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Fan & Y. Office: Street BOSTON ATLANTA CHICAGO ST. LOUIS NEW ORLEANS

WASHINGTON

FULTON, N. General Sales Offices: Sterick Bldg.

Sales Offices: PHILADELPHIA

CLEVELAND

Eastern Sales New York, 92 Warren

Memphis,

( TTE, NG

Factory:

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VENTILATING Co., INc. PITTSBURGH

HUNTER DALLAS DETROIT 1 ee 5 Ts ; ute

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SEPTEMBER,

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OTHER of the South's the Bland direction.

Recently HUNTER’S 36°

ELECTRICAL SOUTH for SEPTEMBER, 1938

DUALCOTE

YOUR worst corrosion troubles can

now be cured with WALKERIZED DUALCOTE, the new conduit that resists

acids, alkalis, and salt water.

Compare these Results

after treating three brands of conduit with sulphuric acid for 100 hours.

Samples A and B are high grade galvanized conduits, with the ordinary finishes. Sample C is Walkerized Dualcote.

There is no premium for this extra protection.

Start of Test

After 100 a

nearest Representative for full details.

E. B. Glenn—Bona

Allen Bldg., Atlanta. J. W. Egee—409

WALKER Conshohocken, Pa. a

3128 N. W. 26th St., Oklahoma City.

Ask our

ELECTRICAL SOUTH for SEPTEMBER, 1938

HAZARD ARMORED CABLES

A Complete Line — Proven High Quality

| HAZARD INSULATED WIRE WORKS

VERY year house-

wives, tailors -- and

bachelors -- use 625 tons

of steel needles -- and needles

are only one of literally count-

less products of steel on which

your life, your comfort, and civi- lization itself depend.

Eliminate steel in your daily activi-

ty, and picture what a dismal exist-

ence you would lead. You sleep in

comfort on steel springs. You shave

with a steel razor, bathe in a steel tub.

Your breakfast coffee percolates in a

steel pot on a steel range. You ride to

work in a steel automobile, street car or train.

You work in a steel-framed building, at a steel

typewriter, desk ormachine. You gotoa motion

picture made and projected with steel equip-

ment. Asanightcap you may enjoy a glass of beer from a tin-plated steel can.

To carry you comfortably through such a day, hundreds of different kinds of steel are required. To develop these different steels, on which modern life and progress depend, Youngstown has poured millions into research to find better steels, to better serve expanding human needs.

THE YOUNGSTOWN SHEET AND TUBE COMPANY

Manufacturers of Carbon and Alloy Steels

General Offices - YOUNGSTOWN, OH!O Sheets - Plates - Pipe and Tubular Products - Conduit - ‘in

Plate - Bars - Rods - Wire - Nails - Unions - Tie Plates and Spikes ;

YOUNGSTOWN

| 2: B Yes eee

SEPTEMBER, 1938

Volume 18

LECIRICAL SOUTH

T. W. McALLISTER, Editorial Director

fee ee CARL W. EVANS, Editor JOHN C. COOK, Sales Promotion Mgr.

W. E. COOGLER, Production Manager

NAT M. JOHNSON, Southwestern Editor JOHN M. GOODWIN, Assistant Editor

Editorial and Business Offices

GRANT BUILDING | C ATLANTA, GEORGIA | ontents

MEMBER OF A. B. Building for the Future in Residential Sales 5 B.

