Philip Kives (12 February 1929 – 27 April 2016) was a Canadian business executive, entrepreneur, and marketing expert from Winnipeg, Manitoba.
He is best known for founding K-tel, which sold household gadgets including the Miracle Brush, Feather Touch Knife, Veg-O-Matics, as well as many compilation record albums.
Kives utilized low-budget television commercials to sell millions of products and build an international business empire.
In 1953, at the age of 24, he was hired as a door-to-door salesman in the city and nearby country towns, and succeeded in selling sewing machines and stainless steel cookware.
[6] Two years later, he and his brother Theodore moved to Atlantic City, New Jersey,[7] selling kitchen items on the Boardwalk beside other pitchmen, including Ed McMahon,[8] and developing his salesmanship.
In 1961, Kives traveled to New York City where he worked at Macy's Department Store doing floor demonstrations of a new revolutionary product: the non-stick Teflon frying pan.
Kives' marketing formula consisted of live two-and-a-half minute TV commercials, in which he recreated the fast-talking "hard sell" that he had developed in the United States.
[12][13][14] Kives returned to Winnipeg in 1962, and began marketing products he had acquired in the United States: the Miracle Brush, Feather Touch Knife, Pattie Stacker, Fishin’ Magician, Brush-O-Matic, and the Veg-O-Matic.
For his next album Kives recruited Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Liberace and Sammy Davis Jr. K-tel's music sold equally well in Europe.