Radio today (Jan-Mar 1939)

1939 SALES PUNCHES yUlEIUNt sales carrying a sweet profit will be plentiful for the jobber pushing this C-D line. Scientifically designed, streamlined for quick turnover, available in attractive colors, this line of interference filters carries the 29 year C-D seal of Quality. EASY TO SELL Just put the new, powerful C-D display, containing ten Quietones on a counter — and the beautiful C-D flasher display in the window. Our advertising will do the rest. Then watch your sales mount! You can't beat this item for spring PROFITS ! POWERFUL ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN A powerful magazine campaign is being started, advertising the Quietone series. Direct by mail leaflets and special instruction sheets telling the Quietone story are now being printed. COMPELLING DISPLAY AND ATTRACTIVE PACKAGES A real sales getter will be the FREE C-D flasher display. New packages and display cartons have been designed for the Quietone line. The latest principles in merchandising were used to create these streamlined, attractive containers. ■ Remember there's a Quietone unit designed to meet every need. Talk Quietone to your customers. Show it — Sell it! It's your profit boost for '39. Details on request. CORNELL-DUBILIER \electbic corporation f 1022Hamilton Blvd., So. Plain/itld, N. J. Cable Addra: ■'CORDV {Continued from page 15) so much per disc. Or rent the recorder for parties. Sales have resulted from such rentals. Where "selling up" is impossible, most homes can be sold on more than one small radio. That must be the 1939 sales strategy, everyone agrees. By every possible means try to put over the idea of a radio in every room. The nursery, the kitchen, the bedrooms, the rumpus room, even the bathroom — all are places for the smaller sets, while the living room has its console. Conservative installment selling will help move big radio receivers. Even the very low-income groups can buy a more expensive set in this manner. In Boston, the idea has worked out well. And in New York's Spanish section one shop sells combinations at not less than $135, all on credit, to the music-loving Latins. Yes, credit buying is part of the 1939 sales strategy, they all agree. With all of these ideas, radio can't forge ahead unless its basic policy of a fair deal for the buyer, a fair profit for the seller persists. All of those contacted said that quality merchandise must prevail. Trick deals should be avoided like poison. Sell the sets that the public has come to know and respect. Be sure that your buyer is going to get the best in performance. What the manufacturers think For the manufacturer, President George K. Throckmorton of RCA Mfg. Co., has this to say: "To keep his dollar volume up, the dealer will have to learn how to sell the smaller radio units in greater volume. This should not be hard because the lower selling prices now make it practicable for nearly every family to have a separate receiver for almost every room in the house. . . . One of the big jobs ahead in 1939 is to make it easier for the public to get the recorded music it craves. Therein, too, lies a big profit-making opportunity for retail dealers. . . . During the coming year it will be difficult to sell any radio set for over a hundred dollars unless it also has a good record reproducing system. The smart retail merchandiser will concentrate his efforts on this potential market for higher unit sales." "Quality, value and public acceptance of a product are constant in an otherwise changing picture," says President Larry Gubb of Philco Radio & Television Corp. "Stock only those products which represent the best in engineering achievements and performance. You will find that such products, because of their quality and performance, enjoy the very import ant public acceptance which will reward your sales and advertising efforts." Zenith Radio Corp.'s president, Commander E. F. McDonald, Jr., believes in selling small radios for every room, but thinks there still is a good market for higher-priced receivers. "The Christmas buying spurt proved that there is a continuing market for a representative line of higher-priced models to replace rapidly obsoleting old radios," he says. "Automatic tuning, improved tone color systems, improved reception ideas, and constant refinement in design will inevitably speed obsolescence during 1939." Vice President Powel Crosley, III, speaking for the Crosley Corp., believes television should be played down to help radio sales. "If I were a dealer," he says, "I would discount television about 90 per cent for 1939 even if I were in a large city of dense population. And I would encourage people to buy radio sets instead of waiting. For that wait for most people is going to be a long one — a matter of years instead of months before even a small part of their expectations in television can be realized." Jobber's view given Speaking from the distributor's viewpoint is Ben Gross, head of Gross Sales Co., Stromfoerg-Carlson representative in the Bast. He believes a return to first principles of selling will make 1939 a good year. "The radio dealer has been inclined to let things slide," Gross says. "He has to pep up both his store and his salesmanship. He must try to sell a bigger set. He can't just swim with the tide of ismall sales. Fine cabinets that fit into furniture plans are good selling points. Combinations are popular. Let him get after the people whose radios are without a good tone or tuning system. They are the prospects for 1939." &mTmd,yr Stevens Hotel, Chicago 50 Radio Today