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Celebrating 1,000 NCIS-franchise episodes

S04.E06: Murchison-Hume

Tara Ariano

By Tara Ariano
in The Profit

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Knuckles

Knuckles

No, it could be done in by a CEO who is dishonest...she knew she never had the inventory she claimed,  she had a week to try to make good on her inventory short-fall, and she didn't even bother to come up with an explanation or a viable excuse. And yes, since she was dishonest in her inventory claim and in valuing her company, Marcus was smart to exit as quickly as possible.

Why this woman wants to portray herself this way on TV is beyond me...she just torpedoed any biz credibility she might have had, and what bank or investor will want to back her now? Pretending that a 230k shortfall is no big deal...and that stupid, bug-eved look. I had an urge to slap her.  Did she have to make good on the money he invested with her...that was not clear, and if not, then she managed a scam. I think the viewers should know.

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Lola16

Lola16

Didn't Marcus already have an episode in an earlier season with an eco friendly cleaning product?

Woman was BSC. Reminds me of those biotches that work at Conde Nast (whom we used to call Condescending and Nasty).  So arrogant but in reality - just weak little mean girls. Dreadful woman.

Dreadful name.  Dreadful imagery.  Just dreadful all around.

I feel for the workers. Not so much for her and her husband. She was so interested in appearing snooty and to the manor born.  OK, Mrs. Bucket (that's pronounced Bouquet).  Ughhhhhhhhhhhhh.   You're not elegant. No-one is aspiring to be you. Not even you.

Run Marcus Run.  Best in Show isn't worth it.

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Ketzel

Ketzel

What were the sunk costs? Aside from flying Lady Pettigrew-Hornbottle from LA to Chicago, picking up the check for the lunch with Kathy Ireland, and the cost of his own time to negotiate the new distribution arrangement and to noodle around new label ideas, did Marcus' money actually get spent before he gave up on the deal? Did they pay off any debt? Buy stuff?  I also wonder if the inventory was actually sold off the books, but if it was, why would anyone want to be on a television show that focused on the company finances? People get in trouble for fiddling the accounts, let alone committing fraud in the inducement to the deal. Very strange episode - although I see from his twitter account that Marcus somehow ended up with 100% ownership of the Best in Show trademark, so maybe that was the way they settled with him in the end.

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Former Nun

Former Nun

24 minutes ago, Ketzel said:

did Marcus' money actually get spent before he gave up on the deal? Did they pay off any debt? Buy stuff? 

Someone had to pay to get out of the contract with the Dallas distribution company.  They alluded to some sort of deal; it can only mean m-o-n-e-y,

24 minutes ago, Ketzel said:

I see from his twitter account that Marcus somehow ended up with 100% ownership of the Best in Show trademark, so maybe that was the way they settled with him in the end.

Glad to know this.  I was hoping there would be a negotiation on this.

49 minutes ago, Knuckles said:

Marcus was smart to exit as quickly as possible.

I told him moments after she was introduced, "Marcus!  RUN!  Don't get involved with Lady Bountiful!"

Apparently Mrs. Snooty not only does NOT know how to run a business, she doesn't know that when the cameras are running and she's wearing a microphone, WE CAN HEAR YOU!!!    Talk about a dick!

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toodles

toodles

This crazy lady reminded me of someone and I couldn't put my finger on it until I saw the recap picture.

She reminds me of crazy Stevia Lydia from the last season of breaking bad. Same pretentious mannerisms, same surprise when shit doesn't go her way, same inappropriate attire for the type of business of the day and same spoiled brat behavior.

Run, Marcus, run. This pain in the ass is really not worth it.

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ae2

ae2

In my mind I know that when a deal doesn't go well, Marcus and the producers are inclined to spin the story so that they look good and the business owners look bad.

Every other cell in my body is screaming out, "this woman is legit crazy!" Is she abusing xanax?

