Product Description

"Only in America could a would-be monk convince a faded television star to pitch a rehabilitation device designed for Scandinavian skiers and create a nationwide sensation. The marketing strategy alone is worth the price of admission." —Paul B. Brown Special Correspondent for the Business News Network (BNN) and coauthor of Customers for Life "This is the first time the person behind a fad lays out the whole marketing strategy he used. Even I learned a lot." —Bob Rice Pet Rock Promoter "Within a matter of months, Peter Bieler created a $100,000,000 industry out of nothing. This fascinating book chronicles step-by-step how he did it." —Steve Dworman Publisher, Infomercial Marketing Report "As a jack, in an emergency, if you have a very small car … As a rack to dry homemade pasta … Prop it on its side and presto! Twin picture frames … Have it bronzed and claim it’s a very early Henry Moore …" —Diane White columnist for The Boston Globe on alternate uses for the ThighMaster See Inside for Exciting Contest Details!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #128717 in Books
• Published on: 1996-05-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 206 pages

Amazon.com Review
The inside story of how Bieler started with no money, no product, and no experience, and somehow created a $100 million business selling the "Thighmaster" through infomercials. Far more entertaining and fun than any infomercial, and, in many ways, a mind-boggling book about how new industries are created in this modern world. Recommended.

From Publishers Weekly
The conventional wisdom used to be that a company needed at least $200 million in sales to afford a national TV ad campaign. Not anymore, claims Bieler, as he tells how he used TV infomercials to market an exercise machine and hit the jackpot with a relatively small cash outlay. He had this going for him: a hot product, Suzanne Somers to demonstrate it and business savvy. Although the sponsor shells out for the initial air time, which can be a half-hour or more, the money starts rolling as soon as customers begin phoning in orders. The program then becomes self-sustaining and continues to air until the product wins enough consumer acceptance to be sold in stores. This book is a good read, written in a breezy, offbeat style. Bieler describes himself as a monkish type who likes to meditate. He's also a practical guy who knows how to make a buck. Costas is an editor at Bloomberg Personal. First serial to Success magazine.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Admit it! While surfing through the channels on cable television, we've all paused, if only momentarily, on one of those ubiquitous infomercials. Rather than admit any morbid fascination, we instead mock the hosts and the products they hawk. Perhaps no one or no product has been ridiculed as much as Suzanne Somers and the ThighMaster, even though sales of that simple piece of exercise equipment now exceed $100 million. Bieler had been a part-time movie producer and marketing executive for Proctor & Gamble when he came upon this exercise gadget and the idea of using Somers and television to market it. With the help of former Worth magazine associate editor Costas, he tells how it was done. Not only is his story amusing, it serves as an instructive case study for using the infomercial as an effective marketing tool. David Rouse

Customer Reviews

A "must have" for any budding entrepreneur!
Peter Biehler has written not only a sensational book about infomercials, he has unwittingly written an entertaining and profound book on motivation and persevering to attain one's goals. He provides an indepth understanding of the key components of how to put together an infomerical and succeed. It was more like reading an engrossing novel than the uusal dreary business books.

superb case study of bringing a product to market
This is an excellent (and well-written!) case study of bringing a popular product to market with infomercial marketing. I liked it so much I read it cover to cover, which is rare for me. I am recommending it to all my students at copywriting university.

Emphasis on marketing, typical business production/legal issues, plus very motivating on persistence while being an entrepreneur.
I liked the testing details, copywriting and media buy numbers.. very eye-opening to me, and extremely insightful.

Good book, but left some questions
Overall the book is pretty informative and interesting, although it did leave some questions in my head:

1. The cover says "$100,000,000 craze" but he never actually goes into how much money he walked away with in profit after it was all said and done. I was really looking forward to getting detailed numbers on how much he spent and how much he made total but never got it.

2. Also, Im still kind of confused about why he left the company and what stage the business was in when he left. Were they still running infomercials? Were they still breaking even on them to support retail sales?

3. He said the company went bankrupt after he left and he doesn't know why. I would think he would have some kind of an idea of why, was the product/fad cycle just over? Or does he think it was being managed poorly?

Good read, I recommend it to anyone interested in marketing, particularly direct-response and infomercials.