Radio Broadcast (May 1929-Apr 1930)

Real Radio for Your Home A Set That is Far Ahead t of Broadcasting %jj££0?Mwm** There is radio refined — and just radio. It takes a good ear to make that distinction. You will always love the Heroic Radio for its splendid tonal effects. Have you ever listened to the Symphony Hour on the Heroic? Any set will reproduce this fine broadcasting fairly well, but the Heroic picks out all the dainty charm in this music. Hear the Heroic Play Real Music at the BENSON RADIO STORE 214 Main Street Have You Personality? —Then Sell It The Local Shop Needs Personality — Do Your Advertisements Reflect It? — If You Sell Radio as a Well-Ruilt Machine or as a Fine Musical Instrument, Choose that Appeal in Your Advertisements — How Rest to use Manufacturers' Cut and Copy Service. By HOWARD W. DICKINSON Merchandising Consultant lUk. » ^f|HE dealer must have something worth adwmm£m^\ vertising. This thing is personality. The \ great house of Tiffany and Company offers * 1 jewelry, silverware, precious si ones, glass, ^\ wL'^Ww crnna> and so on ^u an' carefully selected illk ^Ull and, I verily believe, all sold at very reason able prices. That, however, does not explain Tiffany. The charm of house personality on top of modern business intelligence makes that great house. A Radio Personality The name, A. Atwater Kent, means a great business in radio receiving sets. It also spells a very colorful personality, a personality which fairly exudes idealism with respect to mechanical perfection and performance. Just try to figure out what the personality of A. Atwater Kent is worth to-day to A. Atwater Kent, the manufacturer. What started me off this way? A remark of a manufacturer of radio sets somewhat to this effect: "How shall we get our retailers to do the right kind of advertising? Well, they don't know much about advertising, often do not know how to write advertisements very well, so the best thing I know of is to furnish them with copy already written." This is why so many manufacturers offer you their cut and copy service. Generally, it is good stuff — good advertisements about their products which you sell. When you are busy, haven't time to write an advertisement or get one written, you use a manufacturer's cut service, putting your own name in the place left for "dealer's name." Probably it is true that professionals have written these advertisements, presumably the manufacturer's advertising department or his advertising agent. They are about goods which you offer for sale. True, but they are not about you and your business in general. They have the manufacturers' personality, rather than your own. They are good, easy to get, and you should take advantage of them and use them when they fit your needs, but not, in my opinion, all the time. They have to be written to fit everybody, and consequently cannot quite reflect the individuality of your own shop or your own personality. When you use them, you tie up your shop with that manufacturer's merchandise (and that is valuable) but in addition to that you have the chance of using the personality of your shop in advertising it as an attractive and interesting radio headquarters, that is, if it is one. If it isn't, it lacks personality. If it lacks personality, some should be supplied. How can we supply it? Only by tinning our minds out of their ruts and pointing them in a different direction. Look at Your Display Here's what I mean. The man who runs a shop has selected (or fallen for) certain lines of merchandise. He has decided how much stock to carry and carries it. He has folders and advertising matter, strewn about for his customers to pick up. 324 • • O C T <) It E R 19 2 9 •