She kept claiming she wasn't qualified to be CEO. That's just a BS excuse she uses to sit around and do nothing. I won't claim it's easy, but you don't need a Harvard MBA to know that $230k of missing inventory is a big deal.

I don't understand how their "renegotiation" was settled. Maybe I missed something. She came back wanting to change the terms, then Marcus flew to LA to meet her and the guy, where they promptly agreed to continue with the original terms? 

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BusyOctober

BusyOctober

I don't understand the high end lifestyle branding for household cleaners.  Other products, sure.  I have chosen one brand over another because of perceived superiority.  I am not paying $9 for a bottle of toilet bowl cleaner (that looks like it would only last 3 weeks worth of use in my house).  I get wanting to feel la-di-dah because you're part of some imagined elite group. But I can't be fully invested in my "champagne wishes & caviar dreams" cosplay if I still have to scrub my own toilets.  Regardless of how many Martha Stewart aprons, Kathy Ireland rubber gloves and Joan Rivers jewelry I am wearing while doing it, I'm still on my knees doing housework. And overpaying for something so silly is not the path to being Rich & Famous anyway!
 

Max gave the impression she gave up some wonderful estate and life of leisure as Lady of the Manor in Australia.  Now she moved her family to some small LA house..."on the highway!!" to do this business.  Didn't she start M-H in Australia?  Was it doing well there? Why did she leave in the first place?  She was infuriating to deal with.  The pretensions and preciousness were just too much.  Whenever Marcus confronted her, she looked like a pug dog that got caught pooping on the rug, popping out those bug eyes with her "Who? Me? Why I never!" expression...GAH!  So glad he walked away from this one.  Max would have been a nightmare partner.

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toodles

toodles

41 minutes ago, BusyOctober said:

I don't understand the high end lifestyle branding for household cleaners.  Other products, sure.  I have chosen one brand over another because of perceived superiority.  I am not paying $9 for a bottle of toilet bowl cleaner (that looks like it would only last 3 weeks worth of use in my house).  I get wanting to feel la-di-dah because you're part of some imagined elite group. But I can't be fully invested in my "champagne wishes & caviar dreams" cosplay if I still have to scrub my own toilets.  Regardless of how many Martha Stewart aprons, Kathy Ireland rubber gloves and Joan Rivers jewelry I am wearing while doing it, I'm still on my knees doing housework. And overpaying for something so silly is not the path to being Rich & Famous anyway!
 

Max gave the impression she gave up some wonderful estate and life of leisure as Lady of the Manor in Australia.  Now she moved her family to some small LA house..."on the highway!!" to do this business.  Didn't she start M-H in Australia?  Was it doing well there? Why did she leave in the first place?  She was infuriating to deal with.  The pretensions and preciousness were just too much.  Whenever Marcus confronted her, she looked like a pug dog that got caught pooping on the rug, popping out those bug eyes with her "Who? Me? Why I never!" expression...GAH!  So glad he walked away from this one.  Max would have been a nightmare partner.

I don't get the precious and cutsie labels either. I guess I'm not their target consumer. Because the maid that cleans my house (me) uses cleaners from big lots.  

 I get that some people have allergies to cleaning products, but there are about a million recipes for home made cleaners on pinterest.  Forget how the bottle looks.  Does it work? I guess we don't know because they didn't do a demonstration like they did with the last cleaning stuff from a couple of seasons ago.

I bet this lady's kid is one very special snowflake.  

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JoannKB

JoannKB

I think Marcus was exaggerating the wrongness of the branding - surely he understands aspirational branding - but what he was ultimately trying to do made sense.

If the product's unique advantage is that it is natural, then the branding should reflect that, and look clean/green/healthy/environmentally friendly. If they are trying to brand it to look expensive, so that they can charge more, then it only makes sense to do that for products that might actually be on display in a home. Hand soap, dish soap, maybe even surface cleaner, I can understand paying more for a pretty bottle that conveys a fancy lifestyle. But floor cleaner, toilet cleaner, leather cleaner, sneaker spray? These things are going to be in a cabinet under a sink. And the type of person who would pay $9 for a cleaning product won't be the person using those products anyway - they have a housekeeper or a cleaning service.

