ShopNBC Q2 Results Are In: The Post Skelton Era is a Sucess!

ValueVision Media quietly reported their 2nd Quarter results a little over a week ago an it seems that the apparent firing of Jim Skelton did not impact watch sales as ShopNBC brass noted that they improved.

“The Watch category benefitted from a more diverse product mix and achieved improved productivity per minute with attractive margins, as part of a strategically planned reduction in air-time.”

FANS of Skelton may point out that since he left, a lot of watches have been offered on 6 Value Pays. I’d agree that this helps sales but do not think the move is to entice Skelton’s fan base or as a response to a purchasing drop off by those most ardent of fans, something he suggested on his Facebook page. Rather, it is a response to the continued malaise that is the Not So Great Depression.

Even if you’re not a fan of the mostly Chinese made watches featured on ShopNBC, the network have made a point of expanding their offerings and most of these are within the 38 mm to 47 mm size range as opposed to the caricatures that have marked Invicta designs over the past few years. These new brands are also selling out while Invicta doesn’t seem to anymore. So it’s possible that the core consumer has changed.

With the reported return of Daniel Mink and Renato, it will be interesting to count the sell outs and compare them to the same, tired Invicta rehashed designs. I’d love to be a fly on the wall in Shop’s green room when he shares it with Invicta’s Technical Brand Manager and convicted felon, Michael “fuckin” Davis.

You’ll remember he used Watchgeeks.net to famously call into question the shady sales exercise of the Renato Tourbillon, suggesting that people cancel their orders, which conveniently coincided with Invicta Watch Company’s hinting around at their coming Chinese Tourby offering.

Maybe it’s just me, but Invicta’s continuing slide in quality of both workmanship and materials, coupled with tired and boring designs is reminiscent of Detroit in the late 70’s. Can the brand continue to be the Shop’s cash cow or will one of these new brands claim the crown?

Technically Brand Perception Manager

PEOPLE wanna know; what is a Technical Brand Manager? The only individual that I’ve ever known to have this title is Michael “Grape Ape” Davis; co-owner of watchgeeks.net and Technical Brand Manager of Invicta Watch Group. Magilla Gorilla has never answered this question; “What is a Technical Brand Manager?” He won’t even address it. He’s real quick to spit out movement specs as seen on Google and to talk down to people who call bullshit on his various statements and question his “technical chops.” But the minute the shit hit the fan over Invicta’s Swinagate he quickly made the point that he repeats what he’s told; that he just sells the watches and doesn’t know what’s in them. A lot of people have taken him to task on such maters because his title leads them to assume that he’s involved in the manufacturing process. Still others know he isn’t and just wanna bust his balls. He’s really no different than a lot of the people out there whose collections and horological world view consist only of TV brands but the difference is that they have not been knighted the Technical Brand Manager by a design house.

His “Big Statement” a few days ago may finally have provided some insight into just what a technical brand manager is. After months of questions he finally addressed WG members regarding Swinagate and the Great D-D debacle of 2010. But it wasn’t the apology they sought or any explanation of what might have gone wrong on past TTV presentations. He spoke not as an employee of Invicta, but as the owner of the forum. In a nutshell he said stop complaining or leave. If you continue to complain, you’ll be banned. Davis states that the site has no expectation of free speech because it is HIS forum and he makes the rules.

HIS actual purpose is to managing brand perception. That’s why Invicta is his employer and the sites financer. Through the use of proxies, i.e. True Geeks and Super Geeks, as well as Mods and the owners themselves, Invicta is attempting to rewrite the narrative and create a false perception of what they actually are, a trademark/design house and what they are not; a true manufacturer of quality timepieces.

Some of the first negative perceptions about the brand followed Lalo’s main cheerleader and master Photoshoper, Jim Skelton. Both he and Davis were run off of BDWF because members apparently didn’t want to involuntarily become Invicta forum members. Davis has stated that he was “tired of the negativity” but if the recent months at WGs are any indication, one has to ask why “negativity” seems to follow Invicta around?

Part of managing the Invicta image was to cultivate a small group of what I like to refer to as Yellow Shirts, or Invictards. These loyal bodies will go out of their way to squash any “negative” posts; negativity defined as complaints regarding poor CS, QC or discussions of the outright lies used to market Invicta products. They use amateur bullying tactics like belittling the posters and piling on in mass. Most people who haven’t been around the net from its inception are not aware of the Internet Tuff Guy and so they just avoid further conflict; they also care about how they are perceived by the greater community.

I realized this early on by paying attention to key word frequency patterns; like “Malcontent”. A word thrown my way a few times which I later found out that this is what they call anyone who strays from the party line on watchgeeks. I’ve also noticed that these Yellow Shirts claim I’m “negative” – again, this is code for Truth.

Some of these same pit bulls also lavish great praise on the brand, relating stories about how they stop retail traffic with their watches. The most striking contrast of the detachment from reality were some of the WG members that went to great lengths to try and turn the tone of D-D Speedway complaint threads with their experience of flawless pieces without defect, and one in particular that implied that the appraised value of the watch made keeping defective models worth the continued value pays on a non-functioning piece.

This approach had been very effective for a few years , but flop after flop has created more and more disillusioned consumers. The curtain has been pulled back; the emperor is naked.

Are these folks compensated in some way? What skin do they have in this continued game? If they are receiving compensation or free watches, this would surely violate the FTCs rules of disclosure for bloggers with “material connections” These rules do also include “word-of-mouth” marketers which these individuals would fall under in this instance.

AS for the “Technical” bit of the title, I do believe that is to delineate his role as the man running Invicta’s active web initiative; watchgeeks is Invicta. It also allows for a murkiness around what his actual function is – turd polishin’.