Milford chronicle., 1948-04-02

have had as employees, customers
and neighbors, we felt that ads
and other messages would be most
effective when they came from
these businesses that people know
best-and when they tell the story
in terms Of single company or
community. Who more aptly fits
that bill than you businessmen
here tonight?
We well recognize, of course,
that there is a very definite place for
national advertising, particularly
Of the type that makes an individ-
ual realize the responsibilities
well as the advantages-of being
an American citizen. The Freedom
Train and the AmOco campaign,
stressing that Freedom is Every
bOdy's job" are good examples Of
this kind of advertising.
Advertising and promotion prac-
titiOners have long known and ap-
piled in product selling the princi-
pie that people are Influenced by
emotional considerations as well as
by rational ones. Nobody tries to
sell the average consumer cOsmet-
les, or even a new car, by setting
forth the specifications and giving
technical description Of how to
use 1t or how it operates. No one
expects the consumer to buy what
we think is best for him whether
he likes it or not.
II every business in America
would apply what 1t has learned in
selling its goods to its relationships
with other grOups-its employees,
It's neighbOrs in the community,
and its distributors and dealers, the
misunderstanding about business
would be we'll on the way toward
being dispelled.
You may well ask why the Ad-
vertising Committee is tackling
this job. We are in the work be-
cause the job of building accept
ance Of industry and business is
basically sales job.
A company y-by-cOmpany ap-
preach enables business to talk
about its accomplishments and
contributions in terms of specifics
which can easily be grassed. It can
tell about its price-Wage-prOfit ra-
ito, its share of the total cOmmuni-
ty tax bill, its participation in COM
munity programs and its plans for
expansion.
The content Of such a program
should primarily be in terms of the
interest of the gudience to be
reached. 1t should primarily be a
public service program aimed at
making its publics feel favOrably
disposed toward the business as
we'll as its products and services.
Thus, it is apparent that all Of us
would be well advised to work to-
ward building confidence in our
business as we'll das getting the &C.
Onomic story across. Ralph Waldo
Emerson said. What you are
speaks so loud I can scarce hear
what you say"
There is no overall pattern
which can be superimpOsed on any
and all business v'th the assur-
ance that it will f, ter pleasant,
harmonious relationships with
their employees and their com
munity.
But all can benefit by the expert
ence of others. Therefore, your
Committee outlined the first steps
which employers and community
groups might take in their efforts
to build sounder relationships and
to convey their own economic
story.
These materials stress the prac-
tical approaches and the tech
niQues for the job. They are not
philosophical discOurses on the
need to do something. They are,
instead, ''hOW-tO-dO-it" manuals.
They provide some of the basic
tools for use in a pocket to which
each business can add other items
from many other available sources.
Our purpose is to provide some of
the standard, basic tOOls-fOr in
stance, a saw, a square, a level, a
pOst-hOle digger, which are needed
to erect a sound structure.
These tools are manufactured by
leading practitioners in their re-
spective fields, to whom the Com
mittee turned for authoritative in
formation and who contributed
their time and talents. They con-
tain tried, tested, proven methods
and techniques which are based on
the experience of these men in
their work with individual COM
panies. There is nothing theOreti-
cal or academic about the manuals
they are the latest news from the
firing line. Aad while they are ba-
sed on the experience Of larger
companies, their principles are ap-
plyicable to all business.
First of all it seemed important
TO us that a business should know
what its employees thought about
It, Either it was a good place to
work or it wasn't, and why. In a
small business with a few employ
ees, that isn't hard to find out, but
the larger your business the more
progressively difficult 1t is to find
out what your employees think.
Secondly, it also seemed import
ant to find out why our employees
oAOH S0ttIuB LuS lnIOfm6uOn
needed to. set their thinking
straight. We may know all the an
swers, but do our employees?
Thirdly, once we have found out
what is wrong and why, the lOgi-
cal next step is framing the mess
age and communicating it to our
employees and neighbors.
Fourth and finally, we come to
the program for community rela-
tionS. We all recognize that it is
important to find out the areas OF
ignorance and misinformatiOn in