Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Direct Response, but Didn’t Know to Ask

With overseas manufacturing in place, our journey through distribution hell began. We apparently decided to go the DRTV route for distribution because it would require the least amount of financial investment on our part, as well as provide us with the feeling that someone was “taking care of us.” It started out rather peacefully. Jackie made a call to a well-known DRTV Company—the best of the best in the industry. I came to learn that DRTV (Direct Response Television) companies take products like the upside down tomato planter, the Snuggie, and the big ass cupcake and turn them into household products. Jackie put out the feelers and the next thing I knew we were scheduling a meeting with “the team.”

In order to be prepared for this meeting, Jackie read the Evelyn Wood’s version of “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About DRTV, But Were Afraid To Ask,” and I was grateful that she did. Marla, having been close friends with the CEO of a well-known DRTV company, really had a grip on the process. Charlie had spent his entire career in the garment business, specifically the bra business, so he was comfortable and familiar with SKUs and tags and sales projections and production costs and materials and blah blah blah. This information was imperative because if we didn’t know what we were talking about, the DRTV team would eat us alive. I kept thinking of that Sesame Street song, “One of These Things Just Doesn’t Belong,” and I knew that I was “the one.” Never mind, I could always play the part, throw down my business card with the Esq. on it, so people wouldn’t think I was a bimbo and smile my way through any business meeting.

And so, we showed up at our meeting with the DRTV Company with our PowerPoints, our briefcases, our product samples, our projected costs, sales, our hopes and dreams. At the end of a lovely and friendly meeting, we left and waited. 

My mama always said, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” so while we waited to hear, off we went to meet with the founders of a beauty product company located in Connecticut. After weeks of coordinating, scheduling, cancelling, re-scheduling and then some, we set the date in stone.

It was a rainy afternoon and as we were en route to Connecticut on I-95, I remember asking Jackie, “Who are these women and why are we meeting with them?” Her response? While I know she answered me, I had no idea what she was talking about. She sounded a lot like the teacher from Charlie Brown. Now, I am not one to follow blindly and am always the one to ask questions. But for this situation, I truly turned over the controls to Jackie and Marla, as I had no idea what we were doing, why we were doing it or how we were doing it. I just knew I had to trust them and follow (no easy feat for a quasi control freak). I learned during the course of the meeting that we needed a quick course in how to bring a product to market and not get eaten alive…apparently there are a lot of sharks out there, waiting to prey on guppies like us. We discussed DRTV and SKUs and knockoffs, Home Shopping, big box stores, large orders, small orders, patents, trademarks and all kinds of intellectual property in between. Or should I say, Jackie and Marla did. As an attorney, I can fake my way through many business meetings by throwing around some legal jargon, but this was one I just couldn’t fake. So I basically kept my mouth shut.

We left that meeting very energized, although I still don’t know what we learned from them but Jackie and Marla were juiced and I was along for the ride. We were going to get them PowerPoints and NDAs and DRTV, BRB/LOL/IDK…etc., etc.

Shortly after that meeting, I went back to trying to manage my day job, Squeakywheel Promotions, the boutique PR agency that Jackie and I own and Marla helps us with on all our TV needs. We were scheduled to go to the Dominican Republic for a familiarization trip for a brand new client and this was the beginning of spreading ourselves too thin.

While in the Dominican Republic, with limited Internet access and sporadic T-Mobile service, we got “the call.” DRTV Company was interested! Let’s make a deal!