Raj Anand » innovation

Blackberry’ homepage 2002-10 and key learnings about their strategy

rajanand — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 12:45:06 +0000

The home page of a website tells us a lot about the marketing strategy and product lines. No better example than Blackberry, which has constantly been working on it’s offering and audience. It began as a completely business focused (see 2002), although over the years it saw uptake from regular users and tweaked it’s message. 2006 onwards individuals became a significant market for it’s mobiles. Compared to 2004 the company focused on selling business to business (B2B) by focusing on individual industries like financial, health-care, government and other verticals.

In 2005 they concentrated on markets based on their geographical locations, providing various products to fit the local demands. 2006 onwards individuals became a very interesting market for Blackberry. In 2008 it was the main focus of the company, even more than it’s business users. 2009 marks an important shift in Blackberry’s branding strategy to go from a very corporate look and feel to a very consumer focused. First time ever, Blackberry could be considered as a end user focused product, from the branding perspective. 2010 clearly shows off it’s social features, solely focused on the consumer. The corporate image has completely disappeared from it’s homepage. It’s now competing heads on with iPhone/Android as a user friendly social device.

2002

Corporate market centric, reflecting branding of it’s time.

2003

Blackberry integrating it’s offering with Microsoft and Lotus’s software packages

2004

Blackberry brings some life into it’s offering by focusing on bright colours and product, as oppose to it’s audience. Blackberry also categorises it’s offering to various industries, very typical for a B2B enterprise.

2005

Blackberry get’s more involved in developing new product range and focused on it’s markets based on it’s geographic location

2006

Individuals become very important to Blackberry’s market

2007

2007 showcases a role back on it’s strategy to focus on businesses

2008

Blackberry was back focusing on individuals before businesses.

2009

Important shift in strategy, making Blackberry a end-user focused brand competing with Apple/Google

2010

Blackberry is all about the user, highly social via integration with social media tools.

The rise of the new Social Media Smarphones

rajanand — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 08:27:07 +0000

Social media and networking has become an international obsession, with Facebook accumulating more than half a billion users and microblogging site Twitter growing from humble beginnings into a powerful tool which can be used to build political movements or get its users in trouble with the authorities. Some analysts predict that social networking sites like these will soon overtake standard search engines like Google as the most popular means by which internet users discover information. People share news stories and links to interesting online content with their friends and people can become overnight stars just because they have become popular in the world of social media.

Dawn of the Smartphone

It is possible to draw a line between the growth of social networking and the dawn of the smartphone. Mobiles have become steadily more advanced over the years, but whereas in the past the focus was on ever-improving hardware, these days people are more concerned with the software and connectivity options offered by mobiles. Smartphones are no longer the preserve of the most affluent users, because even pay as you go models can go online and even connect via Wi-Fi networks using dedicated browser software.

The growth of social media on the mobile platform has been fuelled by the popularisation of applications, which in itself has only come to the attention of mainstream users thanks to the success of the Apple iPhone (and the enormous growth of Android) and its various iterations. Users of Facebook access the site in their hundreds of millions from dedicated apps or via mobile web browsers each and every month and it is regularly the most visited mobile site on the planet according to mobile browser developer Opera.

Multimedia on Mobiles

The multimedia features of mobiles are also taken into account by social networking functions, with most phones coming with built in cameras which can shoot video and stills that the user can then upload directly to their social networking profile or to video sharing sites like YouTube. This allows users to instantly transmit the latest information from their life in a visual manner, distributed to a potential audience of billions around the globe. Location-based social networking services like Foursquare, Google Latitude and Facebook places have also only become possible because of the GPS technology which is commonly integrated into even the low to mid range mobiles of the modern era.

Mobile phone manufacturers now choose to hardwire social media and social networking features into mobile phones, rather than forcing the user to rely on third party apps which must be accessed separately, disrupting the natural flow. The likes of Motorola`s MotoBLUR, HTC`s FriendStream and Sony Ericsson`s MediaScape are all examples of how the disparate threads of different social networking services are being drawn together so users can get all of their notifications and in a single place. It is also significant that the three examples of cross-platform mobile social media services given above are all built on mobiles running the Google Android operating system, which is fast becoming the go-to software for consumers who want a low cost way to stay in touch when they are out and about.

Selling just under 300 books per week in just 20 days

rajanand — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 12:47:43 +0000

I’m glad to announce that my book on recruiting with social media in just 20 days is now ranked 17,367 out of 424,793 Kiddle books on Amazon.

