Strategic Planning And Development Of The Blackberry Smartphone Marketing Essay

Published Date: 23 Mar 2015

1.0 Introduction

As per Forbes.com, Research In Motion (RIM) is a Canadian telecommunication company that is better known as the developer of the Blackberry Smart phone. The company headquarters is located in Waterloo, Canada. RIM was named as the fastest growing company in the world with a growth of 84% even though majority of the countries involved in the company's sales/revenue was going through recession. The major market share of this company is in North America and Europe with Asia growing rapidly.

2.0 The Mission Statement

Mission Statement is a clear statement that defines a company or the main purpose of the organisation.

The current Mission Statement of RIM: Create a digital community to serve the needs of business professionals, giving them the insight they need to maximise the benefits of smartphones. (www.rim.com)

3.0 The Vision

Vision statement is where the company wants to be in the future so that all the attention and energies can be focused on achieving that. (Johnson & Scholes from college notes)

The current Vision statement of RIM: "Is to be recognised as the world's best telecommunication and wireless devices company, by infinite the possibility of the innovation and creation to produce our product and software devices; to ensure and enhance product quality as well as to satisfy our customer's unlimited demand in future. We will provide on-going development towards our product and customer services in order to become the best in terms of customer value, employee talent and predictable growth so that it may achieve competitive advantage in this industry."(www.rim.com)

As per the fiscal year 2011, the company statistics are as follows (Forbes Magazine (www.forbes.com [Accessed on April 23 2011]) ;

Sales:  £12 billion

Growth as compared to the previous year: 84.1%.

4.0 Competitors

Every business has competitors. The major competitors of RIM are the companies that exist in the wireless devices and telecommunication sectors. In the wireless devices sectors there are companies such as Apple, Dell, Palm etc. While in the telecommunication sector its major competitors are Apple, Samsung, Nokia etc. RIM has recently launched the Blackberry Playbook which has competitors like the Apple iPad as well as Samsung Pad.

5.0 Stakeholder

Stakeholders are people and organisations which have a direct or indirect stake in the company/product. They can affect or be affected by the actions of the business. Some of the major stakeholders of RIM are;

5.1 Customers- For any business customers are the most important stakeholder. Because without customers there is no need for any other stakeholder such as employees, investor etc.

5.2 Shareholders- As per the company's official website only 11% of the total shares of the company are held by the owners. So that means majority of the shares are held by individuals, banks and private companies.

This is a breakdown of the shares of RIM (www.rim.com)

Shares held by Insiders/ Owners 11%

Shares held by Institutional owners 66%

Shares held by Individuals 23%

The shareholders are interested in the financial growth of the company as they have invested money into the company.

5.3 Employees/ Management- They are concerned about their job security, pay and job prospects. This includes directors as well. In RIM even the 3rd party application developer is a part of stakeholders.

5.4 Banks/ Investors- Lending money to the business without which expansion or growth is not possible. Since RIM is a growing business it is still looking for investors as seen in the main RIM website. A special section is added to the site for this very purpose.

5.5 Government- Usually deals with taxation. But also in the form of bill/acts passed. It is the government that deals with factors like unemployment that can reduce the cost of labour.

5.6 Suppliers- Are very critical because they obtain the materials so that the finished products can be sold, they are also important because they arrange a payback method that will allow positive cash flow.

6.0 SWOT

6.1 Strength

-The Blackberry brand and reputation. As per finance.yahoo.com RIM is the second biggest smartphone company and among the top 5 cell phone makers in the world. So Brand name is clearly strength.

-Provides products that not only attract consumers but also business professionals, the reason being that it is the only trusted phone for business uses such as conference calls or emails. Blackberry has the best e-mail/device combo offering.

-Launch of Blackberry Playbook which will be a direct competitor to the Apple IPad as well as Samsung pad. Which is allowing the company to grow in other markets as well.

-The features of the smartphone like easy to use keyboard as well as one touch email is one of Blackberry's best known assets.

-The American President Barack Obama's acceptance that he is addicted to the Blackberry Phone was a major marketing advantage.

6.2 Weakness

-RIM has limited R & D compared to Apple or even Microsoft Windows 7 phones, because of this major technical issues have arisen that have made consumers look for other alternatives.

-RIM is not into application development which is hired to third parties. In the market only 5% of applications come from these developers.

- RIM solely depends on operators to sell its smart phones unlike Apple which makes it dependant on them. This can waste time and money when launching new products in the market.

-Is known as a luxury or business class brand. This issue of price is used by a lot of competitors.

6.3 Opportunities

-Prediction of analysts that the smart phone has a market of more than 5 billion by 2012 has them placed in a very comfortable position to take advantage of this scenario as per Forbes website.

-Develop new target markets. That is the younger generation as well as new emerging markets. This can be done by developing new products so that market penetration can take place.

-Create its own wireless network so that it can launch its own product and stops relying on operators.

6.4 Threat

-Due to the emergence of the smartphone market RIM is facing tougher competition than ever before. Announcement of Apple, Microsoft and Google that they would be getting into the business segment which was solely held by RIM.

-Due to its encrypted services, a lot of countries are demanding access to this service due to security issues. If no access is given RIM will be banned. Eg: of such countries are India, UAE etc.

-Source code loss, imitations and software privacy which have strict laws in developed countries are a major problem in developing countries where they cannot be protected.

-Are facing multiple lawsuits in countries all over the world specially infringements of patents.

7.0 Strategies

All the data below have been collated from www.rim.com and forbes.com

1) Major part of their success is its simplicity. Even though the RIM mobile devices have several features it is designed in such a way that it is easy for the consumers to hreatsuse like email and calendaring.

2) The company gives complete emphasis on cost effectiveness rather than spending more for less. A classic example of this is that even though the iPhone is something that is flashier and more expensive than blackberry, the latter is slightly cheaper and can be operated more efficiently.

3) As per recent statistics, the RIM smartphone is going through a declining trend in various markets but is growing rapidly in emerging markets where majority of the focus is. The company has also changed focus from high end products to low end products such as Curve or Tour series.

4) The core competence of RIM is not the applications or email but it is the BlackBerry Messenger or what is commonly known by everyone as BBM. Why is it an advantage, because it is cheaper less complex and easier to use. Does not matter which part of the globe you reside in communication can always take place because of BBM.

5) Attract more entertainment focused consumers instead of relying solely on business segment by increasing its advertising.

6) RIM has ties with more than 70 phone operators and growing around the world offering smartphone products. For every new customer these operators pay a sum of $5 to $10 to RIM for BBM messaging. This has created a solid base for RIM to expand its business for the future.