'The Cable Kitchen' cooks up greater volume - Nationwide Marketing, a housewares manufacturer, uses half-hour cooking show to advertise its products

Discount Store News, May 8, 1989

`The Cable Kitchen' Cooks Up Greater Volume

SAN FRANCISCO -- Until last September, Nationwide Marketing sold almost all of its housewares merchandise via "The Cable Kitchen," a type of travelogue it broadcasts on cable stations.

Now the vendor is becoming an overnight success story at membership warehouse clubs, and the company is eyeing mass merchandiser retail channels as well.

A merchandising booth called "The Cable Kitchen Boutique" is expected to be used at non-club retail outlets, based on Nationwide's press releases. Resembling a San Francisco cable car, it could serve as a vehicle to attract shoppers to the products. The boutique could be staffed with Nationwide reps to conduct product demonstrations.

Which retailers will bring this cable car into its stores? "NMI is still undecided as to which retail outlets we will be working with," explained Ann Combs, a spokeswoman for NMI. "NMI will be conducting tests in retail stores the second quarter of this year and will make decisions based upon the results of the tests."

Total sales at retail outlets, military bases, expositions and "The Cable Kitchen" are expected to cook up volume in excess of $60 million by yearend. That's a whopping increase over last year's sales of $18 million. When the company started five years ago--out of the president's garage--sales were $250,000.

`Infomercial'

Nationwide uses "The Cable Kitchen," a 30-minute television show aired on cable channels, to merchandise its housewares products while entertaining viewers. The company terms "The Cable Kitchen's" combination of sales pitch and travelogue "infomercial." While the infomercial has been responsible for 45 percent of its sales last year, the percentages are likely to shift more toward retail outlets during 1989.

Foodsaver--the food preservation system that was the first product Nationwide produced--is now available chainwide at Costco and Price Club. Tests of the Foodsaver are currently underway at 15 Sam's Wholesale Clubs, 10 PACE clubs, nine Price Savers, three Wholesale Clubs and American Wholesale's sole location, said Judith Sweeney, director of wholesale accounts at Nationwide.

Part of Nationwide's success with clubs is attributed to its ability to differentiate its product enough to thwart competition among the various club operators.

Each Foodsaver vacuum-sealer kit sold to a membership club company is unique, noted Seth Cloutman, account manager over wholesale. The configuration of food storage canisters and bags is different for each club. The club kits are also unlike the one sold through "The Cable Kitchen's" toll-free phone number.

The Foodsaver retails for $299; various jar and bag sets (which are the components that make one kit different from another) range in price from $13 for a package of small bags, to $90 for a complete set of canisters.

Sweeney does not believe retail sales will compete with those generated by "The Cable Kitchen." "Some people would never pick up the phone and dial an 800 number to order something," she said.

The cable show also serves as an advertisement for those who happen to see the product at a membership club. "Television supports the retail sales. In fact, we buy extra time on cable in markets where our products are being sold at retail stores," Sweeney explained.

Seven different products are now sold on "The Cable Kitchen" including the Foodsaver and Foodsaver canisters. Other items include the Ambichef blender/food processor; the Companion Food Dehydrator; Berndes professional quality cookware; "Knives by Felix" knife block set from West Germany; and the Zephyr, which circulates hot air in an electric oven to provide the benefits of a convection oven.

Nationwide estimates the show reaches 60 million households each month, with an audience of over 4.2 million people. The program is aired on 200 independent stations and eight national cable networks.

"The Cable Kitchen" is hosted by company founder and president Robert Warden and his wife. Among the adventures on which the program takes its viewers are: river rafting, skiing, hiking and hot-air ballooning. The company has also produced two shows in Germany and is planning to film future programs in Europe during 1989.

Nationwide does not own the plants that manufactures its products and has not invented any of the products it currently markets.

New product ideas are presented to the company at any of the hundreds of exhibitions it attends each year. Also, the company has a new products group which conducts patent searches and product tests.