The world's changing

Paul Kalbfleisch, VP, Branding, for Blackberry attended our E3 conference last week and he recounted the story of how the Blackberry got to be named Blackberry. There was nothing unusual about the situation, it was how the business, Research in Motion reacted that is noteworthy.

Their original intention was to simply label the software Blackberry and the devices on which it ran were labeled the RIM 123, or RIM 234. It was how their products had always been labeled and in fact that was how they were launched. But they noticed that their customers started referring to their devices as "my Blackberry". They noticed that in fact their customers had very quickly become emotionally attached to "their Blackberrys". They valued them. They put value on what they enabled them to do and this was to be the basis of the future success of the business. So they adopted the name and the rest his history.

So what? They were (and still are) a product company but one that listened to their customers and I mean really listened. They didn't simply hold a focus group and ask them questions, they watched how they used their devices, observed the relationship that developed and they interpreted what they saw from the customers' viewpoint not their own.

The result. I believe they are already in the top 100 most valuable brands and I've no doubt they will continue to climb for as long as they put understanding of their users at the centre of what they do.

It's a lesson for us all, our brands don't belong to us, they belong to and only exist in the minds of our customers. Our job is to guide and influence how they grow and prosper.