Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr-Jun 1957)

settling on Hamilton, Ohio, for the first outside branch. By 1910 there were stores in Dayton and Columbus. Among other innovations was operation of a Kroger bakery that made low bread prices yield a profit. Meat departments were added, a novelty in chain merchandising. In 1912 B. H. bought a St. Louis chain and spread on to other are still practiced by Kroger and of course ; midwestern cities. Still another precedent breaker was the Kroger-owned truck fleet. These early shatterers of custom — advertising, quantity buying with low-pricing at a small profit, food-producing units and efficient warehouse-transportation methods — are common to the entire chain merchandising industry. One of B. H.'s original store slogans is still heard around his chain — "Be more particular than your most particular customer." 3 AGENCIES SERVICE KROGER RADIO-TV ACCOUNTS THE job of processing over 4,000 assorted radio announcements tailored to 1,476 Kroger stores is performed weekly in the workshoppish quarters of Ralph H. Jones Co., up on the 31st floor of Cincinnati's lofty Carew Tower. The complicated chore culminates Friday afternoon in a setting reminiscent of a post office scramble the Sunday before Christmas. Three-score harassed executive and clerical workers write, process, sort and dump into mailbags the commercial continuity for 168 stations taking part in Kroger's saturation radio campaign. Since local autonomy features the Kroger organization, with 27 division vice presidents carrying full responsibility for as many as a half-hundred stores (each averaging over $1 million in sales per year), radio's community character, low cost-per1,000 and speedy processing of copy fit neatly into the pattern. Early in the week the 25 divisions serviced by the Jones agency teletype their spot orders, and usually each division has its own special copy emphasis — 39 cents a pound for frying chickens, 3 1 cents for pork loin roast (rib end), or Kroger golden shortening, 3-pound can, 89 cents. Copy is written, okayed, processed — sometimes with blanks for last-minute price insertions. The station spots are mailed Thursday and Friday to divisions, which send them to stations and keep file copies. Sometimes a spot teletype order is received in Cincinnati Friday afternoon and mailed before quitting time. "This is God's own miracle," said James M. Nelson, vice president and account executive as he scanned the operation. Ann Smith, Jones' radio-tv director, supervises the project under guidance of Mr. Nelson and President C. M. Robertson Jr. Two people at Jones do nothing but check station affidavits of performance. Others work on the 36 programs telecast weekly on 30 tv stations, one of the major localized television campaigns in the nation. Two viewing rooms are in constant use as new programs are scanned and prints are checked for sound and video quality. Five Jones field servicemen are on the road four days each week, checking on radio and tv station performance. Each tv show is monitored at least once a month and constant contact is made with the 30 stations on the tv schedule. Current syndicated tv programs include Highway Patrol, State Trooper, Men of Annapolis, new Martin Kane series, Whirlybirds, Mr. District Attorney, Last of the Mohicans, Sheriff of Cochise, Public Defender and Frontier Doctor. Feature films are used in one city. The tv programs are checked by audio tapes and a homemade kinescope system. The idea is simple — field men carry film cameras and merely shoot the commercials off a motel or hotel room tv receiver. Since the bulk of commercials for the film programs are live, and produced locally, these homemade kines may be technically crude but they make pretty good sense back in the Cincinnati viewing chambers. An extra week's lag between preparation of tv commercials at the agency and appearance on the air is allowed because of production problems. The Jones people realize that most food commercials on tv are likely to be compared to those on Kraft Theatre and other network productions. Stations are anxious to match the network standards and the production is usually of a good quality. The 110 stores of Kroger's St. Louis Division, serving an area within 125 miles of the city, place advertising through Campbell-Mithun Inc., headquartering in Minneapolis. This arrangement came about as a result of Campbell-Mithun's handling of advertising and promotion for Top Value trading stamps. At Kroger's request, the agency made a presentation last June and was appointed Nov. 4 after proposing what is called "The St. Louis Marketing Plan." SEVERAL THOUSAND Kroger radio announcements clear through this traffic board in the office of Ralph H. Jones Co., Kroger agency. Robert Bliss, Jones traffic manager, removes a tag showing that a spot has been completely processed. Names at left are Jones staff members responsible for commercial copy. Charged with the task of creating "an outstanding personality" for stores in the division, plus some simultaneous sales building, Campbell-Mithun developed the "Personal-Word Guarantee" device, a written guarantee on every purchase from a Kroger store. While Kroger has always guaranteed everything it sold, a new gimmick was added — a guarantee printed on the back of a new green-colored cash register slip. This guarantee idea was advertised by heavy radio schedules, two St. Louis tv programs, newspaper space and colorful store displays. Later campaigns for the St. Louis Division were drawn up for such Kroger exclusive items as Tenderay beef, the new Blossom Fresh bread and the currently promoted Cackling-Fresh eggs. The electronic media were heavily emphasized in each product push, with some genuine trail-blazing techniques that lifted many a retailer eyebrow. These included: • Special musical jingle for radio commercials, featuring the personal-word guarantee. • Animated film commercials on television programs. • Full-page four-color newspaper space. • Outdoor postings (24-sheet) in major cities. Spot radio schedules, totaling 192 spots per week, were bought on three St. Louis stations as well as outlets in Jefferson City, Columbia, Hannibal and Farmington, Mo., and Quincy and Effingham, 111. The films telecast in St.Louis are Dr. Hudson's Secret Journal and Highway Patrol. The Pittsburgh Division has been placing advertising through Wasser, Kay & Phillips for several years. The agency, headed by a former Pittsburgh broadcaster, G. S. (Pete) Wasser, has its own production setup for radio and tv commercials. The appointment, made at the time the division was entering television, was based on a desire for local agency handling of advertising. Current tv programs are Highway Patrol in Pittsburgh and Steubenville, Ohio. The division embraces stores in Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio. Thus, three advertising agencies handle one of the major spot projects in radio-tv, custom-building each commercial to the community and area served in an effort tc secure the maximum amount of store traffic and sales impact from each commercial message. Working with division and store personnel, the agencies carry on intensive promotion activities. And when a new store is opened, everyone around knows about it as kilocycles, megacycles and print media join in a barrage that's bound to reach even dwelling except maybe a few caves — and chances are that the cave-dwellers have s small radio or tv dipole. Page 126 • May 6, 1957 Broadcasting • Telecasting