Got your ShamWow yet? Or your Shameez or any of the other knockoffs of that tremendous product being hawked on every channel on your TV?
Mrs. Walt bought a couple of packages. Now we have brightly coloured rags hanging from hooks and rods in the kitchen, the bathrooms, the garage, the laundry room...everywhere. They are constant reminders of the power of well-executed schlock marketing and the dumbitude of North American consumers.
And here's the thing... Even though we know we've been had, we still watch the ShamWow guy -- Vince Shlomi, a.k.a. Vince Offer -- flogging the SlapChop and similar garbage. And I admit to stopping to catch the act of Vince imitators and wannabes at flea markets and county fairs.
Vince may be the best TV pitchman since Ron "Ronco" Popeil, the inventor of spray-on hair and other must-have products. How else could it be that people would part with $20 for a bunch of rags?
Well, they're from Germany, Vince says, and "you know the Germans make good stuff". Really? Germans are famous for making good cars, beer and ovens, but who ever heard of German excellence in textiles? [Military uniforms, maybe? ed.]
But you get a second bunch of rags -- or lately a rag mop -- FREE! All you pay is the shipping and handling on the second package. You know what that means? The product is so cheap to produce and ship that they can ask you to pay 7 or 10 bucks for "shipping and handling" and still make money.
It's really quite amazing. I wish I'd thought of it.
Footnote: You can read Ron Popeil's "How I did it" from Inc. magazine here.
No comments:
Post a Comment