leisure, Active & Younger

• Launched major online music campaign • Live & Lost Campaign • The Wanted using just a BlakBerry to get to a gig• Using social media and uniting fans to help• BlackBerry UK Facebook, BlackBerry and artists’

on BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), Flickr, Foursquare, Twitter and YouTube

Targeting the Youth Market

New Media Age understands that almost 80% of its customers are now non-business users.

Launch of BlackBerry Torch

• Targets Business & Non-Business• More Fun• More Edgy

– Social Media– Full Web Access– Touch Screen– BlackBerry Keyboard

http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/blackberry-torch-rollercoasterhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaMUaxHO8GYhttp://vimeo.com/14988032

Introducing the NEW Blackberry

Torch

• New Media Age understands that almost 80% of BlackBerry customers are now non-business users

• Adoption of BlackBerry in the youth segment thanks to the explosion of its BBM instant messaging service

Statistics

Business Market

Student & Leisure Market

What’s next?

Future Market Opportunities

Future Market Opportunities

STP Process:

Segmentation

Targeting

Positioning

Why using it?• Organization gets to know its customers better• Provides guidelines for resource allocation• Helps focus the strategy of the organization (http://www.12manage.com/description_market_segmentation.html)

What is market segmentation?• Division of a market into

different groups of customers with distinctly similar needs and product/service requirement.

Market segmentation in consumer markets (B2C) &

business markets (B2B) are different

B2C• based on Geography, Demography, Psychography & Behaviour B2B • based on Organizational Characteristic (demography, economy & geography) &

Buyer Characteristic (decision making unit, purchasing strategy, relationship type, attitude to risk,choice criteria & purchase situation)

(Baines et al 2009)

Segmentation

Targeting involves the decision of selecting and serving number of different segments and determining the best marketing plan to reach the identified segments

Positioning involves the act of designing the company’s offering and image (physical attributes) so that they occupy a meaningful and distinct competitive position in the target customers’ minds (communication)(Baines et al 2009)

Targeting

Positioning

Target Segment Segmentation Based On

Key Characteristic

Health Sector NHS

Organizational characteristic•demographic (size, industry)•Economy (budget)

Buyer characteristic•Decision making unit

•Reduce operational expenditure without compromising on the quality of professional service

Identified target markets:1) Health Sector

Who? : NHSWhy? : Emergency Budget 2010 announced by Chancellor George Osborne - cut public spending to save

£18bn a year by 2014/15- NHS needs to make £20bn in savings

over the next 4 years and moves to halve management costs are expected to lead to a £1bn-plus redundancy bill

Segmentation & Targeting for B2B

Corresponding Features

Positioning for B2B

“Patient in your

pocket”

What’s Next?

McElvoy, A. (20th October 2010) ‘Osborne pulls off political coup by matching Labour’s 20% cuts’ in Evening Standard

CONTROL CENTRE

PATIENT PROFILE

STAFF

ROOM

MATERIAL

PATIENT

“Patient in your

pocket”

Real time direct access

Sending data to database

instantly with digital pen

Track job, access email

etc.

Emergency solution

Provide more quality time

with each patient & see more patients

in a day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IACIB8GvNsk (accessed 7th November 2010)

Key Functions:

Ability to access & update patient records remotely and in real time

Record data with digital pens, capture images & add digital dictation notes

Reducing mistakes, missed information and the need for unnecessary revisits

Lone-worker functionality (allowing healthcare professionals to trigger an alarm if considered to be at risk)

Utilize GPS to navigate visit locations & to locate emergency personnel

Easy access appointment schedule

Tracking inventory (medical devices, product recalls & expiration dates)

Staff messages & emergency messages in the event of an accident

http://www.mobilenewscwp.co.uk/(accessed 21st October 2010) http://www.telecoms.com/ (accessed 14th October 2010)

Benefits

Portsmouth NHS Trust (case study)

•Cost saving (annual efficiency savings estimated in excess of £220,000 )•Time saving {Halved the amount of time spent by midwives on patient administration (98 minutes to 48 minutes)}•Fully HRG4 compliant (increase financial support from NHS)•Protection against mislaid, damaged or stolen notes•No change to current working practices

Other benefits

•Improve patient satisfaction and boost individual health worker productivity. •Capture and share key patient data•Protect lone workers•Provide more visible healthcare services•Progress healthcare provision more quickly.

http://uk.blackberry.com/(accessed 7th November 2010)

IS THAT ALL?

