Business screen magazine (1938)

• Every time a Terminix salesman gets a name on the dotted line two separate and distinct sales have been closed. The first (and often the most difficult) is selling the property owner on okeying a free inspection of his home or building for termites. The second — when termites arc found — is selling the prospect on his need for Terminix Insulation (chemical protection of a structure against termites) . To fur ther complicate the salesman's job there is the widespread lack of knowledge on the part of the public about the termite problem, the activities of a multitude of "racketeers" in the termite control field, and the extreme intangibility of the service to be sold. It is obvious that the TerminLx salesnum needs all the sales aids he can get. The most effective one we have yet found is a two reel 16mm. .sound motion picture. Hidden Enemies. This picture, narrated by Lowell Thomas, depicts the life and habits of termites, has microscopic shots of the insects in their nests in the ground, gaining excess to the wood in buildings, and damaging it beyond repair. The part that Terminix and its scientific control methods play in the fight against these destructive insects is graphically portrayed. The thoroughness of the Terminix method of control is strikingly presented in some detail, and to maintain interest and contiiniity there is a coherent plot throughout. Some idea of the organization of the TerminLx system is necessary to get a clear conception of what our problems were in the use of this motion picture. The nationwide Terminix Organization is composed of 56 independently owned com])auies which are licensed to apply the termite control chemical Terminix. These Licensees are located throughout the 36 states where termites are a serious problem. The Licensor of the Terminix Organization and manufacturer of Terminix is E. L. Bruce Co., better known as the world's largest maker of hardwood floorings. The Terminix Division of Bruce derives its income from the sales of the chemical. Terminix, to its exclusive Licensees. Bruce maintains a corps of field representatives to supervise the treating work of the Licensees. Brucc's advertising department is at the service of the Terminix Licensees, and the advertising and sales program of the organization is mapped out by Bruce. However, Bruce does iu)t attempt to dictate to Licensees what types of advertising they should use, but develops and prepares ideas and sales helps and then "sells" the Licensees on their use. From this particular angle our situation is similar to that of a manufacturer having independently owned and managed dealers. With this set-up in mind you can see that our ilircction iif the use of a new motion picture (produced for us in 1936) was going to be a difficult problem — especially since none of us had the slightest experience with industrial movies. However, we sold about two-thirds of our Licensees on the possibilities of Hidden Enemies, furnished Ihcni prints (each paid a Bt llarvt'T C'rot'fli share of the production costs) , arranged for projectors for them, gave them a few suggestions, and sat back to await further developments. We also furnished Licensees a supply of "Record of Showings" cards, requesting them to fill in these cards in duplicate for each showing made, keeping a copy and sending us one. The cards, filled out, gave us a complete record of each showing — along with some information later found to be not particularly relevant. The card asked for the date and time, name of group seeing picture, city where it was shown, how showing was obtained, number in audience, number each of men, women and children, re.iction, and names of operator and salesman. The back of the card left plenty of white space under the heading "Remarks", with the suggestion, however, that such information as what literature was distributed, ninnber of inspections received, etc., be given. As these cards were returned by the various Licensees, often with supplementary letters, we began to assemble valuable information about the methods of showing the picture, methods of obtaining showings, the literature that tied in best, the types of audiences that were most productive of inspection requests, the use of contests and prizes and scores of other ideas, good, bad and indifferent. To broadcast these ideas, along with suggestions of our own, to our 56 Licensees, and to maintain enthusiasm in the use of Hidden Enemies, we created a special bulletin form "Tei'uiinix Movie Bulletin", sending it out at frequent intervals. In addition to practical ideas, in connection with obtaining showings, making the showing, etc., this bulletin carried inspirational messages, such as details of exceptionally good results obtained by some Licensee, suggested publicity stories, news of our special promotional work on the picture (such as a mailing to all garden club presidents and the featuring of our film in a Bell & Howell national magazine ad), suggestions for lietter use of equipment — in brief, anything pertaining to Hidden Enemie.i. For about a year anil a half "Terminix jMovie Mulletins" went out on the average of every ten days. Since then we have slowed down on sending tluin out but still use them whenever we have a real message to tell ab<iiit the film. We I'liund this regular bulletin invaluable in stimulating our Licensees to more and better use of the picture. In addition to passing on to them ideas of real merit it served as a constant reminder to each of them that the picture was going strong as a lead and sales producer for other Licensees and encouraged all to use the film more intensively. Every user of industrial movies can use a similar promotional bulletin to his organization with profit. Our experience has been that much more value is received from a standardized, special bulletin dealing with movie promotion onlj' than simply ineluding this information in regular sales bulletins. Ours is a simple letterhead size, one page niimeograph job. the writing and production of which require only an hour or .so a week. Naturally, at the beginning our Licensees made most of their showings of Hidden Enemies before groups that were most easily reached. Consequentlj', most of the early showings were made before schools, luncheon and civic clubs, women's organizations and other similar groups. W^hile these showings provided mass audiences at a very low cost and undoubtedly were most effective from a purely publicity standpoint, they produced little in the way of immediate tangible results. Most luncheon clubs and organizations of a social or civic nature do not allow "commercialism" at their meetings, and therefore the Licensees were not able to explain their free inspection service and ask members of the audience for permission to inspect their properties. However, they were usually able to get a list of the people present, which the.y used very effectively in direct mail and personal follow ups. Solicitation of these names, incidentally, produces above ordinary cold canvassing far in excess of the cost of making the sho^^•ings, and compares favorably with actual leads obtained from other sources. The school showings were purely for the purpose of education and fostering good will, of course, and little attempt to secure sales from them was made. However, a surprising number of sales did originate indirectly from this source; some jobs being sold later for treating the schools, others coming from teachers who had attended the showings, and still others coming from home owners whose children had unknowingly done a selling job on their parents on the dangers of termite infestation and the need for an inspection, as a result of seeing the picture. Showings of this kind must be regarded as purely promotional in nature, and anj' attempt to measure in dollars and cents the results obtained from them is apt to be discouraging where most types of products are concerned. In our business, however, we have found that this type of showing is definitely worth while: one job sold will pay for the cost of tin or more such showings. Incidentally, sales have been made which could be traced directly back to the prospect seeing our picture more than a year before. Large group showings are still an important part of our motion (Please turn to Page 31) 22 Business Screen