The Importance Of Communication Skills For Business Organizations: A Comparative Analysis Of Apple And BlackBerry Essay.

Apple's Success and Communication Strategies

In the present age of globalisation and information technology, Communication has emerged as the most significant factor for Business organisations (Halal, 2015). Every Business Organisation is dependent on the communication skills it possesses. The maintenance of communication technology holds equal importance to product quality and the price of the production the present times. The communication skills of a company enhance the employee morale, elevates efficacy and increases options for innovation in management and technology (Halal, 2015).  The communication skills are instrumental in various aspects of diverse processes run in a company including marketing, publicity, internal communication, management and advertising or branding a product. One of the major examples of a company which has been triumphant in the communication skills is Apple (Payne, 2017). This American smart phone corporation ably delivers the best products along with credible service system for their customers (Payne, 2017). The sublime communication adds on to their ability to import the assembled products from their Chinese suppliers Foxconn (Payne, 2017). On the other hand, the downfall of another major smart phone brand has entered into the headlines of American television (Youssef, 2013). BlackBerry has lost the lion share of its market credibility because of the increasing gap of communications between the need and requirement of the market and the innovation of their products (Youssef, 2013).

Apple Inc is a major multinational company of technological goods and services which operates from the United States (Payne, 2017). Apple was established in 1976 and since then has displayed an inclined success rate in the assessment charts (Payne, 2017). As a Smartphone brand Apple has gained enormous love and customer faith from the customers and has been successful in predominantly increasing the customer base and exploring new markets (Halal, 2015). The communication and understanding of the Apple and its leaders is of such innovative and supreme mentality that it always becomes successful in presenting products which meets the needs and satisfaction levels of the customers (Halal, 2015). The profound market research systems and high quality customer service enriches the possibility to increase their reach in the market. The strategy of Jobs to get into the retail market of technology sector was a major boost to Apple (Halal, 2015). Despite the fact that the retail sector of the world market was going down with the instances of Costco and Walmart, Apple thought of their innovative plan to directly create a relationship with the customers through retail (Payne, 2017).

BlackBerry's Downfall and Communication Strategies

Another major factor of Apple’s success is its ability to keep the products simple and user friendly. In the present times, the smart phones and the computer technology is accessed by the masses hence, the technology should suit everyone’s intellect (Halal, 2015). In order to reach more customers, it is more viable to use a technology which is simple yet elevated and durable yet attractive. This simple form of software technology and usable Smart phones increased the sales of Apple (Kubilay, 2015). Through proper understanding of the market they installed softwares which was easier for the salesman to demonstrate to the customers and which is easier for the customers to understand (Kubilay, 2015). The simplistic way of using Apple smart phones have helped the company to build a great relationship with the customers.

Apple’s success as a Smart phone brand is evident because of its ignorance of the critics, presentation of simple yet beautiful products, correct pricing according to the market, the ability to communicate with the audience in a definite language, marketing strategies like capturing of the unboxing and creation of a fan base (Payne, 2017). However, internally, Apple allows a two way communication system between the leaders or management and the employees, it also operates surprise inspections into the stores to assess the performance of the employees working there, they also increase the connectivity with the shareholders in order to reach the right decisions and it maintains a forum to communicate significant information about the company to the employees (Khan, Alam & Alam, 2015). All these factors play an important role in increasing the success rate of Apple in the market (Khan, Alam & Alam, 2015).

BlackBerry was regarded as one of the major business leaders in the sector of cell phone production (Youssef, 2013). It is primarily based in Canada and has successfully operated its business and sold its products in more than ninety one countries across the world (Youssef, 2013). It was enormously successful in the domestic market until the android phones appeared in the scene (Youssef, 2013).

The android phone was cheaper and yet was instrumental in offering the same amount of services to the customers (Halal, 2015). Apple’s humongous success also played a huge role in adding to BlackBerry’s crisis. The credibility of BlackBerry was hitting a new low due to lack of communication and inadaptability in the market (Turrow, McGuigan & Maris, 2015). When the other competitors like Apple and Samsung has focussed on continuous innovation in technology and design, BlackBerry concentrated in maintaining the same old design (Turrow, McGuigan, & Maris, 2015).

Role of Customer Communication in Business Success

Many experts believe that this is due to the lack of assessing the feedback from the consumers of the market and because of bad marketing strategy (Mastroianni, 2016). However, it is notable that there were no such complaints about the quality of BlackBerry (Mastroianni, 2016). BlackBerry was always known as one of the greatest brands in terms of quality since the genesis of smart phones in the west and around the world (Youssef, 2013).

Another reason which became a prime factor for the downfall of a large corporation like BlackBerry is its inability to understand its competitors. The emergence of iPhone was not taken seriously by BlackBerry (Youssef, 2013).

In the beginning of the 21^st century, cell phones already became an inherent part of common people’s lives. However the requirements in a cell phone were mostly limited to calling, texting and mailing. This scenario entirely changed with the arrival of the cheap rated smart phones with more facilities and technical inhibitions (Kubilay, 2015). The number of facilities in a cell phone increased. The features like camera, radio, games and various applications took the driver’s seat in the cell phone market.

