Wrapping different products into one package often leads to misjudging the individual contents.
For example, ever since the mortgage mess began to unravel, consumers have raced to fixed-rate loans, reportedly with a newly found “pay-it-off” mindset. Adjustable-rate loans, especially those with an interest-only component, recently have been shunned and criticized, hammered and nailed.
The same can be said about the different items and services sold via a direct response campaign. It is not accurate or wise to bundle every product under the DR umbrella and label them as emotionally purchased mistakes. However, a recent front-page story in Consumer Reports calls into question the entire DR strategy and process.
According to a line in the story “About half of infomercial products deliver on their promise, 30 percent do what they say but are a bit expensive, and the rest are junk.”
So, the answer is to group all of the products into one foul basket and caution the buying public to be leery of anything being advertised during off hours and sold with a slam-bam message? Should I be genuinely skeptical if a former heavyweight champion tosses a right-cross punch and tells me a cooking appliance is going to “knock out the fact?”
We’ve been privileged to have been a part of some of the more useful and popular household products ever brought to market, including The George Foreman Grill, The Rug Doctor and Oxiclean. There have been countless of other offerings marketed by some of our competitors that have reached the same levels of respect and acclaim.
“I think it’s a shame that all DR folks get lumped in with some of the worst little chotskies ever invented,” said Tim O’Brien, Cesari Direct’s vice president of business development. “I thought major publications were beyond just focusing on the rip-offs that are in the marketplace. After all, many Fortune 500 companies now employ some form of direct response. The idea that consumers are upset and up in arms about infomercials is an old, tired story.”
What is the difference between a Sleep Number Bed message on the television announcing that a sale ends Sunday and a live sales person on the floor of a retail outlet encouraging you to act before the end of the Sunday sales event? Why might the TV ad be more effective? The average consumer feels more comfortable (and can save travel time and fuel) making that decision in the comfort of their own home.
Speaking about the home, let’s consider a quick sampling of 10 brands that now have DR as a critical component of their marketing. Let’s start with the sweet tooth in everyone and include Hershey’s Chocolate, head over to the computer room and pickup a Hewlett Packard computer to run a Rosetta Stone language program; check on the new Tempur-Pedic in the guest bedroom along with the Bose Wave music system; help grandpa hear his favorite program with some TV Ears; support a teenager’s skin car with Proactiv Solution; clean the air in the boys’ game room with an Oreck Air purifier; blend a night-time snack with a Juiceman juicer and then dream of the weekend’s woodworking projects with a Kreg bench-top router tool.
So much for all of those no-name companies that only supply widgets that will last 10 minutes . . . I truly thought we were passed all that.
What was your impression of the Consumer Reports story? What tweaks a tender nerve regarding the portrayal of our industry? Let us know!
Rick
