Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1941)

^i ake a Tip From the Latins By ELMER WHEELER, of the Tested Selling Institute, Who Discusses the Value of Emotional Appeal in Advertising Copy Ix Old Mexico, recently, I learned about showmanship in selling by appealing to the emotions. The Latin sells with his heart. He romances about whatever he offers. He may touch your desires, your fancy, your sentiment, your love (depending on his product), but always he blends the emotional with the practical. And this double appeal gets you. It is showmanship. It is profitable. For example, as I was rushing out of a Mexico City hotel, a small-sized man held up a gardenia and said, "Buy it, senor ; it will make you feel important all day long!" I almost sprained my ankle twisting around to buy it when the full significance of the sentence struck me. I had several important calls to make, and I certainly did want to feel important. Fifty centavos! What a small price to pay for a full day's importance. Take a tip from the Latin! Give your radio commercial the same emotional appeal, blended with the factual. It's simple. Back in the States a radio program, giving emotional names to certain dresses, increased the dream appeal — and pulled an astonishing number of people into a department store. Such names as Pris cilia Model, Duchess of Windsor ^lodel, and Ginger Rogers Alodel brought hundreds of customers who hoped to absorb some of the glamour of these famous women by wearing dresses named for them. You can apply the same principle to any product you are trying to sell, and success is bound to be yours. A man recently climbed onto the narrow ledge of a New York hotel, eighteen stories above the street, ready to leap to his death. A secretary in a nearby office screamed. The man hesitated. People rushed to windows all around. For over an hour they pleaded with him not to jump. A fireman told him to get back. A minister reminded him that suicide was against his religion. The cops shouted, "Get off that ledge — wanna get killed!" Then a young lady in my office was called to the scene. She tested sentences on him. "Shall I get you a cup of coffee?" didn't work. Neither did the suggestion of a glass of wine. Finally, she cried, "You look silly on that ledge ! Get down before your wife sees you making a fool of yourself!" The would-be suicide got down, touched at that most vulnerable point — his vanity. It was front-page news that a few sentences decided this matter of life and death. Yet every day without fanfare the radio programs of this country are helping to decide the life and death of various businesses. For a live, profit-making program, it will pay you to study the basic, emotional motives (such as vanity in the preceding incident) ; then make your sales appeal directly to them — soundly, forcefully, and with precision. What makes people buy? What makes good radio programs sell? Everyone in the office knows the numerals on the safe dial. Only a few know the combination of those numbers that will unlock the safe and reveal the riches therein. Likewise, every radio sponsor knows the many "sizzles" of his products or services, but what he often does not know is the right combination of selling words and ideas to make people respond to his sales massages. For example, we have repeatedly stressed the importance of brevity and the unusual — of getting "ten-second attention." In this respect, you are just like your prospects: As you go to work, your mind is miles away. Automatically you tip your hat, subconsciously you dodge a car, and instinctively you get through traffic. You are awake — yet sound asleep mentally! For effective radio selling, you must learn the secret of getting words into the listeners' consciousness — by the haze and past the JANUARY, 1941 15