Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1947)

that they inlend to much or more on radio, 72% of the stores have no radio specialists, and most of the stores who do have a radio advertising director give him no staff assistance. It means that a great majority of the stores who are making a sincere effort to use broadcast advertising to tlieir advantage do so with the handicap of limited knowledge of the medium and they must learn the hard way to use the ear appeal as effectively as they have used the printed page over a period of many years. While the CBS analysis reveals many interesting things about department and specialty store thinking in regard to broadcast advertising, one of the most significant aspects which it points up is the necessity for careful planning, with reference not only to program and time selection, but also to the basic foundation of a radio campaign. If your store is on the air, has been on the air, or is about to go on the air, here are some pointers, based on the CBS analysis, which will help you protect your investment in time, talent and money. It's a check-list which will help you determine the effectiveness of your approach to the broadcast medium. Establish a Definite Purpose Stores no longer regard radio merely as "bargain bulletin board." Today they Jse it both to (a) sell merchandise and (b) establish prestige and they use it most )ften for institutional purposes, either to >roject the special personality of the store )r to build the store's prestige in the pubic mind. Nine out of ten stores want presige more than anything else from radio. See Table A.) With these objectives, stores measure esults from radio by two methods: (a) 4% ran direct tests of sales response durng the survey year; (b) all evaluated it enerally for over-all value to the store. NATIONAL BROADCASriNG COMPANY. iNC GENERAL LIBRARY kccpl,9c.?<ffiFLELLER,CH4v,NEWY(?R^^^^^^ nue puiposc is sliarjjly empliasi/ed by the lad that of ihc stores wlio measure results from radio by either or both of the two methods, eight out of ten fuid radio a successful advertising medium. Stores Making Direct Sales Tests Of stores making direct sales tests, 39% report definitely favorable results (49% of the department stores and 28% of the specialty stores), and 60% have fair or good return {^2% of the department stores and 65% of the specialty stores). (An example of the direct sales approach taken from the May 1947 issue of Radio Showmanshh', p. 160, is Sibley, Lindsay & Curr Company, Rochester, N. Y. For the past 15 years it has used the same program, the same station and the same time, with the keystone of its approach to radio the idea that direct selling is never done.) Stores Wanting General Results According to executive opinion of stores wanting general (prestige) results, 28% of the stores rate radio as "highly successful," and 84% of the stores find radio "moderately" or "highly successful." In each case, the percentages for specialty stores are slightly higher than they are for department stores. (How a store uses radio to reflect the friendliness of the store is illustrated by La Salle & Koch, Toledo, O. Complete details of its Monday through Friday series are presented in the June 1947 issue of Radio Showmanship, p. 188. (Rich's Department Store, Atlanta, Ga., the largest single department store in the Southeast, is illustrative of the prestige-building approach. Its acrossthe-board strip. Rich's Radio School, written up in the May 1946 issue of Radio Showmanship, p. 132, performs a statewide service. Six stations, five of TABLE A Results Expected From Radio j Increased Store Prestige Departmental Build-Up Immediate Sales of Specific Items department Stores 90.7% 60.0% 55.0% Specialty Stores 89.2 62.2 64.9 EPTEMBER, 1947 • 293 •