So either brand the whole line as natural/green, or keep the aristocratic branding and pare down the line only to those items that would be on display and would be used on a regular basis by the person buying them.

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Amarsir

Amarsir

11 hours ago, Lola16 said:

Didn't Marcus already have an episode in an earlier season with an eco friendly cleaning product?

Yes. Eco-Me in season 1. They were acquired by a larger company so Marcus got cashed out. I can understand him wanting to go again.

I had a different take on the missing inventory than the rest of you. I thought she wanted out and Marcus wouldn't let her, so she hid some inventory and made it his decision. Although maybe I missed something with the timing and renegotiation that everyone else caught.

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NoWhammies

NoWhammies

There were two exchanges that told me everything I needed to know about this phony Lady Fancybottom. The first went something like this:

Marcus: "Unless you have movie stars and aristocrats on your contact list."

Lady Fancybottom: (giving a superior smirk) "Actually, I do."

The Poor, Long-Suffering Peter: "No you don't."

Lady Fancybottom: "Oh come now. Your grandfather was a sir."

The second was this one:

Lady Fancybottom: "I wanted the pictures because if the help can't read English, they still know what they are using."

Marcus: ...

Marcus was wise to flee this pretentious nut job. I think the poor, long-suffering Peter should follow suit. Run, Peter, run.

Quote

 

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selhars

selhars

(edited)

This show continues to make me marvel (and this episode) -- how many entries does the consumer need in one category. Aren't there already PLENTY of natural cleaning brands? Even store brands are getting in on the act.

Tell me again why THIS one was so special? Luxury, expensive? Uh, OK, I guess.

((And it's why I still marvel that Marcus made the candle company he bought CHANGE from its niche, and make cand'es that a a gazillion other companies are already doing. Marcus is a guy (obviously)…I honestly don't think he realized how many competitors were already in the candle business. His great looking packaging is pretty….but even so, what are the chances some one would buy THAT one, versus another

I use that example to to illustrate the high-end natural cleaning products line. There are plenty of them already. Who cares about this one?

Edited by selhars
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GaryB

GaryB

My wife and I had a theory about the inventory discrepancy. When they show Marcus doing the math while at the warehouse, he multiplies the total number of bottles by COST (as he should) to arrive at the $40+k number. My wife then mentions, "what do you want to bet that Max calculated inventory on-hand by using average retail cost as the multiplier?" We then did the math on our own and VOILA! We immediately came up with original claim of something in the quarter of a million dollar range. Which, all that accomplished was one of two things: a) further proved her complete ineptitude as a business owner b) she knew exactly what she was doing, in order to artificially manipulate/influence Marcus' perception of the state of her business and ultimately, his offer. Which was partly based on that figure. Either way, he was absolutely correct in abandoning that sinking ship of crazy.

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PBSLover

PBSLover

15 hours ago, Jamoche said:

"If the name's getting pushback, sure, change it, but acting like he doesn't understand the idea of selling a lifestyle?"

I spent the whole episode going "have you never once been inside a Whole Foods?"

It didn’t work for the American market.  Yes, I believe the owners would have just liked to change certain things but not the name/branding.  But when someone is giving you $$ and is a success with lots of products...

She wanted to be high end, which kind of doesn’t make sense for cleaning products.  Maybe for her leather cleaners but not for household products.  I would rather spend my money on other things (but I don’t have eczema or other sensitivities). 

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PBSLover

PBSLover

(edited)
4 hours ago, JoannKB said:

think Marcus was exaggerating the wrongness of the branding - surely he understands aspirational branding - but what he was ultimately trying to do made sense.