HOSPITALSAmbulance VisitsProcedural CareResearchEducationWellnessPredictive & Preventative Medicine

HEALTH CENTRESCommunity Out-reachWellnessEase of AccessDirected TreatmentMinor Procedural Visits

HOMEIn-House DiagnosisRemote ConsultationMedication UpdateRoutine Tests ResultsAppointment RemindersHome Physiotherapy Monitoring

TELEMEDICINERemote ConsultationDiagnosisCollaboration

PARTNER INSTITUTIONSSTE AND NATIONAL DATABASESLinked DatabasesDesignDiscovery

TELEMEDICINERemote ConsultationDiagnosisCollaboration

http://uk.blackberry.com/(accessed 7th November 2010)

MORE TO COME!

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES!

With the right marketing strategy

BlackBerry

will always be your Solution

Conclusion

ThankYou

EXTRA INFORMATION

Positioning (student & leisure markets)

Biggest hits on YouTube:

18 millions views in less than 5

days

EXTRA INFORMATION

BlackBerry enlists The Wanted to help reach young usersWed, 27 Oct 2010 | By Charlotte McEleny

BlackBerry has launched a major online campaign with music stars as part of its strategy to promote its products to a younger audience.

The Live & Lost campaign sees artists, including UK hip-hop stars Professor Green and Example and band The Wanted, attempting to get from a secluded area of England to a gig in another part of the country in less than five days, armed with just £20 and their BlackBerry with which to ask for help from fans.

The artists will utilise social media channels to contact fans, who can help either by offering food, shelter or transport in return for private gigs at their houses or schools.

The content from the campaign and information will be aggregated on the BlackBerry UK Facebook page, pulling in information from the BlackBerry and artists’ pages on BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), Flickr, Foursquare, Twitter and YouTube.

The campaign aligns with BlackBerry’s continued focus on a younger demographic. Its customer base is increasingly turning from being business led to consumer led. new media age understands that almost 80% of its customers are now non-business users.

It’s also seeing a huge adoption of BlackBerry in the youth segment thanks in part to the explosion of its BBM instant messaging service.

Gavin Byrne, an analyst at Informa, said, “BlackBerry’s strategy has been to focus more on the consumer, which it has needed to in order to increase its reach.”

Last year, BlackBerry launched a smaller-scale version of the campaign using the artist Frankmusik and his MySpace page. Due to the success of that, the mobile brand decided to widen the campaign to three artists and more sites to extend its reach and appeal.

The three artists are all promoting the campaign with teaser content. Example will be the first to be dropped into a remote area in Snowdonia this week.

This story first appeared on newmediaage.co.uk

Positioning

EXTRA INFORMATION

Current position:

http://www.superbrands.uk.com/businessresults

• BlackBerry remains to be the most popular smartphone brand in the corporate world. In an effort to respond to customer needs, it continues to expand its customer base and diversify, moving from device to network services and widening its product line. It is also opening “BlackBerry App World” – although it is still far behind the iPhone apps store. While all this expansion is a sign of a healthy brand, the latest push from Apple to make inroads in the corporate world continues to put pressure on BlackBerry. It is still the category leader, but it must continue to innovate and push its product line to compete with Apple. Recent conflicts with Middle Eastern governments (although now seemingly resolved) and India regarding concerns over BlackBerry’s data encryption and security concerns may continue to pose challenges for the brand as it expands.

• http://www.interbrand.com/en/best-global-brands/best-global-brands-2008/best-global-brands-2010.aspx

• Smartphones continue to have a higher proportion of males and a younger age of buyers (under 35), Apple are the brand that most closely resemble this profile

• Telephone sales have seen quite a big boost over the latest 12 w/e period,

with share of the market up to 16.7% compared to 13.8% for Q1. Sales in stores have suffered as a result, and are down from 52.6% to 48.7%.

• Physical stores still remain the number one channel for the purchasing of Smartphones and have actually picked up slightly from Q1 (+2.2ppts). The internet has declined in importance as a Smartphone retail channel over the same time period, from 29.8% to 25.1%.

• BlackBerry Smartphones are still much more likely to be sold over the telephone (36.8%) compared to the market average (24.2%), Apple iPhones are still reliant on sales through physical shops (61.9%) compared to the market average of 41.9%

Customer Insights EMEA Customer Insights EMEA

Retail profile of sales volumes (%) – 52 w/e 17th May 2009

25.8%

54.7%

2.3%

13.2%

Over the Internet

Over thetelephone

In a shop

Mail order

Other

4%

Shops still account for the majority of sales (although many consumerswill research online prior to purchase)

This is the monthly report from TNS for the Consumer segment (Contract and Prepay).

There are significant variances between Contract and Prepay: manufacturer / channel / carrier profiles, as well as significant variances across Prepay price bands

Nokia are still the largest manufacturer, at 25.3%. LG are the only other manufacturer to be showing any significant growth (up 1.7ppts to 11%).