P. MEMBER OF A. S.

The Next Great Profit Appliance 8

Radio Dealer Organization Averts Price Cutting

SA. ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION—$1.0C | ° e . te THREE YEARS—$2.00 Selling Appliances via the Back Door 14 nd CaNADA—$1.50 ; FoREIGN—$2.00 i ns Electrical Features of Martin Plant Expansion 16 es * it Lighting for the Frankfort Memorial Bridge 19 ch Business Representatives: Yi i. Eg ALLEN, 189 West Madison St.. Adequate Wiring in the Kitchen 22 icago, . ; L. R. McCarty, 1820 Wynnewood Road, : Philadelphia, Pa. Low Cost Cure for Radio Interference 23 r]- W. S. CusHIon, 506 The Arcade, Cleveland, ste Ww. 2 tegen P. O. Box 562, Charlotte, The Advantages of Electrical System Planning 24 * N. C. ; “ Lightning Arrester Testing Routine 26 2 D. be Published Monthly by n. W. R. C. SMITH z | Departments ° PUBLISHING CO. n )- Marietta and Atlanta, Ga. ; if | Electrical Appliance Service 29 ? Motor Rewinding and Repair 33 i W. R. C. SmitH, Chairman of Board, ) ’ or Gen Pookie, Power Company News 35 ; T. W. McALLISTER, Vice-President, i s s n and Editorial Director \ Code Discussion 36 . E, W. O'BRIEN, Vice-President, | ' . & » ice- u t, . . . a © See Weadeodinn Timely News of the Electrical Wholesalers 38 O. A. SHARPLESS, Treasurer, J. C. Martin, Secretary, i i SS ee ee ee ont Timely News of the Electrical Manufacturers 40 Treasurer

Publishers Also of CoTToN

Goucmaen Fewss Jovsnel Copyrighted 1988, W. R. C. Smith Publishing Co., Atlanta, Ge.

SouTHERN AUTOMOTIVE JOURNAL

Entered as second-class matter at the postoffice in Marietta, Ga., under the Act of March 8, 1879.

ELECTRICAL SOUTH for SEPTEMBER, 1938

HOW GENERAL ELECTRIC WILL PROMOTE LIGHT CONDITIONING NATIONALLY THIS FALL

ied with special

G-E Light Conditioning dealers, suppl information, materials, and adequate lamp stocks will be specially trained to offer a light conditioning service.

Nine full pages in the Saturday Evening Post, seven in Collier's, and six in Liberty will constitute the back- bone of the light conditioning advertising campaign.

1 PLAS DEALER

| et DAILY g NEWS @. | PEGORA-MENiES

BUFFALO EVENING -

| coMENER RAPS ICKES

Leading newspapers in many of the nation’s major cities will serve to point up General Electric's light con- ditioning campaign in local communities.

ENERAL ELECTRIC plans the biggest promo- tional campaign in lighting history this fall to develop the principle of Better Light-Better Sight. The theme of this campaign will be Light Conditioning.

POINT ONE in the campaign embraces the crea- tion of “light conditioning dealers” who will be able to recommend the right size bulb for every lighting need ... and so offer a light conditioning service. They will be developed from enterprising G-E lamp agents who will be given a special course of training to qualify them as light conditioning specialists.

POINT TWO is a concentrated magazine adver-

tising campaign in the Saturday Evening Post, Collier’s, Liberty, American, Cosmopolitan, and Red- book... including 22 full pages within approxi- mately sixty days’ time. The full page advertising will start about September 15th and run through

the latter part of November.

POINT THREE will be concentrated newspaper advertising campaigns in many of the major Cities of the country. These will be planned to coordi- nate with utilities’ own fall lighting campaigns.

* * »*

For complete information and detailed ideas on how your own utility can tie-in with this cam- paign, see the General Electric Lamp Division serving your territory.

‘GENER

Building for the Future in

RESIDENTIAL SALES

1 ALL know that our resi-

dential customers last year

bought only 17% of the kilowatt hours we sold. But the facts that interest me are:

1. Those customers comprise 80% of all our customers;

2. They provide more of our revenue than any other class of customers we have;

3. They all bring more grief; they are the basic source of our rate and political interference dif- ficulties,

To be sure, our 260,000 large light and power customers used three times as many kilowatt hours in 1937, but for that we received 185 million less dollars. And, in the last ten years, our gain in residential revenue has been 58% compared with a 29% gain in rev- enue from large industrial custom- Further than that, we have not begun to scratch the surface f residential potentialities. That s one reason why I am enthusi- istic about building for the future in residential sales.

A two-year-old child can push a button and, in perfect safety, have the benefits of all the research of the last four generations. But what good does that do us if all we get, ifter four generations of selling, s a national average of only 805 kilowatt hours per customer per vear. Is there room to grow? I think there is.

What’s Wrong With the Industry

We have a business that is al- ‘eady producing a. substantial rev- enue. And we have existing custom- ers in ample number who have not et been sold the merits of the service we have to offer. The fu- ure we face is replete with oppor- unity. But, we must plan for it if ve are to profit by the opportuni- ties it presents. I get the feeling

ers.

