Business
BlackBerry selling Z10 devices through Indian cafes
In a bid to drive sales, the phonemaker is expanding a successful marketing campaign where it held demonstrations in cafes where customers proved to be more receptive than expected.
BlackBerry will drive sales of its Z10 handset by demonstrating the product to customers at over a hundred cafes across India.
In April, BlackBerry staff offered to demonstrate the device to all customers who entered 130 Barista and Cafe Coffee Day franchises in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore, BlackBerry India Marketing Director Ashish Gupta told ZDNet.
BlackBerry Q10.
Over 70 percent of cafe goers actually consented to a demonstration, Gupta said. This exceeded the company's projections of a 50 percent conversion rate.
Of these, one in ten actually asked BlackBerry to contact them about purchasing the device. He said that from this group, 82 percent actually proceeded to buy a Z10.
While Gupta wouldn't provide a number of sales, he said the campaign facilitated 22,000 demonstrations. The BlackBerry executive added that some of the customers actually invited the BlackBerry staff to drink coffee with them.
"All marketing needs to reach your target audience. You need to find new and unique ways to reach your segment. The era of just going to mass marketing is over," Gupta said.
The company will soon expand the project to Lucknow, Kolkata, Ahmadabad and Pune.