RIM's CEO apparently went on a media blitz today, a lot of the coverage only now appearing online.
He wrote a letter in the Globe and Mail which you can read here.
Now in interviews you can forgive poor messaging because it's a fluid environment. But in written text there's no excuse.
What stood out to me as absurd was the following:
As we prepare to launch our new mobile platform, BlackBerry 10, in the first quarter of next year, we expect to empower people as never before. BlackBerry 10 will connect users not just to each other, but to the embedded systems that run constantly in the background of everyday life - from parking meters and car computers to credit card machines and ticket counters.
What the hell does that mean?
Yes, I've been saying they need to give details on BB10, but no one is going to believe that BB10 will connect them to parking meters.
If you are going to come out with ridiculous claims like this, then you damn well better have a demo or something to back it up.
I mean, what Heins is describing is light years ahead of Apple or Google. At least I'm currently unaware of being able to use my Android phone with a parking meter or credit card machine.
In addition, saying something like 'empower people as never before' comes across as magical thinking NOT based in reality. It implies that not only are they are going to catch up to Apple and Google, but that they are going to surpass them. That is what one has to assume 'as never before' would mean.
This is SLOPPY PR.
He could have simply said "RIM changed the way the world communicated by essentially creating the smartphone industry a decade ago. While we may have temporarily fallen behind in the consumer space, I genuinely believe that with BB10 we will not only get back in the race, but that we will break new barriers in innovation that will regain the trust, respect and loyalty of smartphone users around the world. People are going to love BB10."
In just a few sentences you evoke sentiments like ... love, temporary, change, innovation.
The hyperbole of 'as never before' makes you sound like you are lying. To be honest, it's the type of thing a rookie, early-twenty-something would write. In my early days of PR I might have thought 'like never before' sounded cool and implied BIG things in the future (just like people use to think 'leading edge' sounded cool, when it never was). As you get more experience in PR though, you realize that really it just sounds like bullshit.
[For folks just starting out in PR, this is a classic example of what happens when you whip something up quickly and don't really stop and think about the implications of what you are saying are. Yes, I can whip up a news release in 30 minutes, but I often spend an entire day, writing and re-writing until the message I want to communicate can in no way blow up in my face or be misunderstood by various audiences. The only time I whip something up quickly is here, for my blog].
Crisis communications is NOT that hard. It's rather simple really. Here's the basic formula:
A) Admit that you screwed up (don't bury this fact toward the end, admit it upfront)
B) Clearly identify what you have and are doing to fix the screw up (details count)
C) Articulate what people can expect from you in the future (once again, details count, pie-in-the-sky fluff does not).
Failing to do the above amounts to nothing less than trying to give a pep talk to external stakeholders. Guess what, they don't care. Your optimism does not make them optimistic. Merely saying 'we will be great again, trust us' simply doesn't work after you've burned investors for years.
What investors and the public want to hear are details.
And as I've said in many blog posts now... the only thing that will stem RIM's crisis is a sneak peak at some mind blowing features that will be part of BB10 (or if they get a really good PR person to craft their messaging so they don't sound like they are out of touch, they would help also).
Show it or Shut it is the basic principle RIM needs to follow. No one needs a pep talk from you Heins, what they want to see is innovation. Show us the goods (or at least an appetizer of the goods).
60 to 70 per cent of BB10 R&D has been completed by now, so surely they have something they can show.
It's frustrating to see such a negative response to RIM's interviews (checking the comments section people are almost all negative on the articles) because it's purely an issue of wording and phrasing being used.
The other issue with Heins letter was his nostalgia, as he talks about RIM being founded over a bakery in a small Canadian town.
Who cares about that right now?! No one.
The only thing you should be messaging is how BB10 will be innovative, how you are going to keep and attract new customers, and how you realize that you have a LOT to make up for with customers and investors but you are confident you will.
The fact that these are not the salient (and only) points that Heins is making is just bad, sloppy PR.
He wrote a letter in the Globe and Mail which you can read here.
Now in interviews you can forgive poor messaging because it's a fluid environment. But in written text there's no excuse.
What stood out to me as absurd was the following:
As we prepare to launch our new mobile platform, BlackBerry 10, in the first quarter of next year, we expect to empower people as never before. BlackBerry 10 will connect users not just to each other, but to the embedded systems that run constantly in the background of everyday life - from parking meters and car computers to credit card machines and ticket counters.
What the hell does that mean?
Yes, I've been saying they need to give details on BB10, but no one is going to believe that BB10 will connect them to parking meters.
If you are going to come out with ridiculous claims like this, then you damn well better have a demo or something to back it up.
I mean, what Heins is describing is light years ahead of Apple or Google. At least I'm currently unaware of being able to use my Android phone with a parking meter or credit card machine.
In addition, saying something like 'empower people as never before' comes across as magical thinking NOT based in reality. It implies that not only are they are going to catch up to Apple and Google, but that they are going to surpass them. That is what one has to assume 'as never before' would mean.
He could have simply said "RIM changed the way the world communicated by essentially creating the smartphone industry a decade ago. While we may have temporarily fallen behind in the consumer space, I genuinely believe that with BB10 we will not only get back in the race, but that we will break new barriers in innovation that will regain the trust, respect and loyalty of smartphone users around the world. People are going to love BB10."
In just a few sentences you evoke sentiments like ... love, temporary, change, innovation.
The hyperbole of 'as never before' makes you sound like you are lying. To be honest, it's the type of thing a rookie, early-twenty-something would write. In my early days of PR I might have thought 'like never before' sounded cool and implied BIG things in the future (just like people use to think 'leading edge' sounded cool, when it never was). As you get more experience in PR though, you realize that really it just sounds like bullshit.
[For folks just starting out in PR, this is a classic example of what happens when you whip something up quickly and don't really stop and think about the implications of what you are saying are. Yes, I can whip up a news release in 30 minutes, but I often spend an entire day, writing and re-writing until the message I want to communicate can in no way blow up in my face or be misunderstood by various audiences. The only time I whip something up quickly is here, for my blog].
Crisis communications is NOT that hard. It's rather simple really. Here's the basic formula:
A) Admit that you screwed up (don't bury this fact toward the end, admit it upfront)
B) Clearly identify what you have and are doing to fix the screw up (details count)
C) Articulate what people can expect from you in the future (once again, details count, pie-in-the-sky fluff does not).
Failing to do the above amounts to nothing less than trying to give a pep talk to external stakeholders. Guess what, they don't care. Your optimism does not make them optimistic. Merely saying 'we will be great again, trust us' simply doesn't work after you've burned investors for years.
What investors and the public want to hear are details.
And as I've said in many blog posts now... the only thing that will stem RIM's crisis is a sneak peak at some mind blowing features that will be part of BB10 (or if they get a really good PR person to craft their messaging so they don't sound like they are out of touch, they would help also).
Show it or Shut it is the basic principle RIM needs to follow. No one needs a pep talk from you Heins, what they want to see is innovation. Show us the goods (or at least an appetizer of the goods).
60 to 70 per cent of BB10 R&D has been completed by now, so surely they have something they can show.
It's frustrating to see such a negative response to RIM's interviews (checking the comments section people are almost all negative on the articles) because it's purely an issue of wording and phrasing being used.
The other issue with Heins letter was his nostalgia, as he talks about RIM being founded over a bakery in a small Canadian town.
Who cares about that right now?! No one.
The only thing you should be messaging is how BB10 will be innovative, how you are going to keep and attract new customers, and how you realize that you have a LOT to make up for with customers and investors but you are confident you will.
The fact that these are not the salient (and only) points that Heins is making is just bad, sloppy PR.
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