MARKETING MANAGEMENT

University Of Wales MBA

Postgraduate program

Master of Business Administration

MARKETING MANAGEMENT

SALES AND AFTER SALES SERVICE CENTRE IN NIGERIA

RESEARCH IN MOTION

WORD COUNT: 2529

Written by:

ADELE
KE ADEMOLA ABIODIN

STU17164

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TABLE OF CONTENT

PAGE

1.0 OVERVIEW
3

2.0 MARKETING PLAN

3

3.0 OBJECTIVE
4

4.0 SWOT ANALYSIS

4

5.0 MARKETING STRATEGY

6

6.0 MARKETING MIX

7

7.0 COST OF INVESTMENT AND ROI

8

REFRENCES
9

APPENDICES
11

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1.0 OVERVIEW

Marketing is very important and is a very vital part of management for any
organization to be successful in business today. All organizations share one thing
in common; they focus on identifying, serving and satisfying the needs and
wants of the customers. Philip Kotler (2002)

Every one of us is a customer in one way or the other in our various life activities
and at some time we would be at different sides of the marketing grid. There
have been so many definitions for marketing but according to Christian Gronroos
(1989), ‘the cornerstone of marketing is based on long term relationship’. The
ability of an organization to consistently satisfy the needs of their customers will
keep the customers coming back and that will contribute immensely to the
continuous existence of the organization.

Following in the stead of an organizations strategy which answers the most

important questions of:

1) Where are we?

2) Where do we want to go? and

3) How do we get there?

Marketing strategy of an organization helps to achieve the overall strategy by

setting certain intentions and implementing them to achieve certain results. With
reference to figure 1 in the appendices, marketing management in itself deals
with the product and the market at the organizational level and its role is to
formulate and implement marketing programmes. Subhash C. Jain (2000)

2.0 MARKETING PLAN

Taking a look at the current position of Research in Motion, they are a world
leader in the telecommunications industry worldwide. According to the annual
report of their year ended February 2010, it says and I quote ‘ Research In
Motion Limited (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM), a world leader in the mobile
communications market, today reported results for the three months and fiscal
year ended February 27, 2010 (all figures in U.S. dollars and U.S. GAAP)’. Annual
Report (2010)

From the annual report, certain highlights were stated to show the achievements
of the organization and they were summarized thus;

Annual Highlights:
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• Revenue grew 35% over the prior fiscal year to $15 billion
• BlackBerry subscriber account base grew 65% over the prior fiscal year to over
41 million, with a record 4.9 million net new subscriber accounts added in Q4
• BlackBerry smart phone shipments grew more than 40% over the prior fiscal
year to 37 million
• BlackBerry was the number one selling smart phone brand in the United States
at the end of calendar 2009
• GAAP earnings per share grew 30% over the prior fiscal year to $4.31 per share
diluted

From this information, RIM has been able to achieve a good standing in the
industry. This has been achieved through intense research and development
which is has been going on constantly for about twenty years and after Apple
ushered in a new age of technological product, RIM focused on a different
segment of the market and created a version of Apples I-phone which was for
music and entertainment and replaced that with a product for people who
needed to be in touch with information at all times through e-mail, text
messaging and chat services. Heather Green (2004)

Having made a remarkable mark in hardware and software sales and distributing
its products through national carriers all over the world, I want to proffer a more
customer oriented approach to the sales and marketing strategy of RIM.

Giving the position of a leader in the telecommunications industry at the

moment, other organizations will also be aiming to develop products which will
compete with the RIM devices and capitalizing on the perception of the
organization by the customers who are currently enjoying the blackberry
experience will be a good way to grow and retain revenue for RIM.

RIM already has offices in Canada, North America and Asia

(http://www.rim.com/company/). I want to propose that they set up a sale and
after sales service centre in Nigeria where their products which include software,
hand held devices (the blackberry smart phone) will be sold and also after sales
services will be rendered to the customers.

3.0 OBJECTIVES

This sale and after sales service centre should in turn achieve the following
objectives and target:

1) Increase device revenues by 10%

2) Increase service revenues by 0.001%

3) Drive software platform sales to SME’s to achieve a 15% of the market

share

4) Reach its sales target in 12 months

Device sales should hit a target of 2.5 million units at the sales and service
centre and a further 2.5 million by distribution through the nation’s mobile
network carrier.
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4.0 SWOT ANALYSIS

Referring to the SWOT Analysis for RIM which is adapted from Datamonitor which
is a leading business information company specializing in industry analysis. This
market plan is founded on the basis of taking advantage of the organizations
weaknesses and converting them into strengths.

