Sponsor (Jan-June 1953)

MEN, MONEY (Continued from page 6) $2,163,419 in taxes, the net profit (ending 30 September) was $2,069,307, equal to $1.50 a common share as against $705,610 profit the year before, and 37$ a share dividend, w * -:;• Short memories being what they are in life (and in business) it is worth recalling that possibly the greatest alltime creator of sales "franchises" has been radio. Think of half a dozen soaps, Pepsodent, Lady Esther, Dr. Lyon's, Raleigh Cigarettes, Carnation Milk, Wrigley Cum, Jell-O, Fitch Shampoo, 20 Mule Team Borax, Household Finance. Phillips Milk of Magnesia, Luden's Cough Drops, Johnson Wax, such paints as Acme, Cook, Moore, International Silver. Alka-Seltzer, Chase & Sanborn coffee, Real Silk. Jergens. What is their debt to radio? At at guess, incalculable. ■X * « The "franchise" pays off in quick capital gains, or in year after year market strength. As an example of capital gains think back to the two Harris Brothers, merchandising wizards, bringing Toni coldwave up from nowhere to a sellout for $20,000,000 to the Gillette Safety Razor people. Bui the trademark franchise when properly engineered has a durability beyond gold mines, which can peter out, and personal genius, which can go stale. Not by happenstance is Procter & Gamble, a franchise of franchises, able to set aside large sums for market research and — most significant of all — experiments in new entertainment techniques. They know well the payoff built into a well-planned new product, or new programs to help forced draught old franchises. * * * RADIO RESEARCH: 1953 [Continued from page 2i!i likewise the area of out-of-home listening. With the pressure from TV mounting, radio's cry that it is being shortchanged by some of the rating services ha; assumed a more strident note. Adding fuel to the demand that such services do something about revising their audience-counting systems is the increasing tendency among some advertisers to let ratings alone govern the decision on whether or not to cancel or renew a contract. Radio stations cite such actions by advertisers as justifying the charge that their future is at the mercy of antiquated rating systems and the con *'Just because an advertising dollar during a recession cannot bring in the same amount of sales it does during prosperity — it is not a bad dollar. It may be the livest advertising dollar ever spent in terms of checking recession." JOHN P. CUNNINGHAM Chairman of the Board Cunningham & Walsh, Inc. • ••••••• fusion accruing from the varying methods of all the rating services. A step toward correcting this condition is the four-committee project of the Advertising Research Foundation. With Dr. E. L. Deckinger of Biow as general chairman, these committees are trying, in summary, to find out what would be the ideal rating method. (Members of the committees have already dropped hints that they're not getiing the warm cooperation they had anticipated from the rating services.) In the opinions of complaining radio stations, this ARF project is all right but it isn't exactly what tiny want. The) l©ok upon it as a longrange scheme: what they would much prefer is quick action on the part of the leading rating services. The latter have indicated that they are giving serious thought to more detailed methods (il home sampling but say tin aren't ready to talk about when. Comments gathered by SPONSOR in the course of its survey are pretty well convinced that the traditional ways of measuring radio are in need of overhauling. The disposition is anything but one of trying to cover up past "sins"; rather there is an awareness of the necessity for measuring the radio picture in all its dimensions. The sponsor survey, as it will be noted from the rundown of what each firm is doing, found that it was a little too early to get the complete research picture for 1953. Some organizations explained that they had several projects either wrapped up or in the drawing-board stage but policy dictated they refrain from making statements until these plans had been approved by the proper authorities and the necessary budget put through. Station reps loom more important in the radio research picture with each passing year. Associated with consistent activity in the field of radio research are such rep organizations as CBS Radio Spot Sales, John Blair & Co., the Katz Agency, and the Henry 1. Christal Co., which just recently induced seven major radio stations it represents to have Alfred Politz do a jointly sponsored study for them on how many and what kind of people radio influences. Here is a company-by-company summary (in alphabetical order) of what the SPONSOR survey found was scheduled in the way of radio research This is WHDH's Curt Gowdy! The Voice of the Boston Red Sox — Top Sports Personality One of the outstanding WHDH personalities who is selling your products to Eastern New England's Market of over 1,500,000 Radio Families. Subsidiary of the Boston Herald-Traveler Corp. WHDH 50,000 WATTS BOSTON See Your John Blair Man 79