According to fonerbooks.com that implies that the book is selling just under 300 books per week on Amazon.com alone based on the graph (below) and multiplying a factor of three (as suggested by) Morris:

“Amazon announced in July of 2010 that Kindle sales are running 3X the rate of the first half of 2009, so you may want to triple the numbers on the sales/week axis below”

Thanks to everyone who has bought the book and thanks for the support! If you haven’t bought a copy, you can download a free first chapter of the book.

My book ‘Recruiting with Social Media’ out 3rd August

rajanand — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 07:52:24 +0000

I’m glad to inform that my book Recruitment with Social Media, Social Media’s Impact on Recruitment and HR is out on 3rd August 2010, published by Que/Pearson Publication. You can buy a copy from Recruiting with Social Media (Que eStore).

About the Book

The book highlights the power of recruiting people with Social Media! Social Media is not only an effective marketing tool to get candidates and customers onboard but also a tool to help decrease costs on communication, interaction, knowledge management/ transfer inside a company and externally with suppliers and customers.

Update (16th December 2010) The book is now available on Amazon.com / Amazon.co.uk/ Sony Reader Store / Infibeam.com (Asia)

Book Information

11 Famous Brands and Hidden Information Contained in their Logos

rajanand — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 08:27:57 +0000

Logos are a key aspect of a Brands personality and recognition. A lot of effort and thinking goes into building a good logo, which has a deeper meaning. Here are 11 logos and their hidden meaning.

Amazon.com

This logo doesn’t seem to hide much at first sight, but it gives you a little insight in the philosophy behind the brand. First of all, the yellow swoosh looks like a smile: Amazon.com want to have the best customer satisfaction. The swoosh also connects the letters a and z, meaning that this store has everything from a to z.

Fedex

This is probably one of the best known logos with a hidden meaning. If you look closely, you’ll see an arrow that’s formed by the letters E and x. This arrow symbolizes speed and precision, two major selling points of this company.

Continental

Continental is a manufacturer of tyres. You could actually see this in their logo, because the first two letters create a 3-dimensional tyre.

Toblerone

Toblerone is a chocolate-company from Bern, Switzerland. Bern is sometimes called ‘The City Of Bears’. They have incorporated this idea in the Toblerone logo, because if you look closely, you’ll see the silhouette of a bear.

Baskin Robins

The old logo of Baskin Robbins had the number 31 with an arc above it. The new logo took this idea to the next level. The pink parts of the BR still form the number 31, a reference to the 31 flavours.

Sony Vaio

Sony Vaio is a well known brand of laptops. But did you know that the name Vaio logo also had a hidden meaning? Well, the first two letters represent the basic analogue signal. The last two letters look like a 1 and 0, representing the digital signal.

Carrefour

Carrefour is one of the biggest European retailers, and it’s also French for “crossroads”. The logo symbolizes this word via two opposite arrows. They also added the first letter of the name, because if you look closely you’ll see the letter C in the negative space between the two arrows.

Unilever

Unilever is one of the biggest producers of food, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products. They produce a huge amount of different products and they wanted to reflect this in their logo. Each part of the logo has a meaning. For example: the heart represents love, care and health – feeling good, a bird is a symbol of freedom. Relief from daily chores – getting more out of life.

Formula 1

At first, this logo might not make much sense. But if you look closely, you’ll see the number 1 in the negative space between the F and the red stripes. I also love how this logo communicates a feeling of speed.

Sun Microsystems

The Sun logo is one of the most famous ambigrams in the world. You can read the brand name in every direction; both horizontally and vertically. This logo was designed by professor Vaughan Pratt of the Stanford University.

NBC

The NBC (National Broadcasting Company) is one of the biggest American television networks. I think most of you have already seen the peacock in this logo. The peacock has 6 different tail feathers, referring to the six divisions at the time that this logo was created. The peacock’s head is flipped to the right to suggest it was looking forward, not back.

Windows offers Google Doc equivalent, do you care?

rajanand — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 06:09:46 +0000

Windows yesterday (7th June) posted a message launching their Office web apps on Skydrive in UK, US, Canada and Ireland. I had a quick play around with it and compared it with Google Docs, see screenshots below:

Microsoft Office suite

Google Docs

The question I am trying to ask myself is why would someone using Google Docs for say less than three years be interested in migrating to SkyDrive? There is a OneNote document feature, which is different but possible a glorified Google Document? I am probably judging Microsoft without giving them a fair chance.

I would love to know what are the next steps for Windows to improve their SkyDrive offering? How can brands and developers use their web apps? What would be it’s unique selling point (USP) in the next 3-5 years?

