Sharon's Marketing Missive

I have been using BlackBerry phones for about five years now, ever since I worked as a Seattle copywriter for T-Mobile writing brochures about the BlackBerry. I figured I’d better know what I was talking about so I got one, and fell head over heels in love with it.

Soon a bunch of my friends were yakking away on BlackBerry phones too. The thing was perfect for viral marketing. All they had to do was see my using it to get interested.

Alas this love story lacks a fairy tale ending. Maybe it simply went much the same way that so many love stories do: down the tubes.

You see, I wore that first BlackBerry out somehow. A small but critical piece stopped working. I could hear people talking, but no one could hear me. If only I could have taken it to the nearest cell phone repair shop, but nothing like that exists. The only solution was a new BlackBerry, which I faithfully purchased.

That little scene repeated itself with every successive BlackBerry. I’ve been through six phones in as many years, because the quirkiness of the quality. Every phone had something go wrong, or, in the case of the Pearl, it just sucked.

Still, I bought a new BlackBerry, not another brand, every time I needed to replace my phone. That is brand loyalty. And as a copywriter, I'm very familiar with brand loyalty!

Today I am taking it in the shorts because of my blind faith in the brand. I am using the newest and worst BlackBerry yet. My brand loyalty has been abused. Rather than make ever better products to continually delight the customer, RIM has only made crappier and crappier products, until now I’m stuck with a barely usable BlackBerry Smartphone. Not only does it suck as a phone, but think about how hard it is for a copywrter to have a phone she can't use for texting and email! I'm a copywriter for a reason, I do better with the written word than the spoken one!

As a copywriter, I know marketing. But I also know that the actual thing you sell someone has to live up to the promise of your copywriting and marketing.

This latest, heaviest, barely usable piece of metal and plastic sitting next to my laptop is the equivalent of a snubbing. RIM didn’t care to keep delighting me, only to keep selling to me.

If that’s your marketing, it’s a short-term solution.

Trust me, this copywriter has bought her last BlackBerry. As soon as this one wears out, and I know that will be soon, I’m switching brands.