One of the weaknesses is the issue of supply of RIM products to the end user. At
the moment this is being dealt with by RIM in the form of alliances with the
mobile telecommunication carries of different countries all over the world. They
are currently using the platforms of existing mobile telecommunication networks
as a distribution channel for their product especially the blackberry smart phone
and in all and are distributing through 475 carriers worldwide. RIM Press release
(1999)

Another weakness which is being momentarily converted to strength is the

reliance of RIM on a small customer base. In their annual report for the year
ended February 2010, ‘the blackberry subscriber account base grew 65% over
the prior fiscal year to over 41 million, with a record 4.9 million net new
subscriber accounts added in Q4’

This figure shows that already there is a move in this direction and a very high
potential for growth and this reinforces the viability of this market plan in
reaching out some more to the end users of the products and having a more
customer oriented approach. As mentioned earlier, the cornerstone of marketing
is the ability to develop a long term relationship with the customers. Christian
Gronroos (1989)

5.0 MARKETING STRATEGY

This market strategy overall is consistent with the general outlook of RIM as an
organization and will most importantly allow RIM to increase their market share
and revenue. According to Michael Porters generic strategies, the overall outlook
of this marketing strategy would be the Differentiation strategy Philip Kotler
(2000), refer to figure 3 in the appendices. This is because the Nigerian market is
highly driven by perception and the best approach is to go in and create an
impression in the market.

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa with a population of about 150
million people and it has a very rich and diverse cultural background and it is
also one of the commercial nerve centres in West Africa and Africa. Indexmundi
(2010). The following figures presented below are the statistics of the population
distribution of Nigeria at a glance and the essence of presenting these figures is
to establish the potential of the market in terms of customers.

Age Distribution:

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0-14 years: 41.5% (male 31,624,050/female 30,242,637)

15-64 years: 55.5% (male 42,240,641/female 40,566,672)
65 years and over: 3.1% (male 2,211,840/female 2,343,250)

Urbanization:

Urban population: 48% of total population (2008)

rate of urbanization: 3.8% annual rate of change

Literacy:

Definition: age 15 and over can read and write

total population: 68%
male: 75.7%
female: 60.6%

Looking at the age distribution of the country, 55% of the population which
comes to about 83 million people fall within the range of customers that can be
targeted by RIM. They are the class of people who tend to be more drawn
towards technological advances and products.

Again 86% of the people that fall within this age bracket can be found in the
urban centres. Cities like Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt where a considerably
high amount of business activities are carried out will be the areas where these
sales outlets will be located.

It is important to also mention that 68% of the population are literate and
therefore they can indeed make use of the offering and the products of RIM. The
figures showing the subscriber data base in figure 5 shows a very large portion of
the market is still left untapped and this potential market is going to be RIM’s
target market.

The Nigerian market can be segmented demographically and psycho graphically

using factors such as age, income, occupation and education. Psycho graphically,
we would be looking at social class and lifestyle. The demographic segmentation
of the market has been delved into above and some of the factors quite overlap
with the psycho graphic factors when it comes to the Nigerian population.

1) Social class: This can be further broken down into the working class,
image in society, peer group and a generally they way one is seen in the
society. Nigerians are a people that hold perception in high regard and the
way a person presents him or herself says a lot about them. They always
want to be seen as trendy and up to date which will attract them to RIM’s
offering.

2) Lifestyle: Also they are seen to flashy people and always want to have the
best of things. This can be seen in the society as high valued products
such as cars have a very good market base. Lagos is the fifth most
expensive city in the world and Port Harcourt is also one of the most

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expensive cities in Africa and this goes a long way to show that the
population can afford the products.

Figure 5 in the appendices shows the telecommunications market at a glance

and from the data we can infer that there is still around 40% of the market that
falls within the market segmentation which is still untapped. This figure goes on
to show that the objectives set by this marketing strategy are achievable.

The telecommunications industry in Nigeria has seen tremendous growth in the

past 15 years. According to the chief executive officer of the Nigerian
communications commission in 2005 Engr Ernest C A Ndukwe, he said ‘The
Board of the Commission from inception worked assiduously to build the
regulatory structures required for enhanced private sector participation’. The
result of this has brought about a massive growth in the subscriber base of
mobile communication users and internet users too.