*Adapted from an address before he Sixth Annual Convention of the Edison Electric Institute, Atlantic City, New Jersey.

By Davis M. DeBard*

Vice President Stone & Webster Service Corp.

that we are not going about this business in the right way, for two reasons:

1. There are several companies operating in territories with a large percentage of people in the exceptionally low income brack- ets, yet, they show an average residential use of well in excess of one thousand kilowatt hours annually. On the other hand, there are a large number of localities with an annual usage of well be- low five hundred kilowatt hours.

2. Attacks that are being made against our industry. There must be something wrong.

During three of the last four sum- mers I have visited the principal countries of Europe. The thing that amazed me most in visiting the homes of the workers, especially in England and the Scandinavian countries, was to find them so ap- preciative of the service they are getting and their belief that the costs are reasonable. In fact, it is not uncommon to have people say, “Electricity is very cheap in my country but in the United States it is high, I am told.”

As a matter of fact, we know

that on a comparable basis, in terms of wages earned, electricity is cheaper in the United States than in other countries of the world. Yet, we have not been able to make our people believe that. I wonder why?

Have we been too busy with our research and operating and finan- cial problems to devote sufficient time to the job of selling our cus- tomers the use of electricity and the great value they receive for their dollars?

Are Low Rates the Answer?

Or, are we too smug in our belief that a continued lowering of rates is the whole answer to satisfied customer relations? Have we per- haps not been too prone to pat our- selves on the back when we made a million dollar rate reduction, when, as a matter of fact, the sav- ing to the average residential cus- tomer was seldom more than just a few cents per month? Have we not remembered our beneficience long after the customer has forgot- ten there even was a rate reduc- tion?

We have sold them gadgets by the million and then all they get is a bill once a month which they think is too high. We sell them ap- pliances and bill them for kilowatt hours. And there is no relation be- tween the two. That is where the trouble lies.

Some day the industry must wake up to the fact that so long as we bill kilowatt hours, we must sell the service these kilowatt hours represent. If we are going to build right for the future in residential sales, there is where we are going to have to mend our ways.

For the future, shouldn’t we think more of selling the services as we have sold the power idea in the factory? Certainly, our cus- tomers must have more spigots if they are to drink of this great fountain of energy which can be made so much a part of their every-

ELECTRICAL SOUTH for SEPTEMBER, 1938

RESIDENTIAL ELECTRIC SERVICE

COST OF LIVING

RESIDENCE SERVICE

1930 1935 1940

1915

“We have not begun to scratch the surface of residential potentialities . . . Several companies operating in territory with a large percentage of low-income customers show an average residential use well in excess of 1000 kwh, yet many others have an annual usage below 500 kwh

1920 1925

day lives. But we can’t sell those spigots as such. We must sell the convenience, the use and the econo- my of them.

And, I maintain that ours is the responsibility of promoting the use of those spigots just to hold our own in this business. That is aside from any consideration of increas- ing our load because there is a grim spectre we have to face called ‘‘Load Mortality.’’ Strangely enough, he is not a ghost that haunts us because our customers are dying but because our business is a growing, living, virile thing producing more and more efficient appliances every day. Research and development in manufacturing pro- cesses contribute a progressive loss in load for us unless we capitalize on the very factors that produce that loss and go out and sell more vigorously and more efficiently to offset it.

Just to hold our own, with the customers we now have and the appliances they now have, we must do a vigorous job of promoting the use of new spigots to provide for a steady flow of juice. Therefore, our problem of building for the future becomes even more difficult. And what is the answer?

I find it, I believe, in an analysis of the bills of a wide variety of customers. You will not find it in balance sheets, profit and loss statements or in graphs showing gains in revenue, output or num- bers of customers. You will find it in spread curves showing the consumption per customer in each

AVERAGE COST PER KWHR.(¢)

PRICE PAID PER KWHR

AVERAGE KWHAR PER CUSTOMER

AVERAGE ANNUAL USE (AWHRS PER CUSTOMER)

100

° ° 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940

”

bracket from 20 kilowatt hours per month up. When you find, as I am sure you do, that over 70% of your customers use less than 50 kilowatt hours per month, the answer be- comes apparent. You have a lot of unsold customers that should be sold more. And there lies the real opportunity for building for the future in residential sales.

