Sales Promotion and Personal Selling- Would You Buy Me ?

           For Blackberry, selling products has been growing more and more difficult. With consumers evolving, manufacturers like RIM, have to meet those new customers’ needs and continue to have a good relationship with current customers. Through this process, Sales Promotions and Personal Selling definitely come into play here. As costs of Advertising and Marketing rise through high-traffic channels, companies like Blackberry are turning to a more cost effective way to market: Personal Selling.

Because of today’s Blackberry customer, who is more diverse and eclectic than in previous years, new initiatives and promotions must be outfitted differently; Different sales promotions for different buyers. Several programs are effective however; Blackberry only participates in a few. One use of Blackberry’s promotion strategy is their competitor customers approach. With new devices and manufacturers emerging, the company must be on their toes- constantly. The newest devices released were the Blackberry Torch and the new Curve from the series of the same name. A visible implementation of this strategy is seen with their release of the aforementioned models. As promotions were offered for the device, at comparable prices to similar mobile carriers, competitors were on the same level as Blackberry with regards to price-point.

Rebates are another sales promotion Blackberry and Research in Motion offers. Rebates are given after the initial purchase is made and the documents for the rebate, with a valid sales receipt (proof of purchase), is submitted to the rebates department. With these offers, customers can be comforted that their purchase of the device is a good one given the company’s reputation, quality and price.



Referrals are an important selling strategy that Blackberry and other companies rely on. Word-of-mouth marketing is valuable and caused companies like Facebook, and other businesses to gain national and in Facebook’s case, worldwide acclaim. 

Since a majority of Blackberries devices are sold through third party distributors or retailers, Blackberry’s follow-up is done through these parties. When a sale is made through T-mobile for instance, Blackberry may receive the data and information of the customer and the sale itself however, T-mobile deals direct to the customer and thus removing Blackberry or Research In Motion from its involvement in following up with the customer.

Maybe-just maybe- Blackberry get more involved in the selling process. I don’t think removing retailers who “push” their devices and produces should be eliminated, but as a Blackberry owner myself, it’d be nice to share my thoughts about issues or products should I feel inclined to do so. Remove the middle man from the customer service side of things and Blackberry could strengthen its efforts when creating sales promotions and engaging in personal selling. 

Developing A Global Vision: Global Marketing Strategy

     With newer markets holding untouched opportunity today, marketers are taking advantage of every possibility they can to reach every consumer. With technology comes the ease of reaching these markets faster, more efficiently, and in their native language with little effort. What about the current market? How do we retain their business and  loyalty: The internet.

     RIM and Blackberry have done their homework by creating the easiest platform to which marketers can reach their audience. The newest member of the strategy team is not a human and does not have a 401 K. The answer is found on the web with sites like Handango for Blackberry and other devices. Consumers now have the availability and option to update, customize, and add software and application onto their device like never before. This is a distribution effort that has been working for other mobile carriers in recent years and continues to show positive results each quarter. Blackberry has now developed its own application superstore, Blackberry App World, and it has been successful on its own since its release. 

     Blackberry continues to branch out in their marketing efforts; they even brought on a new advertising agency in June of 2010 called, The Next Door who would be responsible for their global campaign. This collaboration will enable the company to have access to large markets and the populations that are growing in them. 

     It seems as though Blackberry’s strongest market besides the United States is China and the Far East. China is excelling in technology development and creating software and products at a rate faster than any other on the planet. A majority of Blackberry’s exports go to places like China due to demand and dependability of the server. Blackberry, though many would think these days, manufacturers their devices mostly in Canada and has very few objectives bringing production and distribution away from Canada. I like to think of Blackberry as the Apple of Canada. 

     Blackberries, much like the fruit, are found across the globe due to development, outreach, and strong relationships being built in newer markets to establish the brand abroad. With competition strong, it is necessity to maintain the objectives and goals internally, while supplying the consumer with the good and service they expect with a name like Blackberry.