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The vastness dwarfs the stagehands and models. Only the hosts, talking merrily to thin air, seem able to overcome all that empty space. A QVC host receives six months of training, and when you watch a broadcast close up, you can understand why. QVC hosts are not just preternaturally peppy people who can talk about anything—although they are that. They must master the details of dozens of products, and talk about them while monitoring a split screen that shows both the current shot and the next one.
They must deal with a steady stream of spokespeople and customer call-ins. An earnest young woman was extolling the many varieties of Philosophy perfume. Even I found it hard to explain where this was coming from. The perfume in question reminds me less of God than of grandmothers and old dresser drawers. After a moment, however, her pitch started to make sense. After all, as Peter asked, how do you sell perfume on TV?
Ten hours later, we stood a few feet from a buxom host as she gushed over the virtues of some nice-looking silver earrings. Her task was especially challenging, since she was selling alone. QVC hosts usually work in a team, with either a product spokesperson or another host. The model is less a sales pitch than a coffee klatch where friends trade tips on hot new products. So, apparently, are many of the viewers—at least in their heads.
All commercials foster some illusion about yourself, of course, but on QVC the illusion is four to six minutes long and runs while you shop.
The goal is to have viewers feel a connection to the hosts—to the point that they feel like they know them. Social media has only enabled that connection to grow stronger. The majority of the hosts have Facebook profiles, where they frequently share aspects of their personal lives, from infertility issues and adoption tales to wedding announcements and deaths of loved ones. Delaware County native Jane Treacy was just 24 years old when she saw an ad in a local paper for hosts at a new shopping network.
She applied on a whim, then panicked when they asked her to interview. She recalls a pep talk from her mother, who tried to reassure her daughter by asking her to sell her a pencil. In her three decades there, Treacy has sold everything from electronics to jewelry, though she found her niche on the Thursday-night show, Shoe Shopping with Jane. What makes an ideal QVC host? And if you think her job is easy, it only looks that way.
But what about 30 years from now? The company has undergone some growing pains in the past two years, laying off employees as it continues to streamline its operations and solidify and expand its global presence.
Yet the company is still creating new jobs by the hundreds. Spokesperson Doug Rose believes that QVC has—and will continue to have—a certain advantage over all other retailers. Beauty Shopping Life Style. Tara Behan August 11, Previous Article.
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