Can BBM become the LinkedIn of mobile messengers?

I read the latest news about Blackberry in today's Mint that there are probably going to spin off BBM as a separate service. Now, this is something that I had alluded to in one of my posts, almost a year ago! Anyway, so it seems that BBM will be available on iPhone and Android pretty soon (no mention of Windows in the news but I hope there is one for Windows too). This reminds me of the infamous Blackberry Boys advertisements that ran earlier, trying to introduce the exclusively executive Blackberry phones for the common man. There is a similar attempt now with the BBM as it used to be the exclusive messenger for the Blackberry guys. Only, this time they are more desperate.

Is BBM late for the party?
It is no secret that RIM really missed the boat on the smartphone explosion. Now that they are opening up BBM to other operating systems, they will find themselves in a crowded place. WhatsApp, Kakao Talk, Line, WeChat, Google Hangout, Apple's Facetime etc are already there with a pretty huge user base. And as we all know, the thing with these social networking apps is that once you have all your friends on one, you don't need / want to go to another app. Once I got on WhatsApp and found all my friends there, I didn't really have the need for any other messenger. So, with BBM coming in pretty late to this cross platform party, will people want it? It will be tough for BBM, to say the least, as people already have their networks established. An interesting fact is that mobile messengers popularity seems to be country based; Kakao Talk seems to be popular in South Korea while WeChat is popular in China; Line is popular in Japan; WhatsApp is popular in India while US market share is distributed across a number of messengers. Having said that, WhatsApp seems to be the most popular overall.


So, where does BBM fit in?
Now, as I said earlier, I am on WhatsApp and so are all of my friends. Given that all of us are here, I don't need to go to another messenger. UNLESS, it has something really different and is good enough to get me as well as a lot of other people who I would like to talk to. If I were to take a loose analogy and compare mobile messengers with the full blown social networking sites, it seems that WhatsApp has become the Facebook of mobile messengers where we all connect with friends. In that world of full blown social networking sites, there is no other social network that seems to match FB but there is another network that does matter - the professional network, LinkedIn. So, what if BBM, given its professional lineage, is positioned as a professional mobile messenger?

Everyone knows people mostly share jokes on WhatsApp and other generally informal information. I am not quite comfortable adding my boss or other professional colleagues to WhatsApp. This is where BBM could fill the gap. Given that people do a lot of reading/chatting on their mobile, people would love to catch up with their professional contacts through a slightly more professional medium. Its Blackberry lineage only helps it establish itself as a professional medium. But BBM will need to offer something more than just chatting to appropriate the value it creates. I understand that BBM is working on bringing video chat and even a desktop version. There is also news about BBM channels which will be something like Twitter to "allow brands and celebrities to more closely interact with customers and fans". Here are some ways that I believe one could use BBM if it does take the "professional mobile messenger" positioning.

1) Instead of personal information, emphasis would be on professional information like place of work, field of interests etc.
2) There could be general professional groups, similar to LinkedIn, for people with similar interests to share some snippets
3) Instead of jokes, you could share inspirational quotes or snippets about better work life etc.
4) You could share HBR articles and the like with your professional friends; it would probably need some sort of reader / browser app also but I am sure BBM can use some of Blackberry's other apps for this
5) BBM could go for a tie up with LinkedIn to get a "BBM me" icon on everyone's profile
6) You could send live updates from a conference to your professional group through one liners and get their inputs as well  - all on the go.
7) You could share news about your companies
8) There could be official Dilbert jokes every day delivered to the BBM (there is an existing app for Dilbert jokes to be delivered on your smartphone daily but I used this to show the kind of updates people could share here)
9) When people install BBM, it could also install plugins that would allow them to share the stories they read on the web through BBM

These are some thoughts on differentiating BBM as a professional messenger. BBM has always been one of the good things about Blackberry until recently; if Blackberry wants to revive some of that good old shine, they need to ensure it focusses on the right user base and creates a niche for itself.

In my opinion, BBM should try to become the LinkedIn of mobile messengers; if it doesn't capture this space, maybe LinkedIn could try for a mobile messenger for its enormous user base? Or better still, continuing with the last post's question about who should buy Blackberry, maybe LinkedIn could buy BB or at least BBM - what are the odds of that happening?

Sent from my Blackberry - Please buy me :(

How is this for an advertising slogan for Blackberry: Sent from my Blackberry; DO NOT excuse typos.

