Now if you occasionally find yourself wide awake at 2 a.m, like me, you know that there are very few things you can do at that hour (the joys of insomnia). The most common thing is turning on the television. That leaves you with essentially two options: Nick at Nite reruns and the late-night infomercials. Now, I can only watch so many Friends and The Nanny reruns. So, I tune into one of the ridiculous infomercials. And, it got me thinking. Sometimes even the most boring, guaranteed to put an insomniac to sleep informercials can do wonders to make a product stand out. From ninja swords to Snuggies, here’s a few casual insights from a very sleep-deprived marketer.
1. Make sure you fill a need- as ridiculous as it may be.
The secret to a good infomercial product is that it must fill a need for your target audience. Now, this need could be as mundane as finding a better way to chop onions. But in some other cases, marketers are going to have to get creative. Take “Easy Feet” for example. Now, I’m pretty sure everyone, I think, wants to have squeaky clean feet. Most people just use a washcloth. I’m not sure how many people would automatically go out and buy what I can only describe as the world’s most awkward car wash for feet before this infomercial debuted.
2. Cater to people’s laziness.
It never ceases to amaze me just how lazy we can be. Only in America would we have inventions like the Snuggie. The Snuggie is a ridiculous looking wearable blanket. Yet, it may be one of the most well-known infomercials out there. They have sold millions of them.
3. Make sure your product can be parodied.
Youtube. It can be the best way to get a late night infomercial tons of exposure. There’s only so many people, who are going to stay up and watch the Forever Lazy infomercial (a spin-off of the Snuggie) at 2 a.m. But, put it on Youtube. You are bound to get dozens and dozens of parodies and spin-offs. Many of them are very funny, and a lot of them are NSFW.
4. Go for the WTF Factor.
If all else fails, go for the WTF factor. Make sure that your product is either so absurd or can be used for such an absurd task that it becomes memorable. Take “furniture fix,” which is supposed to fix sagging couches. To illustrate their point, they showed two SUMO wrestlers — weighing more than 1,000 pounds– sitting on the couch. Yeah, just a little bit extreme right?
So, let’s have a little fun now. What’s the worst infomercial you have seen? Share in the comments section below.
