Presenter home try-outs

[Vienna]

Most of us on here are luke warm about Q and its presenters but out there, many a person hangs onto their every word, joins every FB group, reads every blog and generally looks upon them as celebs/buddies/honest/caring/moral human beings. Yep foolish I know, but that`s how it goes for some avid QVC shoppers. QVC know this and if giving DF a bodyblade or JF a gallon of Porchester Square or Craig a dozen Yankees etc etc, encourages sales then Q will reckon it`s money well spent as they also do with every other freebie. You only need to glance at DF`s Back to You group and she endorses everything from Skechers to Vitamix to Yong Kim and so on. On QVC`s own facebook page you regularly see people begging to know which Onjenue dress Chuntley is wearing, which lipgloss AY has on, which Eek ring so and so is wearing, the list is endless. The presenters are Q`s shop window, people watch them, read about them, listen to them and believe them and so Q will continue to invest freebies in them !

 

[shopperholic]

Vienna I totally agree, but giving Jilly Halliday a £250 Kenwood when she hardly said anything about it to me is a waste of money, and giving three away to customer panellists when they were on the phone to give their opinion for a sum of twenty seconds (who have no credence by the way, considering they'll say how great it is, as every single panellist has said over the years, there's never been one who said they didn't like it) again is a total waste of money.

 

[maymorganlondon]

Vienna I totally agree, but giving Jilly Halliday a £250 Kenwood when she hardly said anything about it to me is a waste of money, and giving three away to customer panellists when they were on the phone to give their opinion for a sum of twenty seconds (who have no credence by the way, considering they'll say how great it is, as every single panellist has said over the years, there's never been one who said they didn't like it) again is a total waste of money.

The only ones I've heard of doing any baking etc are Julia Roberts, Ali Keenan and Alison Young. Jackie Kabler and Jill Franks freely admit to being useless in the kitchen.

I don't really see Jilly Halliday as being seriously into baking or extensive cooking.

I can imagine Chloe being a disaster in the kitchen, but having a laugh about it.

I think it would be much more fun if they did a presenter challenge like they did with the lily bulbs - everyone has to make the same thing, and be judged on who made it the best... or come up with a recipe made with XXX product and be videoed producing it - either for a blog post on QVC, or QVCs Youtube account (or even to mix things up a bit - see what I did there - on QVC extra). Let them show us what they can do, maybe. Talk is cheap, after all!

Likewise if they wear the fashions - let's see the truth of it - what kind of events do they wear their Q fashion to?

To give Debbie her credit - she may be misguided in what she chooses from Q's fashion, but you do always see pictures of her wearing Q stuff (whether paid for, subsidised or freebies). I believe her when she says "I wear such and such".

 

[Vienna]

Vienna I totally agree, but giving Jilly Halliday a £250 Kenwood when she hardly said anything about it to me is a waste of money, and giving three away to customer panellists when they were on the phone to give their opinion for a sum of twenty seconds (who have no credence by the way, considering they'll say how great it is, as every single panellist has said over the years, there's never been one who said they didn't like it) again is a total waste of money.

What we consider to be a waste of money and what a multi million pound business considers to be a waste of money are 2 entirely different things. If Q actually cared what we as customers thought or felt, then they`d have sacked a few more presenters, sacked a few more brands, sacked their ridiculous p and p charges and sacked half their buyers. Whilst they still make money and still gain new customers then none of that will happen and Mrs B from Bradford telling us in 30 seconds how a Kipling bag has changed her life or DF writing on Back to you how making your healthy smoothies in a Vitamix will help you lose 2 stones along with buying a bodyblade and her book and all of those marketing ploys still work, then Q will still give freebies, whether we the humble enlightened customers consider it a waste or not.

