Battle of the Brands: QVC vs. HSN (Joan Rivers vs. Suzanne Somers)
Posted by: in Products and ServicesFiled under: Products and services, Marketing and advertising, IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI), Battle of the Brands
This post is part of our Battle of the Brands feature. Let us know which brand you like, and check out other Battle of the Brands posts.
The battle between QVC and HSN is really about celebrity entrepreneurs.
QVC counts the likes of Joan Rivers and Marie Osmond in its stable of shills. Suzanne Somers and Susan Lucci hock their wares on HSN, which is owned by Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ: IACI) conglomerate.
Somewhere around the 1980s or 1990s, Rivers lost her sense of shame and began opening up about everything, including her numerous plastic surgeries. Rivers still is hysterical. Typical is a current blog post about Passover in which she joked that people eat Matzo (unleavened bread) “Because, you pig, you inherited your mother’s large, fat thighs and you should lay off the carbs for at least one day each year.”
Anyway, you just gotta love Rivers. She’s survived her husband’s suicide, the scorn of Johnny Carson and the ridicule of celebrities on the red carpet. Granted that I won’t be buying products such as the Joan Rivers Lilly of the Valley Bee Pin, which according to the QVC website “shines with orange and green epoxy enamel and cream simulated pearls as the buds.”
Sounds lovely, no?
Yes, I know that Marie Osmond’s dolls, some of which cost cost a pretty penny, have their fans. I’m sure that people also dig Somers’s clothing and jewelry line, which QVC says “capture her beloved, upbeat personality and star quality.” Soap queen Lucci offers “romantic fashions, glamorous and skin-toning beauty systems make you feel like a starlet.”
If I were a woman instead of a 40-year-old guy whose idea of fashion is a bowling shirt and sandals, I guess that would impress me. I guess women — the smart ones — want to be Lucci rather than Britney Spears. Nonetheless, I am awarding the brand title winner based on the strength of Rivers’ celebrity alone.
She’s taking selling out to an art. Bravo. Spears, who will no doubt be selling stuff to pay her legal bills, should take note.
Vote in our poll for QVC or HSN as your preferred brand, and let us know in the comments why you love it.
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