Vantage PointStrategic marketing concepts and business observations. Small business start-up experiences. Saturday, May 08, 2004Where have I been?!?! Working, holiday party planning and doing, working some more, Key West & The Everglades, fixing up the house to sell, etc.In the house-fixing-up mode, I've watched hours and hours of HGTV to force my mind into that track. Some of it is good TV and some isn't but I can glean a good nugget from their shows at least once a week. I much prefer the few shows I've seen on HGTV's sister channel, Fine Living. Maybe I fit that market better (hope so!)? HGTV, Fine Living, DIY Network, Food Network are all cable networks owned by E. W. Scripps who has opted for niche markets in their television "publishing" business. Scripps is now buying television shopping channel Shop At Home and is planning on aligning the shopping channel with the other 4 networks it owns. I can only say, "WOW!" What potential! They have already tested their cross promotion abilities with DIY Scrapbooking and found it to be successful. Now they are "playing" with softer sales approaches than is customary on TV shopping channels. Caution should be the rule as they move ahead. Softer selling may be more entertaining but it may not get the cash register full. I don't want to sound negative here, just caution-ary. The ol' HSN and QVC formats are getting quite dull, dull, and dull. Shop at Home doesn't have to be that way! Tours of homes and factories, artist's studios, etc will be powerful sales tools for the multitudes of products that can be showcased on mutiple channels. They can create their own quality brands and provide envious product placement opportunities for themselves. They can cross sell over their 5 networks. They can cross promote their networks (which they already do well). The world is in front of them and the doors are open. Good luck to E. W. Scripps. They've got the right idea! .: posted by Carol Gamel - Carol@GoldenStarFruit.com 5:17 PM| |
 
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