Marketing Plan Project Paper
Marketing Plan Project Paper
Marketing Plan Project Paper
Blackberry
By Jonathan Demartimprey
Yosselin Gonzalez
Abigail Picar
Tianna Sjosten
Elijah Roe
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I. Executive Summary
A new product had been designed for Blackberry that functions as a cloud based storage
system that enables businesses to mobilize their company. The new product, BlackBerry Insure
Secure or BBIS, comes with the BlackBerry guarantee of security that consumers have come to
trust. BBIS uses two ways to access the data stored by BlackBerry creating additional security.
These two systems are a regular password access and a fingerprint access. This product will be
financial services as well as other large firms. The plan is to sell through traditional avenues like
the BlackBerrys website and personal relationships. This product is scheduled to be released on
January 1, 2018. BBIS was created to give companies peace of mind that their data will be secure
BlackBerry was founded in 1985 by Mike Lazardis and Douglas Fregin. It was first
known as Research In Motion Limited (RIM), an electronics and computer science consulting
company. RIM, as BlackBerry was formally known, was the first wireless data technology
developer in North America that specialized in several wireless products, including point of sale
devices, radio modems, and the first two-way messaging pager. BlackBerry has since branched
out into many other technologies such as mobile phones, and multiple forms of software.
BlackBerry and its subsidiaries and affiliates are committed to offering the best
Today, BlackBerry aims to inspire the success of our millions of customers around
in accordance with the laws and standards of the countries in which they
operate.
sustainable programs and policies at every stage in the life cycle of their
products.
This is BlackBerrys strategy taken out of their financial document: The Company has
been executing a strategy to leverage its strengths in mobility management and security to
refocus its business in the Enterprise Solutions and Services space, while maintaining a presence
in the highly competitive smartphone and devices market. This strategy includes increasing the
Companys product and service offerings through strategic acquisitions and targeted growth in
internal investments. The Companys goal is to maintain its market leadership in the enterprise
mobility Table of Contents 8 segment by continuing to extend the functionality of its enterprise
software infrastructure beyond EMM, to offer the most comprehensive and secure mobile
platform, and on top of this extensive foundation, deliver vertical solutions and endpoint
BlackBerry prides itself on having a mobile-first focus that allows their strengths of
security, reliability, and productivity to shine. Across all businesses, BlackBerry products and
services are widely recognized in the market for productivity and security, and the Company
believes that it delivers the most secure end-to-end mobile enterprise solutions in the market.
With these core strengths, the Companys broad portfolio of products and services is focused on
serving enterprise customers, particularly in regulated industries and select vertical markets,
V. Situation Analysis
A. Internal Environment
BlackBerry has always been seen as a company who aims at business and
corporate levels. Then Apple and Samsung started to evolve with smartphone;
unfortunately, BlackBerry was unable to keep up with the advancements that their
competitors were producing. For a while BlackBerry employees had faith that
they would come out of the decline; however, over time they seem to start to lose
hope. This has reduced their morale and many have moved on from BlackBerry.
Some have been laid off due to a store closing, such as in Halifax
(http://www.ctvnews.com).
Through all the struggles, many still hold on to the hope to revive BlackBerry and
wish for their success. This hope does not come in vain; with a new CEO and
over 100 million users, they may have an uphill battle but there is a possibility
that an innovative and new product could revamp BlackBerry and bring them
B. Competitive Environment
environment includes direct and indirect competitors that compete with the
1. Political/Legal Environment
industry. In terms of the Indian security when trying to get the BlackBerry
into the Indian market, RIM faced a trade barrier: Indian security officials
from 256 bits to 40 bit encryption. In addition to this, China and UAE
(www.witiger.com)
2. Economic Environment
growing, consumers are more willing to spend on a secure and large space
device with the new and improved features. Price sensitive markets like
China and India would have an effect on the fluctuating exchange rates.
3. Social/Cultural Environment
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4. Technology Environment
huge hit. Not only is the technology advancing, but so is the need for
security.
