Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1943)

)oster Feeds the Sales Force Explains looster Flour & Feed Mills At least half the time on the news period is given over directly to the news that concerns the farmer. The national and international picture is presented in the remaining portion of the period. We use plain, straightforward, authoritative commercials. We make no effort to "sneak" or honeycoat the selling message. We think that the listener is interested enough in our message to accept it without apology, and experience has shown us that this is correct. Numerous instances have been brought to light of radios in the barn as well as the house, in order that the news, built specifically with the farmer in mind, may not be missed. From the outset, we viewed our venture into radio as real participation. We realized that we didn't know a great deal about radio. W^e knew as well that the radio people didn't know a great deal about us. Accordingly, we laid out a program of mutual assistance. We helped to write all the radio copy; edited everything that went on the air. For the first year, we were in daily conference with the station representative in charge of the account. That, we felt, was the only fair way for radio to learn the flour and feed business. While we aim our commercial directly at the consumer, the bulk of our business is done with the dealer. With our new salesman, radio, and the participation angle acutely in mind, we went to work on the dealer as well. With a recorder, the station representative and a member of our sales force made a dealer swing through the territory. We interviewed dealers and users of our line on their own home grounds. We encountered a good deal less diffidence than we expected. In practically every instance, the dealer was glad to discuss his problems, glad to tell us how we could help to solve them with our line, and pleased too, at the experience of hearing himself talk on the air. Out of this experience arose another, directly involving the radio station, and one which we could not have effected without radio's assistance. From the interviews, we built a dealer presentation, complete with color pictures of our successful dealers and users which we made ourselves. These we used in consolidating new territory. In every instance where we made such a presentation to a dealer, we closed with a sale. The entire coverage area of the station is now solidly identified with Rooster. Because of the close harmony in which the firm, the dealer, and radio have worked and are working, we have established a community of interests that has had a favorable reaction for all three. The tour through the territory uncovered another fact. Our listeners were very interested in market reports. Having an early morning period, particularly for the farmer, we opened a near noon period for the markets, and we are now on the air twice a day, six days a week. As time goes on, and the coverage of the travelling salesman becomes more difficult because of war conditions, we expect to use more and still more radio. It is entirely possible that we shall use a period specifically directed to the dealer. We reason this way: radio is a personal medium; it does precisely what a salesman does; it goes into the home and the office, performs a service, delivers a message. It should, we think it must, be used precisely as a salesman would be. No one would put an uninformed salesman on the road for a week, or a month, and call it a fair trial. A salesman needs the cooperation of the home office, the help of his co-workers. Given that, we do not think that radio will fail, depending, of course, on whether this salesman has something worth selling. APRIL, 1943 121