Infomercials research paper

Infomercials make up a large part of organizations marketing strategies. They help the process of
getting a product or service into the market. Informercials are described many different ways depending on
who you ask. Regardless of opinions, they are one of the main forms of advertising, and a leader in the
television marketing world.
Most people describe informercials as planned,long, and informative television commercials. They are seperate from regular television commercials you see on television each and every day. Infomercials can also be referred to as paid programming. Europeans refer to this area of advertising as teleshopping. These programs are used by organziations or businesses in an effort to present information about their product as
well as promotecertain atributes of their product. They vary in length depending on the television station
as well as what country the informercial is being shown in.
Infomercials started to be introduce on television years ago. Many early television shows were
aimed at selling a product. Television station companies would sign contracts with different businesses for
television programs to show andpromote their product in a series of shows. This was a great marketing
tool because people would be hooked to a particuliar show. The show would then promote or have
characters use a certain product. Popular television programs and characters using the product and
showing they enjoyed the product would lead to increased consumer demand and ultimately increased sales
for the business.The first informercial aired in 1949, and promoted a blender. This blender was made by Waring
Blenders. Many debates have occured over who actually funded the infomercials and therefore should
receive credit for it. VitaMix claims they were part of the deal and funded most of the infomercials fees.
These infomercials begain to take up much of many of the most popular television programs.The most
popular programs were targeted by businesses who wanted to get their products out there for more people
to see. The Federal Communications Commision was in charge of setting all of the rules, regulations, and
guidelines for infomercials. They regulated the length of the infomercials as well as the time of day they
were to be aired. The FCC was in charge of making sure that nottoo many infomercials or advertising were
shown in a certain period of time on a particular television station.
Infomercials, as we know today, are slightly different than they used to be. The first informercial
that showed many similarities to the informercials of today was a informercial on selling real estate in the
1970's. This was shown on a San-Diego station called XETV. Once aweek the station would aire the hour
long infomercial that presented many homes for sale. People could call in for more information if they say
something they liked. This was a unique informcial in that it was an hour long. The Federal
Communications Commission had set a time limit of eighteen minutes of commercials for an hour long
television show. This was a problem since theinfomercial was an hour long. They got around this rule
becuase the station was licensed by the Mexican government.
As time went on in history, television content changed drastically and so did the infomercials.
Many rules and regulations established in the 1950's and 1960's changed as the 1980's and 1990's came
about. Infomercials were starting to be seen more and more in the United Statesof America. The "get rich"
infomercials became popular during the 1990's. These infomercials targeting struggling Americans who
needed a quick way out of their debt or struggling financial lives. These "motivational" infomercials were
quick infomercials between ten and twelve minutes in length. Most of these early informercials were placed
during non-prime times for television. They...