Newspaper ads for BlackBerry
A recent news article from Bloomberg News states that BlackBerry is using newspaper print ads to try to convince consumers to buy BlackBerry smartphones.
After investing millions of dollars into a Superbowl ad that did not successfully sell the new Z10, BlackBerry is launching these newspaper ads in an attempt to regain consumer confidence.However, the Superbowl ad and the newspaper ad are targeted towards two completely different market segments. The Superbowl ad focuses on attracting a younger audience, using lots of special effects. However, sales for that product did not do so well. Being a member of that younger target segment, BlackBerry was never appealing for me, no matter how many rubber ducks were used in its commercials.
At first, the newspaper ad seemed like a desperate, last-resort attempt. Even newspapers themselves are not doing so well in this digital age, why would BlackBerry dump money into this form of advertising? However, after some thought, I found this move to be a form of targeting and segmentation, since people who read newspapers in print most likely do not prefer using smartphones for their news, and thus may prefer an actual keyboard as opposed to a virtual one. The ad is also in the form of a letter, and the impatient younger generation is not likely to be willing to take the time to read through it. The target audience for the newspaper ad is most likely older consumers in need of an efficient phone that does not need to have all the latest aesthetics and features.
Placing an open letter in newspapers is not just because every other form of advertising didn’t work. The letter allows Blackberry to communicate to consumers, as well as carriers and partners. It also sells BlackBerry as a reliable company to potential customers in a different target segment from Apple and Android. BlackBerry is trying to find a niche market that can possibly save it from its current struggles.