Episode 11

The vast majority of time spent on developing marketing strategies for any successful product or company is spent learning about the customers. Ask any advertising executive what makes the superstars in their organization good, and inevitably it will come down to their ability to get inside the customers' heads and understand how consumers are motivated. You can never know too much about your customer and certainly knowing nothing at all and making assumptions can be deadly. There are many reasons that products and services fail but ultimately it always boils down to the customers' acceptance of the product or service. Everything else is a means to that end.

So, again we see a common theme and common mistakes in the Apprentice task. Way back in the sixth week, Magna won the Sony PlayStation2 task by getting to know their target market and sourcing creative ideas from them. Armed with knowledge of the target market they were able to create an advertisement that communicated the product, Gran Turismo 4, effectively. But, for some reason, Alex did not remember this lesson learned when it came time to develop fashion products for American Eagle. As is always the case, Mr. Trump narrowed the task down to make it attainable and comparable - in this instance, a specific product line of "wearable technology". So, basically, the two teams had to figure out what kind of "wearable" and what kind of "technology". Simple, right?

Well if you're Tana on team Magna it's pretty simple. You grab Kendra, head to the mall and talk to customers (THE TARGET MARKET!) at an American Eagle store. Dang if you don't find out that cell phones are the most important piece of technology for the customer. Problem one solved. With that knowledge it is pretty easy to determine which type of American Eagle product offerings can be integrated with cell phones as well as other technology favorites.

While Angie got fired for choking during Net Worth's presentation this task was won and lost with one question. When the American Eagle executives asked what type of technology was most important - Magna knew the answer, Net Worth did not and they guessed wrong.

Of course, not being able to answer the key question is made worse when you are late for your appointment, are missing a key product sample and choke during the presentation. Net Worth made guesses and assumptions about their target customer and so their presentation fell on deaf ears.


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