SHOPPING CHANNEL GETS A NEW LOOK
By Adnews Staff
The Canadian Home Shopping Channel is changing its name on Feb. 1 and is repositioning itself in an effort to attract more customers. Rogers Broadcasting is giving the specialty television service a new name: The Shopping Channel. The items being sold will be more upscale and the way the hosts present themselves will be different. There will also be more interactivity with customers. Product designers will talk about their wares and give answers to viewers who phone in with questions. The set will also change. Currently it takes the form of different rooms in a house but by August the whole thing will look like a shopping centre. Advertising will begin in the summer on TV and radio, and possibly in other media. TV buys will be made on more channels than in the past. Rogers has been doing self promotions on the Shopping Channel as well as running spots on the Weather Channel, the Infomercial Channel and the TV Guide channel. Prism Communications of Toronto was hired without a review two months ago, taking the $4-million account from J. Walter Thompson of Toronto. Agency president Elliott Ettenberg told Adnews yesterday that Rogers liked other work his agency had done and approached him.