“Our strongest brand ambassadors have been our loyal consumers who have vouched for our products and services. As a brand we continue to deliver to the evolving needs of our customers and have a strong focus on bringing in services and products that add value to their lives. For prosumers who are looking at collaboration and productivity as key imperatives, Blackberry offers many choices, just as we have unique services like BBM that is a rage amongst the urban youth. For us our biggest endorsers continue to be our consumers/ customers. Devices require expert opinions to sway customer sentiment and as a result, we focus more on evangelist led activities here” said Amar Thomas, Country Marketing Manager, BlackBerry, India.
In an interaction with MediAvataar India, Amar talked all about the brand’s foot hold in India along with the innovative ways they are evolving to make the customer bond stronger and earn new users. Here is the complete Q&A……
MediAvataar: I’ve been a proud BlackBerry owner for years now, but I cannot stop to wonder that what made its popularity slip despite of churning good products?
Amar: Blackberry has been an iconic brand that brought in industry defining benchmarks in secure mobility solutions as a pioneer in the smartphone business. BlackBerry has never been a device only company. Unlike other players who have a device centric approach, we are a smartphone (++plus) company. While we offer great devices across segments, we also offer the most robust and secure enterprise software services and solutions.
The BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) has been the cornerstone of secure enterprise communications in the past and continues to be so even now. Our software and services for the enterprise customers include BlackBerry Enterprise services comprising of Enterprise mobility management (EMM) product portfolio, Mobile Device Management (MDM), Mobile Application Management, BlackBerry Balance & Mobile Voice System (MVS) specially designed for the enterprise customers. With more than a decade experience and one of the largest base of MDM customers globally, Gartner recognized BlackBerry as one of the key players on the MDM space, last year.
We have a massive installed base in India where customers continue to swear by its efficacy and security.The BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 (BES10) has seen more than 1000 installations in India which is significant considering that we’ve only launched it in the beginning of 2013. We’ve also seen several new wins in 2014 including Indiabulls, Nishith Desai Associates, ITC and the like and are quite confident that this momentum will continue well into the next year as well.
Further with our new Foxconn partnership, you are likely to see a slew of new generation BB10 devices that will offer consumers a never before opportunity to be a proud owner of a Blackberry device
MediAvataar: Do you think that experiential marketing along with in-store branding is going to gain back the customers for BB?
Amar: Unlike traditional marketing approaches, experiential marketing helps brands reach out to the target audience in a much more focused manner. It ensures the right message reaches the right person resulting in an immediate call-to-action. Experiential marketing is extremely essential for us not only for sales turn around but also to create brand preference and brand recall in the minds of the consumers. These marketing activations help us to engage and drive strong relationships with our primary target audience which is the urban youth, in exciting and innovative ways. It also helps in giving our target groups an experience and feel of the product and not merely provide information about the product. Through experiential marketing activations, we intend to drive large-scale involvement of the target group to familiarize themselves with the offerings.
In a cluttered environment this is a huge leverage that can help brands come closer and engage their consumers leading to brand loyalty.
MediAvataar: How did you come up with the “Be on BlackBerry because I am” campaign?
Amar: Consumers have from time to time been fickle and may easily sway with what they come across in the media. They ape occurrences in the west without applying as much thought on what they might be giving up. One can’t blame consumers alone and the responsibility is as much with brands to educate prospective buyers with what they get and what they give up.
Advertising isn’t only about truth well told but also about not concealing the limitations of an offering the consumer is going to invest his hard earned money on.
Off late BlackBerry had been on the receiving end of this occurrence, however un-phased by this herd mentality the avid BlackBerry users simply refuse to sway by this trend. BlackBerry in parallel has continued to innovate and concentrate on offering its users an un-parallel experience as they continue to improve the BlackBerry 10 platform with constant periodic updates that bolsters a platform that’s only over a year old in the changing and dynamic smartphone industry.
Be On BlackBerry recognizes this power user who is an industry leader, pioneer in his field and a small credit of his success is catalysed by BlackBerry in the form of the “Be On BlackBerry Campaign”
MediAvataar: What are you trying to convey through it and how?
Amar: BlackBerry reaches out to the user who is a diehard BlackBerry Fan. Individuals like Ravi Shastri who are advocating the use of BlackBerry are role models to many a common man and have built their reputation on sheer achievements.
Be on BlackBerry relies on this advocacy rather than paid celebrity associations that often lacks a personal relationship with the brand s/he is endorsing.
BlackBerry values the individuals who stand by it in this campaign and truly understand the personal bond the pioneers and achievers share with the brand. We also reiterate that none of our advocates are paid endorsers of this campaign.
In store customer moments will be a blend of the customers interface with some of our top retailers who have participated in the resurgence of BlackBerry. 350 of our top retailers will meet customers in person at these stores to share their moments with Blackberry or customers are also likely to see in store branding in prominent space within the store with the retailer advising them to,“Be on BlackBerry because I am.