The BlackBerry was more dependent on the word of mouth publicity which is a traditional form of trend in the business. However, the enormous Brand popularity of Apple has emerged a clear winner due to its great distribution system. One of the major reasons for Apple’s success is its availability in the market (Lescop & Lescop, 2016). The distribution system of any company is its execution of its communication skills. Apple was instrumental in opening their stores in all the prime locations of United States whereas BlackBerry was clearly lagging behind in this front of business (Kubilay, 2015). Both sales and marketing in business is dependent on the better transfer of information and management skills (Lescop & Lescop, 2016). Therefore, the communication strategy of Apple to distribute the iPhones in all the major stores in a proper way was a huge positive for the company (Kubilay, 2015).

Apple spent marginal money in publicizing its product in the market. The phone was sold by a discount voucher in Verizon. But however, this offer was an exception. Except this example, Apple sold its products through its well distributed outlets called Apple store and iCloud (Payne, 2017). On the other hand, the products of BlackBerry were only available in big stores like Target, Best Buy and Radio Shack (Laudon, & Traver, 2013). In the present times the primary tenet of communication system in business is by connecting with the customers in a unique and exceptional program (Laudon, & Traver, 2013). However, BlackBerry never cared much about servicing and customer communications through direct interactions (Laudon, & Traver, 2013). The true value shops or the company outlets can be helpful to understand the feedback of the customers and the work accordingly in the market (Laudon, & Traver, 2013).

Importance of Distribution System in Business

The primary factor which damaged BlackBerry and enhanced Apple INC is the strategy of customer communication (Budd et al., 2015). The opening of the retail shops by Apple around the important locations of the urban areas of their territory enhanced their customer communications (Dagger & Danaher, 2014). This also increased their repeat value (Dagger & Danaher, 2014). However, BlackBerry was selling their products through other stores. Hence, they were not involved with the customers directly (Turrow, McGuigan, & Maris, 2015). This communication strategy helped Apple and damaged the hopes of Blackberry to continue their success story in the cell phone market (Dagger & Danaher, 2014).

The distribution system of BlackBerry was also questionable after such flaws in reaching out to the customers through proper retailers (Budd et al., 2015). The management played an insignificant role to meet the expectations of the market (Budd 2015). Erstwhile, Apple enhanced its communication system to a greater level. It not only imports its products at a cost effective rate from the Chinese assembling companies but it also distributes its products better through its own stores and online retailing (Dagger & Danaher, 2014).

The great internal communication strategy among their staffs in Apple also played a huge role in their success (Macleans.ca, 2015). The democratic system of decision making and the two way communication policy was a huge boost on the innovation and other factors of Apple’s success (Macleans.ca, 2015). However, the long working hours and the conflict between the leaders of the company to identify the technical problems of the products affected the internal unity of Blackberry (Macleans.ca, 2015).

Conclusion

Both Apple and BlackBerry has gigantic contributions to the world of technology and communications. The continuous innovation in technology and design has always played the most important rule of survival in the business of technology over the years. As a smart phone Apple continuously followed this rule and survived. Apple followed this tenet as they were well connected to their customers through social media, online and offline retail shops. These shops were directly owned by Apple unlike BlackBerry. The BlackBerry phones were mainly sold on its credibility as a product. The word of mouth helped BlackBerry to expand their market. However, the Canadian counterpart of Apple never tried to communicate their customers through a direct communication program like Apple. This played a huge role in the downfall of their market share and the emergence of Apple as the new leaders of the market. The internal communicational structure of maintaining a democratic process of decision making and innovation helped Apple whereas the poor managerial skills and the inability to communicate the technical shortcomings the company was facing led to the downfall of BlackBerry.

References

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Halal, W. E. (2015). Business strategy for the technology revolution: competing at the edge of creative destruction. Journal of the Knowledge Economy, 6(1), 31-47.

Khan, U. A., Alam, M. N., & Alam, S. (2015). A Critical Analysis of Internal and External Environment of Apple Inc. International Journal of Economics, Commerce and Management, 3(6), 955-961.

Kubilay, ?. A. (2015). The Founding of Apple and the Reasons behind Its Success. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 195, 2019-2028.

Laudon, K. C., & Traver, C. G. (2013). E-commerce. Pearson.

Lescop, D., & Lescop, E. (2016). The Apple Twist.

Macleans.ca. (2015). BlackBerry blow-up: How a leadership rift ripped RIM apart. Macleans.ca. Retrieved 25 June 2017, from https://www.macleans.ca/economy/business/blackberry-blow-up-how-a-leadership-rift-ripped-rim-apart/

Mastroianni, F. (2016). Marketing Management. A study of consumer perceptions of value in relation to the Blackberry product versus the iPhone.

Payne, B. (2017). Brand Positioning and its Usefulness for Brand Management: the Case of Apple Inc. Newcastle Business School Student Journal, 1(1), 51-57.

Turow, J., McGuigan, L., & Maris, E. R. (2015). Making data mining a natural part of life: Physical retailing, customer surveillance and the 21st century social imaginary. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 18(4-5), 464-478.

Youssef, M. H. (2013). Strategic tensions within the smartphones industry: the case of BlackBerry. VISTAS: Education, Economy and Community, 3, 125-141.