General Banter and Random Musings

[Alex Knowles]

I don't think that (bit in bold) is news to anyone but you there, Alex .

In big brands defence, their "name" isn't valueless.

Building a recognisable, trusted brand takes years. It has to be earned - that requires money. So it's not unreasonable for a company who spent a lot of money building a quality brand to expect people to pay more for it. There are costs involved in maintaining the brand reputation with customer service, warranties, and so on.

As an aside, this is why shopping TV is awash with cheap, poorly-made, far-eastern watches emblazoned with the names of defunct British department stores (!). Why spend money and effort building a reputable brand of your own when you can buy up the rights to someone else's old one, milk their rep until people get wise, then move on to the next.

Glad you didn't go that route, fwiw no-one needs a C&A mattress.

But is it entirely accurate to say cut-price ITEM is worth the same price as a premium brand ITEM by virtue of having the same 'specs'? A bit iffy given some of 'worth' includes intangible stuff a branded item may have which a cut-price item doesn't, e.g., infrastructure, warranty, testing, market research, marketing, customer service.

You say "the same mattresses with the same spec" — so your mattress is the literal same mattress (made by Airsprung) which other big companies also sell with their name on it?

Or is it technically not the same mattress at all it simply has comparable specs? Cos given that 'specs' isn't a fixed thing - e.g., a cheap 15W sound-bar and a branded one may both be 15W, but how good the audio actually sounds depends on more than watts… Y'know.

But that aside, it seems a fair mattress for an okay price - but in saying it's worth more is… a trigger.

You make some good points. I’m just trying to bring a mattress to market that is affordable and will give the customer a decent nights sleep which I can hopefully explain how each part works and what it’s designed to do.
I try to be as open as I can about how I have created it, the company that has created it for us and what I asked them to do.
Then it’s upto the customer to decide if my explanation is good enough for them. I will likely have different mattresses / Pillows / bedding coming up all the time as we are a live channel. So I can just be honest with people - let them know what products I do have and most importantly from my part - Try to explain how something works or what it’s made from without trying not to patronise the customer. It’s not easy at times and I can get it wrong and we get called out if we do. I’m off to bed, thank you all for supporting our launch.

 

[Jazzydrury]

They went off air Live at 10pm, and the repeats started with the watches again, you think they could have shown a earlier hour

 

[Herring]

I think my favourite thing was the variety of products and presenters. I doubt they'll keep that up going forward (would be sweet if they do) but it provided a fresh dynamic and momentum for the launch day.

 

[The Insider]

I wonder ….. Is the mysterious Insider Jamie Martin? How else would he know so much “inside information” and be so bitter???? It must be you!!!!

You only have to look back through my posts from 2015 to know that you’re well off the mark with that guess

 

[Herring]

You make some good points. I’m just trying to bring a mattress to market that is affordable and will give the customer a decent nights sleep which I can hopefully explain how each part works and what it’s designed to do.
I try to be as open as I can about how I have created it, the company that has created it for us and what I asked them to do.
Then it’s upto the customer to decide if my explanation is good enough for them. I will likely have different mattresses / Pillows / bedding coming up all the time as we are a live channel. So I can just be honest with people - let them know what products I do have and most importantly from my part - Try to explain how something works or what it’s made from without trying not to patronise the customer. It’s not easy at times and I can get it wrong and we get called out if we do. I’m off to bed, thank you all for supporting our launch.

Appreciate the response. I take it your answer to my question is "no".

So when you said on air that your mattress was "worth hundreds of pounds more" than what people would pay today what you meant to add was "…if it wasn't this mattress but a similar spec'd one from a brand you know".

It's great to see affordable products on air though, and hope there's more. Nothing wrong with bringing lower-priced alternatives to expensive products to air, especially ones the people selling them have taken time to get involved in developing.

I'd just say, if things are 'good enough', sell them to the viewer on the basis of that - what it is, not what you want them to believe it is.

Sell people a good quality £200 mattress and they'll judge it on the basis of being £200.

But sell them a good quality £200 mattress under the pretence they're actually getting a £400 mattress and, well, don't be surprised if they hold it to a £400 premium standard… it just has to live up to it!

 

[Alex Knowles]

Appreciate the response. I take it your answer to my question is "no".

So when you said on air that your mattress was "worth hundreds of pounds more" than what people would pay today what you meant to add was "…if it wasn't this mattress but a similar spec'd one from a brand you know".

It's great to see affordable products on air though, and hope there's more. Nothing wrong with bringing lower-priced alternatives to expensive products to air, especially ones the people selling them have taken time to get involved in developing.

I'd just say, if things are 'good enough', sell them to the viewer on the basis of that - what it is, not what you want them to believe it is.

Sell people a good quality £200 mattress and they'll judge it on the basis of being £200.

But sell them a good quality £200 mattress under the pretence they're actually getting a £400 mattress and, well, don't be surprised if they hold it to a £400 premium standard… it just has to live up to it!

That’s a fair point and I’ll try to make that clearer tomorrow when I have it again and compare to other mattresses on the market.

 

[Evey]

You only have to look back through my posts from 2015 to know that you’re well off the mark with that guess

Damn it ok I’ll keep on guessing.

 

[Hammy60]

For anyone tempted by a Vostok luxury timepiece this evening, all the "pieces" are available elsewhere for lower prices.

Plus, if you Google the model number, you will see from the search results that they were all available on Kev's website (http://www.just4watches.co.uk) for much lower prices but miraculously, they have been removed from his website in time for tonights show. How long until they are back on his website at their original lower than Seen on TV prices?

