RIM, maker of BlackBerry, Believes Nothing is Wrong with the Company

Research In Motion wants you to know there is nothing wrong with the company. According to “RIM marketing boss sees silver lining in BlackBerry delay” by Alastair Sharp of Reuters.com, the newly appointed Chief Marketing Officer Frank Boulben and CEO Thorsten Heins are on a media blitz to prove the company will survive their latest bad news. Last month, the company stated their next update, Blackberry 10, is delayed until 2013 and there would be have job cuts and financial losses.

The article reports Heins had a radio appearance in which “he said there was ‘nothing wrong’ with the company”. He “also published an opinion piece in The Globe and Mail newspaper [stating] the new BlackBerrys, which the company insists will be better than anything now on the market…” He also wrote “RIM is a company at the beginning of a transition that we expect will once again change the way people communicate”.

Reuters interviewed Frank Boulben. He is says in the interview: “The short delay is not detrimental if the quality is there when we launch early next year… We will have much more attention and focus and ability to leverage our carriers”. Boulben was just hired last month as CMO after the company went one year without one. The only mention of a marketing strategy by Boulben is that social media will be incorporated “to show the capabilities of BlackBerry 10 and let its millions of still-loyal users spread the word”.

Did it take their release of bad news and subsequent stock drop to encourage a media blitz from the company? RIM has lost confidence due to various issues before the current announcement of the BlackBerry 10 delay. When Heins stepped up as CEO in January, he should have begun his media blitz then, with or without a CMO. When he speaks Heins wants to say “there is nothing wrong” - there is a problem with the company or else there wouldn’t be consistent bad news released.  He states the new phones will be better than current competition – obviously, a product released in 2013 is going to be better than a 2012 product. It makes me think Heins believes his competition will stop producing, as if the 2013 BlackBerry(s) will compete with themselves.  If RIM can’t compete now, why should anyone believe they could compete effectively next year?

Boulben’s strategy is to ensure that when the next products are released they will be of good quality. The problem with that is RIM’s word on time is invalid and Boulben gave no exact details on the quality he’s marketing. Then, he talks about social media and using the current users of BlackBerry to market the next product. But BlackBerry users can't market a product they know nothing about. Can RIM even bet that they will still have the same amount of users next year?

Playing stupid and marketing a non-existent quality is not an effective marketing strategy. RIM can’t say there isn’t a problem - they have to prove that their problems are being solved. The issue for RIM is primarily time.  If RIM wants to talk about quality, they need to release details on the next product coming out and when it will arrive.  Until RIM chooses to critically think about a real marketing strategy, the company should remain silent.