Radio Broadcast (May 1929-Apr 1930)

RADIO BROADCAST LOOKING INSIDE we pick iNI their splendid construction and ease of operation || take, for instance, the Barnes-Newell we know this receiver; it needs almost no service Radio sets installed by Deny's Barnes-Newell sets we sold, are right when they leave our only three have been back for floor and right mechanically and repairs. Buy your Barnes* electrically when we leave them Newell from Deny's where in your home. Of the last 100 quality and accuracy rule. J. DENY RADIO STORE 716 East Front Street His show cases, display tables and all have been arranged according to spaces in his shop. In nine cases out of ten the arrangement is conventional and uninteresting, the windows are poorly decorated, possibly not changed often enough. If the customer goes in, he is courteously attended. If he knows just what he wants he can get it. But the feeling that this is a fine place to visit is too often lacking. The "personality content" of the place is low. Generally, the personality content is low because only merchandise is displayed and not very well displayed either. Suggestion of the use of that merchandise is altogether lacking. It is true that in your shop you can tune-in and demonstrate a radio set. You can get a little hash of broadcasting under most unfavorable conditions, but the customer feels that he is never going to know that set till he gets it home. Obviously, it is no pet of the dealer's. He tells the customer that it must be good because the great So and So Company make it. He has been told the same sort of thing for twenty years about most everything he has bought. There is no savor in it. Now how can we put in the "personality" content? Obviously, according to the personality of the boss himself. If he has or can get any artistic sense, let him show it in the arrangement of his shop. Selling the "Insides" If he can only see his job as the sale of machinery, by all means let him get that phase of personality working, let him and his salesmen demonstrate the "insides" of a set. "See what a splendid mechanical job this is!" "How nearly impossible to get out of order." "Notice that fine mechanical iinish inside and out." "Precision." "Endurance." "Simplicity." "Fool proof." and all those things. They are effective, always were, always will be. His shop begins to show the personality of exactness, mechanical correctness, durability. The manufacturer's goods gain new saleability and increased reputation through being commended by a dealer of such obvious mechanical ability. This kind of personality, as all kinds, should breathe forth from the shop's advertising; a house which appreciates mechanical perfection, which offers well-made goods, goods that will stand up and do their work. If I am thinking of a set principally from the viewpoint of its "standing up" and giving long service, the "personality" of this shop will appeal to me greatly. The man who owns this shop should put his mechanical idealism into his advertising. "We pick our sets for their splendid construction and ease of operation." "The shop where quality and accuracy rule." "We know this receiving set, it should need almost no servicing." "Of the last 100 sets we have sold, only three have been back for repairs, and those only minor ones." "We get these sets in perfect condition for you — and then they should operate for years with little or no care." Such ideas should be in the advertising of the shop which goes in for mechanical perfection. They are practical ideas, persuasive ideas, ideas which are salable. They give a "personality" impression of a very important kind, which should be borne out by the appearance and the personal work in the shop itself. The Artistic Approach The proprietor of another shop may have less of the mechanical sense and more of the artistic sense. He may be able to understand those fine distinctions of tone quality and refinement of reproduction which the average ear cannot get. Our second proprietor should put the quality of his artistic personality into his advertising. Whatever the prices of his goods, he is a quality merchant. That fact can be made profitable. Here are points he can stress in his own advertisements which will make that apparent: "Are you appreciative of tone quality? those fine shades of distinction between just a receiving set and a real musical instrument? The new Blank receiver is a truly remarkable reproducer in its tone quality and beauty." "There is radio refined — and — just radio. It takes a good ear to make that distinction." "A set you will always love for its splendid tonal effects." "Have you ever listened to the So and So Hour on the Blank Badio Beceiver? Any set will reproduce this fine broadcasting fairly well, but the Blank Beceiver seems to pick out all the dainty charm in this music." Such sentences and paragraphs show taste and musical appreciation in the personality of their sponsor. If he hasn't those qualities it may be expensive for him to claim them. He will be selling, and recommending, on the wrong basis and his customers will fmd it out. He must be of a personality to carry out in his own conversation what he suggests about himself in his advertising. Here is a great mistake which many advertisers make. Instead of turning their advertising to the real personality of themselves and their business, they use their advertising to bluff their readers into thinking they are something which they are not. This inevitably slows up their efforts instead of speeding up. When we deal personally with a man we discover whether he makes good on what he pretends or not. Of course, we are living in a period of pretense, bluff, and hypocrisy, but we realize it as never before and consequently (Concluded on page 366) • OCTOBER 1929 • • 325