THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 19, 1995 TAG: 9502190059
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM SHEAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
While Teresa Kraemer attached a bow to the front of a black hat, Brenda Pittman quickly wrapped a silk scarf around her hat and turned down the brim.
For a few minutes on Saturday afternoon, Kraemer and Pittman promoted the foldable, reversable hats to about a million television viewers. QVC Inc.'s home-shopping program had come to the College of William and Mary.
Under the glare of television lights, Kraemer and Pittman demonstrated different forms that hats made by Feelings Inc. of Virginia Beach could take. Then they stepped aside for promotions of other Virginia-made products, including mittens for runners and cross-stitch samplers depicting Noah's ark.
Just beyond the lights, cameras and monitors, stage hands moved more merchandise into the Wren Building's Great Hall and adjusted a few of the cables snaking through the 300-year-old building.
Kraemer, a marketing and public relations person for Feelings Inc., and Pittman, a Norfolk model, were elated about their presentation of the ``Feel So Soft Eight Ways in One'' hats. They had been told that customer response had been strong and that the $18 hats were selling quickly.
Williamsburg was the latest stop in QVC's ``50 States in 50 Weeks'' tour, which has been marketing regional merchandise to its viewers since early January. The tour began in San Antonio, Texas, and will end in Hawaii in December.
In each state, QVC has sought 20 quality products that reflect the local culture and are appealing on television, said Fred Siegel, QVC's senior vice president for marketing.
To prepare a sales pitch for Saturday's show, Kraemer and Pittman recently spent a couple hours over pizza, playing with the hats and writing a script.
As it turned out, the script wasn't needed. QVC's program hosts told them on Friday to `` `Go with the flow,' so that's what we did,'' Kraemer said.
One of the misperceptions of televised home-shopping ``is that you need a celebrity to sell the products,'' said Siegel, the QVC marketing officer.
The Feelings foldable hat was one of the Virginia-made products that QVC chose through a screening process that began late last year. Other products from Hampton Roads companies that were marketed on Saturday's live show included fire-safety towels made by O.U.T. Labs in Norfolk and the S'Warms mittens from S'Warms in Williamsburg. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Virginia Governor George Allen, right, tries on his new Atlanta
Olympics jacket with a little help from QVC host Paul Kelley during
a live television shopping broadcast from the College of William and
Mary in Williamsburg on Saturday.
by CNB