Just how you are going to do it in your own locality will vary from the way others will accomplish re- sults. You can probably point to the fact that that same 70% embraces the 70% with incomes of less than $1500 per year. But if you do, I will also point to the fact that it in- cludes most of the 70% that own automobiles and radios.

Sell Use Instead of Kwh

The point is that they are sold on the use of automobiles and radios and they are not sold on the use of the excellent, valuable, indispensa- ble service we have to offer them. They think they can get along with- out it.

Actually, in many instances they could do themselves more good through the benefits of electric service in additional health and comfort in the home than they can by the supposed economies they at- tempt to effect by doing without it.

We must include in our plans for the future some means of bringing home, particularly to the low in- come customer, the relative value of additional electric service for his family whether it be extra lighting facilities, a washing machine, or

just a new electric clock.

Our customers vary greatly in purchasing power. Spigots should vary greatly in style but be of good quality to serve best the customer and the utility alike. For example, a spigot can be made of silver or of galvanized iron or of cast iron, at varying degrees of cost, but all must be quality appliances render- ing good service. We should urge more utility and manufacture re- search for ways and means to bring our service within reach of that large low income group to an ever increasing degree.

There are something like 22 mil- lion wired homes in this country today. Seventy per cent of these make a total of approximately 15 million. These average a use of less than 50 kilowatt hours per month. As a matter of fact, the average for this 15 million is probably not much over 30 KWH per month.

If this group could be induced to use only 2 kilowatt hours more, 10 cents per month in this bracket, the total would amount to 18 million dollars a year. And that would be mostly net because it would require no addition to plant or service. All it would require would be the sell- ing of the use of the existing in- stallation and equipment.

In connection with the larger service of this low income customer, we should consider for a moment the matter of rates. Residential rates have been constantly coming down and with them have come incremental rates—until last year, when for the first time, the incre- mental residential] rate increased. Why? Larger use of service by low use customers. What does this mean? It means lower rates and better incrementals, with the result that additiona] residential load is sold at a better return.

Of course, with those customers we have to consider their problem of capital investment. But we should make it our problem too be- cause it means potential business for us. Take the refrigerator mar- ket for example. There are at least 10 million wired homes today that do not have electric refrigerators.

Of these, I am assured from actual test surveys, there are 4 million that have a credit standing of $100 or better. With a modern refrigerator requiring only 360 kilowatt hours per year, don’t we owe it to these people to find a way of providing them with this health-

(Continued on page 52)

October Named “Discovery Month” In Range Program .

ETTING the stage for a Fall

boom period in electric range sales, The Modern Kitchen Bureau has placed in the hands of dealers a full kit of sales tools to be used in an aggressive clean-up drive to make electric range owners out of prospects everywhere.

Capitalizing on the tremendous interest aroused in electric ranges and electric cooking by The Modern Kitchen Bureau’s 1938 campaign, which has been supported by wide newspaper advertising and public- ity, this Fall program, striking a definite cash register theme, will go right into the housewife’s kitchen.

Based not on mere ballyhoo, but on facts supported by actual cost of electric range operation, this program is built around the retail salesman, gives him his greatest opportunity to capitalize on strong association support.

Centered around the challenging slogan: “Electric Cooking Costs 1/2 What You Think” this Fall program sets the stage during Oc- tober—appropriately titled “Dis- ‘overy Month’—for homemakers who will discover at this time that electric cooking costs are on a competitive basis with those of any ther method they can name.

In proof of this, an outstanding, sales-invoking idea in this program alls for retail salesmen to visit iomes where electric ranges are in yperation—there to get the actual ills that show economy, then use these unanswerable arguments to ‘linch more sales.

Complete with salesmen’s “How to Sell” booklets, colorful window display material that keys in with the “Discovery Month” sales theme, a tie-in newspaper mat service with place for dealer signature, and ra- dio spot announcements, The Mod-

IN THIS SECTION: Next Great Profit Appliance Radio Dealers Avert Price Cutting Selling Appliances via the Back Door

ern Kitchen Bureau’s array of sales helps is comprehensive, the pro- gram well organized all the way.

