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(The) Donald Trump is an excellent example of
American entrepreneurism in its most flamboyant form. Synonymous with New
York Real Estate, beautiful women, bad hair, 90-story ego, distaste for
dishonesty, and a clear killer-instinct in the business world, Trump also
knows how to use people to make money for him.
Yet Trump is no exception when it comes to
overcoming episodes of failure or great hardship. In the late 1980's when he
fell into default with his mortgage lenders his back was definitely against
the wall. But negotiating skills pulled him out of this slump with hardly a
missed heartbeat. Love him or hate him, he certainly creates brand
recognition.
His new reality show, The Apprentice, takes
place in the unforgiving business world of Manhattan as eight women and
eight men (all entrepreneurs in their own right) are chosen out of more than
200,000 applicants to compete for the ultimate prize: running one of Trump's
companies with a huge salary.
20 million viewers watched for three months
while Donald Trump outlined the buy-low-sell-high mindset of marketing, and
each week they were divided into two teams and given their assignments. Each
week one was "fired" for reasons such as choosing candor over loyalty,
misconduct, or dishonesty.
As a viewer there was much to learn about
what it takes to make it in business.
So how much money is enough money? Apparently
2 billion was not enough because The Donald released his new book titled
How To Get Rich as his new show The Apprentice hit the screen. It was
sold across the America in every bookstore during the full three month
season.
And if you want to witness marketing
strategies at its finest, you must have enjoyed the presentation of two
dumpy apartments by Trump as each team renovated them for him -- not only
free. but they found tenants for him afterwards! Or selling lemonade on
New York streets for $1000 each with the Trump label on the glass.
In a brilliant move he also introduced his latest
venture -- the water business -- by having the teams compete to see which could
sell the most bottles. So let me ask you, if you walked into your neighborhood
convenience store to buy a bottle of water and happened to come across one with the Trump brand clearly stamped on it,
would you buy it? Well, maybe, maybe not.
When The Apprentice ended its first season
and all had been "fired" except Bill, was Bill the "real" winner? He now has
a career running one of Donald's many business ventures.
But look what Donald Trump gained... a master
marketer molded in his own image, two renovated apartments fully rented, a
bottled-water business that is flourishing, a book on the best-seller's list
and another TV contract for a new three-months of The Apprentice.
Hey, is that marketing or is that marketing?
© 2004 Esther Smith
About
the Author: Smith has published numerous articles and writes a blog for
all artists:
http://the-self-taught-artist.com/blog.html
She also coaches new students on how to leave the time-for-money trap and set up
Leveraged Income for life.
http://thepermanentventure.com/dcc.htm If you can’t sing or ride a
bull, you better learn how to make your money work for more money. |