Blackberry losing cachet
Smartphone close to dropping out of list of top 100 brands
BlackBerry’s challenges continue with the Canadian smartphone maker landing near the bottom of a notable ranking of global brands.
International research firm Interbrand rates the company at 93rd in its Top 100 list. That’s down from 56th in 2011, 54th in 2010 and 63rd in 2009 when BlackBerry first appeared on the chart.
“I was actually a little relieved that they are still in the Top 100, because the brand has taken a very significant hit in not only financials, but its power to shape consumer expectation,” said Mandeep Malik, marketing professor at DeGroote School of Business.
Coca-Cola, Apple and IBM hold the list’s top three spots. The assessments are based on the financial performance of the branded products or services; the role of brand in the purchase decision process; and the strength of the brand.
The Gap’s last place position is a consequence of being steadily eroded by “trendier competitors like H&M, Zara, and Uniqlo,” said Interbrand.
Coke is the most recognized name in the world, because the management of the 126- year-old beverage “excels at keeping the brand fresh while maintaining a powerful sense of nostalgia that unites generations,” said the consultancy.
And Apple leapfrogged from 8th to 2nd, providing this year’s biggest increase in brand value — 129 per cent to more than $76 billion — by producing “items that consumers feel they must own to fit in socially,” noted Interbrand.
“Their winning formula has obviously design, but also the speed with which they continue to set expectations and new standards to stay ahead of the curve,” said Malik.
Earlier this year, the company ousted BlackBerry from the top spot for smartphone shipments in Canada for the first time.
Waterloo-based Research In Motion Ltd., which makes BlackBerry, can’t seem to dig itself out of the rut which has seen shipments drop 41per cent in the past year. “The success of technology brands is first and foremost a question of cultural resonance and identity value,” said Markus Giesler, marketing professor at the Schulich School of Business. “People buy what they want to be associated with culturally. Consequently, brands rise and fall alongside broader shifts and events in society, which is also echoed in Interbrand’s ranking. “RIM had most of its success in a social climate where corporate success was heralded as a key to (Canadian) social wealth. In the day and age of economic recession and Occupy Wall Street, however, where this relationship is broken down, RIM’s managerial efficiency is readily mapped onto the evils of global capitalism (arrogance, greed, antihuman, only interested in profit). Apple, on the other hand, becomes a container for all the positive cultural values we share (creativity, diversity, human joy and playfulness).” The manufacturer “is plagued with underwhelming product launches, undelivered promises (BlackBerry10 has been delayed yet again, to 2013), and inconsistent marketing campaigns,” said the Interbrand report which characterizes new CEO Thorsten Heins’ decision to “stay the course” as “a reluctance to take a risk on self-reinvention and transformation — traits that are essential for survival in today’s hypercompetitive consumer electronics market.”