The Apprentice: Los Angeles, Weekly Performance Review, Episode 5 – Marketing Buzz

But in the webisode, it went even further. Derek approached a trio of guys and encouraged them to buy a box of honey to impress “the girls in the yellow shirts (Kinetic)… and the Gold Medalist!” Not a discounted box like Tim was trying to sell… a regular-priced box… one to each guy!

Think about it. Those were bulk sales, but at regular prices. Plus, they never had to leave the air-conditioned comfort of the store! Stunning. Right there, that is your margin of victory!

As if that wasn’t enough, Derek proposed using Aimee as Surya’s hidden ally in the Boardroom and then successfully broached the topic with her. His role as a go-between was critical, for Surya was indeed at great risk to go home.

For his superior work in all aspects of the episode’s events Derek’s rating must absolutely be: EXCELLENT!

Heidi: I must give Heidi NO RATING. She was not a featured player in the episode.

Jenn: Jenn was lucky again this week. Paired with Aimee and spending the first four hours to develop a marketing plan, they produced almost nothing. However, all the resulting flack fell on Aimee; Jenn caught none of the blame.

Now that Angela made a minor appearance this week, Jenn inherits the title of “The Invisible Woman.” Sooner of later, these things have to catch up to her. Alas, it’s another NEEDS IMPROVEMENT rating for Jenn.

Kristine: What I remember most about Kristine in this episode is that she came up with the best line of the week. Speaking about Aimee, she said, “God forbid we win and she stays Project Manager!”

We didn’t see Kristine do much special outside of this, but we did see her promoting their Olympian to the crowd. Kristine’s rating is SATISFACTORY nonetheless. Ahh, I’m such a hapless sucker for ironic quotes from saucy women in glasses!

Muna: Muna was front and center one time – when she (and Derek) took it upon themselves to actually get the honey onto the sales floor so it could be displayed and sold. Although that seems like an obvious task, no one else, including the PM, seemed to think of it as a priority. For that, her rating is GOOD. See how easy it is?

Team Arrow:

Wow, another mess for Team Arrow! We saw group sales attempts that didn’t move any product, but were allowed to go on too long. We saw Surya’s too-much-planning bump up against Aaron’s no-planning and the lesser of both extremes triumphing, with wasted time and effort the only results. Capping it all was an unsuccessful attempt to discredit and send home a teammate. I guess Michelle wasn’t the problem after all?

Frank: Frank’s still working hard and having fun, as evidenced by his banter with Tim during the bottling process. I was further amused when in the Boardroom, Frank forced himself to give a one-word answer to a direct Trump question when he was dying to say so much more. I know that wasn’t easy for him. It’s a SATISFACTORY rating for Frank, because as important as it is for the show, comic relief doesn’t win projects.

James: After listening to Surya relive his Friday morning glories, James piped up with, “To me, it’s about making some honey, go and sell it, and let’s make as much money as we can.” Right there, that succinct project description is all I needed from James to assign him a GOOD rating.

Also, James tried to coach Aaron to be more forceful in front of The Donald. Later in the Boardroom, he effectively pointed out Surya’s shortcomings. All good stuff, so I’ll change that to VERY GOOD. Maybe he was one bee suit away from an EXCELLENT?

Stefani: Unlike Frank, Stefani is not having a lot of fun. My opinion of Stefani goes up almost every week, though. This week, she persevered over her fear of bees and worked hard and effectively at sales. In the Boardroom, she made sure Surya’s attempt to glom onto her sales location was not overlooked. Yahoo showed us that in the Boardroom, she stood up for her PM, including reminding everyone of his previous two wins.

An EXCELLENT rating seems warranted. I look forward to finding out if she’s just an effective worker or has PM skills as well.

Nicole and Tim: It looks like I’ll be dealing with these two as a pair in the weeks to come. For how many weeks, I don’t know. Trump seems to think it’s cute, but I see trouble coming with this “Showmance-lite.”

The budding relationship HAS to detract from their performance. How many times were they “being cute” together while being driven past a potential bulk sales location? Even once might have mattered, as they only lost by three bulk sales.

And let’s talk about bulk sales! It seems they were unable to make a single sale. I blame the price point, but I also think there was no chance to sell honey to some of those stores they were in. It didn’t help that more than once, the person they talked to did not seem to have the authority to stock the product. They ought to have stopped having fun and given up sooner; it seemed obvious the tactic of bulk sales wasn’t going to work this week. For both it’s a NEEDS IMPROVEMENT rating. Unfortunately, the previews are not encouraging in this area.

Surya: One thing that was apparent on last week’s Yahoo clips was the amount of much-needed structure Surya brought to Team Arrow. This week, it got a little carried away into the realm of theoretical references and his mastery of buzzwords. I suspect that in his real-world production meetings there are not a lot of one-day projects.

Buried in the sheer volume of his musings, some good thoughts might include his packaging considerations. However, they were too general to actually be of any help. On the flip side, it’s fairly certain that Internet sales were not going to be a factor in this project, so why bring it up?

When it came time to actually make sales, Surya seemed lost. For some reason, he didn’t work his own sales station. It was obvious his attempts to aid Stefani were an unwanted hindrance to her, rather than of any help.