Blackberry Marketing and Cash Value

Remember S&H and other store stamps that had a value other than cash, like "mills?"

Today companies still substitute benefits or free accessories that have some specific proprietary value, but little or no cash value. As long as the two are distinct, there's no problem. But intentionally or otherwise confusing some dollar value other than the real one for cash value is a big marketing mistake.

Blackberry has responded to its latest high-profile service outages by offering a consolation to their subscribers: for their inconvenience, they get $100 in free apps like poker and "Bejeweled." But wait, there's more. RIM also throws in free technical maintenance for a month, which is a value of, well, let's say it's not immediately obvious on their web site. (And just how much do Blackberry owners expect to call technical support next month in the event of a problem, say, another outage?)

The lesson to learn here, as RIM flounders in their marketing efforts, is that marketing is not a standalone entity. It needs to be integrated with the business. When the purposes of the marketing and accounting or other departments collide, you often get a solution that does badly for both.

In this situation, if RIM offered a second option for a discount on next month's phone bill for example, the dollar value would certainly be lower than the one for free apps and support. What would the value of a third option for getting a check in the mail from RIM be? My guess is about $10. That's the real value.

Does RIM really want to address the legitimate concern and inconvenience of their subscribers resulting from significant outages, even down to the phone's daily alarms and reminders not working, with a consolation that has a real value of $10? Of course not. But there's a left-hand, right-hand conflict going on between the business execs and the ones carrying on the dialog with the customer (marketing) that is deeper than this one incident. As the iPhone 4S and steady developments by Android encroach even further on Blackberry's base, RIM is pouring gasoline on the fire.

What's that snazzy new icon?

I understand some people are just going to be loyal to one browser.  For better or worse, I'm finding things that work better on each of three or four now.  The new Google browser has some easy-to-appreciate smoothness and seems to be at least as fast as Safari - and it comes with its own nifty (if a bit lengthy) cartoon...

I like the idea of rolling this out and having a mammoth userbase for a more thorough beta.  Possibly an idea to be adopted with the release of the Android phone.  There's a great article by Ed Catmull in the September Harvard Business Review about how Pixar realized that operating different areas of its business with differing standards was "bad for its soul."

A Smartphone for the Mensa Pro

For the Mensa crowd out there, Palm has just announced a really smart new smartphone called the "Pro" this week. And if you're in that market, you know who you are.

I suspect that, like the credentials of PhD's who consistently say "for him and I" and have three points in their four-point presentation, this may be something to hang on your e-mail signature ("sent from my new Palm Pro") rather than a huge jump in thinking power.

When the latest delay in the Google Android was announced, I decided to go ahead with Palm's Centro which had just been rolled out for Verizon users. Palm had quietly sold over two million of these by the end of July at $99 each. I'm not jeans-and-sandals enough for an iPhone yet, and I'm not ready for a phone that cooks breakfast for me, so the Centro is a good fit.

I'll leave the technical details to those above my pay grade, but there are some very handy improvements in the way I use the phone every day over my old Treo. It switches smoothly from MMS to SMS, copies and pastes from one application to another, has easily accessible "stacked" text conversations, creates a customizable drop down menu for any function (i.e. "text Joe," "e-mail Sue," or "GoogleDocs"), and it runs mobile versions of applications like Facebook, YouTube, TripIt and GoogleMaps very nicely. The "pTunes" audio player works for me and offers a bevy of web-radio stations. The keyboard is smaller but very usable and fast and I prefer it to the virtual version.

See if you can save yourself a couple Ben Franklins - and if you edit your signature to say you're e-mailing from your Palm Pro, I'll never know the difference.