Radio age research, manufacturing, communications, broadcasting, television (1941)

inated some new approaches to in- ventory control; and we have made considerable progress in streamlin- ing- accounting methods and elimin- ating unnecessary reports. These theories have been put into actual operation and it is our ob- jective to have a model pattern for distributor operation in the post- war period. We are also applying this same type of thinking to the problems of retailing our products. As a matter of fact, we have de- veloped a pattern for self-service merchandising of records which is actually operating in one of the wide survey of record buyers in which we interviewed more than 4,300 customers immediately after they had made a purchase. We found out what they had purchased, of our products as well as our com- petitors' merchandise; why they had purchased it and where they had heard about this particular record; how they had asked for the merchandise and how the clerk had responded, etc. So we are be- ginning to know the bu.ving habits of our customers and how better to meet their needs. We are also studying new mar- THIS MODEL SELF-SERVICE SHOP FOR PHONOGRAFH RECORDS, SET UP IN A CHICAGO DEPARTMENT STORE, IS UNDER EXPERI.MENTAL DEVELOPMENT BY RCA victor's COMMERCIAL RESEARCH GROUP. large Chicago department stores. Our tests with this super-market for records leave no doubt that the public likes the self - selection method of shopping for records. We have obtained material increases in sales volume over what this same department store got last year and over what other stores operated by the same company are now obtain- ing. It is quite possible that in the post-war period you may find record super-markets just like your gro- cery stores of today. We are also getting acquainted with our ultimate consumer. For example, we conducted a nation- kets that we may wish to reach after the war. Just as an example, one of our men spent almost a full year on an important railroad sys- tem, studying railroad methods and the possibilities of improving rail- road efficiency or safety with the help of RCA products—present or future. On this assignment, he sat- isfied the ambition of every small boy of riding in the cab of a loco- motive. By working in cabooses, in classification yards, in dispatchers' offices, in fact all over the system, he learned quite a bit about the rail- road business and about its prob- lems. So. in the post-war period it is possible that radio and other RCA radio-electronic products can find a new market in the railroad field. All of the information has been completely written down and is filed away for the day when we resume normal commercial activi- ties. We are expanding these stud- ies, too, into other fields. For ex- ample, we are just now starting on the packing industry. If planning can do the job—and we think it can —we are going to make a contribu- tion toward keeping those plants busy that are now producing war materials. Another section of our research deals with new products. Numerous new developments will be available for commercial use when this war is over, but before these new prod- ucts can be put on the market it is necessary for management to know where the market is, how much volume can be anticipated, what prices are necessary to do a volume business, what styling will have the most appeal, etc. So Commercial Research is undertaking to study these new markets, in order that we may take full advantage of them in the post-war period. Our business prior to the war was built predominantly on mer- chandise for the home. Because of the new products that have been developed in recent years there is every indication that industry will rank as our most important cus- tomer after the war. Generally speaking, we are much less familiar with selling merchandise to indus- try than we are with selling con- sumer products through wholesal- ers and retailers. Therefore we have set up a "test" selling proce- dure in one of our sales territories, which will get us the answers to this selling problem. At the beginning of this story I said that the job of commercial re- search is the procedure for obtain- ing facts on which to base commer- cial decisions. It may strike you that we are going to a great deal of trouble and expense to dig up these facts and test our ideas. That is true, but it seems to be the only wa.v to develop better methods, which will pay off in terms of more eflScient distribution. RADIO AGE II