It has been just over a week since the launch of the BlackBerry Pearl and I have just one question… Where is all of the BlackBerry Pearl marketing?
I was just thinking about the marketing blitz Verizon did when they released the Motorola Q. You could not go twenty minutes on any of the cable news networks that cover financial news without seeing a commercial about the Motorola Q. Demand for the Q is so great that Motorola thinks they may sell 10 million Qs in its first year of existence. To put that in perspective, RIM has yet to sign up 10 million BlackBerry subscribers and it has been around since ’98.
That being said, I will ask my question again… Where is all of the BlackBerry Pearl marketing?
The BlackBerry Pearl is the most anticipated BlackBerry to date and its release was the biggest thing to happen at RIM less the NTP settlement, however, with the exception of allowing information about the Pearl to be leaked to every blog that talks about mobile devices, RIMarkable being one of the front runners, and a shiny new website dedicated to the BlackBerry Pearl, RIMs marketing of the first BlackBerry with a digital camera was actually kind of ho-hum…
Top RIMarkable commenter Thought has some interesting thoughts around the BlackBerry Pearl marketing plan in his column over on BlackBerry Cool. He thinks that T-Mobile’s launch of the BlackBerry Pearl could be a “soft opening” of sorts.
Many stores, restaurants and even theme park rides (I live in Orlando FL, the theme park capital) have what is called a soft opening before their official launch, or grand opening. This is a time when the new product is debuted to the public without much publicity and serves as a testing ground. Feedback can be gained from the public and problems addressed before the business puts its credibility on the line with a major marketing blitz. This is a very time honored approach.
Thought speculates that the full BlackBerry Pearl marketing blitz may come with the release of the Pearl on Cingular. I personally hope that it does because that consumer oriented CameraBerry ship is docked, but, ready to sail and Research in Motion can’t afford to miss the boat.
Thanks for the mention.
I sure do hope we see that marketing campaign. Cingular seems to have a great marketing dept, and so if Cingular really gets behind the Pearl, we’ll see some action on the marketing front.
I so agree with you regarding that Q TV commercial blitz…it was awesome…and probably one of the most intensive ad campaigns for a mobile device yet.
As for that Moto estimate on Q sales…well, I’d say that’s only their estimate, and probably overinflated. I’d say the Pearl may actually outsell the Q in its first year…the Pearl is available on GSM first, and blows the Q away in terms of size, stability, and coolness factor. We still have yet to see a GSM Q hit the market, and that will be key in selling that many units.
Blackberry doesn’t need marketing…They get thier marketing through making news, like: celebrities (Naomi Cambell, Paris Hilton, etc), blackberry addiction news, etc., so that is a type of advertisement for blackberries, which really pays off! 🙂
BB4Life,
You are absolutely right about RIM getting press via celebrities that use BlackBerrys. Heck, I even have a category here on RIMarkable and have started a seperate blog dedicated to Celebrity BlackBerry Sightings, however, Naomi Campbell, Paris Hilton and celebrities in general appeall to a very small demograpic, albeit important, but small when compared to everyone that RIM wants to walk around with BlackBerry Pearls in their Pocket.
A commercial that runs on MTV with Paris and Naomi trying to hit people in the head with Pearls would probably be pretty funny though…
The BlackBerry is so good it just sells itself no need for marketing!