“Fat steals your life!”: Why are TV shops still flourishing
Tele-shops are an amazing retail phenomenon. They seem to be a relic of the past, but only at first glance: shops "on the couch" perfectly exist today, even in the era of free online shopping. It would seem, why waste your time on advertising shows, the main purpose of which is to sell as much as possible? However, millions of people around the world have their own answer to this question - after all, the TV shops with their perfect picture of the world are designed so that it is almost impossible not to hang while watching.
TEXT: Anton Danilov, author of the Telegram channel "Promeminizm"
But that's not all!
Shopping on the couch has clear advantages. Remote trade is convenient for all participants in the process: buyers do not need to spend energy and time to go shopping, and the owners of these stores do not need to pay for rent and maintain a staff of sellers, cashiers and merchandisers. At one time, TV shops closed advertising catalogs for the belt, which were sent by mail, because buyers had the opportunity not only to see the goods in the picture, but also to listen to an interesting lecture about all its advantages, to see the thing in action and immediately buy it by calling. In English, such an advertisement is called "infomercial" - it has been played at least since the middle of the last century thanks to Canadian businessman Philippe Kaivs. An enterprising man founded in 1962 the company K-Tel, which sold everything that was possible, from kitchen knives to musical records. It was Kaivsu who owned the legendary phrase "But wait, this is not all!" ("But wait, there's more!").
At first, videos of this kind were short: advertisements on American television, where K-Tel products also advertised, regulated from and to. The Federal Communications Agency dictated the length and number of clips per air time — in general, they were given eighteen minutes each. The situation changed in 1984, when the administration of Ronald Reagan lifted the existing restriction: politicians believed in a market system that would allow them to interfere less with business processes. This decision gave rise to a whole generation of TV channels that specialized in virtual shopping.
One of the most famous was As Seen On TV by Kevin Harrington. The company bought cheap night time TV channels for long half-hour advertising shows, from which it was proposed to order products using a simple phone call. Intrigues to the action were added by an artificially created time limit - one of the favorite methods of TV shops today. In some ways, the format of these shows was visionary: they were incredibly exciting and effective, and even stars could act in them. VHS-courses of aerobics with the participation of Jane Fonda, which became the symbol of the era, advertised just in such TV stores.
The first enterprise of this kind in Russia was Teleexpo. The dubious advantages of buying and controversial sales methods raised many questions even then, but the TV shops themselves were a good help for independent television in the post-perestroika era: thanks to their deductions for advertising media of those years, they could not only make ends meet. Over time, Top Shop, Shopping24 and other stores appeared, broadcasting advertisements both on regular television channels and on their own. Although television shopping in Russia has existed for more than twenty years, as long as the format finds strength to resist the expansion of Internet commerce, at least Dmitry Batkov, the deputy director for distribution of the TV channel Shopping Live, thinks so. “We are seeing the formation of a fairly clear-cut division of customers according to preferences regarding online stores and television trading platforms. Today we have a promising ground for the development of our company in many areas,” says Batkov.
How does the TV shop
“TV shops are fully functioning TV channels with one nuance: all programs are active advertisements,” says the ex-producer of one of such TV shops Peter (the name is changed at the request of the hero). “Everything is arranged in the same way: there are studios, hosts, the ethernet grid, the apparatus room, where the director, producer and other important participants of the process sit. The two most popular questions that ask me are: who writes the text to the hosts and whether they have a breather. I answer: nobody writes the texts, but everything that the hosts say in frame - pure improvisation for a given It’s at least the way we had it. The breather, of course, also doesn’t and cannot be; all communication with the hardware takes place through the “ear” - a small microphone that cannot be seen on the lead in the frame. "
The most important and one of the most numerous departments of such companies is the purchasing department: Peter says that each of the buyers in his enterprise was responsible for his category of goods, well-versed in the industry entrusted. First of all, they were looking for the most profitable things, from the sale of which it was possible to get the maximum profit - for this, in particular, they chose Russian producers. "Every working day began with a meeting with those buyers whose products we were shooting: they told about competitive advantages, which is important to mention in the frame, and what is better to remain silent."
