BlackBerry should not try and appeal to the youth demographic by engaging in clichéd youth marketing tactics of discounts, low priced products, celebrity endorsements or fancy jingles. Instead it needs to maintain its status as the aspirational traditional brand of the establishment. In the meantime, it needs to engage in co-creation with its core customer segment – 20+ females in emerging markets and 20+ ethnic females in developed markets – to further innovate BBM and lead the future of mobile messaging.

1. How can BlackBerry lead the future of
mobile messaging and revive its profit
growth
BlackBerry in recent news
In April 2011 Research in Motion (RIM) slashed its profits forecast citing increased competition from
iPhone and Android handsets. Last week RIM announced that it had missed even its lowered
expectations and reduced its profit forecasts. RIM shares closed down by 21.4% on the NASDAQ
exchange in New York.
Jim Balsillie, joint chief executive of RIM blamed the poor performance on delayed product launch.
“The slowdown we saw in the first quarter is continuing into Q2, and delays in new product
introductions into the very late part of August is leading to a lower than expected outlook in
the second quarter."
The company has announced a cost-cutting programme, which will include job cuts.
A concerned shareholder even wrote an open letter to RIM pointing out that the company was
“sitting on $3 billion of cash, no debt, and still wildly profitable with expected annual cash flow of
over $4 billion.” In his opinion RIM ought to invest heavily into R&D, marketing and execution to
catch up to the competitions – Apple and Android.
Analysts were quick to point out that, there are “no short-term fixes to improve RIM’s product
portftolio, brand perception, to reinvigorate share gains, revenue growth and profitability”.

2. Part of RIM’s long-term fix to regain lost market share and boost its profit margins should be a focus
on recommendation marketing. Our cross market study of handset brands and the impact of earned
media on profitability showed that word-of-mouth recommendations are strongly co-related to
profits of handset brands. It also revealed that not every customer is an active brand advocate.
Who is the most active brand advocate that BlackBerry needs to focus on? Is it the same customer
segment across all markets? What are the underlying behavioural drivers of this customer segment?
BlackBerry’s core customer segments
1. Emerging markets
While market share data might show BlackBerry faltering in the US and Western Europe, the story is
much different in emerging markets like Indonesia, South Africa and India.
The BBC’s recent coverage from Indonesia reported: “As the joke in Indonesia goes, if you don't have
the right gadget you may end up a social outcast. Undoubtedly, the gadget of the moment is the
Blackberry smartphone.” There are 3 million BlackBerry users in Indonesia. BlackBerry outsells the
iPhone at a pace of 12-to-1 here. The driving force behind handset sales in Indonesia, as we
identified in the 2011 mobileYouth report, is earned media. The same applies for BlackBerry as well.

3. While everyone from teenagers to parliament members in Indonesia own BlackBerry handsets, not
all of them are actively involved in word-of-mouth. The most vocal advocates of BlackBerry in
emerging markets of India, Indonesia and South Africa have been young female BlackBerry users in
the 22-29 age group. This is BlackBerry’s core customer group. We call them Disruptive Divas.
Emerging economies that have experienced significant social change in the last 10-20 years boast of
disruptive divas joining the workforce in an equal standing with their male counterparts for the first
time in their nation’s history. The rise of female working class had driven these women to seek social
currency among traditional tools of social status to proclaim their arrival into the establishment.
BlackBerry handsets provide this social currency because have traditionally been the mobile phone
of corporate executives and a symbol of arrival. So it is only natural that the divas prefer BlackBerry
to an iPhone or Android handset.
2: Developed markets
In developed markets of the US and Western Europe, BlackBerry once again needs to bank on its
history of being the preferred handset among corporate executives and government bureaucrats.
However, the core customer segment that RIM needs to focus in these markets is 20+ female from
ethnic minority groups.
While the online media in these markets gushes over the iPhone and Android devices, female social
climbers from African American, Hispanic and Asian communities are pursuing BlackBerry handsets
as a traditional symbol of the establishment to mark their arrival.

4. What should BlackBerry do?
BlackBerry already has active fans out there that recommend the product and are loyal to it. While
it’s BlackBerry’s traditional standing as a symbol of the establishment that influences them to prefer
the handset over others, it’s the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) that makes them fall in love with the
device and keeps them loyal to the brand.
Apple’s recent announcement of including the iMessage in iPhones does raise a threat for
BlackBerry. The most fervent BBM users might not abandon BlackBerry. But those who they coaxed
and converted to BlackBerry are more likely to switch. The most effective way to keep customers
from jumping ship is to innovate.
BlackBerry needs to focus on innovating BBM to stay ahead of curve and be the brand that dictates
the future of mobile messaging. BBM was the messaging application that turned BlackBerry into a
global mobile powerhouse. Young people are already starting to move away from SMS and toward
The innovation approach that Blackberry needs to adopt is one of co-creation. This is where the
brand advocates discussed earlier come in. Involving 20+ female BlackBerry users in the innovation
process is the ideal way to guide innovation based on customer needs because they would not only
be willing but would provide the richest customer insight into need gaps.
Summary
BlackBerry should not try and appeal to the youth demographic by engaging in clichéd youth
marketing tactics of discounts, low priced products, celebrity endorsements or fancy jingles. Instead
it needs to maintain its status as the aspirational traditional brand of the establishment. In the
meantime, it needs to engage in co-creation with its core customer segment – 20+ females in
emerging markets and 20+ ethnic females in developed markets – to further innovate BBM and lead
the future of mobile messaging.

5. Contact mobileYouth
To find out more about the mobileYouth 2011 Report and how it can help you please send an email
to josh.dhaliwal@mobileyouth.org
Josh Dhaliwal, Director
http://www.mobileYouth.org
http://www.mobileYouthreport.com
UK: +44 20 3286 3635
North America: +1 646 867 3635
South Africa: + 27 11 08 3635 1
Asia: +852 8176 3650

6. THE MOBILEYOUTH 2013 REPORT
youth marketing insights for handset brands,
content providers and operators
features:
29 reports
400+ pages
data, charts, cases
mobileYouth:
tracking youth & mobile culture since 2001
MOBILEYOUTH
youth marketing mobile culture since 2001

7. THE MOBILEYOUTH 2013 REPORT
http://www.mobileyouth.org
MOBILEYOUTH
youth marketing mobile culture since 2001