Our experience of launching Internal Communication Platform

rajanand — Fri, 28 May 2010 07:41:45 +0000

We (The Actualize Group / @actualizelabs) are a 130+ employee company providing IT services to premium banking, insurance, telecommunication and technology customer based in London, Spain, Brazil, Chile and Mexico. We believe that communication inside our organisation is a key aspect of developing a healthy environment and working relationships. Further the more the company’s employees speak and interact, the greater are the opportunities of building a positive vibe and giving/receiving more out of employees.

In addition to creating a positive impact within the company internal communication is also the first step to building a sustainable innovation strategy. Without having an internal community it’s almost impossible to build an external community around the organisation. Having an external community would help push the concept of developing products, getting feedback on products/service, innovation etc to the next level. A bit like Twitter, where once 70% of it’s usage was seen from applications built by other developers.

Experience of building Internal Community

Considerations

From the word go, we knew that developing an internal community will not be easy. Given that we are multinational, speaking upto 5 languages in various countries. We also know that developing a paper based communication platform wouldn’t work for us as it is slow, expensive and not nearly as interactive as the online version. Further, we didn’t think that email was ideal for communication as they often get lost amongst the piles of other emails. Further it’s not a systematic way to respond to comments. Hence we decided to engage an online social media platform, where we could manage all the communications at a central point, accessible via web, mobile or tablet.

Result

I am glad to announce that we recently launched our internal communication tool. Within a matter of 18 days we managed to get more than 25% (28% to be precise) of the company on the communication platform. All members have explicitly chosen to join the platform, i.e. they have signed up voluntarily. 70% of all members are actively commenting, suggesting and interacting. Although 20% of members are contributing to 80% of the content, hence the 20-80 rule applies. What’s more impressive is the fact that many of the new messages on the internal communication platform are new ideas and concept for future products and services.

It is fantastic to see that everyone in the company is pushing to re-innovate and rediscover the organization. I must be completely honest and mention that it hasn’t been easy, to get people on to the internal communication channel is rather challenging and requires an internal campaign, but it seems the experience is worth it. Especially in unifying communication and giving employees the opportunity to change the fortunes of the company.

Thinking about Disruptive Innovation?

rajanand — Thu, 13 May 2010 09:06:36 +0000

Very impressive presentation by Frog Design regarding innovation.

Innovation By 10

My favourite aspects of their presentation is their take on types of Innovation:

Disruptive Innovation?

Most businesses try to be disruptive innovators but are either just catching up with their competitors i.e. evolving or growing as a company hence just expanding. Truly disruptive innovation requires thinking out of the box, which has it’s own challenges but also potentially opens new doors.

Too many features?

Also, during various parts of the presentation it explains that many companies are knowingly or unknowingly involved in feature creep, although the product or service is truly innovative when one can’t remove anything else from it, to improve it’s performance. So it’s not about more cool stuff, it’s actually about few things which work perfectly.

Why Ning’s Business model doesn’t make sense!

rajanand — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 06:39:12 +0000

Recently found out that Ning is cutting is costs inorder to be more competitive , firing 40% of it’s staff. Having run a social networking software company myself. I ‘m well aware of the challenges and opportunities in running a social media shop.

Apart from it’s advertisement supported business model, one of the principle reasons why Ning isn’t making as much money as it should is the chicken and egg situtation they find themselves in. If you give a highly valuable item i.e. the software, to customers for free, there is a good chance that they underestimate it’s power and not fully utilise it. Equally if the company decides to charge for templated social networking service, especially if it’s around $75 per month i.e. $900/year, users begin to question it’s value. Question like, “Should we just get a self hosted social media site instead?” “How do we extend the social network and innovate when it gets bigger” “What if our user’s don’t like Ning’s usability” etc

Ning deploys a tried and tested Software as a Service (SaaS) business model, although we shouldn’t forget SaaS works best for internal communication platforms for example in the case of Basecamp, SalesForce etc. There are examples of blogging software like WordPress or several widget based companies which have done exceptionally well using SaaS, although they are different. WordPress allows SaaS on WordPress.com but also has the option to download the entire software on WordPress.org, where bulk of the goodwill and open source innovation happens. Equally widget based companies are primarily slotting into a bigger web presence i.e. a website, social network etc and isn’t a standalone solution.

In my opinion it’s impossible to find a successful standalone SaaS customer-facing software, without a concrete open source offering.

Videos interviews with recruitment experts at #TruLondon

rajanand — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 11:42:34 +0000

I had some really interesting conversations with people at #TruLondon unfortunately not all videos came out. Technology fail! Never the less some really interesting content available below.

Social Sourcing and Future of Blogging

SourcerSrini mentions how he is uses social media for sourcing candidates.
PunkRockHR good insight on the future of blogging.

Innovative startup in Recruitment

@James_Mayes talks about innovative stuff they are doing within their new start-up