Marketing Professor Tom O’Guinn contributed to an Associated Press article on “Informercial King”  Kevin Harrington’s 25-year infomercial empire and his innate knack to pick what to sell and how to sell it.

On the eve of release of Harrington’s new memoir, “Act Now!: How I Turn Ideas Into Million Dollar Products,” O’Guinn noted Harrington’s ability to make buying things from infomercials acceptable.

“He brought that sense of legitimacy and the idea that infomercials are not necessarily hucksterism, they are meeting the legitimate needs of legitimate consumers,” O’Guinn said.

Read the article here

Professor of Marketing Tom O’Guinn recently contributed a column for Advertising Age’s CMO Strategy section. In “With populism’s rise, Prada’s fall,” O’Guinn describes the coming class conflict that will confront brands during the current economic downturn and how successful brands will come out ahead. For this, he draws upon his many years of research into marketing activity during the Great Depression.

Read the article here (requires an Advertising Age subscription): http://adage.com/cmostrategy/article?article_id=135270