Now I'll admit that before I made the switch to the iPhone, I was a crackberry addict and never understood why Apple fans looked down on the rest of us. After I made the switch, I got it. In terms of usability and user experience, the Blackberry just didn't measure up against the iPhone.
Sure, I've already talked about Blackberry's shortcomings on this blog already, but when you do more than one thing poorly, it warrants additional posts. After falling off the face of the planet and becoming irrelevant outside of certain business circles, Blackberry is trying to stage a comeback with the release of the Z10, in hopes that it can steal away some market share from Apple and Android users. The company is pouring massive marketing resources behind this product, with national broadcast and print ad campaigns, as well as online advertising in such prominent placements as the banners atop the homepage of the New York Times.
While the ad campaign makes sense, given the audience, they are failing miserably (in my opinion, at least) with the company blog. This site is everything a brand's blog shouldn't be - a text-heavy appendix to the product's user guide, rather than an engaging, experiential site. The content is bland and boastful, focusing on the company and its products, rather than the audience.
It does very little to pull people in, let alone keep them there. Yes, it does display some of the new product's more appealing ads, as well as links to other social media platforms...but the content is not what you would expect for a product that is being positioned as a game-changer.
Rather than talk about the benefits through the eyes of the company, tell stories through the eyes of the user. If this product is so great, let the blog readers see its benefits from a video diary of a person using it, not Blackberry writing 100 words about a new great app. Instead of post after post about Blackberry does this and Blackberry does that, how about a post about how End User X accomplishes this and that with the help of the Z10.
That would certainly be more appealing than "hey, we're awesome, buy our stuff" but maybe that's just me.
No comments:
Post a Comment