Blackberry Marketing Strategy Assignment Help
The product life cycle is an important concept in marketing. It describes the stages of the product such as
introduction, growth, maturity and decline through which product is introduced and removed from the market. It is not necessary that all products face all stages (Saaksvuori & Immonen, 2008). For this marketing case study assignment help, Blackberry products of Research in Motion were selected that is facing declining stage. Along with this, current target market demographics, reasons of declining popularity including social, demographic and ethnic markets and economic, technological, political, legal and competitive factors will be discussed. In addition of this assignment help, some recommendations will be recommended to marketers of Suzuki to address the declining appeal to consumers. Apart from this, a new country will be searched for this product and product segmentation and positioning strategies of the product in new country will be also discussed in this paper.
Current target market demographics Research In Motion (RIM) is a global leader in wireless innovation. It revolutionized the mobile industry with the introduction of the BlackBerry solution in 1999. In present, BlackBerry products and services are used by millions of customers around the world to stay connected to the people (Blackberry smartphones, 2012). Its current target market is business persons and they were not priced or developed for the everyday cellular user. Blackberry phones are preloaded with the mobile trial version of Microsoft Office and give the ability to edit documents directly on cell phone. Blackberry also targets the business professional with wireless connectivity ability for faster paced Internet connections when the user needs it most. It also made style and function for capturing younger generation (Kotler, 2006). RIM has also launched a new software store called Blackberry App World with hundreds of applications for targeting every people. The rise of Apple and Google in the smart-phone market has caused others to fall, especially to RIM. Along with this, diverse manufacturers such as Taiwan’s HTC, South Korea’s Samsung and Motorola in the U.S created competition for blackberry. In 2011, revenue and sales of the company is increased up to $20 billion and $3.4 billion from $6 billion and $1.3 billion in 2008 (McIntyre, 2012). But in present, its sales are declined and it has accounted 5% of U.S. smart phone sales. According to research group NPD, RIM’s U.S. market share was 44% in 2009, but only 10% in 2011. RIM cannot survive as a standalone operation in the face of these trends.
Reasons of declining RIM has declined its sales in Smartphone market and shrinking market share due to variety of causes such as: Social and demographic factors: The first is lack of innovation that is essential in this industry to compete with competitors and attract customers. Expectations of customers regarding Smartphone are increased and they want phones to meet both professional and personal need (Kotler, 2006). But RIM is unable to fulfill their requirements. So, it becomes unpopular among customers. Technological factors: Apple and Google launched new advance features and applications in Smartphone. At the same time, coding for BlackBerry OS is very hard and it is necessary to optimize the code for each version (Bent, 2011). There are too diverse specs such as screen resolution, form factor, touch screen, and more. Competitive factors: Apple is announcing the new features on iOS5 and Google is announcing the tap and pay system for Android. At the same time, RIM’s lack of an application ecosystem may also be contributing to its declining market share and solution providers speculate (Bent, 2011). As iOS and Android developers continue the rapid introduction of apps into their respective app stores, so, it was the reason of declining its popularity in society. Political and legal factors: There are various countries that have banned Blackberry for security concerns such as Gulf countries, UAE, Kuwait and etc (Plunkett, 2008). Along with this, various countries have banned use of its some applications due to fear of interruptions of their mails. This harms the popularity of RIM at global level.
Recommendations In order to address the product’s declining appeal to consumers, our business assignment help said that there are some recommendations for marketers such as: New innovations and applications: Marketers should launch new applications and upgraded systems in this phone according to needs and requirements of professionals. These new applications and software will help to compete with competitors and attract customers (Burrow & Bosiljevac, 2011). They should work on weaknesses of this product and try to remove them for making easy and fast usable to customers. New modifications: Marketers should implement new modifications and innovations in their products to save it from decline stage. These modifications should be attractive and according to the requirements of customers (Jørgensen & Zaccour, 2004). They can change features, look, applications and usage of this phone by launching wide variety of phones from low range to high range. It will help to attract daily users and professionals. Effective marketing and advertising strategy: Marketers should develop effective marketing and advertising strategies for this product of the company to save it from decline. They should present Blackberry as a new product and should focus on its strengths and new applications in advertising (Belch, 2003). Along with this, they should develop new marketing mix for promoting their product effectively in markets. They should use promotional offers, discounts, after sale service, guaranty and warranty for promoting their product in the market.