In addition, manufacturers are preparing for their dealer display material that ties in with this Fall theme. Everything is set for a unified program that will take ad- vantage of the full year’s adver- tising and publicity—hammer home the low cost of operation. October will be cash-in time for electric range salesmen everywhere!

Outlook Encouraging In Washer And Ironer Field . . ... .

Continued purchasing of house- hold washers in the upper price levels is revealed by the industry figures for the first six months of 1938, as reported by J. R. Bohnen, executive secretary of the Ameri- can Washer and Ironer Manufac- turers’ Association.

With the members washer shipments in retail

reporting price

a bias. ; ao

classes from less than $40 up to $70 and more, the average retail price of all washers shipped in the first half of this year was $73.96, compared to $72.76 in the same period of 1937.

Washers retailing at $70 and more were 37.5 per cent of all those shipped in the first six months of 1938, compared to 40.5 per cent in the same period last year.

Average of retail prices in this class was $102.84 this year, as against $96.30 in the same months of 1937.

Shipments totalled 541,898, com- pared to 949,328 in the first six months last year. June shipments of 78,354 compared to 84,016 in May and to 143,073 in June, 1937.

Household ironer shipments were 51,349 in the half-year, as against 94,696 in 1937. The June total was 7,046, compared to 6,675 in May and to 14,755 in June, 1937.

Retailers’ sales are reported as double manufacturers’ shipments.

" ‘

f hy, WY y hyp es : hee, eee |

> AS MUCH

COSTS

These winsome homemakers are showing delight over the realization that electric cooking costs are on a par with any other method. The Modern Kitchen Bureau's strong Fall program aims at putting buying smiles like these on housewives’ faces.

HE next great profit ap-

I pliance in the electrical in-

dustry will be the range. No other electrical appliance today of- fers the same opportunity for prof- itable promotion.

What are the facts about the electric range? Nine per cent of wired homes have them; 400,000 were sold last year. Although these figures are not large, as compared with 2,367,000 refrigerators sold in 1937, it is a significant fact that electric range sales registered the largest sales increase, both in 1936 over 1935 and in 1937 over 1936, of any household appliance in the electric field.

Now what are the facts on elec- tric range prospects—facts, rather than wishful thinking. This is a rather dramatic figure: in 1933 only one electric range was sold to each 15 gas ranges; after four years, in 1937, one electric range was sold to each four gas ranges. The elec- tric range is very definitely catch- ing up on competition.

New home building is drawing attention to the electric range. As you go through model homes, you find today that the kitchen is the magnet that attracts Mrs. Home Owner. Go into the kitchen and see what is there. Modernization fo-

cuses attention on the kitchen, on the electric range. Of course you have all heard of the work of the

Yearly Sales In Units

was wvTV wpwonuD xsrwy

Vacuum Cleaner Sales History

These curves indicate how appliance sales pass through three stages of development: exploitation, profit and competition ——

The Electric Range -

A marketing authority looks at the next great profit appliance

By Arthur Hirose*

Director of Research McCall Corporation

Modern Kitchen Bureau, with 160 local bureaus all focusing atten- tion on the refrigerator and range.

The electric range doubles sales opportunities. Here is a house with an electric refrigerator in the kitchen. That is one sale. You can duplicate that 11,000,000 times throughout the country; in 11,000,- 000 kitchens in which there are re- frigerators you can go into those

muperuenspvresaeTPwenre as

Washing Machine Sales History

Yearly Seles tn Units 4,900,000

4,000,000

4,500,000

homes and sell more electric ap- pliances. Right there in the kitchen is a real sales opportunity. The electric range makes it possible to get a second sale in each of those 11,000,000 homes into which we have sold electric refrigerators.

Furthermore, electric range sell- ing makes it possible for the sales- man selling the range to get an idea of how soon that refrigerator is due for replacement, and that will become a matter of increasing interest to every dealer and utility. Range sales represent not only sales opportunities in themselves but also sales opportunities in the replacement of refrigerators.

We all know that the electric refrigerator business is highly seasonable: despite everything that has been done there are unfortunate peaks and valleys in refrigerator selling. The electric range appeals

* This is the third of a series of articles based on addresses presented before the At- lanta Electrical Association during a sales training course conducted recently for the benefit of local appliance dealers and their salesmen.

Other articles in the series appeared in the July and August issues for 1938.

