The infomercial production process

The infomercial production process

The infomercial production process

A successful infomercial production will always start with a viable product. A high quality manufactured, attention-getting packaging and mass marketability are the following elements your product must have.

Then a company must find a experienced infomercial production company. At this point the clients will present the detailed information about the product. This also include the pricing and offers (the critical elements in determining the success or failure).

In the infomercial production process budget is one of the most important thing. The budget will determine the type of infomercial production and talent they can afford in developing the infomercial.

Once budget is agreed upon, creative strategy begins. This includes the script treatment, story boarding, talent selection, location scouting, shooting and editing.

While these may seem very simple to determine, there are still number of issues to keep in mind. While these may seem very simple to determine, there are a number of issues to keep in mind. Obviously the first is profit against the COGS (cost-of-goods-sold) number.

The COGS number is the total cost – including packaging – to produce the product. It should also include the estimated DR cost-persale amount (call center and media). Then add the cost of the credit card processing, fulfillment, and lastly, estimated product returns.

Anything the consumer pays above that is the profit. This detailed process is where some are surprised about the cost of a direct response campaign and many often get into trouble if they have not completed a proper analysis.

Also, on the positive cash flow side are the shipping and handling fees. Often in the Direct Response industry, shipping and handling (S&H) fees are significant profit centers for the advertiser. However, viewers often believe those fees are “a given”, and only see “Plus S&H”. They usually don’t add that to the price of the product when making a decision to buy. Obviously the “actual” average shipping costs nationally must be estimated prior to establishing the “published” Shipping and Handling fees to be charged. These costs are subtracted from the gross S&H fees, resulting in an additional profit.