This episode was a lot more timid compared to the last couple of episodes. Continuing from last time, Omarosa was moved to Empresario and it was decided that Marilu Henner would move to Hydra. The task this time around was that the two teams would appear live on the QVC shopping channel and would have to select a product to sell. The team who makes the most money would win.
The project manager for Hydra was Marilu Henner and for Empresario was Stephen Baldwin. At first both teams wanted to sell the same product which was a portable ladder that could also be turned into a cart/dolly it seemed. The two teams simply decided to flip a coin to see who would get to sell it and Hydra won. As a result, Empresario decided to sell an electric sweeper product.
Hydra’s approach was to use Marilu Henner as the presenter and she utilized a super energetic and passionate approach to try and sell the product. Empresario used Trace Adkins who was a complete polar opposite it seemed as he had a very mellow and calm attitude with his presentation.
During the planning portion of the episode where the teams were in a meeting room strategizing, am I the only one that noticed what seemed to be blatant product placements to advertise Trump’s book “Think Big and Kick Ass In Business and Life†in the background? I took a screen capture of it here:
It looked like Trace Adkins was staring at that book in particular too wondering where the heck it came from and what it was doing there. Overall, Hydra’s presentation seemed to be a bit overwhelming with Empresario’s efforts being more down to earth for the viewer I thought.
Hydra decided to price their product at $49.99 while Empresario decided to sell their product at 59.95 while utilizing an easy payment plan gimmick to further generate sales which broke it down to five payments of $11.99. In the end, Empresario sold 716 units and made $43,000 while Hydra sold 703 units $35,145. As a result, Empresario won and Stephen Baldwin received $20,000 for his charity.
In the boardroom it came down to Piers Morgan, Lennox Lewis and Marilu Henner. There was some rumblings about the choice as it was questioned why Carol Alt wasn’t selected instead as she apparently has worked with QVC for years and should have had knowledge of things such as the easy payment plans. In the end, since Marilu played such a big role in virtually every aspect of the project, a lot of the results was aimed at her and as a result she was fired.
I thought this episode was interesting in the sense that a lot of energy can sometimes be portrayed as the person being extremely nervous whereas being calm can demonstrate a lot of confidence. At the same time, it was good reminder I thought that that being yourself is the best way to go rather than assuming that you have to necessarily copy someone else’s style/approach to succeed.