BlackBerry have an 17.6% share of the Smartphone market which is a slight fall from last period (-2.1pts).

Future Market Opportunities

• RIM BlackBerry seen as preferred smart phone of choice for business due to its secure e-mail server

• sales of smart phones will grow by 27%, to 177m units (2009)

• Competition is increasing with more smart phone entrants

• Standard Chartered Bank adopts iPhone as smart phone across the business

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCrRHGubYDM

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaMUaxHO8GY

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXu8MO7JkvA

• http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/blackberry-torch-rollercoaster

• http://vimeo.com/14988032

EXTRA INFORMATIONIn Professional Service, did you know:• There are 21 million professional services workers in

Western Europe and 4.4 million professional services firm (IDC)

• £84bn total turnover for the UK professional service sector (Annual Business Enquity, Office of National Statistics)

• The professional service sector employs 11.5% of all UK employees .. Contributes 8% of total UK output.....the largest single share (Professional Services Global Competitiveness Group report, 2009)

Challenges:• 24% professional service firms which expect sales to fall

(IDC 2009)• 24% professional service firms which expect sales to rise

(down from 64%) (IDC 2009)• 60% number of finance directors who see fee pressure as a

‘significant risk’ to profitability in 2010 (Law Society Gazette, 2010)

• 6% fall in average fee income of management consultants, as rates drop.......& numbers of consultants grow (The UK Consulting Industry, Management Consultancy Association, 2009)

• # 1 priority for growth? Customer care (IDC 2009)• # 1 reason why firm lose clients? ...Lack of responsiveness

(Altman Weill)• 79% clients who say that poor service would make them

change accounting firm (CPA Trendlines)• 60% accountants who spend more than 10 hours a week

working out of the office (ICAEW)• 10% amount of time a fee earner loses if time isn’t

recorded until the end of the day. $ hrs/week average time lost if it isn’t recorded until the end of the week (Altman Weill)

Some answers:• 91% law firms who have improved their client service &

satisfaction levels through effective mobile working (Ark Group)

• 24 hours improvement in document turn around using mobile dictation..... while saving 40% on mobile costs (Nabarro, 2010)

• 15% Productivity improvement delivered by mobility for IT consultants (Victor Consulting, 2009)

• Saved 1 hour & £1000 per fee earner each week with mobile (Taylorcocks, 2010)

• 53% of smartphone users have won new business by staying “connected” whilst away from the office (ICAEW)

• Only 37% of non smartphone users had done so (ICAEW)

Other opportunities (Professional services)

http://uk.blackberry.com/(accessed 7th November 2010)

EXTRA INFORMATION

• Home office – Police, immigration– Using Organisational characteristic/economic/revenue turnover+profit+budget– Using Customer characteristic/decision making unit (segmentation based on current

economy climate)

• Statistic

• Chancellor George Osborne – Emergency Budget 2010– Cut public spending to save £18bn a year by 2014/15– Police funding down 20%– UK Border Agency funding also cut by 20%

Other opportunity

McElvoy, A. (20th October 2010) ‘Osborne pulls off political coup by matching Labour’s 20% cuts’ in Evening Standard

REFERENCES1. Baines et al 20092. http://www.12manage.com/description_market_seg

mentation.html3. McElvoy, A. (20th October 2010) ‘Osborne pulls off

political coup by matching Labour’s 20% cuts’ in Evening Standard

4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IACIB8GvNsk (accessed 7th November 2010)

5. http://www.mobilenewscwp.co.uk/(accessed 21st October 2010)

6. http://www.telecoms.com/ (accessed 14th October 2010)

7. http://uk.blackberry.com/(accessed 7th November 2010)

8. http://www.superbrands.uk.com/businessresults9. http://www.interbrand.com/en/best-global-brands/best-g

lobal-brands-2008/best-global-brands-2010.aspx10. newmediaage.co.uk11. http://rim.com12. http://informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/200

7/02/the_top_five_re.html;j13. http://press.rim.com/release.jsp?id=4696

14. http://www.mobilenewscwp.co.uk/2010/10/re-tales-deal-makers-111010

15. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-08-02/blackberry-challenges-grow-as-countries-rim-collide.html

16. Porter, M. (1985) Competitive advantage: creating and sustaining superior performance. New York: Free Press.

17. RIM 2009 annual report.18. EBSCOhost – “Niche strategy - merging economic and

marketing theories” 19. Johnson, G., Scholes, K. & Whittington, R., Exploring

Corporate Strategy, 8th ed. London: FT Prentice-Hall, 2008

20. OVUM 2007