Kev appears to be wanting to avoid a similar situation that he faced with Shop on TV where he was booted out for knowingly undercutting their prices on his own website, unfortunately Google has a memory.

Yeah i noticed that, that's the first time that's happened. In the past even the exclusive launches you would find the watches on just4watches, although there was one occassion of a European Exclusive launch when they were available the day before the show and then suddenly out of stock during the show than back in stock the next day, must have launched them early on just4watches by mistake.

As for the prices, it was similar when Kev was on Shop Extra, watches were cheaper through just4watches website. Kev mentioned charmex will be coming on, which is the COSC (Kev describing the COSC procedure is a hoot ) deep sea diver, wonder what price that will come to air, it's £1500 at the moment on just4watches, was approx £3500 on IW.

I see, after 50 years in the business, he still calls Seiko, Seiko Industries, which is an Indian sewing machine manufacturer and has absolutely nothing to do with Seiko Group, Japan (watches/movements etc).

See Mr Grey is still going, we were told last of the stock in the world was loaded into the IW system and it was being discontinued so must buy, that was 2 years ago, yet miraculously he's still finding more, must be finding them in the bottomless wardrobe.

 

[Jazzydrury]

Yeah i noticed that, that's the first time that's happened. In the past even the exclusive launches you would find the watches on just4watches, although there was one occassion of a European Exclusive launch when they were available the day before the show and then suddenly out of stock during the show than back in stock the next day, must have launched them early on just4watches by mistake.

As for the prices, it was similar when Kev was on Shop Extra, watches were cheaper through just4watches website. Kev mentioned charmex will be coming on, which is the COSC (Kev describing the COSC procedure is a hoot ) deep sea diver, wonder what price that will come to air, it's £1500 at the moment on just4watches, was approx £3500 on IW.

I see, after 50 years in the business, he still calls Seiko, Seiko Industries, which is an Indian sewing machine manufacturer and has absolutely nothing to do with Seiko Group, Japan (watches/movements etc).

See Mr Grey is still going, we were told last of the stock in the world was loaded into the IW system and it was being discontinued so must buy, that was 2 years ago, yet miraculously he's still finding more, must be finding them in the bottomless wardrobe.

He gave a guy a £200 pound watch for answering a question, as all the watches were more expensive than that. I don’t know what he would have been given.

 

[Duke of Cheese]

A direct comparison with the ‘Other Channel’:-

Proper, structured and sourced price comparisons that actually assist the buyer to make an informed choice. Unlike Ideal World with their ridiculous and fanciful, cut and pasted Google Images of the so-called compared item, and usually with no way of checking where they ‘found’ them. Seen on TV 1 - Ideal World 0

Excellent picture and sound quality overall - post teething problems. Decent enough sized and well-presented visually studio. Not the biggest, but not like the tiny, scruffy space the other place shows. Items graphics and promos good, too. If something looks professional it entices you to buy potentially. If something looks like a sack of sh…it doesn’t. I didn’t see any frequent and completely tedious and irrelevant references to gallery staff either. The texts/emails that they read out also had a feel of being genuine, too. Seen on TV 2 - Ideal World 0

Nice relaxed and informative presenting style and a decent range of branded goods. Not the relentless £9.99 unbranded stuff Ideal World uses. It is easy to be smug, though, and the frequent and critical references I saw to the ‘other channel…Fifty…), I think were unnecessary. Let your presentation, your products and your customer service do your talking. No need for frequent digs about a rival on air. Nonetheless…Seen on TV 1 - Ideal World 0.

Overall, a very positive start. Members here WILL be positive when they are shown something positive.

 

[Hammy60]

He gave a guy a £200 pound watch for answering a question, as all the watches were more expensive than that. I don’t know what he would have been given.

There's quite a few on the just4watches site under £200, lot of the older Gaz14's, N1 Expedition etc or might be a Mathey Tissot quartz watch, so lots of options, certainly won't be anything from the dearer Vostok Europe ranges like Energia, Lunohkod, Nuclear Sub, Anchar etc.

 

[Jazzydrury]

Another plus At least Alex Knowles has appeared on here, and let us ask him questions, especially regarding the Mattress

 

[Jazzydrury]

Think Kevin said he will be around on a Monday and Thursday

 

[Jazzydrury]

Kelley is on with Den, Wonder if Kelley has left IW

 

[Jason]

Is this the first live tv shopping channel not to use a phone number?

 

[Jazzydrury]

Is this the first live tv shopping channel not to use a phone number?

I believe so, At least it saves queueing even if phone lines are free

HD Cameras make Den look 50

Peter would hate it, as he wouldn’t have a clue who’s buying stuff

 

[Gooner1963]

First 5 minutes & already mentioned her disabled daughter absolutely nothing changes different channel same ****

 

[Jazzydrury]

it also appears the Channel wants to know the products viewers want them to sell also

 

[Alex Knowles]

Yes - any input please on products and we will do our best. I have a busy day on air so bear with me to reply as we are new and growing behind the scenes in terms of products and bringing new things to air. You will see a lot of the traditional products because they do still sell well to new and existing customers but we are going to do our best to bring a mixture of new into this as well. And I’m happy to participate on here and answer questions when I log on.

 

[Jazzydrury]

Yes - any input please on products and we will do our best. I have a busy day on air so bear with me to reply as we are new and growing behind the scenes in terms of products and bringing new things to air. You will see a lot of the traditional products because they do still sell well to new and existing customers but we are going to do our best to bring a mixture of new into this as well. And I’m happy to participate on here and answer questions when I log on.

I messaged in during the GX Pillow, thanks to you and Den for acknowledging