If the product's unique advantage is that it is natural, then the branding should reflect that, and look clean/green/healthy/environmentally friendly. If they are trying to brand it to look expensive, so that they can charge more, then it only makes sense to do that for products that might actually be on display in a home. Hand soap, dish soap, maybe even surface cleaner, I can understand paying more for a pretty bottle that conveys a fancy lifestyle. But floor cleaner, toilet cleaner, leather cleaner, sneaker spray? These things are going to be in a cabinet under a sink. And the type of person who would pay $9 for a cleaning product won't be the person using those products anyway - they have a housekeeper or a cleaning service.

So either brand the whole line as natural/green, or keep the aristocratic branding and pare down the line only to those items that would be on display and would be used on a regular basis by the person buying them.

So smart!  I love this post.  I think Marcus would have gone forward if she was a) a normal person, b) hadn’t lied.  When things don’t go your way, you cannot cry and walk away/get in your car/go to the bathroom EVERY TIME.  Suck it up, lady!  You are a business owner.  Isn’t the truth better than false reality?  She does have a family to support.

2 hours ago, NoWhammies said:

There were two exchanges that told me everything I needed to know about this phony Lady Fancybottom. The first went something like this:

Marcus: "Unless you have movie stars and aristocrats on your contact list."

Lady Fancybottom: (giving a superior smirk) "Actually, I do."

The Poor, Long-Suffering Peter: "No you don't."

Lady Fancybottom: "Oh come now. Your grandfather was a sir."

The second was this one:

Lady Fancybottom: "I wanted the pictures because if the help can't read English, they still know what they are using."

Marcus: ...

Marcus was wise to flee this pretentious nut job. I think the poor, long-suffering Peter should follow suit. Run, Peter, run.

Quote

Lady Fancybottom: “Tea, Marcus?"

Marcus: (inside his head) “WTF?"

Edited by PBSLover
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KHenry14

KHenry14

Something smells here. Nobody, and I mean nobody who has a 230K inventory shortage acts cavalier about it. I worked in retail for over 20 years, and I can tell you that a mere $100 inventory shortage sent my management into orbit, so this case I can imagine that everyone in the company south of Max and Peter should be fired or at a minimum scrambling like crazy to figure it out. But that didn't happen, which leads one to believe that the books were cooked to try and fool Marcus. 

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Lola16

Lola16

I believe the inventory shortfall is a matter of math - I agree with the poster above who said they probably multiplied the # of units by sales price instead of by cost.  Not sure why she didn't fess up to that at the end - she could have claimed it was because she wasn't CEO material - would have been a better look than wide eyed nothingness.

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selhars

selhars

She wasn't cooperative that was the issue.

I don't by that the name alone is a hinderance.

There are plenty of foreign named or foreign sounding named products that lead their category. Can you say Haagen Dazs? Heck, they even made up the name Hagen Das to sound foreign and give it cache. It's been decades and people still mispronounce Hyundai (correct is like sunday) - but there's no denying the cars sell. 

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Knuckles

Knuckles

GaryB answered the inventory discrepancy...she multiplied retail price, instead of cost. Except that is wholly misleading, if not intentionally dishonest. How closely does Marcus look at the numbers provided by one of his potentials? And Max herself was not a pleasant TV presence. 

I have to hand it to Martha Stewart...who started this whole personal branding craze. Her products are usually good value...and her cookbooks have recipes that have been exhaustedly tested and work. She may be the front-runner, but she has assembled a great team. And her persona is accessible and pleasant.

That link from speac above shows another wannabe, who styles herself, her home and her children, to move into personal branding. But she brings nothing new...she is at best bug-eyed and annoying, at worst, dishonest and reasonably stupid. Her husband looks unenthusiastic. 

And if you want to sell your overpriced stuff to the rich, to be used by foreign maids, get Trump to back your action. Leave Marcus alone.

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fib

fib

This crazy lady seems to owe her deal more to Gwyneth Paltrow and Goop than Martha Stewart.  Though i dont think she realizes that people HATE Gwyneth these days.  

Another wtf moment: she was explaining the name of the business, and her hubby's grandfather was "president of the australia club".   Wtf is the australia club?

