Brand analysis of blackberry

Although released in 1999, Research in Motion has worked on developing BlackBerry devices since 1996. The first of these was a 2-way pager, but the company progressed with the advancing technological times and released their Smartphone in 2002. One of the distinguishing features of this new piece of technology was its capability to receive email pushed from the user internet mail box straight to the phone itself. Other notable capabilities of the phone included text messaging, calendar, and general internet access to browse as well as fax online. All of these opportunities for utilization were made easier by the phone full QWERTY keyboards users would not have to work around multi-tap or T9 entry with a regular phone dial pad. From this point, BlackBerry phased out its pagers and focused on their phone market. At first, these phones had a size that matched its bulky capabilities; but as the company evolved further, the phones became easier to handle. Along with a thinner appearance, track wheels that initially appeared on the side of the phone for navigation were replaced with trackballs, allowing for smoother and more flexible operation. Even more recently, the company has replaced these trackballs with track pads that function through the user touch. Within the years of the trackball and the current track pad, BlackBerry jumped on board the application trend and began the BlackBerry App Store. Users can access this store online through their phone or computer and download applications for anything from gaming to maps to instant messaging. These applications range in price, but some are offered for free. One of these free applicationsis their own BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), an instant messaging client strictly for Blackberry owners. This program, along with the company quality keyboard, is considered one of theproducts competitive advantages over other smartphones on the market like the Android line or the iPhone. The companys latest upgrade is its step into the world of touch screen phonesaccompanied by its new operating system (BlackBerry OS 6); and although it is not somethingthe company has an overwhelmingly positive reputation in, it shows BlackBerrys dedication tokeeping up with the advancing phone market. As a result of this evolution of capabilities,December 2009 showed there were an estimated 32 million BlackBerry users worldwide. On a more social level, the company name BlackBerry has been nicknamed CrackBerry by itsloyal users. The name explains the phones users addiction to the device by operating and checking it constantly. This is partially due to its instantaneous delivery of various messages including email, instant messages, and text messages that are becoming a larger focus in todays constantly going, fast paced society. Other explanation can come from the fact that the phone can do everything whether it is

guide you to a destination in an unfamiliar town through its GPS capabilities or get users in immediate contact with whoever they need by allowing access to the internet to look up phone numbers. Thus, through their physical and technological evolution, the BlackBerry line of devices designed by RIM established and maintained their position in the smartphone market. Sources: McLaughlin, 2009Research In Motion, 2005Research In Motion,

2010United Business Media-CRN, 2007 Brand Image In the 1990s, Internet was steadily rising in popularity, especially in the latter half of the decade .Along with this increase in internet usage, there was a tendency to obtain and utilize email accounts on a more frequent basis. This became increasingly popular to medium and large business corporations that needed to consistently contact multiple co workers with up to the minute information in their fast paced environment. BlackBerry grasped this concept and integrated itinto its marketing efforts by making it clearlyunderstood through its logo. The logo is plain andsimple, only incorporating two colors-black andred-the latter of which is a power color in thebusiness world. The italicized text communicates the companys forward thinking anddedication to progress along with its consumers on the go lifestyle. Due to the fact that thedevice was the first of its kind to offer wireless email, it was only proper for the company todirectly communicate its advantage to its audience by displaying it underneath the already straightforward logo. At this point in BlackBerrys corporate life, this was all that the company needed to sell the product due to less competition and focus on this emerging market. On the other hand, in order to delve deeper into this market and establish itself as a strong force in theindustry, the company found a need to expand its target market in the changing economy. Source: Landor, 2010 Smartphone Market Expansion: Business Professionals and Young Adults In 2001, BlackBerry collaborated with Landor to re-establish their brand image and repositionthe brand overall beyond its core attraction-wireless email. Even though BlackBerry wasrepositioning, it did not mean that it completely changed. The company continued to identifyitself through the quality of its email reception, but the brand was given more personality. Landor proposed that the company market the qualities that came with this function through descriptiveterms that could also be applied to the general users lifestyle. Terms like real-time, instantaccess, and connectivity were the basis of this personality. The utilization of this vocabularywithin their promotions allowed the company to establish its

