Research in Motion announced Thursday that Roger Baxter has been appointed as the new vice president of brand and marketing communication.

Mr. Baxter is replacing Paul Kalbfleisch, the previous vice president of brand creativity. Before joining RIM, Baxter was serving a leading advertising firm named Publicis Groupe SA as the chief strategy officer in Seattle.

Paul Kalbfleisch's departure will be the second recent high profile loss to the RIM's marketing department. Former chief marketing officer Keith Pardy decided to leave the company a few months ago.

RIM’s BlackBerry smartphones have been steadily losing market share for some time now, losing out to the iPhone and other touchpad-style smartphones. The relative dearth of apps available for BlackBerrys as compared to the iPhone and Android-based smartphones has also hurt its sales.

Many observers feel that this downfall is not only the result of the company's inability to sustain the strong reputation it once had in the market, but also because of an ineffective marketing strategy.

"They're not getting the message out," said Brian Hajost, chief executive of SteelCloud to The Wall Street Journal.

"They're not playing on their strengths."