How many thighmasters have been sold

Jessica Simpson, Britney Spears, P. Standup comedian-turned-personal trainer Tony Horton is laughing his frighteningly toned year-old body all the way to the bank.

Since , the seemingly ageless creator of the hardcore P90X workout DVDs has been reshaping bodies — and the infomercial industry — one confused muscle at a time. And he's got plenty of powerful converts in his corner, from professional athletes NFL quarterback Kurt Warner to would-be vice presidents Romney running mate Paul Ryan. Maybe the film's producers should have paired the martial artist with former supermodel Christie Brinkley. Truth be told, two-time World Heavyweight Champion George Foreman had nothing to do with the conception or design of his world-famous grill.

Since its debut in , more than million units in varying sizes have been moved. Though it has gotten a lot of competition from more compact and less costly fitness-in-a-box programs like P90X, Bowflex — the all-in-one gym system first introduced in — is still very much in business.

More than 2. Hawthorne said that back in the '80s, the industry would measure an infomercial's success by noting how many sales were generated immediately after an ad aired. It's hard to measure that now with so much retail business on the Web, and with a new generation of consumers who are less likely to watch a minute program on TV Interactive television, or video, on the Internet is getting more," he said. Somers acknowledged that young consumers need to be marketed to differently.

However, "I sell to my age group, that's what I know. Within eight months, there were lines of Walmart trucks circling his factory, fighting for space. It got to the point where individual stores and chains were calling us to deliver the product directly because the demand was so high.

It was a crazy time. What happened after the craze broke? I sold Ovation in to one of my partners. I understand that Suzanne ended up subsequently buying the rights to the product.

We specialize in the direct response industry and help fund media buys. What marketing advice can you give to budding entrepreneurs? Try to change your product name, the way you present it, your distribution channels…change everything.

And if you want to make a product that will become a cultural phenomenon, I recommend signing on a celebrity or making sure your product is wonky enough to get attention. Remember the pet rock? That was all marketing. Skip to content. Business Cards. After leaving network television, Somers worked in Las Vegas for a while.

It was a grueling schedule. So she and her husband, Alan Hamel, decided to start branding products she could sell and create passive income. In , they began selling the ThighMaster, and the rest is infomercial history. Somers' empire of books and products aimed at helping women has made her far more successful than if she'd stayed in acting.