Ansoff Matrix has been said to be one of the concepts that can be used to
analyse and compare the market against an organizations offering Malcolm H.B.
McDonald (1992). Referring to figure 4 in the appendices, the position of RIM in
expanding into Nigeria would be a mix of market penetration and market
development. Currently RIM is does not have any alliance with any of the mobile
telecommunication companies in the country.

In a telephone interview conducted with an old colleague, he mentioned that

currently the blackberry handheld devices are purchased from the open market
and sold as a bundled product by adding one of their stand alone products to it.

Figure 5 show that there is healthy competition between the mobile network
operators and forming an alliance with them will give them an alternative
distribution network and they will share the mobile operator’s customers too.

6.0 MARKETING MIX

Product will be introduced to the market as they are. Blackberry handheld

devices, software platforms for office networks and applications that are relevant
to the market will also be sold as part of the offering. These products will be
highly competitive in the market as there are barely any real threats from other
competitors.

Promotion will be carried out in the way of adverts, bills boards and ads on cabs
and high rise buildings in the business districts of the cities where most of the
working class people and businesses can be found.
Also, there will be advertisements in college campuses to draw the attention of
students and the school society towards the offering.
To create a niche position, there will be no affiliations to raves and entertainment
programmes rather there will be affiliations to educative programmes such as

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seminars and educative competitions. This will portray an image of seriousness

and responsibility with an outlook of adding value to people’s lives.

Pricing will be set in relation to global prices and the prices that are obtainable
for various products all over the world will be offered. This will make the offering
to be seen as standardized and the image that RIM has on the global scale will
be maintained in the new market.
Although various payment plans such as pay monthly plans should be introduced
to target customers who might not be able to come out of the pocket for a one
off purchase of a product. This can also be a good selling point for office
application and soft ware’s.
The convenience of payment plan will be a strong point that will create very
good competitive advantage for the organization.

Place as mentioned earlier will be locations in the business districts of big cities
where a high percentage of the target market can be found. Another
consideration will be forming an alliance with existing mobile network operators
who will officially distribute the hand held devices and sell as a branded product
along with their network products and services.
This marketing mix is aimed at creating brand equity which intensifies and
strengthens the presence of the brand in the market. Boonghee Yoo et al (2000).
The image created by this mix will also differentiate RIM and put it in a class by
itself in the market. This will ensure that the marketing strategy is followed and
also ensure a constantly growing market share because perception goes a long
way in the minds of the customers in the Nigerian market.

7.0 COST OF INVESTMENT AND ROI

The cost of investment is estimated below:
Office space: N10, 000,000.00 per month for 12 months in two locations
Personnel : N120, 000,000.00 per annum
Cost of operations: N240, 000,000.00 per annum
Cost of marketing and advertising: N250, 000,000.00 per annum
Contingency fund/ Miscellaneous: N 100, 000,000.00
Total sum of Initial Investment: N1, 430, 000,000.00
Approximately : N1, 405, 000,000.00

The value in US$ @ $1 – N150.00: $9, 700, 000.00

Considering unforeseen circumstances and expenditure and to be in a position
as comfortable as possible, we can safely assume the investment to be at $10,
000,000.00
From the set targets and objectives, the expected income from the investment
should be as follows:

Revenue from services: 0.001% of annual revenue of $14.95 billion = $2.3

Million

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Revenue from sales: with 2.5 Million units target selling at an average of $250
each =
$625,000,000.00

Total revenue: $627,300,000.00

@ 50% TARGET YEAR 1 YEAR 2

EXPENDITURE ($) 10,000,000.00 10,000,000.00
INCOME ($) 313,650,000.00 313,650,000.00
VARIANCE ($) 312,650,000.00 312,650,000.00
ROI (%) 31 31

FIGURE 7: BUDGET FLEXING FOR EXPECTED INCOME IN THE FIRST TWO YEARS

From the figures shown above even if the market plan were to be bringing in half
of the expected returns, although speculative it is certain that RIM as an
organization can thrive excellently in the Nigerian market and they can
significantly increase their global market share, generate a high revenue and be
very competitive.

