On this week’s episode, in the board room, failure was brought about by poor business understanding.
Indeed, blame rested on the sheer lack of ?Siimon” branding, coupled with shocking grammatical errors but, in reality, the change of brand name was just the tip of the iceberg, where the lads (plus Michaela) were doomed from the point of OAPs.
Know your audience
“If your target audience isn’t listening, it’s not their fault it’s yours” Seth Godin
Team Vitality demonstrated a clear lack of understanding in their target audience, implying the majority of individuals aged 60 plus spend their days doing limited yoga moves and popping pills, only when reminded of course.
The truth of the matter is that the majority of the nation aren?t even retired at 60, let alone relying on ?Jeffrii” to tell them when to take their medication.
More time should have been spent here on business understanding of target personas because, if you don’t know who your customers are, where their interests lie and what channels they use, you’re doomed from the word go, proven by Jeffrii’s mishmash of limited capabilities.
No consistency, no sale!
Despite the sub-team being unanimous in their creation of ?Jeffrii?, the robot was re-branded to Siimon without a second thought as to whether it had been programmed. Mistake number two.
When making a purchase, consumers buy into the brand and what the brand represents as much as the individual product or service. In the case of Siimon, or Jeffrii, there was no branding, and what was created was poor and out of touch with the target demographic.
Finally, even if the lads were able to pull off the ?umbrella brand concept, they weren?t practised in their pitch, and their explanation was easily perceived as the poor cover up it was.
Consistency is key and in this example, the product was out of touch with the target audience, and the branding out of touch with both.
Catty communication
Despite the girls winning for the third week in a row, the moaning, whining and arguing with one another is beginning to grate.
With business understanding, you?ll know you certainly won’t get along with everyone, but the measure of success is how you manage yourself and maintain your professionalism.
The sub-team were lucky on this occasion that their attitude didn?t cost them the task, where their inability to communicate professionally came across in their sales pitches, resulting in the loss of the preferred robot to Team Vitality, and ultimately a crucial loss in time.
Next week, leave it at home.
Mark Wright is director of?Climb Online?and winner of The Apprentice 2014 he ll be back next week with lessons of the latest episode
Image source:?BBC
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