S06.E11: Handi Products

[Amarsir]

Quote

The owner of a multimillion-dollar ramp and safety company avoids conflict with his staff members, including his son; Marcus tries to help them overcome their troubled past.

Well as always I'm a lot less interested in the relationship counselor aspect but this was certainly less toxic than most.

Interesting to me that this is another company which ties in nicely with Camping World. Seems a lot less risky than putting all his faith in a clothing designer or trying another fast casual restaurant.

[ae2]

Not a bad episode. It was light on drama which is good in my book.

But it seemed like all the important stuff happened off camera. Marcus told them to consolidate the two locations, then he comes back and they're consolidated. He told them to fix the packaging and branding, then comes back and it's (sort of) fixed.

While the packaging was a step up from what they had before, one of the given critiques of the original packaging is that it looked dated. Well, the new packaging would look right at home on a commercial break during the Andy Griffith show.

[Gregg247]

^^^^^LOL  Yes, "stop the slip" is great advice for surgeons!

I enjoyed this episode.  the company had some interesting and useful products, they're a natural fit with Camping World, the company was profitable, and the people involved seemed nice.  I hope it works out for them.  

TBH, I thought the professional marketing company's version of new packaging was only marginally better than what they eventually came up with.  I was surprised they didn't keep the strip of diagonal yellow and black stripes on all the packaging; it tells customers right away that this product solves "emergency-type issues".

That one dude really didn't want to have to travel more than 1 mile from his house to the office, did he?  LOL  I don't know how he managed to convince the boss to keep that second factory open just to accomodate him -- well, he WAS is sales, after all!

[LisainCali]

2 hours ago, Gregg247 said:

^^^^^LOL  Yes, "stop the slip" is great advice for surgeons!

I enjoyed this episode.  the company had some interesting and useful products, they're a natural fit with Camping World, the company was profitable, and the people involved seemed nice.  I hope it works out for them.  

TBH, I thought the professional marketing company's version of new packaging was only marginally better than what they eventually came up with.  I was surprised they didn't keep the strip of diagonal yellow and black stripes on all the packaging; it tells customers right away that this product solves "emergency-type issues".

That one dude really didn't want to have to travel more than 1 mile from his house to the office, did he?  LOL  I don't know how he managed to convince the boss to keep that second factory open just to accomodate him -- well, he WAS is sales, after all!

[LisainCali]

RE: The guy who thought it was good for the company that he lived so close to the second factory...

He actually said it was a good idea for the business because he had more time to spend at work!  Newsflash, Bozo.  You will spend the exact amount of time at work because you’ll drive to and from work on your own time.  Also, you won’t be able to leave on a whim anymore because the other employees are there.  

[judyri]

Or he could just work from home, one man doesn't need to keep a whole facility open for himself.

[mojito]

I thought it was funny that except for a few people, the meeting between the advertisers and the management of Hand-Products looked like a reunion of the chess team from the Class of 1965. 

I liked the products; the food and clothing companies have gotten pretty boring. 

[stormy]

The father/son drama almost ruined this episode for me because I don't like when Marcus plays family therapist. But I'm glad it didn't dominate the overall story.

It seemed a little lame to me that they couldn't figure out the most obvious things like closing the second location and not knowing how to find other possible customers. If they had done just that, they wouldn't have had to call Marcus.

All in all this was a big win for Marcus.

[ae2]

5 hours ago, stormy said:

It seemed a little lame to me that they couldn't figure out the most obvious things like closing the second location and not knowing how to find other possible customers. If they had done just that, they wouldn't have had to call Marcus.

Almost every episode there's a decision that needs to be made like this. I think it comes down to some combination of 3 or 4 things:

1. The owner is so enamored by some idea that they are blinded to the obvious thing: that a second location is wasting money, that a manager is completely useless, that they don't need to invest $1mm into a new building, etc.

2. The owner knows what needs to be done but just needs validation to make difficult decisions. especially when they've put countless hours and dollars into the thing.

3. The owner knows what needs to be done, but doesn't want to be seen as a bad guy (or can't bring themselves to be the bad guy) when it affects people's jobs. Since Marcus is "100% in charge" the burden is no longer on the owner (especially when it involves firing someone they're close with).

[LuvMyShows]

On 3/20/2019 at 4:21 PM, Gregg247 said:

TBH, I thought the professional marketing company's version of new packaging was only marginally better than what they eventually came up with.  I was surprised they didn't keep the strip of diagonal yellow and black stripes on all the packaging; it tells customers right away that this product solves "emergency-type issues".

Agree about the yellow/black stripes.  And agree about the pro mktg company's version, and this is not the first time that the pro mktg version of something on this show has been decidedly less than underwhelming...I don't get it, and doesn't give me much faith in what those companies do!