As seen on TV
TeleBrands, which markets "as seen on TV" gadgets, holds an event for people proposing new items for sale on TV.
Posted on 08/24/2009 4:10:51 PM PDT by Coleus
Tired of holding a bottle when feeding your baby? Try the Baby Butler. Jeff Archambault pitches the Baby Butler to the panel of judges, which included Bob Pescatore, from left, A.J. Khubani and Pooram Khubani. Wish you had a combo bib and napkin when eating or drinking on the road? Try the Lapkin. Sick of flipping over when tanning outside? Try the No Turn Tan — dreamt up by a college student from Ho-Ho-Kus. Creators of novel and often curious products tried Thursday to get A.J. Khubani, the Fairfield infomercial mogul, to agree to help sell their creations to the at-home shopping audience of bargain-hunters and insomniacs.
Khubani’s company TeleBrands Inc. — which markets “as seen on TV” products such as the Ped Egg — a device to remove dry skin on feet — fielded pitches at its Fairfield offices from inventors who hope to hawk their products on television infomercials. TeleBrands’ public-relations team billed the event, which the company holds every few months, as an "‘American Idol’ for inventors,” and likened Khubani to Simon Cowell, the tart-tongued judge of singers on the TV show. Inventors from as far away as Oklahoma and Las Vegas waited to make their pitches to Khubani and two other judges — his wife Pooram and designer Bob Pescatore — seated at a large oval-shaped conference table.
First up was a pair of inventors who came with a device to clean filth left behind in Jacuzzis. Khubani wasn’t convinced; he told them the problem didn’t seem sufficiently widespread. While hotel visitors might want the device, Khubani reasoned people at home would likely be “comfortable with their own bacteria.” Inventors from around the country brought their gadgets to an event at TeleBrands, which markets "as seen on TV" items. A Maryland man pitched a collapsible ladder for cleaning the tops of sport utility vehicles, which he said were “really neglected” in today’s markets. “We’ve gotten by for all these years without a specific ladder for an SUV,” said Khubani. After some discussion, he delivered the bad news: “We’re going to pass.”
The Baby Butler, a piece of cloth with a bottle holster its users throw over their shoulders to free up one of their hands, also flopped (too much of a niche, Khubani decided). The Lapkin, which resembles a lead smock patients would wear during X-rays, also didn’t past muster with Khubani, though his fellow judges liked the concept. “I don’t think it’s gonna sell,” he said. One successful pitch came from Jim Bonner of Ohio, inventor of the Hang Gldyer, a hanger with moving parts “designed to absolutely stop people from stretching the necks” on sweaters shirts. “The hanger market is a very big market,” Khubani said after offering a deal with TeleBrands. “There’s literally hundreds of millions of hangers sold every single year. If we can get just get a small piece of market. ...”
Jeffrey Lefkowitz, 21, thought Khubani would like the idea that came to him a couple months ago while sunning in his back yard in Ho-Ho-Kus. “With No Turn Tan, you can tan both sides at the same time without getting up, flipping over,” Lefkowitz, a senior studying finance at Montclair State University told the TeleBrands tribunal. The judges were skeptical it would work and sell. But Jim Harlin, Lefkowitz’s fellow pitchman, interjected: “People don’t recognize that they need these things before they see them.” Khubani said he thought the raft was clever. Putting aside questions of whether it would work, however, he said: “But I don’t know how many people would buy it.”
Customers are buying TeleBrands products, despite slumping consumer spending, Khubani said in an interview. TeleBrands typically prospers in recessions. He surmised that cheaper TV advertising rates — particularly for prime time — helped boost sales. Plus, he said, consumers may be looking for bargains. “People love to buy stuff,” he said. “People are addicted to buying.”
TeleBrands, which markets "as seen on TV" gadgets, holds an event for people proposing new items for sale on TV.
I have that many in my closet, accumulated from the dry cleaners. Anyone who wants them is welcome to them (but act now!).
I wish that I could come up with something like that ... I'd be rich!
My dry cleaner recycles them. I just take them back when I take in another load to be cleaned. Ditto the plastic bag covers.
Last name ping
I made a bundle from bending free coat hangers into roach clips.
$1, 2 beers or a joint.
Money, booze, and dope.
Oh yeah ... and all those pretty young things that descend on Boston every September.
Memory lane.
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