It used to drive my, girlfriend mad! We’d be on holiday in America and I’d always end up sitting up half the night watching the TV infomercials. Can’t explain why. I was just fascinated by the way in which the guy onscreen would get out a product and sell it ‘live’ right in front of your eyes.
It reminded me, I suppose, of when I used to go to the markets as a kid. I used to watch the stall holders selling a huge wicker basket of plates, describing the fine bone china, the pattern, the lustre of the glaze – and the value of these, these…. well you’d think they were some lost family heirloom at that price. Then not to be beaten, he’d pile on basket after basket of smaller plates, tea cups, coffee cups, sugar bowl and condiment set, and if that wasn’t enough he’d throw in a ‘handsome carriage clock’ that played ‘Edelweiss’, for free.
Then came the pricing ‘strategy’. Having started at a very high price of £120– he’d then tell you he won’t ask £120 – not even £100, not 99, not 90 – not 80, 75, 60 or even 50. The with a clap of his hand or the drop of his poor-mans gavel (a lump of wood he wielded during his presentation) he’d tell you that for the first four people, he’d let them ‘go’ for just £35 for the ‘jolly lot’.
Ahh – sheer magic :- )
Where was I? ahh – America with a fed-up girlfriend.
She didn’t share my love of the ‘pitch’ (she assumed I was talking about football or something!).
But I was spellbound. Several times I managed to rent or borrow a VCR from the hotel manager and would set it up to record that night’s infomercials on the TV – so that I could watch them when I got aback to the UK.
I recall once in New York, not having access to a VCR but seeing the greatest infomercial I had then seen. So I turned on my video camera and sat on the end of the bed with it pointing at the screen fro 28 minutes (the length of a good infomercial). Bizarre!
But over about 9 or 10 years I gathered together a unique archive of some of the best infomercials on TV. I had no idea why – I had no plans to use them. Just something kept my attention and I set them all down on tape. I just had a gut feeling that someday they would be useful.
And indeed they have been. You see – one of the lessons I learned from watching those guys on TV was the lesson of ‘added value’ I watched amazed as they piled on the bonuses and made the product itself look SO cheap that you almost felt guilty about taking up the offer.
There is an infamous case amongst Direct Marketers in the USA that a leading publisher once offered a new product – and as an afterthought, offered a free engraved mug, as a bonus item. The new product was a roaring success. But when they carried out market research with buyers to find why it had been such a huge success – they were astonished to find it was the mug – not the product – that people bought. They didn’t necessarily want the product – they just wanted to get their hands on the damn mug!!
But wait – there’s more.
I’ve been studying TV infomercials for a while now – and there is no greater example of ‘adding value’ with bonuses than the infomercials for knives run by Ron Popeil – arguably the father of direct TV selling in the USA. Ron’s now famous catchphrase is–
“But wait there’s more!”
If you’ve never seen his sales ‘pitch’ for knives – you need to, if you want to learn anything about selling to the consumer
What starts out a simple knife ad – to sell a wonderful knife for $39.95 – then builds into a huge set as Ron shouts “But wait , there’s more” and introduces more and more knives as bonus items.
If you weren’t sold on the value of one knife for £39.95 – by the time Ron has finished – and has added another 24 knives to the offer, as bonuses, you have your credit card out! 25 knives with a value of around $900+ – for just $39.95.
All for just $39.99
The techniques have worked for Ron. Starting as a young man selling products in Woolworths in Chicago – he recently sold the company he built, using these ‘direct selling’ techniques, for around $56.5million!!
See – Ron knew the power of adding bonuses to build the perceived value of a product. All well and good, I can hear you say – but adding bonuses to products can increase costs and deplete profits surely.
Not so – in tests of offers with bonuses, versus no bonuses, I have had hundreds of times as many sales as when I offered just the product.
In one of the bonus Modules of the Cash On Demand course I show you how to use the ‘Wait – there’s more’ technique in your own Cash On Demand business.