U. S. Radio (Jan-Dec 1961)

battle to get the item <>n the shell and keep ii there." Getting displays in aisle gondolas, pyramids and other prominent areas is the chief problem facing a food packager. In 20 minutes to half an hour of shopping, it is impossible for a housewife to see every one of the 5,000 to 6,000 items stocked. It has been estimated thai an aisle display in a supermarket will up the sale of that brand from 13% to 20%. Here is where radio can do a job. Sometimes it is accomplished through a radio personality— local or national. Edward C. Parker, president of Tetley Tea Co. which uses Arthur Godfrey on CHS Radio, says of this personality: "The trade response has been enthusiastic. This is extremely important for us because we are an independent tea compam and sell no other product. Dealer cooperation in giving our tea prime shelf position has a decided effect on our sales." Of the same CBS Radio personality, fames D. Wells, v. p. and director of marketing for William Underwood Co. (meat spreads), says: "Godfrey commercials outpulled two half-page color ads in leading magazines by far. And on top of that, his approach to our in-store advertising program has produced top display results." Radio networks along with local stations across the country are constantly aiding brand advertisers in their battle to get supermarket displays. A trend appears to be developing in "talk" programing aimed especially at housewives. In New York, WOR aggressively woos the food advertisers through such programs plus research and merchandising. Personalities such as its Martha Deane and food authoritv Carlton Fredericks pull listener requests of about 30,000 in introducing new food products; with that kind of consumer interest, a supermarket operator is usually glad to tie-in with point-of-purchase displays. These are ways in which radio can help the retailer. Since it is the supermarket operator who controls the impulse buying, radio's challenge is to be of still more help to him. It is the way to open the gate to more national brand advertising. The biggest appeal radio can offer the local retailer is to help him run his store more efficiently. The lood profit pic t ui e is a dis couraging one-. AST, the laigest lood chain, does more than $5 billion volume annually yet winds up with a net profit of only about I",. According to Food Topics, supermarket trade journal, the average SI million a year supermarket only shows a gross profit ol 19.25%. Out of this gross profit must come the ma jot stoic ex penses: payroll, 9.57% of sales; rent, 1.47%; supplies. 1.0%; fixtures and equipment, 1.26%, and advertising, 2.13%. Of every dollar taken in. over 80 cents must be re-invested in merchandise. "The road to profits in the supermarket business is not in raising prices but in more efficient operation," says Leroy M. King, editor of Food Topics, who once ran his own $1 million-a-year supermarket and later developed a whole suburban shopping center. King can give admen a retailer's view of the food business, "fust remember," he says, "that the store operator has between 5,000 an^ a nnn items, most of which are nationally advertised. He is only interested in handling and selling merchandise that has been pre-sold to his customers. He expects you to advertise. Quit advertising, and he will throw you out of the store. Make the most of it by translating it into terms of local impact. 'What is in it for me?' — this is the language market operators all over the country understand." Although supermarkets are getting bigger (they may average 15,000 square feet) , they still suffer from congestion. Part of this is due to the operator often adding all sorts of department store items such as records, clothing and lawn mowers; but this he docs lo ollsc t the lowprofit loods with hi^he-i profit met chandise. Yet despite the crowding, the average lood stoic is offered more l han 1 6,000 pointoi pun base instore promot ions a yeai . He also is offered about 10 new items to slock even week. II he lakes on any of these, then something else inevitably is thrown out to makeroom — most likely rcje-eis aie low profit items, brands that don't advertise, or brands whose advertising is not helping the retailer. Radio has an opportunity to woik with the retailer in many ways. Oneway is to enlist the national adveri iser in a creative approac h to instore merchandising. For example, the supermarket's most profitabh food items are green groceries, fruits and meats. Most packaged loods are sold at break-even prices — or even below; their main value to the retailer is in traffic-building. So if radio has a packaged barbecue sauce account, for instance, a welcome way to an in-store display for this account is to tie it to the retailer's profitable meat counter. Or a packaged cheese account can be of help to the retailer by being tiedin with its high profit fresh fruits such as cheese-and-apples, cheeseand-grapes (which incidentally are sold at about a 35%, profit) . Some other opportunities for radio lie in taking more interest in cooperative advertising plans and in retailers' private label advertising — with the retailer's interests uppermost. Private labels, after all, were born of a desire for a store "image," which brings everything around again to the move taken by Co-ordinated Marketing Agency. ■ KEEP YOUR EAR OfV . . . Radio Pulsebeat News Bringing the news sounds of the nation ALIVE! —SOUNDS THAT ATTRACT LISTENERS AND RING CASH REGISTERSJOIN THE GROWING RPN FAMILY OF STATIONS NOW! RADIO PULSEBEAT NEWS 153 27 Hillside Ave., Jamaica 32, N. Y. AX 1-4320 (For Sample Feed— AX 1-6677) U. S. RADIO/August 1961 49