K-tel International
| Private | |
| Founded | 1962 |
| Founder | Philip Kives |
| Headquarters | Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada |
| Products | Television advertising & music |
| Owner | Philip Kives |
| Website | www |
K-tel International is the original "As-Seen-On-TV" company, famous for its hard-selling commercials marketing compilation music albums, such as The Super Hits series, The Dynamic Hits series and The Number One Hits series and consumer products, such as The Record Selector, Veg-O-Matic, Miracle Brush, and The Feather Touch Knife. The company has sold more than half a billion units world wide.
K-tel's founder and CEO Philip Kives, a demonstration salesman who had previously sold cookware door-to-door and in a department store, used television advertising in 1962 to sell Teflon-coated frying pans to a large-scale audience. Kives bought and marketed a number of other products from Seymour Popeil, father of Ronco founder Ron Popeil. Products such as the "Dial-O-Matic" (a food slicer that allowed the user to "dial in" to control the thickness of slices), the Veg-O-Matic, and the "Feather Touch Knife."[1] The combination of inexpensive goods and a simple but hard-selling pitch were a novel combination in television advertising in the early 1960s. It was the birth of the infomercial. In August 1965, Kives took his "Feather Touch Knife" on the road to Australia and by Christmas had sold one million knives, netting a dollar profit per knife.[1] Initially, his main U.S. supplier was Seymour Popeil, the father of Ronco founder Ron Popeil. Yet as K-tel grew, Popeil pulled out, forcing Kives to source his own products. His best selling one was the miracle brush, selling 28 million units.
Kives was born on a small country farm near Oungre, Saskatchewan, Canada. Like the other farmers in the area, Kives’ family struggled and was on welfare for many years. After leaving the farm he tried his hand at a variety of jobs including cab driver, cook and food truck operator. He eventually found his talent in door-to-door sales. Within two years, he was trying his luck in Atlantic City, New Jersey working the carnival circuit on the Boardwalk, where he learned the art of the sales pitch. He re-located back to Canada and made the first of many deals with Eaton’s Department Store in Toronto Wanting to pitch to a larger market, he realized TV was the answer. With no cash to fund his venture, he cut a deal that would later evolve into his trademark two-part formula. He first agreed to pay for television advertising if a store like Eaton’s would agree to stock the product then he would offer television stations a “per inquiry” or PI deal whereby they would receive an upfront down payment (representing the guaranteed sale of a minimum number of products) and then a percentage of every product sold beyond that number. The twin set of incentives ensured that the stores and stations were on his side, and the formula worked brilliantly. Although in the case of the first Eaton’s deal the pan itself was a disaster – because the Teflon came off with the eggs – Kives realized that the pitchman style he had perfected on the boardwalk of Atlantic City was a winning formula for TV.
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Wikipedia