It was big deal this week when Spectrum Brands announced it would acquire the appliance and cookware business of Tristar Products for $325 million in cash plus milestone payments of $125 million.
The news was made even bigger by Spectrum’s announced plan to leverage the Tristar acquisition to create a freestanding global appliance company that adds Tristar brands Power XL, Emeril Lagasse and Copper Chef to Spectrum brands Remington, Black & Decker, George Foreman and Russell Hobbs.
That is a big deal.
What shouldn’t be lost in this, though, is yet another high-profile example of how a business rooted in the item-driven legacy of As Seen On TV marketing transformed into a direct response-driven, long-term brand-builder worthy of such a lofty market valuation. Tristar small appliances and cookware reportedly generated sales of $546 million in 2021, and the business reportedly has registered sales growth of more than 85% in the last three years. That made the company a desirable acquisition target by what many would consider more mainstream consumer product companies.
That, too, is a big deal.
IdeaVillage also made a big deal in 2019 when it sold its DRTV-backed Flawless and Finishing Touch women’s hair removal and personal grooming brands to Church & Dwight for $475 million in cash plus an earn-out payment of up to $425 million. Church & Dwight also owns such brands as Arm & Hammer, Arrid, Aim Toothpaste, Nair, OxyClean, Orajel and Waterpik.
As Seen On TV marketers were ahead of the direct-to-consumer curve long before e-commerce progress and a pandemic made the D2C opportunity more accessible and fashionable. Tristar, under the stewardship of founder and CEO Keith Mirchandani, was among the first of the core As Seen On TV marketers to recognize the potential in shifting to a strategy that uses DRTV to build long-term retail brand platforms that can support higher-priced products and ongoing product innovation.
Even as item-driven As Seen On TV sections at retail expanded and thrived after the recession of 2008, Tristar was at work on its plan to deploy a blend of long- and short-form DRTV to secure in-line small appliance and housewares distribution. The company even built a state-of-the-art TV studio with audience seating at its Fairfield, NJ HQ.
Fast forward to 2022, and Tristar brands such as Power XL, Emeril Lagasse and Copper Chef — supported by millions of continuing DRTV ad dollars — aren’t considered As Seen On TV brands. They’re simply brands: Brands that can anchor everyday retail assortments and promotions; and brands that can help anchor the potential spinoff of a freestanding global small appliance and housewares business.
That Idea Village and now Tristar were able to cash in big-time on the vision to adapt the As Seen On TV model into longer-term brand-building strategy does not diminish the continuing traffic- and sales-driving value of item-oriented As Seen On TV marketing, especially when those items hit big. But it also shouldn’t surprise industry observers that many other successful, longstanding As Seen On TV players — including Telebrands (BulbHead), Emson, Allstar Innovations and Ontel Products — in recent years have invested in building in-line brands backed by direct-response TV and digital media.
In-line consumer product marketers long ago began tapping into the power of infomercials to build long-term brands. Spectrum’s George Foreman brand, launched by Salton in the 1990’s, is a classic example. Until the last decade or so, though, there was a sharp boundary, at least in perception, dividing what were widely viewed as mainstream marketers that delved into infomercials and marketers that handed out the red As Seen On TV logo as a calling card.
Who’s to say anymore what is and what isn’t mainstream when it comes to consumer product marketing? Those boundary lines have been blurred, if not obliterated altogether.
That is a big deal.
