Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1946)

saleswise, with the products and services of the Myndall Cain Beauty Salon. Behind the entire radio campaign is the idea that the Myndall Caln products and services are important but not expensive. Glamor is her business and glamor is carried out throughout the shop in its appointments. Myndall Cain wishes she had known 20 years ago what she knows now about radio. For her money, radio is still the worker of magic, but competition for the listener's attention now has made it harder to produce the phenomenal results it once pulled. When sun tan oil was a new product on the market, one mention of her preparation on the air exhausted a month's supply within 15 miniues after the broadcast. However, radio still produces the kind of results that keeps her on the air 52 weeks a year, with about 75 per cent of her cosmetic advertising going to the broadcast medium. For the beauty services, there is a 50-50 ratio. Her feeling is that radio's biggest asset is the warmth of the human voice, but because the public nmst both see and hear a name, she dovetails newspaper advertising in with her radio activities. jJijRiNG the 1945 Christmas season, for example, radio built a $10,000 sideline business for her in what the shop calls the Jewel Box. The Jewel Box began in a small way. A $50 order here, another there, for costume jewelry. Then the orders began to get larger. The $50 orders became $100 orders, and before the season was over, there were frantic long distance calls to the wholesale houses for $500 orders. And as fast as the jewelry came in, radio sold it. One man on his way from St. Paul heard the WTCN broadcast in which Myndall Cain chatted about some of the merchandise that had just come in. He drove around the block three times to find a parking spot, and almost before the broadcast was over he had bought $160 worth of jewelry. Each year, a straight five per cent goes to advertising, and from time to time there are radio campaigns to back dealers tliroughout the northwest who handle her cosmetic line. Spot radio on c such stations as WD AY, Fargo, N.D., J and WEBC, Duliuh, Minn., consists of either one or five-minute transcriptions, with dealer tie-ins. Even on her regular WTCN broadcasts, she believes in giving support to the dealers, and mention by name is made on a rotating basis. She doesn't often have special sales, but when she does, she makes them good ones. And she depends on radio to let the public know about it. This siunmer, for example, she offered a Midsummer Special on permanent waves. To get a check on results, she let one campaign on WDGY carry the sales burden, with $200 allotted for spot announcements over a three-week schedule. The announcements were aired on such programs as Cavalcade of Music, with from between three and five announcements a day. txcEPT for such specials, Myndall Cain believes in radio on a 52-week schedule. As she puts it, you can't expect to sell anything on a 13-week basis, and it takes as long as six months to really get going on an item. In her own broadcast efforts, she sets herself a quota on one item, and checks sales to determine the success of the campaign. When a demand has been built up for one item, she switches emphasis to another item. But in her opinion, if you want radio to work miracles, you have to keep at it. A^o tense, high pressure career woman is beauty expert, Myndall Cain. There's plenty of time for play in her life, and vacation trips to Europe and in the nation's playgrounds are as much a part of her life as the shop itself. While she participates in every phase of shop operation, advertising is her special province, and she handles it entirely in her own way. She admits that at times she has made mistakes, but as a result, she knows what will pull and what won't. Brochures, labels, newspaper advertisements, name it, and it's another of her jobs, well done. o 374 • RADIO SHOWMANSHIP