REFERENCES

Christian Gronroos (1989) Defining Marketing: A Market-Oriented Approach

European Journal of Marketing Volume: 23 Issue: 1 Page: 52 – 60

Subhash C. Jain (2000) Marketing planning and strategy. [Online] Available at

http://faculty.fuqua.duke.edu/~moorman/GeneralMills/Section2/Section2Docume
nts/MarketingPlanningAndStrategy-p23-27.pdf accessed on 24th March, 2010

Annual report 2010 research in motion [Online] Available at

http://www.rim.com/investors/documents/pdf/pressrelease/2010/Q4_press_releas
e.pdf accessed on 24th March, 2010

Heather Green, Cliff Edwards and Roger O. Crockett [Online] Available at

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_49/b3911084_mz063.htm
accessed on 24th March, 2010

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Indexmundi (2010) [Online] Available at

http://www.indexmundi.com/nigeria/demographics_profile.html source CIA World
fact book accessed on 24th March, 2010

National communications commission Nigeria [Online] Available at

http://www.ncc.gov.ng/subscriberdata.htm accessed on 24th March, 2010

ENGR ERNEST C A NDUKWE (2005) TELECOMMUNICATIONS IN NIGERIA: THE

NEXT FRONTIER [Online] Available at
http://www.ncc.gov.ng/speeches_presentations/EVC%27s
%20Presentation/Telecommunications%20in%20Nigeria.pdf accessed on 24th
March, 2010

Malcolm H.B. McDonald (1992) Strategic Marketing Planning: A State-of-the-art

Review Marketing Intelligence & Planning Volume: 10 Issue: 4 Page: 4 – 22 ISSN:
0263-4503 DOI: 10.1108/02634509210016632 [Online] Available at
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/02634509210016632 accessed on 24th
March, 2010

[Online] Available at http://www.jidaw.com/telecomproviders.html accessed on

24th March, 2010

Boonghee Yoo, Naveen Donthu, and Sungho Lee (2000) an examination

of selected marketing mix elements and brand equity. Journal of
marketing science Volume 28, number 2 March 2000
10.1177/0092070300282002

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12 Manage.com [Online] Available at http://www.12manage.com/methods_3C

%27s.html accessed on 24th March, 2010

APPENDICES

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FIGURE 1: ROLE OF MARKETING IN AN ORGANIZATION (adapted from journal of

marketing 1989)

Strengths Weaknesses

Growing brand image Dependence on few customers

Comprehensive offerings Issues with product supply

Robust financials

Opportunities Threats

Positive outlook for smart phones Increasing competition

Expanding portfolio of offerings Involvement in legal issues

FIGURE 2: SWOT Analysis for RIM adapted from Data Monitor

Publication July 2009

FIGURE 3: Michael Porter’s generic strategies

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FIGURE 4: Ansoff Matrix adapted from Wikipedia

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FIGURE 5: SURVEY OF MOBILE NETWORK USERS IN NIGERIA (adapted from

jidaw.com 2009)

Subscrib
er Data

Subscriber Data At A Glance

(September 2009 - February 2010)
Sep '09 Oct '09 Nov '09 Dec '09 Jan '10 Feb '10
Mobile 61,998, 63,250, 63,391, 65,533, 66,738, 67,851,
GSM 716.00 377.00 945.00 875.00 944.00 706.00
Active Mobile 6,994,3 7,291,7 7,448,1 7,565,4 7,772,6 7,795,5
lines cdma 29.00 14.00 56.00 35.00 70.00 64.00
Fixed 1,344,6 1,366,2 1,410,1 1,481,9 1,422,5 1,433,7
wireless 12.00 69.00 30.00 54.00 93.00 36.00
70,337, 71,908, 72,250, 74,518, 75,934, 75,934,
Total
657.00 360.00 231.00 264.00 207.00 207.00

Mobile 121,785 121,785 121,785 121,785 126,785 124,125

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GSM ,526.00 ,526.00 ,526.00 ,526.00 ,526.00 ,308.00

Installed Mobile 14,602, 14,723, 14,724, 14,829, 15,253, 15,272,
capacity cdma 284.00 269.00 987.00 931.00 699.00 405.00
Fixed 9,360,0 9,362,4 9,373,9 9,388,1 9,408,8 9,437,7
wireless 99.00 16.00 47.00 45.00 38.00 57.00
145,747 145,871 145,924 146,003 151,448 148,835
Total
,909.00 ,211.00 ,460.00 ,602.00 ,063.00 ,470.00
Teleden
50.24 51.36 51.61 53.23 54.24 55.06
sity (%)

Teledensity was based on a population

estimate of 140 million.
Teledensity is based on
active subscribers.

Summary Of Telephone Subscribers In Nigeria (Sept. 2009 –

Feb. 2010)

FIGURE 6: SUBCRIBER DATABASE FOR NIGERIA AT A GLANCE adapted from NCC

(Nigerian Communications Commission) 2010

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