Best foreign country for market expansion Indonesia is suitable and best foreign country for RIM to market its Blackberry product. Indonesia is the world’s third most populous democracy and world’s largest archipelagic country. The country has growth rate around 6.1% and 6.4% in 2010 and 2011. The government introduces significant reforms in the financial sector including tax and customs reforms, the use of Treasury bills, and capital market development and supervision (The world Factbook: Indonesia, 2012). Indonesia is the 3rd largest wireless market in Asia, behind China and India in terms of number of subscribers. It is estimated that by end of 2010 Indonesia had 235.8 million wireless subscribers. Along with this, high “SIM” penetration of 97% by 2010 represents unique subscribers’ penetration. It’s 53% of the market is still on 3G and rest are on 2.5 or 3G in terms of data services. It has combination of flattening voice revenue & increasing data-services revenue. Internet or data service is on the rise and the penetration is growing with 17% wireless broadband (Plunkett, 2008). Indonesia has already shown a strong inclination towards Smartphone usage. It is second largest user of Face book after USA that indicates the high demand of Smartphone. So, it is an opportunity for mobile companies to fulfill this gap and accomplish the requirement of customers of Indonesia. At the same time, Indonesia wants from RIM to replace a server in its country, because it has a fear that its e-mails could be intercepted as they pass through RIM’s servers overseas. So, company should replace an individual server in this country for selling their phones and frequently used by customers without any fear (Brown, Hossain & Nguyen, 2004). This country has good and developing telecommunication market that will provide opportunity for RIM to market its products to save from decline.
Segmentation and positioning For launching a product in new market, it is important to identify the correct target market according to features of products. Target market can be selected through segmentation while positioning helps to create an image or identity about the product in the minds of customers. For Blackberry product in Indonesian market, segmentation and positioning are as described by our case study help experts: Segmentation: Market is segmented on the basis of psychographic factors, behavior factors and geographic factors. Along with this, market is segmented according to age, gender, income level, lifestyle, attitude, occupation, marital status and religion. For this product, market is divided on the basis of income level, lifestyle and occupation (Lamb, Hair & McDaniel, 2011). The company will focus on high level and medium income level people, high lifestyle people and professionals for this product. This product is full of applications and latest operating system that is helpful for professionals and other business persons to accomplish their tasks on the phones. Positioning: The Company should position this product in the market as a new operating system that has a wide range of applications available to its users by the time it is unveiled (Nangoy, 2012). Along with this, this product has locally developed applications that help the customers to understand easily and work with it friendly. Additionally, company can position itself as a new level of operating system that is superior to other Smartphone that uses iOS and Android platforms.
Conclusion On the basis of above discussion by marketing assignment help experts of Australia concluded that RIM’s product Blackberry faces decline situation that results declining in sales and market share in US. The main reason for this is lack of innovation in applications according to needs of customers. But, marketers can save declining market share through implementing new innovation and applications, new modifications and effective marketing strategies. At the same time, company can market its product in new market to save declining stage and Indonesia is suitable foreign market for new entry. References Belch, G. E. (2003). Advertising and Promotion, 6/E. New York: Tata McGraw-Hill. Bent, K. (2011). The Decline Of BlackBerry: Where RIM Went Wrong. Retrieved from: http://www.crn.com/news/mobility/232301056/the-decline-of-blackberry-where-rim-went-wrong.htm Blackberry smartphones (2012). Retrieved from: http://www.rim.com/products/blackberry_smartphones.shtml Brown, A., Hossain, M. & Nguyen, D. (2004). Telecommunications Reform In The Asia-Pacific Region. USA: Edward Elgar Publishing. Burrow, J. L. & Bosiljevac, J. (2011). Marketing. USA: Cengage Learning. Jørgensen, S. & Zaccour, G. (2004). Differential Games in Marketing. Germany: Springer. Kotler, P. (2006). Marketing Management (12th Edition). New York, USA: Prentice Hall Pvt. Ltd. Lamb, C. W., Hair, J. F. & McDaniel, C. (2011). Essentials of Marketing. USA: Cengage Learning. McIntyre, D. A. (2012). 10 Brands That Will Disappear in 2013. Retrieved from: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/10-brands-that-will-disappear-in-2013.html?page=all Nangoy, F. (2012). RIM Upbeat That New Operating System Will Expand BlackBerry Market. Retrieved from: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/business/rim-upbeat-that-new-operating-system-will-expand-blackberry-market/546415 Plunkett, J. W. (2008). Plunkett’s Telecommunications Industry Almanac 2009. USA: Plunkett Research, Ltd. Saaksvuori, A. & Immonen, A. (2008). Product Lifecycle Management. Germany: Springer. The world Factbook: Indonesia (2012). Retrieved from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/id.html Avail quality and original business assignment help services from our US,UK and Australia experts. We assure you that you will get complete and according to your assignment requirements.