Receiver Sales History

ELECTRICAL SOUTH for SEPTEMBER, 1938

because it can do something to level off those peaks; range sales combined with refrigerator sales makes the major appliance busi- ness less seasonable.

The electric appliance industry has changed from ten years ago. At that time we all had many dif- ferent appliances to sell to Mrs. Consumer, who owned relatively few appliances. Today the picture has changed. We have lower priced appliances to sell; Mrs. Consumer owns far more appliances than she did ten years ago; and she resists replacement sales. Fortunately, she can still be sold a new appliance with the same lure as the refrigera- tor.

Two frequent questions are: First, are there enough good range retailers to go around? And are dealers and central stations will- ing to push range sales? It has been estimated that in these Unit- ed States there are about 19,000 good appliance dealers. We admit 13,000 of these are already selling electric ranges. Fortunately, 6,000 good appliance dealers have not taken up electric ranges, but could do so advantageously.

Numerically, electric range sales suffer by comparison with electric refrigerator sales. But let us con- sider at what stage in its market development the electric range now stands. We market analysts have a theory that every household appli- ance goes through three stages: first, exploitation; second, profit; and third, the competition stage.

The exploitation stage lasts as long as eighteen to twenty years. In that period, usually, few homes are equipped with the appliance

2,260,900

mu panne nvruen wy Dé” DS BW |

2000,000 1,750,000 1,500,000

1,250,000

Millions Of Dollars Spent ln These Years On Retrigerator Promotion And Advertising

Sead EschYerr anny = 7 ws a Price 1o0ap00 ¢—" RARER RES ERES EEE

under consideration, and sales in- creases are small.

Then, we come to the profit period. This may be as short as from one to eight years, but in that period we usually equip from six to eight million homes with any appliance. Sales increase rapidly, and the trade makes a real profit.

The third stage, competition, runs the rest of industry’s life, and during that period we obtain theoretical saturation. Sales of ap- pliances are high in this period, but sales increases have a tendency to decline.

Consider the Vacuum Cleaner

Let’s check this theory as it con- cerns some appliances. Referring to the accompanying charts, look at the sales curve for vacuum clean- ers. In the depression period are some years where vacuum cleaner sales dropped. Sales have since risen. That drop and rise is nothing more than the vacuum cleaner busi- ness trying to follow the probable normal sales course. We know today that vacuum cleaners are in the competitive stage. Consider wash- ing machines. Again you see an appliance in the third stage of its life. That stage will probably run on and on, but washer profits will be harder to realize.

In the home radio receiver in- dustry we find a case of an appli- ance exploitation period telescoped within a few short years. As radio men know, the profitable years for radio were very short, and the radio is very definitely in the competi- tion period.

Probably the gas range is also in the competitive stage of its de-

Retail

—{ $135

The electric refrigerator sales history curve at the left shows the remarkable pro- motional results obtained by spending large sums on advertising at the right time in the development of an appliance. In the sales history curve of the electric ironing machine, shown at the right, the shaded arrows indicate years during which large advertising appropriations might have been expended advantageously. The black arrow indicates that sales have not increased much beyond the 1929 peak and that retail prices have decreased to the point. where large scale promotion may no longer be

possible.

Retailers Margin

Mandlactorrs Pron |

Mamdtecturers Magn Per Promotion and Agmeriaing | - Retailers Margin

Distributors Margin

Distributors Margin Manufacturing Cost

Manufacturing Cost J

Illustrating how ever-increasing com- petition eventually forces down a high retail price to a level at which there sales

is little margin for adequate promotion . .

velopment. Sales increases were large during the past few years, but this was really compensation for poor sales during some previous years. Gas range prices are defin- itely lower today.

The refrigerator is still in its profit period but pretty soon it may go out of the profit stage into the competition stage. Though sales increase have been large and prices relatively high, refrigerator sales increases are stabilizing, and prices are going lower.

Transition Point Reached

Turn now to the electric range. It seems to be an appliance about to go out of the first trying or exploitation stage. We have filled all requirements for this transition. Two million electric ranges have been sold. And range prices are still relatively high. The range seems about to go into this second interesting profit period and, be- lieve it or not, the electric range has a better sales appeal than the refrigerator.

