More than a week ago the promotions for the Apprentice episode that aired on Thursday, November the 10th of 2005, showed the Trump talking to Chewbacca in the board room. All pointed out that there would be a spoof of the board room meeting with Star Wars characters but it was a bait and switch strategy to appeal more audience, maybe due to the pluming ratings the Apprentice has shown over the past weeks, I was one to fall for that.
Well, after seeing such episode of the Apprentice I have to say this, if those executives from Best Buy and Lucasfilm are part of the corporate America, we will be in for deep s**t in no time at all.
The gentlemen showed no knowledge of basic marketing nor Star Wars at all, I'll try to point those deficiencies as my knowledge permits, I'm not a guru neither an expert but with the little knowledge I've got and a little of common sense sure I can come up with a couple of good arguments.
The lack of basic marketing knowledge
The task the teams were up to was to build a display for costumers to buy the new releases of Star Wars Battle Front video game and Star Wars 3 Revenge of the Sith (ROTS) DVD, same franchise but different markets, that was the first error IMHO, trying to push two very different products as a seamless release was atrocious, the products are un related, one is a movie and the other a first person shooter that recreates most of the battles in Star Wars, yes, ROTS battles are included but this game is not about the movie, that game was released way earlier this year (May 2005).
The team that really got close to get the task right lost, gimme a break!!!, it was the only team to build a display for the products, you know, the one you pick items from at the store, but all the executives cared about was displaying Darth Vader as central figure, what a joke, that showed no knowledge of ROTS and the Star Wars franchise (the first 3 episodes at least), more about this later, also they worried more on big size pictures of the characters, but, were the heck are the DVDs? and what are the prices?, do I get a discount if I buy both?, what about a friggin T-Shirt?, where is the promotion?, that is what marketing is about: Product, Price and Promotion.
Is also worthy to point the antics of the Trump assistants, sure they are all good on kissing Trump's ass and not even argue any of the wacky decision he makes, but emitting an opinion on marketing?, C'mon, they are over glorified real state agents not marketers or Star Wars fans, (talking like Yoda) fish out the water they were.
The lack of Star Wars and Revenge of the Sith knowledge
As I mentioned earlier, the so called execs wanted to make Darth Vader central part of the promotion, wrong in so many ways that if there were serious CEOS at either of those companies (Lucasfilm and Best Buy) those execs should have lost their jobs immediately, but hey, they are CEOS, what do they really care of the company they lead?, if the company goes south they still receive a juicy severance package, so nothing to lose there.
Why using Darth Vader as central part of the promotion was wrong you ask?, well, the first answer to that is: it was already used to promote the movie and everything around it, there are still Darth Vader dolls and stuff rotting till no more at your local Toys R' Us and everywhere else, second, Darth Vader shows only for about 2 minutes of screen time during the movie, that is 1 % of the movie's length, if the execs saw the movie they should have known this: ROTS was about ANAKIN SKYWALKER and how he turns himself to the dark side, the first 3 episodes were ALL ABOUT HIM, yes, he is Darth Vader but not the one in the big black suit you will run from if you find him in your way, if you really want to see Darth Vader as a main/central character, rent/buy/bootleg/lend/kill for/5 finger discount Star Wars IV A New Hope, period. ( I take no responsability of your own acts based on things you read on this blog, you are on your own, this is for legal pourposes because you never know)
Sure the Trump pulled a Chewbacca defense on this one: see Chewbacca here, what does he do on the Apprentice?, it doesn't make sense, he lives with 3 feet Ewoks and he is a 6 feet Wookie, that doesn't make sense, watching the Apprentice talking about Star Wars didn't make sense at all. I still seated 1 hour through marketing mockery and that's what he wanted, even when I think this stunt damaged Trump's credibility even more, what does he care?, maybe he wants an easy way out with NBC or Mark Brunett has had enough of the Trump and wants to focus on scripting survivor even more. Trump, the force is not with you even by a long shot, you are not Star Wars worthy, you should be FIRED off a cannon pointing the sun.
Well, after seeing such episode of the Apprentice I have to say this, if those executives from Best Buy and Lucasfilm are part of the corporate America, we will be in for deep s**t in no time at all.
The gentlemen showed no knowledge of basic marketing nor Star Wars at all, I'll try to point those deficiencies as my knowledge permits, I'm not a guru neither an expert but with the little knowledge I've got and a little of common sense sure I can come up with a couple of good arguments.
The lack of basic marketing knowledge
The task the teams were up to was to build a display for costumers to buy the new releases of Star Wars Battle Front video game and Star Wars 3 Revenge of the Sith (ROTS) DVD, same franchise but different markets, that was the first error IMHO, trying to push two very different products as a seamless release was atrocious, the products are un related, one is a movie and the other a first person shooter that recreates most of the battles in Star Wars, yes, ROTS battles are included but this game is not about the movie, that game was released way earlier this year (May 2005).
The team that really got close to get the task right lost, gimme a break!!!, it was the only team to build a display for the products, you know, the one you pick items from at the store, but all the executives cared about was displaying Darth Vader as central figure, what a joke, that showed no knowledge of ROTS and the Star Wars franchise (the first 3 episodes at least), more about this later, also they worried more on big size pictures of the characters, but, were the heck are the DVDs? and what are the prices?, do I get a discount if I buy both?, what about a friggin T-Shirt?, where is the promotion?, that is what marketing is about: Product, Price and Promotion.
Is also worthy to point the antics of the Trump assistants, sure they are all good on kissing Trump's ass and not even argue any of the wacky decision he makes, but emitting an opinion on marketing?, C'mon, they are over glorified real state agents not marketers or Star Wars fans, (talking like Yoda) fish out the water they were.
The lack of Star Wars and Revenge of the Sith knowledge
As I mentioned earlier, the so called execs wanted to make Darth Vader central part of the promotion, wrong in so many ways that if there were serious CEOS at either of those companies (Lucasfilm and Best Buy) those execs should have lost their jobs immediately, but hey, they are CEOS, what do they really care of the company they lead?, if the company goes south they still receive a juicy severance package, so nothing to lose there.
Why using Darth Vader as central part of the promotion was wrong you ask?, well, the first answer to that is: it was already used to promote the movie and everything around it, there are still Darth Vader dolls and stuff rotting till no more at your local Toys R' Us and everywhere else, second, Darth Vader shows only for about 2 minutes of screen time during the movie, that is 1 % of the movie's length, if the execs saw the movie they should have known this: ROTS was about ANAKIN SKYWALKER and how he turns himself to the dark side, the first 3 episodes were ALL ABOUT HIM, yes, he is Darth Vader but not the one in the big black suit you will run from if you find him in your way, if you really want to see Darth Vader as a main/central character, rent/buy/bootleg/lend/kill for/5 finger discount Star Wars IV A New Hope, period. ( I take no responsability of your own acts based on things you read on this blog, you are on your own, this is for legal pourposes because you never know)
Sure the Trump pulled a Chewbacca defense on this one: see Chewbacca here, what does he do on the Apprentice?, it doesn't make sense, he lives with 3 feet Ewoks and he is a 6 feet Wookie, that doesn't make sense, watching the Apprentice talking about Star Wars didn't make sense at all. I still seated 1 hour through marketing mockery and that's what he wanted, even when I think this stunt damaged Trump's credibility even more, what does he care?, maybe he wants an easy way out with NBC or Mark Brunett has had enough of the Trump and wants to focus on scripting survivor even more. Trump, the force is not with you even by a long shot, you are not Star Wars worthy, you should be FIRED off a cannon pointing the sun.
