Blackberry now sporting a RIMless look, but is its vision any better? - Economic Times

Feb 20, 2013, 03.45AM IST (Blackberry now sporting…) By M G Parameswaran The company that introduced us to email on the moveâ€"Research In Motionâ€"announced its plans to change its name to that of its most famous product Blackberry just a fortnight ago. Termed as 'branding bombshell' by the Time magazine, will this RIMless look save the brand Blackberry? Not too long ago, in fact just four years ago, RIM shipped more Blackberry smart phones than Apple and Samsung combined. Now its global market share is sinking to less than 5%. What does the name change signify in branding terms? And is this enough to save Blackberry? For one the change signals the company is committed to sink or swim with its most famous brand; this commitment showed up in a first ever television ad on Super bowl last week (Unfortunately the ad squeaked in before the 34 minute power outage, destroying the potential for Twitter traffic about the ad that may have followed, as is the norm these days). The company also announced the launch of Blackberry 10, Z10 (shipping starts in March) and Q10 later in 2013. Interestingly the Z10 sacrifices the querty key board for a larger screen, just the thing the old RIM company openly mocked. But for Blackberry lovers, or for those still sitting on the fence, the Q10 has the muchloved keyboard. A name change, at this level, is not something done to satisfy the ego of the CEO or to quell the more noisy investors. And in the case of Blackberry the company seems to be openly admitting to its past sins of commission and omission, and trying to remedy the errors of the past. The question remains, is it too little too late? And did the company wait too long to show this commitment. Branding experts talk of House of Brands and Branded House as two big models of branding. In the former a set of independent brands exist under a corporate brand name, examples abound in the packaged consumer goods arena (P&G; Unilever etc). The latter system of branding is emerging as the predominant form in the fast changing mobile technology world, where corporate brand name is synonymous or almost as big as the individual brand or model product names. Apple and Samsung are shining examples. Though they do sport product brand names like iPhone and Galaxy, the mother corporate brand name is omnipresent. And take the case of RIM which tried the House of Brands, and there are other examples as well. Yes, RIM did show inertia in understanding how consumers were using their smart phones and was wedded to the keyboard look, but may be RIM also missed out on a branding opportunity to get extra heft behind Blackberry. And will the sudden flurry of action, new models, name change, superbowl ad help the brand, well I am not taking any bets, but watch this space! (The writer is ED & CEO - Draftfcb Ulka Advertising Mumbai) via Technology - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNHHYE5EFTUXE72l5EkGsIUjdIVlAg&url=http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/hardware/blackberry-now-sporting-a-rimless-look-but-is-its-vision-any-better/articleshow/18583457.cms

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