It’s always hard to leave your job, especially these days, but it must be difficult to hear that the analysts in your market think your departure is a good thing.
[ad#Google Adsense 300×250 in story]That’s what’s happening to Keith Pardy, RIM’s marketing chief. Over the weekend, it was reported that Pardy would leave the company for personal reasons. His departure comes just weeks before the company’s PlayBook tablet is due to be released.
“I don’t think it’s any secret that Apple in particular has been outmarketing RIM for some time. And with the PlayBook coming out shortly, they are going to have to kick up marketing into high gear,” Jack Gold, principal analyst at J. Gold Associates, told eWEEK.
A research note released by Jefferies & Co. on Monday echoed Gold’s views.
“Due to [RIM’s] market share losses in the U.S., a new marketing approach could be beneficial,” according to the Jefferies note. “Especially in front of QNX, new handsets, new tablets, new apps, new ecosystem [equals the need for a] new message. Making a switch now makes sense.”
No amount of marketing can hide the fact that RIM cannot offer a cohesive and comprehensive ecosystem for the PlayBook. Impressive tech specs might cach the attention of geeks, but people want apps, games, 1-click purchasing. Stuff that Just Works. Marketing can’t cover the gaping holes in RIM’s story.
RIM’s attempt at beng hip on the last few rounds of Tv commercials have been totally lame.
Any analyst who thinks that marketing is the reason behind Apple’s success or RIM’s lack thereof is completely clueless.
How does one get a job as an analyst, anyway? I’m sure those guys are making a lot more than me but I know more than them just from reading The Loop and a couple other blogs.
These analysts start out on the right path but take the first detour that says ‘Free Hotdogs’, ignoring the fact that it’s written in blood.
RIM doesn’t need to send a “new message”, they fo need to kick their marketing up a notch, though.
The way I see it, Pardy either left RIM because he knows the company is going to the shitter, due to the c-level being unreasonable and incompetent and he wasn’t able to do his job properly,
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Hehe, we should all become analysts, I don’t think the job title is protected in any way 🙂
But marketing is exactly what RIM needs to get better at, not just advertising.
I think in 3 years when the company is bankrupt or bought by Lenovo or something, we won’t remember that Pardy was probably the smart one.
You can’t market what you aren’t shipping…