 

[maymorganlondon]

What we consider to be a waste of money and what a multi million pound business considers to be a waste of money are 2 entirely different things. If Q actually cared what we as customers thought or felt, then they`d have sacked a few more presenters, sacked a few more brands, sacked their ridiculous p and p charges and sacked half their buyers. Whilst they still make money and still gain new customers then none of that will happen and Mrs B from Bradford telling us in 30 seconds how a Kipling bag has changed her life or DF writing on Back to you how making your healthy smoothies in a Vitamix will help you lose 2 stones along with buying a bodyblade and her book and all of those marketing ploys still work, then Q will still give freebies, whether we the humble enlightened customers consider it a waste or not.

Sadly, all too true.

However, it's still valid to continue to complain about it, and to point out that better value lies elsewhere. Perhaps there are relatively few voices raised in protest today at some of the practices which are the norm today, but in time, and armed with knowledge from sites such as this, those voices may swell in number to a level where they cannot be ignored. If we all do nothing in the face of seeming inevitability, then we're reinforcing a status quo we may not be happy with. That applies generally, not just to QVC.

An alternative approach (very expensive) would be to have serious competition for QVC, where the business model isn't a poor copy of QVC. I doubt many of us can afford to do that, but we can dream of it. That will be the most likely way to force QVC to change... but it would probably need to be a world-wide competitor to shock QVC out of their complacency in their market dominance.

At present their remedy for being a big fish in a shrinking pond in their existing markets is to search for new markets where they can use their relatively unadjusted business model. There will come a time when that will no longer work... plus it is very arrogant and dangerous to think that developing markets will be less developed and less sophisticated than the markets they are well-established in.

 

[Tinkerbelle]

What impact would we as customers see if QVC stopped giving freebies tomorrow? I'm not sure it would have any real impact as the overall cost implications must be quite low in comparison with sales/profit margins. QVC waffle about 3000 new customers a day. If they spend on average £40. That's £120k just from new customers. 10 kenwood mixers at cost would be what? £125 each. Or £150. Its a drop in the ocean by comparison just on new customers alone.

I know very little about retail management. My experience is really only on the comms/marketing side in the luxury sector.

 

[maymorganlondon]

I'm no longer in retail, and never rose to the dizzy heights of management... but I think most (ideally all) retailers factor in all their costs into the price of their products before they take a profit. This should take into account "renting" the display space and storage space for the product.

One area where QVC definitely don't excel is in their stock runout management. They hang onto stuff in their warehouse for far too long - I honestly think some of it just gets forgotten, as their warehouses are so huge (look at Debbie Flint's blog from her visit to Liverpool a couple of weeks back to see how it's grown since they launched). They still show beauty stuff in clearance which has gone well beyond the best before/use by timings given by on air presentations - even at the most generous level. They still list brands that haven't been sold live on air for over 5 years. It's a mess. And all of that mismanagement is also a cost borne by the customer.

In terms of what impact would we see if QVC stopped giving freebies tomorrow - none, initially. But if they kept it up and started taking a closer look at all their internal wastage due to their own outdated processes, then we could see a benefit. But it does depend on QVC making other changes. In fact, I dare say any freebies wouldn't be as much of an issue if it wasn't for all the other bones of contention we also have to gnaw on...

 

[donna255]

I know a lady(we travel on the bus into city centre on Saturday mornings), her granddaughter trained to be a makeup artist and has been temping for a few companies.

So Estee Lauder she was covering maternity leave(the woman did return after her leave), but she received a large box full of free cosmetics worth over £700. Then a few days later more facial creams one pot rrp over £200! Most of the products she could not even use as they were for mature skin and she is early 20s. Her grandmother said the granddaughter said altogether the products she received worth over £2,000.

She also temped for Urban Decay and received every product they make sent to her.

I know some SpaceNK SAs and every time a rep comes over to train in the store, they get loads of full size products given to them. If a new range arrives they will get every product in the range. They are not allowed to sell on, someone was caught(seems SpaceNK do keep an eye on Ebay for their products), she was sacked.