QVC Battery Operated Fan: A Sustainable Marketing Nightmare

QVC Item F00208 Battery Powered LED Fan

Those of you who know me know how much I like QVC.  Seriously I am a big fan I find the home shopping channel to be informative and quite a detailed look at America's consumer base.  Their products are often well chosen and the shows and marketing are top notch.  They could make significant improvements in terms of sustainability and offering greener products but for what they do they are experts and should not overlooked or under estimated.

I was watching a show last week on outdoor products and they were presenting a battery operated LED portable fan item F00208.  The fan uses six (6) AA batteries and from the presentation you could see it barely produced a breeze. 

I watched in amazement thinking what an awful product.  First off it is incredibly wasteful using six (6) AA batteries and you know most people don't use rechargeables.  When asked by a caller how long the battery life was the presenter said "hours."  Secondly the product barely works producing only a faint breeze, you could see it hardly moved the female presenters hair when she held it right up to her face.  Finally it is made in China and surely traveled by cargo ship to the US for sale.

I just couldn't help thinking that sooner or later products like this are going to become detrimental to retailers.  They will actually have a negative impact on retailers because they simply aren't responsible products to sell.  I was very surprised QVC was even selling it as they are tops in their field and getting a product placed on the network is quite difficult.

Take a look at the comments on the QVC website for this item.  "I purchased two of these battery operated portable fans. I was totally disappointed! Fans do not produce much air at all, unless you put your face directly in front of it. Worst purchase I ever made from QVC!"

QVC does their market research so I am quite interested in how this product was chosen and placed on the network.  Their profit margin must have been very high.  I think QVC and other retailers need to wake up and not even offer products like this for sale. 

As more and more consumers place importance on environmental concerns, QVC should take the the lead, get out ahead of their consumer base.  They have an incredible opportunity to take the green/sustainable market right into consumers homes and they are not doing it.   At least not yet.