1. Where would Blackberry be without women?
by GRAHAM BROWN on JANUARY 12, 2012
The world’s 1 billion youth female mobile owners are key to the future of Blackberry. Rather than
employing creative agencies to engage this segment, RIM needs to focus on strategies that partner with
the key change agents – Disruptive Divas. Increasing female representation in innovation, marketing and
RIM’s workforce – not clever, funny or creative advertising campaigns – is key to helping Blackberry stay
relevant long term.
Women, Technology and Change
Modern women are putting old fashioned stereotypes to bed. Women now buy more tech than men
according to this source. They also play more mobile games than their male counterparts. This
traditionally was the bastion of the 30 something female casual gamer but new data suggests that even
female under 30s are outpacing their male peers.
Having worked in the mobile industry across 3 successive decades now, I’ve seen women’s role change
from being the “end consumers” of the industry’s Pink Phone Syndrome to key change agents in the
wider tapestry of youth mobile behavior.
Young girls are key change agents in the future of the mobile industry. In the late 90s it was young high
school girls that took the humble executive pager (“pokeberu”) in Japan and turned it into a peer
communication device inventing their own language (“pokekotoba”) along the way. It is women who
have been pivotal in changing the nature of key mobile brands like Blackberry in the last decade. Like
the Pokeberu, Blackberry has been traditionally aimed at the business market but it’s young girls who
have been co-opting it for their purposes.
Disruptive Divas
Disruptive Divas are one of the 3 change agents featured in the 2012 mobileYouth report. They
represent less than 10% of the market but account for the majority of influence. When Divas got hold of
“dad’s phone” they were making a statement about their arrival into the establishment just as they
would by adopting other symbols of the establishment (e.g. Louis Vuitton). Markets that saw the
greatest change in the role of women between generations (e.g. South Africa, Indonesia, Nigeria) also
witnessed the emergence of strong Diva beachheads of support for Blackberry.
It’s Divas who gave BBM a raison d’etre. It’s Divas who were the first to make BBM groups a workable
feature of the new handsets. Divas may not have the most money but they create the most indirect
value for the brand (innovation, influence, education, peer-to-peer service etc.) Without Divas,
Blackberry would be an ailing executive brand fighting off the iPhone from its incursion into the business
market. But RIM needs to address the female market and this is where the real challenge lies.
http://www.mobileyouth.org

2. Blackberry’s Creative Challenge
Give the challenge to RIM’s creative agencies and you’ll get the usual answer – tell the story about
Blackberry but do it using social media. It’s new media but business as usual. In fact RIM’s creative
agencies may be a major obstacle in the company’s ability to engage the Diva segment because these
agencies only know brand management.
What RIM needs to do is let go of brand management and allow the Divas to take ownership of the
brand. By curating rather than controlling their interactions, innovations and conversations, Blackberry
can become a tool to help these change agents tell their story.
Challenging the Technological Patriarchy
The wider challenge for RIM is male hegemony. When women rival males in tech ownership and usage
the media label them as “geeks” or “tech obsessed”. When brands involve creative or design agencies
they come up with pink phones or, worse still, research about how women want phones to take pictures
of babies (see JWT research).
It’s technological patriarchy that has made Google+ stall. According to some sources, 75% of Google+
users are men. Big problem. Why? Because 75%+ of the engineers at Google are men. Google engineers
think we want a rival to Facebook but, in reality, the key growth area they’re missing out on is a group of
teenage girls using Google+ as video hangouts. If Google were to engage this group they’d find out how
to grow the service around a defined beachhead of support.
There is a pervasive myth in the mobile industry that influence lies in the early adopter and creating
Earned Media means engaging this segment. This is why Google+ have failed. This myth also threatens
to derail Blackberry because creative agency marketing is so often geared towards this segment.
Disruptive Divas aren’t early adopters and that’s why engineers have trouble understanding them.
Rather than being early adopters, these change agents are leaders. They are the wider inflection point in
change. It’s women who amplified the Arab Spring (starting in Iran). It’s women who were the first to
challenge racial segregation in the US. It’s also women who will help Blackberry maintain and grow its
non-business market position.
It’s time to change. Lego recently announced it’s intention to build better relationships with the “$1
billion girl”. Starbucks and IBM both recently appointed their first female board members.RIM needs to
dump the agencies and partners that confine it to the world view their future lies with early adopter
males. RIM needs to start bringing Disruptive Divas into the innovation and marketing process and
treating them as partners, rather than destinations.
http://www.mobileyouth.org

3. If you would like to understand how mobileYouth can help you:
 create loyalty and recommendation rates amongst female customers
 understand who the leaders and followers are amongst your fans
 discover what motivates your customers and fans
Please contact:
Josh Dhaliwal
Director, mobileYouth
http://www.mobileYouth.org
http://www.mobileYouthReport.com
josh.dhaliwal@mobileyouth.org
Tel: +44 203 286 3635
Mob: +44 7904 200 513
http://www.mobileyouth.org