Broadcasting (Jan-June 1933)

Furrier Flaunts Depression by Radio Chicago Brothers Expand During Three Dark Years While Extending Advertising to Four Local Stations Mr. Lee By IRVING AUSPITZ Auspitz & Lee Advertising, Chicago THIS IS the story of a Chicago furrier who seized the wolf of depression by the fang, turned him inside out, threw the carcass at his competitors and sold the pelt for a fortune. Staking modest capital against what a backward glance would call overwhelming odds, at a time when retailers of even everyday replacement merchandise were retrenching, and in the face of one of the sharpest declines in the entire history of the fur business, this obscure firm on the twelfth floor rear made a head-on attack at the entrenched competition of mighty State Street, austere Wabash Avenue and haughty Michigan Boulevard. Wall after wall gave way before the insistent campaign of this aggressive stranger until today an entire floor is being imposingly reconstructed to house this prosperous giant among the fur enterprises of the city. Launched in Depression IT WAS in March, 1930, that A. L. Meltzer and his brother, H. H. Meltzer, made so bold as to list their firm name, the Evans Fur Company, in the telephone directory; a period, incidentally, when even the compositors in the printing shop, where the telephone books are published, were surprised to see an addition under the "Fur Stores-Retail" classification. The brothers were comparative newcomers to Chicago, and times were far from good for such a commodity as furs. Still their ambitions were not reflected through the rainbow colored prisms of impulsive inexperience. No one who knows the Meltzer brothers would ever accuse them of this. True they were young and eager. But they were far from being rookies in the technicalities of the fur business. They already had won veterans' chevrons in the complex art of buying and marketing this highly variable product. And in addition to that they had a very sane idea of what they were up against. Faith and Mountains BUT THEY had faith that beneath the blinding fog of uncertainty that was then forcing so many fur merchants onto the rocks of failure or into the dry docks of dispair there existed a vast volume of cash fur business for the firm with initiative enough to go after it. Rather a vague supposition, perhaps, but as the brothers Meltzer figured, that's what many wise men said back in 1492 when Co THIS MIGHT be termed a modern Horatio Alger story, except that it happens to be truth rather than fiction. It deals with the remarkable growth of the Evans Fur Company from an obscure enterprise three years ago to a dominating position in the Chicago fur business today. From a modest expenditure on one station, this concern concurrently increased its radio advertising appropriation until nowit spends $40,000 a year on four local stations and is on the air every day of the week. Its volume of business has reached $500,000 annually, although no other advertising medium, save follow-up mail, has been vised to date. lumbus took a chance. It was this conviction that first gave them the incentive to launch, against all precedent, on a course of their own charting that in three years led them to their present enviable position among Chicago's retail establishments. And it was this same perspective that gave them the vision to make the first important departure from the conventional in the establishment of a merchandising and advertising contact with the Chicago public. It would have been a normal thing if the Meltzers had followed the beaten path and put advertising down as a necessary evil, much like rent. Certainly they could have found many things apparently of more importance to engage their attention at that busy time. "At this point, however," related A. L. Meltzer, "knowing the importance of the right advertising plan, we realized that our plans were leading us away from the fur business proper and into another field equally as technical. And although we were small beginners we recognized the wisdom of placing our publicity problem in the hands of an experienced advertising and merchandising analyist, much as we would lay our legal problems before a good legal counsellor. Novel Publicity Advised "IT WAS at this critical moment that we made connections with Adolph F. Lee, who ever since has counselled with us and directed the activities which have made the Evans Fur Company one of the best known and most successful retail fur concerns in this city. Mr. Lee graphically showed us that our outstanding opportunity for recognition rested in the establishment of a brand of publicity that would not be offset by the regulation advertising of firmly established, larger competitors, and that would be so dynamic, so compelling, so essentially original in character and concept that it would inaugurate a new era, a new vogue, so to speak, in fur advertising. Thus we would evade the neces sity for playing our competitors' game and of attempting to make our small appropriation compete in attention value with the larger sums lavished by other 'Loop' concerns whose name plates in themselves perhaps meant as much to the public as everything else the Evans Fur Company could do." But even that, as Mr. Lee pointed out, wasn't the most important element. He maintained that the Evans Fur Company couldn't afford to wait until ordinary institutional or even so called "sale" advertising could build sufficient prestige to break through the charmed circle of those in Chicago who had money to invest in furs at that time. Such procedure, Mr. Lee explained, might easily be ruinous to a much larger, much older established company, especially during a strictly buyers' market. It followed that the campaign of the Evans Fur Company must be powerful enough in its own right to reflect prestige on the unknown firm name, and persuasive enough to induce great numbers of women to turn away from their regular furriers or refrain from spending their money for other articles, and take an elevator to the twelfth floor of the Butler Building. Only in this way, according to Mr. Lee's analysis, could the smaller advertising investment be transformed into liquid cash often enough to continue advertising operations on a profitable scale. Original Broadcast Unique IT WAS on the strength of this logic that the Evans Fur Company turned its back on every precedent known to the fur business, and conceived and instituted the now famous radio broadcasting and direct mail follow-up campaign that carried this firm through the depths of the depression with flying colors and established the Meltzer brothers among America's most successful retailers of furs. It was in July, 1930, that Station WCFL introduced the Evans Fur Company to its audience. This premier, the first of a test series, was the beginning of what was destined to be one of the most spectacular local broadcasting achievements in the log books of Chicago radio stations. This was not "just another program." The Evans Fur programs were trimmed to a unique pattern. Within an hour after the first broadcast the unseen radio audience became tangible customers in that twelfth floor rear fur store. From then on the Evans messages went over WCFL six days a week, and before the end of the first season the station was carrying the program seven days a week. Soon the 700 square feet of space known as the Evans Fur Company had to be expanded. Other furriers were advertising. Other fur shops were much more conveniently located on ground floor premises and otherv/ise. But Evans did the business of the town, month after month. At first competitors said this success couldn't last. They finally bought time on the air themselves, and in some instances even copied the Evans programs almost word for word. Other Stations Added AT THE END of the first year the Meltzers' profit amounted to more than they had expected to see for some years to come. But they didn't stop there. In July, 1931, Station WBBM was added, thus giving Evans two outlets on air. History was repeated here, and the Evans programs spread over seven days every week on this key Chicago outlet of the CBS. In the spring of 1932, regarded now as the darkest hour of the depression, the Evans Fur Company added still another radio station to its list. This time it was WJJD, with a four times weekly program. Then in quick succession, starting in July, 1932, WLS and WOES were added, the latter featuring a foreign language hour. These four stations continue to broadcast the Evans Fur Company's messages over a territory which includes at least five great middle western states. Customers come from points a sleeping car jump away from Chicago, and in some instances the store has been kept open Sundays to accommodate these out-of-town buyers. The second year saw profits more than doubled; the third year, in the face of expansion and increased overhead, showed more than a 40 per cent gain over the previous year; and the entire fourth floor of a centrally located State Street building reflects the progress thus far in 1933. But, it must be said, a business of such magnitude, established in such a brief period, could not have been built on new customers alone. The friendship and loyalty of patrons, satisfied with the merchandise sold and the treatment they received played a major part in the store's success. In fact, the incidental volume in such items as remodeling, storage, cleaning, relining and repairs that the Evans' customers has given the company are important sources of income. SYNCHRONIZATION of WBAL, Baltimore, with WJZ, New York, has again been extended by the Radio Commission, this time from June 1 to Sept. 1. June 1, 1933 • BROADCASTING Page 13