D. SWOT Analysis
VI. Competition
IBM (Direct)
Microsoft (Direct)
Microsoft along with IBM is another top leading computer software company.
Nokia (Indirect)
and network service platforms including services for operators and providers.
Founded in Finland, 1865 by Fredrik Idestam, Leo Mechelin, and Eduard Polon.
Cumulocity (Indirect)
BBIS market segment are companies and business professionals who value
In 2011, 43% of all smartphones were BlackBerry in the Indonesia, and in 2014 it
shifted to 3%. In 2010, 6.1% of all smartphones in U.S. were BlackBerry, but in
BBIS market values superior security, safety, and productivity for all their data
and files. They want a company that cares about the security of their consumers
In using BBIS, the medium business would be able to access their important data
and files remotely through their phone, computer, or tablet; it would only require
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an authorized fingerprint to access the desired files and data. Specifically, the
Awareness will be established through meet and greets with potential clients. The
E. Price sensitivity
BlackBerry customers typically are not price sensitive as they are mostly business
professionals and large firms that value security, functionality, and productivity
and are willing to pay for the security and reliability that BlackBerry products are
known for.
A. Product Strategy
To keep in the theme of security that BlackBerry is known for, we have developed
advantages will be to add a second line of security defense for corporations and
small businesses, keeping their clients information secure. We want to add to the
software and technology that BlackBerry has been developing. With the use of
Therefore, our software will be a database that companies can input all
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information related to their clients with a peace of mind that the information is
secure.
Key benefits: This product would allow the medium business to access their
important data and files remotely through their phone, computer, or tablet. Adding
the fingerprint of the user into the mix will make the information more difficult to
hack and will give the business a peace of mind when implementing a mobile
access.
Quality: A unique software for BlackBerry phones with updates bi-weekly that
will update the look, security, and accessibility for the users. The look will be
changing the code used to identify the thumbprint. The accessibility update will
B. Distribution Strategy
Since BlackBerry does not have any stores, BlackBerry Insure Secure will be sold
online through their website where the consumers can download the software online.
Therefore, BlackBerry will not need to rely on transportation and warehousing. Since the
orders will be downloaded from the website, the order fulfilment process will be direct as
C. Promotion Strategy
BlackBerry will promote BBIS by sending out emails to current customers raising
awareness of this new software; in the email, a link to the website will be attached for the
convenience of the customers. In addition, the website will be updated to where the home
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page will promote BBIS for a certain amount of time. Their Facebook page will also have
The message that we want to get across is that the new software will insure
security of a business database. This software will include the access of multiple users
within the business, in which all files and data can be stored and viewed as needed
without the fear of the information being hacked or compromised. Specifically in the
emails, website, and social media, BlackBerry will emphasize security through a database
by a concise, yet descriptive publication of BBIS. Because we only have one market, the
D. Pricing Strategy
For our pricing strategy we will be selling the software for a flat price per unit to
the companies, then an annual upkeep fee. With the initial purchase, the company will be
given 10 gb of storage for each unit they purchase. The 10 gbs, however, are controlled
by the company and are interchangeable with other units (ex. phone#1 can have 5 gb
while phone #2 will have 15 gb). Whenever the company goes over the limit of storage
they will be able to chose to upgrade their overall storage with our upgrade options of
50 $100 $5,000
50 $25 $1,250
500 gb $1,500
1tb $2,500
2.5tb $5,000
10tb $15,000
Unlimited $20,000
The total budget for this product will be $5,000,000. The marketing research will be kept
under $2,000,000. The advertising budget will be kept under $1,500,000 because the channels to
bring it to the target market is already in existence all that needs to be done is to pay for the extra
time for the employees and the cost of including it into the website. The total cost of
development and testing of this program will be kept under $500,000. The follow up and support
For the first month it is expected to sell 20,000 units at the average price of $85 per unit,
which is a revenue of $1,700,000. The following 11 months it is expected to sell 5,000 units a
month with the average price of $90 per unit which is a revenue of $4,950,000. So the expected
The fixed cost for the production is $500,000. The cost per each unit cost will not cost us
anything extra on top of the fixed cost. In orders of 50 units the break even is 100 orders or 5000
units. In orders of 500 units the break even is about 15 orders or 7500 units.
