Month: November 2013

Our marketing group, New Horizons Inc, had an amazing assignment 3 result. Our marketing video was one of the best videos that any of my previous groups have made. It was professional, informative, stylish, and EPIC! With team members who were all innovators with creative opinions, we came across a realistic and potentially the best solutions for Research In Motion, BlackBerry Ltd.

Throughout the whole project, especially in the first two assignments, we came across various challenges that slowed down the group pace and brought our confidence down as well. We struggled to come up with solutions for the questions during discussions and meeting goals of each meeting due to a huge variety of our schedules. And since the assignment topics gradually became broader, we had more directions to tackle the questions, which made the discussion process more complicated and time-consuming.

We overcame these challenges very soon after the assignments by compromising and accepting others’ ideas. Which led us to our successful video with brilliant details and smooth transitions. Although it took us a lot of time and effort, but in the end, we established a respectful and productive norm that demonstrated our results.

To further evaluate our project, if I would have done the assignments with the same group again, I would suggest to vote for a group leader before any discussion. Having a group leader allows faster and easier decision making while keeping arguments and conflicts to its minimum (of course this all varies based on the style of the leader). And I would try stop and prevent any off-topic discussions during meetings to minimize the waste of time. But overall, I believe the group was amazing and we have summarized all of our chemistry and knowledge in the final video.

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I definitely agree with Jason’s point of view of how people in Indonesia value goods and services based on their price. This is true even in other countries, except more obvious in Asia. I am not the type of person whom look for luxuries, limited editions, or scarce goods. I believe in needs and value them more than wants. Yes, I do sometimes look for luxurious leisures for relaxation but never in terms of materials.

In China, price is the first determination of a good’s value. If something is relatively expensive, its quality must be better. In Jason’s example, students driving a better car symbolizes their position and living standard, which may not be necessary true, but at least they try to demonstrate their wealth. For example, 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO is one of the most expensive cars in the world ($52 million), Personally, I dislike the look of this car, I would never buy it even if it’s price was the same as a second-hand car. And I would never figure out the reasons for whom that purchase such cars.

Our current “Culture of Wealth” may be explained with the rapid advancement of technologies. Nowadays, we shop without leaving the house and just within a few clicks with our fingers and we care about our appearance and reputation more than anything else. Companies have successfully changed our perception of goods through marketing. We now purchase a lot of  goods due to its so-called “value” rather for its use and our necessity. A competition between wealth is clearly demonstrated by the way we represents ourselves, which I believe is absolutely unnecessary and contagious.

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BlackBerry was once a big impact in mobile phones industry during 2010 and 2011. When it first launched the BlackBerry Bold model, its keypad and simplicity captured the public’s attention. This was the phone that was well-known around business professionals. Every business professional owns a BlackBerry phone because of its efficiency, i.e. emails, and its app such as BBM. The keypad is similar to computer keyboards creating an image of a smaller laptop, allowing users to type messages faster. The BBM app was a huge hit, users slowly became loyal to the BlackBerry community due to its simple yet efficient communication system. This was the main reason why most companies had all its employees to have a BlackBerry phone for a faster communication.

However, BlackBerry failed to hold its position in the industry as a leader. Because its competitor, Apple, soon created smart phones which changed the whole market behaviours around. BlackBerry then started losing all its consumers, even the loyal ones. The simplicity of iPhones and the wide range of apps allowed users to customize almost everything about their phones. Less and less people concern about the price or the functions of the phones, because great phones like BlackBerry still have a relatively lower price with the most fundamental functions.

To stay on the market, BlackBerry started producing smartphones. Recently it even partners with Porsch to create a luxurious and limited-edition phone. I do not believe BlackBerry will be successful. Because it’s target segment is too narrow, and its innovations are not enough to keep up with its competitors, and the customers wont buy a new phone just for its luxurious look while having the same functions.