Blackberry: a perfect example of the product life cycle

Who hasn't ever had a Blackberry? Probably most of us have ever used one, but it is probably too that the majority of the people who liked Blackberry a few years ago isn't using this brand anymore. This can be explained because this brand has reached its last stage: decline

In the last few years, Blackberry has passed through all the stages of the product life cycle:

1. Introduction:

Its first product launched was the Blackberry 850, in 1999, and it supposed an innovation in technology because it had a complete keyboard and internet connection, what differentiated it from other mobile phones. Sales increased slightly, and there were no competitors in the market.

2. Growth:

Blackberry became public, and it received a huge amount of money allocated to investment. Blacberry reached 10 million customers in 2007 and had operations in 120 countries, becoming the leader in sales in the telephony market. New competitors emerge, such as Apple or Samsung.

3. Maturity:

From 2007 to 2011, Blackberry reached its top in sales, and then sales remained constant. It had a market share of 25%. In this stage, it was clear that its main competitors were getting closer.

4. Decline:

In 2013 Blackberry had a market share of less than 3%, what was an indicator that something was going wrong. Probably the worst mistake of the company was to underestimate its competitors, trusting in the loyalty of its customers and not making any innovation.

In 2013 Blackberry launched a new version, the 10.3.1., trying to get to a stage of Re-Introduction, but it seems difficult for the company to reach the fame that it had before.

Tomorrowland: the best event in terms of Marketing

Tomorrowland is a electronic music festival that takes place every year in Belgium. The first edition was in 2005, and in only 10 years of existence it has been considered as the best music festival in the world. This year, more than 500,000 people have gone there, from different countries all over the world. But, has Tomorrowland achieved its fame only because of the DJ's?

The answer is no. Tomorrowland wouldn't be the best festival without their marketing strategies. The festival came up with new marketing tools, and it has reached the top thanks to them:

1. Strong Brand Image: the catchword of the festival is: "Yesterday is History, Today is a gift, Tomorrow is Mystery." Everyday a castle of fireworks is projected, and the scenery seems that has been taken out of a Hollywood film, needing months of construction.

2. Videomarketing: after the festival, Tomorrowland makes a video where the best moments of the festival appear. It is called the Aftermovie, and these videos reflect the feeling that you will have a great time in the festival, trying to convince more people to go the following year. More than 25 million people have watched last year's aftermovie. The videos are released as if they were films.

3. Social Networks: 2.2 million fans on Facebook, more than 150,000 followers on Twitter and more than 350,000 subscribers are proofs that show the magnitude of the festival.

In my opinion, no one knows how to promote itself better than Tomorrowland does.

"The best prize is to share it"

The Spanish Christmas' Lottery takes place every year on December 22, and it is the most popular lottery during the year, not only because of the amount of its prizes, but also because the amount of people who participate. Also popular is the advertisement that promotes this lottery, that changes every year. And in this advertisement is extremely important the way to communicate and persuade the customer.

The promotional strategy has always been the same: a rational marketing. However, in the last three years, advertisers have developed a strategy that consists in appealing to emotions. After the "disaster" in 2013, the advertisements of 2014 and 2015 tried to play with feelings, and they had great results. They were catalogued as the best lottery advertisements ever.

"The best prize is to share it" is the idea that the lottery institution tries to communicate to the people in this ads. They transmit kindness, solidarity and the importance of small details. "If we talk about human relationships and feelings, and we locate in Christmas time, emotivity is the road that we must follow" says the executive director of Leo Burnett, agency that developed the ads.

With the ideas presented before, I must conclude saying that the Lottery ads have focused on transformational appeals. In this case, they depict what kind of experience results from winning the lottery. And, if you don't acquire a number, you will not experience the feeling...

Music in Advertisements

We see many advertisements everyday. And, in the majority of them (almost in all of them) we can hear a song while we see the promoted product. This is not something casual: companies study and analyze what type of music should they put in their ads.

Publicity and music have always been a useful binomial, and it has achieved success in all marketing strategies where it has been employed. Some analysts that have studied the relationship between marketing and music say that 90% of ads in TV are associated with any of music or melody. In fact, any television advertising that wants to ensure success must be complemented with a melody.

