I think it's a delusion. I've seen it a lot and it's just a lie because a lot of businesses do lie due to profits, many people may think they wouldn't like, nope, they would lie and indeed they do lie. I think these things don't make sense because a little research would show it's filled in stores.
Precisely this is one drawback in my own experience, when it comes to buy as-seen-on-TV products. They say "this is not sold in stores..." Oh my, I would buy it IF available there to go straight to the store and buy it because I won't be waiting for the delivery service all day long. Sometimes the advantage of buying directly from the call center is the price, but equally I prefer to buy directly from a store because it's not just about the waiting time but one's chance to see the product "live." How many times have you bought one of those articles to find how low-quality it looks if compared with how it looked on TV?
A lot of them actually do lie in advertisements which is a sad thing. I would say that mostly, it shouldn't of been like that. If the advertisements were honest, it wouldn't have such a bad feedback because at least I would be expecting and knowing what I'd get, so then I'm not disappointed.
Couldn't agree with you more, it's because lack of honesty that I'd rather prefer to buy it at the store even if the price is higher, than ordering online or over the phone to find myself paying a fortune for low-quality products that could be acquired for a fraction of the TV price otherwise.
The way I do it is also look on real reviews on YouTube. Some people do buy these items and they review how they feel and how they are like, in comparison to what you see on TV so I see it as a good method of determining. I don't just be deceived by what TV portrays it as.
I think there is just some novelty in buying products like this. There are some products that are legitimateLy smart but I agree that most of them are just gimmicks. Although, I think people buy these mostly because of the charm and the way they are presented. Whenever I see an infomercial on tv, I just find it so entertaining that after a while I begin to forget how impractical the product being advertised actually is.
So true DrRipley! I was enthusiast informercials fan by college time. They were repetitive day after day (and keep being) but they were entertaining to me and some of the charm of the presenters obviously used to distract attention away. Happened to me with George Foreman grill and an oven presented by Mister T, haha I'm not an avid YouTube visitor and therefore never thought I could find reviews from regular people at this place, but will take your comment as advice to check next time when a product calls for purchasing
Doesn't have to be YouTube at all though. You could just do a Google search and find a lot of websites reviewing the product honestly. A lot of blogs do these things and they write honest reviews about it, it doesn't have to be YouTube mate
Thanks for the advice radzi! I'm sure this way I'm gonna make an educate shopping decision next time... at last!
Are you saying that the over-the-top cheesiness ISN'T what attracts people to buy the products? That has always been what gets me to watch the shows, and then slowly towards purchasing the products: just to see if the glee factor that is so evident in the shows can be replicated. (Fun Fact: Me and a couple of my college buds went and bought a Magic Bullet for our dorm room, and ended up enacting that entire infomercial one very bored weekend. Best Sunday ever.)
Point of correction: I was talking purely from a personal standpoint. I couldn't speak for other people as I haven't checked with anyone if they watch them and buy the stuff they see on there. I have yet to buy into informercials enough to buy anything off the back of seeing one. Plus the stuff never entices me, it often looks tacky. The OTT approach and cheesiness is probably what attracts most people, who knows? I can only speculate. Hehe to have been a fly on the wall to watch you guys reenacting all those informercials. i'm glad you had fun
@ImariFutari First of all, 99% of the time these items ARE sold in stores and they're actually cheaper since you don't have to pay for shipping and "handling". Not to mention you can actually SEE what you're getting and much of the time know before you spend a penny that it's a piece of junk.
This doesn't really make me want to buy. I know that I can usually get it on ebay for a cheaper price! When I see those ads I usually fire up the tablet and search ebay for the item. If it isn't there then maybe I might contemplate it.
The thing is, when they say "Not sold in stores' it's usually a lie! You can usually find an "As Seen On TV" section in every store such as CVS, Target, Rite-Aid, even in some of the dollar stores and the prices are the same but there's no shipping and handling fee.
Marketing and Advertising is very much a words game as it is crunching data into a simplified form. Infomercials, as much flack as we like to give them, work very well on getting straight to the issues, solutions, and services involved in the purchase decision of a product. So, for a mind that is not thinking through a scenario and wants an instant solution to a problem, an infomercial might catch an eye. Are the pitchmen over the top? Of course, but sometimes it can feel charismatic. Is the data misleading? Occasionally, but we fell for it already. I haven't had a truly bad experience with an infomercial product yet, so I may have a bias, but they have the pieces to the puzzle ready, and it obviously stays afloat enough to have these commercials still saturating the market.
I never understood the infomercials! Cause for one they ALWAYS say not sold in stores but the products are always in stores. Lol. Usually you can buy these seen on tv crap at walgreens, walmart and even dollar tree! And usually a lot cheaper than the price they try and charge on tv. I have never wasted my time on these cause most times the products aren't worth a lick. But if i ever wanted to i would take my butt to Walgreens or walmart and pay a lot less to get it.
I don't like buying into " not sold in stores" type of hype. I know good and well the companies that refuse to sell in stores will have competition to companies that will. I never really thought about how our American commercials might differ from let's say UK commercials. I also really hate the "only for a limited time" phrase. Like really? Why create the urgency to buy buy buy when I can just wait for the holidays?
I do not even watch those infomercials, they bore me. I do remember that when I was young my parents bought a Coleman flashlight, mop, and a bunch of other things that did last for quite some time, so I think it's not a total waste of money. The products being peddled nowadays are whitening products, slimming products and scar removing products, among other household and fitness products, which I am skeptical regarding it's efficacy.
I honestly don't get caught in the 'not available in stores' hype, but I think they do it so that you feel it's an exclusive item and in turn feel left out of that a 'club.' And then there's the whole feeling that you can only get it right then and there, a sense of urgency. I've never bought anything from off the television before, but I sure would love to do so at least once just to see how it feels.
Honestly, I've always found those infomercials annoying, so I never feel the urge to buy anything because of them. The only thing I've bought because of an infomercial is P90X, and it's one of the best things I have purchased.