We are all used to this ubiquitous line at the end of emails when people respond using their smartphones (Sent from my smartphone, please excuse typos). I thought this was a perfect line for Blackberry when it tried to make a come back recently. As someone said, customers don't buy the product, they buy a story. So, this line might have been a good one!

I started this post as a come back for my blog after almost a year of absence. I had started drafting this before the news of Blackberry being on sale came out. The news says that Blackberry is considering strategic options, including sale. I was already half way through some options that I was writing here. So, let's see if any of these gets materialized in the near future!

What could have Blackberry done? It is now trying to become a completely private company so that it can do some changes, like Dell, away from the public scrutiny. Now, there are a host of things that the company can do. Here are some based on my reading of the mobile market.

Blackberry - The Super Android
It is becoming increasingly clearer that the devices are a gateway to the stores which house applications and content for users to consume. Now, Blackberry has some pretty neat devices, especially with the latest OS and design, but they lack an application store that can match what iPhone, Android and even Windows Phone have. So, one thing they could do, and I believe this was being talked about earlier as well, is to tie up with Android and basically have BB users use applications from Android. But in this case, as I mentioned in an earlier post, why would users buy BB and not some Samsung Android phones? That is where BB would need to create a differentiation with the fact that it has more secure email and then add some other bells and whistles to the product to make it a Super Android. A Super Android that would communicate the same sort of air that a Blackberry used to before the iPhones.

Another option could be to tie up with Windows given that they have the image of a business phone, they could work out a deal with Microsoft to create some applications that help the business user effectively manage the documents, most of which are in MS software. Also, given that a lot of people access their emails between meetings (on the go), and a lot of these people just need to provide comments on the documents, it would make sense to create an application that helps users review the document and embed comments to send the document back - all via the Blackberry. I am not sure if there are existing apps that are good at this but it seems to be something I would like on my phone.

The obvious issue with tying up with Microsoft is that its own app store is not something that is a super hit (yet), so if they tie up with Microsoft, we will all have the same question we had when Nokia went for Windows Phone - "why didn't they go for Android".

Having said that, the apps for documents and stuff that business users have to do on their phones can still be done on Android, so that really seems to be the best bet for Blackberry. I had mentioned in my earlier post that Blackberry could work out a way to provide its secure email technology to other smart phones. A BB email app that connects to its servers and keeps the smart phone users happy that their emails are secure. I am sure a lot of corporates would love to have that. This option, of course, changes the company from an integrated handset maker to probably just an app development company. But I believe they could very well take both options and over time if they do a good job with their Super Androids, people would probably want to buy their handsets rather than use their app on other phones.

A friend of mine asked "Who would buy Blackberry" on his facebook wall; the options above suggest that Motorola (a Google company) may be a good suitor to create the Super Android phones. What say?

Do Tech companies from the enterprise market struggle in the consumer market?

As part of the Business to Business marketing course in MBA, students are taught how branding and marketing is equally important in enterprise (B2B) markets as much as in consumer markets. There are scores of case studies and research papers that emphasize why and how companies need to communicate the value that they offer to their client companies. Given that this has been done for a few decades now, I believe companies are doing the B2B marketing pretty fine. However, surprisingly, what I have observed recently is that some companies that do well in the enterprise segment do not seem to be doing that well in the consumer segment. B2B and B2C are different ball games for sure. Some companies that I have highlighted in the post below have / had good consumer products but still are not able to get the mix right to succeed. Marketing directly to the end consumer needs a thorough understanding of consumer behavior – something which seems to be missing in the three cases I present below.

Dell Streak – too early to be introduced or was Dell too early to exit that segment?

Samsung recently launched its latest model - the Galaxy S3 that comes loaded with a massive 4.8 inches screen and firmly places Samsung at the top end of the most desirable Androids. Its 5 inch Galaxy Note has also been flying off the shelves. That lead me to think about Dell Streak, which was probably the first 5 inch Android that came up (but didn’t succeed). The large screen made my Galaxy S feel smaller but the bulkier hardware of Streak kept me away from it.