The moment customers see this, they are likely to then ask our trained and courteous in store experts to demonstrate the improved BlackBerry 10 experience after the 10.2.1 OS update, considering this is coming from retailers who also sell other brands for reasons that are truly business but are personally BlackBerry people. And if the demo prompts them to join the growing number of Blackberry people they would have made a choice that the world most responsible leaders, journalists, influencers and regular common man have made.
MediAvataar: How has been the response like?
Amar: The response has been phenomenal. The campaign has further strengthened our bond with our customers who have been loyal to the brand since a decade.
MediAvataar: Are there any mainstream/ATL campaigns to accompany this ground approach?
Amar: There have been print advertisements in magazines (BlackBerry to rectify)
MediAvataar: Tell us more about the various Innovations in activations and BTL promotions.
Amar: BlackBerry has undertaken various BTL activations in the past thereby engaging with the audience.
•BlackBerry had partnered with Malhar – India’s most sought after youth college festival by St. Xaviers College as the main presenter. By associating with Malhar we intended to reach out and engage with youngsters who love technology and want to be connected with their friends, family and larger community, even while on move.
To put things in perspective, both Malhar and BlackBerry have a key attribute in common i.e. they are both cult brands. They also have a common goal i.e. to engage the youth in new, interesting and mentally stimulating ways. This was therefore only natural for us to partner with each other.
The idea was to provide Malhar revellers with a unique experience of BlackBerry Q5 smartphone while engaging them with exciting contests, merchandises and giveaways.
•When BlackBerry announced BBM cross-platform, there were activities planned to drive engagement with the audience. The activation has been designed and executed on radio, digital media, Café Coffee Day and colleges which are the best medium to establish connect within this segment and amplify our brand reach.
Through this campaign, we reached out to almost 40 colleges across Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi for college activations. The college activation involved two games:
PIN Mania – A casino style circuit based machine randomly chose a prize from a set of 4 options when a student downloaded BBM and entered his/her PIN. The winners were awarded with branded swags like sling bags, t-shirts, sippers and key-chains.
PIN 2 WIN: In this game students were required to SMS their BBM pin to 575758 and get a free recharge worth the sum of all numbers in the Pin. For e.g. If the BBM pin is 27CG397B then the consumer would instantly be topped up with the sum of all number in the Pin i.e. 2+7+3+9+7 = Rs.28/- in the above case
Further an intensive 4 week Radio campaign with heavy RJ integration was rolled –out across six cities – The campaign required RJ’s to get listeners to play games, and send a BBM to the RJ to participate. Other integrations included BBM etiquette, RJ se dostikaroge, etc.
Moreover, with our Café Coffee Day affiliation, we targeted 500 cafes across 13 cities in India. Atent card was placed in the outlet inviting consumers to download BBM and SMS their PIN to 575758. The customer was sent a SMS as a reply with a promo code that could be used to claim a free cappuccino at the Café Coffee Day outlet. .
•In addition to the above activities, in store customer experience is an amalgam of customers interface with some of our top retailers in the country. 350 of our top retailers will meet the customers in person to share their moments with BlackBerry. Also there is in –store branding with the retailer himself advising you “Be on BlackBerry because I am”. Customers are therefore, likely to ask our in-store experts to demonstrate the improved BlackBerry 10 experience after the 10.2.1 OS update.
However if you still need time to make a decision on buying a BlackBerry 10 device since you are consumed by the experience but want to consult a few friends or read a review take time to do that, however don’t forget to collect your gift for purely taking a demo and you could be pleasantly surprised by what you can get for just taking a demo
MediAvataar: How do you see the competition in the market?
Amar: Blackberry has a unique business model, on one hand it’s a part of the hyper competitive smartphone/ device market and on the other it offers a robust portfolio of enterprise services and solutions. As a company its uniquely positioned to leverage its expertise across consumer, enterprise and machine to machine segments, building on its messaging, solutions and services stronghold, a robust portfolio of devices and a strong M2M platform with QNX as IoT defines the future.
As you evaluate the company’s position there is no pureplay competition that has a play across all BlackBerry segments.
MediAvataar: What is the current market share of BlackBerry in India?
Amar: We do not share numbers related region or country specific data.
MediAvataar: Would you be having any new brand ambassador soon?
Amar: Our strongest brand ambassadors have been our loyal consumers who have vouched for our products and services. As a brand we continue to deliver to the evolving needs of our customers and have a strong focus on bringing in services and products that add value to their lives. For prosumers who are looking at collaboration and productivity as key imperatives, Blackberry offers many choices, just as we have unique services like BBM that is a rage amongst the urban youth. For us our biggest endorsers continue to be our consumers/ customers. Devices require expert opinions to sway customer sentiment and as a result, we focus more on evangelist led activities here.