The main person on the set is the producer, he is responsible for everything that happens in the frame and outside the frame. "If the goods were not selling well, they ask first of all also from him or her, because he regulates and directs the process. The working day consisted of several live broadcasts, in each of which we promoted lots of one category: clothing, jewelry, kitchen utensils and so further, "- says Peter.
Marketing tricks
Tele-shops constantly use marketing tricks. Ideally, they should gently push the viewer into a purchase, but many of them have long been the object of jokes and memes because of their clumsiness. Remember the episode from the series "Friends", in which Joe could not open a bag of milk without special devices - and how absurd it looks from the side. “These stores definitely have their own audience,” says Kirill Kadyvkin, a senior strategic planning manager at creative agency e: mg. “Pros are working on scenarios that know exactly how to sell this or that thing. The main marketing tricks are trigger words ( "Exclusive offer", "this has not happened yet"), the effect is "here and now" and, of course, all sorts of discounts, even if they are made-up. These TV shows work for the audience with the greatest television viewing, in which people over the age of forty and housewives get " .
Receptions that use "shops on the couch", do not change for decades and have long been studied: the claimed product deficit ("buy only today!") And monotonous repetition of actions that bring closer to golden earrings or a miracle knife (" just pick up the phone and dial ... "), and clearly posed the problem at the very beginning of the transfer, which, of course, absolutely everyone faces (" does potato cleaning take a lot of time? ").
The composition of the audience makes TV stores exploit gender stereotypes as another means to increase sales. Studies say that sexism in advertising of "consumer goods" is widespread, and the transmission of gender stereotypes is not a Russian invention at all. “Each TV store has a clear idea of its spectators,” continues Peter. “They know almost everything about her: where she comes from, how much money she has, what she prefers to wear, what size of clothes she has. All these data are collected by operators on the phone, we clearly knew for whom we worked. Of course, all the spectators are different, but their differences do not interfere with creating an average portrait of the client, to whom the hosts and address. "
Hide weaknesses, highlight the merits
Often, shops on the couch are watched by women who do not have the opportunity to go to the store to choose something suitable for themselves: either there is no such place nearby, or what is sold there for some reason does not suit them. Some common are the lack of suitable sizes offline and the fear of shopping in online stores. TV retailers understand this perfectly well, so they buy things that should suit most customers with unfashionable sizes. The rhetoric of the presenters, however, is not aimed at accepting the body, but at the need for the notorious “masking of imperfections”: “Clothing should emphasize advantages and hide flaws” - a common slogan of such programs. "This dress will hide the little nuances of our figure," "this blouse will hide the flaws," "problem areas are hidden" - for the supposedly "harmless" euphemisms lies the routine humiliation of the appearance of potential clients.
Selling clothes helps not only shaming rhetoric. TV shops proceed from the stereotypical idea of how a woman should “look”, so the assortment and supply of them is appropriate. The presenters regularly remind customers that dressing is not just notoriously “feminine”, but also so as to gain the approval of others. "The dress makes a woman a woman with a capital letter," "you will not go unnoticed among the male half," "the title of queen of the evening you will be provided," - like so served cocktail and evening dresses. Hearing an offer to buy a thing simply because she liked it is almost impossible here.
Burn fat to tie shoelaces
No less problematic is the segment of TV shops that is responsible for caring for themselves. Usually, they offer not only cosmetics, but also dietary supplements - however, instead of telling about the real effectiveness (obviously minimal) of these products, the leaders appeal to the spectators' complexes, only strengthening their hatred for their own bodies.
