Reflective essay on BlackBerry marketing evaluation and SWOT framework analysis

Blackberry

Reflecting on the SWOT analysis of Blackberry, we can see that the company has a strong market share in the smartphone industry because of its strengths. The product is trending socially among young people and business people, which makes the Blackberry a desirable brand within the industry. The fact that it is known as a tool of professionals is one of the main attractions of the Blackberry, because users perceive that it gives them a more professional look than other smartphones give. A study showed that 44% of female teens want a Blackberry and 37% of young people overall want a Blackberry.

Despite its strengths, the Blackberry also has some weaknesses. For example there was a technological glitch last year, the BBM crash, and that caused customer perceptions of the product to decline significantly. The brand is also perceived as lacking in innovation. Compared with the two other market share leaders in Apple and Android, there are fewer apps for the Blackberry and the brand being older than those two it may have a more tired image of being less innovative.

However, there are still opportunities for Blackberry. Releasing more innovative models would jump start sales and if the company increased brand awareness by advertising more its perceptions and sales would both increase. The company has enough strengths to take advantage of these opportunities, especially since the surveys indicate that there is a ready market for the product. However, there are many threats. Stiff competition in the biggest threat. In addition to the iPhone and Android devices, Blackberry is threatened by the rise of tablets and other types of smartphones. As a result, the company can suffer a decline in market share, even while the market is growing. It is important that for Blackberry to succeed in the future it must deal with these threats in the competitive environment either by being cheaper or by being better. By doing either of these, or both, Blackberry can stake out a strong position in the market once again.

The recommendations relate to the marketing mix and they show the way forward for Blackberry. The most important thing about any set of strategic recommendations is that they utilize the company's strengths, take advantage of opportunities, or remove the different internal weaknesses and external threats. Most of the recommendations deal with the external threats like competition and the product-oriented weaknesses of the Blackberry.

Blackberry has a good product, but probably has not marketed itself enough, certainly not compared with Androids and iPhones. The company also should focus new marketing efforts on the total target market, which includes young people who like the brand as an aspirational product to show their professionalism, maturity and business orientation.