QVC hopes new HQ tour spurs sales; TV retailer to open Studio Park in late October

Discount Store News, August 18, 1997

West Chester, Pa. -- QVC has taken another step toward penetrating the highly competitive entertainment business by offering studio tours of its new headquarters facility, opening here on Oct. 1.

The QVC Studio Tour will take visitors on a 36-stop walking tour of the new headquarters building, dubbed Studio Park, beginning in late October. The tour will include opportunities for visitors to be part of a live studio audience.

Studio Park was designed by Gensler, an architecture, design and planning company that has designed studio lots for Sony, Paramount and Warner Brothers in addition to Sony's Theater in New York's Lincoln Square, Gumps flagship store in San Francisco and Gap Stores around the world.

"The Studio Tour will take people through the process of electronic retailing," said Nan Russell, vp of communications. "The Studio Tour was designed to show people what it takes to make QVC happen."

QVC has a base of loyal customers who tend to be very interested in the company, Russell said. "They want to be able to see us, touch us and experience QVC. And the tours should help increase sales."

The tours also will allow QVC to showcase the products of its vendors.

Studio Park is a state-of-the-art broadcast facility with 165,000 sq. ft. of studio space plus 300,000 sq. ft. of office space and 120,000 sq. ft of warehouse space.

The Main Stage, the heart of the broadcast operation, is divided into the QVC Home, Jewelry Stage, Fashion Stage and hard cyclorama (flexible space) for special event programs. The QVC Home is 8,000 sq. ft. and features staging areas divided into "home" rooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, home office, bedrooms, garage, family room and two working fireplaces. The Jewelry and Fashion Stages have multiple panel backgrounds to highlight and enhance merchandise.

The point of the new sets is to provide a homey and logical environment for products.

QVC decided to take this approach to its programming and creation of a studio tour to highlight the "shopping is theater" theme, said Robb Cadigan, executive vp of programming and broadcasting.

"The best stores now that really `get it' are capturing the theater aspect of the business."

The move into "theater" was more of an evolution than a revolution of ideas related to the need for more space and for "doing things a little differently and creating more excitement on the air," Cadigan said.

The studio tours will highlight the entire QVC operation. The tour begins with show preparation areas and ends at the Observation Deck, which overlooks the 20,000-sq.-ft. studio space. Visitors get to see a live broadcast without interfering with the show by walking in enclosed spaces away from on-air business, Russell said.

The idea for the QVC Studio Tour started two and a half years ago. It is an outgrowth of customer comments on the QVC Local, the company's mobile unit that travels the country looking for products to preview on air. The idea was then linked to the new entertainment-oriented company headquarters.

Tours will be given six days a week, Tuesday through Sunday beginning at 9:30 a.m. and ending after the 4 p.m. tour. Each tour will include about 25 people and tour times will be adjusted according to demand once the program begins. QVC wants visitors to reserve their tour times in advance; beginning Aug. 18, QVC will have a toll-free reservations line to handle requests. The tour fee will be $10 for non-QVC members and $7.50 for QVC members. QVC expects to break even on the operating costs of the tour, Russell said.

The 36-stop, one hour and 15-minute tour will include:

* Pre-function areas and a video about QVC and its products.

* Highlights of the show.

* A review of IQVC, the interactive web site.

* The ability to view various QVC studio sets and props.

* A tour of the QVC Hall of Fame, with very select products that have set sales and volume records on QVC.

* A full-size replica of the QVC Local, which will be positioned coming out of the wall.

* A look into the kitchen, quality labs and product prep areas.

* The ability to see into all broadcast studios and control studios and warehouse, to see how orders are packaged and shipped.