Was Dell Streak slightly ahead of its time? Probably yes. Android, and smart touch phones, were a fairly new concept at that time and people probably did not really appreciate what all they could do with the screen real estate. Samsung, on the other hand, has worked on the Android platform consistently and delivered one good phone after another and then raised the bar by showcasing their innovation with the Note and S3. Dell seems to have got the product fundamentals right that people would want a bigger phone because of the awesome things that they can do. But this was not an enterprise selling situation where their sales staff could convince clients over a PPT presentation that Dell Streak is the product they would like. Consumer markets operate differently – you can’t possibly call all potential consumers to a detailed power point presentation! Consumers learning happens over time – their attitudes towards touch screens (not reliable, don’t work properly) needed to change. One other thing where the Streak probably failed was category membership – consumers could not understand which category Dell Streak fits in – is it a smart phone or is it a tablet? Today, when the market has learned about various devices, Galaxy Note uses the same question as its tag line!

Dell is really good at execution. Its direct delivery system allowed it to cut costs and sell customized PCs at lower costs. But once that model’s novelty faded, others have gained market share. It might also have struggled because it never had the distribution channels, so it would have had to create those channels afresh. Given that a large part of the earnings come from enterprise, Dell seems to have made its decision in favor of the enterprise market now. I am sure it will be a while before Dell tries to come back to the ultra-competitive consumer market; but it should get some consumer marketing champions in its team to capture and interpret trends.

Windows Phone – probably the first time a “Windows” device has to fight for entry in to consumers’ homes!

Another such marketing disaster seems to be happening currently with Windows Phone. While there are rave reviews about the OS and there are reports that predict Windows Phone to be taking over a huge market share shortly, I have my doubts because of the lack of proper marketing for this phone. Microsoft has never really needed to advertise its products aggressively, primarily because Windows PCs are so omnipresent. A good part of that is because of Microsoft's marketing at the enterprise level. But given that there aren't many operating systems anyway, Microsoft really hasn't had to try and understand the end consumer. MS has recently taken to advertising on televisions for its Windows 7 operating system. But even that campaign seems to be a reinforcement campaign, meant to just keep MS in the public awareness; to let people know that Windows 7 is there and they should choose that instead of sticking to the old war horse, Windows XP. I would have loved to see an advertisement for Windows Phone that would attack Android as just an “inspired” (and cheaper) version of iPhone and then show how much Windows Phone is innovative and focus on its key product features like the metro styling. It should have been positioned as an iPhone rival with proper focus on promotion of the app market ecosystem that has been created. That would have helped it move from the salience and performance levels to resonance and relationships. But, we see none of that. And God only knows what has happened to Nokia – from the way things are going, it seems it may never regain that top slot it once had. There are no top end aspirational phones like HTC One X or Samsung Galaxy S3 in the Windows Phone area. Not so encouraging reviews about Windows 8 and other bad press about Microsoft in general does not help either. The imagery of Windows Phone in the consumer mind does not seem to be correct, yet but still, as I have written previously, Microsoft does not seem to be serious!

Blackberry - Good for enterprises but does the consumer care?

Blackberry is another example. Blackberry was always successful based on the value that it was bringing to the enterprises by providing push email and BBM to its executives who could become more productive but when it came to enticing the end consumer directly, they faltered. However, one must give some credit to BB for being more aggressive in the consumer market. But they seem to have missed the basic trick about understanding what differentiates them from others, as I have highlighted previously. Blackberry tried to become a consumer brand by doing the famous "Blackberry boys" campaign but my feeling is that they probably got their positioning confused with that campaign. It certainly diluted the executive phone positioning and so, if an executive has to go for a "fun" phone, why wouldn't he go for an iPhone or Android. This is a BIG why - if BB answers it correctly, it could keep laughing its way to the bank!

Conclusion: Mother's advice holds good even today: Whatever you do, do it well!

Consumer and business markets are obviously different but does it imply that brands like Dell and Blackberry which excel in enterprise markets have a native disadvantage when it comes to consumer products? It might be too harsh to term it as disadvantage but it definitely is a major challenge. But given the trends of cloud at the enterprise level and mobile devices at the consumer level (often to access the data from that cloud), these companies might do well to keep a dedicated team for both markets to leverage the advantage of convergence. And irrespective of the market they follow, they should understand that both are different and require pretty different strategies and tactics to succeed.

How Blackberry is doing today what Benares did a decade ago!

BENARES: Oh so Beautiful!

