Infomercials: The Marketing Back Road That Keeps Earning Millions

No one would have thought that while investment bankers were facing an ugly time waiting for the economic slump to be over, products like sleeved fleece blankets and odor-trapping blankets with comical names were selling like pancakes, literally. And they were. rnWhile the whole of North America was going through recession, many companies selling their odd products through infomercials typically aired in the wee hours of the night earned billions. Products like the Shake Weight (an oscillating barbell that was featured in a very strange infomercial) sold millions of units in less than a year, earning around $40M in revenues. rnIt’s crazy, right? And that’s what infomercials are. Or that’s what they do, rather. Infomercials are typically produced with a low budget, or are sometimes just deliberately cheap, cheesy and campy. And the products they sell are almost always comical or funny, then oddly entertaining, or strangely necessary, or just plain weird. rnAirtimes for infomercials, since they are typically long and usually a little too strange for general patronage, are often scheduled at odd times when no one seems to be watching TV. But many TV stations and infomercial marketing companies were surprised by the sales success of these infomercials. rnThis can be attributed to the very crank nature of these infomercials. It may be true that it is human nature to be attracted to the strange or at the very least find it fascinating enough to keep watching – and to keep buying. Infomercial marketing companies prosper because they know their niche very well and they focus there. A. J. Khubani, CEO of TeleBrands in an interview for CanadianBusiness.com, said, "Our products solve everyday problems in a fun way, in a way where they become a conversation piece. Just like the movie industry does well in a bad economy, our products do well because they're cheap entertainment." rnThese infomercial marketing companies actually did better during the recession because airtime spots became cheaper, which allowed them to buy more airtime, giving them a lot more exposure. Because of this, the average North American household now watches around 32 infomercials each week.