Avi Sivan

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YAHOO NEWS, June 1 2008.

Avi Sivan, the Informercial Guru and TV Mogul to Release His Book "Whatever It Takes" in Fall of 2008

Avi Sivan, the founder of the New York City-based IGIA Inc., is launching a book entitled "Whatever It Takes". IGIA is a world-famous direct response marketing and merchandising company for personal care products and was ranked as one of 14 most recognized brands in the US.

New York, MY (PRWEB) June 1, 2008.

Avi Sivan, the founder of the New York City-based IGIA, INC. is launching a book entitled "Whatever It Takes". IGIA is a world-famous direct response marketing and merchandising company for personal care products and was ranked as one of the 14 most recognized brands in the US.

Mr.Sivan is an early originator of the informercial business and the owner of the "As Seen On TV" trademark. He was chosen as one of the 25 Most Innovative People in DRTV. In his book he tells all he knows about how to enter the informercial industry and gives practical advice on the business world in general.

Mr. Sivan has invented more than 230 products in his 20 years in the industry. He was awarded by United States Patent Office a patent for the world-renowned ionized hair dryer, and the cellulite machine called Cellulift. Mr' Sivan's Epil Stop brand has been the top selling hair remover in the US and was sold in Wal-Mart, CVS, Wallgreens, Amazon.com and worldwide.

Mr. Sivan believes that every person who comes into this world has a special mission to achieve something no one else has ever achieved, no matter how small or large the impact. Through Mr. Sivan's inspiration, motivation, creativity, and self-taught smarts, you will be inspired to get the most out of your own life. By applying Mr.Sivan's "Whatever It Takes" brassy attitude you will achieve your goals.

The book is set to launch this fall

For more information bout the book please visit http://www.avisivan.com/

 

LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER

Wednesday, October 15, 1997 www.kentuckyconncct.com Metro Final Edition

SUCCEEDING IN SMALL BUSINESS

Ad blitz a new method to sell hair remover

Avi Sivan, a former Israeli commando and stunt man, gives new meaning to the expression "media blitz." Through an aggressive and combination of magazine advertising, infomercials and direct mail, Sivan has created a marketing machine for his personal-care products, sold under the IGIA brand.

"His simultaneous multimedia push is unusual," said John Kogler, founder of Jordan Whitney Inc., which monitors the billion-dollar-plus infomercial industry. "I think it's unique"

Kogler's Southern California based firm publishes several direct-response television reports and newsletters. For the week thai ended Sept. 27, he said IGIA's hair-removal system ranked third on Jordan Whitney's list of top-15 direct-response ads. IGIA's blemish remover ranked 11* on the same list.

Kogler said Sivan takes advantage of the fact that the infomercial industry "has become a lot more dependent on retail" to sell a variety of consumer products. Many consumers who are reluctant to give their credit-card numbers over the phone may want products they've seen demonstrated on TV but prefer to buy them in stores. "A product the gets into stores because of TV will sell six to 10 times as much in the retail stores as it does on TV," Kogler said.

Although intense marketing campaigns drive sales for Tactica, Sivan's company, they also create customer service problems, including late deliveries and slow refunds. Last Christmas, the Manhattan-based company fell way behind on deliveries, prompting consumers to file hundreds of complaints.

Last week in New York City alone, more that 500 complaints were still listed in the Better Business Bureau's computer system. However, a bureau spokesman said only 18 complaints were still unresolved according to his records.

Sivan said every complaint is being taken care of, and everyone whose "Active Air Advanced Beauty System" was delayed was sent $20 worth of face-cream as an apology. "We looked at it as good trouble," said Sivan. "We were overwhelmed with orders for that product.

Sivan, 34, an intense entrepreneur, said he learned how to market personal-care products to women when he worked for EPI Products USA, the ill-rated Santa Monica, Calif., company that grew to $200 million in sales before it filed for bankruptcy in 1990 amid lawsuits and other legal troubles. Its product, Epilady, a hair-removal product invented on a kibbutz in Israel, was infamous for the pain with which it removed hair, but it still sold by the thousands.