own personality and the targetmarket to relate to the target by beginning to see the product as a route to self expressionthrough consumption. In order to establish this connection, the brand needed a lot of work. At this point, the brand hadan extremely plain approach to their marketing; and according to research done by Landor,consumers did not approve of the logo due to thefact it did not make a memorable impact. Thechange began with its logo. In the end, it kept itssimple appearance, but progressed to make moreof an impact. One noticeable is the change intypeface which now presents itself as bold,smooth, italicized, and varied in color withindifferent advertisements. The company maintainsit italicized forward message, but adds anupfront characteristic through its boldness as well as an approachable factor through its color.The final, less obvious aspect of the logo is the symbol at the beginning. Not only does itresemble the physical keyboard on BlackBerry phones, but it hides 2 sets of BB within itscloud. Beyond the products logo, the company had to take a new portion of the market into account asthe 2000s progressed and smartphones had increasing presence within the market. Accordingto Simmons Market Research Bureau Study of Media and Markets 2008, which presentsinformation about various aspects of the Generation Y (ages 18-29) market, between 11% and 12% college consumers and college grads utilized instant messaging or web browsing within 30days of the survey. Although it may not seem like a large percentage of consumers, this portionwas double those who had no college education. It is assumed that those attending college or have graduated from college attain jobs within the previously mentioned medium or largecorporations whom remain within the target market for BlackBerry products. In previous yearsthese numbers are assumed to be less due to the steady rise in the use and advancement of smartphones in society. Taking these factors into account illustrates that BlackBerry had anopportunity to continue tapping into the professional sector of the market. On the other thissector was made up of a younger portion of the market, which meant morphing the brand imageeven more so. This younger market in the mid to late 2000s is known to be constantly texting, instantmessaging, and connected to their social circle along with popular culture. In 2009, thecompany began to recognize this market while simultaneously relating to its older consumers byincorporating U2s 360 Tour for their No Line on the Horizon album. This collaboration included offering the U2 mobile album complete with songs, music videos, and a gallery fromthe album and tour. Due to U2s connection with Generation Y and their consistent positive view by the general public,BlackBerry brought together their entire target market under one campaign. BlackBerry continues to establish this connection to the younger market through the promotion of itssocial network and messaging tools. Currently, the BlackBerry8000 series

and those of a higher standard come with socialnetwork applications like Facebook and Twitter on them to support the desires of this younger market. Advertisements have also transitioned more towards a focus on messaging including BlackBerry Messaging. This establishes BlackBerryas a brand that understands its consumer and the limitations from competing messaging clients (especially in character count). 2007Landor, 2010Vasquez, 2010 Future In 2005, the United States held $5,735.83 million worth of demand for smartphones accountingfor over 25% of the world according to Philip M. Parker of INSEAD. Although the global share of demand has fallen to about 23.7%, the United States has increased its monetary holding to$6,410.69 million of this market in 2010. According to this same report, the market is predictedto grow by another $500 million in the next 5 years. These forecasts show no slowing of themarket, and therefore provide BlackBerry the support to continue to upgrade evolve its image tocompete within the smart phone market. Source: Parker, 2009 Source: BlackBerry,

Performance of Samsung brand

The Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate or chaebol with numerous international affiliated businesses specializing in everything from TVs to cars to insurance. Samsung Electronics is the most well known of these as the worlds largest tech company by sales, overtaking HP in 2009. However, the size of its lesser known divisions may surprise, Samsung Heavy Industries is the worlds second largest shipbuilder and Samsung Everland - Koreas first theme park - is now the fifth most visited in the world. Samsung Life Insurance is also particularly well respected in its field. Founded in 1938, Samsung now has more than 275,000 employees and accounts for about a fifth of South Koreas total exports. With revenue larger than Argentina, Samsung is truly a Korean juggernaut. Samsung have created a strong brand based around innovation and quality. Having successfully taken on Japanese technology giants in the TV market they are now looking to break Apples smart phone and tablet PC dominance.

This looks to be a difficult task, with the technology to challenge there are question marks over whether it has the brand strength to take Apples top spot. Particularly with current litigation between the two tech titans delaying the launch of Samsungs Galaxy S tab in Europe. One way Samsung is looking to make up ground on its competitors is with its London Olympics 2012 sponsorship. After hiring David Beckham as their Brand Ambassador for the games Samsung are expecting double digit brand awareness gains in the UK. Samsung Second to Apples Animosity The two giants of the smart phone and tablet PC industry continue to clash heads with a spate of court cases over copyright infringement being launched by both sides. With both keen to battle in court it seems there will be no quick solution bringing negative publicity to both brands. Apple seems to be winning the technology war, with its iPad and iPhone clearly the market leader. Despite this, Samsungs Galaxy Tab has been released to generally positive reviews some heralding the 7-inch gadget as the best Android tab on the market. However, it will need some extremely convincing marketing to break Apples stronghold. In particular they will need to focus on undoing the damage to its launch after initially being banned from sale in the EU until the Apple-Samsung patent infringement court case was over. Meanwhile, Samsung is also facing stiff competition from below, the Taiwanese HTC and Chinese RIMs cheap labour and high technology are looking to steal Samsungs second spot in the smart phone market.

