New Product Plan Situational Analysis

Competitive Analysis

Porter's Five Forces Analysis

Bargaining Power of Suppliers

Bargaining Power of Customers

Threat of New Entrants

Threat of Substitute Products

Competitive Rivalry

Strengths

Weaknesses

Opportunities

Threats

Marketing Strategy

Short-term Goals

Long-term Goals

This paper provides a plan for reintroducing the failed Blackberry smartphone to the market. The Blackberry was once the most popular smartphone in the U.S. and other markets. The introduction of the smartphone in 2006 marked a defining moment in the history of the smartphone market. However, with its focus limited to corporate users and government agencies, Blackberry was slow to respond to the evolving needs of individual consumers. This gap presented a perfect opportunity for Apple, Samsung, and other rivals to oust Blackberry from its dominant position. By 2011, the Blackberry had lost its position in the industry. The smartphone kept on losing its market share to newer entrants, who have introduced more consumer-oriented smartphones. The dominance of the Apple and other rivals may make it quite difficult for Blackberry to successfully re-enter the market.

The failure of the Blackberry has had a significant impact on not only the performance of the firm in the last five years, but also its bargaining power over its suppliers and buyers. As the dominant players in the market, Samsung and Apple now have a significantly high advantage over suppliers and buyers compared to Blackberry. For Blackberry to recapture its bargaining power over suppliers and buyers, it must readjust its supply chain strategy and increase the demand for its smartphone.

In spite of the failure and reduced competitive advantage, the Blackberry still has an unbeaten reputation for mobile security. It is the most secure smartphone compared to its rivals, a major strength in the wake of increased concerns about mobile security. The company can capitalise on this advantage to regain its relevance. More importantly, the firm can take advantage of the capital, technical, and reputational foundation it has built over the nearly three decades it has been in operation. The firm's prior experience in the smartphone market as well as its prevailing customer base, coupled with its existing assets and infrastructure, gives it a particularly important advantage over potential entrants and even incumbents.

There is no doubt that the threat of competition in the smartphone market is high. However, there are number of opportunities Blackberry can depend on to reintroduce its products. These include the firm's existing customer base, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 crisis, emerging markets, the growth of cloud computing, third party applications, as well as corporate-level strategies such as mergers, acquisitions, and strategic partnerships. In the short-term, the firm should focus on product improvement, sales promotion, offers and discounts, tradeshows, conventional advertising (television...

In the long-term, the firm should focus on search engine optimisation, increasing brand awareness and recognition, as well as building customer loyalty.
BlackBerry is certainly not the first firm to experience the sort of failure it has experienced in the last few years. Many other firms have been in a similar or even worse situation. Though some have been unsuccessful in reversing the failure, others have succeeded. If properly reintroduced, the Blackberry can adequately compete with Apple and Samsung brands. Indeed, Blackberry's failure can be viewed as a learning experience. The failure provides important lessons for the firm, especially with regard to responding to market needs.

Situational Analysis

Formerly referred to as Research in Motion (RIM), Blackberry Limited (Blackberry) is involved in the production of mobile devices as well as the provision of wireless telecommunications software. One of the firm's major product lines is its smartphone, which was formally released in 2006. The smartphone, which came with innovative features such as wireless communication and web browsing, marked a significant transformation in the smart phone industry, with carriers all over the world rushing to stock the device in their stores. Indeed, Blackberry was the first smartphone manufacturer to develop strong partnerships with carriers in the U.S. and beyond. Despite the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, Blackberry's smartphone continued experiencing tremendous growth up to 2011. At the height of its success, Blackberry had in excess of 85 million subscribers across the world. It was described as one of the most famous smartphone brands worldwide, in large part due to its highly innovative features.

In the last three to four years, however, Blackberry's smartphone has recorded a significant decline, perhaps one of the worst in the history of the rigorously competitive smartphone industry. Apple Inc. and Android vendors such as Samsung have launched more innovative smartphones, reducing Blackberry's competitive advantage in the marketplace. Keen on consumer tastes and preferences, Apple and other rivals introduced devices with a new operating system and more appealing features such as touch screen displays and sleek designs. In essence, Blackberry was slow to innovate, allowing rivals to overtake its market share. Today, Blackberry smartphones account for less than 1% of the total smartphone market. The failure of the Blackberry smartphone has largely contributed to the declining performance of the organisation since 2011, nearly going bankrupt. It has even caused the organisation to adjust its business strategy, change leadership, and dismiss a substantial portion of its workforce. Even so, a well-crafted plan can successfully bring the Blackberry smartphone back to the market.

Competitive Analysis

The smartphone market is a highly competitive arena. Presently, the market is dominated by powerful brands such as Apple, Samsung, HTC, and Sony. The marketplace has become even more competitive with the entry of LG, Huawei, Xiaomi, Lenovo, Google, and Wiko. These brands provide smartphones with astonishing attributes and functionalities such as appealing designs, high portability, unparalleled multimedia features, massive storage, large touch screen displays, immense battery life, high speed internet connectivity, and usability. These features matter a lot to the modern smartphone user.

Apple and Samsung have particularly revolutionised the smartphone arena by delivering smartphones that support a wide array…