Radio stars (Oct 1938)

RADIO STARS just heard or bother to take the trouble if tbey did think of it. But it's different when they can get something they want by sending in a box-top and a few cents for an article that would cost them a great deal more if they bougbt it in a store. Premiums are offered to stimulate sales and to gauge the strength of the show's audience. They are always good value, sometimes amazingly so. One premium that was never used, because at the last moment the experts decided it was too sophisticated a thing to appeal to the majority of the women who would send in for it, was a copy of a pin designed by Schiaparelli and selling at one of New York's most exclusive stores for five dollars. The listener might have had it for ten cents, plus the box-top of the product. A copy of a five-dollar pin for ten cents might lead you to think that advertisers are spending a lot of money on their premiums. But they aren't. The ten cents covered everything — the article itself, which could be reproduced for six and a half cents because of the tremendous quantity that would be used, and the handling and the mailing. The premiums don't add one penny to the advertising budget. Sometimes the premiums are written into the show itself. The listener's imagination is stirred .by the marvelous bit of jewelry that the heroine has just received as a gift. Then, after a few days of hearing about it, it is offered to the listener herself. And the advertiser has discovered that few women can refrain from sending for an article their favorite leading lady has been wearing and talking about. Sally Spence, who is the premium buyer for one of the biggest agencies, has been so successful with some of her items that manufacturers have used them as part of their own output after the radio offer has been completed. "An important store in New York stocked a wishbone pin, which we had offered on the air for ten cents, and sold it for one dollar after we had finished with it. It shows the really amazing value we give in premiums. We try to give our women listeners what they want but feel they can't afford if they had to pay the full price for it. "It's nothing unusual for us to give from one to five dollars' value in items we ask from ten to twenty-five cents for. One of the most successful premiums I ever put out was silk stockings. They were very good value, and the demand for them exceeded all our expectations. As a rule, utilitarian premiums are not as popular as luxury items. We've discovered women feel that they can buy things they absolutely have to have without feeling guilty about the purchase. But getting something for themselves is a different matter, so they are pleased at the chance of getting jewelry or some other luxury at a price so reasonable they don't have to feel guilty about buying it. "Women love these things. Presents are important to them and they love unexpected ones. Of course it's fun to get gifts at Christmas and birthdays and Easter and on other gift days, but it's so much more fun to get them in between times. And premiums come in the guise of out of season gifts." Much as women love gifts, children love them even more. The children's hour on radio, that time so carefully planned when outdoor playtime is over and children are indoors waiting restlessly for their supper, brings as much response as the women's programs. Even very small children show familiarity with brand names, due to their radio listening. Slogans run glibly from their lips. They have become as advertisingconscious as their mothers. The purchasing power of America is held by the women of America, and the advertiser knows it's the housewife who must be pleased. So the serials go on, day after day, year after year. What difference does it make that men declare they can't turn on the radio during the day, and wonder audibly how women can listen to that truck anyway? The fact remains that women not only can listen but love to listen! Not so long ago a leading comedian on the air got the idea of burlesquing the daytime serials on his high-priced evening hour. Even the advertising agency thought it a grand idea. They were sure men would love hearing their wives' favorites ridiculed. But only one burlesque was broadcast. The avalanche of protesting mail kept the agency busy apologizing for weeks. Ridicule the serials? No indeed! The women of America want them and the women of America rule the airwaves from seven in the morning until seven at night. 65