I kind of agree that her branding didnt need a complete overhaul, though it did need to change.  "Clean Evolution" is a terrible name.  But her original font and icons were illegible and incomprehensible. 

I periodically buy fancy natural cleaning products in a pinch from my fancy grocer.  I buy based on price and smell.  Im not spending 9 bucks on dish soap.  I will grudgingly spend 6.  

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Whimsy

Whimsy

Why??  She's not worth this much attention!!  She is pretentious, fake and extremely annoying. When she said that the pictures were intended for the "help that don't speak English" my jaw literally dropped open. I really wanted to smack her. How obnoxious!!  Also, those pictures are still not helpful for non-english speaking people since they don't relate to the actual product. 

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selhars

selhars

(edited)

I like "Clean Evolution" and think it works better as a brand and name than a brand that was launch a few years ago called "Method" -- what the hell is that? You have no idea what that is or even related to? Yet it's a cleaning brand name. Once it's explained You get it. But from the time I realized what it was I thought the name was stupid. Too much work to convey what the point is and for the customer to get it. But it's slowly growing. At least Eco-Me and "Clean Evolution" give you some idea of the product or its purpose. 

The owner was the issue here. I have no issue at all with her wanting to be a high-end exclusive brand. However, that's NOT what Marcus is interested in. And to be honest, nothing beats vinegar, borax, and baking soda for natural clearers, and you can't get any cheaper than that. So I don't know why people pay a lot for natural cleaners anyway. But hey, people pay big bucks for all kinds of things so others can get rich off the mark up. That's capitalism.

Quote

When she said that the pictures were intended for the "help that don't speak English" my jaw literally dropped open.

Maybe, but 90 percent of the cleaning crew that cleans my office every night can't speak English. I can't even ask where's the trash can --and that's what they're doing -- emptying the trash. I get the blank look and nod. I'm like forget it. So I DO think pictures would work for them. If for no other reason so I myself could point to it for them. I won't even get into why pictures should be needed in the first place.

Edited by selhars
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sarthaz

sarthaz

On 9/28/2016 at 0:27 AM, Ketzel said:

 I see from his twitter account that Marcus somehow ended up with 100% ownership of the Best in Show trademark, so maybe that was the way they settled with him in the end.

This.  The whole episode I kept thinking, "Damn, that trademark must be worth a ton of money," because it was clear from the jump that Lady Fancypants was trouble and the deal would collapse.  The only reason he'd stay around to make things work after she repeatedly showed incompetence and batshit craziness would be that trademark.  In the end, looks like he got it.

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ae2

ae2

What is so valuable about Best in Show? The episode didn't seem to make that very clear. Other than being a good branding opportunity, is there an existing business or reputation?

There are all sorts of existing pet products, groomers, day cares, etc. that use that name. Martha Stewart seems to have an unrelated Best in Show pet product line. 

Here is the apparent trademark. It lists Pet Stuff America as the owner, which seems to be Bentley's. 

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PBSLover

PBSLover

20 hours ago, ethalfrida said:

 

I didn't get the ending. We got an emergency braodcasting system test near the end.

 

The episode will be repeated all week.  And I think it’s on CNBC’s On Demand if you have that.

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mojito

mojito

Quote

Netflix has a documentary series on this lady.

Watching this show, I thought of "Keeping Up Appearances", too, and I've only watched it for a few minutes many years ago. 

Max just didn't seemed to be wrapped too tight, and I think she's not all there. 

Did anyone else think, right from the start, that her re-location should not have been from Sidney to  CA (I understand that she's originally from there) but from Sidney to Skokie (I'm assuming that this was a new manufacturing location for the company) and this should also be the place from where she distributed her products? She could move to the west coast once she got the US market going, did she have to go all Hollywood the way she did? She would have been able to live in a bigger home, near a park, I'm sure. And what happened to the business in Australia? I'm confused, or maybe I just missed something.

"I'm not going to be hokey-dokey kaboom" and "I will repair my lipstick." Hmm.

