RIM wakes up woozy in Australia
Research In Motion's attempts to remind Australians that its phones can be quite useful for business have rebounded on the embattled company. The first salvos in the campaign were fired last week, when journalists (not El Reg, as it happens) were sent black pieces of paper bearing the words “Wake Up”, but without any hint as to …
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Oh good grief....
....who RUNS the Marketing depts of these companies???? And I thought it was mostly the HR goons (goonesses?) who excelled at obfuscatory incompetence. Oh, and the overpaid, overfed Sales grunts. And, now that I mention it, how about most CEOs? (Where's Leo gone, btw? Anyone know?)
Marketing by Arnold J. RIMmer perhaps?
There are three kinds of people who use RIM phones in Austfailia:
1. corporate types who are forced to - it is the only thing on offer by their firms. Suckers.
2. Hipsters. iPhones are too mainstream; "Yeah, like, I've been using my RIM like since like way before the like iphone, like."
3. Nobody else.
4. Bloggers who are paid to make idiots of themselves outside Apple stores. (see 2. above)
Ok, so that's four.
Actually, it was a mistake
The Black Bus was supposed to stop outside RIM HQ.
Does pulling up in a black bus and staging a 'protest' outside the store of a competitor without telling anyone who you are not defeat the object of marketing and... give publicity and attention to said competitor?
I'll help them out, if they're reading this. You need to make a good phone that does not cost too much, is well built and looks nice, does everything we would expect, and does not cut corners with things like missing MicroSD card slots and the like.
Once you have built that phone, the only marketing you need to engage in is the type that shows us (on television, the internet and at bus stops, etc) how great the phone is and what we can do with it. No stunts, nothing stupid... Go!
"You need to make a good phone that does not cost too much, is well built and looks nice, does everything we would expect, and does not cut corners with things like missing MicroSD card slots and the like"
Apple might take issue with much of that. Their original iPhone was expensive and full of technical compromises (like missing a MicroSD slot, removable battery, poor battery life, limited calling ability etc), but while admittedly a pretty phone, was made desirable by superb marketing. (As always).
The truth is that humans are mostly (perhaps all) gullible idiots, and you can sell us anything if you package and present it to us in the right way.
The flashmob marketing approach can work - if it's executed well and has a purpose. I'm not sure either of those criteria was met, though it's certainly got people talking about RIM if nothing else.
No surprise RIM doesn't currently have a CMO.
Meanwhile in Queensland...
Its a holiday on Monday so we won't get the news till Tuesday. Oh Well.
when you run out of ideas, try marketing
Wonder what they could come up with if they put this sort of effort into their products ?
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