Sponsor (Apr-June 1962)

RADIO SELLS 'QUIETVILLE, USA' ^ Large muffler chain uses radio to promote silence, finds off-beat spots and 'recreation' rooms help sell ^ First in business to franchise, Midas, Inc. buys volume national advertising, with large dealer outlays CHICAGO I ndustries engaged in the burgeoning franchising war often need marine-like backing to reinforce marketing advantages. Radio has proved a successful maneuver for a Chicagobased Midas, Inc. This company combines a corporate campaign on network radio with an enormous underlay of individual local campaigns conducted independently by dealers throughout the country, producing an advertising saturation impact. Midas was among the first to plan franchise operations. Its muffler chain now totals 400 shops stretching across the nation, into Canada, and even Hawaii. But prior to 1956, when a far-sighted young man sat down with the president of International Parts Corporation to map out what has become the largest muffler shop operation in the world, there wasn't a national automotive franchising operation in sight. The businessman who conceived the idea is 34-year old Gordon Sherman, today president of Midas, a wholly owned subsidiary of International Parts. A man whose advertising concepts equal the sophistication of his merchandising concepts, Sherman has some firm convictions on how radio works for his company. Sherman concludes that radio is the medium for Midas because of two factors: "First," he says, "the easiest way to convey an audio message is via sound — and radio gives the broadest scope of creativity. Secondly, radio offers the greatest opportunity for repetition." What Midas is selling, in essence, is silence. "And you can't scream silence," Sherman observes. Midas sells silence via an off-beat soundeffects commercial called "Quietville. USA." Incorporating sounds of sum mer with rush hour traffic, the ticking of clocks, and the gasping cough of a sick exhaust system, it ends with the silencing of a tired muffler with a replacement at Quietville ( A Midas Shop). Alternated with this spot is a musical jingle explaining how an auto gets its tired muffler silenced at Midas. These two commercials are the backbone of a 26-week NBC schedule Midas is conducting this spring and next fall, bridged by local dealer campaigns. As for frequency, Sherman maintains that all rhetoric is a drive for credibility. In the case of radio commercials, he says, credibility comes through repetition. Message frequency is of prime importance to Midas' marketing needs, as well. Mufflers, not an impulse item, are purchased only when replacement is necessary. And it is Sherman's belief that constant radio reminders about the Midas shops impel the motorist to stop in when the roar of a blown muffler sounds the replacement warning. "A few years ago we put on the dog," Sherman says, "by going into tv specials. In both 1959 and 1960 we set a new course in broadcast media swinging into a heavy tv schedule. To be consistent with a format of credibility, we helped support the All Star Baseball Game Prevue, Kentucky Derby Prevue and the U. S. Open Golf Tournament. In those two years, when our advertising budget reached its peak at approximately •SI1/) million each vear. we found that ALBUM of Midas' Quietville was distributed to local dealers for broadcast use on individual campaigns. Local campaign'; add to Midas' national radio push on NBC, creating more impact SPONSOR 25 june 1962 33