Sivan worked with and was once engaged to one of the Rrok sisters, who ran the company with their father. South African businessman Solomon Krok. Determined to learn from Epilady's mistakes, Sivan found a British inventor who developed a less-painful tweezing method. The IGIA hair-removal system sells for $120. "Its huge success in the department stores, "said Orly Zoran, who worked with Sivan at EPI Products and now handles sales and marketing for IGIA products.

Zoron, who specializes in launching and marketing consumer products, said thousands of beauty-magazine ads and huge TV budgets make Sivan's hair-removal product a hit. Sales also skyrocketed after Sivan spent more than $2 million on slick ads inserted into a department store's monthly statements.

Sivan said he's sold 800,000 units and has an additional 300,000 on back order. One retail industry expert credits Sivan with "rejuvenating the whole hair-removal industry."

rivately held Tactica, with sales of $77 million so far this year, is managed by a small team working on the 74* floor of the Empire Slate Building. Moving his company into an American landmark is significant for Sivan, who grew up in a poor family in Israel. At 9, he started delivering laundry to earn money to pay for his bar mitzvah, the Jewish ceremony marking a 13-year-old boy's passage to adulthood.

"I had a magical bar mitzvah with 350 people," said Sivan.

At 14, he ran away from home and joined a kibbutz. He later served in the Israeli Army. In the early 1980s, he was the only survivor of a secret mission to Lebanon and spent six months in a hospital recovering from gunshot wounds. When he recovered, he worked on a few movies as a stunt man but wanted to make a lot more money.

After working for EPI Products and watching it grow, prosper and collapse, Sivan said, "I knew there was a huge opportunity because the market for hair removal products is enormous."

Now, his challenge is not to repeat EPI's mistakes.

"My name and credibility are very important to me," said Sivan, who works from 6a.m. to 11 p.m. most days. Sivan says his entrepreneurial hero is Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Records and Virgin Airlines, who is expanding his empire into banks and Soft drinks.

Meanwhile, Sivan has these tips for anyone interested in following his marketing model:

1. Find a product that appeals to the masses. It has to be unique and not a "me, too" product.

2. Find a product with a mark-up of five times the wholesale price. If it costs you $20, you wan! to sell it for $100.

3. Register copyrights and trademark you product to protect it from knock-offs.

4. Encourage inventors to present you with new ideas. "We get 50 to 60 pitches a month," said Sivan. "We have a focus group to filter the products, but I make the final decisions."

 

Avi Sivan, founder-chairman Tactica International

In 1992, Avi Sivan dreamed that he would create a new cosmetics company that would rival such big names as Clinique and Estee Lauder. Fewer than six years later, "We are considered one of them. We are sitting on the shelf right next to them," says Sivan. "We are on the cosmetics floor in Lord & Taylor. I never dreamed we'd be there. Sometimes you have to pinch yourself to believe it's true."

In just five years, his best-selling beauty product, the IGIA Hair Removal System, has grown to generate more than $75 million in sales for 1997, and his product line had grown to 18 different prod­ucts. Expectations for 1998 are that company revenues will triple.

The key to his company's success, says Sivan, was combining direct response television ads and infomercials with high-end print adver­tising in upscale magazines, placing IGIAjs products "on the pages right next to Dulce and Gabana, right next to Halston." The move allowed him to generate huge orders via both long- and short-form DRTV; says Sivan, even though the product price point—$129—was too high based on conventional short-form standards.

"Some people see infomercials, and they like it; some don't. But you combine the expensive magazine ads with the infomercial shows, and you buy some confidence with these people." And though the approach is costly—weekly television media buys exceed $1 million, and IGIA fall-page, four-color ads appear in more than 45 monthly publications—the return on investment has been phe­nomenal, he says. "I think you should watch us in the coming year. We're going to triple our revenues, without a doubt."

Innovations for 1998 include a focus on taking successful IGIA products and streamlining them into single, multi-functional prod­ucts that save customers both money and space, says Sivan. "From now on, one product will not do just one thing; it will do four or five things."