Broadcasting (Jan - June 1936)

or Retailers — A Gift on a Silver Platter By EDWARD J. SAMUEL Commercial Manager, WMAS, Springfield, Mass. ^ith Air Full of Network Programs That Sell and Sell, tores Fail to Utilize These Donations From Advertisers OES THE retailer take advantage of the money spent y national advertisers for network programs? No, says the writer, and he bases his answer on experience. He is well qualified to discuss merchandising, for he produced the NBC network shows in 1934 for Pure Oil Co. jand for Fisk Rubber. He once was sales promotion manager of Goodyear, British sales and advertising manager of the same company in London, and merchandising and advertising manager for Fisk in Chicopee Falls, Mass. IN DISCUSSING merchandising and its relationship to radio, this vital basic question comes to mind: "Does the retailer of merchandise realize the sales value of network programs, and does the retailer take advantage of money spent by the national advertiser for network radio programs?" The answer is not a difficult one when the entire country is taken into consideration. The majority of retailers do not take commercial advantage of network programs. One might find a retailer here and there who is alive to the situation, but a canvass in all lines of business throughout the country will prove my contention. It was quite evident at a meeting I recently talked to in Springfield, Mass., with 250 retail grocers present. They represented a crosssection of the retailers in a city with a trading area of little less than 500,000 population. After an explanation of network programs and suggestions of definite merchandising tie-ups, it was apparent that not one man of the 250 had thought much farther than in the terms of a "good, bad, or indifferent" program. In other words, insofar as network radio programs were concerned, each was .iust an ordinary run-of-the-mill listener, sitting back in his easy chair after a good, hard day's work and accepting radio purely as entertainment, and not looking at it from the standpoint of something that had tangible commercial value in it for him. On a Silver Platter NOT ONE had allowed himself to think in terms of merchandising. It was definitely apparent that no connection had been made between the every-day task of selling merchandise to the consuming public and the advertising value of a network program coming over a local station. Network programs, costing the advertiser plenty of money and advertising products handled by these self-same grocers, are continually being heard locally; yet the retailer who should recognize a situation of this nature does not at the moment see the good there is in it for him. Only a little effort is needed to connect himself with something that is offered to him on a silver platter. The advertising value is certainly not taken the fullest advantage of, and commercialism, as far as retailer cooperation is concerned, is just treated as so much entertainment. When asked point-blank if they had ever thought of connecting the goods on their shelves with network advertising, all grocers present shook their heads and said "No." The thought can be applied equally to the retailer in any line of business — drugs, soap, coffee perfumes, foods, food beverages, automobiles, automobile tires, batteries, refrigerators, etc. etc. It is interesting to note an article in Broadcasting of Dec. 1, 1935 entitled "How Leading Industries Use Network," which states that $39,600,000 was spent by national advertisers for network programs. Such an expenditure calls for serious consideration MR. SAMUEL of intensive work in the field to bring about the best result. No matter how entertaining a program may be, and regardless of the merchandising features incorporated in the program itself at the originating point, the cycle is not complete without the cooperation of the retailer. Better still, make it a triangular affair — the manufacturer, retailer, and local radio station. — Even the successful Jello program with Jack Benny, together with its unusual commercial plugs, is not complete without MERCHANDISING DISPLAY— Here is «nai WMAS, Springfield, Mass., did with the Campbell Soup Co. network program to promote point-ofsale interest in products made by this big food concern. an effort on the part of the retailer in pushing and taking an interest in the product. Merchandising has crept into radio extensively in the last six months. Prior to that — and to the mind of a newcomer to the industry— a radio program did not seem to go much farther than to go on the air. Measuring the success of the program by its entertainment value alone, though very important, is incomplete when it comes to real, honest-to-goodness selling. Radio has established itself in the advertising field. It has become a necessary part of the advertising plan of any company anxious to do a good job, and by degrees it is injecting itself into actual merchandising. When I speak of "merchandising" I mean that the influence of radio is actually impregnating the distributing field of merchandise, and the appeal for box-tops and the like, while not really oldfashioned, is destined in a year or two to be at least augmented by more intensive work in the field and at the point of sale. The Contact Point IF THE retailer is important to the future success of radio advertising, whose function is it to carry on this process of education among these retailers? This is not a debatable point. It is clearly defined. The job of a manufacturer's local sales representative is divided into two parts: (a) The loading of the retailer's shelf (b) The unloading of the retailer's shelf Radio network programs play a part in both. The influence and bearing of a good network program coming over a local station certainly helps the local sales representative to sell the dealer and load his shelf with that particular manufacturer's merchandise, but this perhaps, is the least important of the two tasks. The unloading process is the more important. The more goods bought by the consumer from the shelf of the retailer, the better opportunity there is for the salesman on his weekly, monthly, or periodical visits, to get repeat orders. Is it not logical, therefore, to assume that the manufacturer's local sales representative is the contact point in carrying on this important task of bringing the retailer into the picture where a network radio program is involved? Let us take the Campbell's tomato juice Burns & Allen program, for instance. This popular CBS program, on the air every Wednesday evening, is one of the outstanding radio programs of the current season and has a large listening audience. Let us reduce this program to the local situation in Springfield, Mass. What happens? We requested the manufacturer, through the agency, to have Mr. (Continued on page 6Jt) March I, 1936 • BROADCASTING Page 11