CURRENT DILEMMA

BLACKBERRY

The company that used to be a juggernaut of smartphones is now undertaking a journey of transformation of business and brand. It has a new name,
a new operating system and a spanking new range of phones. Is that enough to reclaim its lost territory?

Can BlackBerry do what RIM couldnt?

T

he year 2013 can be called the year of reincarnation for

BlackBerry. First, the company, Research In Motion
(RIM), was rebranded as BlackBerry the name which
is known, discussed and recognised by mobile users. Second,
it launched its most talked about operating system, BlackBerry
10, though it took more than a year to develop the software.
Finally, it released a smartphone, BlackBerry Z10, powered by
its latest operating system and heavy-duty hardware for
~43,499. One question, however, remains: will the launch of the
new operating system and smartphones revive BlackBerrys fortune?
There is hope that the new avatar of
BlackBerry might click with Indian
consumers where it ranks third after
Samsung Electronics and Nokia in
terms of smartphone market share.
While launching the BlackBerry
Z10, the company has made it clear
that right now it will bring high-end
smartphones only. This strategy can
turn out to be both good and bad.
Good, because BlackBerry is sending
out a message that its smartphones
are premium products and are
meant for people who want to have
a classy smartphone that has the
goodness of the BlackBerry ecosysSANDEEP BUDKI
tem. It could turn out to be a bad
EDITORIAL HEAD,
move because BlackBerry has
THE MOBILE INDIAN
ignored the entry- and mid-level segments, which have the maximum
traction in India. Interestingly, the
company, in the past, has targeted
this segment.
Last year, for instance, it had launched an affordable
phone, BlackBerry Curve 9220, for under ~10,000, which was
liked by the youth. Almost all the players in the smartphone
market are offering devices in all the segments entry, mid
and top because India is a price sensitive market. Research
by The Mobile Indian shows smartphone users in India spend
roughly ~12,000 on such devices. So, the price tag of ~40,000plus can be considered steep. Sunil Dutt, managing director,
BlackBerry India, did mention to me at the launch of

BlackBerry Z10 that the company plans to launch mid-level

devices but didnt share a concrete road map.
BlackBerry must be complimented for the outstanding
work it has done to make BlackBerry 10 lively and refreshing.
The new operating system offers the right blend for using the
smartphone in a corporate and personal environment.
BlackBerry OS 10 has been developed from scratch using the
good elements of the BlackBerry OS and real-time Linux kernel based QNX operating system. The new user interface
emphasises quite heavily on gestures, the latest trend.
Lets say that the BlackBerry software team has included
all the possible features expected in a modern mobile operating system. However, the paucity of smartphones that support
BlackBerry OS10 in different price brackets might not be helpful in recreating the old magic of BlackBerry. Emailing
even messaging (BBM) is something that BlackBerry takes
pride in and claims that these services differentiate it from other players, but again these services are no more the USP of
BlackBerry as users have explored the email services of other
operating systems Android, iOS and Windows and have
liked them. Moreover, these services on other platforms are
free and security is not that bad either.
Interestingly, for addressing the navigation needs of Indian
consumers, BlackBerry has used maps from MapMyIndia
rather than of Tom Tom (which is its international partner).
This move will definitely impress its users in India. This time
round, BlackBerry is not shying away from competition as it will
make a popular messaging app, WhatsApp, which is a competitor to BBM, available on its latest smartphone in a couple
of weeks. On the messaging front, it seems that BlackBerry
wants to give its users the option to choose one or both, based
to their requirements. The other bottlenecks that BlackBerry
needs to address quickly is its app store, which lacks numbers
in native apps (applications developed specifically for a particular operating system) and improve its music store where the
collection is limited and price tag steep, especially when compared to other music stores for players like Nokia and Apple.
The second life of BlackBerry has just begun and it has
made some right and bold moves. However, till the time it
doesnt expand its smartphone portfolio in different price
brackets, as done by other handset players for Android and
Windows phone 8 operating system based smartphones, it will
be difficult for BlackBerry Boys to graduate to men.

brand is more than a name. It is a set of associations

with products or services that get built up in the mind
of the customer over a period of time. These associations imbue the name with meaning. Strong brands are not
built on great names but on differentiated and relevant brand
experiences that they deliver to all their stakeholders.
Therefore, a name change per se cannot save a brand. Neither
can it shield it from a tarnished image, especially if the product or service fails to live up to customer expectations.
Lets take the recent case of Research in Motion (RIM)
changing its corporate name to BlackBerry, the name of its
once trailblazing mobile devices that have, in recent years, lost
out to Apples iPhone and Samsungs Galaxy series of smartphones. Is the name change going to help the struggling company? Unlikely, unless a superior product experience supports the name change. An inferior BlackBerry product will
translate to an inferior BlackBerry masterbrand and no
amount of marketing support can save that situation.
However, renaming of RIM to BlackBerry makes strategic
sense because it will help create simplicity, efficiency and
internal passion for the organisation. All of these are important
elements of the overall business transformation journey that
the company has embarked on.
Simplicity: Acronym names are a hit or a miss. For IBM
and HP, it works because of the stories behind the names.
But RIM? The corporate name is neither recognised nor understood globally except perhaps in the US and with a select
group of Wall Street analysts. Research In Motion is not a simple name either. Moving to BlackBerry allows the company to
simplify its corporate name and leverage the recognisability
and likeability of the brand across a wider audience, including
employees and investors. BlackBerry is not the first company
to have elevated its product brand. Other well-known examples include Sara Lee, Hanes, FedEx, Colgate Palmolive and
Danone. All of them leveraged successful product brand
names to create strong corporate identities.
Efficiency: BlackBerry has now moved from a house of
brands to a branded house. It will no longer launch subbrands like Bold, Curve, Torch and Playbook. All future products will have alpha-numeric names like the BlackBerry Z10.
This approach allows all resources to be dedicated to the building of just one master brand BlackBerry. It helps to create
focus on brand-building and marketing efforts, and is cer-

tainly less expensive than supporting multiple sub-brands.

Carly Fiona, former CEO of HP, famously got rid of hundreds
of sub-brands and put all the focus on the HP master brand
(before the Compaq acquisition).
Internal passion: For BlackBerrys turnaround efforts to
be successful, it must inspire and motivate its employees to
deliver the promise of the brand. In this regard, it is more fun
to say,I work for BlackBerry than
I work for RIM. This name change
might just create a lot more passion and pride for the company
among its employees.
Success rides on product
launches. What is amply clear is
that it will take much more than
the name change for the company
to revive its fortunes. Currently, it
looks like the recent product
launch is going to either make or
break BlackBerry as a company.
The BlackBerry Z10 smartphone
must strongly connect with consumers in the fiercely competitive
consumer technology market. It
should provide loyal users a comLULU RAGHAVAN
pelling reason to stay with
BlackBerry and non-users a com- MANAGING DIRECTOR,
pelling reason to switch from an LANDOR ASSOCIATES,
INDIA
Apple, Samsung or HTC device.
The Blackberry Z10 will need to
become the new reflection of everything that Blackberry
stands for as Lumia has done for Nokia to drive a re-appraisal
of a brand that has lost its leadership credentials but may yet
turn things around.
With the name change, what the company has done is to
boldly bet its fortunes on its product line-up. It is definitely
risky to put all its eggs in one basket by moving to a branded
house, but is there any other way out for BlackBerry? If the
BlackBerry Z10 and future products can manage that difficult
task of connecting with consumers, the name change will
clearly be successful. When the BlackBerry range becomes a
desirable device, there will be increased awareness and a halo
effect on the entire company.