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hatchetgirl

hatchetgirl

17 hours ago, speac said:

And from her comment about how rough they are living in LA I was expecting a hovel-here is a piece about her home

http://thegracetales.com/at-home-in-la-with-murchison-humes-max-kater/

Wow - that article was an editor's nightmare!  In the beginning there is a paragraph that is a mishmash of 1st and 3rd person - it made my brains hurt.  This lady is a mess and if she is renting in LA and what looks like Los Feliz or maybe Larchmont, she's paying hand over fist!  I live near Los Feliz in an up and coming area and the realtors want to rent my 900 sq. ft home for $3,600 a month!  Los Feliz or Larchmont would be insanity.

I want to know what her husband does...

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Jesse

Jesse

On 9/28/2016 at 0:27 AM, Ketzel said:

 Lady Pettigrew-Hornbottle 

Hee!

On 9/28/2016 at 2:15 PM, GaryB said:

My wife and I had a theory about the inventory discrepancy. When they show Marcus doing the math while at the warehouse, he multiplies the total number of bottles by COST (as he should) to arrive at the $40+k number. My wife then mentions, "what do you want to bet that Max calculated inventory on-hand by using average retail cost as the multiplier?" We then did the math on our own and VOILA! We immediately came up with original claim of something in the quarter of a million dollar range. Which, all that accomplished was one of two things: a) further proved her complete ineptitude as a business owner b) she knew exactly what she was doing, in order to artificially manipulate/influence Marcus' perception of the state of her business and ultimately, his offer. Which was partly based on that figure. Either way, he was absolutely correct in abandoning that sinking ship of crazy.

Ohhhhh -- that makes a ton of sense. So not a crook, just an idiot. (I mean if she couldn't figure that out with a week to do it.)

8 hours ago, selhars said:

Maybe, but 90 percent of the cleaning crew that cleans my office every night can't speak English. I can't even ask where's the trash can --and that's what they're doing -- emptying the trash. I get the blank look and nod. I'm like forget it. So I DO think pictures would work for them. If for no other reason so I myself could point to it for them. I won't even get into why pictures should be needed in the first place.

How is  a cameo silhouette of a lady on the bathroom cleaner going to help with that?

Agreed that I hope Marcus was being disingenuous about the branding piece. I just spent five seconds googling, and Williams-Sonoma will sell you an all-purpose cleaner for $14, so the fancy cleaning supply/double name market exists, at least.

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marny

marny

She kept telling Marcus over and over that she wasn't equipped to be CEO. She was right. It's not her fault he didn't believe her. Just because Kathy Ireland is a high school graduate who runs a multi-billion dollar company doesn't mean that everyone can do it. 

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attica

attica

I get the 'aspirational branding' thing, and I certainly know people who would spend 9 bucks on a small bottle of toilet cleaner (even more ironic since they're generally convinced their shit doesn't stink!) but if you're the kind of person who worries if 'the help' can read English, aren't you also the kind of person for whom 'the help' does the shopping? Maybe not. I guess I don't know the grocery-gathering habits of the aristos I know.

That said, Max really embodied many of the qualities of the aristos I know. Serene in their ignorance. Imagining employees consider themselves so lucky for the gig, crappy wages are the norm. Blithely confidant that logistics work themselves out, like Jeannie crossing her arms and blinking. Incapable of imagining that the rest of the world doesn't share her style viewpoints. Just doesn't hear information that falls outside of her desires. Incapable of recognizing her own errors, even as she protests not knowing enough to take responsibility for them.

So I shuddered my way through the ep.

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hatchetgirl

hatchetgirl

Quote
Quote

I want to know what her husband does...

Doesn’t he work at the company? Hubby better get a job stat as the Mrs. is clearly not capable of running a company for the long term.

Yeah - during the episode, he said something non-committal like he did work there, but not full time and with the 2700 sq ft in Sydney and a rented home here in the areas it looks like they are in, he'd had to do something else.

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