November 26, live TV channel Shop & Show. In the frame - two leading: a man and a woman. Lot of the day - "fat-burning cream," which manufacturers promise "an incredible weight loss in the shortest possible time." The presenter seems to be an expert (in which it is not clear), while leading according to the laws of drama, such shows do not tell anything about the product, but only ask questions and remind you to make phone calls and order as quickly as possible. Speaking about the miraculous properties of the agent, the presenter not only uses Fatfobias ("Fat steals your years! Fat steals your life!"), But also gives pseudoscientific statements like: "molecules in the balm allow our body to literally eat its own fat deposits "or" molecules in the composition of the balm loosen the fat, but this is not enough - it is necessary that it literally burned. " Vendors promise that "after the New Year, even if you overeat the Russian salad, you will continue to lose weight!" Then a woman is invited to the studio, who allegedly has lost her weight by using this cream. On the screen, a photo “before” pops up, and the presenter, being surprised by a picture, cries out: “Is it you? God, how did you live? Did you at least have your own shoelaces?” The smiling heroine, who wore approximately 54th size clothes, was thinning in the face. “Of course I could,” she blushes.
Horoscope Tablet
In the "Technology" section, sellers play another card. If in the previous headings the presence of the male leader was optional, here it is obligatory: obviously, it is considered that the representative of the “strong” half will be able to tell about the equipment better. No matter what products we are talking about and who gave the presenter the right to be called an “expert,” the scenario does not change - a woman can only ask questions, repeating all the time: “Oh, I don’t understand anything in technology.” The man’s speech with each new phrase is becoming more and more of a parody of himself: in order to convey to the female spectators the advantages of the advertised product, the presenter uses “understandable to each” associations - cleaning, cooking, home life.
The presenter and presenter in the Shop & Show show introduces the audience to the new tablet. The presenter talks about the technical advantages of the novelty, the presenter pays attention to "what beautiful and bright colors of the case are in him", and also that "he is stylish." The man in the frame mentions how much he likes to read the news; woman - about how she using the tablet checks the horoscope. “Every morning I start by finding out what awaits me today,” she says.
Similarly, in October 2018, the Sofitel Hotel advertised itself in Brisbane, Australia. The plot of the advertising campaign was simple: a couple, a man and a woman, enjoying a rest in a hotel: he is with a newspaper, and she is with a book about Chanel. Sofitel predictably accused of sexism and pandering to gender stereotypes, so the hotel management had to apologize to their guests. “We didn’t want to depict stereotypes, but we admit our mistake and ask forgiveness from everyone whom this advertising campaign could offend,” representatives of the hotel said.
Every woman on the pan
In the case of home goods, the same scheme works: TV shops refer to the “duty of every woman” - to keep an eye on the house and create coziness in it. In reality, the TV shops still own the house owner, and this stereotype is fixed even in the names of the goods. The appearance of a man in such advertising is nonsense, because the breadwinner of the family, as you know, is not worth thinking about such things. The only exception is the advertising of kitchen utensils, which supports another old gender stereotype: the male chef is quoted much more. Appeal, however, leading all the same to the female audience. "Every woman should have such a frying pan in the kitchen," they urge.
However, if technically complex products for the home are advertised by men, then women show relatively simple, like mops or vegetable cutters. “Yes, I am, of course, an actress and a TV presenter, but also a wife and mother of two children,” the presenter seemed to justify herself. At the beginning of the video, she also says that she loves to cook and that the new vegetable cutter has accelerated this process, but for some reason this argument is not enough: the producers of the TV shop cannot but remind their spectators that after work they are waited for by the “second shift”.
Despite the massive expansion of online shopping (Lamoda alone has up to forty thousand purchases every day), the “couch shops” continue to flourish: the size of the American market alone in this area is about two hundred and fifty billion dollars. The impact of this kind of business should not be underestimated, because according to all marketing canons, leading advertising shows sell not only goods, but also a certain image. The former producer of the TV shop, Peter, is confident that "the hosts do not have and never had a goal to humiliate their customers, on the contrary, they tell them how to improve their lives, how to make their home life easier." However, while the cheerful sellers will assure that happiness depends on how well the clothes “hide the flaws” and the cream “burns fat”, the audience will be forced to listen and accept this sermon - whether they like it or not.
Cover:Befit