I spent four of the best years of my life in the wonderful town of Benares about a decade ago. This was the time when the internet was a very new thing and you could find people who did not have email ids. Tweety meant that yellow bird and nothing else. 20 overs cricket meant that rain had played spoil sport or something like that. You get the idea. This was a time when cyber cafes was a pretty booming business in India. You could see small shops opening up at the nook and corners of small towns and cities across India. One could access internet at one of these shops for about 20 odd bucks an hour. Benares was no exception to this trend. If anything, it had more of these shops because a whole lot of international tourists come there to explore this rich heritage town which is arguably one of the oldest cities in the world. There were a lot of these shops next to the banks of the river Ganges (the famous ghats). One evening, while roaming around on one of the ghats with friends, I saw a cyber cafe which proclaimed, like all other cyber cafes, it had internet along with phone, photostat, STD, ISD etc. What was interesting was that the board in front of the shop also mentioned it had yahoo.com, hotmail.com, rediff.com! My friends and I had a good laugh about it - obviously if you have internet, you have all of it but this guy mentioned those separately as if he had special connections to those websites!

Do I need to buy a Blackberry for IM, email and (Android) apps?

Laughing about a thing like this was fine, especially in a small town like Benares. However, of late, when I see Blackberry advertising its BBM as its USP, I am reminded of that cyber cafe again! BBM and enterprise email were USPs for Blackberry about 5 years ago but today with smart phones proliferating like political scams in the Manmohan Singh government, these USPs seem a bit dated. I don't need BBM today to message my friends without eating up my minutes - I can use anything like gTalk or dozens of other IM clients. They did try to popularise the BBM thing by allowing people to connect to other BBM users using just their QR code. But who really would carry their QR code literally on their sleeve to connect to any one on the street? Having said that, I recently had to eat my words when I read about Sid Mallya tweeting that the girl who claimed that Luke Pomersbach assaulted her was all over Sid in a party for his BBM! 

So, point of points is that Blackberry was (and is) a great product but its differentiation based on the email and messenger has outlived itself. It is time for the apps to rule along with full touch screen models. While it did something to allow Android apps to be available on Blackberry (but still there are problems there), it took quite some time to move away from the physical qwerty phones. They seemed to have taken too much time in understanding the market direction and how it was sweeping the ground from underneath them.

What should Blackberry do?

OK - easy to rip apart a company based on what it did not do. Now, what would you do if you were Blackberry? How would you get back in the game? Its differentiation in the features space is gone. Apps is the new battle ground - BB is lagging behind Android and iPhone by miles. It has got into an arrangement with Android to let Android apps work on BB also but that only underscores the point that there are not enough developers making apps for BB. So, it ends up being there as another Samsung or HTC where it can fight the battle on the basis of its old relationships or some sort of really cool UI on top of the native Android. But as some others have found out, this does not sound much of an exciting story as it would fall into the commodity area. One good exit strategy here would have been to get sold to Google who could then use them for creating a hardware cum software integrated phone manufacturer. But Motorola beat them to this game as well!

How should BB differentiate in today's world?

So, the only way out for BB then seems to be to move up on the differentiation scale. Provide features and services that are really niche. For instance, they could provide extraordinary email features to make the mobile email experience closer to that of the desktop email access. While I kinda kicked BBM and Blackberry email earlier, they do provide encryption which is crucial for security and enterprises must like that. Given the security concerns raised on and off regarding Android and even iOS, security could be the big differentiator. Alternately, BB could  create multiple devices like the Playbook and create an eco system that would help a BB user become more mobile and still more user friendly. What I am referring to is the creation of additional docks which can be used to connect the small phone to a larger screen with keyboard to enhance the overall experience of the consumer. But all these can also be copied by the competition sooner than later but if BB is confident about its technology, it can try this or some other niche features which will help it retain its differentiation.

Should Blackberry reinvent itself as a software security provider to other mobile phone manufacturers?

An offshoot of the first option could be that BB should  totally move out of the hardware business and just provide security layers for other phone manufacturers. Maybe BB could come up as an app on the Android, iOS and Windows Marketplace for users who want to ensure their emails and IMs are secure. A lot of enterprises would probably like to enforce that. I guess this is the most drastic option that completely changes everything but one that Blackberry should consider based on their own analysis of the strengths of the company. 

Blackberry did a Benares in still using BBM as USP; can it again do a Benares in terms of retaining its rich heritage and prestige, and reinvent itself, so many years later as well?