teenagers

RIM Should Return to its Startup Roots

By Mark Evans in Wireless 6 Comments Tags: , , ,

What to do about Research in Motion, Canada’s flagship technology company that just can’t seem to find its equilibrium in a market that has become volatile, competitive and unstable despite its growth.

Here’s a radical idea inspired by an exchange on Twitter with the National Post’s Matt Hartley: RIM should embrace its startup roots and the entrepreneurialism that made it a wireless tour de force by creating a new unit focused on teenagers or perhaps people under the age of 25. It may sound like an odd concept but here’s what I’m thinking:

Despite the BlackBerry’s diminished stature, young people are huge fans based on “in-depth research”, which has consisted of looking at their wireless devices.

Anecdotally, the BlackBerry rules the roost. Maybe it’s BBM, which lets them connect with friends and family for free. Perhaps it’s the keyboard, which makes it easy to use BBM and social media services such as Facebook. Whatever the reason, the young’uns are a pocket of strength for the BlackBerry.

A New Business Focused on Young People

To capitalize on it, RIM should carve out a new startup-like unit focused on young people. The new business would be all about creating devices, applications, marketing campaigns, events and social media activity for the under-25 demographic.

Free from the shackles of RIM’s enterprise roots (aka Your father/mother’s BlackBerry), the new business would have the freedom to be hip, cool and connected with an audience that aren’t geeks but looking for devices that meet their lifestyle needs.

This business would use BlackBerry hardware but customize it for younger people. The device, for example, would emphasize chat, video, music and social media, while e-mail and the phone would be standard features but certainly not the main selling points.

The marketing, created by an agency with expertise in younger consumers, would appeal directly to a demographic that knows what they want but are looking for someone who understands their needs and how they live. The lead spokesperson would be someone such as Justin Bieber. a BlackBerry user, who grew up close to RIM’s Waterloo headquarters.

It would be a radical move for RIM to create a new business but it might take some strategic and tactical creativity to jump-start the company’s prospects.

As it now stands, RIM has a split personality. It has a strong foothold in its traditional enterprise market but, at the same time, trying to figure out how to play in the pro-sumer market. This has made it a challenge from a marketing perspective given they’re two different audiences.

The creation of a new business focused on young people would be a way to resolve this problem and, in the process, maybe bring back RIM’s mojo.

Can Teenagers Save the BlackBerry?

By Mark Evans in Wireless 1 Comment Tags: , , ,

It may seem strange to talk about the much-beleaguered BlackBerry as the iPhone5 is making its debut but given there will be a tsunami of iPhone5 coverage but I thought it might be a good idea to go against the smartphone grain.

So, here’s my thinking about the BlackBerry, which struck me again when I went to a friend’s 20th anniversary party last weekend, and saw many of the teenage children using BlackBerrys.

While the cool kids and geeks love the iPhone, teenagers seem – and this is purely anecdotal - to like the BlackBerry. The biggest reason seems to be the keyboard makes it easy to use Facebook, Twitter, text-messaging and BBM. The BlackBerry may not be as sexy anymore but it meets the needs of a large and influential demographic at a time when touchscreen-based smartphones are here, there and everywhere.

The question is what Research in Motion should do about teenagers. Embrace them? Ignore them? The biggest challenges are two-fold: the BlackBerry has mostly been a corporate tool used by older people (aka more than 30-years-0ld), and RIM is not a particularly savvy marketing company.

This could make it difficult to RIM to effectively pursue and engage teenagers unless it embraces a new approach and arms itself with executives and an advertising agency that get teenagers.

A Split Personality

At the same time, RIM also needs to solidify its strong foothold in the corporate market. It means RIM may have to sport a split-personality by focusing its sales and marketing efforts at divergent parts of the smartphone market: older corporate, suit-wearing types and teenagers.

Can RIM pull it off? Time will tell but the upside for RIM is it appears the new BlackBerry 9900 has enough goodness to establish itself as an attractive option for both demographics that still find the BlackBerry to be compelling or, at least, a better option than the iPhone.

Links:

- A survey in the U.K. shows that older mobile users went for the iPhone4, while teenagers prefer BlackBerrys.

The Obsession with Social Media and Teenagers

By Mark Evans in Social Media 5 Comments Tags: , , , ,

As social media tools and services become increasingly popular – heck, my parents are asking about this Twitter thing! – one of the more interesting developments is the angst among the digiterati that teenagers aren’t enthusiastic about social media.

Whether it’s Nielsen suggesting teenagers don’t like Twitter or an Ofcom report that teenagers are abandoning social media because older people are embracing it, there’s a palpable sense of anxiety that the young’uns aren’t doing what they’re supposed to be doing.

After all, social media is cool, hip and leading-edge so the teenagers should be all over it. Instead, they’re apparently leaving the scene while the rest of us are climbing on the bandwagon.

What does this say about social media? And what does it mean about the future?

If teenagers – the next generation who will have a huge influence on future trends – aren’t digging social media, does that means all the hype about social media is going to disappear? Is social media failing to resonate with teenagers because it’s not the way they want to communicate?

Maybe social media is becoming a medium dominated by marketers as opposed to a personal form of expression, which may explains why teenagers are so blase about it.

Maybe teenagers are just obsessed with text-messaging. Or maybe they’re turned off by anything their parents like. Or maybe teenagers are just fickle. Or maybe they lie when they’re asked about their social media habits.

What do you think? Is social media doomed because teenagers don’t like it?


The Tizzy over Twitter and Teenagers

By Mark Evans in Social Media 6 Comments Tags: , , , ,

Judging from the reaction from the media and blogosphere yesterday, you would think that a Morgan Stanley report how teenagers use technology had provided insight that had never seen the light of day before.

Sure, it was written by a 15-year-old intern, Matthew Robson with good writing skills but the report was far from earth-shattering. Most people realized teenagers don’t buy CDs, watch a lot of television, listen to radio or read newspapers.

But the blogosphere was most agog about Robson’s contention teenagers don’t use Twitter because they would rather spend their dollars on sending their text messages to friend rather than posting updates on Twitter.

The reaction from bloggers a combination of shock, disbelief and disappointment. Twitter is the world’s hottest, fastest-growing social networking tool, and teenagers aren’t using it?

What’s next cats chasing dogs?

Before anyone gets too carried way, here’s a few things to consider.

1. As Mashable’s Ben Parr made clear, Robson’s report was entirely anecdotal evidence as opposed to something based on statistics and facts. Sure, Robson made be on the mark when it comes to Twitter and teenagers but it’s just his opinion.

If you’re looking for stats on Twitter and demographics, check out Sysomos’ Inside Twitter report, which indexed 11.4 million Twitter profiles. (Disclosure: Sysomos is a client.)

2. Who really cares whether teenagers are using Twitter? I mean, different services appeal to different kinds of users. For now, teenagers love SMS to communicate with friends and family. It’s unobtrusive and a private way to communicate.

Then again, who’s to say teenagers won’t eventually come around to Twitter. After all, older folks have gravitated to Facebook after dismissing it as something for the young-uns.

3. Based on anecdotal evidence I’ve collected from people who have teenagers, teenagers are using Twitter so maybe it’s just Robson’s buddies who aren’t Twitter users.

The reality is teenagers are a fascinating demographic when it comes to how they use technology because they are the next generation that everyone wants to figure out so they can sell products and services to them.

Robson got everyone excited because he provided some in-the-trenches insight. But keep in mind, it’s just one person’s view of the world so all the excitement is unwarranted.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...