NBC Transmitter (Jan-Nov 1942)

12 NBC TRANSMITTER PROMOTION: THE ADVANCE AGENT OF GOOD RADIO SALESMANSHIP By Charles B. Brown I\BC Sales Promotion Manager • Promotion today, by the very nature of circumstances, requires less of the pyrotechnics of yesterday. “The business of promotion” is synonymous with “the promotion of business,” and any kind of promotion cannot operate effectively if it is out of tune with the times. This does not mean that promotion should he less dynamic; it means that today substance is the prime need. Promotion is the advance agent of a strong sales force as well as the continuing contact between actual sales calls. It is as useful as its ability to move convincing sales ideas into the minds of potential users through material which can be followed up and capitalized upon CHARLES B. BROWN , , , by the sales lorce in hard-hitting sales contacts. 1 he major problem today is promotional speed — s|)eed in delivering a wide variety of material, not merelv on demand, hut before the demand is recognized by the buyer. Ability to fill the hill rests pretty much on what might be termed “promotional prescience” — that faculty which anticipates probable developments and the vital character of the promotional requests most likely to arise. For example, when priority regulations first began to arouse interest, we received an urgent recjuest for all available data on the effect they would have on food and drug advertising. Fortunately, Sales F’romotion had completed two comprehensive analytical reports on the subject — one, a check of advertisers using NBC; two, a survey of government regulations affecting such basic industries as food, drugs, gas and oil, tobacco, cosmetics, etc. It was therefore (juite simple to pull out the data. Another example concerns a long distance call asking for the best data on the value of continuing advertising under war conditions, commodity restrictions, etc., including histories of those firms which dropped advertising during or since World War I. Again, we were able to fill the request immediately because we had made an exhaustive search for such data and had sent our stations and our own sales personnel two special issues of our “Facts” folder on the subject. Steering promotion down the middle of the road is at the same time the best and most difficult course to follow. A trifle too much emphasis or reiteration of claims in the advertisement or presentation arouses resentment and criticism. Too much understatement or copy discipline and the idea is quickly voiced that the company is highhat or complacent. In times like these, of course, the whole range of promotion activity must be integrated more than ever to specific problems ^ Continued on page 16) Frances Sprague Weds Publishers' Consultant • Frances Sprague, chief librarian of NBC since 1930, was married to Robert P. Joy, publishers’ consultant and New York editor of Current Events, on June 27. The wedding took place at the Pelham, New 't ork, home of the bride’s brother, Stuart Sprague, a prominent radio attorney who formerly served on the NBC legal staff. Mrs. Joy is a native of Vermontville, Michigan, and a graduate of Olivet College. Prior to joining NBC she was associated with the Standard Oil Development Company library at Elizabeth, New Jersey, and the Detroit Public Library. When she joined NBC--at the 711 Fifth Avenue studios — in 1930, she set out to compile a general library by merging the book collections of all departments. WELCOME BACK, CHIEF! Niles Trammell (right), president of NBC, was enJhusiastically welcomed hack to active sendee after his recent illness bv more than 400 employees at the NBC A. A. outing at Huntington, Long Island, on June 23. Clay Morgan, assistant to the president, was chatting with Mr. Trammell when this picture was snapped on the spacious Crescent Club grounds, where employees took part in many sports. MRS. ROBERT P. JOY