Stereotypes

[Julius]

I was just thinking about how QVC seems driven by middle / upper middle-class women. Twee Nicki with her twee voice and cheap "semi-precious" gemstones, snooty, cold Alexis Murdoch from l'Occitane, the awful, full-of-herself Julie with her Tipp-Ex-white gnashers and her flaaaahs, the icy Kelly Hoppen and steely Liz Earle....I could go on, but you get what I mean. Is there anyone on there who is a little more working class / down-to-Earth? We don't all live in mansions with a big white kitchen with granite worktops and an aga..

And what about the men on QVC? They tend to be middle-class and gay - not that there's anything wrong with being those things, it's just strange how QVC does not appear to represent a broader socio-economic spectrum.

Is there anyone more representative of other sectors of society on QVC? Have I just missed them?

How do you think their representations affect QVC? Surely it alienates them from many potential customers? Or are we really a classless society these days? Does "working class" really exist as it did before?

Why is it that QVC's Hi Tech hour attempts to break every stereotype in the mould (old people jumping up and down to techno music, a disabled basketball player in a wheelchair, two gay men kissing) yet everything else they seem to do tends to pander towards middle class, middle aged women?

Over to you!

 

[stratobuddy]

I don't know about stereotypes, but are you on steroids with your recent flurry of posts - - but keep them coming.

 

[Julius]

I don't know about stereotypes, but are you on steroids with your recent flurry of posts - - but keep them coming.

LOL I'm just cold and trying to keep busy during my 4 days off work - which happen to be until Saturday - and it's too cold to really go anywhere or do terribly much. It's 15c in my flat - and that's with the heating on. So I've put my electric blanket on as well. I'd normally drive out somewhere to lunch or go and walk out in the countryside, but it's so bitterly cold I shan't bother. Much safer to stay at home.

 

[loveallthingsitalian]

As well as the Sloan Rangers there are a few styloists and presenters who are as common as muck.

 

[shopperholic]

H

QVC love to think of themselves as the Harrods of shopping channels, but let's face it how many of us can shop at Harrods, or would in deed want to? For a kick off, there's no way I'd pay more for an item just because of the name of the shop I buy it from, and that's what QVC are doing, they think you should pay more because you buy it from them, which of course is ridiculous, they charge more for products to cover their massive overheads and "free phone" number. So in other words, if there was Asda right next door to Harrods selling the exact same item, I'd walk right in to Asda.

Just adding there a littl "H" at the top of my post, don't know what that's about.

 

[maymorganlondon]

QVC have delusions of grandeur, as Shopperholic says. They want to position themselves as an aspirational middle-class shopping destination. If they want to do that, they need to do their homework about more than the disposable income of their target customer! They will be in for a rude awakening when they do, as their range of offerings will need to be drastically overhauled.

I think many businesses are happy to take the money from the customer demographic they have, but they can't help hankering after their "dream" demographic.

When you really boil it all down, QVC want customers who can afford to spend a lot of money on a frequent and regular basis. Their bean-counters won't care if those customers are miles away from the customer the marketing bods think they should be targeting, and at the end of the day it's the money that talks!

QVCs presenters do seem to fit into a very narrow demographic, but it's one that statistically is probably effective for them: very non-threatening for the audience (although the increasing stridency of all the sales pitches could mess that advantage up).

 

[Bettyboo]

Let’s face it they can pretend to be any one they like but I would say most of them are from ‘working class’ backgrounds. In fact some of them are as common as.... imo.

 

[Twilight]

It's the British ones who have delusions of grandeur, it's different when the representatives are American. The only one who comes to mind as being quite working class was Jaynie Renner but thereby hangs a tale. Rosa Speyer is down to earth & I always liked Nicki Lloyd, which reminds me "When will Birkenstocks be back on QVC?"