"This Business has Legs": How I Used Infomercial Marketing to Create the $100,000,000 Thighmaster Craze: An Entrepreneurial Adventure Story

by Peter Bieler, Suzanne Costas (Editor)

Overview

"Only in America could a would-be monk convince a faded televisionstar to pitch a rehabilitation device designed for Scandinavianskiers and create a nationwide sensation. The marketing strategyalone is worth the price of admission."
—Paul B. Brown Special Correspondent for the Business News Network(BNN) and coauthor of Customers for Life

"This is the first time the person behind a fad lays out the wholemarketing strategy he used. Even I learned a lot."
—Bob Rice Pet Rock Promoter

"Within a matter of months, Peter Bieler created a $100,000,000industry out of nothing. This fascinating book chroniclesstep-by-step how he did it."
—Steve Dworman Publisher, Infomercial Marketing Report

"As a jack, in an emergency, if you have a very small car ... As arack to dry homemade pasta ... Prop it on its side and presto! Twinpicture frames ... Have it bronzed and claim it's a very earlyHenry Moore ..."
—Diane White columnist for The Boston Globe on alternate uses forthe ThighMaster See Inside for Exciting Contest Details!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780471147497
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	05/28/1996
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.57(h) x 0.94(d)

About the Author

PETER BIELER has sold his stake in Ovation, the company that sold the ThighMaster Exercisers. He now owns a Hollywood-based advertising agency that specializes in infomercial marketing and another company that funds infomercial media purchases. SUZANNE COSTAS is a contributing editor at Bloomberg Personal and was an associate editor at Worth magazine. She divides her time between New Rochelle, New York, and Boston, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

A Hollywood Adventure.

Hat in Hand.

An Irresistible Product.

Shooting Suzanne.

A Virtual Start Up.

Ambushed.

$100,000,000.

A Cultural Icon.

Epilogue.

Peter's Time Line.

Index.

Editorial Reviews

The conventional wisdom used to be that a company needed at least $200 million in sales to afford a national TV ad campaign. Not anymore, claims Bieler, as he tells how he used TV infomercials to market an exercise machine and hit the jackpot with a relatively small cash outlay. He had this going for him: a hot product, Suzanne Somers to demonstrate it and business savvy. Although the sponsor shells out for the initial air time, which can be a half-hour or more, the money starts rolling as soon as customers begin phoning in orders. The program then becomes self-sustaining and continues to air until the product wins enough consumer acceptance to be sold in stores. This book is a good read, written in a breezy, offbeat style. Bieler describes himself as a monkish type who likes to meditate. He's also a practical guy who knows how to make a buck. Costas is an editor at Bloomberg Personal. First serial to Success magazine. (July)

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