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Some Do's and Don't* For If Mail Order Business
DO
1.
Offer bargains — and they must also SOUND like bargains when described
on the air — in quantity, price, etc. (commensurate quality is also a must).
2.
Offer staples — items easily recognized so their use or functions don't have
to be sold.
3.
Choose products not too generally accessible in area of broadcast.
4.
Pack product so it makes a good first impression (this cuts down on
returns).
5.
Use premiums, where possible, to get fast action.
6.
Handle all complaints and refunds promptly and without quibbling.
DON'T
i.
Oversell.
2
mfm
Offer shoddy merchandise or "bad buys" in any other sense.
3.
Offer "gadget" merchandise (though it does go in some localities).
4.
Make slow deliveries.
5.
Pack items so they'll get damaged in transit.
6.
Start a large-scale operation without first testing item.
Big Joe's" WOR "Happiness Exchange" keeps night owls awake with music and m.o. pitches
to listeners. This is an aspect of the business which stations themselves are bringing under control.
In fact, one of the strongest forces behind the "clean-up" trend in the direct-selling-by-air field is the tougher attitudes taken by stations toward both m.o. products and the conditions governing the offers. Today, stations are definitely more sophisticated in their appraisal of m.o. business. Rules worked out from experience of longtime successes in the mail order business are being carefully copied or adapted by newcomers to the field.
Organizations for handling radio m.o. business, such as that of Donald Withycomb and the Mail Order Network of Harold Kaye, are helping to discourage m.o. abuses in radio byshowing what can be done by adhering to better standards of practice all along the line.
Agencies with m.o. business have always sought air-time on stations of their choice whenever it could be had, provided a proven audience was available. The Mail Order Network of Harold Kaye offers to program the "fringe" or marginal time of a station for a mail order operation in which M.O.N, supplies the advertisers. Such marginal time is regarded as that which the average station does not ordinarilv expect to sell — the hours after 11:30 midnight and morning hours up to 6:30 or 7:00 I fringe hours will naturally vary with the station i .
A number of stations which regard P.I. business as subversive of radio's rate structure and therefore harmful to the industry offer an interesting viewpoint on handling such business during very early or late hours not previously sold, or in some cases even programed. WGN, Chicago, is an example.
The station, up to late last September, signed off at 1 :00 a.m. and back on at 6:00 a.m. Then they signed with M.O.N, to program the five hours between 1:00 and 6:00 a.m. Commercial manager \Y. A. McGuineas stated his thinking as follows:
"Obviously, if advertisers believed there were sufficient number of listeners during those late hours they would buv time. Mail order features such as we started September 26. 1949. may furnish the evidence and adequate proof to regular advertisers that there are listeners between midnight and 6:00 a.m., and those listeners can be
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