My 15 Minutes

Actually, it was more like five minutes. However, my name has been spoken and my face shown on national cable television, so I'm not complaining. It was during the latest episode of Pitchmen ("Tool Guys," Episode Six).

I don't have a speaking part. Instead, I play a still photo described as the DRTV consultant who brought Billy Mays in on Alden's Grabit project (true story). I think this was the best episode yet and will be hard to beat, but I may be biased.

By the way, since the Grabit commercial is no longer available online, I'm including it below. I think it came out great, but America apparently did not agree.

(You can buy Grabit, and prove America wrong, here.)

The Best Infomercial Of All Time

One of my pet projects, Slim Clip, was recently named the "Best Infomercial Of All Time."

OK, the award might have been presented online by Dan Hopper from the "Best Week Ever" blog (related to the VH1 show). And he may have ended the award's title with a question mark. But that doesn't mean it isn't awesome!

Congratulations to John Miller, who created the commercial Hopper loves so much, and Mike Lakhiani, who came up with the idea for the product and believed in it when others didn't.

We'd like to thank the Academy, our agents, our moms and dads ...

Ped Egg, Smooth Away on Mike and Juliet

Both Telebrands' Ped Egg and IdeaVillage's Smooth Away got some press recently when they were reviewed on The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet. The segment was titled, "Real Deal or Ripoff?"

The Ped Egg got a rave review from the guest spa "expert," Smooth Away got a mixed revew. The full segment is available here. Below is just the Ped Egg portion, which features AJ Khubani performing live demonstrations from the commercial.

Thoughts on "Pitchmen," Episode Five

I only have one comment on this episode as I chose to write a separate review for the Heel Stick and the Spot/Stain Sucker is not yet ready to be critiqued. (That said, I like the Spot Sucker concept and can't wait to see how the final version comes out).

Again, I am putting aside my thoughts on the entertainment aspects of the show and focusing only on the things that got my attention as a DRTV marketer. With that in mind, the one thing that jumped out at me was a comment Sully made when evaluating the Heel Stick. He said something like, "The mani/pedi industry is a multi billion-dollar one. If we can just capture one percent of it ..."

This caught my attention because I've heard variations of it so often in the conference rooms of DRTV companies. It's often played like a trump card. An item is about to be killed because it doesn't really meet the criteria for DRTV. Then the person in love with the item pulls out the ol' "1% of a billion" argument, and the project survives.

The problem with this logic, which seems sound at first, is that it gives marketers a false sense of security. It leads them to believe failure is highly unlikely in large, well-established categories when in fact the opposite may be true. Harvard Professor Clayton Christensen explained it well in a January 2007 article about the hype surrounding the launch of the iPhone:

Analysts are drooling at the prospect of Apple entering the [cell phone] market because the numbers look so big. A recent Wall Street Journal article noted that the 70 million iPods Apple has sold in the past five years ‘pale in comparison with the nearly one billion cell phones manufacturers are expected to ship this year. Even if Apple captures only a small share of that business, it could represent a revenue bump.’

There are always good reasons to be careful of a strategy that equates success with grabbing a small piece of a huge market. Although it is easy to imagine how the numbers could look good, success can elude even the savviest of companies in such large, highly-competitive markets.

DRTV companies are at an even greater disadvantage in this regard. That's because they don't have the giant ad budgets of a brand marketer like Apple, and most existing categories are already dominated by companies that do. That's why "must be unique" tops my list of criteria for DRTV products. Meaningful innovation is a DRTV marketer's only weapon because it cuts through the clutter and makes category dominance meaningless. As Jack Trout or Al Ries would say, the best strategy isn't to fight for dominance in an established category, it's to create a new category.

All of that said, a roll-on foot care product has a decent shot at creating a new category. So while I don't like the logic that may have launched it, I do like the item. See my Heel Stick review for more.

Review: Heel Stick

(Featured on Pitchmen, Episode Five)

Description: Roll-on foot balm
Main Pitch: "Roll away rough, dry skin"
Main Offer: $10 for a 1 oz stick
Bonus: 2nd stick and 10-piece grooming kit (just pay separate S&H)
Marketer: Telebrands
Producer: Sullivan Productions
Website: www.BuyHeelStick.com

Product (D7) Score: 6 out of 7
Commercial Rating: Good

There's a lot to like about this product. It's in a hot category, and it solves a mass-market problem -- as evidenced by the monster success of Telebrands' Ped Egg and Ontel's Miracle Foot Repair before that. It also comes in a unique form (roll on) that will help it stand out from the dozens of other foot balms on the market.

That last part is critical. In the episode of Pitchmen that focuses on this item, the viewer is left with the impression that this item was selected because it "really works" while other products on the market do not. But whether that's true or not, it's irrelevant from a DRTV marketing perspective. People simply do not buy "better than" products off TV. They buy products with a strong point of difference from what's already on the market.

In other words, without the roll-on delivery method, this item wouldn't have a chance. With it, I think it has a decent shot -- provided the market for this kind of solution hasn't already been over-mined.

This is an interesting problem I've encountered often. When a product enters a category and dominates it as thoroughly as Ped Egg, there is a higher-than-average chance that even a distinct and exciting new entrant to the category won't get a fair shot. A foot file and a foot balm are vastly different items, but they both solve the same problem. It just may be that people with this problem have found their ultimate solution (Ped Egg) and aren't interested in trying something new. Then again, maybe people will view these items as complementary and buy them both. (Free marketing slogan: "Grate it, then hydrate it!")

As for the commercial, it has a first-rate problem opening, great testimonials and solid B&As. My only criticisms are minor. One, the spot focuses too much on cracked heels, a narrow problem, and waits a bit too long to talk about other problem areas (elbows, knees, etc.) Two, there's a speed bump in the offer. Once the offer is initiated, I like it to build inexorably until the order screen comes up. This spot presents the offer then cuts away to a testimonial, which I think is disruptive to the "call to action" process.

Joseph Sugarman once described this as The Slippery Slide. He was talking about print ads, but it's a great analogy for how a spot should flow as well.