Blackberry Crumble: Analysis of Stephen Bates’ BBC Interviews

Blackberry was once a pioneer in the smartphone market. In September 2013, it announced it was to cut 40 per cent of its worldwide workforce amidst huge losses. These losses were attributed primarily to the poor performance of its newest model, the Z10.

 In January 2013, Stephen Bates, European Managing Director of Canadian firm, Research in Motion which makes the Blackberry smartphone was given two plum media spots to publicise the product. This is where Blackberry started to crumble…
 
We’ve become accustomed to the glitz, tech-speak and hollow marketing slogans that characterise the launch of electronic products. Manufacturers’ spokespeople sometimes seem to live so entirely in this world that they have difficulty in communicating with their customers via the media. Stephen Bates, seems to be one of these.

On the morning of January 30th2013, he was interviewed on BBC Breakfast by business reporter Stephanie McGovern and on BBC 5 Live Breakfast by Nicky Campbell.

In both cases his performances were severely marred by some basic errors. The interviews have since been remembered more for these than the product they were intended to publicise.

We can learn some valuable media training lessons from these.

Lesson 1

The interviewer is asking questions on behalf of the viewing or listening public. He or she is asking what the audience wants to know. So to avoid or ignore a question is to appear evasive, unhelpful and impolite before the very people the interviewee is trying to reach with the product launch. Stephanie McGovern asked Bates on at least three occasions why Blackberry had not been able to launch the product earlier, as expected: “What went wrong?” Three of his replies were:

1          “I’m really proud to be part of this industry…”

2          “This is a great market. We’ve tried lots of things…” and

3          “This is a phenomenal market…”

These firstly evade the question. They do not lay to rest the issue of technical or corporate problems that Blackberry may or may not have faced. Instead of giving an adequate answer, they instead provide forced enthusiasm and corporate marketing language.

Bates made the same mistake with Nicky Campbell. In this interview, a prime time three-minute radio opportunity; Campbell asked him on no less than six occasions: “What have you learned from the iPhone?”. Let’s remember this very question addresses an issue that is, or has been on the minds of millions of listeners who have wrestled with the question of whether to choose an iPhone or a Blackberry for their next phone. Bates’ replies included amongst others:

1. “Blackberry is a unique product…”

2. “This market is a great market…” and

3. “So, so, so, Blackberry was one of the inventors of the smart phone.”

I’ll come to the “So, so, so” in a minute, but again we see the same evasive response. There is a complete failure to address why the customer should buy a Blackberry rather than an iPhone. The replies are delivered in marketing language and at this point in mobile phone history, are listeners likely to care about who invented the smartphone? This reply is irrelevant.

What Bates should have done can be summarised in the simple mnemonic A.B.C:

A         Answer the question

B         Bridge to a key message or subject the interviewee is more comfortable with

C         Communicate what you want to say to the audience

This is something that Media First regularly teaches on its courses. Nicky Campbell himself later Tweeted in response to a question about the interview: “absolutely, bury it, bridge and move on”.

Lesson 2

Dump the jargon.

I’m guessing that most of the people watching or listening to these interviews would be interested in learning about the new phone, what it can do and how much it costs. They received virtually no help with these questions. Mr Bates instead argued that the new phone; “delivers a new, unique user experience”. Nicky Campbell responded to that by suggesting that it sounded as though he was reading from a press release.

“Delivering a solution” was a second piece of jargon. In fact, one of Bates’ favourite turns of phrase was that BB10 is “transitioning”. The new BB10 “…transitions the essence of what Blackberry is about…” he told Campbell. What that means is not entirely clear. Maybe it means the Blackberry is changing but it may also apparently mean that the Blackberry-type business phone is now able to meet personal needs as well. Jargon not only sounds phoney, it often obscures meaning.

Lesson 3

Corporate – who cares?

“It’s an exciting day for us,” Bates enthuses. “We invented the smartphone…” He says

that the company has been through major changes. So what? In any case, this tells us nothing about the company at all. If he intends to give us corporate data then where are the facts and figures? Would you buy shares in RIM on the basis of this information? In fact this stuff is irrelevant to both existing and potential Blackberry customers aswell as investors. Why waste any of a precious three-minute prime time opportunity saying this?

Lesson 4

So, so, so

Shakespeare buffs may recall King Lear’s “so, so, so…” muttering as he comes to terms with his new found tragic wisdom. Mr. Bates however never finds his. In three out of his six responses to Nicky Campbell’s questions about the influence of the iPhone on the new Blackberry, Bates replies:

1. “So, so, so, Blackberry was one of the inventors of the smartphone…”

2. “So, so, so the focus around the smart phone…”

3. “So, so, so we’ve spent the last few months with BB10 engaging our customers”

An unfortunate tic perhaps, but this appears to be Bates’ way of pausing to think how he can avoid the question. After a while the audience can spot an evasive answer about to be delivered. It’s a minor point maybe but everything can be heard on radio and TV. You can’t hide. If you are delivering words to millions of viewers and listeners, it’s worth

getting your performance, words and mannerism perfect. In short (and this applies to the totality of Mr Bates’ performances) his minders and media trainers would have done well to prepare his words, his content AND the manner of his interview responses far more thoroughly than they have.

Corporate MDs are not media stars but if they are going to represent their business and the products they sell in the media, then they need to remember the three most important media training words of all: Preparation, Preparation, Preparation.

If you missed the interviews here are some links...

Here's the BBC Breakfast interview

Here's the Radio 5 interview