The Teleshopping Business in India

Analysts questioned the reliability of such personal care products that claimed to beautify and tone up the body in a matter of days. They considered these infomercials, which depicted common people using the product and explaining its effectiveness, a farce. They argued that, these people were paid to speak well about products.

Analysts criticized the teleshopping networks for trying to deceive the viewers into buying products with the belief that those people had actually used them. Despite these allegations, teleshopping as a concept was gaining popularity in India and more and more customers were showing readiness to try innovative products.

Direct marketing is a zero-level channel, wherein marketers interact with the customer on a one-to-one basis (Refer Exhibit I for a comparison between mass marketing and direct marketing and various kinds of direct marketing techniques). Direct response marketing motivates customers to take prompt action. The prerequisites for a promotion technique to be considered as direct response marketing included placing an order directly before the potential customer and prompting the customer to take immediate action (such as requesting for additional information or making a purchase decision). Teleshopping is another name for Direct Response Television (DRTV) shopping, a concept that originated in the US in the mid-1980s.