Let me explain this statement. When electric refrigerators were first promoted in 1926, only half of American families used any sort of food preservation. You had the job of selling women food preserva- tion as well as selling them refrig- erators. Although half of Ameri- can families had never used an ice box at all, you sold 11 million fam- ilies automatic refrigerators. But in the case of the electric range the facts are more encouraging for we find that 97% of American fam- ilies already cook. You do not have the job of educating them to cook, only changing the type of fuel they use.

Go back a little into the history of the electric refrigerator busi- ness and you will find that six fundamental appeals have sold mil-

unr

Electric range promotion has reached the point where it is about to pass from the exploitation stage to the profit stage. Manufacturers, through the Modern Kitchen Bureau and their individual plans, are determined to apply the advertising and promotion necessary to develop the electric range as a “profit” appliance

lions of electric refrigerators. First, cleanliness or release from the sloppiness of ice. Second, pride of ownership; manufacturers showed ads of men and women in evening dress saying “Come out into the kitchen and see our new refrigerator.” Third, creative urge: the lot of the housewife is rather humdrum, and the refrigerator peo- ple said, ‘““You can get release from this routine of plain cooking with an electric refrigerator, you can make fancy ice cream and lots of other intriguing frozen foods.” Fourth, health appeal: the refrig- erator people talked about “50 de- grees” and told women how bacteria would germinate in tempera- tures above that. Fifth, economy appeal: “Do your shopping once a week when prices are lower and_ store the food in the electric re- frigerator.” And final- ly, the refrigerator people stressed ‘“con- venience”; in selling refrigerators, they talked about gadgets and sliding shelves. Today the refrigera- tor people are applying these six appeals and are selling refrigera- tors by the millions each year. But the elec- tric range duplicates each one of these six appeals, and adds some of its own. Certainly it is clean; it has no soot. It appeals to

ELECTRICAL SOUTH for SEPTEMBER, 1938

pride of ownership, because it is the newest form of cookery. It ap- peals to the creative urge; through the range the housewife is assured of new and better cooking results. The electric range is healthful be- cause it is not an oxygen user. It is economical; you can tell a woman she will get the same results every time; certainly, she has less fail- ures and less food spoilage. There is the convenience appeal; no pot watching, time and temperature be- ing controlled.

Then the electric range adds some advantages of its own. Its coolness is marked. It has no flame; no heat to be dissipated into the kitchen. It is safe; pots cannot boil over and put out flames. It saves time; more time for sports, more leisure. And there is always the debatable question of better taste in foods cooked electrically.

Certainly, the electric range meets each of the six appeals that sold 11,000,000 refrigerators, and offers some of its own. Today there are indications of a market more favorable for electric ranges than ever existed for electric refrigera- tors.

I think before you go into the range business I should remind you that every appliance ever sold has replaced a less costly appliance. Electric refrigerators selling at $550 replaced ice boxes selling at $50. When you sold an electric re- frigerator at $200, you replaced an

ice box that cost about $25. This is a ratio of almost ten to 1. Today, however, you can get an electric range installed for $160, but you would pay $50 for a gas range. So this unfavorable price ratio is not ten to 1, it is nearer 3 to 1.

Refrigeration Promotion Analyzed

What has brought the electric range up to the beginning of the profitable promotion stage? Let’s go back and decide what put the refrigerator over. The total num- ber of automatic refrigerators sold in 1927 was only slightly higher than the number of electric ranges installed last year. In 1927, two refrigerator manufacturers _ to- gether spent about a million dol- lars in magazine advertising. Two years later each manufacturer was spending a million dollars. In 1927 these two refrigerator manufac- turers spent another million dollars in newspapers, and a similar sum each year for the next five years. In this five year period, they spent a quarter of a million dollars in direct mail literature. Each of these two manufacturers yearly spent large sums in trade publica- tions, and about two million dollars a year were spent in sales promo- tion, dealer helps, contests and things of that sort.

In other words, individual re- frigerator manufacturers spent as high as four and five million dol-

(Continued on page 50)

(Copyrighted by McCall’s Magazine)

Electric cookery is a popular topic in women’s magazines today. Articles fea- turing electric kitchens such as those shown here, designed by McCalls Magazine, will do much to establish acceptance of the electric range.