November 27, 2012

Lashfull

Description: An eyelash enhancer
Main Pitch: "The eyelash boosting serum that will help your own lashes become fuller, longer and sexier in just four weeks"
Main Offer: 30-day trial (just pay P&H)
Starring: Taylor Baldwin
Marketer: Hutton-Miller
Producer: Media Enterprises/Plymouth Direct
Website: www.Lashfull.com
Prediction: Unlikely to succeed

My prediction here is based on DRTV history and past experience. Several products similar to this one have been tried without success. As I wrote in my review of Guthy-Renker's Lash Appeal, I think that's because "Latisse owns the market, and it [this type of product] is not DR-friendly."

I mentioned past experience, and that story is worth telling. When Latisse was new, well before any of the usual DR players had thought about lashes, an outside company decided to bring their lash enhancer to market using DR. With a little trial and error, they got it mostly right and launched their test. However, during the testing period a mixed blessing occurred -- a talk show host decided to start raving about the product on her show. This resulted in a huge surge in sales and a ridiculously low CPO (the blessing part), so they decided to push the spending the following week. However, the hype died quickly and the campaign died with it (the mixed part). The moral of this story has nothing to do with lash products, but it did teach me something about the dangers and limitations of buzz-based marketing strategies.

Returning to this project, everything else worked for me. I liked the way the offer was handled ($9.95 P&H to try, $29.99 later). I even liked Taylor's perverted sense of humor (once again) in the opening. If it weren't for the category history, I might have predicted success.