Philip Kives
| Philip Kives | |
|---|---|
| Born |
12 February 1929 Oungre, Saskatchewan |
| Died | 27 April 2016 (aged 87) |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Occupation | TV salesman |
| Known for | K-tel |
Philip Kives (12 February 1929 – 27 April 2016) was a Canadian business executive, entrepreneur and marketing expert from Winnipeg, Manitoba. He is best known for founding K-tel, which sold household gadgets including the Miracle Brush, Feather Touch Knife, Veg-O-Matics, as well as many compilation record albums. Kives reputedly coined the catchphrase "As seen on TV", which was included in may of the company's advertisements. Kives utilized low-budget television commercials to sell millions of products and build an international business empire.
Kives was born, the third of four children, on a small farm, near the town of Oungre, Saskatchewan. His parents were originally from Eastern Europe; because of hardships suffered by Jewish people, the family was relocated to Turkey by the Jewish Colonization Organization. In 1927 they immigrated to Western Canada and worked a small farm. During the Great Depression, this part of Canada was seriously afflicted by drought, causing frequent crop failures. The family struggled financially, and along with other farmers in the area lived on welfare for many years. The family home was without electricity and running water. In his memoirs Kives tells of milking cows from the age of five and making butter in a hand churn.
As a youngster, Kives showed an aptitude as a salesman. At the age of eight he set up a trap line; he sold his own furs, as well as those he bought from other children at his school, at fur auctions. He used the money to buy clothing.
In 1946, Kives left Saskatchewan and moved to Winnipeg. He sold iceboxes, drove a taxi and delivery truck, was a short order cook and finished high school. In 1953 when he was twenty-four years old, he was hired as a door-to-door salesman in the city and nearby country towns, and succeeded in selling sewing machines and stainless steel cookware. Two years later, he and his brother Theodore moved to Atlantic City, New Jersey selling kitchen items on the Boardwalk beside other pitchmen, including Ed McMahon, and developing his salesmanship.
In 1961, Kives traveled to New York City where he worked at Macy’s Department Store doing floor demonstrations of a new "revolutionary" product: the non-stick Teflon frying pan. He returned to Canada and made the first of many deals with Eaton’s Department Store in Canada: he offered to pay for television advertising of the frying pan, if Eaton’s agreed to stock it. Many pans were sold, but the product itself was a failure because after a time the Teflon coating came off during cooking. Kives' marketing formula consisted of live two-and-a-half minute TV commercials, in which he recreated the fast talking "hard sell" he had developed in the United State. He is often credited with creating what would come to be known as the "infomercial". The success of this formula led Kives to set up his own company, K-Tel.
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