The following was written in 2008 just after Sharper Image declared bankruptcy. While some readers will not be familiar with these company examples, I believe they are self-explanatory.

I was saddened to read about the Sharper Image bankruptcy and that they have been forced to seek suitors to purchase their assets.

Sadness aside, those of us in the direct response television (DRTV) business must take notice of this failure for a different reason. Although Sharper Image’s DRTV is widely considered a great success, it is one of three campaigns the traditional DRTV business considers mega-hits, but where poor brand execution ultimately led to business failure.

These campaigns make one point very clear to those who will listen: Clients cannot afford to focus only on the short-term.

Salton-Maxim and the George Foreman Grill

After hundreds of millions of dollars in Foreman Grill sales, in a 2007 merger/sale, the Salton company was combined with Applica. And the company stock that had soared over $60 during the Foreman heyday, ended up priced under $2.

It is over-simplifying to ignore other business realities that may have contributed to this failure. But, their DRTV spending was an amazing strategic advantage — yet their infomercial delivered little long-term value.

Salton invested nearly $100M in media over the run of the Foreman infomercial. In return, Salton received no brand awareness and no long-term value. The primary beneficiary? George Foreman. To this day, consumers believe the Foreman grill was invented by George.

Sharper Image and the Ionic Breeze

Starting in 1998, Sharper Image created multi-product half hours that sold products from their catalog. The Ionic Breeze air purifier was introduced in a 3-product infomercial. This show worked well and built brand value for the Sharper catalog while selling great products.

Then, DRTV industry experts advised them to shift to a single product format featuring the Ionic Breeze. Why? To get the highest short-term sales – the only thing the traditional DRTV industry really values.

So Sharper Image invested massive media budgets selling Ionic Breeze. And that left the company without a needed increase in long-term brand value. Compounding this error, messaging for the Ionic Breeze didn’t support core Sharper Image brand values. (Although consumers knew they could get the Breeze at Sharper Image stores, I don’t think they ever felt it made sense within the Sharper Image brand.)

A sad story: massive media spending without long-term value. It could have, and should have, been different. If Sharper Image had embraced their position as a catalog brand their shows could have built brand value by featuring core products to drive sales volume, but share media time with other products to give consumers more reasons to shop at their stores.

RotoZip Tools

This story starts like the first two. A classic “yell & sell” infomercial drove exceptional short-term sales leading to excellent retail distribution. But, RotoZip was unable to leverage this into any long-term value. A few years ago, they were quietly sold to Bosch to avoid closing the doors.

What they should have done:  RotoZip faced a more difficult situation than either of these first two since they had only one product. They needed to have done three things:

• Execute their advertising to create the RotoZip brand, not just sell RotoZips.
• Reduce media spending to extend the life of the RotoZip product line.
• Bring out a second product line that would be easier to sell because it benefited from the established RotoZip brand value.

Lessons

The sad truth is that all these companies made a smart choice selecting DRTV. But, today, we can only imagine the long-term brand power each would have gained from spending over $100M on media.

If you’re selling for the first time, let me make two recommendations:

• Insist on your campaign building brand while you sell product. You can do both and you should. To maintain high long-term media budgets, you need sales from TV to underwrite media spending. And, you must have the discipline to make difficult choices to build long-term brand value – sometimes at the expense of short-term sales.
• Be careful choosing vendors. There are a wide variety of “agencies” in DRTV with long lists of brand clients. Unfortunately, most are production companies or media buyers who take on the trappings of an agency. And, many of them can do no more for your brands than “do no harm”. That’s not good enough. Clients need agencies who build brand value.

Conclusion

Clients and manufacturers need to pay attention and demand campaigns executed with brand savvy and sophistication if they are to avoid mistakes like those of of Sharper Image — and build themselves a highly profitable future.

©2008, 2026 Doug Garnett — All Rights Reserved

Through his company, Protonik LLC, Doug Garnett consults with companies as they design and bring to market new and innovative products. He is writing a book exploring the value of complexity science for driving business success. Protonik also produces marketing materials including documentaries, websites, and blogs. As an adjunct instructor at Portland State University he also teaches marketing, consumer behavior, and advertising.