We can distinguish between 2 types of music that can be used in ads:

- Library music: songs that already exist. Publicists must pay rights to use them. Example: "Hugo Boss"
- Jingles or corporate music: an advert where main characters sing, and the main topic of the invented    song is the product. Example: "Natillas Danet"

A suitable song can achieve the transformation of a standard product into something special and attractive to the consumer. Moreover, advert songs are a good way to know a product and be interested in it. For example: who hasn't ever sung the famous Cola-Cao song (Yo soy aquel negrito...)?

Political marketing

Not only does marketing exist in selling products or services, but it also appears in politic. Electioneerings have been always related with big meetings and advertising posters, but nowadays they are introducing more and new elements with the goal of achieving better results. In this post I will explain some of those new factors that politicians must take into account when they want to get better results.

1. Social Networks

Social networks (such as Twitter or Facebook) are essential if you want to "connect with voters". But we must remember that, as they can be fundamental in achieving new voters, we can lose some of them if we don't use them correctly. Politicians should take into account that the number of followers or the number of "likes" don't mean potential voters.

Joan Roselló, who is the director of Public Affairs Experts S.L, argues that "being in social networks doesn't mean winning elections, but without them we can't win."

2. Interviews

More than advertising, conceding interviews in different communication media is essential. Politicians or parties that decide not to speak with certain journalists or channels usually have a bad image.

3. Closed to people

"Looking to voters' eyes, hearing them and knowing their names is crucial" Joan Roselló remarks. 

Being close to people hasn't been a usual technique until the last few years. But now, people is fed up of hearing politicians, they just want to talk with them. This is known as "Proximity Policy", and is being more common in Spanish politicians.

4. Think before acting

I have talked about this before in this post, but I would like to conclude that we can't go back in social networks: any tweet or any comment will be in the cloud forever. It is also important to be clear and don't lie in messages, because we can anger possible voters.

Mercadona's pricing strategies

Mercadona is a spanish supermarket company founded in 1981 in Valencia, when Juan Roig bought a company of meat to his parents. Juan Roig transformed the shops into supermarkets and expanded them to the rest of the country. Nowadays, Mercadona is the leader in its sector, with anual revenues of 19.000 million euros, 1400 shops and 74.000 employees. It is known as a company with low prices, but it hasn't always had the same policies.

At the beginning, Roig considered the possibility of establishing a reduction in prices complemented with strong advertising campaigns, in order to attract new customers. But the results were not the  expected ones: with te revenues obtained by selling the products he could not finance the process of advertising. So he implemented another policy...

The new pricing policy started in 1993, and it consisted in "Always low prices", what allows customers to buy products of a high quality and at the lowest prices. By this method, Mercadona satisfies the 5 components of the company: customers (The boss), suppliers, employees, society and capital.

Because of the bad experience investing in advertising, Roig distrusts in it. Promotions are not usual in this company as prices are always low.

Finally, I have to say that competitors have increased in the last few years, and they have also implemented policies of low prices. Will Mercadona be able to maintain its position in the market without decrease the quality of the products?

A T-shirt made of recycled plastic

On November the 26th, Real Madrid played a soccer game against Sporting de Gijón, a match corresponding to the Spanish League. Everything seemed as usual, but there was a special detail that made this match unique: Real Madrid t-shirts were made of recycled marine plastic.

Adidas is the brand that sponsors Real Madrid's clothes, and, collaborating with the firm Parley, it has launched a campaign that tries to raise awareness about the problems of pollution. As a part of this campaign, two of the most important football teams of Europe sponsored by Adidas (Real Madrid and Bayern Munich) wore recycled T-shirts.

In the neck of the T-shirt we can read a sentence: "For the oceans". According to recent studies, more than 250,000 tons of plastic are thrown to seas and oceans, and the animals that live there are affected by this problem. Millions of them die every year.

This campaign that Adidas has just designed can be included into the Marketing 3.0, because the aim of this operation is not just increasing sales, but focusing on values and society. Adidas may be seen now as a company concerned in global warming and pollution, and it will carry along a strong position in the market.