Originally Posted By bizjournals.com
Is Oprah Winfrey’s stamp of approval on a product still relevant? The short answer to that question is: Yes. Oprah has such a formidable presence that the empire she has created appears to have a long shelf life. She manages to have an “everyday woman” appeal to her, while also being Forbes’ only African-America billionaire...
Is Oprah Winfrey’s stamp of approval on a product still relevant?
The short answer to that question is: Yes. Oprah has such a formidable presence that the empire she has created appears to have a long shelf life. She manages to have an “everyday woman” appeal to her, while also being Forbes’ only African-America billionaire in the United States.
And, oh yeah, she has 23 million Twitter followers.
But – yes there is a “but” – since her daytime TV show went off the air in 2011, the “boom” that came from having her provide an endorsement to a business or vendor has slightly fizzled, media analysts agree.
Lisa Schalk, co-owner of South Tampa’s Toffee to Go, says yes and no. Its signature product landed on “Oprah’s Favorite Things” list at the end of 2013, and Oprah’s “people” asked the company to provide statistics of how this affected business.
Of course it did. Business was up 61 percent this January over last year. “That’s a great way to start the first quarter,” said Schalk.
They worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week after the list came out - both online and published in O Magazine – and barely had a break through the holiday season. And while she agrees Oprah is still relevant, Schalk thinks they would have been even busier if her daytime TV show was still on-air.
“We probably would not have been able to keep up if it had been that way,” Schalk said.
Some of the final stats they sent to Oprah’s team include:
- 90 percent sales increase in November
- 63 percent sales increase in December
- Website business up 300 percent
Jayme Maultasch, an executive vice president and group account director for worldwide Deutsch agency in New York, said my hunch about relevancy is spot-on about why Oprah’s team asked companies for their numbers.
