Broadcasting (Jan-June 1933)

Men's Wear Can Be Merchandised by Radio By MARION R. GREY President, Marion R. Grey Co., Los Angeles Leading Shirt and Tie Manufacturer Changes Attitude After Trial Period Boosts Sales 40 Per Cent IT IS NOT always an easy matter to admit that one is wrong. But facts have proved that we were wrong in our ideas of the use of radio. "^e have been users of radio for years. We have looked on radio as a medium for institutional advertising, and not for direct merchandising. If the depression has done nothing else, it has demonstrated to us that radio can be utilized by manufacturers in our line of business as the most valuable medium we have found for direct merchandising of our products. Was Good Will Sponsor WE MANUFACTURE shirts and neckties and sell them throughout the eleven far western states in the better grade of men's furnishing stores and high grade department stores. We could not see where radio could play any part in direct merchandising of our products. Probably every radio station or group in the west has presented plans to us for a major expenditure of advertising money. Every year we have spent a small sum for radio as "good will" advertising. It distinctly was merely an adjunct to our regular advertising. Newspapers carried our merchandising copy and billboards carried our primary institutional copy. Even with newspapers and billboards, we felt that merchandising could be done only on our lines of shirts. Neckwear we felt was not purchased by brand name. We thought we knew that purchasers bought neckties because of color and pattern and not by trade mark. Gives Radio a Trial FORTUNATELY, because of social friendship with Guy Earl, president of KNX, we granted him and Naylor Rogers, general manager, the courtesy of making a radio presentation to our executive group. This presentation resulted in our fourth quarter of 1932 being 40 per cent in gross dollars of business above our graphed expectancy of business. KNX officials said to us: "You do not believe that we can directly effect the merchandising of your shirts. You are even more sure that we cannot directly merchandise your lines of neckties. If you will let us handle your advertising . the way we believe it should be handled, and will take a 13-week contract, for six 15-minute periods per week, with a program and merchandising plan which we will prepare, we will never pester you again if the program fails." I don't think we would have accepted their plan if it had not been that no other advertising was click THIS MANUFACTURER until recently firmly believed that radio is a medium only for institutional advertising and is practically valueless for direct merchandising. On account of a social contact with Guy Earl, president of KNX, he consented somewhat reluctantly to a 13-weeks trial program. The immediate response of listeners, reflected in letters and increased sales, astonished the company's executives. And it brought a complete reversal in advertising policy, with radio replacing newspapers and billboards in first place. In fact, the Grey Company has recently started new lines of "Frank Watanabe" neckwear and "Honorable Archie" shirts to tie in with its radio programs. ing for us and we were willing to take a chance at anything in the hope of finding something to improve business. Therefore, while we agreed to go into a 13-week test campaign, we specified that we would make the radio advertising carry itself alone. We would not tell our dealers of the program, nor would we tie up our billboard campaign with the radio in any fashion. Trade Gains Forecast ON THE INSISTENCE of KNX, we prepared comparative graphs of our month by month business over each of the preceding years, 1929, 1930 and 1931, together with a graph of our first nine months' business of 1932. From these former graphs we plotted an expectancy curve for our last quarter's business of 1932. We agreed to credit KNX and our radio advertising with any gains in business. Before the program started, KNX officials presented to us a detailed statement of the percentage of our business they expected to effect in each one of the sales areas, in each of the eleven far western states. They pointed out that their percentages were based on the direct proportion of total number of receiving sets in the eleven far western states. Curiously enough, our own auditors' report as of Jan. 1, 1933, shows that these original percentages given to us in September, 1932, were not off more than one per cent, with the exception of two states. These two states were New Mexico and Colorado. Broad Program Appeal THE ENTIRE program was turned over to the production department of KNX. We went on the air with a six day program at 7 o'clock each evening for 15 minutes. The program was a continuity skit aimed to please women and children as much as men. It was the daily happenings in the life of two principal characters, Frank Watanabe, a Japanese houseboy, and his employer, the Honorable Archie, a young Englishman in Hollywood. We offered colored drawings of the various characters in the program, which children could cut out for paper dolls. We also offered squares of silk made from scraps in the cutting room of our necktie department. These were for women to sew together for pillow covers and the like. Both the silk squares and the colored drawings were given in exchange for dealers sales slips showing sales of our products. Our lack of confidence in the plan had resulted in our giving no information of any kind regarding the program either to our salesmen calling on the trade, or to our retail outlets. We were thus utterly unprepared for what happened. Within a week we were so flooded with correspondence from our 1200 retail dealers that we had to develop a complete dealer tie-up plan. Astonished at Response ALMOST from the start we were dumbfounded at the public response. Within three weeks we decided that our entire former advertising picture should thereafter be tied about our radio program, and that it should be the adjunct of the radio and not radio the adjunct to other media. We redesigned our billboard paper so as to feature our program. We put out counter displays for our retailers. Our salesmen were able to get many of our dealers to tie the radio program into their own retail advertising. In Pasadena, for example, we had for years four principal accounts. Because of our radio program, we took on a new account and prevailed upon him to feature our name and program on billboards of his own. This new account did more business in November and December than all the four old accounts together. Actual Results HERE IS what we found after 13 weeks: We did 40 per cent more business in dollars and cents than our expectancy graph had indicated. Because of a lower wholesale price this actually was a larger percentage in dozen lots of our products. We increased our total number of dealers. Dealers which we had dropped because of poor credits, came in and bought for cash. Our returned goods from retailers decreased 90 per cent. We sold neckties by brand name on demand of shoppers. We increased the business of our retailers in other lines than ours, as the sales slips turned in to us for colored drawings and squares of silk clearly proved. We created an immediate demand for exclusive patterns which competitive manufacturers did not have. We increased our proportion of the business in our lines with each of our retailers. We found that, at least during periods of depression, we can get more direct response from radio than from any other advertising medium and that our advertising plans for 1933 must make it our major medium, with the rest of our advertising supplemental. Second Bank in Chicago Starts Radio Program ANOTHER Chicago bank is employing radio as a medium of maintaining and creating good will. The Livestock National Bank, located in the Union Stock Yards, on May 28 started a daily concert over WAAF, the Daily Drovers Journal station, also located in the Yards. The concerts are presented from 12 to 1 o'clock on week days and consist of classical and light classic musical recordings. The Sunday concert consisting of recordings of symphony music, is presented at 4 o'clock. These periods have been broadcast by the station as sustaining features for the last two years. Chimes from the bank building tower, a replica of Independence Hall, open and close each of the broadcasts. The account was handled direct. The Northern Trust Company, big loop bank, has been sponsoring a half-hour program each Friday night over WMAQ, Chicago, for the last two years. June 1, 1933 • BROADCASTING Page 9