Vivian Leung's Blog

My life got a little more exciting after watching the following commercial in COMM 296 today:

Only a very small and simple device to chop up your food, yet it is that much more appealing. I actually want to purchase one after watching this infomercial. Why is that?

First of all, the entire commercial was short – only around 3 minutes long – but extremely effective. Vince, the speaker, speaks in a straightforward way and wins his customers’ interest and desire for the product with his direct approach. He gets straight to the point: people have problems chopping up their food (whether it is for stew, salad, pizza, breakfast-to-go, nuts, onions, and the list goes on…) and the Slap Chop is the quickest and easiest way to solve it. Their unique W-shaped blades and the fact that it’s so easy to take apart and wash differentiates the Slap Chop from all the other graters. The 3 minutes also includes interviews with real customers who share their positive feedback and opinions of the Slap Chop. Along with Vince’s hilarious, classic quotes (“Life’s hard enough as it is, you don’t need to cry anymore.”), we have an example of an excellent infomercial.

The company demonstrates the use of direct marketing (specifically, direct response) as their advertisement of the Slap Chop. The infomercial includes all the key information, demonstrations, and messages that is carried across to consumers, and consumers contact sellers directly to purchase the Slap Chop. There are no wholesalers, retailers, or agents in between, hence the term direct marketing. In addition, it combines with sales promotion, as consumers who purchase within the next 20 minutes get the free Graty on top of the Slap Chop for the same price. This definitely increases consumers’ desire and likelihood of purchasing the product.

I’m pretty sure with this infomercial, we can definitely make America skinny again, one SLAP at a time.