Description: Reusable plastic food covers with built-in elastic
Main Pitch: "Stretches to perfectly fit and seal any size or shape dish, bowl, platter or container"
Main Offer: $9.95 for 12 medium and 10 large covers
Bonus: N/A
Marketer: Unknown
Producer: Blue Moon Studios
Website: www.CoverMateFoodCovers.com
Product (D7) Score: 5 out of 7
Commercial Rating: Good/Excellent
Two serious flaws with this product: The idea isn't totally unique, and the similar items on the market are from big brands. (Not to mention it looks like a shower cap or one of those hair covers cafeteria workers wear -- not the best association to make when thinking about food).
Big-brand competition is the big problem this product will face. Although the marketer did an excellent job making the packaging look like something Glad would put out, that's a double-edged sword. When people go to their local supermarket, they will find Glad Press'n Seal, not this product, and buy that instead. Or they will buy the same old Glad or Saran Wrap product they've bought countless times before. After all, it's very difficult to change consumer habits and preferences with advertising. And as I've written before, DRTV marketers don't have nearly the budget or time to do it. Plus, this is ultimately a "better than" product, which means it also faces what Harvard professor and author Clayton Christensen described as the "good enough" problem. That is, current products are "good enough" to meet most people's needs.
As you may be able to tell, I don't like this product for DRTV. But as for the DRTV commercial, it's excellent. Readers of this blog will probably have grown tired of my praise for certain production companies, and Blue Moon is certainly one of them. They are especially good at DRTV/branding hybrids (Sullivan Productions is another), as evidenced by all the great work they are doing for Church & Dwight, P&G and others.
I'll close by noting one of those signature lines of which I promised I would start keeping track. Scriptwriters are trying a little too hard to come up with them these days (to comic effect), but Fred Vanore nailed one with this variation on a classic:
"Round or square, big or small, CoverMate fits them all!"
