What was once known as "The Midas Touch" is now known as the "O Effect." It really doesn't matter what you sell. Everyone knows that getting your product endorsed on The Oprah Winfrey Show, on the "O List" in her O Magazine, or featured on her "Favorite Things" show could guarantee an explosion in sales. Oprah's personal selection alone has the ability to launch the success of many products.

Influence of Oprah to product sales

Business Week and CNNMoney.com recently profiled companies and the impact of Oprah's influence to their product sales. Some of their success stories are shared here:

• Adam + Eve: A pima cotton t-shirt was featured by Oprah. On the day the company owner appeared on Oprah's show, the company website was down for hours and phones were out of control. He had a total of about 3,000 orders in 2005 but in the 3 months following Oprah's endorsement he received over 12,000 orders.
• Design-her Gals: Since the personalized stationery appeared on the May 2006 "O List" the community has grown to 110,000 customers, about half from the Oprah.
• Fobis Technologies: Revenues doubled in the first year from $450K to $800K for its Weemote Remote Control for kids.
• Fat Witch: After the baby gift tin appeared on the October 2001 "O List" and the November 2002 Favorite Things show, the website was overloaded and it took four months to finish shipping the holiday orders.
• Garrett Popcorn Shops, said the consequences of having Garrett's Chicago mix of CaramelCrisp and CheeseCorn was "absolutely markable" -- on the day of the broadcast there were 100,000 Web hits and the sales volume for the month of December increased by over 100 percent causing many long hours of work with few breaks
• For six weeks after the Oprah's Favorite Things broadcast they could not get a call out because their phones were busy and they had thousands and thousands of orders from the Internet.
• We Take The Cake's five employees, three phone lines and one ill-equipped server were no match for the onslaught following the show when its Florida key lime bundt cake was included in Oprah's Favorite Things broadcast. Their server got knocked down in the first four hours. The phone started ringing the minute our cake aired and did not stop for a full week. The bakery sold 10,000 cakes during that holiday season, most of which were key lime. Credit to that feature was given for saving the business. The 2004 sales had been ~$450,000 but by the end of 2005 sales reached $840,000. Since then, the cakes have been featured on the Food Network and sold through Neiman Marcus and Harry & David. Other small businesses hit with instant success are recommended to follow its lead, "once things slow down, you have to create opportunities."

• MarieBelle: After its hot chocolate powder appeared on the November 2002 Favorite Things show, 30,000 orders were received by 11pm. Revenues multiplied from $1M to $5M over the last 4 years.
• Skip Hop: After the Pronto! Mini Changer appeared on the March 2006 "O List" there was a sustained period of tremendous sales (as many as 6,000 per month) and revenue more than doubled since then
  

Books

Oprah has helped catapult many books, including the diet and self-help books featured on her show and the books reviewed in Oprah's Book Club. Within minutes of her recommendation, booksellers would report being swamped with orders for the books. Sales typically increased by 500,000 to one million copies. Previously obscure authors would become major literary figures after being noted on Oprah's show. Some hint that Oprah has saved the publishing industry and notes that each time she picks a book, it's guaranteed that millions will buy it.

Music

Some suggest that the "O Effect" also impacts music sales. It does not really require Oprah including an artist's collection in her Favorite Things or the magazine's O List. Just the appearance of the musical artist on The Oprah Winfrey Show has a huge effect.

• Luther Vandross: After his appearance on Oprah's show, sales of the "Song for My Father" tripled rising from 118 to 46 on Billboard's chart.

• Wynona Judd - After she appeared to talk about weight loss and performed a single song, her last album, which had been absent from the charts, re-entered at 46.
  
• Lionel Ritchie - His new album moved from 105 to 47 on the charts after appearing on Oprah's show.

• George Michael - He appeared on Oprah's show to launch his comeback. It worked. His album, which hit the charts at 29, leaped to 12.

For more information, see: Oprah's O List | Oprah's Favorite Things