Radio showmanship (Sept 1940-May 1941)

(g lothing Sales Thru the Air by P. B. JUSTER, President, Juster Bros., Minneapolis, Minn. "But my town is different!" If I've heard that statement once, I've heard it a thousand times. I appreciate that being a clothing merchant is a matter which varies with the individual and the community. No two stores in this country are ever run exactly alike, and the principles of style merchandising which may be successful in one city may not work with equal success in another. However, the economic and social changes transpiring daily exist everywhere, whether your store serves a town of 1,000 or a city of more than 1,000,000; and these day to day changes have forced us into a revitalized type of business. During this revitalization process, which I'm proud to say, occurred at Juster Bros, some years ago, radio played an important role. In reshaping our merchandising tactics in tune with the times we had to have a medium that fit our sales story. We found the answer not by jumping at a conclusion but by testing a new way of selling. Recently, while in New York on one of my annual buying trips, I attended a cocktail party given by Felix Mayer, president of Joseph & Feiss Clothing Company of Cleveland. Present were several prominent clothing retailers, among them Jesse Horowitz of the National Clothing Company of Rochester, Harold Blach of Blach's in Birmingham, \la., and Arthur Guettle of the 50-year-old Palace Clothing House in Kansas City. The conversation drifted into advertising channels. It was Harold Blach who asked the most pertinent questions. (At the time he was debating whether Blach's should go on the air in Birmingham or not.) Most of the questions will be answered in this article. Juster Bros, have been on the air now for 14 consecutive pears. During that time, we have switched hack and forth between two stations: the NBC Red station and WCC( ), the Columbia outlet in Minneapolis. The let ted one oi these stations w as because each was powerful enough to at tract listeners throughout the state. I wanted to t«-ll o it man) ears as could be reached with one telling. .And. although P. B. Juster, facing the microphone at the right, needs no introduction to U. S. men's wear retailers. Once president of the National Retail Clothiers' Association, famed as the originator of the National Style Clinic, P. B. is unquestionably recognized today as one of the nation's top retail merchants. Operating a five-story establishment is no falling-offa-log job, but Mr. Juster finds time for many civic activities, plays golf, collects miniature liquor bottles, has four daughters. Always deeply interested in advertising procedure and progress, he takes keen delight in analyzing his own sturdy merchandising plans. Of all these, nearest his heart (for a good and sound reason) is the Juster radio program. the use of a powerful station for a com pany with a single outlet may be out of thej ordinary, we found that it paid in out-oftown business and state-wide prestige. Radio was new when we went on the air Looking back on it, our program was probably on a par with most shows on the air in '26, but, compared to radio's presentations of today, it lacked the individuality and power that our present program has. Fourteen years " have brought many changes in radio — and in the methods of clothes merchandising. In 1926, we spent $1,200 on the air. /r, 1939, the exact figure was $8j000. Such an increase is based on the pulling power of radio It's also a good measurement of the increase of radio's growth in 14 years of broadcasting Our first show was called J lister's Collegians and was a straight musical program Seven years later, on WCCO, we switched t( a program of style comment. 1 prepared m\ . own programs and did the broadcasting along . with an announcer. Music rounded out tht program. Before even calling in a radio station salesman, though, we had several important questions to answer. The answers were reached in somewhat this fashion: Whj do people lis ten to radio?