The Apprentice 2011 - Episode 7 - 15-06-11 - 9pm - BBC One Press Gang
Not so ‘mag’nificent.
The challenge this week was to create a ‘freemium’ magazine from concept to completion with the winning team decided by how much advertising space they are able sell to three of the UK’s biggest media buyers. This was to be an exercise in how to put the gloss on a glossy magazine, and ended up pretty much a battle of the baffled, with the victor’s spoils (or escape clause) awarded to the team that showed slightly more gumption than their clueless rivals.
Jim was appointed the role of project manager on team venture for the first time this series and immediately assured us of his abilities, “I can take their hearts, I can take their minds – I’m good at getting people to do what I want them to.” At the time this seemed to be a cross between Churchill on acid and the Pied Piper, but in practice he was somewhat less convincing. As Karren Brady, Lord Sugar’s hammer in a velvet glove, later pointed out in the boardroom, this could be described as passive aggressive behaviour – not a particularly desirable quality in a team leader. Agreed!
Over on team logic, Natasha, who apparently missed her calling as an annoying cinema usher, bossing people around in an obvious and noisy way, with her constant “yeah?”s...took the reins. She set about campaigning for a lad’s mag concept. The remainder of her team weren’t so keen and much preferred the idea of a business magazine for young professionals. So they compromised and came up with ‘Covered’- a magazine for young entrepreneurial men, with the clichéd strapline ‘work hard, play hard.’ More like ‘hard work’ all round in my books.
Control freak team leader aside, Team Venture came up with a far more refreshing concept, targeting the over 60’s market with a young and ‘hip’ magazine for those who are young at heart. Unfortunately, they immediately threw away their advantage with a poor choice of title, ‘Hip Replacement’ – surely they could have envisaged the irony being missed? Perhaps if they had listened to Susan’s, albeit muted, concerns and gone with another title suggestion they may have remained in the stronger position. What was wrong with Zimmer? That was a much better title suggestion from the focus group, surely.
Concepts and titles decided, the teams set about pitching their ideas to three of the UK’s biggest media buyers in a bid to sell them advertising space.
The pitches received a mixed response, with ‘Covered’ considered dated and insulting with its ‘How to blow your load’ feature highlighted as particularly tacky. Helen and Tom had suggested toning it down earlier in the task, however Natasha pressed on with her misplaced enthusiasm and chose to ignore her team mates concerns.
Team Venture’s ‘over 60’s’ concept was warmly received –until the cover and title was revealed. The overall opinion was that the irony had been lost and therefore both the title and content were perceived as patronising.
At one point during the first pitch, Jim was offered the chance to negotiate on prices, unfortunately for the team he failed to see this as an opportunity and stuck to his guns with the rate card or nothing. Perhaps his arrogance cost the team the task as they failed to sell any advertising space as a result of the pitch. Someone needs to tell him the facts of life in today’s commercial world and anyone in the media industry will tell you it isn’t an easy sell.
A lesson could be learned from Jim’s short sightedness – when you’re pitching to a key player within your market and they open the way for negotiation – negotiate! Don’t destroy your opportunities before you’ve even begun. This might be useful if he has to negotiate with Lord Sugar over his business investment, in the unlikely case he scrapes through as the winning apprentice.
Fortunately for Natasha and Team Logic, they managed to fare better in the pitches and secured £60,000 worth of advertising despite their tired idea and less than enthusiastic response from their target market. Team Logic struck lucky this time, but if your target market tells you your idea is rubbish, you should probably listen; after all, you are trying to get them to part with their cash!
So Team Logic escaped elimination and it was back to the board room for Jim and Team Venture.
Jim decided to put Susan and Glenn alongside him on the firing line and after Lord Sugar’s less than complimentary assessment of Jim in previous rounds, perhaps this was a tactical move on his part with Susan considered the weakest link.
This didn’t pay off for Jim however, with Lord Sugar taking pity on Susan though noting, “If you’re going to play with the big boys, then you need to act like one of the big boys” in reference to the constant’s emphasis on her age.
Jim’s slippery character and gift of the gab got him off the hook again and the finger was pointed at Glenn for failing the task with Lord Sugar stating, “I’ve never yet come across an engineer who could turn his hand to business.” This line was obviously intended to shock the viewers since some engineers have become rather successful indeed, perhaps Henry Ford would have consigned the presumptuous Lord to the slow lane for that!?
Controversial doesn’t always mean correct. In this case Lord Sugar used a cheap shot. Nil point!
Next week the candidates are set the task of pitching typically English products to the French market.....who will deliver the pièce de résistance and who will be left waving bon voyage?
Review by James Strickland, Group Director, Omega Resource Group plc – the UK-based recruitment organisation comprising a number of divisions catering for engineering and technical candidates and employers in addition to graduate selection and training : http://www.omegaresource.co.uk
