U. S. Radio (Jan-Dec 1960)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

17 Pet Milk Company Agency: Gardner Advertising Company, St. Louis Product: Pet evaporated milk Marketing Objective: To reach a larger portion of an important specialized consumer group. Radio Solution: Year-round use of Negro-appeal ra dio stations. (Digested from U.S. RADIO. November I960, p. 36) "W £ use radio because it seems the best way to reach the Negro customer." This statement from Ray Morris, evaporated milk advertising manager of the Pet Milk Company, St. Louis, gets to the core of why the firm has been heavily involved in Negro radio for some 12 years. Initially starting out in a relatively few markets, Pet Milk has steadily increased its use of Negro-appeal radio based on both the development of this specialized aspect of the sound medium, and the satisfactory resiUts, explained Earl Hotze, account executive for Pet Milk at the Gardner Advertising Company. In 1960, the evaporated milk product was being advertised in 64 Negro markets on a year-roiuid schedide. "This concentrated use of Negro radio," Mr. Hotze said, "is in keeping with Pet Milk's vertical market approach. The three vertical markets which are being given the most attention by Pet are the Negro, Spanish and farm. Of these three, the Negro market gets the largest share of the promotion budget." "The main reason why we buy Negro-appeal radio," explained Mr. Morris, "is because throughout the country this group purchases oneand-one-half times as much of our product as do white people. And in the Southeast and Southwest, this purchase rate goes up to twice as much. Another favorable marketing factor is that the Negro, on the average, spends more on food than does the white." Changes in the Negro market are making it more difficult to check the effectiveness of media," Mr. Morris said. "Our buying, of necessity, has to be done on faith to a large degree. One reason for this is that store checks are more difficult to take than ever because the supermarket revolution has hit the South. Educational Job "In addition to trying to keep up with the shifting Negro market," he continued, "we have a major educational job to do in getting people to use the dry evaporated milk. Consumption still tends to be higher on the liquid form. Radio helps us to do this. And we use radio because it seems the best way to reach the Negro consumer." Robert W. Vanasse, a Negro market specialist in the Pet Milk advertising department, stated that the selected list of 64 radio stations carying the Pet announcements in 1960, covered a potential of 90 percent of the total U. S. Negro population. Also discussing the rapidly shifting elements that make up the Negro market, Mr. Vanasse said, "The market is a fast changing one. As soon as new data or research material is compiled, it is out of date. The population is continually shifting. The best way we have found to determine what the Negro market is really doing is to talk to the people in it. And that's why we use radio to talk to them all the time." The programming format used by Pet Milk was developed by the firm and the Gardner agency about three years ago. It is built around a 30minute transcribed feature that is broadcast between 10 a.m. and noon every Sunday. "In the more than a decade that Pet Milk has been using Negro radio," Mr. Hotze said, "spot announcements and 15-minute strips have been employed at various times. The decision to return to programming was made in order to help provide and control the environment that Pet felt necessary to most effectively promote and merchandise the product on a national basis. "This is ^vhy we developed a gospel singing format on Sunday morning. We like to get our program and its commercials in a block programmed segment because we found that this brings more response, as well as receptivity. Negro stations carry a great many commercials. By developing our own program, we are able to get greater separation and product identification," said Mr. Hotze. Pet uses four commercials in the half-hour format, but the program is so designed that three minutes are left open at the close of each show for the local use of churches in the community. Various themes are used for commercials, with some of them employing an emotional appeal, and others taking the form of hints to the housewife. Constantly keeping track of the swiftly changing patterns of the Negro market. Pet Milk and its agency were confident that Negro-appeal radio would continue to be its most effective means of reaching this important consumer group. And they expect to continue using radio as a primary medium of advertising, promotion, education and public service. • • • U. S. RADIO AIRFAX 1961 81