Last night while switching the channels I stopped quite sometime at the TVC/Tele-shopping infomercials in some channels. I thought to myself, why not do some research on this type of marketing. The result is this post.
What is tele-shopping all about?
In the words of Mehesh Panna, a country manager at TeleBrands,
“The basic concept of telemarketing is that you should be offering what is not available in the retail market. Why would anybody buy from us, if we were offering what is available in the traditional marketplace? We have to keep coming out with exclusive products practically every second month or so.â€
The teleshopping story in India dates back to late 1990s. The phenomenon is new to India but it is rampant in other countries like US. By 2000 the market in US is valued at $2bn.
What do they sell?
In one phrase they sell “miraculous productsâ€. Be it a fitness tool or breast enhancer, be it a cool pair of glasses or the crystal shree yantra, be it an inflatable sofa or electrostatic cleaner, you get everything that can do magic for you in tele-shopping stores. They have both online as well as offline presence through which you can buy the products.
How big is this?
As far back as in 2001 the teleshopping grossed revenues in the tune of Rs. 50 crores. Today the market size could be anywhere near 300 crores.
How do they sell?
The promotion of the various items sold by these tele-shopping players is done by television infomercials. Typical insert can be for 30 mins featuring yesteryear stars, sportsmen or television artists boasting about the magical features of the products, demonstrations, offer listings etc. This article in Business Line says that, in 2003 last quarter alone the total television time bought by the tele-shopping companies is close to 3000 hrs.
The selling propositions of these products are,
- The “magic†factor: each product will offer something magical, like making you look like salman khan, or making your teeth ultra-white or turning your fortunes upside down or something else.
- The “free†factor: sample this, TVC-skyshop’s Smart Abs worth Rs. 2490 comes with a free Aryu Slim worth 990.
- The “demo†factor: Every product being sold is advertised through a combo of demonstrations, testimonials and recommendations. If you are unconscious you might believe that the height of the dame has increased actually.
Are these products reliable?
This aspect of the tele-marketed brands is highly questionable. Some of the products that they sell are medicinal and healthcare related and it is not clear what type of certifications they have. Also majority of the players are not listed and hence do not come under many of the regulators. Recent FDA-Maharashtra crack down on Asian sky only proves the shady nature of this business.
Who are the leading players?
TVC Skyshop, Asian Skyshop, TeleBrands are the leading players.
Sources: ICFAI CMR Case studies, Business Line [1,2,3], RetailBiz
Images: TVC Skyshop, Asian Skyshop, TeleBrands
24 Responses
I’d suggest simply using the subtotal function and filtering the data using the Win/Loss column. You get the same results and the formula is more comprehensible.
@John
That is one option.
There are times however when you want to see the whole data table or a filtered subset and still want to produce summary reports against an unfiltered field.
Is there a particular reason why you are using a comma and the unary (–) operator for the second array in the SUMPRODUCT formula? It seems to work the same if you were to string the arrays together using the asterisk (*). The advantage is that SUMPRODUCT treats the entire string of arrays as a single array.
@Mathew
Your correct, There is no difference.
I thought it may have been easier to explain this method.
Is there a way to do this on a large set of data? As in ~100,000 rows? When I try I get an error because the formula becomes too long. It says the max length of a formula is 8,192 characters. Excel 2010.
How do I incorporate a specific text within a cell for the second array. For instance, – -(C7:C13=”Apple”)
when I chose a specific text the formula does not work.
@RB
I am not sure what is the issue as if I use the sample data in the post the following work fine
Count:
=SUMPRODUCT(SUBTOTAL(3,OFFSET(C7:C13,ROW(C7:C13)-MIN(ROW(C7:C13)),,1)), –(C7:C13=”L”))
Sum:
=SUMPRODUCT(SUBTOTAL(3,OFFSET(C7:C13,ROW(C7:C13)-MIN(ROW(C7:C13)),,1)),(C7:C13=”L”)*(D7:D13))
You may want to check that there are no leading or trailing spaces in your list of Apples
I should have given a better explanation. Heres my situation. I have a column with cells filled with names like Column 1, Column 2, Pier 1, Pier 2, etc. If the cell just contained Pier and searched for that it works. But because it has other characters in the cell its not recognizing the pier. So how can I extract specific characters of a string of text in this formula?
Hopefully this was a better explanation
Hello-
This formula works pretty well for me except that it slow down excel and prevents some of my macros from working. I was wondering if there was a way to program this in VBA so that excel isn’t always trying to recalculate it. I would like to use a push of a button to get it to run then paste in a cell.
Thanks!
I am trying to sum filtered data in a column, but would want to ignore the negative values in the column. How to go about doing this?
@Akshay
Why not just add a filter to that column to only show the values greater than zero?
The negative values are required for reporting purposes, but their effect on the total is distorting the required output. Please advise.
@Akshay
I’d suggest making a post in the Chandoo.org Forums
http://forum.chandoo.org/
Attach a sample file to simplify the task
I have this working for counting and summing, however, I have a list and for the second array, I need a criteria. That is, I’m looking for b13:b200=”01.??.??” or =left((a1,2) or something like that. These types of criteria matches do not appear to work as I get a blank as a result.
Thanks!
@Bob
As your formula b13:b200=”01.??.??” looks like you are trying to check the first day of the month of the range
What about trying Day(B13:B200)=1
Hai Experts,
i understood this formula well and working fine in MS Excel 2013
but when the same am trying to place in google Spreadsheet it shows error as
“SUMPRODUCT has mismatched range sizes. Expected row count: 1. column count: 1. Actual row count: 2014, column count: 1.” and as a result #VALUE! Appears in cell.
Can anyone please help me how would i get it done in Google Spread sheet
or is there any other formula as a substitute for this.
Thank you very much.
thanks for providing this.. but why does excel keeps on prompting Circular referencing in cell D3?
@Vivek
I don’t know
I just downloaded the file and it is working fine and not showing that error
Goto the Formulas, Calculation Options Tab and check that Calculation is set to Automatic
What version of Excel and Windows are you using ?
I know that this forum is for MS Excel, but I am trying to help someone who is working in Google Sheets. The below formula works in Excel but Google Sheets returns:
“SUMPRODUCT has mismatched range sizes. Expected row count: 1. column count: 1. Actual row count: 39000, column count: 1.” and as a result #VALUE! Appears in cell.
This is the same problem asked by Srichirin above. Does anyone know if there is a formula for Google Sheets that will replicate what MS Excel does?
=SUMPRODUCT(SUBTOTAL(3,OFFSET($C$6:$C$39500,ROW($C$6:$C$39500)-MIN(ROW($C$6:$C$39500)),,1)),- -($C$6:$C$39500=H1),($D$6:$D$39500))
Trying to find a SUMPRODUCT formula that counts the word Closed by date for the last 7 days in a filtered list.
=COUNTIF(M:M,”>”&TODAY()-7) works ok for unfiltered count Column M contains Closure dates (blank if open) and Column L is Status Open or Closed
@ Terry
Please ask the question at the Chandoo.org Forums
https://chandoo.org/forum/
Please attach a sample file to ensure a quicker more accurate answer
I used this formula and worked like a charm! But, now I’ve been requested to use it but adding not one but two criteria in the same formula. For instance the sum I was doing added negative and positive numbers. I’ve been asked to use the exact same formula but adding that only positive numbers were considered… any idea on how to do this?
How exactly do you do sum filtered cells when two criteria are need not just one?
Thank you so much brother literally I have been struggling since morning to get the sum of the filtered category, however, after reading your blog attentively i got my solution, so thanks a lot once again.