Why so Serious, Boys?

Shift in Positioning Strategy for Blackberry

Sorry Boys! That is all what Blackberry has to say now as they completely changed their positioning strategy, a process which started two years back. It all started with a unique and catchy television commercial in the year 2010, where the company only focused on displaying how the black suited-booted business executives sang a song chanting “We are the Blackberry Boys” and yet in the ad itself it was visible that the young troops with their multicolored tees and jeans and funky hair styles and prominent tattoos are texting and chatting through the Blackberry Messenger and the other communication based applications.

 

The shift was so distinctly visible that even a layman with no knowledge of marketing was able to tell what Blackberry there was trying to do. They wanted their brand image to change from a sophisticated and serious figure to a more cool and up-to-date representation. This was certainly easier said than done. When initially Blackberry introduced their product, they conducted a market need based analysis and targeted a segment mainly comprising of the high-end business class consumers. That means, the individuals who owns a Mercedes or a BMW and goes on a long vacation to Hawaii to seek a temporary refuge from all the work pressure, where the ones who were supposed to buy Blackberry. The application software and the product designs were actually aimed at resolving the regular need of communication by the business class or the executive consumers (who represents the black suited-booted individuals in the television commercial). But all of a sudden, Blackberry realized three things. Firstly they saw, how Nokias, LGs and Samsungs are making huge money by targeting the younger consumer segments. The second thing that they noticed was that, these young consumers are more heavy users of the communicative applications which Blackberry has in their product. They chat, text, tweet and logon to Facebook, more actively and rapidly than the executive class consumers who rather use these applications only when seriously needed. Blackberry realized that they need to remove this so called “Seriousness” and come out of the market niche in order to make serious profit on their part. The third thing that they noticed is that, with the advent of globalization and larger multinational companies are providing more jobs in the emerging markets, and by virtue of that, the young consumer base now possesses some spending capacity, a fact which cannot be neglected.

 

 

But, for an already established “serious brand” as they were previously it took much more than a catchy and unique television commercial to convince the young active users, to purchase a Blackberry. There were two things the company did. Firstly they altered the product design and made the product available in various colors and application packages. Secondly, and most importantly, they reduced the price tags of the products to make them more attractive to the new target segment. The already established high brand value of the product, worked wonders in this move. For a young adult in his/her mid-twenties with only two-three years of work experience, owning a Blackberry was something special and it boosted their perceived social status. The brand was already a hit, and thus it started to sell like hot cakes in this new consumer segment. It was indeed an achievement for the young consumers as it somehow broke the taboo for them that the expensive business phones were only for highly successful people, who owns Mercedes and rests in Five Star Hotels. Somehow, by owning a Blackberry, these new young consumers got the feeling of holding a piece of the “moon” which they so much desire. It was like, getting some tiny-winy piece of the social status that they wanted to achieve at that moment only. Thus the shift resulted in a win-win situation for both the company and its consumers.

 

Now, its 2012 and there is another television commercial gaining prominence. In here also the same suited-booted business class executives are singing to the same tune, but the tagline has changed. Now it says “They are the Blackberry Boys”. The sarcastic appeal of the initial ad in 2010 was missing as apparently the shift has changed and now indeed, the young consumers are the new Blackberry boys or girls for that matter. The change is so much eminent and well established that, Blackberry cannot just be associated with the brands like Mercedes, BMWs anymore, but rather it is now much closer to the brands like Fastrack, KFC and Pepsi for that matter. The seriousness is gone, and Blackberry did it, by not changing the brand but by changing the appeal which surrounded the brand for years.

 

 

 

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