The product will be announced in October of 2017, at the beginning of the fourth quarter,
but will be released on January 1, 2018 right before the tax year is up and the new accounting
year begins. For the first 3 years there will be a bi-weekly update, which will include server
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updates, new features, and new access coding. With release the servers will be able to handle
100,000 units load. After release they will monitor to see how many more we need and have
enough servers on stand-by to take another 100,000 in case of failure on any of the servers or
excess in purchases. In the chance that our product receives more than 100,000 units sold, we
X. Bibliography
<http://us.blackberry.com>.
BlackBerrys website, accessed on May 14, 2016, has a page available called,
About BlackBerry. The information on this page was useful for the project in
terms of confirming what was found in the article from The Telegraph about
<http://us.blackberry.com>.
This PDF was last accessed on May 14, 2016. This large PDF file, under the
United States Securities and Exchange Commision, is about the annual report
pursuant to section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The
only information in this 138 page file that was relevant to our project were the
information about the products and why they are unique, their financial goals, and
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their competitors. Essentially, this file helped determined more of the financial
competitors.
<http://us.blackberry.com>.
BlackBerrys website page was accessed on May 12, 2016 and was helpful in
understanding their company mission and goals. Unfortunately, they did not
provide their financial goals no this page, but they did present in depth
growth, as the print is larger, bold, and in a purple color compared to the rest of
print but was available online. It was last observed on May 14, 2016. This income
expenses, operating income, net income, earning per share, and the
information was relevant to the project in terms of the section about the company
Marlow, Iain. Lack of Global Knowledge Cost BlackBerry Indonesia. The Globe and
<http://www.theglobalandmail.com>.
was found on the website called The Globe and Mail. It was last observed on May
14, 2016. Marlows article provided information about BlackBerrys market share
sales. This article was relevant to the section section in the paper about the target
market.
Mojave Media Group. "A Brief History of the BlackBerry." Bright Hub. Bright Hub
Bright Hubs article, A Brief History of the BlackBerry, was last edited by Lina
Richter but written by Mojave Media Group. This article was also accessed on
May 12, 2016. In terms of the relevance to the project, this article provided
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article helped answer much of the company description section of this project.
Percentage of U.S. Population that own a Android Smartphone. The Statistics Portal.
last accessed on May 12, 2016. The information on this website was relevant to
the Target Market section in the paper, because it helped provided the percentage
Percentage of U.S. Population that own a BlackBerry smartphone from 2010 to 2014.
<http://www.statista.com>.
2010 to 2014 was last accessed on May 12, 2016. It was relevant to the project in
helped answer the section in the project about the core competencies, target
the website called TechTarget. It was last accessed on May 12, 2016. Rouses
Therefore, the information served as a guide to the section in the paper about
BlackBerrys competition.
2016. <http://www.techtarget.com>.
TechTarget. It was last accessed on May 14, 2016. Rouses article provided
provided historical information about BlackBerry and was accessed on May 14,
2016. The information was useful for the section about the company description.
Specifically, the article revealed BlackBerrys startup team, Mike Lazardis and
Douglas Fregin, and presented what BlackBerry has been known for.
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Struggling. CTV News. The Canadian Press, 14 December 2013. Web. 14 May
2016. <http://www.ctvnews.ca>.
Unemployed Workers Struggling, was found on the website called, CTV News. It
was last accessed on May 14, 2016. The information on this website was helpful
<http://www.witiger.com>.
Environment, was last accessed on May 12, 2016. It provided information for the
PEST analysis of the project. Specifically, it helped explain the political and legal