Brand resonance of Samsung

Samsung has created a strong brand around innovation, cutting edge technology and world class design. True to its brand image, Samsung resorted to a design competition to excite customers and involve the brand's community about its upcoming MP3 range of electronic gadgets. To boost the Samsung brand's hip image amongst the younger crowd, Samsung asked students to offer their concepts for a MP3 design. The idea resonated strongly among the student community to such an extent that Samsung received a whopping 2000 designs for this contest.

Samsung, by resorting to such activities achieves two main benefits. Firstly, it reinforces Samsung's strong connection to the brand community by hooking up youngsters early on to the brand to create brand excitement. Secondly, Samsung reinforces its brand image of always being on the forefront of innovation and design. In a cut-throat market of branded consumer electronics, these innovative marketing methods to involve the brand community offer great leverage to sustain long-term brand equity. The Samsung design contest drives home the point that a strong brand always involves the community in its brand building efforts to strengthen brand equity beyond traditional brand communication and media channels.

Brand imagery of Samsung

While it's easy to look at the overwhelmingly pro-Apple verdict handed down by a San Jose, Calif. jury last month as damaging to Samsung's image, a new survey suggests that's not the case. According to the results of a new survey put out by polling firm YouGov, Samsung has had a big comeback in the past two weeks, and actually managed to surpass Apple in the firm's proprietary "buzz score" rating among both early technology adopters and those in the 18-34 age group. The methodology behind the numbers asks people if they have "heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or by word of mouth," then answer whether it was positive or negative. The firm then turns that score into a number between 100 to -100 (-100 is completely negative, and 100 is completely positive). Points are assigned by "subtracting negative feedback from positive."

Performance of Nokia brand

NOKIA have the most resonance with mine. NOKIA company slogan is connecting with people. They always concern about their potential customer. They always try to provide best services for their customer and they also provide it. For this reason they try to communicate with potential customer. For resonance they build up lots of customer services center, build up brand web page, which is help for customer to collect information about NOKIA company, direct marketing, uses promotion mix for resonance etc.

When my family member or my friends purchase a mobile phone then I suggest firstly purchasing the NOKIA brand. Because I consider myself loyal to NOKIA.I feel NOKIA is the only brand of this product I need. Because this brand is the best brand to solve my needs. The entire attribute is available in this product to solve my needs. NOKIA is the market leader brand, which is capturing the market. This is the brand use by people like me and also I feel a deep connection with others who use this brand.

Competitors Segmentation Demographic by Age:

- Middle Age groups - Teenagers - Executive class Behavioral Segmentation Technological Segmentation

To reach the customer NOKIA has adopted the following strategies: IT focuses more on the real margin which comes from mid-to-high-end segments Nokia Priority Dealers Nokia Concept Store Market making & category creation in small towns Nokia VAN Operations Widest Care Network 18 X 7 Access to Nokia Care line

Strategies of Nokia
Brand Ambassador: Shahrukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra Promotes its executive phones in the name of E-Series to compete with Blackberry Promotes its multimedia phones under the brand of N-Series Also captures the low-end market with cheap phones with less features but high durability Nokia was the first one to provide Nokia Maps application embedded with the GPS services Provides the latest software updates and access to Nokia music store Collaborated with Ovi.com to provide online content automatically to Nokia mobiles through Nokia Ovi Suite Nokia was the first mobile equipment provider to launch its phones with OS in different Indian languages. Collaborated with Kolkata Knight Riders to increase its visibility in IPL 2 Nokia collaborated with Microsoft to enable MS Office to run on Nokia phones.

Rural Penetration Strategy of Nokia Started Rural Van Project 2 years back which forms a traveling retail and distribution centre. Showcase solutions to demystify the use of mobile technology. It offers support for 9 Indian Languages It has launched Nokia Life Tools which include a range of services based on agriculture ,education etc. This programme will allow the purchasers to pay in installments. Particularly they are targeting women gender. Tie ups with various organizations like MSAMB, Reuters Market Light, Madison Research and various NGOs.

Strategies

Nokias strategy is to build trusted consumer relationships by offering compelling and valued consumer solutions that combine beautiful devices with context enriched services. - Loyal customer base - Operating the Nokia handsets - Wide variety of handsets - Availability of products in the market - Frequency of releasing new handsets - Expenditure on advertisements