OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF...

No one says I can’t have an opinion about marketing a product. Especially if that product has tried everything and nothing works. I remember how right I was several years ago when I guffawed at General Motors investing millions to advertise the Cadillac, the car that every market survey said was driven by people over 60. “Waste of money,” I cried. “Chasing rainbows,” I declared. “The brand deserved to be laid to rest,” I insisted. The rest is history. I was wrong. And even though GM needed a multi-billion dollar federal rescue, the one bright spot was Cadillac, now being marketed as hip, cool, and “today!” The Escalade was probably the reason. But even today, are they sending good money after bad with “It’s not just a luxury car – it’s a Cadillac?” Then they let fly all those arrows and the hottest new Caddy slips in among them all and emerges unscathed.
But How big a danger are bowmen today? Do they lurk behind every bend in the road?

Forget about General Motors. I have a new target – and what a target! Research in Motion.

For years I have watched as everyone who was anyone depended on his Blackberry. I received Email replies tagged “sent from my Blackberry.” Even President Obama and his Blackberry were inseparable. But the vagaries of marketing hi-tech electronic are so Byzantine, so unpredictable, who can depend on anything?

Getting serious. R.I.M. stock has dropped more than two thirds in the past year. (I haven’t checked since the last crash, it has to be even lower.) Because I am a baseball fan and wherever possible, tune in to Blue Jays games, I see the constant pounding by RIM of their new “pad.” They must be spending a fortune to try to sell a product that has been put in the shadows by Apple’s IPad. They are now saying that their new generations of phones will win the markets back, or at least stop the bleeding. The hubris developed by years of dominating success is hard to set aside. It’s almost like the Big Three in Detroit sneering at Japanese cars while their (Big 3) market share kept dissolving before their unbelieving eyes.

R.I.M. has tried to turn things around. They are laying off thousands to reduce costs. They continue with their current executives even though investors are howling for their removal. And the stock continues to drop. Only the contrarians are buying.

So – here’s my idea: stop promoting the new and better pad. In fact, prepare a series of mea culpa commercials in which the President, who can be made to look earnest and sincere, admits that they have fallen behind and that they owe it to their faithful to promise better days ahead. Then you announce serious price cuts to the Playbook Tablet so that it comes in at a huge bargain compared to IPad and the other Android powered “pads.” Give it away. Then announce that soon there will be pad that will surpass anything that is now on the market. When it is introduced everyone who bought a discounted Playbook Tablet will be able to turns that item in and be given a discount on the new winner.

The hitch of course is that they have to produce that winner.

But one thing is certain in my mind: the executives, who have been announcing a recovery and a stop to the shrinking of their markets, will have to produce.

The trouble with Research in Motion is that they have been coasting, living off past laurels. A little fix is not enough.

For all you marketing gurus – something to think about. But don’t blame me if I’m dead wrong.