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Why is it worthwhile for a national advertiser to plan a special radio campaign geared to the Negro market?
Charles D. Kasher
President
Charles Antell, Incorporated
Baltimore, Maryland
Mr. Ferguson
The
picked panel answers Mr. Kasher
Because a smart national advertiser could very conceivably get 20% of his sales volume from the 10' < Negro population of the United States. And. he should get it at a lowercosl-per-1.000, making it produce even more than 20' i of his net profit. Sound like a pipe dream? There are more than 15,000,000 Negroes in America. Geographically they can be located, frequently making up half the population of a city. They are a sincere, responsive radio audience. They are a vivacious, fun-loving, warm-hearted people and they love to be entertained. In this part of the country, radio, beyond the shadow of a doubt, is the only medium that penetrates the suburb and subdivision, the town and farm, and goes through educational, racial and -<><ial barriers to reach the mass of the
\c;jl n people.
To a great degree, their speech is idiomatic to the extent that nobody sells a Negro like another Negro ivho knows how l<> sell. For long term results an advertiser should invest his monej in a Negro personality of proven ability. Many sales messages intended f<>r the cars of the Negro have fallen far short of their goal. Rut. once that sales message i phrased in liis kind of talk and voiced by a friend
of his in whom he has confidence and pride, he'll buy more quickly and he'll buy more.
They are an intensely proud and loyal people. To a degree, they buy what our WDIA personalities sell because they are proud of them as symbols of progress. They are eager to cooperate with them for the good of all Negroes.
What of that remark about lower cost-per-1.000? In a station like ours you have one of America's most efficient advertising tools. A good Negroaudience station puts your message directly into the ears of the people you are trying to convince with very little seeding of barren ground. And even when a station has a considerable white audience as well, as ours has. this bonus is a part of the market on which advertisers have long depended for sales.
From their cold, aloof ivory towers, some advertising men have been striving desperately to dream up the one idea that might squeeze the last drop of blood from an already mutilated white turnip. And yet, within his grasp, hangs plump and juicy, the succulent plum of a $15,000,000,000 Negro market.
The sooner he wakes up and reaches i ut for this plum, the sooner he ma\ join the ranks of those -cores of national advertisers who are already quietly going about the business of making money, hoping fervently that not too much of the competition will catch up on to the fact that here, literally, is the -ales opportunity of the decade.
Bert Ferguson Manager WDIA Memphis
Miss Allison
After all the enthusiastic articles and impressive statistics with which advertisers and agencies have been barraged, I doubt whether a n y o n e today questions the value of the Negro market. Our experience certainly proves it. Through many years of advertising package goods products to the "'general" market, we have never seen results such as have been achieved in a relatively short time in the Negro market — results far beyond the optimistic predictions in those articles and statistics.
However, if the campaign to the Negro market is to be truly worthwhile it must be really "special." We have found that it is impossible to produce an amazingly high volume of sales at a dramatically low advertising cost. But only by applying special effort along special lines.
The timebuyer approaching the Negro market often does not have the well developed yardsticks and working tools which serve so effectively in the general market. The three R's — rcp>. rate cards and ratings — which are so important to the timebuyer's other activities are too often lacking here. And so, special knowledge must be developed painstakingly and special proceduremust be improvised for making subtle decisions which often can mean the difference between sensational success and discouraging failure.
Copy. too. must be different. You can't always use the cute jingle or minute transcription which has done
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