OK so here's another post fer the 9th episode of The Apprentice (series 8) in which the two teams this week were given the task of devising a brand and identity of English sparkling wine.
So starting with team Sterling, who was lead by Ricky, they came up with the name "Grandeur" for their wine brand, even though this is a French word, but Gabrielle did come up with a good design for logo with the English rose. As for the video well, things went a bit off message as Jenna was left in charge of directing the video, which was done as a humourous farce, with a bride on her wedding daycomplaining about the quality of the wine, only to be given the Grandeur wine, and a very cheesy toast from her father, and yup it was as bad as it sounds. However on the website side of things, Ricky did a fine job and in their sales pitch to the wine expert judges, he presented well and showed the online forums and links for social network sites such as Twitter and Facebook, but the video left the judges cringing.
As for team Phoenix, they were lead by Tom, who was already in the wine business, so he had a good idea on a strategy for the branding the wine, even though he and Adam spent the first day on a wine tasting day, clearly by the end of it, they were getting more pished! Meanwhile this was going on Nick and Jade worked hard on creating the website for their sparkling wine brand, and on the second day, Adam directed, sorry "choreographed" the video, which was very bland, with a cliched image of people at a gathering clinking glasses of wine. But you can't say Adam won't have left this process without having turned his hand to different things, he sure has done that, and even though he doesn't have a clue what he's on about, he's doing not too bad. As for team Phoenix's pitch, Tom did come a bit under fire for the website not attracting to new business, instead it seem to focus more on existing customers.
But back in the boardroom the two teams it was no longer about profits etc, this time it was about who had the more successful campaign, and the decision lay with Lord Sugar. Lord Sugar said to team Phoenix that he felt the video was boring, and that the site was a bit more orientated towards existing customers. But as for team Sterling, despite acknowledgeing their website was quite impressive, the video was ridiculously cheesy and went violently off message from the product, so Lord Sugar decided that they were the losing team, with team Phoenix finally getting their first win in four weeks.
When it came to crunch time, Ricky decided to bring Stephen and Jenna back in the boardroom, as they were the sub-team responsible for the filming of the video, and it was Jenna's decision to make the video a comedy number. Lord Sugar criticised Ricky for not making it clear enough that he wanted the video to be serious, as he did state that a little humour would be fine as long as it wasn't too cheesy. Steven on the other hand mainly sat on the fence on this one and didn't contribute too much to the task, and Lord Sugar recognised that he has a way of deflecting blame and talking himself out of situations. But ultimately Lord Sugar decided that the failure of the task solely lay with the video, and as Jenna was the director of the video, she had to go.
On this one I have to say I think that Lord Sugar made the wrong decision in firing Jenna, as I think Stephen should have went instead, as he did little to contribute to this task. I also think he's bit of an arse, as he keeps trying to come up with some half-assed ideas, which are really corny, and don't work at all, like the one where he did a bit of skit with Ricky on the market sale task, with the brushes. And he clearly also didn't have a clue when it came to doing research on the sparkling wine, as he and Gabrielle went to a Tesco supermarket, and he went off to try and find a sparkling wine connosieur! In a supermarket???? Oh yeah, I'm sure you will find one there no doubt about it! As far as I'm concerned Stephen is just a twat, who so far has managed to talk himself out of being fired. Mind you, Stephen has put himself in the firing line next week, as Lord Sugar decided to make him project manager on the task, so here's hoping he goes, mwah mwah! ;-)
So that's nine weeks down and three to go, leaving only seven candidates left to compete for the right to become Lord Sugar's business partner. As for thoughts on who should win, its a tough one, but for me the stand out probably has to be Gabrielle, as she has the best overall attitude, is very bright, and creative, and bit of a babe too. ;-) I also think Nick is very capable too, even though he looks like Justin Bieber and sounds like Boris Johnson, but he's a bright guy, and he also has never been in the bottom three in the boardroom, although that isn't always a guarantee. But it also will come down to who has the best business plan as well, and that remains to be seen.
Right that's it for another Apprentice post, another will follow next week.
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