Broadcasting (Oct 1931-Dec 1932)

BROADCASTING The NEWS MAGAZINE of 'L. 3, NO. 8 WASHINGTON, D. C. THE FIFTH ESTATE OCTOBER 15, 1932 $3.00 PER YEAR — 15c A COPY taking Retail Radio Advertising Produce By KENNETH COLLINS Executive Vice-President R. H. Macy & Co., Inc., New York ponsors, Not Medium, to Blame If Broadcast Trials Fail; atience^ Originality and Human Touch Held Essential THE EFFECTIVENESS of radio in national advertising nowadays goes unchallenged, but there is still some skepticism among retail merchants as to its adaptability to their needs. This article, written exclusively for BROADCASTING by one of the foremost figures in advertising, explains how the world's largest department store experimented with the medium, floundered about a bit and then discovered the secret of success. Most retail radio advertising fails, according to Mr. Collins, because the sponsors use the same methods of approach practiced on the printed page. To be successful on the air, retail merchants must first learn that "radio is a sensitive, unusual type of advertising vehicle and cannot be handled in any stereotyped manner". Mr. Collins ADIO ADVERTISING has failed > produce for most retailers, hat's not the fault of the meium. It's because of the stuidity of the retailers. Stores ave repeatedly bought radio time ' ith no notion of what they could 3 with it and have put on differat broadcasts for a period of a jew weeks or months — and then, tailing to get their money's worth, ave loudly complained about the eficiencies of this form of advertising. Anyone with any sense about iuman beings realizes that the adio is a sensitive, unusual type f advertising vehicle and cannot handled in any stereotyped lanner. The people who do the broadasting are strangers to the pubic when they begin. Most of them .re without advertised or known tames. It takes time for a listenng audience to begin to know hem. It's like developing a friendhip. You can't turn a casual acquaintanceship into a real friendhip in two or three weeks. It akes months and sometimes years. Similarly you can't learn to know the radio broadcasters over-night. But here is the astonishing thing. The minute they do begin to occupy a place in the estimation of those who are listening, similar to the place occupied by friends, their hold on the public becomes more intense and more vital than that of the writer who has to translate his or her thoughts through some other medium. Success Came Gradually NOT KNOWING this, the first three or four months we used radio broadcasting at Macy's, we floundered around badly. Quite honestly, if we had not had a share in the ownership of Station WOR, we probably would have abandoned this form of advertising. But we did feel compelled to go on. And little by little we began to discover that those people who were doing our broadcasting were gaining a large listening audience. We didn't guess at this. We found it out by the increase in mail and better still, by the increase in tangible sales results. So tangible it was, in fact, that today we spend somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 per cent of our so-called "space" dollar appropriation, for the radio — and may increase this amount. Personal Approach Necessary I THINK we have been most successful in those practical advertising methods which pre-suppose an intimate relationship between the person broadcasting and the person listening. We try to let them into secrets, so to speak. We announce sales events in advance. We offer limited lots of merchandise at attractive prices, which are to be advertised in no other way. We let them feel that this is a sort of exclusive message we are giving them. When the reverse of this method is used, we have found that it fails. I suppose it is obvious why it should fail. People listening to radio broadcasting are not sitting in large halls assembled in a sort of convention. They are listening one by one, at individual radio sets, and expect to be treated in a friendly, personal manner. Where the broadcaster, other than October 15, 1932 • BROADCASTING those concerned with exceptionally dramatic programs such as The March of Time, forgets his close, intimate relationship, he makes a fool of himself and of radio technique. Still Experimenting AT FIRST we felt that the radio could only be used profitably by us for the sale of specific merchandise, in the manner mentioned above. But finding that this was growing in its importance, and getting occasional hints that the human touch was more and more appreciated by radio listeners, we began experimenting (and are still experimenting), with evening broadcasts of an institutional character. Now, institutional advertising is, per se, that kind which attempts to dramatize or make more clear those facts about any business organization which differentiate it from any other. There are, of course, countless ways in which these unique features can be told to people. We have felt that about 99 per cent of radio advertisers were telling them in the dullest, most pompous fashion possible. The chest tones of most manufacturers drown out all semblance of good advertising. No one is very much awed by any average business concern except the owner of the business and his much-frightened employees. This is especially true when the product is a cough drop, a cigarette, or some other relatively trivial article which should never be regarded with great dignity and veneration. Unique Facts Stressed ACCORDINGLY, we listed certain facts about our particular business which are unique — the fact that we buy and sell for cash, the fact that we are now probably the largest store in the world, the fact that we are exceedingly crowded, etc. and attempted to broadcast these in some human-interest fashion. We adopted the WOR Minstrels and had the temerity to allow them to poke fun at these sacred cows of the business. The colored boys are always trying to take out charge accounts. They are always getting lost in the crowd, thinking they are at the Pennsylvania Station — though, with (Continued on page 2U) Page 5