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Mr. Infomercial: The Early Years of Ron Popeil

You may not know him by name, but chances are if you have ever had a sleepless night and turned on the television, Ron Popeil has been there to keep you company. He is the king of the late night infomercial, and the man who made famous such catch phrases as “But wait, there’s more!” and “It slices! It dices!” But, Popeil is also more than that. Over the past forty years, Popeil has created for himself an empire. By inventing and selling over $2 billion worth of products, Popeil has turned his company, Ronco Teleproducts, into a global leader in direct response marketing.

As Seen On TV: Popeil Goes From Poverty to Prime Time

Popeil now split his time evenly between working for his father and working for himself, selling goods on Maxwell Street. It did not matter what he was selling – shoeshine spray, plastic plant kits – Popeil just wanted to sell. “Through selling I could escape from poverty and the miserable existence I had with my grandparents,” he says. “I didn’t have to be poor the rest of my life.”

Lesson #1: Make the Product the Star of the Show

There really was not much to Ron Popeil’s Veg-O-Matic. You took a vegetable of your choice, put it through the machine’s blades, and you immediately had vegetable slices. But, if it was such a simple and transparent device, how come it became one of the first food-processing appliances to gain such widespread popularity in the U.S.? Were Americans really that eager to find a better way of slicing and dicing their veggies? Perhaps, but there was more to it than that; in pitching his product, Popeil made Veg-O-Matic the star of the show.

Lesson #2: Use Subtle Marketing to Evoke a Strong Message

Popeil is one of the modern mavens of marketing. From his experience selling on the nitty-gritty streets of Chicago, to his more mainstream infomercials, Popeil came to understand just what would make people buy his products. It did not matter whether it was a can of spray-on hair or a food dehydrator, Popeil could sell it to. And, here is how.

Lesson #3: The Best Product is the One that Sells Itself

“Developing and marketing a product are like left and right feet,” says Popeil. “They both have to work for the product to succeed.”

Lesson #4: Test Your Product and Test Your Pitch

Almost every day, some new kitchen widget or another is released onto the market. A select few might become hit sellers, while the rest crash and burn as quickly as they were thought up. However, even where an entrepreneur finds himself with a successful product, rarely has he been able to transform it into an entire business. That is, of course, until Popeil came along.

Lesson #5: Dogged Persistence Makes the Best Pitchman

Popeil was just sixteen years old when he began selling his father’s products on Chicago’s infamous Maxwell Street. His workday would start at 5 a.m., when he used to arrive at the market and spend one hour cutting and preparing fifty pounds each of onions, cabbages, and carrots, and more than one hundred pounds of potatoes each day. After that, Popeil would demonstrate and try to sell his products from 6 a.m. until 4 p.m. On average during his 11-hour work days, Popeil would bring in $500 on a daily basis.

The Perpetual Pitchman: How Popeil Became a Multi-Millionaire

There are some who say that what Popeil has been able to accomplish in his career is nothing short of magic. To create an empire out of seemingly nondescript kitchen wares is without a doubt an impressive feat. It was not, however, magic. The secrets behind Popeil’s success are as simple to follow as the instructions on his Veg-O-Matic.

Ron Popeil Quotes

Ron Popeil Quotes

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